G-8 Leaders To Marshal Support For Arab Nations

G-8 Leaders To Marshal Support For Arab Nations

Arab uprisings are pushing aside deficits and austerity as the biggest worry of the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations this year. The discussions starting Thursday in the chic Normandy resort of Deauville will see the host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, bring together the heads of wealthy nations for what one of Sarkozy's top advisers describes as "the founding moment" of a partnership between the G-8 and the Arab countries.

President Barack Obama and the other leaders will seek to marshal their combined economic might behind the grass-roots democracy movements that have swept the Arab world — and driven away tourists and investors.

Egypt and Tunisia, where popular revolts this year overthrew authoritarian regimes, want to show G-8 leaders and international financiers that they are still sound investment destinations — which might be a tall order as the future shape and policies of their governments remains unclear.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=136643689

“Egypt and Tunisia, where popular revolts this year overthrew authoritarian regimes, want to show G-8 leaders and international financiers that they are still sound investment destinations — which might be a tall order as the future shape and policies of their governments remains unclear.”

Unclear indeed! I am leery of these “founding moments” and “new chapters”, and President O’bama’s “change”. Not all of them are beneficial to common folk. And most common folk still don't know who the rebels in Egypt and Tunisia are, much less what their policies will be.

But Egypt is wasting no time in making new friends:

Quote:

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil el-Araby said he has discussed the possibility of an exchange of ambassadors with his Iranian counterpart, the Egyptians state-run news website Egynews reported on Wednesday.

"We told the Iranian minister that Egypt is opening new chapters with everyone and that it doesn't want any aggressions with anyone in the world," el-Araby said, according to the site.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/internat...years-1.364015

Tunisia is yet an unknown, but the Muslim Brotherhood is there, and they are wily, smart, and in tune with the politics of the region.

The revolution, as Tunisians call it, also has created a power vacuum, and Tunisia faces enormous challenges in rebuilding its political system. The country’s caretaker government has been confronted with nearly daily protests by a variety of groups, the police force has been badly weakened by mass desertions and the firing of top officials, and provincial government offices remain dysfunctional. The judicial system is hobbled by its links to the ousted regime.

The interim government has scheduled elections for July 24, when voters will pick members of an assembly that will rewrite the constitution.

Polling suggests that Ennahda — an Islamic party whose name means the renaissance in Arabic — enjoys broader support than any of the country’s other 60-odd authorized political parties, most of whom did not exist until after the revolution.

Accused as subversives or terrorists, members of Ennahda bore the repressive brunt of Mr. Ben-Ali's reign — two decades of torture, prison or exile — suffering that has established their credibility, particularly among the more conservative residents of the country's rural areas.

Despite repeated assurances of their tolerance and moderation, the party's rise has touched off frenzied rumors of attacks on unveiled women and artists, of bars and brothels sacked by party goons, of plots to turn the country into a caliphate. Ennahda’s popularity and organizational strength are of growing concern to many activists and politicians among the coastal elite, who worry that the secular revolution of January might see the birth of a conservative Islamic government in July.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/tunisia/index.html

The Group of Eight industrialized nations (G-8) are wealthy, but the only they share wealth and a lust for power. You can buy loyalty for a price, and a time. But the money runs out, sooner or later, and then the time’s up. But you can't buy friendship, ever. The members of G-8, and expressly President O’bama need to remember that.