Article

2011-02-01 Africa North

The greed of the Arab regimes has led to the revolt

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2011-02-01 00:00|| || Front Page|| [8 views ] Top

#1 Has Jimmy Carter taken credit yet, for the "human rights" revolts?

With a 30-year time delay, of course.

Posted by Bobby 2011-02-01 06:24|| 2011-02-01 06:24|| Front Page Top

#2 The political elites in the west have looted far more than the political elites in the middle east.

It's just that we in the west are more productive, and so it shows less. Now the ability to borrow more debt has run out, we might see regime change in the west.

Hopefully away from the rent-seeking under and upper classes.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2011-02-01 08:38|| 2011-02-01 08:38|| Front Page Top

#3 The number of elite lackeys and their ostentatious displays were, I think a significant factor in the Tunisian and Egyptian situation. So was the fact that the suppression was clumsy rather than efficient.

BTW, this article attempts to smear the west by concocting a term 'neoliberalism' to mean corruption of society.

The article also attempts to downplay the distance between Israel and the Arab world by lumping the ntimidated by a militia Lebanon govt
and the Paleo 'Abbas hanging around without a mandate' govt with Israel's parliamentary democracy.

Posted by Lord Garth 2011-02-01 09:14|| 2011-02-01 09:14|| Front Page Top

#4 Mubarak may be a special case. Here is an article from the Telegraph detailing the wealth his family has accumulated while President of Egypt.

He, his wife and his children are worth 20 billion pounds ($32 billion at current rates). That's Bill Gates type money. He is originally from a small village in the Nile Delta. He is a career officer in the Air Force. His wife is a half-English woman from south Wales. (i.e. almost all his money has come since he became Air Marshall in 1973).

Unlike Bill Gates, who has changed the world, what has Mubarak done? You can expect that the vast majority of his money was siphoned off from government contracts or are bribes from businessmen. This vast graft is one of the main causes of the Egyptian protests.

Posted by Frozen Al 2011-02-01 13:18|| 2011-02-01 13:18|| Front Page Top

#5 Unlike Bill Gates, who has changed the world, what has Mubarak done?

Oh, I dunno. Kept Egypt from making war on Israel? (Muslim Brotherhood can't tell you how many Egyptians are alive today because of that. Not to mention how many Israelis.) Kept Hamas from getting all the weapons they want? (How many Palistinians would have died? Not to mention how many Israelis.) Survived numerous assassination attempts? Kept the oil flowing through the Suez Canal? For 30 years? So that's about a billion a year.

So he wasn't perfect. His successor won't be either. You want democracy? I think that's a pretty tall order in a Muslim country. As far as corruption goes, I think we have enough in this country so we don't have to go looking for it in Egypt.

Sorry for the rant. I'm just not all that crazy about Bill Gates.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-02-01 15:04|| 2011-02-01 15:04|| Front Page Top

#6 #5 - your points are excellent. Government by consent of the governed and Islam/Shariah are not compatible until proven otherwise. The same criticisms used against Mubarak can be used against the mad Mullahs of Iran.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-02-01 15:46|| 2011-02-01 15:46|| Front Page Top

#7 Unlike Bill Gates, who has changed the world, what has Mubarak done?

Managed to keep Egypt from becoming another Iran for 30 years.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-02-01 15:51|| 2011-02-01 15:51|| Front Page Top

#8 The main source of the Egyptian protests are the failure of the Egyptian economy to produce jobs for the huge cohort of young men of combat age. There would be far fewer in the street if they were all busy making money. That's the secret the Chinese learned. Their problem will come when their bubble bursts and their young men can't find either jobs or brides.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2011-02-01 16:35|| 2011-02-01 16:35|| Front Page Top

#9 All the accomplishment you guys mention are great for foreigners, not so much for Egyptians.

I'm not as worried about the Muslim Brotherhood as many other 'burgers, since alot of the "conflict" with Mubarak is like professional wrestling. I don't think the MB will do well without Mubarak's secret games.

As for Bill Gates: Don't be so hard on him. How many 'burgers would know the joys of the "Blue Screen of Death" if it wasn't for his software? :p

Posted by Frozen Al 2011-02-01 17:08|| 2011-02-01 17:08|| Front Page Top

#10 ...or the Red Ring of Death too.

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-02-01 19:38|| 2011-02-01 19:38|| Front Page Top

#11 Its not the greed of the Arab regimes so much as the corruption and a culture that seems to despise science.

Posted by rjschwarz 2011-02-01 21:03|| 2011-02-01 21:03|| Front Page Top

#12 ..so much as the corruption and a culture that seems to despise science.

That does not appear to be a monopoly of Arab ruling castes.

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-02-01 22:02|| 2011-02-01 22:02|| Front Page Top

#13 I dunno. When people think of the benighted finally getting themselves some of that good democracy, they think it means the lucky country will become like, maybe, Long Island.
What it means, if it works, is that the people get the government and the society the majority wants.
The question is...what does the majority want in Egypt? Sharia? The Bill of Rights? Peace with Israel?

Posted by Richard Aubrey 2011-02-01 22:10|| 2011-02-01 22:10|| Front Page Top

#14 ...is that the people get the government and the society the majority wants.

People get the government they tolerate.

. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed - Declaration of Independence.

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-02-01 22:51|| 2011-02-01 22:51|| Front Page Top

23:12 USN,Ret
23:08 Charles
23:04 Oztralian
22:57 JosephMendiola
22:51 Procopius2k
22:49 pan
22:27 Pappy
22:24 JosephMendiola
22:19 JosephMendiola
22:18 pan
22:10 Richard Aubrey
22:06 Eric Jablow
22:02 Procopius2k
21:56 JosephMendiola
21:54 Xenophon
21:49 JosephMendiola
21:37 JosephMendiola
21:37 USN,Ret
21:26 tipover
21:12 Heriberto Shusonter9790
21:08 JosephMendiola
21:08 rjschwarz
21:05 Old Patriot
21:05 rjschwarz