When democracy doesn't deliver the western friendly face that the people should have voted for, ofcourse he should be appointed after a coup.

Mohammed ElBaradei was the darling face for the western media who would have loved for him to win last years presidential elections to complete a fairytale story. The only problem was that he was little known inside egypt and his bid to become president failed spectacularly.

Now, that is not a problem as he doesn't need to win any popular vote to be appointed Prime Minister. All he has to do is utter a few spineless words. Words supporting the army, condemning the Muslim Brotherhood for "plotting" before the coup. (Plotting what? support for legitimacy).

The Egyptian president has fallen, forced out through a combination of mass protest and the military.

I wonder if the people on the street even realise that they have been played by the old guard.

Morsi, from the Muslim Brotherhood, had a tough reign in power, elected only a year ago.

Powerless President

When before the elections it looked like there was a possibility that a Muslim Brotherhood candidate might win, the military had made a decree removing the powers of the president, in essense making him a puppet. Even then they were forced to allow him to be president by the people who at the time did not want a member of the old regime to already subvert the revolution.

Hezbollah is a large millitant group mostly based in southern Lebanon with a goal to resist Israel.

It had large popular backing when until around 2000, Israel had occupied southern Lebanon. It got a lot of support from the people on the street, and the governments of Syria and Iran.

It has also been involved in two conflicts with Israel since the Israeli withdrawal, but still enjoyed widespread support as "Legitimate resistance" and also for being a thorn in Israel's side.

The people of Syria supported Hezbollah almost totally, and this was helped by the fact that the regime also supported Hezbollah as its trump card to hit Israel should any hostilities arise with Israel or its allies.

The people of Syria gave them shelter and support.

So far, the Syrian conflict has resulted in a reported 40,000 lives being lost.

There are some estimates that 100,000 lives will be lost over the following year.

Hopefully though the deaths and suffering will be far less than what is expected, and will result in an improvement for the people in Syria, but some of the fighting groups may not please the locals too much.

We need to give greater focus to this (and other conflicts) and not focus just on Palestine (but that also does not mean that the focus on there should be reduced).

It is sometimes easier to focus on other conflicts where Muslims are being oppressed by Non Muslims, but solely focussing on them leaves us open to arguments of bias which belittle out focus on those opressions.

Two important polls going on today:

1. Greece.

The people are voting again after the last elections 6 weeks ago proved inconclusive.

The results could decide whether greece stays in the Euro, the EU both, either or none.

Very important european election where there are no guarantees and this could be the first nation to leave the eurozone and that is an unknown as the euro was not built for anyone to leave it ever. Questions exist if it could survive a state leaving and also how bad or good this would be for Greece.

2. Egypt.

It's the run off presidential elections the week after the old remnants have been making themselves felt.

The supreme court has called last years parliamentary elections unconstitutional and has also ruled thata former Prime Minister under Mubarak who was legally barred from being president could take part in the upcoming run off presidential elections that will take place this weekend.

This may hand all power (all instead of the 99% that it holds now) back to the military and once again lead the country to a place it is lead by people it doesnt want to be lead by.

Something to keep an eye on.

When the arab spring started, I thought that there was a chance it may avoid Syria.

While repressive and the state had a history of cracking down on dissent, I saw some intelligence, and attempts to make Syria not be like all the rest.

However this peace lasted only a few weeks when some elements of the regime cracked down against graffitiing youngsters, which started protests against the regime.

Since then the protests have increased and so has the regimes brutality.

There were words said early on by Bashar al Asad that seemed to suggest he could potentially change the nature of things in Syria and lead to progress that the people could live with.

I havent blogged about the Arab revolts in a while now.

That isnt because its all over or sorted though.

The current big place of action is Syria - tension has been simmering for the past year and thousands have been killed.

Now it seems that Assad Junior is preparing to go the whole hog like his father with a ground assault on the city of Homs which could leave many more dead and injured.

There have been calls for resolutions from major western powers which have been vetoes by China and Russia - the latter claiming that the former are stoking the unrest.

It is a complicated situation where the government forces are clearly in the wrong, and it seems like it will only get worse.

Its election season in the arab world, and we are currently on the third election - Egypt.

In the first elections in Tunisia, the Islamic minded party, Al Nahda (arabic for "The Awakening" or "The Renaissance" or dare I say it, "The Revival") was the leading party.

It should get a big say in the interim government which decides the future of the country (however it is possible that all the other parties could unite to keep it out of power).

The second elections were in Morocco last week, where once again, the largest part was the Islamic minded Islamic Justice and Development Party (PJD) won the most seats and with the changes in the country's constitution earlier this year, it means that they will form the govenrment and provide the prime minister in this kingdom democracy.