Last week, the big news with Egyptian President and awarding state medals revolved around presenting the medals to the SCAF leaders he unexpectedly and ceremoniously sent to retirement; this announcement was the result of a progressive one-upmanship for power in the developing democracy. Morsi essentially secured control over the military, as well as parliamentary powers when he dissolved the SCAF's supplemental constitution.
Without a parliament or a constitution, combined with newly appointed military and the former leaders out of the way, Morsi is the top guy for the foreseeable future. The announcement last week drew support and criticism, and dominated the headlines here and abroad. Many questioning if such a move simply exchanges one dictator for another.
This Friday, August 24 is the first Friday after the holy month of Ramadan; as a result, Tahrir Square is expected to be full of demonstrators--both for and against Morsi. There will be many other demonstrators showing up for a variety of reasons: some for increased security in Sinai, others to remember the victims in the Sinai attacks, and still others to protest the increasing power outages while electric costs rise; and, of course, there will be a host of vendors out to make a profit off of hungry, thirsty or curious spectators. That should be quite a gathering!
But lost in the mainline press, and even locally, is another story about Morsi and medals. We were told by a young Egyptian yesterday that Morsi had awarded himself each of Egypt's state medals.
I wanted to document this before simply repeating it--and documentation was hard to find. None of the larger news networks carried the story, and it hasn't appeared (from what I can find) on the local news sites. I did find a Twitter feed among young Egyptians, that referenced a pdf of Tahrir News on 08-09-2012 (part of page 4 included as pic). Though I cannot read all of the Arabic, I have translated part of the article and it does appear that Morsi has given himself medals.
The rub, as shared by the young Egyptian who first told us about this, is that Morsi also receives the monthly financial award that comes with each medal, and the total from all is a "pretty piastre".
When we asked about why would he do this, the second hand report is because "he didn't feel he could award a medal that he didn't have himself." Whether or not that's the reasoning, a President giving himself all the state medals, all at once, within his first few months as President is a bit questionable to say the least.
Those questions are likely to be asked, chanted, and painted on signs come Friday in Tahrir.
Keep praying for Egypt...
Without a parliament or a constitution, combined with newly appointed military and the former leaders out of the way, Morsi is the top guy for the foreseeable future. The announcement last week drew support and criticism, and dominated the headlines here and abroad. Many questioning if such a move simply exchanges one dictator for another.
This Friday, August 24 is the first Friday after the holy month of Ramadan; as a result, Tahrir Square is expected to be full of demonstrators--both for and against Morsi. There will be many other demonstrators showing up for a variety of reasons: some for increased security in Sinai, others to remember the victims in the Sinai attacks, and still others to protest the increasing power outages while electric costs rise; and, of course, there will be a host of vendors out to make a profit off of hungry, thirsty or curious spectators. That should be quite a gathering!
But lost in the mainline press, and even locally, is another story about Morsi and medals. We were told by a young Egyptian yesterday that Morsi had awarded himself each of Egypt's state medals.I wanted to document this before simply repeating it--and documentation was hard to find. None of the larger news networks carried the story, and it hasn't appeared (from what I can find) on the local news sites. I did find a Twitter feed among young Egyptians, that referenced a pdf of Tahrir News on 08-09-2012 (part of page 4 included as pic). Though I cannot read all of the Arabic, I have translated part of the article and it does appear that Morsi has given himself medals.
The rub, as shared by the young Egyptian who first told us about this, is that Morsi also receives the monthly financial award that comes with each medal, and the total from all is a "pretty piastre".
When we asked about why would he do this, the second hand report is because "he didn't feel he could award a medal that he didn't have himself." Whether or not that's the reasoning, a President giving himself all the state medals, all at once, within his first few months as President is a bit questionable to say the least.
Those questions are likely to be asked, chanted, and painted on signs come Friday in Tahrir.
Keep praying for Egypt...
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