Politics as Unusual; the Historic 2011 by Jamil Shawwa

Not since the Collapse of the "evil empire " to quote Ronald Reagan’s favorite about the Soviet Union, and not since the reunification or the disintegration, it depends on how you look at things, of Europe, and Germany's integration in Europe, not vice versa, that the world has witnessed a movement that was inspired and carried on by ordinary people, the masses, you and I, as it has witnessed this year, 2011. The Middle East protesters in their respective countries have risen to say no to politics as usual, have risen to say no to families governing for generations, have risen to remove brutal dictators like the Libyan’s Qazzafi and “benign” dictators like the Egyptian Mubarak and the Tunisian Ben Ali. Have been rising against the Yemeni dictator and succeeding- he is in his way out formally, he also happens to be a benign dictator like Mubarak, and now the battlefield is Syria to remove the last of the true fascists, in modern times, a true brutal police state that Al-Assad created, a true criminal regime and political system that have engaged the Syrians in the worst brainwashing and psychological warfare any totalitarian Stalinist style government could or would have it's people engaged.  But not only the Arab countries in the Middle East or so called Arab countries, but other countries as well, Turkey has ended forever the military oversight and supervision over its government; the generals have no role anymore except to do what the army does in any democratic society, serve and be under the command of the elected executive and government. The State of Israel is evolving in a very vibrant mode, the ultra-religious people there are causing uproar against their treatment of women, the incident where a religious person tried to make a woman to set at the end of the bus and she refused- Rosa Parks of Israel as I have mentioned couple of weeks ago on posts on Facebook. Demonstrations in the State of Israel asking for more economic opportunities, more politics but not as usual, but unusual. The Israeli people are also standing strong against minorities within the settlers’ community in the West Bank who are resorting to armed force, attacking their own military, trying to score political points and have their voices heard, in an extreme way, before the eventual and expected establishment of the Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. In Iran, where fake and pretentious ultra-religious people have been suppressing a vibrant culture, the Persian culture, into mental servitude, and into mental suppression; demonstrations there have sent multiple shocks to the system, and Iran will be clean as well, and clear from the religious hypocrites that have been ruling it since 1979. In the United States, the most powerful and democratic nation on earth, people in almost all states are going to the streets asking for more accountability and more transparency and more control over the manipulation or so called and claimed manipulation of Wall Street. In other parts of the world, in Europe, people are rising, and protesting their even elected governments lack of touch with the real average person, in Greece, and other parts of Europe, shocks have been sent to the system; the EU is at a cross road, the Euro is crumbling, and the whole EU system is on top of a live and living volcano.  In Russia people are sending daily shocks to Putin and his protégé, Medvedev, that they cannot just keep taking them for granted and keep switching the presidency back and forth and that Russia cannot live on fears of the so called” West” and Russia cannot live on corruptions and by throwing successful business people behind bars on questionable accusations to say the least; just because they have risen against the new Czar; Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin.  In Korea, a transition of power, from one dictator to his son, correct, but not the same, it’s making the two Koreas closer. India is rising as the third economic super power, Pakistan is moving closer to a "normal", Indian like, stable democratic process, with Imran Khan, a business man, a sportsman and politician creating some excitement among the Pakistanis.  Almost everywhere in the world, The Middle East protestors are inspiring the population of the world to start thinking, not accept the statuesque, not accepting politicians claims at face value, but to question, and to probe and to ask and order the politicians to give them an item by  item of what they are doing and why. The Middle East, the overall Middle East, the birthplace of the three divine religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the future Middle East with democratic governments  ruling is sending a message to the world that it is changing from a place   of having a reputation of exporting extremism and the usual terrorists, to  a reputation of exporting hope, Peace and civility.  As  for the other stuff, the Middle East, will not  be a place more  or less than any other place is or  would be in regard to good and evil; nothing that  would  stand as out of the ordinary. The people of Israel, Egypt Tunisia, Yemen, and Syria are inspiring the world to act, not set still and accept whatever comes upon them. The famous "silent majority" in every country is standing for the first time in decades and in generations to the extreme minorities, either the governing minorities, not demographically, but in manipulating the wealth and the capital and the potential of their people, to ultra- religious people that want to create a state within the state. The year 2011 was a good year.

Newt! By Jamil Shawwa

In 1992, presidential elections, America elected Bill Clinton as president and dumped the first gulf war victorious president, George H.W. Bush. In the 1994 midterm congressional elections, America decided to give Bill Clinton a reality check, as it usually does to setting presidents in midterm’s elections, and for Congress, moved the majority to the Republican Party. The Republican Party never forgave America for electing   someone with a reputation, the unknown, the nobody, then, Bill Clinton, and for the humiliating defeat of their respectable Bush. The GOP flew to the majority on what they called then the republican revolution, similar to the one that came to existence after the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The leader of that political pragmatic revolution was an unknown politician from the sixth district in the state of Georgia by the name of Newt Gingrich. Gringrich, the history professor, took on his part to defeat Clinton, and he did it actually in a way that is being studied by politicians from all over the world, as to what not to do; the revolution failed miserably. Newt hoping to embarrass the setting president, went on a stubborn budget rhetoric and shut down the federal government, Congress stopped funding, employees were sent home, and the American people walk up with their country, the strongest on earth, paralyzed in political rhetoric and settling old accounts and working along party lines; America could not stand Newt, his party or his revolution. In 1996, the American people sent a huge blow to Newt and his comic revolution and sent him and his party home, reelected Bill Clinton- coming fresh out of the Monica Lewinsky affair. Newt went into the shadows, divorced his wife and married his assistance. George W. Bush was elected in 2000, in part as a vindication to the defeat of his father, but in bigger part, because of the no skilled and annoying demeanor of his challenger, the ever boring, Al Gore. Since then and until now, Newt has been irrelevant, on the sidelines, someone whom almost all considered as a has been, a footnote in the history of American politics, a loser, to many. I personally thought that he is done, and this might still stand. But Newt is emerging, not because of his talents, although he might still have some to rise anyway, after that failed political movement that he called a revolution. Newt is rising because of the soundly unimaginative candidates that the Republican Party is displaying now. Romney the Mormon that no one likes according to Time magazine cover on 12/12/2011, Perry, Texas Trophy Boy, proved that he has an issue with brain brightness, when he could not spell out the names of the departments that he wanted to eliminate to save a dollar or two, and last, among the serious candidates, Herman Cane and his stupid cover-up, did not learn from Dick Nixon’s Watergate, of extramarital affairs that he kept denying until he could not, and  was thrown out of the race. Newt is taking it easy, no large staff, no budget, no fundraising, and nothing, no one expected Newt to be anybody, again. But Newt is rising by the powers of lady luck and the power of the moment. He is not chasing history, Newt, the history professor from 6th sixth district in Georgia, History, this time, is chasing Newt.