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| © Shehab M. Anwer |
The start was an expected reaction against the lately-mounting pressure on every Egyptian, either financial, political, career-wise, or even when it comes to one’s security; and eventually, which made us react either by handling and accommodation to our current situation passively; while others decided to move: at first, such moves were sectorial to represent different causes or sectors, but the ruling system recurrent careless response made us to go for a bigger move as inspired and flamed by the Tunisian people lately creating an uprising revolution that was like a snowball, starting on 25th January, 2011 with certain demands to correct the state’s situation, ended with involving most of the Egyptians of different backgrounds and demands to end this unjust era and topple the regime.
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| © Shehab M. Anwer |
Although Mobarak has desperately tried to distract us by conditional implementation of OUR demands under his 'non-grata' command; and the vice president, Omar Soliman, with his long history in 'military' parley, cannot get that WE are not militia, we are PEOPLE whose control has never been among any of his experiences, and declaring that we are not ready for such democracy, well, if he has tried to reach out those at Al-Tahrir ‘Liberation’ square then, he may have understood that WE, the Egyptians, are ready to change, not just to meet your definition of DEMOCRACY, but to what is called CIVILISATION, and anyone who has been there, must have seen how it was like a state inside the state of Egypt, how people were civilized and peaceful, and how they tried to brutally attack, as actually, it is not just about arresting people for no reason, as the state’s response for these demonstrations and protests included tear gas, pressure washers pumps, shooting, Molotov cocktail bombs, thugs, riot, hitting us with running cars, even paralysing the ambulance cars move in order not to allow injured and killed people to the hospital to receive proper care, which forced many doctors, including myself, to establish few field hospital to offer the first aid and help those in need till we can transfer them to nearby hospitals, but, proudly these martyrs passed away to give us freedom and dignity.
In my opinion, among all these events, the Egyptian army's neutrality aimed mainly to protect the people and prevent a chaos through the weird former regimen reactions; and as events mount, the army’s implicit message has always denoted that the Military Council should be in charge of the Egyptians' DEMANDS IMPLEMENTATION other than Mobarak's dismissal, and their dignified reaction made us trust their decisions and follow their orders as we were sure they were doing really their best to solve the hectic status then.
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| © Shehab M. Anwer |
Among those who participated were the youth intellectuals and artists from different fields were the closest to the revolution’s spirit and participated since the first day, even those who live outside Egypt, but they are still longing to their country; and then, others decided to get along when they felt it is really working against the Mobarak regimen, attributing their delayed cooperation to the fact that they are not into politics! On the other hand, others have supported ‘Mobarak’ and his regimen, as they claim to refuse any ‘insult’ to an Egyptian leader like him, which is not true about our ‘25 January’ revolution, as this group has always been loyal to the ‘regimen’ and always expects the ‘price’ in return of loyalty, if our revolution does not make it as they have expected then, and in return, many of people consider them in a black list now for letting their fans down for such lame reactions against our demands.
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| © Shehab M. Anwer |
So, consequently, after such major events, art and other fields may suffer disarray; as two teams are formed, each accusing the other of treason, and this will be reflected on their works. However, regardless you are with or against the revolution. However, I think that it is not time of disarray, as they should cooperate to see what they can offer to their country during these times of correction.
In the end, as my own eyes have seen most of these scenes; the memories of A WORLD-ROCKING Revolution will always keep flashing on my mind; as Egyptians has written a new reference for all the coming uprisings against brutality & injustice in a march of honour when one WALKS LIKE AN EGYPTIAN…
Shehab M. Anwer
An Egyptian; ‘i.e. Magazine’ Executive Editor – Cairo, Egypt.
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