Egypt

I've been thinking for a long time how to blog about the events in Egypt. Because, even though I never lived there, I lived right next door for 8 months and I went there twice. It's like hearing that your neighbor's house from that place you lived last year is burning down. Or maybe, that they are remodeling and somehow, when the wrecking crane came in, it knocked down the gas line that unfortunately hadn't been turned off, and then it started a fire and the house has been burning for hours, and the neighbors (including those in your old home) are afraid that their homes will catch on fire too.

Yeah. I don't know if that analogy worked, but that is kind of how it is for me.

Not to mention that I have some friends currently living in Egypt, and I kind of worry about them, even the ones that have already left the country.

When I first heard about the protests, I was excited for the Egyptian people. Whether there are better options or not, and whether Mubarak has done good things for their country or not, it was exciting to see Arabs uniting to bring about change in governmental policy. There are so many things that could be changed--especially when 40% of the country lives below the poverty level of earning $2 a day (even in my poorest minutes I spend more than $2 a day!).

As the protests continued mostly peaceful, my excitement grew.  Other Arab countries were noticing and doing things to effect changes in their own governments, and it seemed like Egypt would be a model for a peaceful change to democracy. I almost got a Twitter account, just so I could keep up with the action like the rest of the world.

Of course, when the pro-Mubarak protesters charged in with camels and machetes, all of that changed. With the rest of the world, I watched in horror as the protests turned violent and people strated getting seriously wounded and dying. Horrific images and videos showed up on youtube, and then journalists started getting harrassed, beaten, and arrested.

Now that it has been several days since I started writing this post, the protests have become mostly peaceful again. The people in the square seem to have no intention of leaving anytime soon, and several concessions have already been made in government structure and wages. It seems like perhaps once again this can be an exciting day for Egypt. Perhaps the horrors of watching Egyptians fighting Egyptians (with molotov cocktails and rocks, no less) will help the other Arab nations to keep things relatively peaceful as they, too, are demanding change. And perhaps the Western countries will be able to breathe a sigh of relief when change happens and they can still buy oil for acceptable prices. Because really, isn't this struggle about the American economy, anyway? (please excuse my sarcastic tone here.)

Anyway, here are a few very helpful links if you are just jumping onto the Egypt protests news:

Sherwood Family Blog: Her husband works for the embassy in Egypt. She and her children were evacuated. She posted several of her journal entries from when the fighting broke out. This one is a very personal, and heart-wrenching, look at what it was like to be there.

Al Jazeera English: Yes, their station hasn't been available in America because it is driven by an agenda that is quite different than American news stations (and American government policy). But let's admit it, they really do have the best coverage of what is going on in Egypt. And, they can actually pronounce the Arab names of cities and people, which is always a plus.

Google Crisis Response: Did you know that google has launched a crisis response page? What will they think of next?