Egypt At A Crossroads

Mubarak is digging in determined to hang on to power no matter what. He is now at war with his own people (the very definition of a tyrant).

I wonder if any Western leader could get away with a speech like his yesterday. Here is the opening line of that speech:

I am addressing the youth of Egypt today in Tahrir Square and across the country. I am addressing you all from the heart, a father's dialogue with his sons and daughters.

The word "paternalism" immediately comes to mind. It must have sounded galling to people struggling so hard and risking so much to be treated as adults and as equal citizens. You can read the full text of the speech on the BBC here. It does not get any better with further reading.

This tiny little insignificant blog stands with the people of Egypt as they struggle to claim their own history after watching it or suffering it for so long. I wish them every success as their struggle appears to be entering a critical phase.

May the Great Sphinx of Giza at long last greet a dawn where the sun rises no more on any pharaoh, emperor, foreign conqueror, sultan, imperial colonist, or dictator, but on a free people.

The Union of the Two Lands, the national emblem of ancient Egypt and the world's first national emblem. Hapi, the hermaphroditic god of the Nile, appears twice, tying the lotus of Upper Egypt in a knot together with the papyrus of Lower Egypt upon the hieroglyphic sign for "unity." It appears here on a monument to Pharaoh Ramses II (1279 - 1213 BC).