Bjorg Olafs

West should condone Egyptian democracy in action

By the time this is published, the one-year anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution — the second to occur in the Arab Spring following Tunisia — will have passed. The movement chose Jan. 25 as the beginning of the national protest to coincide with the Egyptian holiday of National Police Day, a holiday intended to remember Egyptian police officials who lost their lives in their struggle for autonomy. Interestingly enough, National Police Day was a holiday instituted two years prior to President Mubarak's deposition.

Either way, it is on this Jan. 25 that we are able to recollect that within our lifetime the Egyptian nation, chiefly led by college youth, embarked upon a plan of action to dismantle a corrupt government. Within a month of the protest they succeeded.

It was a momentous occasion, one in which the people and the military stood in solidarity opposing the structures of oppression, and on the following Feb. 11 Vice President Suleiman announced the resignation of President Hosini Mubarak. This was followed by relinquishing power to the Supreme Council of Egyptian Armed Forces, and this is where the political power of the nation has stayed for a year.

One might assume that this revolution would usher in sweeping democratic reforms that would lead to the restructuring of Egypt, and tentatively, the rest of the nations involved in the Arab Spring. But progress has been comparable to molasses — making sufficient gains albeit sluggish in the overall transition of power from the military to elected political parties.

‘The Descendants’ touches, moves audiences

Director Alexander Payne hasn't made a film since the critically acclaimed "Sideways" in 2004. Revolving around two guys coasting through California wine-country, it was funny, witty, poignant and simply brilliant.

Now — seven years later — Payne brings his much anticipated follow-up "The Descendants" to theaters. Based on the book by Kaui Hart Hemmings, this is another solid movie from Payne, illustrating the filmmakers' skill at revealing the humor in everyday drama.

Though his films feature quirky, somewhat-outside-the-norm characters, they are reminders of inherently human parts in all of us.

George Clooney stars as Matt King, a wealthy landowner dealing with a super-important real-estate deal, simultaneously caring for his two daughters when his wife is involved in an accident which leaves her in a coma.

King struggles to connect with 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller) who is caught bullying others in school and is stunned when his older teenager Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) informs him that she caught her mother having an affair.