Egypt

Have to say that it is fascinating in a tragic way what is going on in Egypt and how our media is giving it top billing. We have been propping up Egypt with lots of aid, financially and militarily, for decades. It's no secret that the Mubarak government hasn't been the most democratic and that the distribution of wealth, including that which we bestow, in Egypt, like in most of the rest of the world to one degree or another, has not been very equal. 

So a lot of the people are really poor, and a few are really rich. How do the authorities not think that this isn't sustainable? The U.S. is trying to be the friend to everyone in this and in the process is sort of being the friend to no one. But I don't trust the U.S. media to be telling us what is really going on, and in that regard, I have no idea what the truth really is. 

But one thing has to be true - and that is that Israel plays heavily into everything that the US is saying, doing, or not doing in regard to Egypt. But this just brings to the forefront the failure of the US and Israel to seriously address the Palestinian issue. I mean, I remember writing about Bush going into Iraq instead of dealing with the Palestinian issue, and how he could have made a lot more inroads with the Muslim community by dealing fairly with the Palestinian question than by invading Iraq. 

And I'll be darned if Obama isn't making the same mistake. And that's why his administration's statements about Egypt aren't seeming to impress anyone, especially the opposition in Egypt. And yet Obama should be poised to be leading all of this. But he doesn't have his sea legs yet, apparently. And I'm not saying that I would know what to do either. 

But it seems to me that across the board that if a few people are living high on the hog and most aren't, but that there is enough transparency for most people to know that there is such a discrepancy, and, if those that have squander a lot of what they have, causing a national situation where those that don't have end up having even less, eventually people are going to get so angry that they do stuff like what is going on in Egypt. And since that condition is so prevalent around the world, I think that we are likely to see more of it. 

That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but now these entrenched powers have been and likely are going to continue to be brutal in trying to hold onto power. They put their money into large and power police forces and militaries, and they use them against their own people if they have to. But heck, we act like it is something so out of the ordinary, but our own police forces have been guilty of similar acts. 

We set up "free speech zones" where supposedly people can go to protest, and if they get out of the zone, people are beat up, sprayed, hosed, whatever. I mean, I suppose it isn't quite as bad as it can get in other places, but it hasn't been that good either. We need to clean up our house, and I think the Chinese have called our bluff on that one. Well, at least in the context of us owing them so much money to them. 

The point here is that we crack down if protesters start getting too close to the heart of the government. Other governments do as well. We need to find a better system to deal with legitimate gripes about wealth inequality.