It's been silent around the diary lately as I've been attending the N.A.C. (North American Convention) events. That hasn't left much time to write. I fly back to Germany on Thursday via Miami---and then will have only 4 days at home before heading to Ukraine. After Ukraine, then, I will be with my family for a good long while, and I'm really looking forward to that. We've been monitoring what's going on in Egypt quite closely. The President was elected and it's a guy from the Muslim Brotherhood as opposed to the military. The more progressive parties fielded too many candidates and the votes split. It was better that the Muslim brotherhood guy one as opposed to the military left-over from the Mubarak era. But of course there are a lot of questions about what happens now. How moderate will the Muslim be? Will the military truly allow the President to rule? What about the new constitution that needs to be written?
Quite often, it's better for the Muslim parties to get into power because then they have to do more than play the role of the critic. Nothing disillusions people on religion faster than a religious political power. So I'm not panicking yet. Egypt does not seem to have the population of radicals that Iran had in 1979 when they had their Islamic Revolution which has been a complete failure from top to bottom.
The new Egyptian President is a graduate of U.S.C. (He's a trojan) and is considered moderate. Fox News incorrectly has been reporting that he declared that Jerusalem would be the capital of Egypt??? What? No. wrong. The Christian Science Monitor caught that one.
Reuters' article today mentions what is on the line at the moment:
"The Muslim Brotherhood has reached some agreements with the army on the powers that Egypt's first Islamist president will hold and the fate of the dissolved Islamist-led parliament, Brotherhood officials said on Tuesday.
The newly elected president, Mohamed Mursi, toured his palace on Monday. But after savoring the victory that installed him in place ofthe Brotherhood's ousted enemy Hosni Mubarak, he immediately went to see the generals in the Defence Ministry in a visit that seemed to underline who really calls the shots.
Mursi, seeking to fulfill a promise of inclusive government, will name six vice-presidents - a woman, a Christian and others drawn from non-Brotherhood political groups -to act as an advisory panel, said Sameh Essawi, an aide to the president.
Mursi has resigned as head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party to be a "president for all Egyptians" but critics question his independence from the movement's opaque leadership."
Lots of questions lingering.
Our 3W teammates on the ground in Egypt have a lot more at their blog and are the best source of information for all things Egypt.
Jamie, Marco, and I head to Egypt July 11th.