In Mubarak’s Egypt, director Charlie Smith investigates America’s role during the final years of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. By then Egypt, once the Arab world’s most important power, had become a regional bit-player stagnating in corruption and cronyism. Smith shows how successive US presidents tried to force Mubarak to reform and how, along with most of Egypt’s population, Washington finally ran out of patience.
With contributions from many of the leading players in Cairo – such as Mubarak’s Foreign Minister, Adel Aboul Gheit, and cabinet minister Farouk Hosni – the film show how revolution became the only option left to the millions betrayed by the rule of a modern-day pharaoh.
The film also shows how Mubarak’s fall marked a watershed for America’s role in the Middle East. US witnesses include Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, George Bush’s adviser Elliott Abrams, and Assistant Secretary of State Mike Posner.
Directed by Charlie Smith
Duration: 90
Year: 2014
By Nicole Hunt
Anders Behring Breivik, the man who admitted to setting off the 22 July bomb in Oslo, killing eight people, before killing 69 people on the island of Utoya, makes his first public appearance at Oslo City Court on Monday. On 12 September, the court rejected a police request for another closed door hearing, meaning media and victims’ families will be able to attend.
In Geneva, the UN Global Fund releases the findings of a four-month independent review into its financial safeguards, following accusations of mismanagement of funds in recipient countries.
Monday is also the six month anniversary of the beginning of military action in Libya. Forces from the US, the UK, France, Canada, UAE and Qatar began enforcing the no-fly zone authorised by UN Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973 on 19 March.
The trial of seven Italian scientists charged with manslaughter for failing to predict the April 2009 earthquake that killed over 300 people kicks off in L’Aquila on Tuesday. The scientists, who made up the city’s Great Risks Commission, are accused of failing to warn people of the potential risk of an earthquake and convincing people not to leave town a week before the earthquake struck.
In a Paris court, former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and representatives for News Group Newspapers appear charged with breaching France’s privacy and defamation laws in relation to a 2008 story about former FIA president Max Mosley. Mosley was awarded £60,000 in damages by the UK High Court in 2008, but the European Court of Human Rights rejected an application by Mosley in May that would have required media to inform a person before publishing a story containing their private information.
Amid concerns of potential post-election violence, Zambians go to the polls to elect their president and members of the National Assembly. Levy Mwanawasa won the 2006 election, but died in August 2008 and was replaced by Rupiah Banda, who is seeking his first full term.
The UN General Assembly general debate opens in New York on Wednesday, with all eyes on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who, barring last-minute diplomatic developments, is expected to seek a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.
On Thursday, a verdict is expected in the first case brought in under France’s ‘burka ban’ laws. Two women in the town of Meaux were arrested for wearing the niqab veil in May, with one of them banned from attending the last hearing because her face was still covered.
At the UN General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are both scheduled to speak. Ahmadinejad’s past speeches have prompted walkouts from some delegations, while Mugabe’s have typically been anti-western. British Prime Minister David Cameron, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ivorian President Alassane Ouatarra are also on the bill.
The week draws to a close with some high-profile court hearings and elections. Closing arguments are set to begin in Amanda Knox’s murder appeal in Perugia on Friday, while Egyptian courts are busy with the testimony of ruling military council member Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi at former President Hosni Mubarak’s trial on Saturday in Cairo, as well as the verdict in the Khaled Said murder trial in Alexandria. Two policemen are on trial for Said’s June 2010 death, which prompted widespread protests in Egypt at a time when police were rarely prosecuted.
In Bahrain, by-elections are held to replace 11 opposition lawmakers who resigned in March over government crackdowns on anti-regime protesters.
French Senate elections take place on Sunday, with half of the 346 seats up for grabs. Party performances will be closely watched ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
In Freiburg, Pope Benedict XVI wraps up a four-day visit to Germany to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his ordination as a priest
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By Nicole Hunt
This week is filled with high-profile trials and judgements around the world, kicking off on Monday with six big-name hearings, including several former world leaders: ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his sons and former Interior Minister Habib Al Adly are all on trial over protester deaths in Cairo; former French President Jacques Chirac’s corruption trial resumes in Paris; former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde’s trial for negligence over the country’s banking collapse starts in Reykjavik; former Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s ‘Patria’ corruption trial begins in Ljubljana; Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire goes on trial in Kigali for promoting genocide; and Sizwe Mankazana, who was driving the car which crashed and killed Nelson Mandela’s great-granddaugther on the eve of last year’s World Cup faces the court in Johannesburg.
The focus is on austerity in Europe on Tuesday, as Italy braces for a general strike over debt-cutting measures proposed by Silvio Berlusconi’s government.
In Berlin, the German government begins a four-day debate of its 2012 budget. Wednesday’s general debate with Chancellor Angela Merkel coincides with the country’s Contitutional Court’s decision on a constitutional challenge to a May 2010 law guaranteeing the maintenance of Greece’s financial stability and solvency, authorising up to €22.4bn in loans.
In Algiers, the Algerian government hosts a two-day conferennce on regional security, focusing on the threat from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Back to the Paris courts on Thursday, where the verdict is expected in the trial of disgraced fashion designer John Galliano, who is accused of hurling anti-Semitic abuse at a member of the public in February.
Meanwhile, a hearing is scheduled to formalise the extradition of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who was convicted of money laundering last summer and sentenced to seven years in prison. He is expected to be sent back to Panama, where he has been sentenced in absentia to 60 years in prison for human rights violations committed between 1983 and 1989.
G7 Finance Ministers begin a two-day meeting in Marseille on Friday. Officials from the EU, IMF and World Bank also attend to discuss issues ahead of the IMF/World Bank annual autumn meetings later this month.
The Rugby World Cup kicks off in Auckland with New Zealand v Tonga. The tournament runs until 23, October.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou delivers his annual economic address at the Thessaloniki Trade Fair on Saturday. Unions and activists plan to hold demonstrations outside the fair, protesting against the government’s austerity measures.
Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the United States. President Barack Obama and former President George W Bush are among those attending a memorial service at Ground Zero, which begins at 8:40am EDT to mark the time the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Centre.
While all eyes are on the US, Guatemalans will quietly elect a new President. A planned bid by Sandra Torres, ex-wife of current President Alvaro Colom, was ruled unconstitutional. The couple divorced to enable Torres to run, hoping to circumvent a law that ruled the President’s spouse ineligible.
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There has not yet been a full revolution in Egypt, but it will be the sense of optimism and possibility of change that brought the country to its current state that will enable the people to overcome the challenges ahead.
There is a need for massive economic change, the army remains "on top and in the driving seat" but British-Egyptian actor, producer and activist Khalid Abdalla said at the Frontline Club on Tuesday that it was his "duty" to remain optimistic because that is what had changed since people took to the streets on 25 January and toppled President Hosni Mubarak 18 days later.
"Right now, in terms of a revolution, in terms of a revolutionary spirit, the ability to go down into the streets in huge numbers to force sweeping change, to believe that that is possible right now, we are in a hiaitus," said Abdalla.
"There is a confusion right now amongst activists and people who were working to make change as to whether we begin to focus on elections, or do we still focus on many of the important human rights issues, like military trials and freedom of speech."
Brian Whitaker, The Guardian‘s Middle East editor from 2000-2007, who is currently an editor on the paper’s Comment Is Free section, said that when he was researching for his book What’s Really Wrong with the Middle East there was a sense that there was nothing that could be done:
"The real revolutionary change that’s happened is that that has simply gone away. There’s now an attitude that there are things that can be done if enough people get on with it."
Dr Maha Azzam, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House agreed that optimism and energy were "fundamental" in order to carry through change and bring about revolution.
But the situation remains a "mixed picture" because of those elements of society that want security and stability, said Dr Azzam, who said it was important that the activists continue to set the agenda in the face of attempts to quell the opposition:
"The street is in the more powerful position because it can still twist the arm of the military, by which I mean the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, because they are in a vulnerable position. They’re of a dying generation, both in terms of age, but also in terms of its mentality and politics. Each time it’s felt it’s cornered it made concessions. It’s not an easy task to put on the activists, but the street is theirs, the right to protest is a democratic right and so long as they continue down that path, they can embrace thier objectives and push for them."
Rosemary Hollis, professor of Middle East policy studies and director of the Olive Tree Programme at City University, said that it was now "completely beyond the power" of Westerners to control the narrative:
"It already was, and now the Arabs have risen up and said even less so because the revolutions were against the dictators that [the West] kept at its convenience."
But no one in the region is buying the idea that more liveral capitalism the way the Europeans do it is the answer, unless the Europeans recognise that they have had certain advantages structurally, globally that are going to have to be given up now.
… the structural changes that will have to be made will go down very poorly with with the liberal capitalist governments in Europe because they will want to say the poor will have to take the pain in order to restructure the economy and of course the rich have to get richer because you have to encourage them to invest."
Khalid Abdalla agreed that there was a strong relationship between what happened in the Middle East and the crisis of capitalism world over and that what was happening in the Middle East was a "restructuring of discourses" that was forcing the West to reappraise itself, not just its relationships with the region but in many policy areas.
Currently activists are under attack and being accused of being foreign spies or funded by foreign regimes said Abadalla, adding that there were problems with well meaning people coming from the West wanting to help or donate funds.
]]>First of all there is the major issue that coming to Egypt can be unhelpful because right now it is being used politically, but also secondly, I don’t think the West on the whole and its NGOs and policy makers have yet woken up to what the revolutions in the Arab world are telling them to realise about themselves and I think that’s something that will take lots of time.