Egypt On My Mind

This week I published an article on EgyptSource with my views on the relationship between Egypt and the United States. You can find it here: http://www.acus.org/egyptsource/what-i-really-want-out-us-egypt-relationship

I've also updated my list of favorite media outlets covering Egypt and the Middle East. You can find that post here: http://listenlearnactandreflect.blogspot.com/2013/07/my-top-websites-for-reliable-accurate.html

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My Top Websites for (Reliable, Accurate, Thoughtful) Information and Analysis on Egypt and the Middle East

by Phoebe Farag Mikhail

Egypt's Tahrir Square on July 3, 2013, celebrating the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi.

As the US and Western-based media (CNN, ABC, BBC, the Guardian, etc.) finally got around to covering Egypt’s historic 2013 revolution that culminated in the impeachment of its president, many of us who follow the events in the region closely knew for weeks that a major political confrontation was brewing. The unfortunate reality is that even when the major western media outlets did start to cover the events in Egypt more extensively (after June 30^th marked what may be the largest single political demonstration in recorded history), the analysis is still skewed as they view the events in Egypt through the lens of people living in an established democracy and erroneously frame the events as a military coup. Few want to acknowledge the collective action of millions of Egyptians, and very few are grasping the complexities of the Egyptian situation. There are, however, several resources available, in English, for those who are interested in astute and culturally-versed analysis of the ongoing events. These are the ones I usually check:

Mada Masr (http://madamasr.com/)
Before its parent company shut it down, citing economic reasons, Egypt Independent was the best independent English language news and opinion outlet coming out of Egypt. Thankfully, its editorial team regrouped and created Mada Masr. Most of its writers live in Egypt.

Jadaliyya (www.jadaliyya.com)
This portal provides news and views for all of the Middle East, and provides content in English and Arabic. Some articles are long, but worth it – these issues cannot be covered in sound bytes, and they are rarely black and white. Most of the writers live, or have lived extensively, where they write, and it covers culture and politics. The Egypt portal is http://egypt.jadaliyya.com.

EgyptSource (http://www.acus.org/egyptsource)
The Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East runs a blog on Egypt with many contributors, as well as a news feed with live updates on the current events. Its editors and contributors all have extensive experience in and on Egypt.

The Arabist (http://arabist.net/)
This blog, mainly run by a journalist with a heavy focus on Egypt, is particularly useful in its gathering of relevant articles in English and translating portions of Arabic news as well for those of us with limited Arabic reading proficiency. 

Muftah (http://muftah.org/)

I've only recently been introduced to Muftah and find its articles very thought provoking. It's a resource for analysis moreso than news, and covers the region "from Morocco to Pakistan." The Egypt page is: http://muftah.org/?category_name=egypt.

Al-Monitor (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/home.html)
This site covers the region and does not have a specific Egypt portal, but does often share thoughtful analysis of major events in Egypt.

Al-Jazeera was initially hailed for its coverage of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions in 2011, but remained just as silent as Western media on the June 30^th 2013 events, betraying a clear bias due to its funding from Qatar. There are some good articles written by its analysts on the English language website, however.

I am also particularly appreciative of The Daily Beast (www.thedailybeast.com, home of Newsweek) coverage and analysis, which has also refused to use the common clichés plaguing most other Western news media, focusing not on rising gas prices but on the true concerns of the people of Egypt.

What are you favorite outlets? Please share them in the comments below.

All Petitioned Out

By Phoebe Farag Mikhail

I fervently shared, tweeted, and emailed a very important petition that needed tons of signatures to get any attention. Then a friend’s question stopped me in my tracks.

“Do these things actually work?”

It may have been the tenth petition my friend had come across that day. Due to the rise of online petition platforms like Change.org, SignOn.org, Causes.com and so on, where pretty much anyone can start an online petition about anything, we have become inundated by these online petitions, and left wondering what our signatures do when we sign them.

So, do they work? As always, it depends.

Petitions are a tactic among many possible tactics that can be used in an advocacy campaign. Often, when a petition is started by an organization that does advocacy work (like ONE, the National Council of Churches, Amnesty International, MomsRising, Better Life for Egypt, etc.), the petition works in tandem with a larger strategy that can include other actions to increase public pressure on a target and increase media attention on an issue. These actions can include face to face lobbying, demonstrations, letters to the editor, and so on.

The petition itself may or may not be effective in achieving what it asks. That depends on many factors, including who the target is, and how straightforward the ask is.

Whether they succeed or not, online petitions add numbers and strength to a campaign, enabling these groups to say, during other actions, that they are backed by the hundreds or thousands of people that have signed their petition.

Your signature may also have another important affect on the campaign: it may help to insure the safety of the people directly affected by the issue at stake. I personally know people who faced retaliation for petition s they started. Those petitions did not get many signatures, and so they were easy to target. Thousands of signatures tell the perpetrators of injustice that we will not be silent, making it harder for them to retaliate against affected parties.

 

So what do you do when you get a petition request?

1. Read it. Do you agree with the ask? If so,
2. Sign it.
3. If you feel passionate about the issue on the petition, share it.

That’s it. It takes a few minutes of your time, and it adds strength to the campaign that the petition is related to. The petition itself may succeed due to the numbers and the effectiveness of the ask and target, or your signature may add to the public pressure exerted by the larger campaign. 

At the very least, your signature will help protect the safety of the people directly involved in the action from retribution by those in power for speaking out about injustice.