Special Saturday Morning Ed.: Egypt in Turmoil

Welcome to the 12th day of protests in Egypt.

In watching LinkTV today, on Democracy Now!, they had Mohamed Abdel Dayem on from the Committee to Protect Journalists, for the African and Middle East areas, talking about the first Journalist to die, who was shooting from his apartment balcony, hit by a sniper bullet, who finally died yesterday after being coma for days.

Mohamed Abdel Dayem

He said that many journalists have been treated poorly, arrested (two were just released two hours ago) and they have given the names to the US government, who has been advocated on their behalf.

Senior Producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous from Cairo said that even famous journalists like Christine Amanpour have been harassed. He said that Al Jazeera has again been shut down, their web site has been shut down [which I've seen myself this week, but right now it is up and I'm watching live streaming video]. Kouddous said when they first arrived they proudly announced they were journalists but now they hide their cameras and its gotten very hard to report from Cairo now.



He said they have had Army and plain clothed police question them as they were leaving the square the other day, his team having almost gotten taken away but they talked their way out of it. He said he heard the Army guy say in Egyptian "take them away" but they were able to keep that from happening. He said spoke to one cameraman who was detained twice, the last time, police took his cameras, erased parts of what was recorded, even copied photos from his cameras, for whatever later unknown but easily speculated upon purpose. He said the "atmosphere here is darkening, typical of the Mubarak regime."

Al Jazeera has been physically attacked repeatedly at their Cairo offices. Mubarak's people have harassed all the news media trying to shut them down. Mohamed said, that after people are tired, and watched enough of the foreign news, switch over to the State news agency "for a laugh" before getting rest or returning to the protest.

On HBOs "Real Time with Bill Maher" last night, Bill had on Egyptian journalist, Mona Eltahawy, who in the strongest terms said this is an amazing and wonderful thing that is happening in her home country. Eltahawy said if we can get "our Berlin wall to fall, and we will, I'm confidant that we will, you can imagine the "freedom fever" that will spread across the region, this is incredibly important."

Mona Eltahawy as on Real Time with Bill Maher

Eltahawy said this is not just Egypt and Alexandria, but the entire country uprising at all levels. She also mentioned that the US has always

82% of Egyptians favor stoning for adultery. 84% favor the death penalty for Muslims who leave the religion. Shria law should be the only source of legislation. 7% in Turkey, 14% in Iran 64% in Egypt are for Shria Law.

Eltahawy as previously on Al Jezeera

Eltahawy said, "I've got to tell you something, Bill. Nobody is in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria, or anywhere else in Cairo, braving the brutal forces of Hosni Mubarak to get stoning or Shria Law; they're out there for freedom and dignity....I'm Egyptian and I can tell you, what we're seeing is...people saying we are done with the strong man that you have."

Bill then mentioned the stats he mentioned previously and they went back and forth until she said, "wait a minute, I didn't think we'd get into a "Fox News kind of sparring match but hey, you want to go head to head, I will." Bill then said, "This is not Fox News, this is reality." To which both of them got applause from the audience.

Eltahawy then said, "We have in the Arab world a succession of old men, that your Administration have been supporting and that your administration know are dictators that encourage this kind of conservative thinking because they have shut down every kind of opposition to their rule except for opposition based on religion. What we're seeing in Egypt today, is young people going out in the street and saying 'we are done with these old men'. And you know how these old men are reacting? Did you see the interview yesterday with Egypt's vice president? Who by the way used to torture for the US administration in their rendition program [Bill: "Right, Suleiman" and she nodded and said "Omar Suleiman"], who is just as bad as Hosni Mubarak. Christine Amanpour was asking him, 'what if the demonstrators don't go home?' He says to her, 'We're going to call their parents up and tell them, to tell them (protesters) to go home.' And I'm like, "Fuck You!" Okay? Because, this is higher revolution. [her reaction took Bill aback a little] I'm fired up here! [Bill then said, "I'm with you."] This entire revolution is about, telling these old men who have strangled our country, "Fuck You. It's time to leave!" I'm telling your administration, "Let them go! And let us take our country back."

"You know, what we've got is all these myths about the Arab world, how we like the strong leader, how we're lazy, how we're passive, what we're witnessing in Egypt now is the demolition of all these myths; you've got people out there...camels and horses for God's sake, and they are saying, 'We still want Freedom! And we're gonna get it!'

To which, the audience applauded her and Bill said, "Look, I'm on your side." He went on to say that Americans are worried about the religiosity of what may come to be after Mubarak leaves and Eltahawy said she was worried about it too. He said there was another revolution, of a smart society, in Iran years ago and you know what happened, it got hijacked and look what happened after that.

I do not know this woman, but I am very impressed with her and whether you agree with her or not, she has put the case forward for Egyptians in a positive way for the world to view them at this difficult time. She shouldn't be put down for how or what she said on Bill's show, she should be praised for putting the case forward in a way that Westerners can understand it.

Time to publish this. Viva Le Revolution, Egypt!

Weekend Wise Words

There are no weekend wise words today, other than:

"Stand up for what you believe in... and don't sit down until you get it."

Special Afternoon Ed. - Egypt Day of Departure celebration

I have tried to put out information as I can and as I find it out but I have other responsibilities and cannot keep up as well as some. Check out the Al Jezeera Live Blog. They are doing an excellent job.

I wish everyone the best and hope this indeed does turn into reason for and and an event of, celebration.

TV and Cinema as the new Literature

Have you ever heard it said that Television shows and films (Cinema) are the new form of Literature? Surely it is for these people who have grown up with it. Reading is a necessity but what do you do when your kids only want to watch what is served up for them? Are they getting anything on the order of what people used to get from only reading all the time, even before there was radio? Were those people before TV and radio more intelligent than these later people? What can you do about it?

I'll give you one suggestion. Teach your kids Cinema. Use it for film and use it for TV shows.

What do I mean by that, you ask? Well, think about it (oh no, not critical thinking again....). Yes, critical thinking. When you lived a hundred years ago and you only had books to read, you didn't just read whatever you liked, you didn't just read it and be done with it. People always wanted to talk about it. Parents and teachers wanted to "teach" you about what you are reading. Ways to view what you're read, making you try to fathom what the author was talking about, what things were like for the period of which you just read about.

And so that can be done now also. YOU learn about what it is to be a student of Cinema. Then pass that to your kids. But a book on it (no, really). I studied Cinema at University and it was very much like deconstructing Literature, actually, more intense because really there are more elements involved.

Think about it. Autuer Directors, Film, give meaning through texture, dimension, color or black and white, all of which project atmosphere, a Mise-en-scène, which tells a story. Many times a story a lot of us aren't getting because we're illiterate in the medium of which we are partaking.

"Mise-en-scène (French pronunciation: [mizɑ̃sɛn] "placing on stage") is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story" —both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term." - Wikipedia

There are cuts, scenes, montages, various elements of which most people are unaware are being used upon them in their viewing of a film or TV. IF we were all "literate" in film techniques, the quality of TV and film would immediately be raised to a higher standard, because no one would accept some of the crap we are fed on a daily basis.

Applying techniques of Cinematic studies to daily TV or film watching does several things all at once. It makes staring into the TV less mindless, it makes it more than entertainment and possibly, makes it work so that less TV watching is actually desired. It opens a discourse between ages: parent and child, opening minds, children to reality and parents to their childrens' wonder, allowing them more insight to where their children are.

Basically, you can let your kids be baby sat by the TV, DVDs, whathaveyou, or you can push the literature of the visual media on them. After an initial period of anger, frustration, annoyance and surrender, they will find that they actually get into it, not to mention, everything they watch will have more meaning.

What is being said by the screenwriter, the director, the cinematographer, lighting, camera angles, and so on. Its not that the entertainment industry has so much as let us down, but maybe we have let them down, by not trying to learn the craft they push at us on a day by day and hour by hour, representation of who and what they all are.

You can sit by the couch side and learn nothing or delve more deeply into the deep recesses of history, film and media, and you may find the world around you is far more fascinating than you could ever have imagined.

Special Morning Ed. - Egypt's Day of Departure Demonstrations

Where have the protesters in Giza gone? At very least perhaps, they do not have the same resolve and immediacy that those caught up in Cairo have.

Special Morning Ed. - Egypt in Turmoil

As the sunset prayer goes on in the Egyptian Capital, a few things to think about.

Al Jezeera is now calling this a revolution. The Vice President of Egypt is saying they will not use violence to move people out of their gatherings, they will ask them to go home as curfew is upon them and they will ask (in a rather patronizing way) for parents to have their children to go home (as if this is just a bunch of kids and not nearly the entire citizenry of Egypt).

Rumors are rampant that Mubarak has stepped down but this isn't yet true.

The only thing really to report now is that there are many many people out and protesting and it has grown stronger not weaker, as Mubarak shows he is crumbling under the pressure.

Protesters are saying they will continue to use facebook to support their efforts.

Minister of the Interior says that since last Friday nearly 5,000 people have been injured. There are still reports of rocks being thrown between pro Mubarak gangs and pro-democracy demonstrators.

Al Jezeera strongly denounces the closure of its bureau in Cairo.

The UN Secretary General says the transition should begin now.

These are now being called the "Day of Departure" demonstrations.

Egyptian State TV has had a protester on reading comments from the protesters but there is no way to know if this is a ruse by the government as comments have also been made by those on TV saying they are associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, that they have gotten training from other countries, all which sounds much like Mubarak's people trying to do damage control, to make this look like a coup from other countries and not a grass roots uprising.

Consider now, once Mubarak does step down, WHO, will take over? There is going to be an "open vacuum" once Mubarak and his administration is gone.

Al Jezeera says the Government is working on a statement for Mubarak to read to step down.

Remaking "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo"

Seems the most excellent "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is going to be made in America. Remade, that is. The original is very very good, so good luck. I have the books, I have the movies and loved them.In remaking this in English, we will lose some of the foreignness of the originals, we will lose the charming language and accents and some if not all of the original intent and meaning of those who lived directly through the horrors of the Nazi regime of WWII.

Christine Spines from Word and Film web site wrote a

Memo to David Fincher

After explaining the background on remakes, he gave some suggestions to help increase the quality of a remake:

"Yes, our expectations are high. But we know that if any American director can do this right, you can. And this is our way of making sure that’s exactly what happens."

1. After Blomquist is convicted in the Wennerstrom libel case, he resigns from Millennium, the political magazine he co-founded with his sometime lover, Erika Berger. We want to see the intimate moments between Blomquist and Berger explored more fully in order to establish Blomquist’s messy emotional life and his inability to maintain boundaries between business and romance.

2. In the book Lisbeth Salander is introduced through her complex relationship with her boss, Dragan Armansky, the first man in her life to recognize her anger and hacking skills as professional assets. And the first person in her life not to betray her trust. Fully fleshing out this relationship on screen could add layers of depth and dimension to Lisbeth’s backstory and emotional evolution.

3. When Heinrich Vanger first hires Blomquist to investigate his niece Harriet’s disappearance, Blomquist doesn’t exactly spark to the assignment. Blomquist’s ambivalence and his disorientation greatly contribute to the the creep factor in the book. Why not retain some of that in the film?

4. The rape scene in the Swedish film is perfectly horrifying. It’s going to be tough to improve upon what’s been done already. Our only request — and this is a crucial one — is that yours is just as painful to watch.

5. In Lisbeth’s revenge scene, the dildo is mandatory. Don’t even think of soft-pedaling.

6. Blomquist integrates himself into the Vanger family’s bizarre transgressive rhythms and ends up having an affair with Cecilia, Heinrich’s niece. Perhaps Oplev thought it unnecessary to highlight Blomquist’s womanizing. We want to feel the suspense of impending doom that goes along with Blomquist’s unprofessionalism.

7. We didn’t get our fill of Blomquist and Lisbeth’s gum-shoe tag-team reporting. We want to see all the dead ends encountered in the book, before they figure out that the same person responsible for Harriet’s disappearance had also been raping women throughout the area and leaving dead kitties on their porches.

8. We’d like to see a slightly more graphic version of the scene in which Lisbeth saves Blomquist in Martin Vanger’s dungeon.

9. Harriet Vanger becomes the heir apparent to the Vanger group upon her return and morphs into a high-powered businesswoman. Why not include this deliciously satisfying irony in the film?

10. One more thing: If your Lisbeth isn’t the vengeful, sullen, bisexual, slightly butch badass we know her to be, things could get ugly. You’ve been warned.

Christopher Spine's article on wordandfilm.com