Libya revolt

More then 200 people already been killed in a bloody crackdown on demonstrations and some activist have mention the figure was high as 300 people dead and thousands more injured across the country.

Pro-Gaddafi forces fired machine guns at mourners marching in a funeral for demonstrators killed in earlier clashes, with one Benghazi hospital reporting at least 15 further fatalities. Some of this was non-Libyan mercenaries which dictator Gaddafi uses to attack Benghazi, where an uprising against his rule is under way. Demonstrators have been attacked by sniper fire, automatic weapons and even heavy artillery.

The crackdown in Libya is shaping up to be the most brutal repression of the anti-government protests that began with uprisings that toppled the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

Libya’s autocratic ruler faces the public rage after having been in power for 41 years. He was the one who had brought ‘revolution’ in Libya by overthrowing the monarchy. During his youth days, Col Muammar Qaddafi was fond of being called as a revolutionary leader. But it is perturbing to think what he has given to his people over the past four decades.

Libya is a country which possesses huge oil and gas resources and one of the top 12 richest oil producing countries but unfortunately Gaddafi seem have make it as a private property for his own family and clan, as this moment, its was report that the rate of unemployment in Libya is about 30%.

Corruption in Egypt

Many Egyptians feel the only ones benefitting from the country's wealth are businessmen with ties to the ruling National Democratic Party. How did Egypt become so corrupt? And what can a new government really do about it?

Corruption rules in Egypt "Corruption Government" 

The main problem of corruption is not only related to the successive arrests of its figures who belong to or may be close to the ruling regime, such a series is no longer interesting as it has been repeated several times. Corruption has actually become a social law and a hidden behavior that would rule the different aspects of the Egyptian life.

The political corruption is the basis of the political crime that continued for two decades and half – the period of the current regime – to violate freedoms, practice torture, construct detention camps and destroy institutions, emphasizing a state of emergency for 25 years. The economic corruption was, also, the cause of wasting several development opportunities in Egypt during the 25 years. Corruption became a ruling social law that corrupted tastes, ambitions and the spiritual value of justice, equality and equal opportunities among the Egyptian citizens. It also spoiled the society right criteria. We kept on watching this gloomy series everyday, the fall of senior and junior figures in all fields and in the different media and governmental institutions in this Mubarak's (certainly unblessed) era. It was natural in this era that Egypt would lose much of its media leadership when its economic drive was obstructed; favoritism spread with a negative influence on the economic and social development.

The development rate dropped 2% currently against 4.6% two years ago. Depression dominated the Egyptian markets while citizen's purchase ability decreased. The interest rate problem led to the retreat of the Egyptian pound against the dollar. Competition increased between local products and those imported ones in addition to the few foreign investments in the country. The UNCTAD report on the international investment reported that the foreign investment decreased in Egypt from $600 millions to only $200 millions. Egypt was one of the most developing countries that was able to attract investment in the 1980s.

There is also a rising rate of unemployment and poverty. Official statistics said that the number of the unemployed in Egypt rose from 112.535 in 1950 to 5 millions in early 2004, meaning that the number of the unemployed increased at a rate of 4000% in the last 54 years, in case of these statistics are authentic. If the successive governments were serious in confronting unemployment, the unemployed rate would not have risen from 1.2% in 1950 to reach 3.4% in 1970, 7.10% in 1986, 11.1% in 1990 and 13% early this year. The current unemployment rate in Egypt meant that it exceeded limits, as economic studies agreed that the safe rate of the unemployment in any society should range at 4.3%only.

Concerning poverty, The World Bank report in 2003 indicated that 52% of the Egyptians were living with less than two dollars daily and that about 23% were living under poverty line. It was not either serious or joking; it has to do with the corruption that characterized the successive governments during Mubarak's era.

Every day, we hear of a new corruption crime or the arrest of a big corruption figure. Killing a citizen in the police station or drowning hundreds in the sea is not the first while suppressing the elites in central Cairo is not the last as well. Such series of corruption cases only confirm that a desire to reform such a worn out regime represents only a camouflage and a justification to keep the current regime as it is, maintaining absolute tyranny and corruption! Corruption is the opposite of reform; it is the tyranny of those people having power.

The most important of its modern features is corrupt state, cheating, bribery, fraud in dealings. Moroccans interpret corruption as bribery, which Ibn Al Atheir identified it as "reaching the target through compliment". No body will be able to construct the modern developed state except through providing a regime that guarantees necessary punishment to curb corruption and corrupt people.

Kefaya, through this file, tolls the bell of power and favoritism. It warns that life in Egypt is closely linked to the ability to cope with the ruling corruption in the different fields. One of the foreign observers said in one word; "living in Egypt is living under corruption". Amid the repeated corruption cases in the country, Ahmad Ragab suggested a new term "corruptionistan". He says: "such a government is the only one that does not respond to reports of the Auditing Organization.

Corruption in Egypt, dark cloud that does not vanish www.ikhwanweb.com/lib/Kefayafasad.doc

Yemen revolt

SANAA (AFP) -- Tens of thousands of Yemenis staged a "day of rage" on Thursday calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as a similar number of government loyalists held a counter protest in the capital.

"We are here to bring down a corrupt and tyrannical regime," Najib Ghanem, a lawmaker from the Islamist Al-Islah party that belongs to the Common Forum alliance of opposition parties, told anti-Saleh protesters at Sanaa University.

"The revolt for justice began in Tunisia. It continues today in Egypt, and Yemen tomorrow will be free from injustice," he said of the Tunisian president's fall and protests in Egypt seeking the departure of its president.

Addressing the massive crowd, Common Forum speakers all repeated the same message: the peaceful struggle will continue until the fall of an unjust regime.

The demonstration, the biggest since protests against Saleh's rule first erupted in mid-January, came despite the president saying on Wednesday that he would not seek another term and that he had postponed controversial April elections, two key opposition demands.

"We are gathered here demanding that President Saleh and the corrupt government resign," said a member of parliament from the opposition parties, Abdulmalik al-Qasuss as news AFPpada Thursday (27/01/2011). They see the problems of poverty, unemployment, and corruption, collusion, and nepotism became increasingly. Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world.

Saudi royal family corruption

Saudi King Abdullah said, he support Egyptian president Mubarak and called the protesters troublemakers for calling for freedom of expression: Saudi King Abdullah has expressed his support for embattled President Hosni Mubarak and slammed those "tampering" with Egypt's security and stability, state news agency SPA reported on Saturday.

The Saudi ruler, in Morocco recovering from back surgery performed in the United States, telephoned Mubarak early Saturday, the report said.

During the conversation, Abdullah condemned "intruders" he said were "tampering with Egypt's security and stability ... in the name of freedom of expression."

- This statement from Saudi ruler is seem came from the fear that Saudi might be next to face the revolt movement which now have shake the Arab world. Flush with petrodollars, the world’s top oil exporter can splash out to alleviate any social tensions due to unemployment, as around 10 percent of the Saudi work force is jobless.

Egypt revolt

"Down, Down with Mubarak," thousands chanted in downtown Cairo Tuesday. The protests was against corruption, unemployment and the regime of the 82-year-old Western-backed President Hosni Mubarak who has ruled the country since 1981 with an iron fist.

Protests broke out at different locations in Cairo, confusing the police further. A nearby demonstration in downtown Cairo targeted the high court while another took place in the affluent district Mohandseen. A third came in the industrial neighbourhood Shobra.

Later in the day the police, clearly surprised by the growing numbers of people, started firing tear gas and using water canons. Riot police blocked all entries to downtown Cairo with armored vehicles. Cars were stopped at check-points, and some passengers were forced out of their cars by the police. But the number of protests keep grow to hundred-hundred of thousand people and seem now, the whole country want Mubarak to step-down.

As Hosni Mubarak and his family keep making billion-billion of money since 30 year`s he hold the power as Egypt President, people of Egypt keep suffering from poverty and high unemployment, as well as alleged torture and corruption by Mubarak's regime.

Hosni Mubarak's and his family's net worth is estimated to be between US dollars 40 and 70 billion, a media report said. The wealth of the Egypt's first family was built largely from military contracts during his days as an air force officer; Mubarak eventually diversified his investments through his family when he became President in 1981, the 'ABC News' quoted experts as saying.

Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton, said those estimates are comparable with the vast wealth of leaders in other Gulf countries. "The business ventures from his military and government service accumulated to his personal wealth. There was a lot of corruption in this regime and stifling of public resources for personal gain," Jamal was quoted as saying. Jamal said that Mubarak's assets are most likely in banks outside of Egypt, possibly in the UK and Switzerland.

Mubarak, his wife and two sons were able to also accumulate wealth through a number of business partnerships with foreigners, according to Christopher Davidson, professor of Middle East Politics at Durham University in the UK.

The Mubarak family owns properties in London, Paris, Madrid, Dubai, Washington, New York and Frankfurt, according to a report from IHS Global Insight. Aladdin Elaasar, author of 'The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Obama Age', said the Mubaraks own several residences in Egypt, some inherited from previous presidents and the monarchy, and others he has built.

Democratic revolution in Tunisia

Part - 2
Part - 3

Topics talked over in this edition of Press TV's Comment are as follows:

-Arab nations have risen at last against their tyrannical, brutal and corrupt regimes towards democracy. Ben Ali is out, and the other dictators will follow them soon. Friday, January 28 will see the uprising that will sweep Mubarak from power.

-Lebanese people and politicians defeated the US-Israeli plot to create internal strife but they failed.

-Phone tapping in the UK: It seems that Galloway's phones were tapped by journalists working for Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch claims that he did not know about that and is handing over documents of his journalists' phone tapping to a court in London and Galloway too will be at court.

PressTVGlobalNews: Comment by George Galloway