Last night while we were out to dinner, one of the guys told a joke about the fact that if President Mubarak died the whole country being happy about it. So, I proceeded to mention to the table that I had noticed that no one in Egypt likes Mubarak, who's in his late 70s and has been ruling for several decades. Everyone kind of quieted down a little bit and Wael told me, "Well, we're in public right now. We all love Mubarak....they have a saying here, 'The walls have ears.'"
Later on the metro, he expressed the same concern to Christine when she asked about the church bombing in Alexandria that happened on Christmas Eve.
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For those of you who are wondering, I believe that Egypt is considered a "democratic" state; however, Mubarak never loses elections and members of the opposing party, The Islamic Brotherhood, all end up somehow getting arrested before an election takes place. From discussions I've had with a couple of Egyptians, it seems people do not like him because of his corruption and his inability to create jobs to employ Egypt's educated population (EVERYONE here goes to college.).
Sari, in case you were not aware (and as I understand it - someone may correct some part of this), the US pays Egypt a very healthy sum every year to help keep the Mubarak administration in power. While the US is not pleased with Mubarak's authoritarianism and corruption, they prefer him to what is perceived to be the greater of two evils (i.e., Islamic Brotherhood). I have also heard from work contacts in the region that the country is so dependent upon Mubarak that, when he passes, the country may devolve into chaos.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any insight on that second point? Pretty interesting stuff.