Do you have Aljazeera English on your cable or satellite network?
Unless you live in Canada, Toledo, OH, Burlington, VT, or Washington D.C., or in these other countries, the answer is no. It is blacked out over nearly all the United States. You might get it occasionally on Link TV. Thanks to the revolution in Egypt, more and more are finding it on-line. It is the best place to go.
I think I will write my TV God and say give me Aljazeera!
You can too.
Great show today on Democracy Now!
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Amy, today is the one-week anniversary of this popular uprising in Egypt, this unprecedented revolt where hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have taken to the streets. I am in the middle of Tahrir Square. I am in the middle of a sea of people, an ocean. They have come from everywhere across Cairo, from across Egypt, with one voice, for the president, Mubarak, to step down. I’ve spoken to Egyptians from all walks of life, to journalists, to lawyers, doctors, laborers, peasants, men, women, young, old, rich, poor, and they’ve all come here to speak with one voice and have a full-throated call for democracy. They want Mubarak out, and they will not stop coming until he does.Justice is on the side of the Egyptian people who are demanding democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: And Sharif, can you talk about the U.S. role in supporting the Mubarak regime until this point and what people in Egypt feel about that today? Are they calling for a cutoff of aid to the Mubarak regime?Time to back the right horse, Mr. President, and it isn't Mubarak.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: People are very aware that the United States has propped up this regime for the past 30 years. They’re calling on the Obama administration to take a stronger stand and to ask for—and to call on President Mubarak to step down. They don’t understand why President Obama has to equivocate and he can’t come out with a strong voice to support what is a clear, popular, widespread democratic movement here. I haven’t spoken to people about, you know, the future about aid. Step one is to get Mubarak out, and that’s what everyone is focused on. But they’re very aware of the role the United States has had in propping up Mubarak, and they’re disappointed that the Obama administration hasn’t come out with a stronger voice on this.
There is great irony in the fact that Aljazeera, a news service that I have found to be intelligent, reliable and, obviously modelled on the BBC, is blacked out in a country that refers to Fox News as a news channel.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing, MP!
ReplyDeleteZinger!
ReplyDeleteYou got it!