After the revolution is before the revolution

After the revolution is before the revolution — only better.

Egypt, this morning we all woke up to freedom. After a night of the greatest and possibly largest party on Earth, the hangover must be excruciating. But after seventeen days of sitting on streets, marching, chanting, organising and brooding, we deserve this, at the very least.

We can pat ourselves and each other on the back, collectively, and take a short moment to savour this victory of people over government. Take a breather, cure that hangover, meet family and friends, celebrate with them.

This is where things get tricky. The dictator has fallen, the people have gained their freedom, through mainly peaceful demonstration and unity against a crumbling regime. Those that were hurt or killed deserve our respect and condolences. But as death tolls go, this revolution can be called nearly bloodless. Maybe this is a template the world can adopt for popular uprisings? Or maybe this combination of patriotism and national friendship in hardship is particular to
the Egyptian people?

Time will tell.

We can get in with our lives. To a point. For now that one great big chunk of demands has been seen to, we get back to the original reason for this uprising: two weeks of revolution are great, but except for a great big party and those intelligent enough to create buisinesses on Tahrir, the gains from the downfall of the regime are minor, if not negative, beyond the satisfaction of success.

For now begins the process of building a new country. The system has fallen, the army has taken over, hopefully for the good of the people. But where does it go from here?

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