Serbian and Egyptian NGOs share experience in Security Sector Reform

Here is the video about the seminar that we (BCSP) conducted with a number of Egyptian CSOs on Security Sector Reform two weeks ago. We learned a lot not only about Egypt and its current political challenges but also about Serbia and our democratization experience in a comparative light. The new wave of democratic transition in the Middle East is growing and the Western Balkan states and societies have a lot to offer in terms of lessons learnt, both positive and negative ones. Notwithstanding all the differences between the two regions, I am deeply convinced that common Ottoman heritage, conflictual history, fresh experience in democratic transition and religious diversity all together make the Balkans the best candidate for being a pool of important insights for emerging democracies of the MENA region.

Egypt's Revolution in Street Art

Egypt is amidst great uncertainty. Mubarak is toppled but his military still holds a strong grip over the country. Islamist parties won a landslide majority in the recent parliamentary elections but the outcome of upcoming presidential elections is far from easy to predict. In the meantime, the rest of the country is trying hard to recover from an economic downturn especially its plunging tourist sector. Should you visit any of its numberless hotel resorts everyone will try to do their best so that you can forget about the boiling political situation and relax. But in Cairo the smell of the revolution is still in the air. The standoff between the forces of the revolution on the one side and the SCAF on the other has increased the importance of symbolic battlefields. As the sit-ins at the Tahrir square are waning, the country prepares for the first free presidential elections in its history. The status quo powers are using the traditional media; Islamists are rallying around the minbar while the revolutionary youth relies on new media and on streets of course. What follows is my selection of some revolution-inspired street art that I photographed last week in Cairo around the Tahrir square. As you can see, the imprint of the Serbia's Resistance (OTPOR) against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic is more than obvious.