Hij is weg. Dat is goed.
eGast
Dit is precies de valse voorstelling van zaken die de Westerse machthebbers willen dat het publiek in gaat geloven. Mubarak is weg, het systeem heeft verloren, de democratie heeft gewonnen.
Afgelopen dinsdag berichtte de Amerikaanse pers:
U.S. BACKS OFF CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE CHANGE IN EGYPT LA Times: 'Obama Administration Has Reconciled Itself To Gradual Political Reform'
http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/2011/02/arabic-regimes-135.html
Vandaag bericht The Huffington Post:
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Egypt's Future Uncertain As Military Takes Control... Egypt's Future After Revolution: Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Interim Military Leader, Resistant To Change
Ondertussen probeert Obama 'Change We Can Believe In', voor het Westen, niet voor de Egyptenaren, maar voor het westerse publiek het beeld te schetsen dat de grote tiran 'weg is' en 'dat is goed'. Leest u zelf:
President Obama's Remarks on the Egyptian Revolution (Video)
Friday 11 February 2011
by: President Barack Obama, t r u t h o u t | Transcript
TRANSCRIPT:
THE PRESIDENT:
Good afternoon, everybody.
There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same.
By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian people’s hunger for change. But this is not the end of Egypt’s transition. It’s a beginning. I’m sure there will be difficult days ahead, and many questions remain unanswered. But I am confident that the people of Egypt can find the answers, and do so peacefully, constructively, and in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks. For Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day.
The military has served patriotically and responsibly as a caretaker to the state, and will now have to ensure a transition that is credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people. That means protecting the rights of Egypt’s citizens, lifting the emergency law, revising the constitution and other laws to make this change irreversible, and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free. Above all, this transition must bring all of Egypt’s voices to the table. For the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian people have shown can serve as a powerful wind at the back of this change.
The United States will continue to be a friend and partner to Egypt. We stand ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary -- and asked for -- to pursue a credible transition to a democracy. I’m also confident that the same ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that the young people of Egypt have shown in recent days can be harnessed to create new opportunity -- jobs and businesses that allow the extraordinary potential of this generation to take flight. And I know that a democratic Egypt can advance its role of responsible leadership not only in the region but around the world.
Egypt has played a pivotal role in human history for over 6,000 years. But over the last few weeks, the wheel of history turned at a blinding pace as the Egyptian people demanded their universal rights.
We saw mothers and fathers carrying their children on their shoulders to show them what true freedom might look like.
We saw a young Egyptian say, “For the first time in my life, I really count. My voice is heard. Even though I’m only one person, this is the way real democracy works.”
We saw protesters chant “Selmiyya, selmiyya” -- “We are peaceful” -- again and again.
We saw a military that would not fire bullets at the people they were sworn to protect.
And we saw doctors and nurses rushing into the streets to care for those who were wounded, volunteers checking protesters to ensure that they were unarmed.
We saw people of faith praying together and chanting – “Muslims, Christians, We are one.” And though we know that the strains between faiths still divide too many in this world and no single event will close that chasm immediately, these scenes remind us that we need not be defined by our differences. We can be defined by the common humanity that we share.
And above all, we saw a new generation emerge -- a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears; a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations. One Egyptian put it simply: Most people have discovered in the last few days…that they are worth something, and this cannot be taken away from them anymore, ever.
This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied. Egyptians have inspired us, and they’ve done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence -- not terrorism, not mindless killing -- but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more.
And while the sights and sounds that we heard were entirely Egyptian, we can’t help but hear the echoes of history -- echoes from Germans tearing down a wall, Indonesian students taking to the streets, Gandhi leading his people down the path of justice.
As Martin Luther King said in celebrating the birth of a new nation in Ghana while trying to perfect his own, “There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom.” Those were the cries that came from Tahrir Square, and the entire world has taken note.
Today belongs to the people of Egypt, and the American people are moved by these scenes in Cairo and across Egypt because of who we are as a people and the kind of world that we want our children to grow up in.
The word Tahrir means liberation. It is a word that speaks to that something in our souls that cries out for freedom. And forevermore it will remind us of the Egyptian people -- of what they did, of the things that they stood for, and how they changed their country, and in doing so changed the world.
Thank you.
Dit is dezelfde holle retoriek waarmee Barack Obama aan de macht werd geholpen door de ware macht in de VS, Binnen drie dagen was het Witte Huis omgezwaaid van voorstander van de gehate Mubarak tot tegenstander van Mubarak. Daarmee hoopt de Amerikaanse president en de pro-Israel lobby die zijn beleid Midden-Oosten beleid bepaalt dat het Eyptisch regime gered kan worden, de Amerikaanse politiek ten aanzien van de regio onveranderd kan blijven en de democratie in de Arabische wereld alsnog vernietifgd kan worden. Mubarakism without Mubarak, zoals Amerikaanse experts dit onlangs als zodanig betiteld hebben.
Obama is net zo'n marionet als Mubarak was. Nog voordat hij tot president gekozen was schreef ik dit over de politicus van 'change we can believe in':
WOENSDAG 29 OKTOBER 2008
Obama 14
Het enige dat Obama straks kan als president is bezuinigen op alles. De VS is namelijk failliet, zowel de staat als zijn ingezetenen. Ik begrijp dan ook het enthousiasme van veel van mijn collega's niet zo goed. Wat verwachten ze dat Obama gaat doen? Ze suggereren veel, maar beseffen kennlijk niet dat de marges van de palementaire democratie altijd zeer smal zijn, zeker voor de nieuwe president van een failliet imperium. Meer dan 600 miljard dollar gaat volgend jaar naar wat officieel heet de nationale veiligheid. En dat is zeker niet alles. Hoe dan ook, alleen daar zou Obama op kunnen bezuinigen, op de strijdkrachten en de buitenlandse militaire bases van het rijk. Maar zal Obama dit doen? Ik denk het niet, want de strijdkrachten zijn de grootste werkverschaffers. Wordt op oorlogsvoering gekort dan betekent dit in de praktijk verlies aan banen, die toch al schaars zijn in de VS. Veel werk is verplaatst naar de lage lonen landen. Gaat Obama de grote concerns aanpakken en de macht van de vrije markt inperken? Nee, zeker niet, want een Amerikaanse president kan niet de werkelijke macht aan banden leggen. Die werkelijke macht is in handen van niemand anders dan de werkelijke macht, dus het kapitaal. Wat kan Obama dan wel gaan doen? In de marge kan hij wat rommelen en verder weet ik het niet. Dat zult u aan mijn collega's moeten vragen. Ik vrees alleen dat die daar nog niet over nagedacht hebben. Enfin, over naar de orde van de dag.
First came the mortgage crisis. Now comes the credit card crisisAfter years of flooding Americans with credit card offers and sky-high credit lines, lenders are sharply curtailing both, just as an eroding economy squeezes consumers.
The pullback is affecting even creditworthy consumers and threatens an already beleaguered banking industry with another wave of heavy losses after an era in which it reaped near record gains from the business of easy credit that it helped create.
Lenders wrote off an estimated $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008 as more borrowers defaulted on their payments. With companies laying off tens of thousands of workers, the industry stands to lose at least another $55 billion over the next year and a half, analysts say. Currently, the total losses amount to 5.5 percent of credit card debt outstanding, and could surpass the 7.9 percent level reached after the technology bubble burst in 2001.
“If unemployment continues to increase, credit card net charge-offs could exceed historical norms,” Gary L. Crittenden, Citigroup’s chief financial officer, said.
Faced with sobering conditions, companies that issue MasterCard, Visa and other cards are rushing to stanch the bleeding, even as options once easily tapped by borrowers to pay off credit card obligations, like home equity lines or the ability to transfer balances to a new card, dry up.
Big lenders — like American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup and even the retailer Target — have begun tightening standards for applicants and are culling their portfolios of the riskiest customers. Capital One, another big issuer, for example, has aggressively shut down inactive accounts and reduced customer credit lines by 4.5 percent in the second quarter from the previous period, according to regulatory filings.
Lenders are shunning consumers already in debt and cutting credit limits for existing cardholders, especially those who live in areas ravaged by the housing crisis or who work in troubled industries. In some cases, lenders are even reining in credit lines after monitoring cardholders who shop at the same stores as other risky borrowers or who have mortgages from certain companies.
While such changes protect lenders, some can come back to haunt consumers. The result can be a lower credit score, which forces a borrower to pay higher interest rates and makes it harder to obtain loans. A reduced line of credit can also make it harder for consumers to manage their budgets, because lenders have 30 days to notify their customers, and they often wait to do so after taking action.'
The pullback is affecting even creditworthy consumers and threatens an already beleaguered banking industry with another wave of heavy losses after an era in which it reaped near record gains from the business of easy credit that it helped create.
Lenders wrote off an estimated $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008 as more borrowers defaulted on their payments. With companies laying off tens of thousands of workers, the industry stands to lose at least another $55 billion over the next year and a half, analysts say. Currently, the total losses amount to 5.5 percent of credit card debt outstanding, and could surpass the 7.9 percent level reached after the technology bubble burst in 2001.
“If unemployment continues to increase, credit card net charge-offs could exceed historical norms,” Gary L. Crittenden, Citigroup’s chief financial officer, said.
Faced with sobering conditions, companies that issue MasterCard, Visa and other cards are rushing to stanch the bleeding, even as options once easily tapped by borrowers to pay off credit card obligations, like home equity lines or the ability to transfer balances to a new card, dry up.
Big lenders — like American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup and even the retailer Target — have begun tightening standards for applicants and are culling their portfolios of the riskiest customers. Capital One, another big issuer, for example, has aggressively shut down inactive accounts and reduced customer credit lines by 4.5 percent in the second quarter from the previous period, according to regulatory filings.
Lenders are shunning consumers already in debt and cutting credit limits for existing cardholders, especially those who live in areas ravaged by the housing crisis or who work in troubled industries. In some cases, lenders are even reining in credit lines after monitoring cardholders who shop at the same stores as other risky borrowers or who have mortgages from certain companies.
While such changes protect lenders, some can come back to haunt consumers. The result can be a lower credit score, which forces a borrower to pay higher interest rates and makes it harder to obtain loans. A reduced line of credit can also make it harder for consumers to manage their budgets, because lenders have 30 days to notify their customers, and they often wait to do so after taking action.'
1 opmerking:
Hoewel ik meer vertrouwen heb in de oppositiebewegingen in Egypte, dan in de burgers van Noord-Amerika. Momenteel zijn de Egyptenaren allergisch voor alles dat ruikt naar het oude regime. Dat kun je van de Amerikanen niet verwachten.
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