Egypt

Jon and I left Egypt 10 days after the first protest in Tahrir square happened. Today as I watched the news unfold, the protesters are under attack by pro-Mubarak supporters. The pro-Mubarak supporters are not average people. Cairanese don’t travel around Cairo on camels and horses. Traveling around Cairo, we didn’t see a single camel on the streets. The only people we saw on camels are tourists in Giza and Egyptian police. The people on the streets claim that the pro-Mubarak protesters are organized by the regime. This carries weight as the armed pro-Mubarak protesters throw Molotov cocktail to the crowd to polarize the nation and diffuse the crowd. This is the response of an autocratic regime to the people that are demanding their universal rights to freely choose their leader, to have freedom of speech, and to be able to feed their families.

While we were traveling around, we saw poverty in Egypt. People are on the streets trying to make a living. They do jobs that barely pay enough to buy them their daily bread. I hope genuine change is in the future for Egypt. It is the change that Egyptians deserve. I hope that a military Mubarak like leader does not replace the current Mubarak.

When the protests are over, and the people victorious, I encourage people to visit Egypt. Egypt is a wonderful country. Ancient Egyptians built remarkable monuments that still stand today and modern Egyptians are the warmest people I've ever met.