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Turbulence, violence in the Middle East
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Diaries of the Arab Spring: Reasons
My name is Amr Mohamed. I'm 24 years old. I live in Egypt, Cairo. I graduated from college with a degree in English education and I work as an English instructor for adults in a training center. I lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years from the age of 5 till 15 when my dad, like many other middle class Egyptians do, travelled there to work as it is one of the richer Gulf countries. Working as a pediatrician, he was trying to improve his family’s life by providing for them economically. My mom is a housewife. She is highly educated but doesn't work like most Egyptian mothers. I have two older sisters. Both of them went to college like me. They graduated from the college of economics and political science.
I had never experienced a protest or a demonstration before the date of January25th 2011. But I was always strongly opposed to the Mubarak regime.
First of all, I need to say that I am and will be happier than before in every respect. My past cannot hold a candle to my present. In the past, before January 25th 2011, we were living like animals. Now, after 25th January 2011, we are humans again. So it's clear that there is not any similarity or comparison between the pre revolution and post revolution period.
Why did I revolt? What was the main reason for our revolution?
I walk in the streets. I take public transportation. I read the newspaper. I watch rebellious men in night shows, and pass by some mediocore strikes. This is what I see in my home; Egypt. It is not even a developing country, with 40% below the poverty line and huge unemployment. The wasted human fortune makes me cry with blood. I see most of my dear friends becoming drug addicts in front of my eyes, even those who managed to find a job couldn’t manage to find any hope. You can hear the resounding sentiment; "What's going right in your country? Let's just live." The whole society is divided into two parts; big thieves in power and small thieves in all work places. There’s no order, no honesty; the ideal that spread to every nook and cranny was, "If you can do some thing, go do it." No rules, no principles, nothing. Oh was it really that dark? Yeah. It was all that and even more. I doubt you would have seen Egypt on the map if we had lived three more years like this! Especially with the imminent inheritance of power to Gamal Mubarak; the son! The main concern of the Mubarak regime was, in a few words, "how to stay longer". So they started to protect their network with all legal and illegal means availabe, with the help of their iron repression machine. If you’ve read before about some dictatorial regime in the ancient ages you could imagine the whole picture.
No, those people in a long queue who are killing each other in a bread and gas cylinder are not Egyptians. Those people who are cheating each other everywhere to make a living are not Egyptians. I'm killing you in order for you to not to kill me later. I deceive you in everyday matters because if I don't do I'll not be able to live and you probably will do the same to me. Those people who got beaten to death in the streets are not Egyptians. Those people who got scared from the police more than God are not Egyptians.
No, come on, those people who are humiliated and dying in the police stations out of torture are not Egyptians.
Horribly mentally ill police officers are everywhere. They teach them at college how to be sadistic. A pathetic man kills another pathetic man for no reason but just in favor of those people in power. That dictatorial repressive regime killed the humanity inside people! It killed every thing beautiful inside them. They no longer realized anything but how to make a living and how to continue living, and that's it. I walk in the street and look at nothing…thinking… oh my God... are we going to hell or what! How can I make a family and teach my son to have a free will while I know that any police man would
stop him in the street and take him to the prison where no one would see him again, not even me, because he believed me when I told him he is free to say the the truth, not even his opinion, just the truth. How can I live in this place... in my home...? We really don’t deserve this.
Egyptians are really not those weak scared humans I see in the streets everyday. I need to live as a human not as an animal. I need to feel my humanity. Before the revolution, I contemplated all the possibilities; like what I would do if the "dawn visitors" visited me? How will I defend my self legally first and then illegally? I was listening to my friends' stories about the "dawn visitors" and preparing myself well for my turn. I'm gonna have some adventure with those bastards. I'm not gonna let them blind me with a piece of cloth and take me to their dirty places to question me. I prefer a life of being chased rather than a life as a slave with fake freedom.
Now could you figure out why we revolt? Well, if you still haven’t figured it out, I will answer you with this small conversation that took place between me and a central security officer in Tahrir square at the end of that first fateful day; January 25th 2011;
The surprised central security officer, seeing all these people and all these events, asked me with clear surprise on his face: "Why did you go out!?!" Many people were trying to answer with different opinions, he listened for a while and then said "Let me tell you why those youth went out today; It's because today is a holiday!" (25th January is a national holiday, the political activists chose this day especially for symbolism). I looked at him and remembered what happened during the day and all these huge amounts of people in the streets; "No, those people are searching for their dignity." I found myself saying this to him with confidence. I don’t know where it came from. "I don't think so, and to be sure of what I said I'm telling you that those people are not gonna go out again". He replied. I smiled and stopped talking, I had a strong feeling in my heart then that the "shackles crashed." This feeling got stronger with each step against the scary central security forces, with each level of central security forces withdrawal, with each chant, with each stone throw and with each angry eye I saw it. Oh my God! I see the ANGER on the Egyptian faces as if they are wild monsters who had their kids stolen and they woke up finally to take their kids back, to take their dignity back. Those are the Egyptians I know well. Yeah, those are my people. Those are the best soldiers in the world as the prophet Muhamed, peace be upon him, said before.
I believe and it became clear now that the main reason for the revolution is "dignity"... period.
I had never experienced a protest or a demonstration before the date of January25th 2011. But I was always strongly opposed to the Mubarak regime.
First of all, I need to say that I am and will be happier than before in every respect. My past cannot hold a candle to my present. In the past, before January 25th 2011, we were living like animals. Now, after 25th January 2011, we are humans again. So it's clear that there is not any similarity or comparison between the pre revolution and post revolution period.
Why did I revolt? What was the main reason for our revolution?
I walk in the streets. I take public transportation. I read the newspaper. I watch rebellious men in night shows, and pass by some mediocore strikes. This is what I see in my home; Egypt. It is not even a developing country, with 40% below the poverty line and huge unemployment. The wasted human fortune makes me cry with blood. I see most of my dear friends becoming drug addicts in front of my eyes, even those who managed to find a job couldn’t manage to find any hope. You can hear the resounding sentiment; "What's going right in your country? Let's just live." The whole society is divided into two parts; big thieves in power and small thieves in all work places. There’s no order, no honesty; the ideal that spread to every nook and cranny was, "If you can do some thing, go do it." No rules, no principles, nothing. Oh was it really that dark? Yeah. It was all that and even more. I doubt you would have seen Egypt on the map if we had lived three more years like this! Especially with the imminent inheritance of power to Gamal Mubarak; the son! The main concern of the Mubarak regime was, in a few words, "how to stay longer". So they started to protect their network with all legal and illegal means availabe, with the help of their iron repression machine. If you’ve read before about some dictatorial regime in the ancient ages you could imagine the whole picture.
No, those people in a long queue who are killing each other in a bread and gas cylinder are not Egyptians. Those people who are cheating each other everywhere to make a living are not Egyptians. I'm killing you in order for you to not to kill me later. I deceive you in everyday matters because if I don't do I'll not be able to live and you probably will do the same to me. Those people who got beaten to death in the streets are not Egyptians. Those people who got scared from the police more than God are not Egyptians.
No, come on, those people who are humiliated and dying in the police stations out of torture are not Egyptians.
Horribly mentally ill police officers are everywhere. They teach them at college how to be sadistic. A pathetic man kills another pathetic man for no reason but just in favor of those people in power. That dictatorial repressive regime killed the humanity inside people! It killed every thing beautiful inside them. They no longer realized anything but how to make a living and how to continue living, and that's it. I walk in the street and look at nothing…thinking… oh my God... are we going to hell or what! How can I make a family and teach my son to have a free will while I know that any police man would
stop him in the street and take him to the prison where no one would see him again, not even me, because he believed me when I told him he is free to say the the truth, not even his opinion, just the truth. How can I live in this place... in my home...? We really don’t deserve this.
Egyptians are really not those weak scared humans I see in the streets everyday. I need to live as a human not as an animal. I need to feel my humanity. Before the revolution, I contemplated all the possibilities; like what I would do if the "dawn visitors" visited me? How will I defend my self legally first and then illegally? I was listening to my friends' stories about the "dawn visitors" and preparing myself well for my turn. I'm gonna have some adventure with those bastards. I'm not gonna let them blind me with a piece of cloth and take me to their dirty places to question me. I prefer a life of being chased rather than a life as a slave with fake freedom.
Now could you figure out why we revolt? Well, if you still haven’t figured it out, I will answer you with this small conversation that took place between me and a central security officer in Tahrir square at the end of that first fateful day; January 25th 2011;
The surprised central security officer, seeing all these people and all these events, asked me with clear surprise on his face: "Why did you go out!?!" Many people were trying to answer with different opinions, he listened for a while and then said "Let me tell you why those youth went out today; It's because today is a holiday!" (25th January is a national holiday, the political activists chose this day especially for symbolism). I looked at him and remembered what happened during the day and all these huge amounts of people in the streets; "No, those people are searching for their dignity." I found myself saying this to him with confidence. I don’t know where it came from. "I don't think so, and to be sure of what I said I'm telling you that those people are not gonna go out again". He replied. I smiled and stopped talking, I had a strong feeling in my heart then that the "shackles crashed." This feeling got stronger with each step against the scary central security forces, with each level of central security forces withdrawal, with each chant, with each stone throw and with each angry eye I saw it. Oh my God! I see the ANGER on the Egyptian faces as if they are wild monsters who had their kids stolen and they woke up finally to take their kids back, to take their dignity back. Those are the Egyptians I know well. Yeah, those are my people. Those are the best soldiers in the world as the prophet Muhamed, peace be upon him, said before.
I believe and it became clear now that the main reason for the revolution is "dignity"... period.
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