The popular uprising in Egypt and the call for greater freedom and democracy sweeping several countries in the Middle East have captured Americans' attention. Harrisburg World Affairs Council President Joyce Davis will be our guest on Smart Talk, Thursday night 8. Joyce, a noted author on Islam and the rise of radical extremism, is also a former vice president of content at WITF. She will share fresh insights from her recent trip to Qatar to speak at a forum at Georgetown University in Doha. Dr. Mehdi Noorbaksh, associate professor of International Affairs at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, also will appear, and Corky Dalton, a retired state employee who was vacationing in Cairo when the demonstrations erupted on January 25th, will share his experiences. He and his wife safely left Egypt via Jordan and are now back in the United States. Corky will discuss what he saw unfolding in Tahrir Square. Please join the conversation!
Week Three of the pro-democracy protests in Egypt so far has been relatively peaceful in Cairo after last week's bloody clashes between protesters and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak. Joyce Davis says many people living in countries across the region are waiting anxiously to see how long Mubarak will hold onto power. He has vowed to step down but is working on "an orderly transition" of power. "This is really an uprising of the people. This is not something that started from outside, even though some people are trying to get the Obama administration to take a more leading role and push this thing," Joyce explains. She says revolution in Egypt was inevitable. "The worst thing you can do if you want to maintain a dictatorship is to educate the people. And that's what has happened in Egypt. Nasser started educating the masses, including those in the villages. But, when you educate people, not only can you no longer control them, but if they are educated and angry and now thinking these deeper thoughts, and they have no jobs and nothing to do, then you have a lot of educated or semi-educated young men sitting around in cafes in Egypt." It became, she says, a recipe for widespread dissent.
Joyce points out that, at first, these young men gravitated to militant Islamic groups. Mubarak crushed them – ousting them from the country and leading them to Afghanistan, where they united with Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. "He ran the country with an iron fist and yet he allowed a certain degree of press freedom," she says. Ultimately, the Internet -- Facebook, Twitter and other means of social media -- created a "time bomb," Joyce argues, that gave the spark to ignite the huge protests and the demands for change in leadership. "It's not just a question of Mubarak: it's a question about the new Middle East. The United States and many of the Western countries were quite happy dealing with dictators as long as the dictators were friendly and could be controlled. The problem with democracy is that, while it is a very good principle for the people, it is not sometimes a good principle for foreign relations – meaning, it's harder to control a messy democracy than it is to control a dictator."
Corky Dalton and his wife, Lin, got a close-up view of the messiness of democracy as they toured Egypt when the uprising began. Corky and Lin, who live in Hampden Township, a suburb of Harrisburg, had visited every continent except Africa. The Daltons decided to complete the continental circuit early this year. "We went to Egypt to see its ancient culture and were brought back to the future by its social media revolution," Corky writes. "We had front-row seats from our balcony on the 28th floor of the Intercontinental Hotel overlooking Tahrir Square." In fact, a member of their tour group captured some amazing sounds and images of the first night of protests. Corky, who also is a member of the Foreign Policy Association of Harrisburg, will share his first-person account of the demonstrations in Cairo.
American principles, our desire to support the pro-democracy protesters who are calling for legitimate civil rights, are bumping up against our economic interests in a stable Egypt. Ships carrying the Mideast's vast oil and gas supplies to the U.S. and other countries must flow unabated through the Suez Canal. The Obama administration is trying to strike the right balance between supporting the opposition while also ensuring a smooth transition to Egypt's new and yet-to-be-determined leaders.
"It's complicated, but it really boils down to this: people are demanding a say in their government, young people especially. And this is exacerbated or accelerated by their now access to technology that allows them to communicate with each other and with people around the world," Joyce notes.
Joyce has authored several books that explore the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and lectures around the world. She also served for a brief time last year as Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson's press secretary. She quit in March 2010 citing differences with the mayor in how to handle the press corps. This week, in the wake of Thompson's third press secretary's resignation and his allegation that Thompson made derogatory remarks about people's sexuality, Joyce made a stunning revelation. She said she had filed a complaint with the city's Human Relations Commission because she felt "physically threatened" by Mayor Thompson. Joyce says the commission rejected her complaint because it would only act on allegations of racial or sexual discrimination. We'll talk to Joyce about her relationship with the embattled mayor, as well.
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