Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Hong Kong police have made their first arrests under a new ‘anti-protest’ law imposed by Beijing, as crowds marked 23 years since the end of British rule. … The law, imposed by China following last year’s anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous territory, makes secessionist, subversive, or terrorist activities illegal, as well as foreign intervention in… Read more.
The media can be forgiven for practically ignoring burgeoning protests in Egypt against President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s dictatorial rule. After all, not only do these protests seem like a groundhog-day spectacle; long-simmering protests in Hong Kong against China’s authoritarian rule must seem far more worthy of coverage, especially as they are now threatening to boil over.… Read more.
The world watched anxiously as two million people marched in the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday. They were demanding Carrie Lam, the territory’s China-anointed chief executive, withdraw an extradition bill that would allow anyone arrested in Hong Kong to face trial in China. To everyone’s relief, cooler heads prevailed. There was no repeat of… Read more.
Sudan’s pro-democracy protesters celebrated the ouster of strongman Omar al-Bashir eight weeks ago. However, in doing so, they demonstrated the same naiveté as Egypt’s pro-democracy protesters when they celebrated the ouster of strongman Hosni Mubarak eight years ago. I published a commentary titled “Aping Egypt’s Ouster of Mubarak, Sudan Ousts Bashir” on April 17, 2019. In it, I admonished Sudan’s… Read more.
The following excerpts from two of the many commentaries I’ve written on the Egyptian revolution should explain what is unfolding there now. The first is from Army Pledges No Force Against Protesters, The iPINIONS Journal, February 1, 2011: With all due respect to the protesters, the issue is not whether Mubarak will go, for he… Read more.
I have been obliged on a few occasions to explain why I quote from previous commentaries so often. In a nutshell it’s because I find nothing more disingenuous and self-serving than commentators waxing clairvoyant on unfolding events by claiming they predicted things would be thus in one or another commentary, but conveniently failing to provide… Read more.
