I initially thought that the violence would fizzle out in a few days when the elections drew nearer but apparently I was mistaken. Therefore, I've have decided to write on my second round of Egyptian protests this year.
My first semester at the American University in Cairo, I took a class called "The Middle East in Transition". I found this title very interesting since the last thing that came to my mind when I heard the term Middle East was change... I wrote my final paper on how the Muslim brotherhood would come to power if elections in Egypt were ever liberalized, pointing to cases such as the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, the AKP in Turkey and HAMAS in Palestine. My teacher gave me a B and told me I was wrong. My classmates told me this would never happen. Well I have news for all of them... look at your country now.
Within the past 3 days buildings have been vandalized, 1500 people have been injured and 20 have been killed. One of my classmates was arrested (and released, thank God). Our downtown campus has been closed until further notice and there are videos of vicious acts being done by BOTH sides. Not just the army...let's get that straight.
It has now come to my attention that the upper-middle class has no idea that, even though they started the revolution, they are in the minority. This means that there is no way they'll have the kind of representation they're expecting or hoping to achieve. I fully expect it to go like this. First foreigners will be harassed/kicked out/forced to flee, then Christians will suffer the same fate of course...then the rich/upper-middle class will suffer from a certain redistribution of wealth, meaning they'll lose everything. One might call me pessimistic, but I'm in the middle of the chaos, watching it all unfold. It is inevitable now. Those who started and fought for and died for the revolution will lose it. It has been hijacked, but they don't realize it's over. They don't know what they're getting in return for removing Hosni Mubarak and trying to remove the army...but I don't understand why they can't see it. Perhaps they know something I don't know... After all, I'm just a foreigner.
My first semester at the American University in Cairo, I took a class called "The Middle East in Transition". I found this title very interesting since the last thing that came to my mind when I heard the term Middle East was change... I wrote my final paper on how the Muslim brotherhood would come to power if elections in Egypt were ever liberalized, pointing to cases such as the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, the AKP in Turkey and HAMAS in Palestine. My teacher gave me a B and told me I was wrong. My classmates told me this would never happen. Well I have news for all of them... look at your country now.
Within the past 3 days buildings have been vandalized, 1500 people have been injured and 20 have been killed. One of my classmates was arrested (and released, thank God). Our downtown campus has been closed until further notice and there are videos of vicious acts being done by BOTH sides. Not just the army...let's get that straight.
It has now come to my attention that the upper-middle class has no idea that, even though they started the revolution, they are in the minority. This means that there is no way they'll have the kind of representation they're expecting or hoping to achieve. I fully expect it to go like this. First foreigners will be harassed/kicked out/forced to flee, then Christians will suffer the same fate of course...then the rich/upper-middle class will suffer from a certain redistribution of wealth, meaning they'll lose everything. One might call me pessimistic, but I'm in the middle of the chaos, watching it all unfold. It is inevitable now. Those who started and fought for and died for the revolution will lose it. It has been hijacked, but they don't realize it's over. They don't know what they're getting in return for removing Hosni Mubarak and trying to remove the army...but I don't understand why they can't see it. Perhaps they know something I don't know... After all, I'm just a foreigner.
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