Best Person of the Year for 2011- Gigi Ibrahim

"Time" magazine declared 'the protestor' to be the person of the year, but long before that, we had decided to name Egyptian Gigi Ibrahim, 23, as our Person of the Year. Ibrahim was one of the main organizers of the protests in Egypt during the Arab Spring.

While she was protesting on Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was trying to stay in power. But, his reign ended this year. Political protests also occurred in Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and Syria this year with political change resulting in three north African countries: Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.

Ibrahim was influenced by Hasan el-Hamalawy, an early leader in the protest movement who had been tortured by Egyptian secret police in 2000. Ibrahim was also featured in a PBS/Frontline documentary about the protests in Egypt and she has even appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

But, there have been political divisions amongst members of the movement as Ibrahim has openly criticized fellow activist Wael Ghonim who said that the protests needed to discontinue after Mubarak's resignation.

Today, Egypt remains in a state of political uncertainty, and many intellectuals, both liberal and conservative in the West, are concerned that the vacuum could be filled by Islamic fundamentalists, not only in Egypt, but in Tunisia and Libya as well.

Several Egyptian activists, including Ahmed Maher, have come to America to take part in both the Occupy WallStreet protests and the OccupyDC rallies, saying that 'America needs to ally itself with the Egyptian people as opposed to the Egyptian military."

Quotes of the Day/Week- Hugo Chavez

Today, we conclude our quotes from famous Latin Americans with the always engaging, far-left leader Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. 2011 was a bad year for dictators as both Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and more recently Kim Jong Il of North Korea (the later of natural causes) died. Others were deposed and imprisoned, and some like Chavez dealt with health issues.

Chavez is suffering from cancer, but exactly what kind of cancer and just how bad it is are not certain. But, Chavez, ever the headline-maker, proclaimed yesterday (according to "The Daily Beast") that the United States was deliberately spreading cancer across South America.

On the other extreme, the American far-right has been a bit paranoid about Chavez, with the whacko evangelist Pat Robertson actually going to the point of calling for the assasination of the Venezuelean leader.

Here is the quote from Chavez, who turned 57 this year:

"We must confront the privildged elite who have destryoed a large part of the world."

Special Quote of the Week- Albert Camus

Today, we conclude with a spillover entry from the month of May, in which we posted quotes from famous novelists, with a quip from the late French writer Albert Camus
(1913-1950). Like the subject of our other entry on our other blog who was George Orwell (1905-1950), both writers were born abroad and died at age 46. While Orwell was born in India, Camus was born in Algeria. He often wrote about the plight of the north African country which remains an area of concern today given the political upheveal in neighboring Libya. Prior to the Libyan mess, there were earlier uprisings in neighboring Tunisia, which lead to the 'Arab Spring."

In addition to his criticism of colonialism, Camus was an outspoken critic of the death penalty, saying that it would never deter perspective murderers because 'the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in the state of equilibrium.'

Alas, the likes of Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va) and Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex.) and others on the anti-intelllectual right will assuredly always find a way to dismiss any logic that challenges their self-righteous Christian hypocricy.

McDonnell will be speaking at the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center in Blackstone, Va. on June 11th, according to Eskii Kebede of "The Collegiate Times," the Virginia Tech student-run newspaper in Blacksburg, Va. The topic will be the faith of the founding fathers. Assuredly, any arguments about how a man who sees himself as an upstanding Christian can support the morally inconsistent pro-death penalty argument will not be brought forth.

Camus, who recieved the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, is known for three novels "The Stranger" (1942), "The Plague" (1947) and "The Fall" (1956).

Surreally enough, the much-heralded Turkish film director Zeki Demirkubuz loosely adapted "The Stranger" into his well-recieved 1999 film "Yazgi" ("Fate). I'm sure Camus would have been proud; here is his quote:

"An intellectual is someone who mind watches itself."

The Next 10 Films in Our Netflix Que- Lots of Foreign Films

The dominance of Netflix among the dvd sales market has been subject of NPR pieces on "Market Place" and written articles in "Wired" magazine, which we really need to read some time (subscribing to eight or nine other magazines has its disadvantages!). Though with its own streaming services, amazon.com is projected to be gradually catching up with the online giant soon.

Since it has been a depressing week lately for a variety of reasons, including the tsunami in Japan as well as the political unrest Bahrain, Yemen, Syria and Libya, I hope some of these films are a bit uplifting. But, then again, I'm in no mood for "Mary Poppins" which is amazingly enough one of the most favorite films of filmmaker David Fincher ("Zodiac," "The Social Network")!


Here are the next ten films I am scheduled to be recieving from Netflix. In case you were wondering, "Lightning in a Bottle" is a 'rocumentary' about blues musicians like B.B. King.

1. "The Class" (France, 2008).

2. "Yi Yi" (Taiwan, 2000).

3. "The Son's Room" (Italy, 2001).

4. "Not on the Lips" (France, 2003).

5. "Undertow" (2004)

6. "The Mist" (2007)

7. "15" (France, 2003).

8. "Lightning in a Bottle" (doc., 2004).

9. "Rivers and Tides" (doc., 2003)

10. "The Yacoubian Building" (Egypt, 2006).

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- The President is 'On the Line'

Yes, we love relics that are Casualties of Modern Technology on this blog (we should get a trademark on that term!), and it goes well with today's entry as to what we learned from Twitter today.

There was this tweet from much-respected journalist Nicholas Kristoff:

"Had a chilling conversation with a friend in Libya. He was terrified somebody was listening and praised Qadaffi." ("Newsweek" spelled his name Gadaffi; we are truly confused here!)

While checking out Twitter, we were listening to WXYC-FM (Chapel Hill, NC) which is not only the student-run radio station for the University of North Carolina, but in 1994, it became the first radio station to stream over the Internet.

Tonight, WXYC was playing the music of Japanese avant-garde instrumentalist Toshi Ichiyanagi, who as it turns out was married to Yoko Ono from 1956 to 1963 before she met up with John Lennon. I must profess I had never, ever heard of Toshi or his music, but it definitely helped relive my 'brain freeze' which is apparently becoming a side effect of staying on the Internet way too damn long. (Wow, is it 10:05 p.m. already?!).

Lastly, we saw a white pickup truck in Roanoke, Va., last night that was proclaiming that May 21, 2011, is going to be JUDGMENT DAY (it was in all caps). The web site thinkatheist.com thus posed the following question: "Some Christians believe it will mark the beginning of the Rapture. What will you be doing on May 22?"

Quote of the Week- Jacques Derrida

This is the first entry in a series of quotes from famous philosophers that will run on Mondays in March. It is perhaps fitting as we posted a blog entry in "The Daily Vampire," which is also by Tilly Gokbudak (who is me, yes I think referring to yourself as if you are someone else is quite obnoxious too!), about names that we had not spelled correctly that we have a quote from Jacques Derrida (1930-2004).

Up until I googled him about a half-hour ago, I wasn't sure if the late French philosopher's name was spelled with one 'd' or two 'd's. Well, it is Derrida!

Speaking of which, we should mention that we butchered Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's name in an entry last week, but like him, we refuse to apologize for any wrong-doings even if they are painfully obvious (unless, you can sue us and then of course, we will send you a dozen roses from FTD).

Derrida, who was the subject of a documentary film with his name in 2002, was born in Algeria as were many French intellectuals and cultural icons, including the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

The French philosopher is known for developing the critical theory known as 'deconstruction' and his work has been associated with post-structuralism and post-modern philosophy.

We also gather that former president George W. Bush has read a lot of Derrida's works and is a great admirer of his (that is a joke, but I think even my Republican friends like Bill Kristol* will find it amusing).

Here is our quote from Derrida:

"I never give in to the temptation of being difficult just for the sake of being difficult. That would be ridiculous."

We must profess that since there is a tuxedo cat named "Gizmo" roaming around here in the office, that we really like this photo, that slightly reminds us of Marlan Brando's pose in "The Godfather."

*-I am not actually friends with the neo-con intellectual Bill Kristol, who founded "The Weekly Standard" which I assume is to the 'far-left' of "Soldier of Fortune" magazine, but he did, much to my shock, personally answer an email (it was actually not political in nature even though I have much different views than Kristol) that I had assumed one of his associates would read. So, I do feel obliged to say nice things about him which might be harder to do if I read his columns, which I presume are rather negative towards President Barack Obama.

Status Update- Paid over 40 Bucks for Gas Today

Gazooks! We did indeed pay $40.28 for gas at a BP station near Greensboro, NC, today!

It appears that the political unrest in Libya may be partly to blame though that country's main trading partners like Italy and Turkey (my late father's country) are probably becoming even more broke after their trip to the pump.

"The Huffington Post" reported today that an estimated 14 people were killed in political protests across Libya. Faiz Jibril, a Libyan in exile, has stated publicly that he is delighted to see his fellow citizens standing up to Moammar Gadhafi.

There are of course alternatives to driving yourself to work, and the group Ride Solutuions in my hometown of Roanoke, Va. (as well as nearby Blacksburg, Va.) is working diligently to make folks aware of that in their community.

And, perhaps, it's time for people like me to consider carpooling even if, as in my case, it may well prove to be a huge pain-in-the-neck.