Question Everything.

We grow up with a set of specified rules. We're told what to do, how to behave, and who to listen to. We're supposed to bow to authority, whether they are kindergarten teachers, law-enforcement agents, or politicians who tell us what to believe and how to serve the nation, and we internalize this. Extremely simplified, the idea is that authority is not just external, but that people are conditioned by the markers of hegemony and continue to reproduce it from within; for example, we automatically become alert when approached by police officers, even if we have done nothing wrong. Authority is everywhere, and people don't even question it. People are likely to believe anyone with a badge or a uniform without asking further questions. Why? We are trained to believe that uniforms are a marker of authenticity and authority, and that we must defer to authority. When institution building is so strong, the visual and symbolic markers of those institutions become ingrained in our consciousness. A documentary on British TV showed set up situations in which uniformed "officers" intercepted people near customs checkpoints or on highways, asking for documents, fines, and seizure of cargo. In almost all cases, people were all too willing to provide whatever they were asked for, blindly trusting that the uniformed men were genuine law-enforcers. It was kind of shocking, and made me think about how I react to things like that too. My undergraduate institution really pushed the idea of questioning everything that we take for granted in society, and I feel that this is the cornerstone of liberty and human rights. Question everything. It's not a crime.

Luckily for me I'm a little wary of badges and uniforms, and this served me well last week. We boarded a train from Belgrade to Budapest - a 9 hour journey. 2 hours out of Belgrade, a guy came to our cabin, saying he was "Passport control." He wore a police badge around his neck, but had no uniform on. I was immediately slightly suspicious, since the previous border officers at the Serbia/Croatia border had been uniformed. Plus, we were nowhere near the border. We were told that we needed to pay a 300 Euro fine for not registering with the Serbian police within 24 hours of arrival, even though we had only overstayed this period by about 6 hours. In perfect English they explained that they would accompany us to the border, take us to court there, and fine us 300 EU. I was even more suspicious, since during my research and trip planning I'd heard of no such rule. While they walked around and checked other people's documents, P and I discussed whether they were fake, or actual, bribe chasing police. Eventually they told us that we could pay them a 50 Euro fee, and they would write up a form saying we lost our police permission. Since it was highly unlikely that they'd travel 4 more hours to the border to take us to court, I figured they were probably scamming us, or just wanted a bribe. They took me to a separate cabin to discuss fines. I really wanted to ask for proper identification, but not being in my country of citizenship or knowing who these guys were, I just kept insisting that we had no cash, and eventually they left us alone. Later on we double checked and it turned out that registration is required only after 3 months. I felt bad for the two other British guys we saw fork over the "reduced fine." So, don't always assume that a uniform/badge is fo realz.

Watch out for my next post on how to assert your rights with the REAL po-po!

Small Steps

For 15 months we've been moving non-stop. It was an excellent lesson in paring down, giving up material goods, and learning that I could live with even less than I thought. When you go to new places, the impact of environmental destruction, pollution, overpopulation, and overconsumption is shockingly obvious. Seeing parts of the ocean completely fished out, garbage dumps on pristine islands, and poverty right next to shiny capitalism, it became harder to accept that I was doing my part to be the change I wanted to see in the world. Of course, I'm guilty of not being super eco friendly what with flying everywhere - though I love trains and try to travel by them if possible (This one month trip was completely overland) - and I am far from perfect but I felt like it was finally time for me to do a little more. These aren't huge things, but just tiny ways in which I feel that a little effort adds up, is better for the environment, for my health, and probably for other people.

- This month marks one year of being anti-perspirant/deodorant free. And no, I don't smell bad. In fact, I smell better than I ever have. I found an awesome pump-spray that contains only alum (a type of mineral salt) and water. It kills bacteria, sprays without ozone layer destruction, and is also free of carcinogens and environmentally toxic chemicals. It's also insanely cheap.

- I switched to a sulfate and paraben free organic shampoo. P uses baking soda to wash and apple cider vinegar to condition. His hair is no longer falling out, and we are not putting shit into the water supply any more. After seeing what a tub of Sodium Laureth Sulfate looks and smells like, you won't want to use regular shampoo either!

- I skip body lotion and use almond oil instead, with a vanilla pod in it. There's nothing in it but... almond oil, and a vanilla pod :) No chemical additives, refillable glass bottle, totally natural. And it smells amazing.

- I cut out a large part of meat from my diet. Ideally I would be entirely meat free, but I like to keep the option of eating meat in places where it's the only available food or is humanely and healthily produced, like on small farms in Poland. I don't think eating meat is entirely wrong, I think we just eat too much meat. And most meat in the US and UK is industrially produced and highly unhealthy.

- I'm planning to make more of my condiments and foods from scratch. It's easy and fast, you can re-use jars instead of buying new ones, it tastes better, and you're not giving money to big companies.

- I started renting rooms from individuals or small family run hotels over staying in bigger hotels/chains.

- I'm planning to build my own computer instead of buying the apple desktop I wanted. It sucks, because they are so pretty, but after finding out about Apple's hideous labour practices, I can't really feel good about owning a mac. I can avoid HP, Intel components and keep supporting the BDS movement by not buying goods that support Israeli apartheid, and I can also avoid giving my money to Microsoft.

- Couchsurfing. It's been a great way to meet people I'd never meet normally, exchange ideas, and become immersed in different cultures. Everyone I've been has been generous, kind, helpful, and full of warmth. I can't think of a better way to learn about a different country and to act upon ideas I believe in.

I don't want to go all nutty and start wearing burlap sacks, but I feel like if there are little things I can do that are easy enough to incorporate into my life, I should probably do them. I'd love more suggestions! Anything that supports human rights and is environmentally friendly is something we should be doing!

Toronto Review

I've been slacking on the blog lately since I've been variously ill, traveling, researching refugee laws and busy writing an article. There's not much to report from Poland, but I'm gearing up for a trip to Italy and the Balkans to enjoy my last days without a full-time job, catch some much-needed sunlight after this dreary Baltic winter, and check out the work of some post-conflict human rights NGO's in places like Bosnia and Kosovo.

In the meantime, here is my latest on Egypt in the Toronto Review of International Affairs, with photography by yours truly:

The Arab Spring's Real Roots

Post-Revolution Frostbite

It has been about two weeks since we arrived in Poland, the first of which was spent in a haze of shivering nightmares involving riot police, teargas, gunshots, and general jumpiness; the next, full of the post-shock surrealness of being in small-town, freezing Poland. Finally, we are calm. Poles are sympathetic to the Egyptian situation - they know what revolution is like, and many are no strangers to autocracy or violent suppression. Our neighbour's grandma still hoards "Solidarnosc" memorabilia from her activist days. She says it's hard to be normal once you've lived through a revolution, that it never really leaves you. All the people in Egypt will know this soon. Sitting in my in-laws' living room in a blockhouse, in an ex-German town, hearing stories of post-Communist life nearly makes me cry. Inflation was sudden and absurd, jobs were lost, a game of political revenge started. My husband's generation is called "Generacja Nic" or "Generation Nothing" - the generation that was the first to grow up capitalist, and became a generation of nothingness. 20 years after the fall of communism, my father-in-law received a sudden notice that he will now receive only half his pension, because he served as a civil servant during the communist regime. Even at such a great distance from the revolution, the ripples still disturb peoples' lives. Poland transitioned to an entirely different economy and political system, so a true comparison cannot be made here. However, even though the scenario in a democratic Egypt likely won't be as dramatic or bleak, the effects of sweeping political change are long-reaching and painful.

I can't believe all this started just a few weeks ago, and now the Middle East is erupting - and so is everywhere else. Things hurtle forward like a faulty Toyota. Bahrain's situation is far more complicated than that of Egypt, because they have real sectarian issues, and also a huge US base, not to mention an unsympathetic army which opened live fire on peaceful crowds. Praetorianism fell out of favour in academia long ago; professors would drop the "oh, man on horseback, and all that," referring to Samuel Huntington, pretending like the military is no longer important. It's just not fashionable, because now, developmental politics and eco-politics are (and of course they are important as well). Sadly for all of us, the gaping jaws of the military industrial complex threaten to crush any attempt at democratic reform in places like the Middle East, West Africa and Pakistan. Even with the massive steps forward in Egypt, the formula of a dissolved constitution + army in charge makes me hellishly uneasy. Though it may have chosen to break with Mubarak, it is definitely looking out for its own interests. It is also clear now that the US has no actual strategic foreign policy in place, and that "regional stability" just means "a happy Israel" and "plentiful natural resources coming our way." The Saudis no longer trust the US to stand behind them (and they shouldn't). Any pretense of a commitment to morality or freedom is now moot. The last straw was refusing to condemn Israeli settlement building in the West Bank at the UN meeting, not because they didn't support the resolution, but because the UN was the wrong forum in which to debate this(!). In the long run, this hardheaded and idiotically blind support for Israel, the region's prime aggressor, along with various other puppet leaders and dictators, will decimate the US. But I already envision a new world order in about 30 years, and I don't expect America to be at the top of that food chain. I'm not anti-American...just pragmatic.

Watching helplessly as events unfold in Libya, Bahrain, Sudan, Yemen, Djibouti, Gabon, Egypt, and Algeria, scanning the news and posting online constantly - I have the distinct feeling that if I blink, I will miss everything. But life goes on in my real life; things like showering, working, sleeping... they interrupt the business of watching history unfold. Nevertheless, the information keeps overloading, and I keep consuming, ever hungry, ever angry, ever devastated at the loss of innocent lives.

The demands of the people

الزملاء و الاصدقاء الاعزاء This was just forwarded to me on a listserv:
هذه ترجمة سريعة "لبيان للشعب من معتصمين بالتحرير" للتوزيع والنشر لغير القارئين للعربية

عاش كفاح الشعب المصري وشبابه الباسل بميدان التحرير

Dear all,
This is a quick English translation of a statement from our brave youth at Tahrir square.
In solidarity
EZ


A Statement from the protesters at Cairo's Tahrir square
to the Egyptian people

The President's promises and the bloody events of Wednesday February 2

We the protesters who are currently on sit-in at Tahrir (liberation) square in Cairo since January 25, 2011 strongly condemn the brutal attack carried out by the governing National Democratic Party's (NDP) mercenaries at our location on Wednesday February 2, under the guise of "rally" in support of President Mubarak. This attack continues on Thursday February 3. We regret that some young people have joined these thugs and criminals, whom the NDP is accustomed to hire during elections, to march them off after spreading several falsehoods circulated by the regime media about us and our goals. These goals that aim at changing the political system to a one that guarantees freedom, dignity and social justice to all citizens are also the goals of the youth. Therefore we want to clarify the following.

Firstly, we are a group of young Muslim and Christian Egyptians; the overwhelming majority of us does not belong to political parties and have no previous political activism. Our movement involves elderly and children, peasants, workers, professionals, students and pensioners. Our movement cannot be classified as "paid for" or "directed by" a limited few because it attracted millions who responded to its emblem of removing the regime. People joined us last Tuesday in Cairo and other governorates in a scene that witnessed no one case of violence, property assault or harassment to anyone.

Secondly, our movement is accused of being funded from abroad, supported by the United States, as being instigated by Hamas, as under the leadership of the president of the National Assembly for change (Mohamed El-Baradie) and last but not least, as directed by the Muslim Brotherhood. Many accusations like these prove to be false. Protesters are all Egyptians who have clear and specific national objectives. Protesters have no weapons or foreign equipment as claimed by instigators. The broad positive response by the people to our movement's goals reveals that these are the goals of the Egyptian masses in general, not any internal or external faction or entity.

Thirdly, the regime and its paid media falsely blame us, young demonstrators, for the tension and instability in the streets of Egypt in recent days and therefore for damaging our nation's interests and security. Our answer to them is: It is not the peaceful protesters who released the criminal offenders from prison to the unguarded streets to practice looting and plundering. It is not the peaceful protesters who have imposed a curfew starting at 3 o'clock PM. It is not the peaceful protesters who have stopped the work in banks, bakeries and gas stations. When protesters organized its one-million demonstration it came up in the most magnificent and organized form and ended peacefully. It is not the protestors who killed 300 people some with live ammunition, and wounding more than 2,000 people in the last few days.

Fourthly, President Mubarak came out on Tuesday to announce that he will not be nominated in the upcoming presidential election and that he will modify two articles in the Constitution, and engage in dialogue with the opposition. However the State media has attacked us when we refused his "concession" and decided to go on with our movement. Our demand that Mubark steps down immediately is not a personal matter, but we have clear reasons for it which include:
His promise of not to run again is not new. He has promised when he came to power in 1981 that he will not run for more than two periods but he continued for more than 30 years.
His speech did not put any collateral for not nominating his son "Gamal", who remains until the moment a member of the ruling party, and can stand for election that will not be under judicial supervision since he ignored any referring to the amendment of article 88 of the Constitution.
He also considered our movement a "plot directed by a force" that works against the interests of the nation as if responding to the demands of the public is a "shame" or "humiliation".
As regards to his promise of conducting a dialogue with the opposition, we know how many times over the past years the regime claimed this and ended up with enforcing the narrow interests of the Mubarak State and the few people who control it.

And the events of Wednesday proved our stand is vindicated. While the President was giving his promises, the leaders of his regime were organizing (along with paid thugs and wanted criminals equipped with swords, knives and Molotov bombs) a brutal attack plot against us in Tahrir square. Those thugs and criminals were accompanied by the NDP members who fired machine guns on unarmed protesters who were trapped on the square ground, killing at least 7 and wounding hundreds of us critically. This was done in order to end our peaceful national popular movement and preserve the status quo.

Our movement is Egyptian - Our movement is legitimate- Our movement is continuing

The youth of Tahrir Square sit-in
February 3, 2011 at 11:30am


بيان للشعب من معتصمين بالتحرير - الرجاء النشر والتوزيع

بيان للشعب

أول القصيد: وعود الرئيس وأحداث الأربعاء 2 فبراير

نحن محتجون منذ 25 يناير الماضي، ومعتصمون في ميدان التحرير، ندين بشدة الاعتداء الغاشم الذي نفذته مرتزقة الحزب الوطني علينا في مقر اعتصامنا يوم الأربعاء 2 فبراير تحت غطاء المظاهرة المؤيدة للرئيس لمبارك ويستمر العدوان يوم الخميس 3 فبراير. ونأسف لدخول البعض من شباب مصر مع البلطجية والمجرمين ممن اعتاد الوطني تأجيرهم في الانتخابات، وساقوهم علينا بعد أن أشاعوا اكاذيب عديدة يروجها النظام وإعلامه بخصوصنا وبخصوص اهدافنا المنادية بتغيير للنظام السياسي يكفل لنا ولجموع المواطنين الحرية وكرامة العيش والعدالة الاجتماعية، والتي هي ايضا من اهداف هذا الشباب، ولذلك نريد توضيح الاتي:

أولا، نحن مجموعة من شباب مصر مسلمين ومسيحيين، أغلبيتنا الكاسحة لا تنتمي لأحزاب سياسية ولا لها نشاط سياسي من قبل. حركتنا ضمت شيوخا وأطفالا، فلاحين وعمال ومهنيين، طلبة وموظفين على المعاش. حركتنا لا يمكن تصنيفها على أنها مدفوعة أو محركة من قلة بحكم الملايين الذين استجابوا لشعاراتها باسقاط النظام، وانضموا اليها يوم الثلاثاء الماضي في القاهرة والمحافظات، في حدث لم يشهد حالة عنف واحدة أو اعتداء على الممتلكات أو تحرش من أحد بأحد.

ثانيا، حركتنا متهمة بأنها ممولة من الخارج، وتمدها الولايات المتحدة، وأنها قامت بتحريض من حماس، وبأنها تحت قيادة وبتنظيم رئيس الجمعية الوطنية للتغيير محمد البرادعي، وأخيرا وليس آخرا، بأنها موجهة من قبل الاخوان المسلمين. وتعدد الاتهامات بهذا الشكل في حد ذاته يثبت زيفها. المحتجون كلهم مصريون أهدافهم أهدافا وطنية واضحة ومحددة. المحتجون ليس لديهم لا سلاح ولا معدات أجنبية كما يدعي المحرضين. واستجابة الناس الواسعة لها تكشف أنها هي ذاتها أهداف جموع المصريين عموما، وليس أي فصيل أو كيان داخلي وخارجي.

ثالثا، يلقي النظام وإعلامه المأجور زورا وبهتانا بالمسئولية عن التوتر وعدم الاستقرار الذي شهدته شوارع مصر في الأيام الماضية، وبالتالي عما يسببه ذلك من أضرار لمصالحنا ومصالح أمتنا ولأمننا جميعا، على الشباب المتظاهر. فليس المتظاهرون سلميا هم الذين أخرجوا المجرمين من السجون ليخلقوا حالة السلب والنهب في شوارع المحروسة. ليس المتظاهرون هم الذين فرضوا حظر تجول يبدأ من الثالثة وأوقفوا العمل في البنوك والمخابز ومحطات الوقود. وحين نظم المتظاهرون مظاهرتهم المليونية خرجت في أحلى حلة وأفضل تنظيم، وانتهت سلميا. المتظاهرون ليسوا هم من قتلوا 300 شخص بعضهم بالرصاص الحي، وجرحوا أكثر من ألفي شخص في الأيام الماضية.

رابعا، خرج الرئيس مبارك علينا مساء الثلاثاء ليعلن عدم ترشحه في الانتخابات الرئاسية المقبلة وتعديله لمادتين في الدستور، وخوض حوار مع المعارضة. وقد هاجمنا الاعلام الرسمي عندما رفضنا "تنازلاته" وقررنا المضي في حركتنا. إن مطلب التنحي الفوري لمبارك ليس مسألة شخصية. لكننا نستند في ذلك على أسباب واضحة من بينها:

الوعد بعدم الترشح ليس جديدا. فقد وعد مبارك عندما جاء رئيسا في 1981 بعدم الترشح لأكثر من فترتين، ليستمر بعدها لأكثر من 30 عاما. كما أن الخطاب لم يضع أي ضمانات لعدم ترشح ابنه جمال، الذي يظل حتى هذه اللحظة عضوا في الحزب الحاكم، ويستطيع ترشيح نفسه في انتخابات لن تتم تحت اشراف قضائي، إذ تجاهل الخطاب الاشارة الى تعديل المادة 88 في الدستور. كما اعتبر الخطاب حركتنا مؤامرة من قوى تعمل ضد مصالح الوطن، وكأن الاستجابة لمطالب الجماهير عار وعيب. وأما فيما يتعلق بالحوار مع المعارضة فكم من حوارات ادعى النظام انه سيقوم بها خلال السنوات الماضية وانتهت بمضي دولة مبارك في طريق المصالح الضيقة لمن يسيطرون عليها.

وجاءت أحداث الأربعاء لتثبت صحة موقفنا. فبينما كان خطاب الرئيس يوعد، كانت قيادات نظامه ترتب مع البلطجية والمسجلين خطر من المأجورين مؤامرة الاعتداء الوحشي في التحرير بالسنج والمطاوي وقنابل المولوتوف، يصاحبهم أعضاء الحزب الوطني بإطلاق الأعيرة النارية بالبنادق الآلية على المتظاهرين العزل المحاصرين في الميدان، الذي أدى إلى مقتل سبعة على الأقل وإصابة المئات، منهم بإصابات بالغة، وذلك لإنهاء حركتنا الشعبية الوطنية والتمهيد لبقاء الحال على ماهو عليه.

حركتنا مصرية – حركتنا مشروعة - حركتنا مستمرة

شباب معتصم بالتحرير