MONDAY, JULY 22, 2013
Those of you who have been following along on my blog may have noticed my aversion to current events. For example, the last two posts were on issues like science and health. The reason why is because I feel like the nature of "real" news is highly cumulative, and when I sit down to read an article, it only confuses me. It's kind of like opening a novel to a random page and beginning to read. It doesn't interest you - it only confuses you.
The article Egypt turmoil: Interim cabinet sworn in from BBC is no exception. Simply reading the title puzzled me. What in the world is an interim cabinet? Continuing to read, I found myself only asking more questions rather than finding more answers. Who is Mohammed Morsi, and why is he important? They keep mentioning the Muslim Brotherhood; what is that? And where does the Egyptian military fit in? What?
I wish the author had elaborated more on each of these topics. However, this may be more of a failure on my part as a reader for not keeping up with the Egypt story, rather than a failure on the author's part. So I did some research and decided to answer my questions.
In a nutshell: Egypt recently had a revolution, where the military and the upset citizens overthrew President Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was really more of a dictator than a President. "Interim" means temporary or in the meantime.
This, of course, is hardly a comprehensive summary of Egypt's politics, and I recommend watching this video if you want to know more. I then reread the article.
Now that I understand the situation a bit more, I'm rather glad that Egypt is taking steps towards being a democracy and eventually finding stability, and I hope that in the future, they will reach their goals. At the same time, I worry for the country. Currently, this revolution seems to have only caused more instability, more problems and violence. It's rather eye-opening to know that while the US worked out most of its political issues centuries ago, there are still countries that are struggling with this. So I worry for Egypt, and I also hope that everything will work out in the end.
After reading your commentary, I found that many of your statements and opinions were quite interesting—not only on the issue occurring in Egypt but also your evaluation of the importance of having prior knowledge of these topics before reading the article. The only thing I would suggest is that you have somewhat conflicting outlooks and this can get a bit confusing for readers. Nevertheless, your writing is well done. I enjoyed reading the article and then your commentary because you have a rather stimulating analysis on the article which provoked much thought on this topic from me.
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