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Bag’s Take-Away:
Ben Ali, Muammar and Hosni last October — just ahead of “the Spring.” Should have checked their horoscopes.(photo: DPA caption: By 2010, Gadhafi was one of the longest-serving despots on the African continent. Here, he is seen with Tunisian ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak in October 2010. Both of them were toppled in mass protests earlier this year.)
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Topping LIFE.com’s 2011 list of Best Photo Blogs, follow us at: BagNewsNotes; BAG Twitter; BAG Facebook; Bag by Email.
Bag’s Take-Away:
Brilliant photo as companion to pics of Mubarak testifying in the cage. What it shows is riot police in Cairo outside the criminal court watching the Mubarak trial (stunningly, also prosecuting former Interior/Security head al-Adly) on a public screen outside the building.
The deeper implication of the bars, though (enhanced by those wary faces), is that the current military government and the security apparatus is just as much “on trial” in the court of public opinion, which is the major reason why Mubarak’s combination show trial/public flogging is actually happening in the first place.
In light of the picture, being “thrown to the wolves” might not be far off.
(photo: Getty Images caption: Egyptian riot police follow the trial of former interior minister Habib al-Adly on a screen erected outside the Cairo Criminal Court at the Police Academy on August 4, 2011 during his trial along with six senior police officers over deaths in the uprising that unseated Hosni Mubarak.)
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Topping LIFE.com’s 2011 list of Best Photo Blogs, follow us at: BagNewsNotes; BAG Twitter; BAG Facebook; Bag by Email.
Bag’s Take-Away:
While the headline shouts Western appeasement after limp promises of reform, today’s lead NYT photo communicates how the military is attempting to cajole the protesters in order to disappear occupation of Tahrir Square. It’s a perfect portrait of Mubarak’s strategy: wait them out/grind them down/look reasonable to the cameras they can’t quite get rid of.
(photo: Scott Nelson for the New York Times. caption: Soldiers tried to persuade antigovernment protesters to allow them to dismantle barricades in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Saturday.
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Bag’s Take-Away:
Battered, but not bowed.
(photo: Ed Ou for The New York Times. caption: Wounded antigovernment protesters after a protracted overnight battle with Mubarak supporters.)
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For the latest in visual politics, visit BagNewsNotes (and follow us on Twitter).
Bag’s Take-Away:
If the uprising in Cairo has been mostly peaceful so far, this flaming wire photo — from Istanbul, I should note — is as foreboding for Egypt as it is for Mubarak.
(See the companion post, “Egypt: The Fear Factor,” at BagNewsNotes.)
(photo: BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images caption: Turkish Muslims burn a picture of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on January 30, 2011 during a protest against his regime in front of the Egyptian consulate in Istanbul. Embattled President Hosni Mubarak called out the army and tasked them specifically with helping police quell deadly protests in which around 50 people have been killed.
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For the latest in visual politics, visit BagNewsNotes (and follow us on Twitter).
