Egypt, Obama’s Africa trip, NSA spying, fracking, more

EGYPT’S REGIME CHANGE
“I wonder if the Turkish military is admiring all the pretty fireworks in Cairo? Just say’n.”
– Sanho Tree, Director, Drug Policy Project at IPS, on Twitter.

“Whether or not the military’s removal of the president constitutes a coup, the removal of a president by force, by the military, doesn’t bode well for Egypt’s fragile, incomplete and already flawed democracy. Where has that ever succeeded? For people’s movements, the take-over by the military of implementation of the street’s demand that Morsi must go, doesn’t bode well for the future of that movement. Things remain very fraught… But what happens now? The military is once again the center of power in Egypt… having the military in control means that U.S. influence is much greater – because the Egyptian military is thoroughly dependent on the U.S. for economic support and access to weapons. After the overthrow of Mubarak, the U.S. promised around a billion dollars in economic and development aid for the “new Egypt.” But less than a quarter of that has actually been sent.”
– Phyllis Bennis, Director of the New Internationalism Project at IPS, in a blog post for Al-Jazeera English.

OBAMA’S AFRICA TRIP
“We saw during this trip that the exuberance has really waned in a number of ways. There is a bit of discontent that there’s a continuation of some of the policies from the Bush administration to the Obama administration that may not have served the interest of Africa, nor, quite frankly, the interest of the U.S. …The policies of the Obama administration, what many had hoped would be reset in the second term, still have a long ways to go to meet the needs and interests of the majority of people on the African continent.”
– Emira Woods, Co-Director, Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, speaking on the PBS NewsHour.

NSA SPYING
“If you believe what it says in our founding documents, that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed, then we have a real problem here. Because we cannot give our consent to secret laws and programs.”
– Sanho Tree, Director, Drug Policy, IPS, speaking at a rally on Capitol Hill.

WORLD BANK’S COAL AND FRACKING FINANCING
“The World Bank is jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Instead of leading the world toward a truly clean energy future, the World Bank is once again locking the developing world into a finite, carbon-based energy system. This makes no sense from a climate perspective, nor does it make sense from an economic perspective: the International Energy Agency tells us the price of natural gas will exceed that of renewable energy by 2016.”
– Daphne Wysham, founder and co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network at IPS, responding to a leaked memo showing that the World Bank is shifting from financing for coal to financing for natural gas fracking extraction.

BASEBALL
“When you attend a game with a child it’s important to see the baseball universe through their eyes. Forget the pitch count – I have to take Daniel to the bathroom twice. During the 4th inning, seeking more food, we stand on a fast moving line. I can hear the action taking place on the field but I can’t see anything. Does it matter? My mind is on Daniel not dropping his food or getting ketchup on his red Nationals shirt. In front of us someone accidentally knocks a beer out of a woman’s hand. The spilling of holy water? There is no argument. Somewhere a manager is taking a ball out of a pitcher’s hand. Accidents can happen, like triples.”
– Ethelbert Miller, IPS Board Chair, writing in the Hill Rag.

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