The Mindset of a Cairo Protester
February 4, 2011
When my eldest daughter was 5 years
old, she asked, "Mummy, what do elections mean?" There was
only one candidate! How do you explain elections in which there is no
choice?By Nancy S.
(for henrymakow.com)
Walking the streets of Cairo over 20 years ago, I was struck by the apathy I saw on the faces of the people. I had put it down to the repressive 'revolutionary' government's policies and education system which required students to praise a regime which punishes free speech. In short, acting or thinking for oneself was not encouraged.
Looking at the faces of the people at Tahrir Square over the last ten days, I noticed a considerable change. I could see hope, and the feeling that 'yes we can change'. The Egyptian people suddenly became proactive. Regular citizens could be seen cleaning Tahrir square; distributing food and blankets to demonstrators; protecting the Cairo Museum; frisking others for hidden weapons; lining up in an orderly fashion for scarce bread; protecting homes and streets and homes from thugs etc. The Egyptian people have proved that they can cooperate become a force for positive change.
Last Friday I shouted for joy when I saw a man on TV exclaiming that this was the first time in his life he felt proud to be an Egyptian. It was exhilarating to see simple Egyptians feeling pride and dignity in themselves, feelings which have been eroded over the last 60 years. Needless to say the government forced the 'Arabiyya' channel to stop live airing of the protest after that moving moment.
Last year, Nobel prize winner, Ahmed Zuweil offered to help implement educational reforms and even set up a state of the art university in Cairo (with a team of respectable scholars.) All that stood in his way was an ineffective and corrupt government.
ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
The government is obstinately standing in the way of a people who want to progress; who are fed up with the inefficiency and corruption at all levels; who are fed up with gross inequalities; who are fed up with the lack of choices.
When my eldest daughter was 5 years old, she asked, "Mummy, what do elections mean?" It was really difficult for me to explain. There was only one candidate! How do you explain elections in which there is no choice?
What I couldn't understand over the last few days is HOW COULD A GOVERNMENT BE AT WAR WITH ITS OWN PEOPLE!!!???!!! How could they fire at peaceful protesters, throw poisonous tear gas bombs at them, run over them with their vehicles? How could a government let thugs and criminals loose on its own people, making police presence disappear simultaneously??
http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/02/the-uprising-the-treason-and-israel/
But then I realized that the government is just protecting the interests of those they have been serving all this time. The Egyptian people? No, ISRAEL, of course. This is made obvious by news reports of Israel's reaction to the Egyptian people's uprising.
http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/02/mubarak-pride-of-netanyahu-and-associates/
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/162782.html
What had given us all here a warm feeling of pride, solidarity and hope - a united voice of Egyptians from all walks of life: rich and poor; young and old; right and left; Christian and Muslim - is extremely unsettling to our not very neighbourly 'neighbour'.
FALSE FLAG ATTACKS ON CHURCHES
Talking to my Coptic Christian friend the other day, I commented on how the bombing of the Alexandria Church on the New Year backfired and led to the cementing of the relationship between Muslims and Christians, rather than discord and separatism.
She agreed and expressed her view that it was a government plot. I had come to the conclusion that it was most probably Mossad, but considering the above, maybe they are one and the same.
About a month before the bombing there were reports in the Egyptian press stating that the outgoing Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, in one his many farewell speeches had boasted of the presence of many operatives in Egypt who have succeeded in sowing sectarian discord. Of course this is not the first time Egypt has experienced false flag operations.
Looking at it from the perspective of whose interests the government is really serving now, it makes sense that they have done their best to keep the bulk of their people in poverty, ignorance and despair of progress all these years.
The thing is that they don't care about individuals like Jehan who doesn't sleep nights worrying about how to feed her children, pay her debts or pay for forced private tuition in what is meant to be free public schooling.
Local charity groups try to help people like her, but it is not enough. To really solve her problems, the presence of effective social security and health care, educational reform, wage reforms, rooting out corruption etc. are jobs for the government.
A government that doesn't really care about the disparity where some can pay 3,000 L.E. to attend a Kylie Minogue concert, and others may only have 200 L.E. to live on for a month. The man in the protest of 25th January who said that he pays 400 L.E. rent per month when his salary is only 500 L.E. is in no way unique.
So now that the Egyptian people have finally found their voice and solidarity, they are now being sabotaged by shifty elements who want to sow violence and discord. The government is trying to buy them off by threats of lack of security, food and basic necessities if protests don't stop. http://www.kawther.info/wpr/2011/02/03/egyptian-regime-applies-israeli-plan-to-crush-resistance
EGYPTIANS CRAVE HONEST GOVERNMENT
The alternative to this repressive regime? We hope and pray for a representative and honest government (does one exist?) that will make real reforms to combat corruption, poverty and reforming the education and health care systems.
Mohamed Al-Baradei strolled in last week on the people's uprising and styled himself a leader for the opposition. There is a big question mark around him considering the disproportionate coverage he has been getting in the western run media. Furthermore we should not forget that as the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was partially responsible for the US occupation of Iraq.
After the success of the demonstrators in shaking the Egyptian government and creating a feeling of unity and positive action in the Egyptian people we hope and pray that events will take a constructive turn to build a better future for Egypt with out being hijacked by elements that would take our people further down the drain.
http://www.cabaltimes.com/2011/01/29/are-tunisia-and-egypt-facing-real-unrest-or-a-manufactured-crisis/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22993
Now we are at a crossroads, we are not sure whether we should accept government concessions and get on with life or stick to our guns and insist on the immediate departure of Mubarak with the risk of the situation escalating out of control, but also with hope for change.
Without doubt actions and also inaction of the government have contributed to the violence we are witnessing today. Along with our new found pro-activity, we should pray to God for guidance to the best road Egypt should take - could the charismatic new prime-minister and group of mainly old regime ministers provide genuine reforms or would a new regime be any better.
We can only pray that we won't be stabbed in the back or hoodwinked by those who claim to have our interests at heart on either side. Whoever ends up being responsible for running this country, I believe the lesson we have learned over the last ten days is that we, as people, have the ability to work together to make this a better place to live - with God's help - because "Allah doesn't change the condition of a people who do not change themselves"..
Stephen said (February 7, 2011):
As for the mind set of the Cairo protestor I think it would be a mistake to dethrone Mubarak and replace him with some one that is part of the politically correct global establishment that does not know the true function of government but does know how to succeed through conspiracy, corruption and political correctness. However considering his age he really should retire in favor of someone who will put Egypt first and build up the nation.
It is far better to have no government than to have one that is acceptable to illuminists.
In such a situation I think the people would fall back on common sense and tradition as a substitute for government.
One bit of advice for the world: Exclude the following from government.
Lawyers, social scientists, feminists, non heterosexuals, pedophiles / sex criminals and perverts, Satanists, common criminals, Talmudist / Zionists, politician types, banksters, illuminists/ freemasons and members of think tanks, secret societies and internationalists.
You can not get good government from bad people.