Charlie Rose

JohnGelles  02/13/2011 10:54 PM Report

The new library would be immune to typographical error.

JohnGelles  02/13/2011 10:52 PM Report

With Wael Ghoneim (Google's man in Egypt) as one of several leaders, we should rebuild the Library at Alexander as best we can, together with a major library research center focused on the ancient world before the destruction of the original. It would be a monument to the potential of last week in Egypt to change the global economy for the better based on scholarship and humanitarian values.

JohnGelles  02/13/2011 05:25 PM Report

It's hard to time a comment to where we are -- this being Sunday, the 13th -- and the video above was made 2 days ago.

What can be said that is timely? The Sunday shows -- on ABC Christiana Anampur (misspelled I'm sure) was best; NBC, Fox, and CNN (Fareed Zakaria) excellent; were all optimistic but cautious. That's a good stance -- in my view. Pessimism can wait for facts that may prove Egypt can no more end unemployment and consequent poverty than can America.

Yet, I hope Egypt will do exactly that. There is enough work to be done and enough wealth to be earned for Egypt -- and its friends in America and its allies -- for success to be achieved in time to prevent tyranny and rabid Anti-Americanism to corrupt the Revolution now in progress.

The Sunday shows made Egypt share the spotlight with American conservatives who want tax reductions first (and regulatory easing) to allow small and big business to spearhead our march to full employment here.

Of course, government money makes a better spearhead than private capital -- which is constrained by shorter term profit opportunities than is government.

If I were Obama I would promise business lower taxes, interest, and regulatory compliance costs. This can be done via excellence in governance. Actual financial power and safe-practices i9n business can be achieved by excellence -- AND they can-NOT be achieved by merely raising taxes and writing regulations that are unreadable and counter-productive.

Egypt has given us a HIGH. Will it be ruined by our rivals in China and Russia on purpose? Will it be ruined by our enemies who chose Islamic fascism over Islamic freedom? Will it be lost because of timidity in Washington, London, Paris and Berlin?

FDR said it all when he declared that unemployed masses of people are the meat on which tyranny feeds? We will attend to full employment AND to human rights as expressed in the current common law or we will re-live the 20th Century with even worse outcomes: nuclear weapons have already spread to nations little better than those with deadly force in the 20th Century. We had better pull up our own socks and be prepared to take the initiative to PREVENT WMD's from accidental or deliberate use.

If I were President, I would recruit ex-President George Bush (the younger) and Colin Powell to help unite America to put every American to work to bring prosperity in sight of every nation and its people. Then I would add the Clinton's and people like Tony Blair to that team. We will need all the help we can get.

There are Russian, Chinese, Indians, and other great minds in a score or more nations whose voices ought to be united -- if we want the peace we see that Egypt has exposed.