Dark Spring

The New Yorker magazine's latest cover; timely and apposite, it's by Christoph Niemann.

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945

by Isao Hashimoto
(Things start slowly, but, unfortunately, soon speed up)

Thanks, Lincoln!

Women hold up half the sky

International Women's Day (8 March 2011). . .

W. H. Auden: Epitaph on a Tyrant

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

W. H. Auden
21 February 1907 - 29 September 1973

Bertrand Russell: Message to the Future

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Bertrand Russell interviewed in 1959 on the BBC programme Face to Face:



Bertrand Russell: wiki

Russell's In Praise of Idleness

The six emotions of revolution. . .

. . . are fear, humiliation, anger, dignity, exhilaration, pride.

They're not the same folks they were three weeks ago. They've tasted freedom; they've tasted power; they've re-invented themselves; they've become human in the full sense of the word.

3quarksdaily

Sout al Horeya (the sound of freedom) -- Hany Adel, Amir Eid, Hawary, and Sherif Mostafa

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Uninstalling dictator . . . 100% complete ███████████

I went down and I said I am not coming back, and I wrote on every street wall that I am not coming back.
All barriers have been broken down, our weapon was our dream, and the future is crystal clear to us, we have been waiting for a long time, we are still searching for our place, we keep searching for a place we belong too, in every corner in our country.
The sound of freedom is calling, in every street corner in our country, the sound of freedom is calling.
We will re-write history, if you are one of us, join us and don't stop us from fulfilling our dream.
The sound of freedom is calling.

Egypt: El Mahalla el Kubra

Egypt uprising has its roots in a mill town: Los Angeles Times

April 6 Youth Movement (حركة شباب 6 أبريل‎) : wikipedia

Statement of the April 6 Movement on 6 February 2011: jadaliyya

Interview with a pro-democracy activist at Tahrir Square, Cairo

This interview is from several days ago but I think it is still worth watching.



I want to marry her.

Her name is Mona Seif and I will be keeping an eye out for her in the days, weeks and months to come.

Why?

Mubarak's agents of state security have not been abolished, they continue to arrest, beat, and "disappear" anyone they care to.

She is sure to be on their list.

Many have already been "disappeared", including Google executive and online activist Wael Ghonim. Here he is being snatched from a demo by plain-clothes thugs: youtube

He hasn't been seen or heard of since.

Egypt: day of departure

Egypt's organized opposition groups (click on image to enlarge). Update: "It's worth pointing out that a lot of the younger Egyptians regard these parties as irrelevant and are more attracted towards non-party activism or movements like Kifaya ("Enough")."

As I write it is just after 1pm in Cairo and today, Friday, is the "day of departure".

Tahrir (Liberation) Square is very full. The army is searching all who enter the square to try and weed out any armed pro-Mubarak thugs.

Al Jazerra live stream: here

If that stream is too 'choppy', go to Al Jazeera's youtube channel and scroll down that page.

Elsewhere, Guardian live blog for continual updates

To all, stay safe

Egypt: when and when not to tweet

This is a follow-up to the previous post.

Worth noting that in the weeks prior to the commencement of street demonstrations beginning on 25 January 2011 in Cairo and other Egyptian cities, people were requested NOT to use facebook or twitter for organizing. Both networks were being monitored by the state security services, organizations which had a long history of defending the state and not the people.

Things have changed. These days, the security services are too busy shredding, burning and burying documents: economist

Egypt: speak2tweet

Some engineers from Google, Twitter and a company called SayNow have now set up a service where people in Egypt can phone in to one of three voicemail numbers and the message will be converted to a tweet and posted: googleblog

Elsewhere, live stream Al Jazeera English

Photos: Women of the Egyptian Revolution

Photo compilation by Leil-Zahra Mortada: democratic underground

Al Jazeera: Egypt

Been watching events in Egypt since Friday, thanks to Al Jazeera English's live stream. The news organization has crews in Egypt's capital Cairo as well as the cities of Alexandria and Suez.

Al Jazeera English has been superb: news, reported by bilingual journalists, and commented on by analysts who know what they're talking about.

Al Jazeera English live stream

Elsewhere, the role of Egypt's ultra football fans in the Egyptian revolt: War in Context

Translation of Egyptian pamphlet issued by activists just prior to the onset of the street demonstrations: nation

About an hour ago, the Al Jazeera office in Cairo was visited by plain-clothes 'security' officers who told Al Jazeera to take down their camera on the balcony and stop broadcasting. Al Jazeera has taken down their camera there, but they continue to broadcast images live from other parts of Cairo. . . reporters on the ground are, however, no longer being identified by name: Al Jazeera live blog

Again, Al Jazeera live stream

Captain Ska: Liar Liar

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Major push to make this the Christmas #1 in ConDemNation . .

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: London Riot Souvenirs

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
London Riot Souvenirs
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

Chile: The Other 9/11

Chile, September 11, 1973: globalresearch

and also Project FUBELT

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Fox News is either evil or stupid

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Parent Company Trap
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Manila hostage debacle

Philippine police say hostage rescue team ill-prepared: reuters

Other than that . . . what else is there to say except: condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives in Manila.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Tyrannical

An occasional series.

South China Morning Post's edition on Sunday featured a front cover photo of the corrupt, brutal and murderously ruthless president of the broken country of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.

Watched over by some of his own barrel-chested goons as well as sharply-dressed members of the Hong Kong Police VIP Protection Unit, Mugabe was apparently buying some shoes in a store in Harbour Centre, Tsim Sha Tsui.

The shopping tour followed a visit to Beijing for "talks" and Shanghai for the World Expo.

No mention of where he is staying, but probably it's a five-star hotel rather than the high-end property at House No 3, JC Castle, 18 Shan Tong Road, Tai Po. The house is one in in a development put together by the also unsavoury entertainment/property/darkside tycoon Albert Yeung.

Mugabe is reported to have paid HK$45.24 million (US$5.8m) in June, 2008 for the house in the New Territories. A daughter Bona is studying accountancy at City University of Hong Kong.

Mugabe is reported to be paid US$58,000 per year as president.

No mention in the SCMP of Mugabe's wife, "Gucci" Grace. Perhaps she's keeping a low profile. One wonders why. She was, after all, let off the hook by the Hong Kong Government last year after she decked a British photographer.

Mugabe and "Gucci" Grace are among a number of high-level Zimbabweans who are persona non grata in the EU and US.

But the world is wide and Mugabe is welcome in places like China and Hong Kong.

The author W Somerset Maugham once characterised the principality of Monaco on the Côte d'Azur as a "sunny place for shady people".

Mugabe's visit to Hong Kong, a place that has its own undoubted advantages and charms, is a reminder that it too is, among other things, also a sunny place for shady people.