Egypt - Important situation to Americans with world wide implications

[eggbuster]

miss posted

 

[ams3651]

I hope the long term outcome of all this is a good one. My cousins husband was born and raised in Egypt, his mother still lives there although he is now a US citizen. His father died in his arms in a hospital emergency room of a heart attack because he was ignored because he was a christian. This past summer my cousin, her husband, child and mother went to visit his mother. He hadnt been back since he came here. They were followed every where they went. When they went to the airport to come home they were stopped and he was told he could not leave. The official asked for his passport but he knew not to give it to them. Long story short, a complete stranger distracted the officers and his brothers rushed them off so they could get on the plane. I wonder if that man was some type of undercover type. He swore he would never return. His mother will never be given permission to leave. We dont realize what its like over there.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

I had hopes for this having a decent outcome, but it has certainly taken a turn for the worse this last 24 hours. Oh, what a difference a day makes!

Studies of revolutions and civil protest over literally decades tell us some basic things about how they start and how they progress. This one is throwing all of the books out the window. For those of us who study these things this tragedy is also a fascinating opportunity to study the impact of new technology on the progress of a major social change.

Prior to this revolutions that really take off have to have some one to lead them, it can be a group, but leadership has to emerge and mobilize resources. In this case, that never happened. This truly is what most people think all revolutions are - a ground swell of humanity. This is very cool in one way and utterly terrifying in another.

There are real reasons why we do not live in a democracy. Jefferson called democracy "mob rule". What we have is a representative republic yet we keep trying to help other people achieve democracy.... This is democracy and the power vacuum will be filled by some one.

The Muslim Brotherhood has a very sketchy past. It is touting its new and improved outlook including secularism and freedom for all, but it remains to be seen if they can pull that off once in power.

There is a reason why "May you live in interesting times." is considered a curse.

 

[Royd]

They wouldn't listen to Moses. What makes you think they'll listen to Hillary or Obama?

 

[EweSheep]

 

[welsummerchicks]

I don't think this is the Muslim Brotherhood at all.

Word on the street, is this is Mubarak's and people in his ruling party, their own hired hands, paid to make the situation look lawless and to justify drastic response.

An Egyptian official said it was not, it was the tourist guys from over at the pyramids, who are annoyed because this has interefered with the tourist trade.

I vote for choice A.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Have heard more of people on the ground there (internet is spotty but up) that many of these thugs are hired hands from outside of Cairo getting paid.

I am sure that there are plenty of people in Egypt that are very invested in keeping the status quo. Never underestimate the capacity of people to make choices that are not in their own best interest. So I am certain it was possible to mobilize a counter push.

I am saddened to see this development take the turn it has. The worse it gets now the less likely the people are to get anything that looks like reasonable government later.

 

[Dunkopf]

Yeah that's what I was thinking when I heard about it. Sounded like the crowds had gotten to the peaceful point after the guy said he wouldn't nominate himself again. Almost like an MLK rally or something. The the pro Mubarek people came and crashed the party. Back in Reagans day it would have been the CIA instigating it to keep Mubarek in power. Obama is letting Mubarek know it's time to step down but obviously wants to have some hand in his replacement. If the US wants to stay on it's moral high horse about democracy, they need to be more aggressive in vocally supporting the protesters. Of course if Mubarek gets ousted and the new government is anti American and breaks the cease fir agreements concerning Israel we will have a problem.

Hopefully the Egyptian Army will stay out of it and the majority over there will get to have some say in their government. It might start a wave of change for the whole backwards way of running things in the Mid East. I find it amusing that the media acts like Mubarek is an elected official. Word is Mubarelk wants to stay in power till the so called elections so that his son can take over. All the momentum of the people will be gone by then. I hope they don't just all go home and return to the status quo. Of course if it gets real violent it might effect the US quite a lot.

I understand that the commodities market is causing a lot of the problems. People are starving because of unregulated speculation on basic food stuff. The avg daily wage is 2.00 and they have 40% unemployment. The average age of their population is under 30 and of course they are the unemployed people. So it's a powder keg.

 

[EweSheep]

Why vote for Mubarak's son? Is he better than his father?

I don't remember if Mubarak has to get votes to stay in presidency or is he president for life?

 

[Royd]

Back in Reagans day it ve been the CIA instigating it to keep Mubarek in power.

You just can't help yourself, can you?​