Facebook et motvillig politisk vertkøy

The Daily Beast eksponerer Facebooks somling under organiseringen av protestene i Egypt. Alexis Madrigal analyserer: The gymnastics of the Facebook’s recent dealing remind me of a 1995 paper written by science and technology studies scholar Melvin Kranzberg. He proposed a series of “laws” and this was the first: “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor [...]

Libya som Afghanistan?

Kraftige trefninger i Libya. Hanspeter Mattes utdyper stammenes fremtidig rolle i et Gaddafi-fritt land: Libya has not had a constitution since 1977, which means that, unlike Tunisia or Egypt, it has no legal frame of reference. That’s why statements about future developments are impossible to make. However, it can be assumed that in addition to [...]

Facebook er en nyfødt egyptisk jentebaby og hun får drysser av gaver

Bokstavelig talt. For å feire revolusjonen som mediene har bidratt til i Egypt, gir en mann navnet “Facebook” til sin førstefødte datter. A young man in his twenties wanted to express his gratitude about the victories the youth of 25th of January have achieved and chose to express it in the form of naming his [...]

Revolusjon er ikke lett

Mens det forhandles om å innsette Mubaraks stråmann Suleiman som leder for en overgangsregjering, betrakter George Packer Egypt fra høyt oppe: When the people rise up, there’s no guarantee they’ll succeed. Just ask a Burmese or an Iranian. Egypt’s revolution has a number of counts against it, the main one being the hollow core where [...]

Hvorfor opprøret i Egypt er på forsidene

Regimet slår tilbake i Egypt. Yglesias kommenterer hvorfor Egypt er så viktig for hele regionen: [A] more open Egypt would have a huge cultural impact simply because such a large share of the Arab audience is an Egyptian audience.

Mubaraks valg: Teheran eller Himmelske freds plass

Mubarak holder stadig igjen overdreven maktbruk mot de protesterende. Daniel Drezner stiller fem spørsmål: Why is Mubarak toast?  Everyone assumes that the Egyptian leader is a dead man walking, and given his speech on Friday, I can understand that sentiment.  There are, however, remaining options for Mubarak to pursue, ranging from a full-blown 1989 Tiananmen square crackdown to [...]

Hvordan det ser ut når myndighetene skrur av nettet

(Kilde: TDW) Chris Beam forklarer:

Er arabere allergiske mot demokrati?

Jasmin-revolusjonen finner gjenklang andre steder i den arabiske verden. The Economist om grunnen til at demokratiene uteblir i en ellers velutdannet og ressursrik samling nasjoner: Nothing suggests that Arabs are inherently disposed to reject the ballot box. Nor is the practice of Islam, at least in its more malleable versions, incompatible with multiparty democracy. Here [...]

Lykkes Tunisia der Iran feilet?

Opposisjonen i Egypt demonsterer i gatene. Det gjenstår å se om Mobarak og sikkerhetsstyrkene gjør som Ayatollahene i Teheran. Ali Vaez sammenligner og kontrasterer opprørene i Tunisia og Iran: [T]he Tunisian “Jasmine Revolution” and the Iranian “Green Movement” shared striking similarities. In both countries, people from all strata of society partook in the protests, with [...]

Demokrati i Tunisia, del II

Steven A. Cook forklarer hvorfor tunisiske soldater var så motvillige til å stoppe opprøret: The Tunisian military — made up of about 36,000 officers and conscripts across the army, navy, and air force — is not the oversized military common throughout the Middle East that is short on war fighting capabilities but long on prestige [...]