Egypt faces its real crisis

Egypt has taken decisive measures to meet the real crisis facing the nation today.  No, not the need for political reform, or what to do about including the Muslim Brotherhood, or... what's wrong with you?  I'm talking about sexy video clips.  Keep your eye on the ball, folks.

Al Sharq al Awsat reports today:  "In a new development in the video clip crisis in Egyptian television" - yes, they did say "the video clip crisis", do you think I'd make that up? -  "Egypt's television censorship board has refused to permit a large number of music video clips, with the number reaching more than 20 Egyptian and Arab male and female singers.... the censors believe that these video clips corrupt public morals." 

And get this:  "the surprise intervention by the censorship board comes after a heavy mobilization by the Egyptian musicians association against video clip singers" and "a report by the Culture Committee in the Egyptian Parliament in which members of the committee had attacked these singers and had demanded censorship with some intensity".  See, more evidence of the growing power of Arab public opinion, that popular mobilization can get results!

Comments

[praktike]

That's not the only crisis:

http://www.natashatynes.org/newswire/2005/03/egyptian_belly_.html

[praktike]

OT:

Joe Trippi on Qatar and Al Jazeera:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7332497/

[lebanon.profile]

This is just another example of Mubarak throwing a few favors at Islamists to secure his regime. It's just like when the regime bans books to appease to Islamic community. Mubarak's only interest is staying in power, not subscribing to a unified ideological plan.
However, this ban will do little given that most shisha, qahwa, and falafel cafes in Egypt have satellite TV.
If they can't get their fill of skirt from national broadcasts and Mazzika, they will just turn to Walid bin Talal's Rotana, LBC, or Nagham.

[Abu Tabakh]

Joe Trippi is trippin' on the spring water at the Ritz-Carlton in Doha...

[Anna in Cairo]

The musicians are against the Lebanese video clips because of Rotana et al.'s monopolization on the Arab music scene. They are trying to fight back. I don't think censorship is the best method, but I guess it's up to them to decide on their tactics. Once again, an older Ahram Weekly article (I believe it was in 2003 sometime) gives a very good and detailed analysis of the Lebanese/Egyptian competition for cultural supremacy in the ME, and how the Lebanese companies are winning by buying out Egyptian music distributors/producers and signing contracts with Egyptian entertainers, then not producing anything.