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** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!

 
JackWagon
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02/03/2011 01:05 PM
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** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!
I am relaying this as a proxy and I feel it is a story that everybody needs to hear. This was sent to me by a close friend this morning and I figured everybody would like to read it. So without further adieu, here it is.



A dear friend of mine lived in Cairo, Egypt for 10 years and while there formed a lasting friendship with a family to whom she just visited this summer. The following is a letter written by the son of her friends, who at this time is hold up in their home in Cairo, while his family is, fortunately, away from the turmoil.
This is a very comprehensive and insightful look into what is happening in Egypt from the eyes of one who is living through it.


"Dear friends

Thank you for your warm and extremely touching expressions of concern over the recent events that have unfolded in Egypt. Your thoughts make a bigger difference than you can possibly know during what is a terribly difficult and proud time. I am safe, for now at least, and in my family’s home. My parents and sister are overseas where my father has been recovering from surgery that he underwent before the turmoil erupted. I am not alone here though, and I have no immediate intention to evacuate my home. That said it has been a harrowing time and I am one of millions of people to have witnessed things in the last week which we thought belonged only to the war torn countries we see in the news. I cannot tell how this ends nor for how long this recently restored internet service will remain, however I can assure you that I am doing all I can to stay safe and have as sound contingency plans in place as I can given the circumstances.

For those of you who are interested I will spend the rest of this email trying to make sense of what has happened in Egypt and providing some personal anecdotal experiences. Please accept that I am no political analyst nor have I had firsthand experience with everything you see in the news.

President Hosni Mubarak never took power in Egypt by force. He became President 28 years ago by default when our then President Anwar Sadat was assassinated during a celebratory military parade. Mubarak, a career military man, was sitting next to Sadat and is said to have never quite recovered from the experience of being shot at close range. As an air force pilot he fought for his country, but as President he has made it a top priority to keep Egypt free of security troubles and as a result is our first leader in almost six generations to not take Egypt to war. During his presidency Egypt has also seen a significant rise in GDP, a 15 year increase in life expectancy, a 30% improvement in literacy, an improvement in relations with many influential countries, a vast expansion of Egyptian trade and infrastructure, and many more achievements.


But Egypt is a country of complex and often contradictory social imperatives and I am sure it is difficult to keep it stable. Perhaps as a result Mubarak’s tenure has seen some less than savoury changes too: a stifling of opposition, limiting freedoms of expression, allowing patronage and corruption to flourish. The President changed the constitution twice allowing him unprecedented extensions of term, and elections were shamelessly rigged. Members of Government became not servants of the people but elites rarely accountable to them. Occasionally public anger would simmer up and the leadership would allow it to vent briefly before cracking down. Importantly a brutal and obscenely corrupt police force developed that has bullied and taunted its people into a form of submission. As a result of both strategies the simmer never turned into a boil.

The events of the last 9 days, however, have been the product of a perfect storm that has been brewing for about two years. Questions have been growing about political succession; the President who is over 80 years old has never appointed a VP and his health is fragile. His son appeared to be groomed for the top spot much against the will of the country that half a century ago overthrew its monarchy. Police brutality soared to new heights. Food prices globally rose but domestic wages did not follow and people started to go hungry. The Nobel laureate Mohamed el Baradei returned home and infused the public with dreams of a fairer political future. Ridiculous though it sounds, Egypt lost a football match to Algeria that led to fights and a full scale diplomatic incident around which the people – unusually –unified. Technology, especially facebook and twitter, allowed Egypt’s enormous young population share their frustrations. And finally we watched Tunisia pluck up the courage to overthrow their President. I believe that all these things and some more came together at the right time to trigger small groups to stand up and then the masses to follow.

Protests had already been brewing for a few days before the large march that followed Friday prayer last week. On the day itself Government shocked its people by shutting down the internet and mobile phone coverage to limit the demonstrators’ ability to organise themselves, but it was too late. At twenty thousand people it was the largest demonstration in recent memory and the police responded to it with water cannons, beatings and more teargas than most of the international press had ever seen used anywhere. The demonstrators had not all come in peace either though, Molotov cocktails were produced and launched, and, before they knew it the police had a full scale assault on their hands. Demonstrators ran into live ammunition overturning the riot police’s vehicles and attacking its officers. Eventually security forces had to retreat, some threw off their uniforms and switched sides, others even found themselves protected by demonstrators from the onslaught. Realising his police was impotent the President ordered the army (whom Egyptians hold in high regard) into the cities to restore the peace.

What happened next will go down in history as one of the vilest actions ever taken by an Egyptian Governmental authority against its people. Whether to teach the general public a lesson or to save the administration from further embarrassing demonstrations, there is increasing evidence that the President or someone in his administration acted without the President’s knowledge to suspend police services across the country, and gave secret instruction to encourage criminals across Cairo to unleash hell. Prisons were stormed and around thirty thousand inmates released and many tens of thousands more thugs, looters, thieves, rapists and vandals descended on the city with not a policeman in sight. Panic gripped the city as buildings were vandalised, shops were looted, and homes were ransacked. There are reports of trucks pulling into neighbourhoods and megaphones advised residents to bring down their valuables rather than the looters coming up to get them.

I had some personal experience of this. Rushing home amid rumours that looters were descending on my neighbourhood I saw thugs had set up a road block ahead of me and were stopping cars at knife point and taking people’s belongings as they tried to escape with their personal effects. I had to reverse away at great speed and find back roads home. There I had half an hour to collect my family’s essential documents, some family photos, and whatever cash I could find before bedding down the house and readying myself for possible assault. I had no idea whether my porter and I would be faced with a handful of looters or hundreds; all I could do was wait and be ready fight or flee. This happened just last Saturday.

As it happens the army did not take long to mobilise and within a few hours looters were in retreat as tanks, armoured vehicles, personnel carriers and soldiers rolled into the suburbs and onwards into the city. There were scenes of jubilation and dancing and hugging on tanks but for most in the country it was a long night glued to televisions as diallers-in begged the army to hurry before looters arrived. In some cases we could hear screaming and doors being broken down live on air. And that is when the army sent out the only mobile phone text message we would receive for days. In it they announced that they had arrived to impose martial law, that they were here to protect us, but that they couldn’t do it alone. They called on all Egyptian men to take up arms, to guard their homes, and to help the army secure the streets. And Egypt answered.


In an astonishing and emotional display of solidarity men across Egypt armed themselves with sticks, pipes, chains, knives, guns and have formed night-time neighbourhood militias. I have joined my local watch and like many men across the city we patrol the streets, sleep in shifts and stand with each other through long nights as the city is under silent curfew. In Cairo alone we have caught more than six thousand would-be thieves and delivered them to the military whose tanks are even now positioned on street corners around our homes. It’s strange to think that a week ago we led perfectly normal lives, and now we live in some ways under the most primal conditions thinkable, defending our families and homes with sticks.

Up until the point where the streets became lawless, protesters against the president represented a relatively small group while most others watched it all unfold on television. The moment the entire country was made to stand side-by-side in defending their homes, however, we were all suddenly in this together and the solidarity this resulted in led to the “million man march” you all saw on television yesterday. It was a gross error of judgement on the part of the police to make us scurry home, one they have been made to pay for. The march would ultimately draw some 3 million people across every social class; celebrities and paupers were being interviewed on television through the day. Ahead of the march the army announced that the public’s frustrations and demands were not unreasonable and that therefore they would not punish PEACEFUL demonstrations. In doing so they sent Egyptians a clear signal that although the army is loyal to the President it ultimately serves the people, although this was mistakenly interpreted by the foreign press as the military joining the people against the President. An uncharacteristically civilised and good natured protest march followed, in which the demonstrators showed exemplary restraint and organisation even going so far as to arrange civilian security check points to weed out armed thugs who had been sent to derail the day. The images that were beamed across the world can only have shown a President that had lost his legitimacy because he eventually appeared on national television to make a touching and somewhat grandfatherly but nonetheless ambiguous statement in which he promised not run for another term as President in this year’s election and that he would oversee an orderly transition in the interim. Please understand that this speech which took place less than 24 hours ago represented a tectonic shift in regional history and politics.

Hence, for most people this was an acceptable result while others dug their heels in and insisted on an immediate resignation. Many felt a hint of nostalgia that a major part of history was coming to an end even if it was high time. What they didn’t know was that in the course of the night pro-Mubarak demonstrators, either on their own initiative or more likely with coaxing and support from Governmental elements were arming and readying themselves to enter the city centre and clash with those remaining demonstrators looking for the President’s final concession. As I write this the town centre is experiencing appalling violence that almost everyone is convinced is being orchestrated by the Government. Mubarak sympathisers are attacking his critics on horseback and camels and armed with various simple weapons. This is in stark contrast to yesterday’s turn out which made us all so proud. Whether today’s onslaught is carried out with the President’s knowledge or without it is becoming hard to justify his remaining in power long enough to oversee an orderly transition … although this would be an ideal outcome for the stability of the country.

We simply have no way of knowing how this will unfold, and tonight the city is on high alert. My neighbours are asking us to be extra vigilant of the marches from less affluent areas into ours which we know are starting to form. I will continue to help patrol my streets and do my part to preserve the peace. Egypt has changed forever and is about to become the litmus test for precisely how democratic an Arab country can be. I have to be hopeful wherever we land on the sufferance scale that we remain a peaceful country where people can live in safety and freedom. Please keep watching the news and thinking of us.


clappa
JackWagon: ... could become as important of a disclosure tool
as the Freedom of Information Act AND WikiLeaks. -Anonymous
JackWagon  (OP)

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02/03/2011 01:23 PM
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Re: ** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!
This was a touching story. I hope everybody likes the inside perspective.
JackWagon: ... could become as important of a disclosure tool
as the Freedom of Information Act AND WikiLeaks. -Anonymous
rphunter

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02/03/2011 01:48 PM
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I Agree [should be read in Schools]

Last Edited by RPHUNTER on 02/03/2011 02:16 PM
Jennifer
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02/03/2011 02:11 PM
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Re: ** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!
Thank you for posting this. Helps put the media frenzy into perspective.

coffeecup
JackWagon  (OP)

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02/03/2011 03:03 PM
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Re: ** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!
Thank you for posting this. Helps put the media frenzy into perspective.

coffeecup
 Quoting: Jennifer 1253176



No problem. I think it affords some good insight for us.
JackWagon: ... could become as important of a disclosure tool
as the Freedom of Information Act AND WikiLeaks. -Anonymous
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Ragman (Rags)

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applause2

.
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GUANO

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02/03/2011 06:11 PM
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Re: ** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!
Murubak should have entered Egypt into a few wars so the people wouldn't get bored and revolt LOL...
Total Protonic Reversal...
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Thank you for sharing.
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Dough Dude

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nice
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02/03/2011 07:17 PM
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Re: ** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!
President Hosni Mubarak never took power in Egypt by force. He became President 28 years ago by default when our then President Anwar Sadat was assassinated during a celebratory military parade. Mubarak, a career military man, was sitting next to Sadat and is said to have never quite recovered from the experience of being shot at close range.
 Quoting: JackWagon

Interesting! I can add a more personal detail to the assassination of Sadat from a good friend who was there.

When the gunmen who did shoot Sadat had to push Mubarak down and said Quote "I want this dog" referring to Sadat. Mubarak actually pissed his pants because he thought he was going to get whacked
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
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applause2
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Anonymous Coward
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02/04/2011 12:48 AM
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Re: ** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!
Was posted a few days ago..good read
Anonymous Coward
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There were scenes of jubilation and dancing and hugging on tanks but for most in the country it was a long night glued to televisions as diallers-in begged the army to hurry before looters arrived.

In some cases we could hear screaming and doors being broken down live on air. And that is when the army sent out the only mobile phone text message we would receive for days.

In it they announced that they had arrived to impose martial law, that they were here to protect us, but that they couldn’t do it alone.

They called on all Egyptian men to take up arms, to guard their homes, and to help the army secure the streets. And Egypt answered.


NOW that right there is the BEST excuse for OUR second amendment.
Anonymous Coward
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'President Hosni Mubarak never took power in Egypt by force. He became President 28 years ago by default when our then President Anwar Sadat was assassinated during a celebratory military parade. Mubarak, a career military man, was sitting next to Sadat and is said to have never quite recovered from the experience of being shot at close range. As an air force pilot he fought for his country, but as President he has made it a top priority to keep Egypt free of security troubles and as a result is our first leader in almost six generations to not take Egypt to war. During his presidency Egypt has also seen a significant rise in GDP, a 15 year increase in life expectancy, a 30% improvement in literacy, an improvement in relations with many influential countries, a vast expansion of Egyptian trade and infrastructure, and many more achievements.'


Maybe Canada could hire him.
Anonymous Coward
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02/04/2011 01:14 AM
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Re: ** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!
ITS A REVOLUTION SO SHUT'UP AND LETS GET IT ON, PRICE FOR REVOLUTION IS DEATH , SORRY NO VALENTINE DAY IN EGYPT :)

Hickory

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02/04/2011 08:18 AM
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Thanks for sharing Jackwagon.
You have one life. Live it.
You have one voice, use it.
You have one
:Hickory-1:
Hickory

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ITS A REVOLUTION SO SHUT'UP AND LETS GET IT ON, PRICE FOR REVOLUTION IS DEATH , SORRY NO VALENTINE DAY IN EGYPT :)


 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 1244006

Interesting.......Conspiracy sites are to blame. Hmmmmmmm
I think the media as a play in this game. The media can be used to report but also to instigate.

Last Edited by Hickory on 02/04/2011 09:14 AM
You have one life. Live it.
You have one voice, use it.
You have one
:Hickory-1:
Moleman-Mantis bait

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Very interesting. Thanks, Jack.
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5a

Good post JW! This corroborates a similar post I saw a couple of days ago which went much more into the recent historical context. That author seemed to think that Hosni's son Gamal the heir apparent really was the catalyst. Gamal has no Army background or support and that won't fly over there.
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Re: ** An Insider's Story Of The Egyptian Turmoil ** MUST READ!!!
I am relaying this as a proxy and I feel it is a story that everybody needs to hear. This was sent to me by a close friend this morning and I figured everybody would like to read it. So without further adieu, here it is.



A dear friend of mine lived in Cairo, Egypt for 10 years and while there formed a lasting friendship with a family to whom she just visited this summer. The following is a letter written by the son of her friends, who at this time is hold up in their home in Cairo, while his family is, fortunately, away from the turmoil.
This is a very comprehensive and insightful look into what is happening in Egypt from the eyes of one who is living through it.


"Dear friends

Thank you for your warm and extremely touching expressions of concern over the recent events that have unfolded in Egypt. Your thoughts make a bigger difference than you can possibly know during what is a terribly difficult and proud time. I am safe, for now at least, and in my family’s home. My parents and sister are overseas where my father has been recovering from surgery that he underwent before the turmoil erupted. I am not alone here though, and I have no immediate intention to evacuate my home. That said it has been a harrowing time and I am one of millions of people to have witnessed things in the last week which we thought belonged only to the war torn countries we see in the news. I cannot tell how this ends nor for how long this recently restored internet service will remain, however I can assure you that I am doing all I can to stay safe and have as sound contingency plans in place as I can given the circumstances.

For those of you who are interested I will spend the rest of this email trying to make sense of what has happened in Egypt and providing some personal anecdotal experiences. Please accept that I am no political analyst nor have I had firsthand experience with everything you see in the news.

President Hosni Mubarak never took power in Egypt by force. He became President 28 years ago by default when our then President Anwar Sadat was assassinated during a celebratory military parade. Mubarak, a career military man, was sitting next to Sadat and is said to have never quite recovered from the experience of being shot at close range. As an air force pilot he fought for his country, but as President he has made it a top priority to keep Egypt free of security troubles and as a result is our first leader in almost six generations to not take Egypt to war. During his presidency Egypt has also seen a significant rise in GDP, a 15 year increase in life expectancy, a 30% improvement in literacy, an improvement in relations with many influential countries, a vast expansion of Egyptian trade and infrastructure, and many more achievements.


But Egypt is a country of complex and often contradictory social imperatives and I am sure it is difficult to keep it stable. Perhaps as a result Mubarak’s tenure has seen some less than savoury changes too: a stifling of opposition, limiting freedoms of expression, allowing patronage and corruption to flourish. The President changed the constitution twice allowing him unprecedented extensions of term, and elections were shamelessly rigged. Members of Government became not servants of the people but elites rarely accountable to them. Occasionally public anger would simmer up and the leadership would allow it to vent briefly before cracking down. Importantly a brutal and obscenely corrupt police force developed that has bullied and taunted its people into a form of submission. As a result of both strategies the simmer never turned into a boil.

The events of the last 9 days, however, have been the product of a perfect storm that has been brewing for about two years. Questions have been growing about political succession; the President who is over 80 years old has never appointed a VP and his health is fragile. His son appeared to be groomed for the top spot much against the will of the country that half a century ago overthrew its monarchy. Police brutality soared to new heights. Food prices globally rose but domestic wages did not follow and people started to go hungry. The Nobel laureate Mohamed el Baradei returned home and infused the public with dreams of a fairer political future. Ridiculous though it sounds, Egypt lost a football match to Algeria that led to fights and a full scale diplomatic incident around which the people – unusually –unified. Technology, especially facebook and twitter, allowed Egypt’s enormous young population share their frustrations. And finally we watched Tunisia pluck up the courage to overthrow their President. I believe that all these things and some more came together at the right time to trigger small groups to stand up and then the masses to follow.

Protests had already been brewing for a few days before the large march that followed Friday prayer last week. On the day itself Government shocked its people by shutting down the internet and mobile phone coverage to limit the demonstrators’ ability to organise themselves, but it was too late. At twenty thousand people it was the largest demonstration in recent memory and the police responded to it with water cannons, beatings and more teargas than most of the international press had ever seen used anywhere. The demonstrators had not all come in peace either though, Molotov cocktails were produced and launched, and, before they knew it the police had a full scale assault on their hands. Demonstrators ran into live ammunition overturning the riot police’s vehicles and attacking its officers. Eventually security forces had to retreat, some threw off their uniforms and switched sides, others even found themselves protected by demonstrators from the onslaught. Realising his police was impotent the President ordered the army (whom Egyptians hold in high regard) into the cities to restore the peace.

What happened next will go down in history as one of the vilest actions ever taken by an Egyptian Governmental authority against its people. Whether to teach the general public a lesson or to save the administration from further embarrassing demonstrations, there is increasing evidence that the President or someone in his administration acted without the President’s knowledge to suspend police services across the country, and gave secret instruction to encourage criminals across Cairo to unleash hell. Prisons were stormed and around thirty thousand inmates released and many tens of thousands more thugs, looters, thieves, rapists and vandals descended on the city with not a policeman in sight. Panic gripped the city as buildings were vandalised, shops were looted, and homes were ransacked. There are reports of trucks pulling into neighbourhoods and megaphones advised residents to bring down their valuables rather than the looters coming up to get them.

I had some personal experience of this. Rushing home amid rumours that looters were descending on my neighbourhood I saw thugs had set up a road block ahead of me and were stopping cars at knife point and taking people’s belongings as they tried to escape with their personal effects. I had to reverse away at great speed and find back roads home. There I had half an hour to collect my family’s essential documents, some family photos, and whatever cash I could find before bedding down the house and readying myself for possible assault. I had no idea whether my porter and I would be faced with a handful of looters or hundreds; all I could do was wait and be ready fight or flee. This happened just last Saturday.

As it happens the army did not take long to mobilise and within a few hours looters were in retreat as tanks, armoured vehicles, personnel carriers and soldiers rolled into the suburbs and onwards into the city. There were scenes of jubilation and dancing and hugging on tanks but for most in the country it was a long night glued to televisions as diallers-in begged the army to hurry before looters arrived. In some cases we could hear screaming and doors being broken down live on air. And that is when the army sent out the only mobile phone text message we would receive for days. In it they announced that they had arrived to impose martial law, that they were here to protect us, but that they couldn’t do it alone. They called on all Egyptian men to take up arms, to guard their homes, and to help the army secure the streets. And Egypt answered.


In an astonishing and emotional display of solidarity men across Egypt armed themselves with sticks, pipes, chains, knives, guns and have formed night-time neighbourhood militias. I have joined my local watch and like many men across the city we patrol the streets, sleep in shifts and stand with each other through long nights as the city is under silent curfew. In Cairo alone we have caught more than six thousand would-be thieves and delivered them to the military whose tanks are even now positioned on street corners around our homes. It’s strange to think that a week ago we led perfectly normal lives, and now we live in some ways under the most primal conditions thinkable, defending our families and homes with sticks.

Up until the point where the streets became lawless, protesters against the president represented a relatively small group while most others watched it all unfold on television. The moment the entire country was made to stand side-by-side in defending their homes, however, we were all suddenly in this together and the solidarity this resulted in led to the “million man march” you all saw on television yesterday. It was a gross error of judgement on the part of the police to make us scurry home, one they have been made to pay for. The march would ultimately draw some 3 million people across every social class; celebrities and paupers were being interviewed on television through the day. Ahead of the march the army announced that the public’s frustrations and demands were not unreasonable and that therefore they would not punish PEACEFUL demonstrations. In doing so they sent Egyptians a clear signal that although the army is loyal to the President it ultimately serves the people, although this was mistakenly interpreted by the foreign press as the military joining the people against the President. An uncharacteristically civilised and good natured protest march followed, in which the demonstrators showed exemplary restraint and organisation even going so far as to arrange civilian security check points to weed out armed thugs who had been sent to derail the day. The images that were beamed across the world can only have shown a President that had lost his legitimacy because he eventually appeared on national television to make a touching and somewhat grandfatherly but nonetheless ambiguous statement in which he promised not run for another term as President in this year’s election and that he would oversee an orderly transition in the interim. Please understand that this speech which took place less than 24 hours ago represented a tectonic shift in regional history and politics.

Hence, for most people this was an acceptable result while others dug their heels in and insisted on an immediate resignation. Many felt a hint of nostalgia that a major part of history was coming to an end even if it was high time. What they didn’t know was that in the course of the night pro-Mubarak demonstrators, either on their own initiative or more likely with coaxing and support from Governmental elements were arming and readying themselves to enter the city centre and clash with those remaining demonstrators looking for the President’s final concession. As I write this the town centre is experiencing appalling violence that almost everyone is convinced is being orchestrated by the Government. Mubarak sympathisers are attacking his critics on horseback and camels and armed with various simple weapons. This is in stark contrast to yesterday’s turn out which made us all so proud. Whether today’s onslaught is carried out with the President’s knowledge or without it is becoming hard to justify his remaining in power long enough to oversee an orderly transition … although this would be an ideal outcome for the stability of the country.

We simply have no way of knowing how this will unfold, and tonight the city is on high alert. My neighbours are asking us to be extra vigilant of the marches from less affluent areas into ours which we know are starting to form. I will continue to help patrol my streets and do my part to preserve the peace. Egypt has changed forever and is about to become the litmus test for precisely how democratic an Arab country can be. I have to be hopeful wherever we land on the sufferance scale that we remain a peaceful country where people can live in safety and freedom. Please keep watching the news and thinking of us.


clappa
 Quoting: JackWagon

clappabump
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hhhhh
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