# Midan Tahrir



## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

something has gone badly wrong with the Egyptian revolution. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – just what the "Supreme" bit means is anyone's guess – is toadying up to middle-aged Muslim Brothers and Salafists, the generals chatting to the pseudo-Islamists while the young, the liberal, poor and wealthy who brought down Hosni Mubarak are being ignored. The economy is collapsing. Anarchy creeps through the streets of Egyptian cities each night. Sectarianism flourishes in the darkness. The cops are going back to their dirty ways.

It really is that bad. You only have to walk the streets of Cairo to understand what's gone wrong, to wander again across Tahrir Square and listen to those insisting on democracy and freedom as the old men of the Mubarak regime cling on as Prime Minister, under-ministers, in the very figure of Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the head of that "supreme" council, childhood friend and Mubarak loyalist – even though he did force the old man to go. Tantawi's equally elderly head is now framed in posters around Tahrir and the old January-February cry is back: "We want the end of the regime."

On the traffic island, the groupuscules of the revolution now have their individual tents with tiny carpets and plastic chairs on the dust, debating Nasserism, secularism, the Christian civil rights union ("The Mass Bureau Youth Movement"). The Muslim Brotherhood are, of course, absent, along with the Salafists.




In Tahrir Square the anger is growing again. Where is the revolution the crowds fought for? - Robert Fisk, Commentators - The Independent


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## hurghadapat (Mar 26, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> something has gone badly wrong with the Egyptian revolution. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – just what the "Supreme" bit means is anyone's guess – is toadying up to middle-aged Muslim Brothers and Salafists, the generals chatting to the pseudo-Islamists while the young, the liberal, poor and wealthy who brought down Hosni Mubarak are being ignored. The economy is collapsing. Anarchy creeps through the streets of Egyptian cities each night. Sectarianism flourishes in the darkness. The cops are going back to their dirty ways.
> 
> It really is that bad. You only have to walk the streets of Cairo to understand what's gone wrong, to wander again across Tahrir Square and listen to those insisting on democracy and freedom as the old men of the Mubarak regime cling on as Prime Minister, under-ministers, in the very figure of Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the head of that "supreme" council, childhood friend and Mubarak loyalist – even though he did force the old man to go. Tantawi's equally elderly head is now framed in posters around Tahrir and the old January-February cry is back: "We want the end of the regime."
> 
> ...


Are you at all surprised that it has all ended like this.....


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

hurghadapat said:


> Are you at all surprised that it has all ended like this.....


The real issue is that it has not ended yet...Many expect a violent backlash from the protesters if SCAF don't get a move on. I would not be surprised at all if this was the case, you can't sit at Tahir square indefinitely.

"there are many revelations now of how he was dethroned. One, from the highly respected Egyptian writer Abdul Qader Choheib, says that Mubarak agreed to resign after being confronted by Tantawi, his vice-president Omar Sulieman – the former intelligence boss and a friend of Israel – and General Ahmed Chafiq." Well, Mr Fisk, you don't need to be a ME expert to know that he didn't go of his own free will really...


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## islander (Jun 16, 2011)

For what it is worth, I forwarded the link to Robert Fisk's article to a journalist contact in Cairo. Whilst she confirmed that his report is factually correct she did feel that his tone was rather negative.


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## Eco-Mariner (Jan 26, 2011)

*Great minds don't always think alike*



islander said:


> For what it is worth, I forwarded the link to Robert Fisk's article to a journalist contact in Cairo. Whilst she confirmed that his report is factually correct she did feel that his tone was rather negative.


Of course Fisk's article is negative. He has a European mindset whereas the journalist is most likely Egyptian and set in her ways.

We "foreigners" can often see things completely different, often opposite and certainly independently from the brainwashing previous administrations and now the present one is delivering to its masses.

We see this in the drop in visitors; we see it in the economy. Inflation is running high and investment low and any new government must accept that the* NEW MEDIA* will expose them. Repeated mass demonstrations will prove invaluable in the longer term. The bottom line is that Egypt is fed up of lies and dictators and truths often hurt.


Eco.


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

Here is an article by Egyptian Omar Ashour, a great (if brief) analysis of how Egyptian politics got where it is today

BBC News - Egypt secularists and liberals afraid of democracy?


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## Eco-Mariner (Jan 26, 2011)

I loved the plackard.... *STOP!!! We are not fools.*

_(quote BBC News) __44% of Egypt's 55 million voters may be illiterate,_ but the Youth Movement's *NEW MEDIA* gives them a far bigger platform.

Eco.


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

Eco-Mariner said:


> I loved the plackard.... *STOP!!! We are not fools.*
> 
> _(quote BBC News) __44% of Egypt's 55 million voters may be illiterate,_ but the Youth Movement's *NEW MEDIA* gives them a far bigger platform.
> 
> Eco.


Yes, Egyptian youth are extremely media savvy, which is a powerful tool to spread their message. The problem is using "new media" is of no use when your target audience can't read, they will need to get down to the streets and really talk to that 44%.


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## Eco-Mariner (Jan 26, 2011)

Exactly and in time those 44% should learn to use _social networking_ or be left behind.
Accepting a bag of sugar is a quick-fix bribe. Wanting changes takes far more effort.

The phrase *New Media* encompasses all forms of new information providing and gathering. TV and Satalite companies as well as Internet and mobile-phones have proved without doubt they can generate the masses to revolt. 

It is the tool of this decade and the great mediator in today's Arab Spring revolution. It can bring top businessmen to account (e.g. Rupert Murdock) and dictators like Mubarak to resign so let's make this industry work for everyone.

Eco.


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

Eco-Mariner said:


> Exactly and in time those 44% should learn to use _social networking_ or be left behind.
> Accepting a bag of sugar is a quick-fix bribe. Wanting changes takes far more effort.
> 
> The phrase *New Media* encompasses all forms of new information providing and gathering. TV and Satalite companies as well as Internet and mobile-phones have proved without doubt they can generate the masses to revolt.
> ...


Universal access to free media is the key but unfortunately not a reality yet. Yes most Egyptians have a mobile but not everyone has satellite TV and the barrage of government propaganda coming out of state owned channels is disgraceful. 

I fear it will take generations to fix that literacy gap and the "talking beards" are only too aware of how easy this illiterate mass can be manipulated. On the plus side, Egypt is full of young people willing to work hard for a better future so I want to remain optimistic for the long-term. :clap2:


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Egypt's military rulers sternly warned protesters on Tuesday against "harming public interests" as demonstrators continued to lay laid siege to Cairo's largest government building and threatened to expand their sit-in to other sites in the capital.

The military also rejected criticism of its handling of Egypt's transition to democratic rule, vowing not to give up its interim role in managing the country's affairs until an elected government takes over.

It also pledged to produce binding regulations for the selection of a constituent assembly that will draft a new constitution, allaying fears by many Egyptians that Islamists — likely to dominate parliamentary elections due in September — would elect an assembly that would give the document an Islamic slant.

In a separate development, an Egyptian court on Tuesday convicted a Mubarak-era prime minister and two Cabinet ministers of corruption. Former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence. Mubarak's long-serving interior minister, Habib el-Adly, was given a five-year jail term. El-Adly already is serving a 12-year term after being convicted of corruption charges in a separate case. He will serve the longer of the two sentences.

Former Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali was tried in absentia and given 10 years.

The military's warning to protesters Tuesday came ahead of a planned rally demanding a wider purge of members of Hosni Mubarak's regime and bringing to justice police officers accused of killing protesters during Egypt's uprising.

Several hundred protesters have been camping out since Friday at Cairo's Tahrir Square, epicenter of the Jan. 25-Feb. 11 uprising. They vowed not to leave until their demands are met. On Tuesday morning, 30 men armed with knives and sticks stormed the protesters' tent camp, wounding six, before they were forced out of the square by the protesters.

By early Tuesday evening, thousands more demonstrators made their way to the square as the day's stifling heat eased.

The military statement, read on state television by Maj. Gen. Mohsen el-Fangari, was the strongest public warning to protesters by the ruling generals since they took over from Mubarak when he stepped down on Feb. 11.

It was delivered in a threatening tone that suggested the generals may be close to running out of patience with the flurry of protests, sit-ins and strikes engulfing the nation since the uprising.

A growing number of protesters, meanwhile, see the ruling generals as an extension of the Mubarak regime and accuse them of showing too much respect for the ousted leader, who is formally under arrest but remains in a hospital at a Red Sea resort.





I


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

Life inside Tahrir


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