Reflections on Pre-Revolution Perceptions

Discoveries #45: Sometimes, the unexpected happens and, when it does, it's amazing.

I was looking back today at a blog post I wrote on January 26, the day after the protests in Egypt first began.

So what can we expect as a result of these protest? Probably not much of a change, [Rachel] says. If Mubarak is ousted, he will probably be succeed by his son or another military ruler similar to himself. Rachel does hope, though, that these protest could discourage the coming to power of Mubarak's son. 

Riots in Luxor on January 28, 2011
(c) Sari Heidenreich

While she doubts that there are enough people who will participate in the current protest - given that Egypt's illiteracy rate is 50% and it is mostly the educated who oppose Mubarak - to oust Mubarak, she IS hopeful that it could mean that his son would not run for "election." According to her, almost ALL Egyptians - even the uneducated - oppose this as they see it as a move backwards towards monarchy.  

It's crazy how much can change in just 2 1/2 weeks. One week we think the people of Egypt are incapable of ousting a dictator, the next weeks that dictator has resigned and an interim government is in place.

After the first six days of protests, I remember sitting in my apartment in Cairo and being so scared that all of this would be for nothing, that people would be swayed by Mubarak's smooth talk and forget their dreams of democracy. I hurt me to think that the people who died would have died for nothing and that another uprising wouldn't happen for many, many more years to come.

But those people, martyrs as the Egyptians are calling them, did die for something. They died on the path to bringing freedom and democracy to 83 million other people. This is a real victory for the people of Egypt and I am so very, very excited for them!