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Rant: Hot air on Egypt

I am seething with rage. And as I am seething with rage I will rant.

While it is nice to seethe with justified rage for a while, I am now merely perplexed

Over the last few days, the people in my home country of Egypt have finally found the guts to rise up against a governor that has been in power since I was born.


This is a good thing.  It is heartening to see a people, quieted for so long by a repressive regime, rise up and claim their voice. In addition to that, Al-Jazeera is once again covering a major development in an Arab country 24 hours a day, ensuring that this new- found voice is heard. In addition, cameras ensure that violence will not escalate on the side of a govenrnment  known for it's heavy-handed way of dealing with dissent.


Eight days have passed since then. The world's reaction seems to be "If you want it, you can have it."


This indicates the hippocracy of politics: we support democracy, freedom of speech and your right to participate in determing the future of the country you live in — up to the point when we don't". One of the reports I read tells us that America now has "no choice" but to support the people of Egypt. EU governments, outspoken about human rights, freedom
of speech &al have been uncharacteristically cautious on this delicate subject.


This same regime is displaying an incredible disconnection with the reality on the street. Appointing your long-time friends to political office in face of I now hear to be 23 million people while displaying no intention of stepping down at any time is possibly the best way to ensure continuing protest. Even as this is happening, foreign governments are cautioning the regime, which they have grown so used to that they cannot imagine life without them, not to use that repressive force they are known for.

Yet, under the cover of a demonstration in support of the president, the police is now apparently preparing for a war on a dark and smoky road near the picture of Tahrir.

I am disgusted at these tactics. At a man so surrounded by stale power that any connection to his people is through a veil of security and corruption. The children have already fled to safety. The palace is under siege. A political movement based on the will of the people has begun. If you are still in the country, please talk some sense into your tyranical husband.

If he has not lost all touch with reality, he must surely realise that the people have spoken. They are not quite united, not just yet. They still need to figure out how things work. But they'll get there. Hopefully, sooner, rather than later. But what needs to happen before that is that he needs to go. He will very probably be made to go somewhere very quickly now.

He needs to let go. What those that come after Hosni make of the country is up to them. There is no reason to burn the place down on the way out.

After all of this, I find myself agreeing with two points of view: Mubarak must step down. Now. But this transition should be made in an orderly way. Comfortable and better for everyone is the cleanest way out of a revolution. Politics can't be a new game in Egypt. What I see from here makes me sad. Angry as well. Seething, to close the arguement where we started out.

/rant

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