The Looming Divorce of Egypt and U.S. foreign assistance

First there were the raids. Then the travel bans. Now the trials.

Just over a year ago to date, with the 20th anniversaries celebrations of the fall of communist regimes in Europe still a recent memory, the world shifted its attention to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where uprisings rocked the region and overthrew long-time strong-arm leaders and dictators. It looked like another 1989. But as the transition continues in many of these countries (and the slaughter continues in Syria), the Egyptian government is moving further from the democratic goals of the revolution.

As the military tightens its control on Egypt, they have ignored the protests that continue in-country, resulting in deaths as recently as last Thursday at a soccer match, and have attempted to shift the blame onto NGOs that receive foreign funding. After raiding the offices of 17 pro-democracy NGOs in December, Egypt has enforced a travel ban that affects aid workers affiliated with foreign civil society building NGOs, including the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the International Centre for Journalists, Freedom House, and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Those affected are citizens of the USA (19), Germany (2), Serbia (3), Lebanon (2), Norway (1), Palestine (1), Jordan (1), and local Egyptians (14). On February 5, the Egyptian government referred these 43 aid workers to trial.

Egypt claims these organizations, which did not receive official licenses from their government (despite repeated applications), are serving the purposes of foreign agendas to influence Egypt's elections and transition. In response, the U.S. has threatened to withdraw all aid from the country. However, perhaps this threat will not result in the effect intended; indeed, the Egyptian public tends to show an inherent distrust of U.S. funding. 74% of survey respondents in Egypt answered that they are not in support of U.S. direct funding of NGOs in the country; the survey was conducted December 16-23, prior to the NGO raids. 68% were in favor of aid from other Arab countries.

This begs to question, has anything changed in Egyptian politics since Mubarak was ousted? Observers have commented that though the top names may have changed, the repressive actions that defined his reign continue.


Additional Reading:

Steven A. Cook, Council on Foreign Relations: "Egypt and the United States: It’s Not You, It’s Me" (6 Feb. 2012)

The Spiegel: "Unwanted Guests: German Foundations In Crosshairs Abroad" (7 Feb. 2012)

Jenny Lei Ravelo, Devex: "Noose Tightening on U.S. Aid to Egypt" (7 Feb. 2012)

Russia and WTO

More than 10-15 years after most of the former Soviet Union and former Eastern Bloc countries joined the World Trade Organization, Russia remains one of the largest economies in the world that is not a member. However, this may change soon. After years of debates, Russia and Georgia have struck an agreement that would allow Russia to join the WTO. Russia is currently the only BRIC economy that is not a member of this organization. Of the other FSU countries, Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan are still in the Observer stage, and Turkmenistan has not started negotiations.

Bribery and Corruption

According to Transparency International's Russian director, Elena Panfilova, "There are no islands of integrity in Russian public and business life." TI's report of 28 countries ranks Russia at the bottom, where bribery was most likely to be mixed with business transactions. China was ranked only one step ahead, at #27.

Curiously, there are no other CIS or post-communist European states included in this study. Indeed, according to TI's 2010 Corruption Prediction Index, many of the states of this region fall into the red, with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan ranking below even Russia in terms of flagrant corruption. The full list of anti-corruption reports can be found here

Hemingway's New City

This summer, NYT launched a debate on Europe's most vibrant city as a cultural hub and center of culture. Many of the critics seem stuck in a debate over London vs. Berlin. Others have considered Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, and more.

While London is definitely an economic center and global city and Berlin is certainly a vibrant city for young Germans and ex-pats seeking alternative culture, I would argue that this list should include more cities in Central Europe such as Budapest and Prague, and perhaps in Southeastern Europe Belgrade and Sarajevo. Too many Western Europeans and Americans seem to forget that the nations of Central and Eastern Europe when thinking of the European continent, and these cities have become bustling cultural hubs and havens for young people seeking cheap(er) rent, culture, and intellect in the center of Europe.

Hemingway and the other writers of the 1920s would probably be among them.

Sofia's New Art Museum

After a long hiatus of much studying and traveling, I will be returning to this project soon.

I haven't made it far enough south yet in the Balkans, but Sofia is joining the ranks of cities such as Berlin, Prague, and Budapest who put their communist past on public display. These exhibits represent an interesting aspect of the transitions in each country, and the debate rages as to how to display their past.

Sofia, Bulgaria: Museum of Socialist (or Totalitarian?) Art

Humorous Depictions of History

For a humorous interlude...

Here's the Economist's take on what would happen if World War I were a bar fight. This is one way of understanding the complexities of WWI by applying it to a more simplified and perhaps common scene. Also check some of the links in the comments to the Economist's post.

Similarly, here's the continued version that leads to the World War II bar fight.

All of this reminded me of this excellent comic with characters for every country and a colloquial picture and humorous interpretation of World War II. Poor Poland.

Of course, wars are no laughing matter. But for all the history buffs out there, the divergence into humor can sometimes provide more illumination to the complex facts of history.

From the Rubble

About this time exactly 21 years ago, the confusion of a senior Politburo official in the DDR led to the iconic images of thousands streaming across the Berlin Wall in the middle of the night, overwhelming the border guards, and entering the West for the first time. Indeed, the sudden opening of the Wall led rapidly to the end of the division between the East and the West and acted as the tipping point needed to topple communism in Europe; but cracks appeared long before the divided city became whole.

Poland was the first, holding democratic elections in June 1989 and resulting in the victory, after a 10-year struggle, of the Solidarity trade union; the world held its breath, fearing that the USSR might intervene, in an echo of the Hungarian Revolution or Prague Spring. But the Soviet tanks remained motionless, and restrictions were gradually eased in the neighboring countries. Observing the 1989 European revolutions firsthand, English writer Timothy Garton Ash suggested that, "In Poland it took ten years, in Hungary ten months, in East Germany ten weeks; perhaps in Czechoslovakia it will take 10 days!" He wasn't too far off with his estimate. Additionally, the states of the USSR and South Eastern Europe followed suit within a few years as the map of Europe changed dramatically. Old states disappeared and new states were born as the old Iron Curtain, which had divided the world for more than 40 years, gradually fell to pieces.

All in all, the dusk of the 20th century was a time of dying regimes and transitions. The dawn of the new millennium revealed a map of the world radically different than that of 100, 50, or even 10 years before. With a few exceptions, the communist "second world" was no more. But what has happened after these revolutions? Far from being the "end of history", the years since 1989 have been decades of transitions for these states and indeed for the whole world as politics and policies adjusted to the void left by the old bipolar system. Though the accession to the EU in 2004 and 2007 marked a convenient end to the politically defined transition, policies, laws, and even public mindsets continue to adjust in a gradual process lasting longer than 15 years. The 21st century is a time of continued transition.

21 years and counting after most of the democratic revolutions in Europe, this blog will serve as a public project to document my personal observations regarding continuing process of transition. Based in Poland, I will specifically focus on 1) the public's perception of the communist era, 2) firsthand accounts of the political transition of the past two decades, and 3) examining the current situation today. Through short essays, photos, and discussions, I hope to show that far from ending, the transitions in the 21st century are the beginning of a new history in Europe.

Günter Schabowski announcing to the live East German press conference that the new border regulations were, as far as he knew, effective "sofort" (immediately).