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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Crisis in Egypt


   

Protests started on Tuesday, January 25, when -- inspired by the successful revolution in Tunisia --thousands of people began taking to the streets to protest poverty, rampant unemployment, government corruption and autocratic governance of President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled the country for thirty years. These were the first protests on such a large scale to be seen in Egypt since the 1970s. The government responded byblocking Twitter, which was being used by organizers to coordinate protests.

Blocking Twitter not only enraged Egyptian citizens; it also brought increased national attention to the uprising. Over the course of the next two days, Egypt proceeded to block Facebook while the much-hated riot police took to the streets, arresting and injuring hundreds with batons, tear gas water cannons. Protests occurred not only in Cairo, the capital, but also in Alexandria and Suez, two other major cities.

On Thursday as the protests continued to rage throughout the country, Nobel Laureate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei (ehl-BEHR'-uh-day), returned to Egypt from Vienna, declaring that he was ready to lead the protests. Often thought of as a potential Egyptian leader should Mubarak lose power, ElBaradei is a strong opposition force.

Additionally, the Muslim Brotherhood, long a fierce opponent of the Mubarak regime and officially banned in Egypt, threw their weight behind the protestors, many of whom are young, tech-savvy Egyptians, reports the New York Times. Two-thirds of Egypt's population has never known a leader other than Mubarak.




The largest protests were planned for Friday, at which point the government took the unprecedented step of blocking all Internet services in the country. With Twitter and Facebook already down, email other social networking outlets fell as well. Text messaging was also blocked. Protestors and journalists began finding alternate means of getting online and pushing out information.

During the day, the military was called in to take over security, a move that was welcomed by the protestors. Most Egyptians are reported to hold the armed services in higher regard than the police. The U.S announced that due to the ongoing protests, the Obama administration would be reviewing the substantial aid, both military and non-military, provided to Egypt. 
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/)

Now Thankfully Hosni Mubarak has decided to not run for reelection. Hopefully Egypt will soon go back to relative peace 

18 comments:

  1. I LOVE YOU CITIZENS OF EGYPT.

    Looking forward to more photography from you bro, following

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  2. I was really surprised to see that, about Mubarak deciding not to run for reelection. Didn't have much of a choice after all this, but still...

    Following.

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  3. Thirty years! That's not a democratic president anymore.
    I'm peruvian and there was a president here who tried to rule our country 15 years, not long ago. Now he's rotting in a jail he built during his 11 years as president.

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  4. they really wanna play farmville again

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  5. very deep article. staying tuned for more

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  6. wait- -- did *you* take these pics?

    really good stuff bro!

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  7. Sadly not, credit goes to Huffingtonpost.com

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  8. Ridiculous the things government can do really. I worry about how easily it would be done here in the U.S. sometimes.
    Followed

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  9. Good to see he won't run for re-election (well he has no choice). But he should step down right now before things get worse.

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  10. Are you going to keep updating with more news about Egypt?

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  11. The people of Egypt know what they want, they will seek to grasp it. We should leave them be and let the people deicide on what is right for the country.

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  12. I'm interested to see what happens over the next couple of days.

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  13. Canonfag reporting here, i like your blog and i'm definitely following this thing!

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  14. It starts to look like a real revolution now, not only a mass demonstration. The next days will get pretty interesting down there ...

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  15. That president really needs to back off. He is really destroying Egypt. The crisis will continue aslong as he's in charge but he doesnt seem to get that.

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  16. Hopefully everything works itself out relatively quickly.

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  17. powerful stuff man, i have been following these protests heavily, can't believe some of the stuff that is still going on today!

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