Meanwhile in Cairo

Two and a half years ago the Nations of Virtue, hyperventilating hypocrites forever prattling about the virtues of human rights and democracy, applauded as one while Generalissimo Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi dispatched the only democratically elected government in the history of Egypt into the dustbin of history.

That military coup allegedly saved Egypt's nascent democracy, as military coups often do, especially when the deposee is out of favour in the capitals of the West, as was Morsi.

The consensus among people who follow these matters is that human rights in Egypt are under al-Sisi worse than under Mubarak and much worse than under Morsi. Yet the Generalissimo is made welcome when he travels abroad to visit with the Prime Minister of England or the President of France.

It was therefore interesting to see how that great liberal news purveyor, The Guardian, handled two separate but related Cairo stories today. Pile of trouble; gigantic red carpet stirs up Egyptian media storm is about the Cairo authorities laying down a few miles of red carpet so that the presidential motorcade could drive to an engagement... on the red carpet!

Is that messed up or what?

That's the kind of wanton display of excess and tastelessness that you'd expect from a bankrupt banana republic, isn't it? Which perfectly describes Egypt, although I'm not sure they grow bananas in their banana republic. Guardian editors even found the story worthy of a little punnery, if you'll notice. And of course, it goes without saying that any country where a media storm of anti-government outrage can still be stirred obviously has a reasonable level of press freedom.

Obviously!

We'll call that the "good news" story.

Here's today's other Cairo story; Thousands of academics demand inquiry into Cairo death of Giulio Regeni.
Regeni was an Italian citizen and a student at Cambridge who had as a sideline the writing of critical stories about the Generalissimo's fascist state under a pseudonym. His remains were found in Cairo bearing obvious signs of torture.

My question is this; will the fate of Giulio Regeni in any way cast a chill on the warm welcome al-Sisi receives when he next visits the capitals of the Nations of Virtue or the pages of The Guardian?

Ahmed Mansour case a test of German sovereignty

Everybody knows that the ascent of Generalissimo al-Sisi to the big chair in Egypt could never have happened without the connivance of the Nations of Virtue, and especially the US.

For all the clap-trap about "democracy" that spews non-stop out of Washington, it was clear that the election of Morsi was one of those aberrations of democracy that could not be countenanced by the West.

Democracy is great so long as the right people are elected.

Electing the Muslim Brotherhood was not what we expected.

Democracy in Egypt has been effectively rejected.

And der Fuhrer Herr al-Sisi is by the West protected...

We shall see now how far Frau Merkel will push against the wishes of Washington. Honouring an Egyptian arrest warrant in Germany dishonours German sovereignty and independence, especially when that warrant comes from an illegitimate regime steeped in everything antithetical to the supposed virtues of the Nations of Virtue.

Freedom of expression.

Democracy.

The rule of law.

Good luck tomorrow, Mr. Mansour... much hangs in the balance.

Fahmy family lashes out at Canadian govt

Mohamed Fahmy's family in Canada has had some rude things to say about the Harper government's utter disinterest in the case.

Can't say I blame them.

Have to admit the think tank here at Falling Downs believed Baird was going to make Fahmy's release his swan song. Apparently five millions wasn't enough to seal the deal. After all, what's five million from Canada when Mad-Dog-Putin shows up a week later and puts a multi-billion nuclear energy program on the table?

Canada under the Harper gang has never missed an opportunity to poke Putin in the eye. Had we been but a tad more diplomatic in our "diplomacy," it's not hard to imagine Putin lobbying for the release of our Canadian journalist. (Interesting to read the comments for the NP article and see how many Canadians don't consider Fahmy a "Canadian.") The non-stop anti-Putin vitriol out of Ottawa for the last decade could give al-Sisi a motive to keep Fahmy just to suck up to Putin.

Ironically, at the time al-Sisi was deposing the democratically elected Morsi, he was getting nothing but accolades from Canadian media and the Harper gang. The praise was virtually universal.

And there he is today, holding hands with Putin.

Obviously we've had some shortcomings in the world 'o diplomacy...

As for the Fahmys, I understand their confusion. The Canada they thought they moved to when they arrived here twenty-five years ago isn't the Canada they live in today.

Sorry about your luck, folks, but you'll get more sympathy from the Egyptian embassy than from the government of Canada.

When billionaires speak, politicians listen

It follows that if you have a billionaire politician in a leadership position, he'll only listen to himself, which may account for Berlusconi's later career... but I digress.

Here's an uplifting story about one of the world's most influential politicians, EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton, travelling to Egypt to meet with a couple of young idealists from the anti-Morsi Tamarod movement.

So where is the billionaire, you ask?

Oddly enough, the billionaire in this story is deliberately left out of the story, so that we may naively continue on our way believing that these young Egyptian idealists have the ear of a powerful politician, and isn't that nice...

The billionaire for whom those young idealists are doing the talking is Naguib Sawiris, the man who bankrolls the Tamarod movement.

Sawiris comes from the Christian minority and that may explain some of the virulence in the anti-Muslim Brotherhood sentiments voiced by his little spokespersons.

The so-called Nations of Virtue have made a grave error in allowing this coup to pass unchallenged. The reason it has been unchallenged is of course the irrefutable fact that the US supported the coup all along. Unfortunately, the aspirations of the Egyptian people have been aroused, and it seems far from likely that the majority who voted for Morsi only a year ago are willing to give up those aspirations.

What's next for Egypt?

In the immediate future there's a big cloud of very toxic blow-back coming our way. It will decimate the Tamarod, sweep away the Christian minority, and perhaps prove even too much for the Army to contain.

After that, we'll see.