Saudi Kingdom bans "Day of Love"

As reported today by David Randall in The Independent,

"The Saudi Interior Ministry said the kingdom has banned all demonstrations because they contradict Islamic laws and social values."
– Saudi Arabia bans all marches as mass protest is planned for Friday

Read the official Saudi announcement, in the regime-controlled Arab News: Kingdom Bans Demonstrations

Now, when news-gathering is both imperative and a danger-filled adventure of confusion, Randall's claim that the Saudi regime's move "comes before a ' day of rage ' threatened for this Friday by opponents of the regime" must be another laughably wrong translation.

The Friday demos must be for a Day of Love, for how else could Abdullah be The People's King, as Bloomberg's Business Week as well as many other news reports in the Arab News (which covered the return of the king with "RIYADH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s return home sparked celebrations among Saudis and expatriates alike. The nation’s capital became the site of an impromptu festival…") have assured us nervous oil addicts?

"The contrast between Libya and Saudi Arabia on Feb. 23 couldn't have been more striking … King Abdullah returned from three months of medical treatment abroad laden with gifts for his subjects. Abdullah, known as the people's king, announced $36 billion worth of new jobless benefits, education and housing subsidies, and debt write-offs. The government even unveiled a new sports channel."
– Glen Cary and Joseph Carroll, Calm in Saudi Arabia: Generous benefits and a popular king help stabilize the oil-rich kingdom

Of course, a little persuasion-power doesn't hurt, as they state, so reassuringly:

"Observers like Peter Zeihan, of geopolitical consultants Stratfor, are betting that Saudi Arabia will escape the turmoil. 'Odds are the Saudis would hold on because they have much better social control in the form of policing powers, and they are better able to insulate the minority group that might like to see a change from events in the outside world,' he says."

Three days ago, Peter Coy was a bit more conditional in his certainty, saying in his Bloomberg column, Saudi Arabia Must Keep Pumping Oil to Buy Stability. Coy calls the ruler a Gradualist Reformer, and says,

"The Saudi kingdom … is ringed by revolts in Bahrain, Yemen, and Oman. It is undemocratic, inegalitarian, and economically sluggish. It has high youth unemployment (30 percent in 2009) and a disgruntled Shiite population in its oil-rich Eastern Province. Investors are getting nervous … The kingdom is staging elections for the first time this year, but they are only for members of city councils, and only men can vote. The likely successors to King Abdullah are considered less reform-minded than he is."

However, Coy ends the column on an uplifting note, focussed on what matters:

"Saudi Aramco may outlast the family that took it over."

As this is Women's History Month, an aside:

"Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women."
– Kemal Atatürk

The contrast between women couldn't be more striking

"Gianna Bern, a former BP (BP) crude trader now at Brookshire Research and Advisory, puts it this way: "The real concern is that if we see these sorts of disturbances spread to Saudi Arabia or Iran, then we're going to see turmoil in energy markets go to another level, an unprecedented level."
Calm Speaks Volumes

“There are no more borders for ideas,” Mai Yamani, an anthropologist who is a daughter of former Saudi Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani, told Bloomberg TV on Feb. 28."
Must Keep Pumping Oil

How you can help the Egyptian people

Here are three ways.

1) Join the Access campaign, to help open up communication.

2) Disagree in public, if you think your country's government is hypocritical about democracy. Ours is, and Australia isn't alone. Two excellent and informative posts are:

• Supporters of freedom, right? by Jeff Sparrow
• President Obama, say the 'D-word' by Mark LeVine

3) Say in public that you want your government and the mass media to stop fear-mongering about what is the most beautiful sight in society — mass demonstrations for the common good. One of the chants is my favourite, a simple one that has gone truly international and been translated into countless languages, in the universal language of audacious hope:
The people united will never be defeated.

Many stories and headlines have called the mass protests "riots", a term that would please any dictator, just as Mubarak called the demonstrators "gangs" and "thugs", but the thugs are his.

This is a dangerous and thrilling time when a people stops fearing a dictatorship, and audaciously hopes to seize the future for themselves — and by themselves, I don't mean the self-centred hysteria that our media has focussed on, wherein tourists can't get out of Egypt soon enough, now that real history is being made. And I don't mean the self as in Australia's relentless taxpayer-paid "More for me" campaign that tells us over and over again, that we have more TV channels (with even more repeats!) in which to channel surf in our homes with more TVs than people. Sure it's a dangerous time now in Egypt, but what was called riots were demonstrations in which fathers held their children on their shoulders (an act that wouldn't be allowed here) so they could see with their own eyes what they would never forget.

As for all those commentators saying how this can only end, as some Iranian-style "French revolution"— democracy is messy, and an educated electorate can still make mistakes. After all, Ms Palin could almost see the White House from her governor's office, and sees it glittering before her now. And Mr Bush was not only elected once, which could be forgiven as an accident, but . . .

One important under-discussed element in Egypt is the army, which is of the people. If these demonstrations and this army were in Europe, we'd be cheering them on.

Finally, I think that the best assessment has been put forward by Ergun Bahaban here:
Human Dignity and Egypt

"Some claim that a society that has lacked any democratic organization for many years cannot transition to democracy overnight. I think they’re wrong. But the most well-organized powers will obviously benefit greatly from this change … Turkey is a good example of how Islam and democracy can coexist and how people can receive equal treatment despite their different beliefs. Of course, there is a long way to perfection, but even its current position is sufficient to be taken as a model. As a country that has been a cradle of major civilizations, Egypt can successfully implement the Turkey model."

Suu Kyi "free"? Is this a press release from the generals?

"Myanmar democracy activist Suu Kyi is free"
This is the headline to the story in the Los Angeles Times, written by, I guess, some ignorant office drone in L.A. who should live in this kind of freedom. At the end of the actual story, the Times states: "The writer is unidentified to protect those who work with him."

A linked story, also in the Times, is Suu Kyi outlasted her oppressors.
Gosh! That must mean that those who just gave Suu Kyi "freedom" did lose the election.

This Amnesty International headline and story is by Jim Roberts, Myanmar Country Specialist for Amnesty International USA: Aung San Suu Kyi Finally Free!

Aung San Suu Kyi: Burma leader's first night of freedom - BBC News

Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi freed in Rangoon as crowds celebrate –Washington Post

What's a democracy leader who can't participate in a democracy in a country that calls democracy "treason"?

An informative post by Dáithaí C: Suu Kyi will be free only when Burma is free

Recommended: NAMFREL – National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections
Their most recent post: Burma election not free and fair; unrest looms

Related post:

an old poem of mine
Suu Kyi on the road, August 2000 (that long ago?)