Revolution’s Falling Short of Expectations – Egypt and the choice of a new leader

About one year ago, the world was looking at the Egyptian revolution with great enthusiasm. The peaceful nature of such an outstanding movement was going to be the example for many other Middle Eastern countries. Within the pages of this blog I stressed the topic of the “future of revolution”. Often making optimistic forecasts. Now, Egyptian elections we waited for will be able to confirm or destroy such previsions.

Presidential elections on the 23rd and 24th fo May had three main candidates entering the political arena. Mohamed Morsi, belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, got 24,4%. Ahmed Shafiq, former member of Mubarak’s prime minister, was rewarded with 23,6 %.

Surprisingly, Hamdin Sabbahi, founder of the Nasserist Al-Karamah party and fierce opponent of the regime, had just 20,7% of votes. A surprise if we consider that Sabbahi is more in tune with the revolutionary boost of last year.

Apart from Sabbahi’s case, the results disagreed with any electoral forecast. None of these three candidates was given for favourite. It’s probably the evidence that polls can’t alway show the real state of things and the general mood of the electorate.

On the 16th and the 17th of June, we will see who is going to rule Egypt in the years ahead. The run-off will be the key to the reading to understand the future face of a post-revolutionary Egypt.  Right now the showdown between Shafiq and Morsi is also a tool to capture the feelings of the Egyptian.

Showdown – from left to right: Ahmed Shafiq and Mohamed Mursi

During the first  round, we can suppose that Shafiq’ s supporters were probably members of former Mubarak’s establishment willing to re-gain their positions. It would be fair to suppose that poor social classes supported Shafiq as well to have a strong political figure to rely on to stop any kind of revolutionary unrest. . Moreover, it’s likely that members of security forces have voted despite the fact that they didn’t have this right. This is just one suspect. It was enough for Sabbbahi to ask for a recount.

On the other hand, Mahmed Morsi is supported by the powerful Muslim brotherhood. The question mark about them and the Islamists has not been solved during the last fifteen months. We just know that the Brotherhood is a major political agent in the current reality as it was in Tahrir’s square events.

Both the candidates are trying to convince the people of the fact that a victory won’t mean neither “way back into dictatorial regime” nor “radical Islam”. To be honest, we cannot be sure about these statements. After all, Shafiq and Morsi have to clear backgrounds.

The first round and the run-off  are the confirmation of a fact. We are looking at new events. We don’t have precedents to judge. And to make precise forecast neither.

The certain thing is that many Egyptian are stuck in an extremely polarised system. Two opposite parties withno middleground. Shafiq and Morsi represents just 50% of the electorate. The remaining 50% is without suitable candidates able to fulfill its political views. Dissatisfaction is clear. It’s probably fault of the wide range of moderate candidates (13 in total) dis-empowering each other during the first round.

With the current candidates for the run-off the promise of a new – democratic or secular – Egypt is going to fade away.

Mediocracy – A Documentary

 

Relationship between democracy and media is rather problematic.They are supposed to be the “ears and eyes of democracy”. But is it sure that they are helping to improve western democratic standards? What are the risks for the “open market of ideas” our political system is supposed to be based on? Are there other collateral interests they try to protect? In this short documentary I am going to answer all these questions and look at how media can shape our perception of facts.

3 Quotes From the Last 48 Hours

India  - “Today’s launch represents another milestone in our quest for our security, preparedness and to explore the frontiers of science” 

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the Agni-V missile test of yesterday. The rocket, whose launch was defined flawless by Indian authorities, could reach a distance of 5,000 kilomtres,  potentially able to reach Bijing or Taiwan delivering a 1,5 tons nuclear warhead. 

Syria –  ”So if they [the regime] are in breach of that resolution, the UN Security Council is entitled to consider what further measures can be taken” 
British Foreign Secretary William Hague declared that alternative measures are likely to be taken if Assad’s regime won’t stop the crackdown against rebels.

Iraq - ”They want to send a message that they can target the stability that has been achieved recently. This will not discourage our security forces.”  
Baghdad military command spokesman Col. Dhia al-Wakeel on the last wave of bombings affecting Iraq  making 30 victims in the last month. According to Iraqi security forces the responsible is Al-Qaida trying to destabilise the Shiite-led government and the current peaceful situation.

Behind the Scenes: “A Ghetto Gospel”

The idea behind “A Ghetto Gospel” comes from some considerations I made on the nature of media coverage on the London Riots. During last summer, what was shown by media outlets is basically the worst face of London, a “tale of violence, looting and rage” as I say in my documentary, which didn’t allow to focus on the real causes of the riots. When it came to the aftermath of the revolt, who tried to clean up the streets from fragments of glass, burnt cars and garbage, solved the material issues, the very evident aftermath of the unrest. But there is something more in depth which has not been detected. The riots are over. But social marginalisation and poverty are still out there. I was inspired by the brief interview the BBC had with Marcus Howe, black writer and broadcaster, about the riots.

Mr. Howe is not wrong. The riots are just a result. To rebuild a peaceful society what Londoners have to do is to re-educate young generations to make them achievers, to help them to find an active role within society. In my documentary I wanted to tell the stories of people helping  young children and kids to find their talents and to develop them in a productive way.

I met Wayne G. Saunders, young black independent filmmaker, owner of the BossCrowns Productions. He wrote, directed and produced many movies about the lives of immigrants and black people in London. Moreover, he organises many workshops and mentoring sessions for young people, teaching them what filmmaking and teamwork mean and pushing them to find their ways of expression. He is the perfect good example of how an individual can find his place within a community, helping other members.

The second part of the documentary is focused on the “Dandelion Project”, a  self-financed web magazine born right after the riots with the aim of conveying North London young people potential in a unique project  When I interviewed Kaytea and Helen, they were having a meeting with some teenagers and a photographer for a visual project: depicting the face of their boroughs and the consequences of the austerity cuts and riots on them.

Wayne, Kaytea and Helen are the examples of how we can give help and support to young people providing them with skills (in this case filmmaking or journalistic skills).

Reflecting on the resulting product, I’d say that there is a lot more to tell about people helping each other, in London. And there is a lot more to do about my skills. My idea is probably the perfect evidence of how a good idea could turn into an idea with bad aesthetic features.

On one side, what the length set for the documentary forced me towards a strict selection of the material I acquired on the ground, making the narrative structure I had in mind slightly poorer. It would be adequate having more space to include a three example and to do justice to all of them. availability of time is something able both to structure a narrative and to articulate an underlying critical discourse. Lack of time could mean making choices you could regret about. Moreover, I would have included a conclusion. Video’s ending is quite open and not definitive. Unless somebody sees a postmodernist attitude in my ending (slightly unlikely), most of viewers could just consider my work  pointless. 

On the other side, I wish I had developed some more editing skills to give a more professional package. In some points of the video, there are clear error with the sound levels, in others, transitions are not exactly as smooth as I wanted. But, hopefully its not a permanent negative element, considering that it’s my real first Final Cut Pro experience after years as a PC users and there is still a lot of time, I am perfectly able to improve.

Throughout  the online project I realised that press or broadcasting journalism are not the only way.The Internet provides the space needed by people to express themselves with the same means of mainstream media, helping them to show their ideas, whether bad or goods. Especially video journalism gives people the opportunity to take up filmmaking and tv broadcasting techniques without requiring much effort.