Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sandmonkey (Mahmoud Salem) -- Egyptian Economics Comment

By John Ballard


Mahmoud Salem is among Egypt's smartest bloggers. His Rantings of a Sandmonkey has been a vital part of the Egyptian and MENA counterculture since 2007.


Lately he Tweets more than he blogs. So those of us who want to know what he's saying must stay alert. Tweeting is much harder to catch and damn near impossible to recall than blogging.


That said, here (via Chirpstory) is this morning's catch.



The demands for July 8.  [In Arabic]


Please note that they are almost the same ones of #jan25 
The Truth of it is, the real problems facing Egypt are



  1. minimum wage ,

  2. corruption and

  3. The concept of legal Justice.


?None are resolved?


The minimum wage would cost the government more money, but they still don't really collect taxes from all of Egypt, only Cairo & Alex.  So, by collecting from the other 25 governrates, and inspecting their current expenditures, they could cut the deficit & pay minimum wage.


The problem then will be the Private sector which would suffer immensly on the short-term, but would eventually adjust. Therefore any serious talk about minimum wage for private sector must be linked to some economic incentive to cushion the blow for them. Because there are many factories operating on tiny profit margins, & without some aid, the minimum wage would shut them down.  [JB - Hello, US State Department. Anybody listening???]


Corruption will only be uprooted with a clear anti-corruption whistler-blower law, one that protects those who report it from prosecution


But the big one is the concept of justice: the police and the judiciary, and how that system is completely broken.


The Police are now a rogue force, make no mistakes. They won't reform &The SCAF can't control them without risking armed conflict. And the Judiciary is equally corrupt. I don't know why many activists act as if the egyptian judicial system isn't a total farce. But the SCAF isn't blind to this, so they must be relying on 1 of 2 things: a pushback happens, & the police alongside thugs wud crush it. Or, that they let the Police be bad cop, & the judiciary corrupt, & have the people take it out on them, thus making them again indespinsble


The second option is a dangerous game, cause they can easily face total chaos, but it would cement their position & their military trials
[Zeinobia asks "What do you mean "rogue force"?. He replies... They don't take orders from anyone!]
Either way, the pushback is expected.


This will be a bad summer, if something doesn't change. But imagine if SCAF was really that smart, & rejected the budget in order to incorporate the minimum wage, & thus deflating everything.


Ok, am off to the airport: Going to the Hague for a conference for one day. If you live there, let me know.



In simple language, the names are gone but the system remains in place.


Mubarak maintained control all those years by controlling the police through the Department of Interior, employing "thugs" or anyone who trading loyalty for money, power and job security. During that time the military (SCAF, Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) was manned by conscripts from the general population whose tours often recycled them back into the civilian population.


It was no accident that the military sided with the protesters in Tahrir Square. Most families or communities have family members and neighbors in the military. And the uniformed forces, unlike the police/Interior Ministry "thugs", have empathy for civilians.


Now that SCAF has the political football it has the sticky job of maintaining economic equilibrium and good public relations at the same time. And the idealistic young people of the Arab Spring are keeping close tabs on SCAF as the real work of governance gets under way.


This Al Jazeera report says Egypt is not planning to have any loans from the IMF or World Bank, citing instead "gifts" from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Not mentioned is US "aid" (read political influence, or corruption, depending on where you stand) which has been a journal entry in both country's budgets for decades.


Vali Nasr's Tweet goes straight to the heart of the economic debate:



Egypt says no IMF and World Bank
loans. Means there will be no real
economic reform and reduction of army
control of economy?




Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)