Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Reporters in Egypt were attacked last week by supporters of President Hosni Mubarak. CNN talking heads are running scared, coming back home with their tails between their legs.
I bet they’re all nostalgic for Saddam Hussein. Now there was a dictator you could do business with!
Here’s the evidence I’m seeing for one hopeful outcome…
From an Egyptian FaceBook page:
I will NOT accept that religious groups hijack what we have been doing for their own agenda. A large group of the ones organizing them yesterday were people in galabeyas and long beards shouting “Al Jihad fe Sabeel Allah (Jihad in the name of Allah), you have to continue fighting, we will win this war, if you die here today, you will be a martyr and go straight to heaven, don’t stop, fight, fight, fight”. NO! This is NOT why we were in the streets on Friday being tear gassed and dodging rubber bullets and it is not why we have been going to Tahrir everyday to be heard. The reason why this revolt went through and became successful was because it was not religiously or politically charged.
quoted on the The International Centre For The Study Of Radicalisation blog ICSR is a joint venture between King’s College London, the University of Pennsylvania, Israel’s Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, and the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy.
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This DoubleQuote first presents a jihadist spin on things, from a legal team member at Minbar al-Tawhid wa’l-Jihad, in Quote #1:
Below that, and lending it both context and irony, is a comment from one of our best analysts of the situation in the Yemen, a former editor for the Yemen Observer.
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John Robb gives the same general message a little strategic push…
What’s the best way to defuse Islamic radicalism across the ME and beyond? Help make the protest in Egypt work.
ShrinkWrapped suggests that rising food prices have more than a little to do with the current situation in Egypt.
Keith McCullough, writing in Fortune, argues that bad monetary policy on the part of the US, and consequent loss of confidence in the dollar, is at the root of the increased prices.
Business Insider has charts on global food prices and a piece about 25 countries whose governments could get crushed by food price inflation.
Lots of information about supply and demand for grains, here.
Thoughts?
Television is providing, as usual during momentous events, all noise and no signal, plus random images which may or may not be intelligible.
Today, while I was not watching TV, I finished John O’Sullivan‘s book about Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II
It was a better use of my time than watching blather about Egypt from people who don’t know any more than I do about it.
Blogs are a little better but not much. All kinds of conventional wisdom seems to bloom and wither and rebloom based on not much of anything. The only person I see who seems to have anything interesting to say is John Robb, e.g. this: this and this. But I don’t know if he is just guessing, either.
And just today, a book came in the mail, which I got for one cent + plus postage: To War with Whitaker: Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly, 1939-45
“My name,” he said, “is Wingate, Orde Wingate. I am going south in five days’ time. I shall raise a revolt in Abyssinia. First I shall go to Khartoum — the Emperor is there. Then I shall drop behind the lines and stay there till, with the aid of the Abyssinians and my small force, we can overthrow the Italians. Now I want you to come as my secretary — you can type, do shorthand, cope with signals?”
I nodded.
“Can you ride, and speak French?”
I nodded again.
“You might have to be dropped by parachute — you wouldn’t mind that?”
“Not if I am supplied with the right kind of underwear,” I laughed.
“Lady Ranfurly, I must have an English secretary. There are none to be found in the Middle East. Will you come and help me? Can you be ready by Tuesday? You will be back in six months.”
Who could turn down a job offer like that? I will soon find out what happens. This one is going to the top of the pile.
The only thing that compares to the benefits of not having a TV is deactivating a Facebook account. One month Facebook free. I liked it, I like my FB friends. But it was taking up way too much time.
I am going to be honest with you, unilke 99% of bloggers out there and admit I don’t know what in gods name is going on in Egypt. I assume the people don’t want Mubarak in there any more but I am totally ignorant as to what sides there are, what options there may be and who heads the opposition. I have seen a lot of footage however.
I also know nothing about my car. If it breaks I am screwed and completely at the mercy of a mechanic. I also don’t play professional football. My body would surely break in two the first time I got hit by someone like Brian Urlacher or Lance Briggs.
So what do you get when you combine Egyptian riots with someone who thinks they can be a professional at something they really have no clue at? Dudes on emaciated horses with short weapons getting their asses kicked.
I cannot fathom how some guy who has no experience with riding a horse in riot type conditions would just mount up and head into the fray and think that is a great plan. The riders had no protection on the horses, and the horses surely had no experience with riot control. The riders were taken down in a millisecond as were the horses at times. I am positive the horses were not shoed properly, and I imagine these horses were completely out of condition as were the riders. I have seen other footage of horse mounted guys riding past TANKS, as well as one dude on a camel riding past a tank.
Hopefully the riots will calm and everyone will be OK, but this dog ain’t gonna hunt.