Excellent article. Perhaps your best one on Egypt.
I am curios, do you think their will be ballot-stuffing? and do you think there will be international observers for the election as was the case with the 2012 elections?
The potential of a $250 billion investment may seem high, but given that in 2012 alone, UK was able to get $1.2 trillion in inward FDI, Egypt has a long way to go, especially given there out of control population growth, where the median age (currently 24) is going down. No doubt investments in infrastructure will create a good stream of jobs though.
The biggest problem facing democracy in Egypt in my opinion is the lack of organized political parties. In 2011 the only organized parties were the MB and the remnants of the old regime, not really much of a choice for secular liberals. The next election will see Sisi verse candidates who can't mobilizable any ground support that can even come close to match pro-military supporters. The political parties need to get their act together to offer the Egyptians real choice. Lets just hope when Sisi becomes president he stables Egypt and allow for political debate and discourse.
Interesting article. You wrote the "absurd declaration in December that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization". I see many people hold the same views, yet seem to class Hamas as a terrorist organization. Considering Hams is part of the MB, what are your thoughts on the West seeing Hamas as a terrorist group? While I personally won’t class the MB as a terrorist organization, I don’t see it as an “absurd” ruling with the burning of the Churches and comments by their leaders such as: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ8MfxDoK1o
This was the MB spiritual leader, not an extreme version of the MB.
While I believe that a government should be kicked out via the ballot box, the mandate the ruling party has, is based on their manifesto they ran on. Morsi power grab, selecting a terrorist as governor of Luxor, promoting inexperienced staff just because they are members of the MB are just some of the reasons why the Egyptians took to the street in their millions and why so many people support the military and the new constitution.
Excellent article. Perhaps your best one on Egypt.
I am curios, do you think their will be ballot-stuffing? and do you think there will be international observers for the election as was the case with the 2012 elections?
The potential of a $250 billion investment may seem high, but given that in 2012 alone, UK was able to get $1.2 trillion in inward FDI, Egypt has a long way to go, especially given there out of control population growth, where the median age (currently 24) is going down. No doubt investments in infrastructure will create a good stream of jobs though.
The biggest problem facing democracy in Egypt in my opinion is the lack of organized political parties. In 2011 the only organized parties were the MB and the remnants of the old regime, not really much of a choice for secular liberals. The next election will see Sisi verse candidates who can't mobilizable any ground support that can even come close to match pro-military supporters. The political parties need to get their act together to offer the Egyptians real choice. Lets just hope when Sisi becomes president he stables Egypt and allow for political debate and discourse.
Interesting article. You wrote the "absurd declaration in December that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization". I see many people hold the same views, yet seem to class Hamas as a terrorist organization. Considering Hams is part of the MB, what are your thoughts on the West seeing Hamas as a terrorist group? While I personally won’t class the MB as a terrorist organization, I don’t see it as an “absurd” ruling with the burning of the Churches and comments by their leaders such as:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ8MfxDoK1o
This was the MB spiritual leader, not an extreme version of the MB.
While I believe that a government should be kicked out via the ballot box, the mandate the ruling party has, is based on their manifesto they ran on. Morsi power grab, selecting a terrorist as governor of Luxor, promoting inexperienced staff just because they are members of the MB are just some of the reasons why the Egyptians took to the street in their millions and why so many people support the military and the new constitution.