Egypt Burning

Egypt is burning of not fire, but mass’s anger and frustration. The fury, that after years of being stifled under ashes is surfacing now. This is a new era in the twenty first century. It started with Tunisia and spread out into other Arab world such as Yemen and Jordan. But Egyptians got the best of it. Pictures on Aljazeera TV are reflective of people’s frustration and years of struggle, unknown to non-Egyptians. The daily exertion of people of other countries for democracy is hardly broadcast in American and European media, unless one searches for it in the left corners of the internet. The human effort and abusive governments of Middle Eastern and African countries, almost all governed by dictators paying homage to Western governments, are definitely not viewed by other people in the region either. Events such as this bring about the roots of frustration of those who have been fighting for democracy, and as a result, have been imprisoned or tortured by their governments. Years of American incursion and invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, is paying off now by blazing the region into instability, and demand of popular governments. American government is now searching for someone to replace Hosni Mubarak (literally meaning auspicious elegance) who is neither auspicious nor elegant to Egyptians. In the age of mass-communication and multi-media, only ignorance can prevent one from noticing brutality of their government.

Obama government was taken by surprise, as they and their European allies have been kept from the detail of human abuses, although they have certainly been receiving a general picture through their agents and operators. At the beginning, they started talking from both sides of their mouths, making regular speeches about democracy and will of the people, and at the same time threatening that they would cut off their annual aid to Egypt. After witnessing all the demonstrations and government crackdown, when the police shot at people and security guards’ vehicles ran over demonstrators, they realized that they had to give Mubarak a clear signal. Obama sent a special envoy to Egypt asking Mubarak to stay in power! Since Egyptian government did not recognize their sympathy, and in their rush to think of another puppet to replace Mubarak, they gathered in Munich, and of course fed the media with the same democratic slogans.

Mubarak on the other hand has used all means at his disposal, except the army. For the first couple of days he was shocked by the events. In the meantime, he sent his police dogs to stifle the demonstration. When that failed, he used his thugs. However, Egyptians were more united and had already been hurt enough to endure brutalities. Next move is the army to crash demonstrators. In the meantime, he is counting on people’s lack of resilience. It is a show down that history will determine the results. The interesting thing is that dictators never learn from their old colleagues. They count on their own powers blindly. However, whatever the future of Egypt, the cat is already out of the bag for Middle East and Africa. Dictators should start packing!