From the Land of the Pharaohs...

I’m relieved Big Pharaoh – the blogosphere’s man in Cairo – doesn’t appear as worried as I thought he would be about the sudden announcement by Hosni Mubarak of democratic elections in Egypt. Recently the BP opined that he didn’t think his country was ready for full bore democracy and preferred to wait for a civil society to develop. Well, history has a way of pulling us along with it. Now the Big Pharaoh writes he may even vote for Mubarak. I guess it’s a case of “the devil you know.” We’re all familiar with that. But speaking of “devil” clichés, we all know it’s supposed to be in the details.

UDPATE: Also from the Big Pharaoh, a group of Lebanese has pulled down the statue of the late Syrian dictator Hafez Assad in Lebanon. Maybe they’ll put up one of Bashar, though I doubt it. Am I only one or has anyone else thought that the opthalmologist/wannabe dictator is a particularly spidery and repellent version of Michael Corleone, taking over the family business? Or better yet, maybe he’s Fredo.