On the NYTimes Article

So there has been some debate about the NYTimes article “Revolution, Facebook-style” which I posted about below and on the Foreign Policy Egypt Blog. Semi-Expert has taken issue with the article here for being what he calls “social pornography.” I am not about to criticize a Georgetown professor (I mean that respectfully-seriously), but I do agree that he is being a little harsh.  I think he makes some interesting points about how articles like this paint Westerners’ perceptions of political and social issues in countries like Egypt, and he is not really incorrect in his criticisms but just maybe a little too critical.

The fact is that for the average New York Times reader, this is an informative piece touching upon a number of important political and social issues facing Egypt today. I think the positives here outweigh the issues Semi-Expert raises. And that fact that Ms. Shapiro does not speak Arabic to me is trivial, even if the “bint” issue was completely missed. While it would be nice if journalists were better linguists, being someone who does speak Arabic relatively well, I think it is unfair to discredit a whole article on this point.

Facebook and Blogging in Egypt from the NYTimes Magazine

Here’s my newest post on the Foreign Policy Association Egypt blog.

It’s about Samantha M. Shapiro’s article titled Revolution, Facebook-style in this weekend’s edition of the New York Times Magazine.

Good Luck Barack

I want to wish President Barack Obama the best of luck on this historic day. I am proud of our democracy.

“Revive la resistance”

Here’s an interesting article by Nathan Field discussing what is going on in Gaza right now and its implications for Egypt and the region. I think  in regards to Egypt it is especially interesting to note the differences between what the Egyptian government does i.e. Hamas and Israel, how the Egyptian people feel about it, and what the Arab media is saying about it.