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New dynamic
The Egyptian presidential campaign has officially ended. All campaigning by
the 10 candidates has been stopped for the last two days up until voting day
on Wednesday. While the campaign might have concluded, what has been set in
motion has not.
A new dynamic has begun. The process of participation has been activated,
not merely for this election but beyond. While most people believe President
Hosni Mubarak is in a strong position to claim a fifth six-year term, the
evidence is everywhere that the times are nonetheless changing. These are
the first genuinely competitive presidential election in Egypt’s history.
The campaign has led to a vibrant public debate that has observed few
political taboos. Debates and rallies conducted in a climate of freedom and
excitement astonished the Egyptians themselves.
The candidates who have enjoyed such freedoms are aspiring to the highest
office in the land. As such, in the race to collect as many votes as
possible, many made extravagant promises that may or may not be kept. The
new political climate allowed them to make pledges, but many are
unrealistic, and many aroused a good deal of skepticism as to whether the
words can actually become reality and whether the candidates will be able to
keep all their promises.
It is not clear if this will prove an obstacle in luring Egypt’s silent
majority into abandoning its long-standing apathy. Popular participation in
the poll is a concern. The question is how many Egyptians will go to the
9,737 polling stations. Voter turnout is essential to the success or failure
of an election, especially one that is being touted as the first step on the
road to democratic change. National TV has broadcast appeals for people to
cast their votes “so that their dreams and aspirations may come true.”
In the end it might not matter who Egyptians vote for; the important thing
is that they make themselves heard and believe that their vote will make a
difference. This election has allowed citizens to feel that they are part
and parcel of the decision-making process and that their say has weight and
is being taken seriously. On several occasions, including in his State of
the Union address, President Bush commented on Egypt’s reforms, declaring he
looked forward to seeing the Egyptian elections conducted “in accordance
with the highest democratic standards so that the Egyptian experiment could
serve as a model for the entire region.”
Egyptians share the same sentiments and ambitions and can now do something
about fulfilling them. They now have the ultimate say in setting the course
for their future because they will be choosing the president who will lead
them for the next six years. They have a responsibility no less than that on
the candidate who wins. Mubarak did his part when he asked in February for
the constitution to be amended so that multicandidate elections could be
held. On Sept. 7, the Egyptian people are being asked to do their part.
The day after
THE catastrophe that hit America’s
Gulf Coast last week has exposed the soft underbelly of the superpower like
never before. The world’s richest and most powerful country has been,
perhaps for the first time, made to feel its abject helplessness in the face
of powerful forces of Nature.
We can go on and on as to how and why the administration failed to prepare
for and respond to the challenge of the hurricane Katrina even when the
weathermen in the US and around the world had been monitoring and warning of
the gradual build-up of the most devastating hurricane in the country’s
history. But we have been here before and heard and debated all that.
While the United States and the world community try to make sense of the
appalling destruction and suffering wreaked by Katrina (what a pretty name
for such a destructive force!), they mustn’t ignore the crucial lessons of
the disaster. The most important lesson of the tragedy is the fact that
global warming is real and it’s happening right before our eyes. The sheer
devastation of New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast is irrefutable
evidence — if we ever needed it — that the environment and delicate
ecological balance of the planet earth have been damaged perhaps irrevocably
by the abuse of its resources. The flooded and battered landscape of the US
Gulf Coast is eerily akin to the disturbing scenario painted by the recent
Hollywood blockbuster The Day After.
The melting of South and North poles as the direct result of the global
warming leading to worldwide flooding as portrayed in The Day After doesn’t
appear to be a Hollywood fantasy any more. It could be close to reality —
much closer than we think. Experts have warned of natural disasters of more
devastating nature than the hurricane Katrina in the months and years to
come.
Having long questioned the argument that irresponsible human activities and
practices are playing havoc with our environment, the US leadership finally
conceded at the recent G-8 summit that global warming could be after all a
result of the green house gasses blamed on major US industries. The US
happens to be the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses that cause
global warming. Scientists argue that rising global atmospheric temperatures
have been raising ocean temperatures leading to violent hurricanes and
disasters like Katrina.
Only last month, MIT climatologist Kerry Emanuel warned in the journal
Nature that major storms spinning in both the Atlantic and the Pacific have
increased in duration and intensity by about 50 per cent since the 1970s.
During that period, global temperatures have risen by about one degree
Fahrenheit along with increases in the level of carbon dioxide and other
heat-trapping pollutants. Which means we have more trouble ahead. About time
the world took the clear and present danger to its environment and future
more seriously. That’s the most important lesson Katrina could teach us.
—Arab News
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