Debt Ceiling Debate is Moot: USG Owes More Dollars than in Existence

Image by Images_of_Money

The current debate in Washington as to whether or not and under what conditions to raise the debt-ceiling has for the past week dominated global news coverage and the public mind.  Absent from the debate and mainstream coverage is a discussion of the debt limit in the context of the American monetary system, which creates a structural monetary deficit in the American economy and makes inevitable ever-increasing debts and deficits in the public and private sectors.  It is this system which has fostered the current situation, which is not so simply that the federal government has hit the debt limit imposed by congress, but that it owes more US dollars than there are in existence.  The failure to recognise the structural causes of public and private debt in the US brings the debate and politicking surrounding the federal debt into focus as grand political theatre and media circus, calling into question the education and/or motives of those involved in the decision making. 

That the US debt is unsustainable at more than $14trillion, is obvious.  At the current rate, the US is adding more than $1trillion to the debt each year through deficit spending.  For each dollar that the USG earns, it spends $1.63.  These facts are being thrown around as an argument for spending cuts by Republicans and tax hikes by Democrats.  The issue has created a platform for ideologues and interest groups to point fingers at one another and attack government programs and policies which don’t fit their ideology.  However, no plan yet put forward will in any remote way relieve the debt and deficit problem of the Federal Government, or problems of solvency in the wider economy.  No plan yet discussed will prevent the need to raise the debt-ceiling now, which will be the 73^rd time it has been raised since 1962, or even a 74^th within a couple more years. 

US Structural Monetary Deficit

Each week the Federal Reserve publishes statistics on the US money supply.  Currently, by the Fed’s largest measure, “m2,” there is roughly $9trillion in circulation, fully $5trillion less than the USG currently owes.  The situation appears even more fantastic and preposterous when one considers the total US debt, a number which includes the debts of households, private businesses, financial institutions, as well as state, local and federal government agencies.  This stands at over $54.9trillion dollars.  In other words, Total USD denominated debt in America is 6 times greater than the amount of USD available to pay it off.  

This imbalance is a direct result of the American money creation system and its ill-conceived and poorly regulated practice of fractional reserve banking.  It is a system which fundamentally and incontrovertibly REQUIRES and makes inevitable bankruptcies and asset foreclosures: a means of automatic self-correction which wipes out debts and re-balances the economy by narrowing the gap between the total amount of money in circulation and the total existing debt.  This gap has a major impact on the volume of money that is effectively available to the economy at any given time, and this unstable availability of money is what drives the business cycle:  A nauseating pattern of boom and bust typified by alternating periods of easy credit, leveraging and asset accumulation resulting in rising stock and commodity prices; followed by deleveraging, asset divestment, tight credit markets and cash hoarding­–as soon as it becomes obvious that markets are overbought and the economy and existing money supply are too out of balance to make lending and investment profitable or desirable for those able to do so. 

US Money Creation Scheme Guarantees Structural Monetary Deficit, Insolvency

For every US dollar created, an equal and interest bearing debt obligation is created, or more plainly, money in the US is created out of nothing by commercial banks and the Federal Reserve, and lent into the economy at interest.  For instance, when a home buyer gets a mortgage from a bank, the bank simply creates the principal out of thin air, which the mortgagee will have to pay back, plus interest.  Loans/debts are the genesis of all money in circulation.  Conversely, when a debt is repaid to a commercial lending institution, the principal sum is erased from existence.  If there was no USD denominated debt, there could be no USD in circulation.  Thus, for every dollar (principal) in circulation, there is a greater amount of debt (principal + interest) that is owed to banks.  It is, for most initially, an exercise in mental gymnastics to consider how such a system could be accepted and institutionalised.  One is left to wonder where the money to pay the interest will come from, when only the principal was created.  This is the source of America’s Structural Monetary Deficit. 

The macro-economic consequence of this policy is simple:  There is never enough money in the economy to allow all entities to meet all their obligations at once, thus bad loans, bankruptcy, and wealth transfer is inevitable.  On any given day, a number of people and institutions will have financial obligations to fulfill, such as monthly or balloon payments on car-loans, student-loans, business-loans, mortgages, etc.  Naturally, because more debt than money exists, not all entities that have loans coming due can possibly have the funds to pay it back at the same time.  Some must therefore seek refinancing in order to maintain their business, car or home ownership etc.  When lenders and commercial bank reserves become so leveraged that they can no longer lend safely or legally; or when lenders and banks lose confidence that borrowers as a group can pay debts back because–ironically–the economy is too indebted relative to the amount of money in circulation, they become less willing to renew or make new loans.  The result is debt defaults, lost businesses, asset seizures and foreclosed homes. 

Economic Losers

Within this paradigm, individuals; small businesses; large companies; governments and even banks themselves–regardless of solvency, intrinsic value or profitability­–are forced into asset foreclosures, bankruptcy and austerity, simply because they hold a share of the inevitable debt in the economy at the wrong time.  Like a game of musical-chairs, the music stops when credit markets tighten in reaction to cyclical circumstances endemic to the American economic system.  Everyone must compete to find a chair (lender) to park their debt with, and those that can’t, lose. 

In the wake of the housing bubble–which is more aptly described as a credit bubble–many analysts, media figures and pundits railed against US home-owners who were foreclosed on: that they should accept the blame for their own compromised circumstances and accept that they are economic “losers” for taking bad mortgage terms and causing the US housing crisis.  This is an extremely simplistic view.  While it is true that some home-owners did accept terms which they should not have and which they could never fulfill, and while it is also true that many institutional lenders committed crimes of mortgage fraud, predatory lending and asset stripping; it must be understood that regardless of the general level of intelligence, propriety, honesty, business acumen or caution exercised by the population, the system of money creation in the US and the resulting monetary deficit will perpetually create “losers”–whose homes, assets, and even the fruits of their future labours can be legally appropriated or garnished by those who are prepared and able to take advantage of their misfortune.   

The numbers describing the housing crisis are way out of whack with historical averages, and on their own point to a systemic problem, rather than just the imprudence of a few home owners.  Since the start of 2007, roughly 3.5 million homes have been repossessed in the US.  Many more are in default, and according to analyst Rick Sharga, 5 million more home-loans are seriously delinquent and likely to go into foreclosure.  Mr. Sharga expects 3 million of these homes to be repossessed by 2013 (0.4 million have already been repossessed since he made his statements at the beginning of 2011, leaving roughly 2.6 million to go)  According to the US census bureau, there are roughly 115 million households in the US, which translates to 1 out of every 30 homes in the US having been seized by banks since 2007.  If Sharga’s prediction is correct, the ratio will change to 1 out of 20 existing US homes, 6 million in total, being seized by banks by 2013.  Furthermore, these millions of families are not the only “losers” the US financial system has created.  There are millions more who have struggled immensely through job and income loss, business failures, etc., but have managed to stay in home ownership by downsizing their homes, selling off other real assets, such as cars or collectibles, and cashing in retirement savings and investments–all at reduced prices in depressed markets, to the benefit of those sitting on their cash waiting for such a “buying opportunity.” 

An Economic System Built to Fail?

The mind is naturally boggled by a system seemingly built to fail.  But while it fails some it works for others.  It is a system designed to allow private banks to create money from nothing and charge interest on it for private profit, with the side effect that debts are created in the economy–a proportion of which mathematically cannot be repaid except by forfeiture of real-asset collateral.  It creates a massive and consistent transfer of wealth, as commercial banks reap huge profits from the interest on loans of money they create out of thin air, and from the real assets they accumulate when debtors cannot repay.  It is rather an astounding thing to think of families being made homeless because of an inability to pay “back” to the bank money which the bank never had in the first place–money which was literally created at the time the mortgage agreement was signed.   The few benefactors of this system reap immensely thereof; while Americans at large are ever vulnerable to its whims. 

In fact, one could look at borrowers as unwitting agents of this ongoing transfer of wealth.  They are armed with money the bank conjured for them out of thin air, and sent out into the economy to harvest interest and collateral goods required in the loan contract.  Either the loan + interest is paid back to the bank, or the debtor defaults and the bank seizes the collateral.  In both cases, the principal is written out of existence, and in both cases, wealth and assets flow out of the broader economy and into the coffers of the bank, who took on very little risk by lending check-book money they created on a computer at the moment the loan was executed.  Thus an “up-trickle” is created:  a lawful redistribution of wealth in favour of banking corporations and their benefactors, driving the 40 year trend of widening income and wealth gaps in the US. 

The Tea-fault Party

Many Americans, especially Tea-Partiers, seem aware on some level that monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Act, and the deregulation of the financial sector in the 1990’s were policies written for bankers, by bankers.  They are rightly outraged, that in spite of these advantages that the banking industry has over all other individuals and industries, bankers still overstep themselves and compromise the viability (and deposits) of their own institutions, as well as the broader economy, only to be rewarded by those on the other side of the revolving door with multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-money bailouts.  It is not surprising that anyone finds reason to mistrust this system and its overseers.  However, in knee-jerk fashion, the Tea Party has reacted with mindless opposition to President Obama and his Wall-Street cabinet’s insistence that the debt ceiling must be raised.  The Republican congressmen the Tea Party elected are holding the economy hostage by refusing to allow the debt ceiling to rise, posturing for their Tea Party constituents, mindful of their future political careers.

The reality, however, is that the Tea Party movement, made up mostly of middle and working-class Americans, could not have picked a position more antithetical to their aims.  If they succeed in stopping the ceiling from being raised, either through default or cutting the budget by a third, they will have left the root cause–the system of US corporate welfare and monetary policy–intact, while the repercussions and write-downs resulting from the loss of value in US bonds after a default would seize credit markets, accelerating the process of private debt-defaults and appropriation of real-wealth from the greater economy by creditors.  Many Tea-Partiers in their own right would find themselves homeless and out of jobs.  Far better would be to accept the short-term need to raise the debt ceiling, address the true causes of the debt–monetary policy, corporate welfare and ceaseless war­–and campaign for broad reforms. 

By August 2^nd, so the story goes, the US government must pass a law to raise the debt ceiling, so that it can continue to borrow the money it needs to operate on a day-to-day basis.  However, both congress and President Obama have the means to extend government resources and obligations beyond August 2^nd, without raising the debt ceiling, which would forestall the potential default and allow more time for further (pointless?) debate.  Thus, a default on August 2^nd would seem unlikely, and any default at all is not anticipated by many serious analysts.  However, as we have seen, not all is as it appears in the US financial system.  The US dollar is not solely a means of exchange, it is a means of creating unsustainable debt-loads and a system of wealth transfer.  It throws up the illusion of free-market-capitalism, while what exists is plutocratic-socialism.  It presents the facade of equal-opportunity, while certain people have the special right to create money out of nothing, and the rest of the economy must pay to use it.  There is a well known saying–that in a depression, wealth is never destroyed, merely transferred.  There are inevitably entities which would profit immensely, financially and materially, from a US default driven depression­­–the same creditors and investors who profit from the monetary deficit.  They, along with the Tea Party, have their representatives in Washington.  The world can for now only hope that this assemblage of interests prefer to keep the status-quo-gravy-train rolling, rather than gamble on a big score.  In a country where the government can be allowed to owe more of its money than exists, anything seems possible.  A spectre looms large.

Check out the US debt clock:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html 

Read Rick Sharga's analysis of the housing market at Bloomberg:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-13/u-s-foreclosure-filings-may-jump-20-this-year-as-crisis-peaks.html

Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis a Sovereignty Crisis

Greek Parliament, Syntagma Athens - by kouk

News outlets around the world have focused heavily on the so-called Greek Sovereign debt crisis this week.  The proposed solution–an IMF loan package requiring “austerity measures” and a fire-sale of public assets–has sparked massive unrest in the capital, where people from all walks of life are decrying a loss of democracy, sovereignty, economic means, public services- the viability of their futures and of Greece itself. 

Many have insisted that these “measures” are necessary.  If one is speaking about maintaining the share value of many European banks and institutional investors, such is true.  The IMF loan package to Greece, boiled down, is a global taxpayer bailout of European banks which have made poor investment decisions in purchasing Greek bonds. 

Even while the US debt has reached its ceiling, the US Senate has recently rejected a Republican measure attempting to restrict the IMF’s ability to dip directly into the US treasury to the tune of $100billion.  In the twisted game of hot potato that now typifies international finance, the IMF is making loans to Greece so that Greece can pay back its loans to the various private European banks and investors holding Greek bonds, while the member nations of the IMF, all of whom are similarly in debt to private banks, will have to seek more loans from private international banks (or China) in order to cover additional deficits that the IMF causes them as it takes their money and dumps it into the sieve that is the Greek economy.  Almost every tax-payer in the world will see a portion of their taxes swept into this bailout scheme for these investment institutions, which over many years have irresponsibly funded the institutionally corrupt Greek government.  More and more, the European Union–if not the globalised economy entirely–appears to be a supranational bank-controlled state-capitalism and less and less the free market as it is advertised.

Flush with this bailout of world taxpayer money channelled through the IMF–money which in a truly free market should have been lost as a consequence of the impropriety of lending to a state which everyone now seems ready to admit was rife with corruption–private European banks and investment firms will, like rapacious vultures, descend upon the carcass of the Greek economy.  The transportation and social service infrastructure of Greece will be bought up at fire-sale prices, as will small and mid-size local businesses that are struggling in an increasingly volatile economy and facing an extremely uncertain future.  As is their legal obligation to their shareholders, these foreign corporations will attempt to squeeze as much profit as possible from their Greek buyouts, through further rounds of asset-stripping and layoffs, the profits of which will be repatriated to investors outside Greece.  As Greeks lose their jobs and their businesses, as those lucky enough to keep their jobs lose income to pay cuts and higher taxes, as retirees lose income to pension cuts, as credit becomes scarce and money circulation becomes restricted, many will be forced into personal asset liquidations and home foreclosures in a depressed market paying pennies on the Euro.  This will come just as the people of Greece will desperately need reasonable access to the services being hawked by the Papandreou government and whatever remains of Greece’s gutted social security net.  

The whole enterprise reaches a higher level of absurdity in light of the fact that a similarly massive loan package last year failed to do anything but forestall the problem for a year.   Anyone who has juggled debt between two lines of credit knows that borrowing from one to pay the other leads to precisely nothing but a higher debt-load due to accumulating interest.  The only step in the right direction, and likely in any case inevitable, is a default by Greece on their debt, orderly or not.  Independent economists at the UN and elsewhere agree:  Austerity measures increase unemployment and reduce wages, thus lowering economic activity and tax revenues needed to repay national debts.  They do not work.

In this context, the governments and investment community of Europe–by their actions–seem keen to ensure that the Greek people are made destitute by having their collective assets stripped down and turned over to foreign interests before allowing a default.  That is what this is about.  Business and media have propagated the idea that the fault of the Greek debt crisis lies squarely with the Greek people, and this is the bitter pill they must now swallow.  However, those who pay the costs will not be the benefactors of Greece’s famously corrupt “culture” of bribes and patronage that everyone wants to blame.  Rather, it will be the middle and lower-classes who have all along suffered paying these bribes and corruption to have access to fundamental services.  These are the people now protesting in majority across Greece and in Syntagma square of Athens.  The police, who have lost all credibility as defenders of public security, have employed exemplary violence.  There are several videos posted to YouTube of police attacking restaurants bars and cafes near the protests, as well as the corralling and kettling people into sidestreets and subway stations, pelting them with tear gas and rocks, and beating them with shields and batons as they try to escape through police lines.  They have even been accused on Greek TV–with amateur video seeming to corroborate–of the deployment of agents-provocateurs among the protests: police posing as anarchists dressed in black, damaging property and threatening violence in order to give pretext for and initiate the police crackdowns.  While it will likely be impossible to verify these charges through police admission–as the Quebec Provincial police admitted to doing in Montebello, Canada in 2007–one might weigh the evidence and draw a parallel line:  if it is possible in Canada, it is possible in Greece. 

The schizophrenia of fiscal policy, or the flock of interests it serves, is evident when the situation in Greece is juxtaposed with the global financial crisis of a few years ago.  While it is demanded of Greece to sell off public assets and cut social spending, including gutting pensions and laying off civil servants–which is ostensibly supposed to restore the viability of and confidence in their economy- the US faced their crisis by going in the opposite direction:  Employing a Keynesian program of public spending to increase employment and economic activity.  Rather than allow critical industries to be gutted by private markets, companies such as GM were partly nationalised until they could recover, to prevent massive unemployment.  The recovery plan in the US was funded by “money creation,” when the US federal reserve wrote into existence billions of dollars to buy a new issue of US T-bills to fund the government.  While neither of these solutions is desirable, their “necessity” is rooted in the same problem.

Some time ago Greece, like most of the world, gave into the liberal economic idea that private banks should be allowed to create Greece’s money.  Evidently, under the yoke of the European Economic Community, Greece has now completely lost its sovereign right to create any of its own money at all.  They cannot repatriate their debt or use inflationary means to mitigate it.  Thus, Greece has lost its freedom and nationhood.  According to the words of Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon MacKenzie King, who in 1935 addressed the issue which is clearly at the root of the debt crises of not only Greece, but of Portugal, Spain, Ireland and the US, “Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation's laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.”

The videos below attest to the different tactics Police have used to break-up demonstrations and impose their will on the local community in Athens.

Watch Police attack a restaurant:

Watch club-wielding alleged Agents Provocateurs retreat behind Police lines:

 Watch Police corner and herd demonstrators into subway tunnel before gassing them:

 

Watch the above event from inside the subway tunnel:

Watch a Police line attack a peaceful march:

Watch Police move in to clear a demonstrator camp after tear gassing it:

Read more about the efficacy of "austerity" measures:

http://business.inquirer.net/4929/austerity-measures-threaten-global-recovery%E2%80%94un

http://www.zcommunications.org/fiscal-austerity-is-not-the-answer-by-robin-hahnel

Tahrir Square, June 28 Post-Script

Yesterday's clashes in Tahrir square were covered here at WHR as breaking news.  A more complete picture of the context and extent of the situation has emerged.

As mentioned in the previous report, the protest began in Cairo as a peaceful demonstration and public mourning by the families of those who have died in the cause of liberating Egypt.  An air of gravity was upon the demonstrators and the martyrs's families as they paid their respects to the coffin of a recent victim, Mahmoud Khaled, who died on Monday.  He passed in hospital, where he has been for 5 months, since he was struck by a racing US Embassy vehicle during the height of unrest on January 28, remembered in Egypt as the "day of rage."  The astonishing incident can be seen in the following video, taken from a rooftop directly above the scene:

The rage the families and friends feel about the fate of their loved ones is understandable.  That they have not received any justice after a "successful" revolution and "policy reforms" by a "transitional phase" government only amplifies their anguish and personal feeling of victimization.  In the above mentioned case, the US Embassy insists the vehicle was stolen, however; Egyptians more and more look upon the foreign and local elites who run their country for their own purposes as one and the same.  Protesters understand well that the storm troopers attacking them in Tahrir square, while perhaps Egyptian by birth, do so with American made tear-gas and foreign weapons, employed through tactics taught by foreign security firms, paid for by foreign "aid" money.

Tear Gas Canister fired at demonstrators - by lilianwagdy

While paying their respects to and demanding justice for the martyrs, demonstrators were met by insults and denied free movement by members of the Central Security Forces.  They were tear gassed and tased.  It likely did not escape many demonstrators that among the CSF members sneering at them could be some of those who are directly responsible for the deaths and maiming of their friends and family members. Nor did it likely escape the CSF that should demonstrators succeed in reforming Egypt, they will find themselves out of job and pay, and possibly on trial for their actions. 

As word of the indignity being paid the demonstrating families began to spread, more and more people began to arrive in front of the Ministry of the Interior and in Tahrir to vent their outrage.  Running and pitched battles in the square and adjacent streets ensued as the CSF attacked the crowds; these battles lasting from before dusk until after dawn this morning.  Many people on the scene have reported on twitter a vengeful attitude by the CSF.  While protesters were pelted with stones and tear gas, they were also taunted and threatened with death over megaphones.  Today it has been reported by Egyptian authorities that more than 1000 demonstrators were injured, and more than 100 hospitalised.

Egyptian activists are calling for justice.  There have been protests specifically against the military courts, which since the fall of Hosni Mubarak continue to condemn protesters, activists, journalists, bloggers, artists and even doctors who have aided or simply spoken in favour of the uprising.  Activists say that without a proper functioning legal system and means of redress, no progress in any other aspect can be made or maintained. The nation will be transfixed tomorrow, Thursday June 30th, as a verdict is delivered in the trial of the 2 officers charged for the infamous beating death of Khaled Said.

The murder of Khaled Said is said to be one of the catalysts of the revolution.  The story and pictures of his body circulated and created outrage after he arrested in an Internet cafe and murdered by police in June of 2010.  The lack of justice for Mr. Said helped compound an ever present anger at authorities, which finally broke loose after Egyptians took the example of the Tunisian revolution.  A facebook group called "We are all Khaled Said" has galvanised and informed the public throughout the revolution.  It is reasonable to expect massive demonstrations in light of last night's unrest if Egyptian courts do not return a verdict finding someone responsible for his murder while in police custody.  This will likely continue into Friday, which is the day of Muslim prayer and the typical day for protests as many Egyptians do not work Fridays.

Egypt is once again on the precipice.


This post is a follow-up on yesterday's coverage, read here:
http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/tahrir-square-tantawi-picks-up-where.html

Wikipedia article about Khaled Said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Khaled_Mohamed_Saeed


We are all Khaled Said facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/elshaheeed.co.uk

June 28th, Tahrir Square in Pictures:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201162915192350772.html

Description of June 28th events by Egyptian activist:
http://theangryegyptian.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/june28-the-second-coming-of-rage/

Tahrir Square: Tantawi picks up where Mubarak left off

Cairo's Tahrir square is once again tonight the scene of ordinary people making extraordinary efforts to free themselves from the militarist rentier regime still in power since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February.

Earlier today in Tahrir began a protest by families of "martyrs," which in this case refers to those who've died at the hands of Egyptian security forces during the ongoing uprising.  Families are still waiting for justice as there have been no substantial prosecutions or trials of those responsible for the deaths and torture of hundreds if not thousands since the year began.

Media reports are beginning to trickle in, however the twitter stream and blogosphere of the region are alight.  While all credit for what has been achieved in Tunisia and Egypt belongs to the people who have bravely faced torture and death, many have credited social media as a major factor and primary tool in these events.  Following are several Twitter postings by people who are in the streets of Cairo and Tahrir at this moment; fighting for ownership of their country against the CSF (Central Security Forces).  While non of these can be verified, the volume of similar reports is substantiating and cannot be understated:

As the battle kicked off, descriptions and pictures of the violence poured in:

Inevitably injuries begin to be reported:

During the chaos people communicated and discussed logistical issues:

Commentary of various sorts was ongoing:

Sometime well after midnight, it seemed that the protesters had won round one and a moment of reprieve:

The situation is ongoing, it is currently early morning in Cairo.  Information continues to stream in on social media outlets and in the press.  Many tweets reported on the crowd chanting "The people want the fall of Mosheer," referring to Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the de facto head of state since Mubarak's ouster in February.  It remains to be seen if the ongoing unrest, including tonight's clashes, can carry the momentum which ousted Hosni Mubarak and effect real change.


Follow up to this article at WHR:
http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/tahrir-square-june-28-post-script.html

An early press report dealing with tonight's clashes in Tahrir:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/15239/Egypt/Politics-/Clashes-erupt-between-martyrs-families-and-police-.aspx

Egypt Rejects IMF, Revolution Lurches Forward

by Jonathan Rashad

Egyptians have evaded a great pitfall in their quest for freedom, democracy and sovereignty in their rejection this week of loan proposals from the IMF.  Nations across the world, especially in Africa, have time and again during periods of turmoil been tempted into bailouts and loan deals with the IMF and World Bank, always with strings attached: Steeled strings which pull the borrowing nation apart.

While successful in the ouster and trial of Hosni Mubarak, as with any revolution, the true test for Egypt is now coming after the removal of the regime’s figurehead.  A ratification of the revolution is yet to be completed, as the protest movement continues to fight against the faceless architecture of Egyptian power, which is still concentrated in the military, the oligarchy and foreign capitals.  Continued dealings with institutions such as the IMF would leave intact a central pillar of that architecture. 

Among other things which helped to destroy the Egyptian economy was the Mubarak regime’s system of patronage, as well as its borrowing from lenders such as the IMF; who always dictate how their loans are to be spent, as well as dictate economic and social policies generally as conditions for their lending.  These two forces helped to gut social projects, create massive unemployment and exacerbate poverty- ironically laying the groundwork and providing impetus for popular revolt.  Now the IMF and multinational corporations who did much business with Mubarak and who are the ultimate destination for IMF loans- loans which the taxpayers of the host nation must repay- want back in, but the Supreme Military Council has rejected the loans for now, amid popular distrust of the IMF in Egypt. 

Indeed, regardless of whether or not one would argue as to the virtue of the IMF loan package, one cannot deny that democracy has been served:  The people of Egypt do not want dealings with the IMF.  In fact, a rejection of the dictates of foreign influence, international finance and corporate power, in which the IMF is at the center, was a critical theme of the revolution.  While this fact mostly escaped the western media, Egypt’s current leadership is at least aware of it. 

Revolution:  Still in progress...

Apr 8 - Tahrir Square protests continue - Jonathan Rashad

Protests have continued since General Mubarak was finally forced from office on February 11.  There was much speculation afterwards as to how far Mubarak’s ouster would go in assuaging public outrage, which until earlier this year was for a long time a widespread but unexpressed reality.  Would the Egyptian street be placated by a simple rotation of figureheads?  This was the hope of the beneficiaries of the regime in Egypt, the US and in Israel.  According to Reuters, the Mubarak regime had been receiving an average of $2billion per year since 1979, making it the second largest recipient of US “aid” money, neighbouring Israel being the first.  It was always well known that the lion’s share of this money went to paying and equipping the coercive police/military apparatus which held the population in check through violence, subterfuge and torture.  As such, it is not surprising that the US administration did not support the ouster of their ally until the very last, until it became clear that such was already inevitable and perhaps necessary to stifle a more complete revolution which would sweep away not just Mubarak, but in one fell swoop the political, economic and military assets the US has bought in that country.  While Barack Obama spoke platitudes about freedom and democracy in Egypt, US and other foreign officials were working busily in the background to preserve the framework of Mubarak’s regime and find a successor who would be equally compliant to US interests, in spite of the aspirations to freedom of the populist, secular, anti-violent movement which demanded change at Tahrir Square and across Egypt. 

April 9 - Military crackdown continues - Jonathan Rashad

Since February 11, the Supreme Military Council of Egypt has been the official seat of power in that country.  It is made up of close allies of General Mubarak, and has been “overseeing” the transition to democracy in Egypt.  Under this “new” administration, Egyptians have continued to see crackdowns on protesters and torture of detainees.  The hope in the latter case is simply that the wretched habits of police and torturers die hard; however, in the former case the Supreme Military council is responsible for using violence to quell continued protests and criminalising the protesters through trials in military courts without due process.  Roughly 7000 sentences of groups of protesters have been meted out to up to 50,000, whom military officials continue to label as “thugs.” There is still an organised and determined enemy of the revolution wielding power in Egypt.

The land of the Pharaohs has also become a den of spies, with reports and arrests of foreign agents, most recently of one Mr. Ilan Grapel, a dual American Israeli citizen who has been in Egypt since February, and is reported as a former Israeli paratrooper wounded in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, a journalist, a law student and/or a spy, depending on what source one checks.  The truth of Mr. Grapel’s intentions in Egypt may never be revealed, but what is on record is that countries with vested interests in Egypt, such as Israel and the US, have in their respective and massively funded intelligence agencies a secretive behemoth with a mandate for espionage, disinformation and interference in favour of the interests of their employers.  This is while the aims of the Egyptian revolution are in vocal opposition to those interests.  Parsing between reality and contrived fiction, between honest help and the Faustian kind, between empty rhetoric and veiled threats is one of the prime challenges to the revolution in Egypt. 

How successful they are at such parsing will be in evidence later this Fall.  Former officials and collaborators of the Mubarak regime are busy rebranding themselves ahead of Presidential and Parliamentary elections set for later this year, with the hopes of maintaining their influence and access to the public treasury.  Other forces whose intentions are less clear are also clamouring; some looking perhaps to exploit divisions which in the past characterised Egyptian society.  The revolution is further threatened by the economic impact of the deconstruction of Mubarak's corrupt economic system and the loss of tourist dollars, which is to say that things always get worse before they get better.  Officials with much to lose in Egypt, foreign and domestic, are beginning to blame the revolution for continued rising unemployment and inflation- people such as the cheerleaders for the rejected IMF loans- as if Egypt’s economic woes are not the culmination of 3 decades of Mubarak’s cannibalistic policies.

However, if an honest parliament can be elected, who with the help of an engaged public can bring out of Tahrir and institutionalise the spirit of dignity, unity and humanity that struck Mubarak down and still grips most of the country, Egypt can begin to pull itself along the long road to reclaiming all that it has lost in more than a half-century:  Having suffered military invasion by Britain, France and multiple times by Israel, trade sanctions and threats by the US and the World Bank, and the wholesale looting of the country’s wealth by Mubarak’s three decades of international cronyism, Egypt now finds itself in a deep hole.  Printed everywhere on signs, painted on walls, sprayed on tanks and chanted on the streets is the continued call of the people of Egypt, as well as Arabs across Syria, Yemen, Tunisia, Bahrain and so on:   

“Aash’ab yureed issqaat in-nithahm!”

“The people want the fall of the system/regime!”

 (!الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام)

By rejecting the IMF, the people of Egypt have rejected the nonsensical idea of digging themselves out of their hole with the same tools that got them there.  

 “Aash’ab yureed issqaat in-nithahm!” 

Hear the people of Tahrir square and across the Arabic world

Read more about Egypt and the IMF:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13914410

Egypt since Mubarak’s fall:

http://www.cswatch.org/user/179/article/egypt-after-mubarak-the-military-fist

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/111640/20110211/egypt-high-military-council-egypt-supreme-council-of-armed-forces.htm

Conflicting sources on the strange case of Ilan Grapel:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13761173

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-suspected-israeli-spy-arrested-in-egypt-was-traveling-to-libya-1.367596?localLinksEnabled=false

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184561.html

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/19/egypt-s-dubious-spy-arrest.html

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Cameras and Cops from Rochester to South Beach

This week the international media has reported on the development of a rather interesting confluence of incidents concerning police behaviour in the US.  Each of these involve initial misconduct by law enforcement officers followed by intimidation and ultimately arrest of witnesses who recorded the police actions legally.  

Police Film London's Student Protests- Cleaner Croydon

The more serious incident, which has been widely reported internationally and is now known as the Miami Beach Memorial Day Shooting, involves the killing of 22 year old Raymond Herisse in Florida this past Memorial Day holiday.  While Mr. Herisse sat in his vehicle, having parked at an intersection after being chased by police, several officers surrounded the vehicle and at a moment's notice rained a fatal barrage of gunfire.  With an annual Memorial Day celebration in full swing, the streets were full, and the reckless and excessive use of firepower by police resulted in 4 innocent bystanders receiving gunshot wounds.  Reports discussing the extent of gunfire count more than 100 shots fired by at least 12 police officers. 

Beyond the aforementioned, it is still difficult to parse the facts from fiction, as reports in some cases conflict.  It was alleged by police that Herisse had refused earlier to stop his vehicle for police and had nearly struck several pedestrian officers.  While Carlos Noriega of the Miami PD made a video statement to media regarding Herisse's attempt to strike officers with his vehicle, he did not mention any injuries to fellow officers, while some press outlets have reported that 1 and others up to 4 more officers were struck by Herisse.  However, none of coverage reviewed by this author offers any detail concerning the name(s) of the injured officer(s), the seriousness of injury(ies) or whether there was treatment at the scene or in hospital; details which corroborate any vague or conflicting information, and which are normally reported as standard journalistic practice.  It was also alleged by at least one witness that Herisse had fired a gun while driving wildly through the streets, though when Police fatally shot the 22 year-old, they were apparently not aware of these reports, or even the identity of Mr. Herisse.  The police have not explained why it took almost 3 days to report that a gun had been found "hidden" in Herisse's car, while having relatively immediately made public Herisse's criminal record.

The killing has caused an uproar in Miami.  At least one of the wounded bystanders is taking legal action.  But where the story becomes more bizarre is the police reaction to bystanders recording the events.  A Local 10 TV camera man's camera was confiscated by police.  Reports of other cameras being confiscated have emerged as well.  Video from these sources has not been released to the public.  However, thanks to citizen videographer Narces Benoit, one useful video of the incident did evade police capture.  Benoit's video shows the shooting from behind several firing officers.  The video also shows that immediately after the shooting, Benoit is ordered to leave the area, and then pursued by officers as he returns to his nearby vehicle.  He is then ordered to hand over his camera, while he and his partner were held at gunpoint by at least one officer.  Benoit was able to pull the memory card from his camera-phone and hide it in his mouth sometime while being removed from his vehicle and put face-down by police on the pavement, having his camera smashed and returned to his pocket, being handcuffed, being arrested and being taken for questioning as a "suspect."

The pretext of his possible involvement as a "suspect" in the Herisse shooting seems absurd, considering the context of the Herisse incident being the culmination of a car chase which originated elsewhere, and especially in the light of Benoit's video.  In the video, which Mr. Benoit sold to CNN and can still be viewed uncut on youtube, police can been seen and heard demanding Benoit's camera as they follow him and approach his truck.  The intent of the officers is clearly to confiscate Benoit's video evidence of the shooting.  

The legality of such a seizure is certainly questionable, and puts the police in a quandary.  If police have probable cause that there is evidence of a crime recorded on a camera, most courts will uphold their right to seize that evidence at the scene.  Police could therefore only legally seize his camera if they suspected themselves of a crime.  What is proper and (less and less?) commonplace when a crime is recorded by a 3rd party such as Mr. Benoit or for instance a gas pump security camera, is that the evidence is either offered to police voluntarily by its owner when police take their statement as a witness, or the evidence is taken into police custody through means of warrant or subpoena.

The illegality of the attempt by police to destroy evidence and the personal property of a citizen is in no case questionable, nor is the attempt to intimidate him as a witness through his false arrest and questioning.  It is quite clear in this case that the police have in several instances illegally seized private property, destroyed private property and obstructed justice by suppressing evidence of their actions:  12 officers fired 100 bullets at one man in a parked car on a crowded street, wounding 4 bystanders.  In the light of high incidence of Miami Police shootings, some have called Herisse's killing as a "public execution."  While some may call this a stretch, if "public safety" and "serve and protect" are the watchwords of the Police, they have failed the people of Miami abysmally.  

The confrontation begins with a rather banal effort at intimidation when an officer insinuates that Ms. Good does not have the right to record them from the sidewalk, regardless of her not being on the sidewalk, and such not being illegal.  Ms. Good then stands her ground as the police officer accuses her of "seeming anti-police," and the officer tries to establish the ridiculous pretext that he doesn't feel safe with her standing behind him, even though she is in front of him, on her own property, while he is on the other side of a car on the street, and while there are 2 other unoccupied attending officers.  

The officer then approaches Ms. Good, and changing tack, attempts to use Ms. Good's recording against her by making reference to "what you've said to me before you started taping..." as being grounds for his ordering her indoors.  The officer continues to demand that Ms. Good return inside her house for the reason that he doesn't feel safe with her standing behind himself and the other officers during a traffic stop, in continual disregard of what is obvious to everyone; that Ms. Good is at a safe distance, she is not threatening, she is not behind him, and the traffic stop is concluded.  

In the video, one can hear the anxiety and confusion rising in Ms. Good's voice as it becomes clearer that the police officer is intent on having the last word and bending her to his will.  As Ms. Good attempts to reconcile the nonsense the officer has accused her of, he begins to threaten her with arrest.  He continues to accuse her of "standing behind" him and "not listening to our orders."  One must wonder how to correctly follow this officer's orders when he makes the Orwellian demand that she not stand behind him during the traffic stop when she is standing in front of him after the traffic stop.  Ms. Good continues to stand her ground, remarking that she will not go inside because she "need(s) the fresh air right now," a quip perhaps at once sardonic and revealing of her bemusement and befuddlement.  

After another threat she is arrested.  The camera is then passed to one of a few people standing beside Ms. Good; who then film the woman's arrest; and who evidently and in contrast to Ms. Good, have the right to stand behind, or in front of officers during or after a traffic stop.  They can be heard muttering to themselves as  Ms. Good is brought towards the police cruiser in obvious disbelief of her treatment.  She cries out: "What in the world?  I'm sorry!  I was standing in my front yard, concerned about what was going on in my neighborhood!  And you're arresting me?!  What the hell is going on?!"  The officer delivers her to a cruiser that has just arrived on scene.  Apparently Rochester Police require backup in removing ladies with video cameras from their front-yards. 

Witnesses then recorded themselves with the camera after police left the scene.  One witness states that she phoned 911 on the Police, the irony of which is pitiful.  The witnesses also note the officer's doublespeak regarding the sidewalk, the traffic stop and being behind the officer.  Statements to the media concerning the incident by the relevant Police Union President are nonsense, describing the officer's arrest of a woman well within her rights, on her own property, after his concluding a traffic stop as "using great restraint, maintaining composure, acting professional, clearly giving very clear and concise orders to an individual who just simply didn't comply."  

These are demonstrably measures to intimidate those who would dare photograph or record police officers, some of whom are perhaps far too comfortable with their own lack of standards, ethics and understanding of the law to bother improving them for the sake of public relations.  Such was in evidence after a 2010 court ruling in Maryland, where the judge concluded "Those of us who are public officials and are entrusted with the power of the state are ultimately accountable to the public... when we exercise that power in a public forum, we should not expect our activity to be shielded from public scrutiny."  

The rather extraordinary case from Maryland involved a motorcyclist who was stopped in traffic on a busy off-ramp after recording himself speeding on the highway with a camera attached to his helmet.  Anthony Graber's video shows an unmarked car suddenly boxing him in, and a plain clothed man exiting the vehicle, pulling a gun, and demanding Mr. Graber get off the motorbike.  At first it appears to be a brazen day-light robbery, until the man verbally identifies himself as police.  Mr. Graber accepted the consequences of his actions on the bike, and posted the video of his ride and his rather unusual arrest a week later on youtube in April 2010.  Soon after, the police raided his parents's home, confiscated his camera, computers and external hard-drives, and stunned Graber with charges of violating state wire-tapping laws which threatened the 25 year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard with up to 16 years in prison.  

Judge Pitt, who dismissed the charges against Graber, as have many other judges in similar cases, clearly asserted that laws concerning the unwitting recording of private conversations do not apply to police officers being recorded performing a public service in public, where they have no legal expectation of privacy.  Yet, in spite of legal precedents being set across the US in this regard, police continue to arrest people at gun point on trumped-up charges for doing just that.  Police are often fond of saying, "if you don't have anything to hide, you don't have anything to be afraid of."  One might wonder, is that simply a turn of phrase they use to get one to give up one's rights?  Or, do they have for themselves things they'd prefer be kept hidden?  Perhaps it's both. 

Read and watch video about Raymond Herisse / Narces Benoit affair in Miami

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/06/07/florida.shooting.witness/

Watch Benoit’s raw footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXpMzT5yGp8

About Emily Good in Rochester NY

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/06/woman-in-her-front-yard-arrested-while-videotaping-police-at-a-traffic-stop-at-curb/1

About Anthony Graber in Maryland

http://abcnews.go.com/US/TheLaw/videotaping-cops-arrest/story?id=11179076

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-09-27/news/bs-md-recorded-traffic-stop-20100927_1_police-officers-plitt-cell-phones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK5bMSyJCsg

Egypt and the Press: Stories and Stories

Coverage of the uprising in Egypt in its second week has become characterised by a number of types of reports, most of which paint colorful pictures, but do little to inform on the situation.  There are the political discussions as to the West’s reaction, and how the uprising will unbalance the Arab world and its relationship with Israel.  There are also personal interest stories, about tourists and tycoons fleeing Cairo.  There are business reports about stock markets.  Then there are vignettes into the disorder itself:  Jailbreaks have been given coverage, and Hosni Mubarak, through state TV, has publicised the looting and vandalism that is occurring, primarily in wealthy neighbourhoods, where there is actual wealth to loot. 

Cairo - Flags, by Muhammad*#

The West has been gripped by reports of vandalism at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, with reports carrying headlines claiming “looting” and “ransacking.”  In fact, reports go on to describe that there have been only 10 small artifacts damaged, 2 mummies damaged, and nothing stolen.  Thus looting has not occurred, and only something of a rather polite “ransacking” when only 12 items out of a massive collection of Egyptian artifacts are affected.  Stories presented in this manner seem to ask the question:  Should the disorder be allowed to continue if it puts at risk the treasures of the Egyptian Museum?  This is a type of sensationalism and yellow journalism which wants to paint the Egyptian uprising as mindlessly destructive.  Currently, armed forces and vigilantes guard the museum.

Other reports discuss looting, vigilantes and Bedouin tribesmen breaking people out of jail.  This type of press has been reaching the Egyptian people themselves.  Again, it asks a negative question, as to whether the uprising is “worth it,” if it means crimes will go unpunished and criminals on the loose.  However, the mass of people seem unafraid that while they are out protesting someone will ransack their house.  Most Egyptians are more concerned with their government and police whose crimes have for 30 years gone unpunished, and whom remain as always “at large.”  Many of the described vigilantes are also community members who are manning barricades and conducting neighbourhood watches in the vacuum of police coercion; working to stop the inevitable few people who are willing to take advantage of a lack of security to enrich themselves (or steal food and fuel).  Furthermore, at this point it can’t be disproved that in many cases it is plain-clothes agents of the government who are committing these acts of vandalism, looting and robbery undercover, in order to discredit the public and the protests as criminal.  Such reports have been confirmed, and this notion has great credibility on the street with Egyptians. 

As for reports of jailbreaks by the Bedouin, the favourite gypsy-nomad scapegoat of popular culture and governments in the Middle East for everything from drug and gun running to indecency; it seems that "Bedouins on the loose" is a far bigger concern for Mubarak than for people on the ground, who do not seem too concerned with the familiar caricature image of camelback heathens amok on the fringes of society.  While jailbreaks are a serious thing, especially to Western sensibilities, could it be that such does not concern Egyptians nearly as much at the moment, as a majority of people being broken out of prison are not in fact gang members and hardened criminals, but instead political prisoners and minorities (such as the Bedouin) who have been victims and captives of Mubarak’s suspicious and overbearing police state?

There are two sides to every story, at least.  As night begins to fall on Wednesday in Egypt, reports will continue to flood out from there, and many of them will narrowly discuss the small tragedies and inconveniences that social unrest poses for Egyptians and outsiders alike.  However, those stories that deserve the most attention will remind us that there are 300 people dead so far, and millions more risking their lives for their future; people who have already been subject to the organised looting, criminality and brutality of a 30+ year-old dictatorship.


Read More:
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/un-300-killed-nationwide-protests
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/29/us-egypt-vigilante-trib-idUSTRE70S3AZ20110129
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8291661/Egypt-in-crisis-vigilantes-and-prisoners-on-the-streets.html
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/106646/20110130/egyptian-protesters-ransack-cairo-museum-smashes-mummies-egyptian-museum-egyptian-art-egyptian-antiq.htm

Egypt, Tunisia, Thailand... Top 10 destinations for Social Upheaval

A Tide of civil unrest has swept through at least 11 nations in just the past week.  Media focus has been on the successes of the "Jasmine Revolution" and developments in Egypt, which is populous, geopolitically significant, and in total upheaval; but nations far and wide are experiencing mass-protests and anti-government demonstrations. 

Cairo, January 25 2011 by Muhammad*#

The underlying cause connecting all of these movements is the political and economic disenfranchisement of large majorities and groups of people within their nations.  It could be that what now is being witnessed will be seen broadly as a sociological reaction to generally poor ongoing conditions which became exacerbated by ongoing effects of a global economic crisis and major moves in global food and fuel inflation.  This situation has threatened a future of abject poverty and destitution on large populations of working poor, unemployed, pensioners, students, small business operators, professionals; anyone with debts or low incomes.  In these conditions, any political or economic event can become a symbol of repression which people begin to rally against, venting their anger and will to change in street demonstrations and violent confrontation with security forces. 

While the list is dominated by the Middle-East/African-Arab speaking nations of Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria and Lebanon, there is representation from the Sub-Sahara in Cote D'Ivoire and Ghana, as well as Europe and Asia with Albania, Bangladesh and Thailand.  In no particular order:


JORDAN
Last Friday saw thousands of protestors marching in Jordan, and was the 3rd consecutive day-of-prayer protest.  Jordan fits the same profile as the other Arab countries in upheaval: A large population mainly below the age of 30, under the strain of rising prices and unemployment, facing a lifetime of economic deprivation and political disenfranchisement.  Today, February 1, King Abdullah has dismissed his cabinet and prime minister.  His appointment of former general and PM Marouf Bakhit as the new Prime Minister will likely be seen as an empty gesture, as Bakhit is an entrenched member of the political class who was already PM from 2005-2007.


EGYPT
The Egyptian government, led for 30 years by Hosni Mubarak, on January 28 shut down all cell-phone and internet access as it faced popular calls for him and his government to step down during consecutive days of demonstrations.  The entire Presidential cabinet has been purged and restaffed.  Sources put today's crowds at million strong just in Cairo. Transportation has been severly restricted and night-time curfews are in place but ignored.  Protestors have occupied buildings, and the army has refused to use violent coercion against the people whose demands it views as "legitimate."  This represents a major break from President Mubarak, who is himself a former Air Force Commander and Chief of Staff.  Clashes between demonstrators and security forces have cost more than 125 lives.  The protests began in earnest on January 25, a date on which the government annually commemorates the police.  Activists organised for that day a massive apolitical demonstration against police brutality, dubbed the "day of rage."  The protests, unified by the rally-call "Kefaya!" (Enough!) have gathered momentum and are ongoing at the time of publication.


LEBANON
Angry demonstrations hit the streets of Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon on January 25.  Politics remain as a constant catalyst to demonstrations and unrest in Lebanon, a country which has felt the brunt of 2 wars in the past 3 decades.  Lebanese society faces a lack of housing and vital state infrastructure, unemployment and rising prices, a factionalised society along religious, sectarian and political lines, and the constant threat of renewed war from its southern neighbor Israel. 


YEMEN
Near daily protests since mid January in Yemen and the capital Sanaa have seen calls from tens of thousands for the ouster of 32-year President Ali Abdullah Saleh.  Yemen is an extremely poor nation, located at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula and across the gulf of Aden from Somalia.  America has called Yemen an Al-Qaeda haven and has been making drone attacks inside the country.  The country has already been coping with open revolt from rebel and separatist movements.  With war, corruption, high unemployment and rising prices plaguing the nation, thousands of people with nothing to lose have turned out to demand rights, justice and new government.  One man, Fouad Sabri, lit-himself on fire in an attempted suicide protest, immitating the act which sparked the Tunisian uprising. 


ALGERIA
Rioting and protests have continued to errupt for over a month as economic turmoil engulfs the country.  Algeria has suffered for a long time with a housing shortage, and the young population is acting out against their impoverished living conditions, rising prices and lack of economic opportunity.  Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the 12-year president, has vowed to quash the unrest; along with employing security forces he has put in place a cooking fuel subsidy and has also ordered major purchases of wheat with the hopes of holding domestic food prices down. 


TUNISIA
A month of protests which saw the ouster of Tunisia's 23-year president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, continue into their 6th week after being dubbed the "Jasmine Revolution."  Sparked by the suicide protest of Mohammed Bouazizi on Dec 17th, general strikes and protests against indignity, police brutality, organised corruption and generally lacking rights and freedoms continue.  Security forces, out of seeming habit or acculturation, continue to use deadly violence against the crowds, who are now specifically calling for the president's former cronies to resign their posts in various state ministries and the interim government. 


BANGLADESH
Bangladesh is experiencing violent demonstrations as its stock market is rapidly collapsing.  Since a previous report about it here at World Headlines Review, more street violence has been seen as markets hit new lows and stability has failed to return.  Trading was again halted on the Dhaka exchange for a third time, on January 20, to stop rapid and massive declines which threatened a total collapse of stock values.  In a seemingly unrelated story, the AFP reports that a police officer was killed and several police and civilians seriously injured in protests which saw 20,000 villagers fighting against the appropriation of their land by the government.  For the masses of Bangladeshis, it seems there is no safe place to put your savings, be it stocks or real-estate. 


ALBANIA
A country of some 3 million people on the Mediteranean coast of Europe, Albania's social unrest has expressed itself slightly differently from other nations.  Factions within the country have fought with each other and the police over political scandals and corruption.  On January 21, 3 civilians were killed when security forces fired on anti-government demonstrators.  At its core, the unrest is the result of the same rising prices, unemployment and rampant corruption that is swelling the ranks of the uprisings in many other nations.  


THAILAND
Anti-government protests by "red-shirts" and "yellow shirts" saw thousands of demonstrators occupying streets and neighborhoods in Bangkok this week.  The Thai government has been beset by protests for years now, from groups who seem to recognise no democratic forum for redress except direct action.  In December 2008 the Bangkok international airport was occupied by protestors, leaving many tourists stranded and creating international headlines.  Since then, protests continue largely in the absence of international attention.


GHANA
Thousands of people demonstrated in the capital of Accra and Kumasi on January 26, calling for government action against poverty and rising food and fuel prices.  The protests were peaceful.


COTE D'IVOIRE
In a poor country facing massive unemployment and inflation, a political crisis has sparked violence along social, political and ethnic lines.  The UN this week reported estimates of 260 deaths in the rapidly evolving situation.  Violence erupted when Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent President, was defeated in a recent election.  Gbagbo has refused the election results and is pitting the ethnic and economic prejudices of his southern support base against the growing anger of the supporters of President-elect Alassane Ouattara. 

Cairo Police Line, January 25 by Muhammad*#

The above list briefly illustrates a number of locales experiencing unrest right now or in the past week.  Haiti and Belarus are two more countries which could be added to the list if the timeframe was widened to the past month.  Both countries have been mired in violent protest against corruption and anti-democratic government.  In all of these countries, where there are little to no rights or freedom to associate, to gather publicly, to speak one's opinion vocally, where there are no democratic venues for ordinary people to make themselves heard and to seek redress, the only option is to defy the law, defy curfews, and face tear-gas, batons and bullets in the streets. 

What seemed to happen first in Tunisia may yet inspire more people to take to the streets, but what is actually happening will continue as long as there is a reason: People facing a bleak future, with little to lose and everything to gain, finding common cause with each other and searching for hope and the power to shape their own destiny

Street-battles in Cairo

Read Sources On:  Egypt  - Lebanon  - Thailand1  - Thailand2  - Cote D'Ivoire1  - Cote DI'voire2  - Ghana1  - Ghana2  -  Albania1  - Albania2  - Bangladesh1  - Bangladesh2  - Yemen1  - Yemen2  - Yemen3  - Algeria  - Jordan 1  - Jordan 2