Arkady's Thoughts

Today, February 11th of 2011 will surely go down in Egypt's history as a turning point and will perhaps be immortalized as a national holiday.  After more than two weeks of reasonably peaceful protests and striking the Egyptian people have achieved their primary demand, Hosni Mubarak has stepped down.  While this revolution may just be a foot note in western historical texts, what transpired was indeed truly remarkable.  Consider, after thirty years of autocratic rule and a systematic suppression of all opposition a dictator running a police state has been removed by the people!  However as always in this world what meets the eye may not be reality.   First, as I have maintained earlier, my belief is that the underlying reason for what transpired is economic and not because of Mubarak's authoritarian rule.  Media sources describing events in Cairo would often mention that rising food prices and unemployment were problems that Egyptians wanted resolve...

In a recent piece , we learn that Russia is struggling with what the rest of the world is attempting to combat - food inflation.   While food inflation has taken a violent turn in places like Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria, other governments are starting to consider desperate means to combat increases in money supplies all over the world.  In places like Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and other wealthy countries governments have committed to subsidizing food in order to remove the shock of price increases, in less wealthy countries like China wage increases have been implement to provide citizens with a means to pay.  In places like Russia, some officials are considering price controls. Deputy Economics Minister Andrei Klepach said on Monday that the Economics Ministry may consider resorting to the tried-and-tested price control system to contain prices, but added that there were no plans to implement this in the near future. "This is a tool which can be used, and I do not rule ...

A shining example of how America's left logically combines marching and vocalizing support for a free Egypt while exhibiting anti-semitism and hate.  This is precisely the reason why all protests and support for Egypt must be done carefully and with caution.   Internal mood in Egypt and people's opinions are not only supportive of strong Islamic principles, but extreme animosity towards their democratic neighbor Israel. Here is a video of the same people transitioning nicely from "Down with Mubarak" to "Zionist Jew".   We should all be celebrating and wishing for freedom in Egypt, that is a wonderful thing to wish for, yet how does one reconcile this desire with hate and rabid anti-semitism?  When you stand with these crowds and join in their desires, you support the other side of the equation: hate.

In a rather telling headline, the WSJ reports today that the Christians of Egypt are worried what might happen with Mubarak's departure.  Consider  Coptic Christians Worry About Future Without Mubarak and think about this for a moment.  Why would about 8 million people willingly accept an autocratic tyrant who has turned Egypt into a police state?  The same 8 million people who have been beaten, persecuted, blown up and marginalized by the virtue of them being Christian?  People who in some areas are relegated to the trash heaps of Egypt, literally .  What can possibly be worse than what they already have? Answer:  Islamists. Plenty of people across the world are calling Egyptian's Muslim Brotherhood a humanitarian movement that is destined to bring democracy, freedom and liberty to Egypt  Oh really?  This is why Coptic Christians prefer a tyrant?   Who do you suppose understands the dynamics of Egypt better, people who li...

Demonstrators have poured onto the streets of Cairo and brought the city to a stand still.  Reports suggest that hundreds of protesters have clashed with police over mounting concerns of corruption.  Several fascinating things have happened over the past few days. First, two days ago a giant gold shipment was intercepted at the Egyptian airport.  This raised speculation that the ruling class is preparing for an exit strategy a-la Tunisian president Ben Ali.  Secondly, there have been online calls of solidarity for an Egyptian revolt organized on Facebook/Twitter .  The protests coincided with a national holiday honoring the country's much-feared police. In another parallel with the Tunisia protests, the calls for rallies went out on Facebook and Twitter, with 90,000 saying they would attend As of today, we have learned that the Egyptian government has taken steps to snuff out organization by restricting online communication.  According to Zero Hedg...

Virtually partisan passage here , with only three Democrats voting yes. There was actually some lively discussion on the floor with both parties pretty much clinging to exactly the same notions and ideas that were presented during the last several years prior to passage.  A summation; Republicans maintaining this bill would kill jobs and Democrats extolling the virtues of eliminating pre-existing conditions and filling in the dreaded senior doughnut hole.  Both parties are correct and both parties are presenting useless arguments as they pertain to the nation's health care. Nobody is talking about the true cause of spiraling costs and how to fix them, instead the two parties are arguing over how to best shaft the American people - through Government run healthcare via Medicare/Medicaid or mandated insurance purchases. What the Republicans are doing in reality is buying political points while doing nothing and I believe they are doing this by design.  This newly elected ...

As riots spread through North Africa I find it incredibly important to use the existing knowledge we have to pinpoint and explain in the most simplistic manner of what is happening in the world.   Our historical texts have been filled with a rich assortment of observations, observations that often carry an incorrect conclusion as an explanation to certain events.  Hopefully with the Internet gaining influence we can avoid the errors of history and lay down accurate observations that can serve future generations going forward. Still, even to this day reports and journalists will attempt to explain certain events through the simplicity of observations and certain people will still reach the wrong conclusion thus instigating and agitating for the wrong solution to our world's most vexing problem, inflation. Tunisia Consider the rioting happening right now in Tunisia.   Reports provide a litany of explanations including Internet freedoms, dictatorships, infra...