A collective 'Oh!' echoed around the world after US President Barack Obama was selected as the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. In Egypt, veteran journalist Mohamed Fouda of Al-Messa evening newspaper was no less astonished yesterday. He maintained that the US President was the most unlikely winner because 'Obama's endeavours to achieve global peace and stability have been limited to vague and hypnotic words'
The writer added: “Obama has talked too much about international peace without attempting to fulfil his pledges on the ground of reality. The Arab country of Iraq has been spattered with blood shed in civil wars under the US occupation; Afghanistan is still reeling under the yoke of US-led Nato forces, which gun down defenceless civilians during their pursuit of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.” He also indicated that Obama had let down Arabs and Palestinians when he failed to order Israel to suspend the establishment of Jewish settlements on the Palestinian land in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the occupied territories. However, in the meantime, editor-in-chief of Al-Gomhuria Mohamed Ali Ibrahim and his counterpart at Al-Massa'iya evening newspaper, Hassan el-Rashidi, were hopeful that Obama's award would encourage him to step up his peace-making efforts, including key reductions in nuclear weapons across the world. Good example for the PM to followLauding a decision taken by football officials in Egypt to dismiss the Czech coach of Egypt's U-20 team Miroslav Scopi, Mohamed Amin of Al-Wafd opposition daily yesterday urged Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to act likewise and kick out ministers and city governors, who have failed to commit themselves to their responsibilities. “Football officials have set a good example by deciding to get rid of the Czech trainer for his failure to build a strong Egyptian team under 20, which could compete successfully in the FIFA's Under-20 World Cup,” the writer said. “Cabinet ministers and city governors, who also disappoint the public and ignore their commitments, should be disciplined and dismissed, if their failure is attributed to their qualifications and policies.” Concluding his comparison in this field, the writer suggested that Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni should have been told to go, after he was evicted from the international competition over UNESCO's top post. Parliamentary double standardsA flurry of high-level contacts has been made by powerful people in the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to settle outside the courts a dispute between the Ministry of Interior and an MP belonging to the ruling party. This activity led Al-Wafd journalist Alaa Orebi yesterday to claim that NDP's members were more fortunate and protected in society than colleagues belonging to the opposition parties. According to the journalist, the ruling party MP [Parliamentary representative of an Upper Egyptian constituency] led hundreds of his supporters to violently storm a police station in his village to try to release his cousins from the detention cell. However, despite his unlawful attempt, NDP leaders are pressing the Minister of Interior to accept the deputy's apology. “Moreover, unlike its reaction to similar situations, involving a deputy from the opposition or an independent, the People's Assembly (legislature) has been reluctant to suspend the attacker's immunity until peace talks with the Minister of Interior bore fruits,” the journalist said. He condemned what he alleged as a policy of double standards in Parliament. The frustrated journalist then contended: “Had the lawbreaker belonged to any of the opposition parties, the Speaker of the Legislature would have let the majority MPs sharpen their teeth and tear his flesh before giving permission to the prosecutors to investigate him and send him to the court”. He added that pro-government newspapers would also be mobilised to scandalise the opposition MP in society. Constitution guarantees democracyOn the other hand, meanwhile, Mohamed Ibrahim el-Desouqi of Al-Ahram insisted that immunity should not be abused to cause chaos and contempt of the law. El-Desouqi's argument was based on a decision by the Italian constitutional court to strip Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of his immunity, so that he could be interrogated over the alleged corruption and sex scandals he is embroiled in. “Although the Italian Prime Minister is fully aware of the grave consequences of the constitutional order against him, he refused to protest,” the writer said. “Nor did he, or his media empire and armies of supporting journalists, claim that the constitutional order to bring the Prime Minister before the interrogators had scandalised Italy, regionally and internationally.” The journalist concluded that superior law guarantees democracy and transparency in any society. FM's writing talentYesterday, veteran writer Mohamed el-Ezabi of Al-Gomhuria predicted that Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit would successfully become a writer when he leaves office. It was the minister's nostalgic account published in Al-Ahram about his role during the October war in 1973 that drew the writer's attention to Abul Gheit's writing talent. “Abul Gheit's account of his responsibilities and memories of the October victory were engrossing,” the veteran journalist commented. Expecting that these memoirs would soon be published in a book, the writer affirmed: “The minister is an honest and sincere writer, who has a good-writing style. His flesh-and-blood account does not ignore the element of suspense in thrilling writing and with an awe-striking atmosphere.” Iranian door thrown wide openIran is trying to exploit the 'five plus one' talks over its nuclear ambitions to ease US-led sanctions on its oil and gas production to improve the Iranian economy. Tehran's plans to make economic gains under any circumstances were discussed yesterday by writer Ibrahim Nafea of Al-Ahram. He explained: “The Iranians have thrown the door wide open for foreign companies to come in and invest in its oil and natural gas projects. Foreign companies are likely to find it hard to resist the Iranian temptation after Tehran, which has the second highest reserves of natural gas after Russia, implied that it was seriously thinking of privatising 80 per cent of shares in state-owned companies.”Are Egyptians really patriotic? Mohamed el-Zarkani of Akhbar Al-Youm weekly compilation doubted, in the meantime, that Egyptians are really committed to their homeland. Symptoms of their perceived lack of patriotism, which led the writer to stigmatise his fellow citizens, are manifested in mounds of garbage spreading everywhere, the public refusal to maintain domestic water pipes and taps to rationalise water consumption, and road rage, which claims tens of thousands of lives every year. Unaware young peopleAlso published in the same edition of Akhbar Al-Youm was an article by Islam Afifi. He conceded the unhappy fact that young generations were unaware that October Sixth of City and the October Bridge were named to pay homage to the great victory of the Egyptian army over Israel in the 1973 war.Blaming older generations for these young people poor knowledge of great achievements in the nation's modern history, the journalist said: “Neither has the war nor the victory in October been featured prominently in school textbooks.”
