This is bit old from last month but it is never too late to share it with you. John Bradley , the author of “Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution” wrote in the occasion of the NDPC last month a very important feature to The Jewish Daily Forward . Yes I know that the publication can make some eyebrows to rise but let’s remember something he is not an Arab or Egyptian and he is free to write where ever he wants.
Anyhow forget about Forward and please read what he wrote especially the last part. The rest we know it very well in Egypt but just concentrate to the last part where he says :
America’s next president should take full advantage of the Mubarak regime’s current vulnerability to push for the opening up of Egypt’s political process and clear the way for the country to address the underlying causes of instability. But Washington must act quickly, before it becomes too late to do anything but watch from the sidelines as Cairo burns.
I do not know why I have the feeling that since the secret Obama envoy visit to Cairo with his generous offer , Mubarak will gain power, Obama wants to revive the Peace Process and unfortunately he needs Mubarak . I wish I am wrong but again as Bradley said in the beginning of the feature , Egypt was absent from Obama’s speeches unlike other countries in the region unlike McCain, it is not about the rallies, I followed this election from the very early being. Bush administration was bad in all ways but we should not forget that they give Mubarak and son hard times because of democracy and freedom.
Anyhow it is less than 2 months to know the Obama policy towards Egypt.
Cairo is already finished. I haven't been there in 2.5 years and all I saw this time was faces filled with depression, apathy, disenchanted emptiness...it's like they've given up. It's dirtier, more crowded, the air is putrid and difficult to breathe, the population is out of control. Cairo is burning already, it's just a matter of time before the people rise up and the apathy leads to violence.
ReplyDeleteIt's like 1 Egyptian told me, the Egyptian people are afraid to demand change because they are afraid of the government and the government has all of these security forces everywhere because they are afraid of the people. When the people and it's government fear each other, there is an impasse and nothing gets accomplished.
I have no doubt there are many idealists in Egypt who yearn for change and freedom. I caution them to look at Iran that had its own revolution. Do they have freedom now or are conditions worse than they were under the Shah? I asssure you that those idealists would tell you,if they could, that it is even worse than it was.
ReplyDelete@N.American Princess ,yes cairo is burning already ,my dear it will reach one point when every thing explodes either in to a revolution or in to a coup
ReplyDelete@misrcribe , till when we live in this phobia from the MB ?? this is not an excuse , my dear Egypt is not Iran , the Shah canceled the religion from the life of the Iranians making Khomini his top enemies
In Egypt we would fear from his scenario in the 1980s and mid 1990s when the Islamic groups were popular in the poor areas but now things are different
what I fear is some kind of socialist revolution and my fear is that it will repeat the mistakes of the revolution of 1952 copycat or even worse