The Little People of Egypt Offer Their Humble Thanks to BushCo.
without you we're nothing, George
I don't pretend to be an expert on the Middle East like Jonah Goldberg, and I certainly don't understand all the historical political nuances of what is going on in Egypt right now. But following this week's announcement by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he will open this year's election to competing candidates for the first time since he took office in 1981, I've spent way too much time listening to TV talking heads who obviously don't know any more than I do chalking this up to a direct result of BushCo's triumphant effort to spread democracy to the Middle East. So I found the following interview with Egyptian writer and professor Nawal El Saadawi, who intends to run for President herself, to be of some interest. Here is what she had to say on the subject:
This is, in fact, a joke, ridiculous, and it makes me furious, because they deprive us of our struggle. First of all, George Bush is not democratic. He is a global dictator. He is even a dictator here in the United States. I have a lot of friends here in the United States who did not elect him and, in fact, democracy even -- democracy in the United States is questioned, because it's not democracy. What do we mean by democracy? Is democracy just to go and vote, or is it that all people from all classes can really govern themselves? So we have to understand what’s democracy. George Bush cannot bring democracy to the United States, so he cannot bring it to other countries....What, no oil? Leave it to the Chief Thief to find new and imaginative ways to appropriate national resources -- in this case, pride and struggle. If your own best-laid plans explode into disaster like Iraq and Social Security, declare yourself responsible for something you had nothing to do with. Nawal El Saadawi has been fighting for years, has received numerous death threats and is denied the opportunity to teach in her own country. But all credit is due to George Bush. Just ask Condi Rice.
Last December, I was in the streets with the people in demonstrations, and the demonstrations in the last few months were continuous. And we were collecting signatures to change the Constitution. So we were fighting for years. And then they come and tell us, that’s because Condoleezza Rice made a pressure on Mubarak or George Bush made a pressure on Mubarak. This is -- I call this is a new type of imperialist, because they do not take our resources, our oil, our materials, so they take also our efforts, our struggle for freedom. They take it and rob it of us, and they say that they are bringing us democracy and freedom. This is a big lie.
I like to think of it as Revisionist History On the March.
(Photo by simon.sp8.org)
posted by Jane Hamsher @ 3/06/2005 11:47:00 AM
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