Concern with Egypt: Their Seven Days of Protest

My Simple Campaign to End Violence in Egypt

It's been more than a week now. What's going on in Egypt??

Concern. It's a very big word, but it's one of the easiest thing to do. Right now I'm very concerned for this country: Egypt. The problem: politics.

It all started in January 25, 2011, Tuesday, when a large number of people went out on the streets and began protesting. According to the news, the protest called President Hosni Mubarak to step down, his 29 years of regime to come to a halt. The government quickly banned all type of protests, until on Wednesday the people went out on the streets and clashed with the police.

On January 28, 2011, Friday, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Egypt went down. This was very alarming to the U.S. if they ever thought what would happen if this happened to them too. As what I've read, it would be very impossible since there are very, very many ISPs located in the U.S. Anyway let's go back to the topic.

Also on Friday Mubarak called the army into the streets. Instead of stepping down and take the bullet, he ordered his government to resign, making Omar Suleiman, the head of military intelligence as vice president and Air Force Chief Ahmed Shafik as prime minister. Mubarak promoted them in the attempt to provide support for the military.

This did not, however, stop the people. I would consider this one of the Darkest Ages in Egypt in modern history. I can barely describe what was going on. Thousands of people raided the streets, burned the police stations, robbed the stores and nearly destroyed each other.

United States supported the protest. Obama himself called Mubarak to step down else billions of financial aid from U.S. will be stopped. This increased the pressure for the Egyptian leader.

On January 30 the Muslim Brotherhood and other secular parties gave their support to Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate and a leading critic of the government, for a more peaceful negotiation with the Egyptian leader. Mr. ElBaradei return to the country to provide support for these protesters.

It was around January 31 when the Egyptian announced that they will not fire to the protesters. The new vice president said that he was authorized by Mr. Mubarak to negotiate with the opposition for a political and constitutional reform. This happened in the Tahir Square as ten thousands of protesters met on that day.

I could not imagine how devastating this was to the people in Egypt, to their economy, and to their future. As what I remembered about EDSA revolution in the Philippines, there was no bloodshed (I think). President Marcos escaped on the EDSA I. President Estrada stepped down on EDSA II because he 'loved' his people very much, whereto as President Arroyo never did step down on any EDSA revolution, if there were. I do hope this event will make Egypt stronger in terms of leadership and unity. I hope there won't be fighting, because I truly much support non-violence. I hope the negotiation went well, and I hope it will end.

Note: I won't post pictures about it because I really don't like what happened. All the bloodshed and terror, it's just not humane.

Sleeping problem? Here.