http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Catie/Where%20We%20Live%2004-02-2013.mp3
Two years after the uprisings of the “Arab Spring” - and the overthrow of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, that country is in political turmoil. The state - and it’s president - Mohammed Morsi was even thetarget of the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart.
Bassem Yousef was released on bail, but still could face charges of insulting Islam and the President. Emblematic of a wider crackdown on dissidents in the Morsi government.
Another take on Egypt - two years out - comes from our guest Sharif Abel Kouddous. He wrote this in the Nation on January 29th.
The second anniversary of Egypt's revolution has been marked by rocks, firebombs, tear gas and bullets. More than fifty people have been killed and over a thousand wounded across the country. The army has been granted arrest powers, and military troops have been deployed to the three cities where President Mohamed Morsi has declared a state of emergency and ordered a curfew.
This outbreak of rage has laid bare the precarious state of a country plagued by a disfigured transition process, a lingering sense of injustice and the repeated failures of an entire political class that has forsaken a host of popular grievances in its scuffle for power.
Sharif Abdel Kouddous is an Egyptian-American Journalist, correspondent for the TV/radio program Democracy Now! and a fellow at The Nation Institute. Over the past two years, Sharif has reported from Egypt, Gaza and Syria.
He’ll be speaking on April 2 at Trinity College for the annual McGill lecture - 4:30PM. His talk is titled: “Egypt: Is It a Revolution?”