Obama Misses the Point in Egypt
By: Siun
January 28, 2011
Once again, the Obama administration is unable to catch up with events in Egypt and unwilling to take a strong stand on behalf of the people who call for democracy and human rights. From Vice President Biden’s comment last night that Mubarak is not a dictator, Sec. Clinton’s weak words of “concern” and now President Obama’s statement which, while claiming to understand the “grievances” of the Egyptian people, relies still on Mubarak to bring about change and grants Mubarak a legitimacy clearly lost in the streets of Egypt today.
American officials continuing to look to Mubarak for “reform,” ignoring as we have for so many years the brutality of his regime will likely be as meaningless to the Egyptians as Mubarak’s own speech was.
Mubarak’s horrific treatment of the Egyptian people over the years is no surprise to US administrations – after all we’ve been providing him with the weapons and backing to keep it up.
Tomorrow there will be demonstrations in support of the Egyptian people around the world.
http://firedoglake.com/2011/01/28/obama-misses-the-point-in-egypt/-------------------------------------------
U.S. Aid to Egypt: The Current Situation and Future Prospects
Ahmad Al-Sayed El-Naggar
Ahmad El-Naggar is editor-in-chief of the Economic Strategy Trends Report published by the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
June 2009
A question is always raised in conversations with USAID officials: Why don’t Egyptians notice the role of American aid to their country? The simple answer is that U.S. economic aid to Egypt, which amounted to $455 million in 2007, translated to only $6 per capita,<1> compared to $40.8 per capita in Jordan for the same year. Yet Jordan’s per capita income, $2,850 in 2007, is 170 percent that of Egypt.
With U.S. economic aid to Egypt cut to $200 million for 2009, the per capita share is a measly $2.60 in a country with an average gross domestic income (GDP) per capita at current prices of about $1,697 in 2007 and $2,184 in 2008 according to the World Development Report of 2009—the sharp increase is partially attributed to the high inflation rate of 11.8 percent in 2008. If calculated using Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) that adjusts for the relative purchasing power difference between the Egyptian pound and the dollar, the average per capita income in Egypt was $5,352 in 2007 and $5,400 in 2008. Therefore, in per capita terms, U.S. economic aid to Egypt is barely a drop in the bucket.
The current focus on helping businessmen, particularly powerful ones, and on U.S.-chosen infrastructure projects that create few permanent job opportunities will keep USAID unpopular in Egypt, especially in light of the aid’s small size.
As for U.S. security and military aid to Egypt, which is about $1.3 billion annually, it does not aim to strengthen Egyptian military power against any external threat, as this would be contrary to the declared U.S. objective of ensuring Israeli security and maintaining Israeli military supremacy over its Arab neighbors, including Egypt. Instead,
this aid is devoted mainly to strengthening the regime’s domestic security and its ability to confront popular movements.Read the full article at:
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=23282
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