There are very few moments so transcendental in a lifetime. Today is one of them as Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president of Egypt after 30 years of despotic rule. Bowing to an unprecedented show of people power. It is a revolution that promises the rise of a truly representative democracy and carries the potential of a more balanced vision of Middle East peace. What happened in Egypt is a pointed rejection of the moribund view of Islam being hijacked by radical elements.
We wish Egypt well in its future transition. No one understands the power of the people quite so well as a football fan. The global game is unmatched in its ability to sway emotion.
Less than a year ago, Egypt was in an uproar over a series of highly contentious soccer matches with Algeria which poisoned relations between the two countries. They lost the qualifying battle for the World Cup and for many this was a bitter end. It was possibly the last time that an estranged Mubarak and the Egyptian people were synchronized in unison. But none of them would trade that day for the freedom that they finally achieved. On and off the football field, Al Ahly and Zamalek fans are mortal enemies. But they shouldered arms and fought side by side for this day to happen.
Hopefully this day is also the day that Egypt, a long standing African football force finally turns around it's disappointing record on the world's stage. This revolution might just be the start of a new chapter.
n. waleed, it would appear that Abdel Aziz Bouteflika of Algeria is next facing a people's revolt of his emergency rule. What a turnaround. All that bad blood forgotten as Algerians inspired obviously by what happened in Egypt and Tunisia. And in an interesting twist the Italian government could fall as Silvio Berlusconi faces protests as he's investigated for a sex scandal involving an underage Moroccan girl!
thank you for such a nice post
yesterday was a historical day, not just for Egypt, but for the whole Middle East. Yesterday was the collapse of Berlin wall of the Middle East.
Egypt is the heart beat of the whole region, and for the last four decades, the region was sleeping because Egypt was so.
Celebrations went in most of the Arab countries, many of them went into streets. I went with family here in saudi arabia to dinner outside to celebrate the great news, and the restaurant was distributing flowers.
The most interesting thing that people in Algeria went down to streets to celebrate, but the police stopped them and had some confrontations. Algerian government worried a lot that the domino impact will reach them (which already started today).
The whole Algeria-Egypt thing was created by both governments, especially son of Hosny, Gamal Mubarak who escaped to London after the first week of revolution. Last year he was the one who escalated the incident, so people got around him.
He was supposed to be the next president, but now it is just history.
Let's hope that this change will be for the best, which all indications are in that direction so far. This will improve the whole region.
yesterday was one of best days in my life
we consider it as the best event i seen in my lifetime, and many friends say i knew it is coming, but never thought we will live long to see it
this is my favorite pix for this wonderful event
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/egypt_the_wait.html