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norman kelley

norman kelley
Location
Washington, District of Columbia, USA
Bio
Norman Kelley is an independent journalist, author, and former segment radio producer at WBAI 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio. He has written for Society, L A Weekly, The Brooklyn Rail, The Village Voice, The Nation, New York Press, Newsday, Word.com, The Black Star News, New Politics, Black Renaissance/Noir, and The Bedford Stuyvesant Current. He is also the author of the "noir soul"/ mystery series that features "Nina Halligan" in Black Heat (Amistad), The Big Mango (Akashic Books), and A Phat Death (2003). Norman Kelley was also a contributing writer to Brooklyn Noir (Akashic Books, 2004) and DC Noir (Akashic Books, 2006) and Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium (Random House 2000). He edited and contributed to R&B (Rhythm and Business): The Political Economy of Black Music (Akashic Books, 2005; 2002).

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FEBRUARY 10, 2011 5:34PM

Mubarak: King of the Kleptocracies?

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It's bad enough that Mubarak won't take his boot off  his people's neck, but he also wears a  very expensive one while doing so.

According to Juan Cole, he has a personal fortune of $70 billion dollars!

Referring to Wael Ghonim's reasons for wanting to unseat pharoah, Cole wrote:

He wants an end to Egypt’s crony capitalist state, which allowed Hosni Mubarak to accumulate a fortune of $70 billion while 40 percent of Egyptians live on $2 a day or a little over that. Ghonim told CNN, “The plan was to get everyone on the street. The plan was number one we’re going to start from poor areas. Our demands are going to be all about what touches people’s daily life. And by the way we honestly meant it. One of the very famous videos we used all the time to promote this was a guy eating from the trash.” ( emphasis original)

I've asked Juan Cole on his blog "Informed Comment" to verify this. If anyone in Open Salon community has information on this,  please send links or sites my way.

$70 billion?!

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I don't think it is nearly that much, but it is mathematically possible.
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:EGY&dl=en&hl=en&q=egyptian+gdp
If he was taking one to three percent of GDP per year for thirty years, and investing it well, it could be true.
Usually you hear more like 2-10 billion. Mobutu was supposedly worth 5-10, so it does happen.
Don Rich
February 10, 2011 05:42 PM
I thought it was $90 billion, and that Swiss banks have already frozen his accounts. But, as Hilary said, he's a great guy and Americans support him! After all, brutal dictators our tax dollars put into power via the CIA need our biggest export, weapons, to stay in power. Mubarak was a wonderful customer of ours for 30 years!
Soap Box Amy
February 24, 2011 01:26 PM

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