“Jasmine Revolution”
Symbol of peace: Flowers placed on the barrel of a tank
in very much calmer protests than in recent days in Tunisia

'The Protester' - Time Person of the Year 2011

'The Protester' - Time Person of the Year 2011
Mannoubia Bouazizi, the mother of Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi. "Mohammed suffered a lot. He worked hard. but when he set fire to himself, it wasn’t about his scales being confiscated. It was about his dignity." (Peter Hapak for TIME)

1 - TUNISIA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)


How eyepatches became a symbol of Egypt's revolution - Graffiti depicting a high ranking army officer with an eye patch Photograph: Nasser Nasser/ASSOCIATED PRESS

2 - EGYPT Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)


''17 February Revolution"

3 - LIBYA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)

5 - SYRIA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)

"25 January Youth Revolution"
Muslim and Christian shoulder-to-shoulder in Tahrir Square
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -
(Subjects: Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" (without a manager hierarchy) managed Businesses, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)
"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

"If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening."


“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.

They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."



African Union (AU)

African Union (AU)
African Heads of State pose for a group photo ahead of the start of the 28th African Union summit in Addis Ababa on January 30, 2017 (AFP Photo/ Zacharias ABUBEKER)

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela
Few words can describe Nelson Mandela, so we let him speak for himself. Happy birthday, Madiba.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Muslim Brotherhood: just another party

RNW, 14 July 2011, by John Tyler         

(Photo: RNW)
  
Egypt’s ruling military council has made a number of concessions aimed at defusing angry protests over the army’s handling of the transition to democracy. Some 700 police officers will be removed from their jobs over the killing of protestors earlier this year and parliamentary elections scheduled for September will be delayed up to two months. The postponement is intended to give new parties more time to organise.

‘All Egyptians work for the sake of Egypt and its progress.’

This is a one of the slogans the Muslim Brotherhood is using for their campaign in the lead-up to parliamentary elections later this year. Egypt is holding its first truly open elections, and the Muslim Brotherhood is the party to beat.

Normal

But the role as open favourite is a new one for the Muslim Brotherhood, which has experienced decades of government repression. The Brotherhood is undergoing a transition from underground movement to legitimate political party.

As part of this transition to democracy, two leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood attended a workshop earlier this spring sponsored by the Dutch embassy and given by Dutch consultancy bureau, BKB. Representatives from parties across the political spectrum spent three days discussing various aspects of election campaigning.

Dutch workshop

Said Al Abadi says he learned quite a bit during those three days. Al Abadi runs the Egyptian office of the English language Muslim Brotherhood website, ikwanweb.com. He says the slogan above was the result of one of the things he learned. Not the message itself, of course, but the need to craft such a succinct message and stick to it throughout their campaign.

Al Abadi was also impressed by a session on the use of photographs. The Dutch consultants said politicians usually look more appealing when photographs show them in action. Al Abadi said that would be a new phenomenon in Egypt, where most photographs, even those from election campaigns, are either head shots or of a figure seated at a table.

But the workshop was useful for more than giving specific pointers. It was also helpful in making the adjustment to a new era of politics, says Al Abaddi. He and his colleagues are accustomed to working in a closed atmosphere, without any exchange of ideas in public.

Open era

The workshop was something of a shock, says Al Abadi. Suddenly, he found himself sitting across from political leaders with completely different views of the world. It took him a while before he felt comfortable speaking openly in such a setting.

‘Since the revolution, there is a new era, a new opportunity to work openly. This was a challenge, how to make the transition from working underground, in a closed atmosphere, to working in an open atmosphere. The training was very helpful. We started to have a feeling of how to work with others.’

One of the other politicians sitting across from Al Abadi at the workshop was Basim Kamel. He is a leader in the newly-formed Democratic Socialist Party, and he agreed that message building was the most useful aspect of the training.

Brotherhood not the issue

But whether or not the Muslim Brotherhood becomes a normal party is not the most important issue, Kamel says. Rather, it is the Egyptian voter who needs help in becoming “normal” in a new democratic era. Kamel is concerned voters will cast their ballots for the wrong reasons.

‘They need a lot of guidance and awareness building, at least to tell them they should not elect candidates on the basis of religion, tribe, ethnicity or even gender. They should make their selection on who would best represent them.’

Originally scheduled for September, it has just been announced that the elections will be postponed. The delay is something the Democratic Socialists had been calling for in order to allow other parties to catch up to the level of organisation and recognition enjoyed by the Muslim Brotherhood. Even though the Brotherhood was officially illegal under previous regimes, they were tolerated and even ran a very successful campaign in parliamentary elections in 2004, becoming the second biggest block in parliament.

Room for improvement

Al Abadi says he doesn’t understand the unease, from other Egyptians or from Western governments, over the Muslim Brotherhood gaining too much power. He says the Brotherhood isn’t interested in running the country, at least not yet. They are only running for 50 percent of the contested seats in parliament and have promised not to run a candidate in the presidential elections that will follow.

In the meantime, the Brotherhood has some way to go before they are used to working openly. The office for their website, where Al Abadi spoke with RNW, was hard to find. There was no sign and even the doorman did not know that a Muslim Brotherhood office was in his building.

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