Egypt's Day of Anger

I am currently traveling in Egypt with my wife visiting family. I am experiencing the events here first hand. We have no Internet but I am dictating this brief message through an associate. I will write more detailed information later. I wanted to send out some brief impressions.

This text is highly paraphrased and abbreviated because it was verbally conveyed. I will send detailed articles when the Internet is restored.

This historic day is known as "The Facebook Revolution of January 25", "The Lotus Revolution", and "The Day of Anger".

The Egyptian people have demonstrated outstanding courage in the face of oppression and thuggery. This revolution is driven by young people who want change. They want democracy and opportunity.

Mubarak's speech last night brought frustration and anger to the people as did his appointment of a vice president that is a regime insider. The people want the Mubarak regime to be expelled along with his corruption, torture and thuggery.

The demonstrators are mostly educated people. They are comprised of college students and professionals, not Islamic fundamentalists. They want an end to oppression as well as opportunity and an end to poverty. They want democracy and a hand in their own future.

Facebook was initially used to organize the peaceful demonstrations until the government shut down the Internet and responded violently to the protests. Now the protests are organized by word of mouth and land lines. The human network continues to communicate even in the absence of the Internet.

The violence and looting has been perpetrated by the convicts that were released from the jails by the government. Another example of criminal thuggery by this totalitarian regime.

The death toll continues to rise. Most deaths are caused by police bullets aimed at demonstrators, who are unarmed. The police are aligned with the Mubarak regime.

The Army has been non-violent to this point and largely welcomed by the demonstrators. Many military vehicles have spray painted sign "Down with Mubarak". This is of course done by the demonstrators, but the Army is tolerating it and has not taken aggressive action.

Much of the country is watching carefully to see which way the Army will turn, as this could be the linchpin of the result.

When the Internet is restored I will publish a more complete account. Please comment on this post with your own information. Let's support these courageous people in their historic fight for freedom.

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Recent Elections in Egypt and Jordan

Hani Fakhouri