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Friday, February 11, 2011

hypocrisy

it is one of those ‘historic’ days: after thirty years hosni murbarak has stepped down as president of egypt. during those years he had been pretty ruthless in suppressing opposition and dissent. his downfall came as a result of peaceful people power.

a winds of change moment.

new era.

sands of time.

democracy marches on.

new dawn, start of a new beginning.

yadda yadda.

you can’t have a historic day without the leaders of the free world popping up and making their comments known to all and sundry (and no doubt right now william hague is in a mad rush to beat joe biden - oh come on! you must remember who joe biden is - to see who gets to egypt first).

so president obama, while pointing out that difficult days lay ahead and questions still needed to be answered (no wonder he got a nobel peace prize), had this to say “ the us will continue to be a friend and partner to egypt."

whatever the president can do, the prime minister can do as well. he talked of a precious moment of opportunity; it is all about building blocks, truly open and free democratic society. most important mr. cameron was at pains to point out the uk was a friend of egypt and stood by to "help in any way that we can".

the egyptian people must be very happy to know that they have such good friends on their side. friends who stayed pretty quiet about the state of emergency that murbarak had imposed; pretty quiet about the long years of no democracy and no freedom. just pretty quiet (as they are on several of the other countries in the area who are of strategic worth to western interests).

if i were an egyptian i wouldn’t be expecting too much support from messrs cameron and obama if in six months the military decided to once again ensure that a candidate who was sympathetic (oh hell i mean controlled) to their needs and wishes was somehow elected to power. you might get some words of outrage that would quickly die down and life would move on and business as normal would resume.

realpolitik is one thing, but i have to hope that both cameron and obama squirmed just a little bit as they delivered their ‘friend of egypt’ spiel to the waiting press.

and while i am hoping for that level of self honesty from them can i have a pony as well?

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