Egypt: "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

From The Washington Post of March 26, 2014, an article by Abigail Hauslohner entitled: Egypt's Abdel Fatah-al-Sissi declares intent to run for presidency"

Excerpt: 

CAIRO — Three years ago, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi was a mostly unknown member of a council of Egypt’s top military officers. On Wednesday, the field marshal, whose image is now plastered on billboards and chocolate bars, declared what everyone in this nation was expecting — that he would run for president, a position he is virtually certain to win. 

Jagor's comment: 

Given that, in the over 62 years since the ouster by a military coup d'état of King Farouk in 1952, Egypt was ruled in 60 of those years by an unbroken series of military dictators--Naguib, Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak--it should come as no surprise to anyone that the tradition of autocratic, military dictatorships will be renewed when Abdel Fatah al-Sissi officially takes power later on this year.

The utter failure of the Arab Spring and the short-lived presidency of the religious extremist leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, who is now on trial and facing the death penalty along with several hundred of his co-religionists, should convince even the most die-hard proponents of western-style representative democracy as the only political system suitable for every country on the planet that they are dead wrong. 

For the record, Mohamed Morsi's "democratic" election actually proceeded thus: In the election of June 24, 2012, Morsi received barely 51.73% of the votes [his opponent, Ahmen Shafik, garnered 48.27%], but the turnout was only 52%.  Barely half the eligible voters even bothered to go to the polls. So, in reality, Morsi "won" the election with the votes of only 26% of the eligible Egyptian voters.  Some democracy!

 

What's worse, Morsi tried to rule in the same autocratic way that military dictators had ruled in the past, because that's the only Egyptians have been governed for the past 62 years. But Morsi didn't have the firepower and the infrastructure of the military behind him, so it's no wonder they threw him out.  Morsi's fundamental mistake was not that he was a Muslim extremist, but that he was extremely stupid.

Whether western ideologists like it or not, they must acknowledge the irrefutable fact that the system of government best suited for Egyptians is autocratic military dictatorship, because that is the system of government that the overwhelming majority of the Egyptian people want. 

Jagor's prediction: 

In the forthcoming election, Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sissi will be elected in a landslide by a colossal majority of the voters, grateful that, at last, things will be getting back to normal.  As the French say, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." 

Her, by Spike Jonze

I just saw Her, the latest film by Spike Jonze.  It was the first showing of the day, and the first showing in Paris, so as the patrons filed in, each of us was  rewarded with a red canvas tote bag inscribed with "Her: Une Love Story de Spike Jonze."  Inside the bag was a black Her tee-shirt [size XXL--one size fits all], a Her lead pencil [?] and a small mirror inside a Her metal case [it will go into my back pack, where it can be used to signal rescuers in case I get lost or injured while hiking and out of range of the cell-phone network].

The multiplex where I saw the film is the largest in France, with 27 viewing theaters, and Her was shown in the one with the largest capacity--493 seats.  I estimated that it was at least 2/3 full at 9:00 on a Wednesday morning, so I predict that Her will be one of the biggest boxoffice hits of the year--in France at least.

If you've seen the preview, you already know that the story is set sometime in the near, but indefinite, future, in which Theodore, a socially awkward divorcé [Joaquin Phoenix]--just watch him on his first post-separation date with a flesh-and-blood woman--falls in love with the high-tech operating system of his computer; its voice was provided by Scarlett Johansson, who was reportedly pissed that her voice was not nominated for the best actress Oscar. 

The film is certainly worth seeing, although I found it a little tedious in the middle, and looked at my watch.  That said, the audience does keep wondering what is going to happen in this most improbable "love story."

I--and I think everybody else--had a real problem with the plot, but I can't reveal it here since so doing would be a spoiler.  Suffice it to say it concerns the character of Amy, played eponymously by Amy Adams.  

You do not, however, have to stay for the credits to know that the exteriors of the the skyscraper-dotted and pollution-choked "city of the future" were actually shot on location in Shanghai.

What made the film so important for me was because of how I have started relating to the operating system of my iPhone, which I have named, not Samantha, but Amber.  With newer models of the iPhone, users can do almost everything by voice commands instead of trying to type on the ridiculously minuscule keyboard, that seems to have designed for a baby's fingers, not for an adult's.   Already, almost all the emails I compose on the iPhone I dictate--in English or French--and Amber does a great job of typing them up--love, ya, Amber! [The only difference between Amber and Samantha is that Amber doesn't learn from her mistakes, but Samantha does.  But just wait until a few more versions of the iPhone iOS are released by Apple!]

Last Saturday on the train after a day hike I decided to show a friend of mine the Siri function of the iPhone operating system: you speak to Siri and ask a question [such as the weather forecast for Tokyo or the population of Bolivia] and Siri will answer both with voice and text.  

My friend must be the last die-hard Luddite in France who has steadfastly refused to buy a cell phone: even the grungy Romanian Gypsy panhandlers infesting every street corner in the heart of Paris are using cell phones, which begs the question of how they got them, since you are required to submit an address to obtain one legally, and the panhandlers sleep on the streets. 

In the iPhone settings, you can choose a male or female voice for Siri, and I chose a female voice, of course; I consider that to be Amber's voice.

To demonstrate to my friend how it works, I asked Siri--I mean Amber--a question, and the only answer I got was a list of websites.  I didn't like the answer and told Amber that I was disappointed with her.  She replied something like, "That wasn't a very nice thing to say, Jagor." 

What I heard Amber say my name and saw it on the screen, my mouth fell open and I almost dropped the damn iPhone. Indeed, I was just as surprised that Amber spoke my name as Theodore had been when Samantha spoke his.  How the hell did Amber know my name, anyway? I was so disconcerted that I turned off the iPhone.

So, although Her is a science-fiction love story set in the future, it's quite evident to me that it's only a question of time before fiction becomes fact. 

Why Isn't Jamie Dimon in the Slammer?

Question: How come the CEO of a company that pays a record $20 billion in fines to Eric Holder's Justice Department gets a 74% raise and a $20 million salary the same year from his own company's board of directors? 

Matt Taibbi commented: "The biggest news was how brutal an indictment Jamie's raise was of the Obama/Holder Justice Department, which continues to profoundly misunderstand the mindset of the finance villains they claim to be regulating. Chase's responses to Holder's record penalties have been hilarious. Their first move was to make sure people outside the penthouse boardroom took on all the pain, laying off 7,500 employees and freezing salaries for the non-CEO class of line employees. Next, Chase's board members sat down, put their misshapen heads together, considered the impact of this disastrous year of settlements, and decided to respond by more than doubling the take-home pay of the executive in charge, giving Dimon about $20 million in salary and equity." Read the full article: Jamie Dimon's Raise Proves U.S. Regulatory Strategy is a Joke 

It seems to me that Jamie Dimon should be getting a 20 year-sentence in the slammer, instead of a 20-million buck raise.  But that's just me. In China, crooked banksters like Jamie Dimon are tried, convicted and executed by a firing squad. Now that's justice.

Another question: How many hamburger-flippers at McDonald's got a 74% raise last year? 

Yet another question: If an unindicted criminal like Jamie Dimon can get a 74% raise as a reward for mismanaging his company, why hasn't the minimum wage for honest, hard-working Americans been raised by 74%? 

Inquiring minds want to know...

The Death of Celluloid

A friend wrote:

I read that the last theater in America is now getting rid of celluloid and turning to digital...I'm not sure but I think I can tell the difference.  The celluloid seems to have more depth and sharper colors, etc.  It's a different viewing experience. Can you tell the difference?  Do you have an opinion on celluloid vs. digital?   Is digital photography (not video) just as good as film?  

Jagor's reply:

I tend to think that celluloid-film movies will disappear just as celluloid-film still photography has virtually disappeared.

First of all, celluloid is far more expensive than digital. Those Arriflexes and the film stock cost colossal amounts of money, especially in the hands of perfectionist and egotistical directors who insist on dozens of takes for every scene in the film!  Many good films could never have been made without digital cameras.

Secondly is the quality of the medium.  Perhaps earlier digital cameras—both for still photographs and movies—weren't as sharp and colors weren't as good.  But I think that nowadays there isn't much difference.   I, for one, never notice a difference until I see the credits.

A  third thing is that fewer and fewer people want to drive to the multiplex and pay money for a ticket to watch movies in big cinemas, preferring either DVD or Blu-ray or dialing them up on Netflix.  All of these are television-based or computer-based, not big-screen based.  Thus, nobody really knows or cares how the thing was made.

Digital is now part of the rapid democratization of all media. First you had free websites like the now-defunct Geocities--that's how I got my start; then everybody had a blog [like the Jagoriade].  But now everybody's on social media like Twitter and Snapchat and Instagram and sites like Flickr that can store virtually unlimited numbers of digital images on the cloud.  

It seems that the next wave will be free, online video. People are now making movies with their smartphones. There is a very popular app called Vine—over 40 million downloads by August 2013—that allows you to make short, looping videos with your smartphone.  Some companies have even organized contests where Vine film-makers upload their creations for prizes and recognition.

That's the complete and ultimate democratization of the visual media: movies that cost nothing to make and cost nothing to watch.

How I Would Change Our Constitution

The time has come for us Americans to convene a new constitutional convention to replace the 18th century constitution with one that is better suited to the 21st century, while maintaining the fundamental principles elaborated in 1787 such as strict and absolute separation of church and state.  

I am certain that if James Madison, Gouverneur Morris, and the fifty or so other Founding Fathers who authored the Constitution [Thomas Jefferson was our ambassador in Paris and did not participate] were alive today, they would be joining me in clamoring for the convening of a new Constitutional Convention!

Below is a list of ten ways I would change our Constitution.

1. Add more seats to the House of Representatives to conform to the intention of the Framers of our Constituion, who stipulated that "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand" persons. Currently it's around 800,000 persons for each Representative.
2. Retrocede the current District of Columbia back to Maryland, whence it came. Originally, Washington, DC, consisted of two parts, the Virginia part and the Maryland part. Residents of the District of Columbia culd vote for House members in Virginia and Maryland, according to which half of the District they lived in until 1801. The Virginia portion of the District of Columbia was retroceded in 1847 and the Maryland portion should also be retroceded.  Currently, citizens of Washngton, DC, pay taxes but have no  Senators and only a non-voting delegate in the House. If retrocession is too difficult, then the previous system should be reenacted and Washingtonians empowered to vote in Maryland elections.
   
3. Change Election Day from "the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November" [which isn't in the Constitution] to the Fourth of July or hold all Federal elections on Sunday, as in most other democracies, or make Election Day an official, paid holiday, so that citizens would have plenty of time to vote.  At the same time, abolish all electronic or mail-in ballots except for the military, diplomats and citizens living aborad, and require each eligible voter to appear in person at the polls just as every senator and representative must appear in person on the floor of the chamber to vote.
4. The president should be innaugurated as soon as the ballots are counted and certified, as in all other democracies, instead of waiting during a two month-long interregnum until January 20 of the year following the election.
5. Prevent any president from becoming a tyrant, a dictator or a caudillo by replacing the system of one president and one vice-president with a rotating presidency in which each cabinet member would serve a one-year term as president. This is the system used in the other great federal democracy, Switzerland.
6. To eliminate gerrymandering once and for all, abolish all congressional districts [the Constittuion does not require that states be divided up into congressional districdts], and elect all members of the House of Representatives at large.
7. Repeal the first sentence of Article One of the 14th Amendment.  The 14th Amendment was enacted specifically and unequivocally to grant citizenship to former slaves and not to grant citizenship to the offspring of illegal immigrants.
8. Repeal the 17th Amendment and return to the wishes of the Founding Fathers by empowering state legislatures to select their state's two senators.
9. Prohibit any sitting senator [or representative] from running for the office of president or vice-president.  This would have eliminated Senators Obama, Biden, McCain and Clinton and opened the playing field for more qualified candidates such as Republican Mitt Romney, Democrat Deval Patrick or Michael Bloomberg, who has been a member of both parties.
10. Follow the example of John Quincy Adams and require the president and all other elected federal officials to take the oath of office by swearing on the Constitution of the United States of America instead of the Bible, the Qoran or any other religious book.