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Walking like an Egyptian !
an article by Hassan Mosa-Majida Al Balushi
It was like a dream. Everyone wants freedom but no one plans to have it. Everyone complains but no one cares. Anyone who talks in politics keeps looking around waiting for police to come and detain him. Political corruption was expanding day by day and Egyptians don’t take action. There was something abnormal in those people, why don’t they change their reality?? Even though there were books written on this issue “Why Egyptians don’t revolt”. Some people called this case the “Stockholm syndrome “where the oppressed gets used to the oppressor and the oppression process.
click on photo to enlarge
The situation in Egypt was like a room filled with gas; it just needed the spark to incinerate and demolish all the corruption in the whole country. People had been suffering from suppression for decades. This suppression was carried out by the Egyptian police mainly, anyone who criticized the regime was taken to nowhere and no one could know anything about him. This nowhere was the namely “the state security premises”. Thanks to the Tunisian revolution, Egyptians were inspired to start changing their reality, their country, to a better one.
A campaign was started by activists on Facebook in December of 2011 to protest on January 25th against poverty, human rights violations and inequality. The regime didn’t seem to care about this protest; they thought that it would be like other small protests held before and they would dismiss those people by the police forces.
The 25th of January 2011 was a special day in Egyptian history. Young people did not start a protest, they initiated a revolution to change Egypt; they wanted to change the whole regime that ruled Egypt for decades of injustice, discrimination and suppression.
More than 300 martyrs were killed by police forces. Those brave martyrs revolted and sacrificed their lives for the sake of the freedom of the entire nation. Tahrir Square in Cairo’s downtown is the witness of this revolution, from the killing of the brave young people of this country until the victory of their revolution.
Tahrir Square was the central point of the Egyptian revolution. The revolution lasted for eighteen days and finally Mubarak stepped down.
Here began the real change. Egyptian youth celebrates their victory and they started the change by cleaning the left outs and rubbish in the streets.
Egypt was born on the 25th of January 2011; it was a loud scream by the brave Egyptian young people who gave an example for the whole region that change happens if you have the will.
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The Arab spring of 2011, Can it inspire democratic movements around the world?
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The following is reprinted from Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 30 August 2011, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.
Cultures of peace, lasting change in Egypt?
Joseph Mayton
Cairo - Instead of falling victim to Egypt’s eye-for-an-eye past, a concerted effort to create a culture of peace in what has quickly become a starkly fractured political scene – between religious groups, the military and activists, and activists and the people – may well be the best opportunity to bring about a new Egypt with social justice, transparency and tolerance.
Egyptians are striving daily to show the world that societies can change. Cairo is not the same city it was six months ago. As voices now begin to breech the political and social stalemate in the country, Egyptian society can, through a culture of peace, set a precedent not only for their own country but for the whole region.
UNESCO defines the culture of peace as “a set of values, attitudes, modes of behaviour and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue”. In Egypt, for example, this could help develop an overall sense that the "other", who participated in violent acts in the past, can become part of society, instead of remaining on the outskirts as they are currently. Building such a culture in Egypt would follow the South African model of reconciliation, which allowed the country to look forward instead of focusing on the frustrating and sad past of apartheid.
Instilling a culture of peace in the younger generation could be a great antidote to the older generations’ mistrust and antagonism toward one another – Christian versus Muslim; Worker versus Owner; Military versus the People; and so on.
In Egypt, one of the root causes of a lack of a culture of peace is the educational system. Young Egyptian students are taught that they are different from one another, that their respective faiths are cause for separation. In schools, Christian students study the history and faith of Christianity separately, while Muslim studentsdo the same for Islam. This creates a sense that each group is separate and divided when it comes to any national cause. . ...more.
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