Egypt: "lop off the head and the body will wither and die."

[Cerridwen]

paraphrase: To kill the serpent, lop off the head and the body will wither and die.

No. Not mubarak. The protest movement.

I've watched with some "bemusement" as world "leaders," the press, and various agencies try to pin down who the leader of the current protests in Egypt is.

They can't...or haven't.

There is no obvious leader to "lop off." There is no obvious leader with whom to negotiate.

But, there are protests. When they blocked the social networking sites, those reporting the protests tweeted the IP addresses. But, there is no obvious leader.

When the gov't "turned off" the internet, those reporting the protests created a people's internet calling on ham radio operators, using bandwidth donated from around the world, set up dial-up internet, and the reports, pictures and video continued to come out. But, there is no obvious leader.

There was a handbook put out to inform people how to protest intelligently. But, there is no obvious leader.

The buildings attacked and destroyed were, in almost every case, those representative of, or could be used as headquarters of, the ruling regime. But, there is no obvious leader.

The protesters linked arms to protect the museum until the army could arrive. In the interim, "looters," reportedly in possession of gov't ID, i.e., the republican guard/secret police/mubarak's thugs, vandalized and looted the museum. But, there is no obvious leader.

"Looters" have been turned over to the army and many have had on their person, that ol' gov't ID. Were the protesters watching for just such actions? Given the history of the "police," uhm, ya think?

The protesters have responded to each instance with placing their people until such time as the army could arrive. As though each instance has been anticipated but details would remain to be seen; but, there is no obvious leader.

It's as though each move was anticipated, but the details could not be known, and contingencies were made to address what would occur and each was addressed by the protesters. But, there is no obvious leader.

Now, there are (depending on the "news" source you read) 700, 1000, or 5000 "convicts" escaped and wrecking havoc on the Egyptian people; or, they will be as soon as we start getting those "reports" of the lawless running loose in Egypt. It remains to be seen how the protesters respond.

But, there is no obvious leader.

Now the only question: who is(are) the director(s) of the orchestra?

Extra points if you can come up with someone or someones other than the accepted, maintain "stability" of a dictatorship or scream about the boogeyman of theocracy.

[Doctor_J]

1. Yep

[Cerridwen]

7. You noticed, too?

[DeSwiss]

2. K&R

- I always blame the Black Squirrel for shit like this.....

[Cerridwen]

8. Thanks.

Black Squirrel is a computer geek with revolutionary tendencies?

Cool. Go, Black Squirrel!

:)

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. This is a new model of revolt

a distributed revolt, to use a technical term... and it makes it much harder for security services to put boot down. I am almost willing to bet this will continue to be the model.

Oh and there is, somewhere... cell structures come to mind. And no, this is not bad... just creative.

[tabatha]

4. This is what happened in Iran.

There were many leaders, and they were all hauled in and hanged.

[Cerridwen]

9. Perhaps Egypt has learned the lessons of history?

Possibly.

Maybe.

We'll see.

Still no "leader" coming forward...yet.

[alittlelark]

21. Hopefully they will come forward after safety measures

are in place.

They tend to get killed quickly.

[Cerridwen]

25. "They" appear to know history.

Perhaps, just maybe, it is time.

[Cerridwen]

5. Distributed computing plus phantom cell structure.

21st Century resistance.

link to phantom cell structure

link to distributed computing

For those reading.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Exactly

Again one of those we should take notes.

[Cerridwen]

15. :) Noted. I doubt I'm the only one. n/t

[Raksha]

26. Very interesting...thanks for the links.

"Anonymous" comes to mind, and was even mentioned in the Wikipedia article.

[Cerridwen]

27. You're welcome.

"Anonymous" and a whole bunch'a geeks comes to mind.

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear

link to lyrics

[Cerridwen]

6. Distributed computing plus phantom cell structure.

21st Century resistance.

link to phantom cell structure

link to distributed computing

For those reading.

[Fumesucker]

10. Open source revolution.. n/t

[Cerridwen]

11. Uh, huh. Yep. Could be. We'll see.

And hope.

I've seen that phrase elsewhere in reference to the protests in Egypt.

[grahamhgreen]

13. The leaders are: "WE THE PEOPLE" , as it should be.

[Cerridwen]

14. I agree.

But it sure is bugging the shit out of a whole lot of pundits, "leaders" and...others.

The "lack" of leadership is scaring the bejeezus out of a lot of people glued to the ideas and values of hierarchy.

[grahamhgreen]

30. That's exactly why we set up this country in the first place!

They are afraid - they have no way of knowing how far it will spread.

[Cerridwen]

31. Precisely.

Better the "devil" you know...

The US has a long history of "devils" "we" know and can control.

Heaven forfend we should leave the people to decide for themselves. *swoon* We might have to pay more for oil and require corporations to defend their own...facilities.

[Schema Thing]

16. Obviously George Bush has been furiously learning to hack

...between downing vodka gimlets in his newfound time surplus.


he never gave up on his dream of democracy in the M.E.

[Cerridwen]

17. Of course. That explains it! :) n/t

[tabatha]

22. Yep, but there is a difference.

Democracy under the "umbrella" of the US where the US gets the prime contracts for resources, is what Bush wanted.

[Fleming]

18. No leaders, no Declaration of Independence, no

Articles of Confederation, NO PLAN. That's what will lead to to a power vacuum.

You can rest assured that someone will rush to get in front of this parade, and therein lies the danger.

[Cerridwen]

19. Welcome to DU.

You'll find this a wonderful place to find information that doesn't support the "party" line and a place where you can learn about something other than "Manifest Destiny" and "America; Right or Wrong" and some of us even acknowledge that "other" people aren't ignorant heathens.

Enjoy.

[riverwalker]

20. we are

"We" being all people, all over the world, who want peace, freedom, justice. We who are tired of corruption, brutality, and war. We are all Egyptian now. We are the leaders of this movement , and there are about...umm...6,896,700,000 of us.

[Cerridwen]

23. :)

Now, if only we could convince "We."

"I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

"I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other."

"I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."

"I looked at my hands, to see if I was the same person now that I was free. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over de fields, and I felt like I was in heaven."

link to some quotes

[tabatha]

24. Yep, "Imagine" comes to mind.

[shanti]

28. absolutely

:thumbsup:

[Catherina]

29. Good post. Rec'd Time magazine has a scoop:

Time magazine has a scoop: Mubarak is not running for another term in September
""As the news circulated, speculation was rife that the shadowy intelligence chief, who has the support of the still popular Egyptian military, was the safe pair of hands which the U.S. and Israel would approve to manage an orderly transition that would maintain Egypt's international commitments; it also may signal that Mubarak may not be running for another term in September.""

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/01/israeli-military-intelligence-experts.html

New York Times has another one

"American officials must already be wondering what will happen to the fight against Al Qaeda if Mr. Saleh is deposed. And what will happen to efforts to counter Iran and promote Arab-Israeli peace if Mr. Mubarak is suddenly gone?"

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-magazine-has-scoop-mubarak-is-not.html

[Cerridwen]

33. I, as usual, am about to have to leave this contretemps on DU.

*sigh* Sorry, luv.

I'll read your links. I note two things based solely on the source: Time is a neo-con wet dream transcribed on to paper. NYTimes supports the status quo so long as the status quo supports the NYTimes.

Status quo is defined, as I use it, as white, Anglo, power and monied interests.

It's good to see you but I have to leave. :(

I'll read and get back with you later. :hug:

[Catherina]

34. I'll see you later then.

Thanks for all your hard work posting about this. I'll be up for quite a few hours combing tweets.

If it's sleep, sleep well :hug:

[leftstreet]

32. K&R Any orchestra can play without a conductor

The only difference is without the leadership of the conductor the orchestra must practice much, much more.

But there's certainly nothing wrong with that! :-)