Arrival: 5:25 pm
Destination: Cairo, Egypt
As the plane landed in Cairo, I felt a rush of emotions: anxious, nervous, excited… overwhelmed. Little did I know, my upsurge of emotions was in no way going to prepare me for the changes I was about to witness. The last time I was back home was in December of 2010 during winter break. During that visit, the morale in the city was like it had always been for the past seventeen years I permanently resided there—busy and somewhat hectic, but just as vibrant. It was a time of holidays for the old and the young, and it seemed like the perfect place to be. But I arrived to Egypt this time with very different emotions and with a very different agenda.
The recent political turmoil and historical uprisings in Egypt soared across the news and took the international arena by storm. It came as a great shock to the world, and to the Middle East in particular, that one of the most stable and prolonged autocracies in history would come tumbling down. Today, I write from Egypt and the changes are strikingly different nationwide than they were merely three months ago. Egyptians have never been more proud, the youth has never been so driven, the elderly have never been more nervous, and the government has never been so weak. Despite the joy and hope that the Egyptian Revolution brought to its people, the morale and anticipation within the nation has hit rock bottom. There are numerous unanswered questions…and counting. Egyptians decided to re-build their homeland at any cost for better or for worse, and it all started one Tuesday.
January 25th 2011 was nothing but a normal Tuesday morning for many people– wake up, go to work, lunch, dinner, sleep. Much to everyone’s surprise, this Tuesday would be a pivotal day in Egyptian history.
The popular protest on January 25th, which would trail on for twenty more days, arose in light of political chaos that had occurred in neighboring Tunisia. Two weeks into the New Year, Tunisian citizens had collectively protested the power of their current president and called for new elections. After two days of gruesome riots, the Tunisian president submitted his resignation and fled the country in hopes of a new and safer life. The Tunisian protests on presidential power triggered the demonstrations that began in Cairo, Egypt just days later. The Tunisian success, inspired the Egyptian population to believe that democracy was simply riots away.
In retrospect, however, the collapse of Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year presidency and cabinet was inevitable; a chain of recent events during the fall trimester shed light on the accelerating unrest in Egypt. Months prior to the uprisings, there were parliamentary elections to the cabinet where the president’s party, El Hesb el Watani (National Democratic Party), was re-shuffled into the cabinet with an uncompetitive majority. With the common assumption that the elections were rigged and the continuation of the government’s corrupt tendencies, protesting seemed to be the only way out of repression for the majority of the Egyptian population.
Despite the fact that democracy is nothing but the norm in Western states, Egypt has never had a democratic structure and has not deviated much from its time as a monarch under King Farouk. Surprisingly, democracy was a foreign concept to the politicians and elites as well. In the midst of this political chaos, I was about 6,000 miles away in California watching Egypt make history. Because my immediate family still lived in Cairo, it was not very challenging to stay in touch with my homeland and feel like I was a part of it all, despite the distance. Three days after continuous and consistent communication with my family, I found myself entirely detached from the protests, the revolution, and my people. As a means of control and mediation, the government rashly and abruptly attempted to cut all means of communication (internet and telecommunications specifically), transportation, and even eliminated water and electricity in select areas of the country to tame the rioters. I could not help but feel extreme anger and helplessness as a because of the lack of communication. The inability to communicate with my family members and simultaneously keep close ties with the Egyptian revolution compelled me to rely on the media for constant updates on the political situation. Although the media showed a very small portion of the gravity of the situation and underrepresented a large portion of the Egyptian population, it would have to do for the time being. The government’s delayed response during the riots only justified the protests and confirmed that the Egyptian population needed more than what they were receiving, which was not much at all.
With all this political background, one may question why the protests were so significant in the first place. Egypt is home to the largest Middle Eastern population, the longest river in the world, three of the seven ancient wonders of the world, and an approximate 85 million citizens that carry their nation’s wealth with a well of pride. The wealth of the country was unfortunately hindered by the backwardness of Egyptian politics and social structure. In the midst of this glory, over 50% of the population lives on less than 40 Egyptian pounds a week, an equivalent of about 8 U.S. dollars. The presence of this extreme poverty, unfortunately, leads to a dissolving middle class, strict repression of women in society, unattainable medical care, fragmented education, and very limited housing.
The nation was heavily magnified on an international scale during these twenty days of political turmoil; the world viewed a fairly accurate depiction of the crisis in Egypt and the distress of its people. Nevertheless, there is a segment of the situation that must be re-emphasized. In retrospect, a comfortable majority of stable democracies have endured harsh political and economic transitions.
World history proves that every nation must plummet in order to successfully rise. Irrespective of the violence and instability in Egypt, the turmoil should not take away from the nation’s glory and the loyalty of Egyptian citizens. Egypt has nothing but cultural prosperity and historical wealth to offer the world. The recent disorder is nothing but the final piece to this perfect power and via a process of trial and error, Egypt will rise to permanently become the Middle Eastern powerhouse it temporarily was before the January 25th protests.
Edited by: Amy Coyle