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Post by bjd on Jan 26, 2011 19:47:32 GMT
Don't cheer too soon, fmt. 500 arrests in Egypt today.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 26, 2011 20:25:22 GMT
I'll have to take my wife in to her office early in the morning, 7am ish, which is in the area of most of the problems. Unfortunately it is unavoidable but better I'm with her than in a taxi. However, I don't expect there will be anything much to write home about at that time in a morning.
Rumours about the arrests are that included in those are the people who have been injured and gone to a hospital for treatment. Apparently they've had police there scooping them all up. True or false? No idea. Friday after prayers (1pm) they are calling for a one million person march. Unconfirmed reports of the Presidential jet(s) leaving Cairo. Al Jazeera saying that in Suez (a scene of many protests) the Police have left the town to try and calm things down but a government building and that of the ruling party have been set on fire.
Friday morning, nicely enough, I leave for a posh hotel at the Red Sea for a few nights with the family then fly off to the UK and Spain.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 26, 2011 20:29:13 GMT
Latest say 860 detained.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 26, 2011 20:37:54 GMT
Aljazeera reporter: reports indicated that policemen themselves are burning state buildings in Suez to accuse protesters of doing it
Live ammunition being used in Suez resulting in deaths
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2011 21:00:16 GMT
Yes, I've been watching Aljazeera part of the time, and its reports are indeed a bit different from some of the other reports the we have been getting.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 26, 2011 21:05:28 GMT
I think the only thing we can be sure of is that there are plenty of upset Egyptians.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2011 21:28:58 GMT
The French news tonight was indeed comparing internet use in Tunisia to Egypt, and of course the Egyptian percentage is much lower -- but they still claimed something like 20 million people are connected to the internet (pop. 79 million). That's enough to get things moving...
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Post by onlymark on Jan 27, 2011 7:29:30 GMT
Just driven in to the town centre. Everything as normal for now. There doesn't even seem to be an excess of police. They're probably still having their breakfast.
Rumour has it that there will just be sporadic things this evening and a major get together after prayers tomorrow. I'm more interested in what is happening or has happened in Suez for the moment. It seems things were a lot more serious there.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 27, 2011 7:33:01 GMT
It is the last day of work for my wife today before she moves first to Germany for a course and then to Amman. She is the boss of the office and has given most of the staff the day off. This suits her as there was supposed to be a leaving party for her tonight which she didn't want to go to. Any other staff will show their faces at the office to clear up anything urgent and then get off home as well.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 27, 2011 16:21:22 GMT
Mark, I guess you'll be extra busy in the next few days. How long will your wife be in Germany? I imagine you all are following the political situation in Jordan pretty closely: ... in Jordan, the Islamist opposition has called for protests on Friday and warned it would continue campaigning to force political and economic reform in the kingdom. sourceThanks for all the updates. Stay safe!
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Post by onlymark on Jan 27, 2011 17:28:22 GMT
She'll be there for about two months off and on, then full time in Amman. But it's only really a short hop to get to Cairo some weekends. At the beginning of July I'll leave here with the kids for our 'Summer tour of Europe' (UK, Spain, Germany, Slovenia) and get to Amman mid August for the kids to get acclimatised and start school there.
As for the situation in Jordan - small potatoes at the moment but I'll obviously be looking at it.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2011 17:34:38 GMT
It's tragic that people have been killed and injured over these demonstrations. I am surprised that these Middle Eastern countries have not done this before now, to be honest. Some live 10 to a room, 50% just on or below poverty guild-lines, and on average on just $2.00 day? Unemployment sky high, how much longer could this kind of suffering/inequality go on before things erupted?
And now Yeman looks like it's heading the same way. I can see many changes coming. Already another candidate is ready to step in as president for Egypt should the present one decided to jump ship.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 27, 2011 17:52:01 GMT
Thinking about it though, there's not just Arabic countries in that position. There are plenty of potentially wealthy African countries as well, isn't there?
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Post by onlymark on Jan 27, 2011 17:59:09 GMT
I said before that the situation in Suez would be interesting. It is probable now that the city is being 'cut off' in a way. Apparently a curfew has been imposed and the media is being banned from entry.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2011 18:29:56 GMT
Yeah, all of the reports are coming out of Suez now. Cairo seems to be pretty calm -- until tomorrow?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 27, 2011 18:48:15 GMT
I must admit that when the news of the demonstrations was shown on the BBC my first thought was 'Oooh...will Mark be OK!?'..I don't know much about the politics of the region...what kicked it all off? I'm not surprised that the tv isn't showing much...the quality papers are talking an interest tho. www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests
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Post by onlymark on Jan 27, 2011 19:29:47 GMT
What kicked it off? How long is a piece of string? Mainly what happened in Tunisia filtering through. But tie in to that a catalogue of complaints from employment (or lack of it), dissatisfaction with the ruling party and the thought that the son of the president is going to take power, police brutality and deaths, you name it and someone will have a grievance about it. The cautionary tale though is a banned religious party now endorsing the protests. They are radicals and dark days would be ahead if they ever ended up in power.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 27, 2011 19:42:12 GMT
Oh yeah, by the way, the guy who's just flown in isn't an answer, if anything he's a johnny come lately and more of a problem than anything. He is out of touch, has very little normal support (is only now being supported as he's about the only high profile alternative) and has been criticised for not reacting sooner. It's as though he is/was afraid to put his cards on the table and waited too long to see how the wind was blowing.
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Post by onlymark on Jan 27, 2011 20:44:56 GMT
Interesting. All SMS blocked at the moment in Egypt I've heard. Just tried to send one to my other mobile (twice) and it refused delivery, so could well be true. You did know that they've periodically shut down Facebook and Twitter? It's getting serious. Fortunately I'll be languishing in a five star hotel soon.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2011 20:58:36 GMT
I'd heard about the shut down of twitter and facebook. The SMS is new though.
Stay safe, Mark. I hope this blows over soon and doesn't affect you and your family in any way.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 27, 2011 21:08:18 GMT
Thanks for the info about ElBaradei. I was trying to decide if that was arrogant grandstanding on his part, or a useful show of solidarity. he cautionary tale though is a banned religious party now endorsing the protests. They are radicals and dark days would be ahead if they ever ended up in power. Good point. During the protests here, a politically astute friend of mine predicted that the radical left would do things that would cause the movement to lose support from certain quarters. This proved to be true. Of course, as is happening right now in some of the hot spots, some of the protest stunts here were actually staged by those in power to discredit the protest movement.
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Post by cristina on Jan 28, 2011 3:03:56 GMT
My knowledge of life in Egypt is pretty slim, but watching this news unfold, on the heels of Tunisia and in front of Yemen, one can only wonder what will happen next.
I'm really curious about the role Iran has played in these events.
I am very happy, however, to read that Mark is off to somewhere else for a while. I hope we'll hear word from him while he is safely sipping a cocktail somewhere other than Cairo.
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Post by bjd on Jan 28, 2011 8:54:13 GMT
I'm really curious about the role Iran has played in these events.
Sorry, but that sounds like US brainwashing. Given how Iran cracked down on protests after its own rigged elections in 2009, I'd be really surprised if Iran is happy to see street demonstrations threatening the stablity of entrenched power in the area.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2011 12:06:54 GMT
I see that Egypt has turned off the internet and the mobile phone companies, so who knows when we'll get Mark's next update?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2011 16:06:38 GMT
Yeah, I saw that last night on the news. I think the plug was pulled shortly before midnight, Cairo time. That's got to be so strange and frustrating, now that we're so used to those methods of communication.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 28, 2011 16:46:55 GMT
I think Iran has very little to do with protests anywhere in the Maghreb and in most parts of the Machrek (Arab Middle East), except where there is a significant Shi'ite minority in the latter (Lebanon etc).
Indeed a takeover by religious fundamentalists would be even worse - there you do have a valid comparison with Iran, where there was horrific political repression and grand theft under the Shah, but this has continued as well as social repression under the Ayatollahs. Many torturers for the Shah just went to work for the new management, and the Shah didn't savage people for their hairstyles or attire.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2011 21:12:53 GMT
I have tuned into my Egyptian cable channel Al Masriyah to see if it was ignoring the events or talking about them, and it is indeed a live show of the chaos in the streets tonight with images that I have not seen on CNN - BBC World - Al Jazeera or the others.
Naturally, I have no idea what they are talking about, although the woman journalist is sounding more and more alarmed as she interrogates the correspondants out on the street.
What is so strange is to see so much traffic on the streets when there is a military curfew in effect. In a way, this is not surprising, since I have spent enough time in the Arab world to know that people just do not pay attention to the rules, which can always be circumvented by the appropriate bakchich.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2011 21:19:23 GMT
Oh, wow, I am watching a really major fire, building in flames, on one of the major avenues, still full of curfew-ignoring traffic.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2011 22:13:29 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2011 22:16:33 GMT
Damn! Now I'm seeing the earlier demonstrations in Cairo. BIG.
Hooray for the Egyptian people!
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