11 Feb 2011

What a difference a few hours make

Egypt is celebrating the start of a new era and is changing the history of the whole Middle East. On Friday Mubarak stepped back and left the people in his country. On Saturday the future begins.

Down he is.
The people of Egypt have reached their goal. After 18 days of demonstration they finally got the long wished revolution. Mubarak is off to the red sea, where he is staying at tourist haunt Sharm el-Sheikh.

Suleiman had the news

But not Mubarak himself announced the news. It was vice president Suleiman. Mubarak was brave enough to step in front of his people on Thursday to tell them he will be dying in Egypt.

He told them he would not leave the country before the new election in September will hand over his power to the new elected president. He said, he would keep his pledge. One day later, he changed his mind and broke his promise. Again.



Except this time, this is what the people have waited for for a very long time.

Tahrir stands for Liberation - and that is what the Egyptian people faced today. Freedom.
Obama compared the situation in Egypt in his speech he held a few hours after Mubarak's denouncement with the fall of the Berlin wall in Germany. The Egyptian people have spoken and they were heard.

Start of the future or beginning of the end?

But what is it Egypt will face in the future? What if all they get is the old regime with just a new face? Is it too early to celebrate? And will all this really end in democracy?

The media is talking about a domino effect of uprising against the government, first Tunisia, now Egypt - who might follow? While Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Mubarak might slurp their cocktails at a Beach Resort, I am asking: Who will join the cocktail party next? Jordan, Yemen, Syria and Libya? Kuwait and Bahrain? Iraq and Lebanon? Turkey and Qatar?

Fukujama wrote in 1992 about the end of history. Democracy as the final solution for all of us. Is this the beginning of the end?

4 comments:

  1. another great article!

    Hmm, i think the atmosphere in Jordan and Syria is less revolutionary somehow. And i was told the leaders are much stronger than in Egypt for instance. Might be worth further analysis.. (-:

    Lebanon and turkey are already democracies! !! :-P

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  2. not my speculations and not only about democracies, but not being happy with the government. I found this article, which I found really interesting about this:

    http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-235346-five-categories-in-the-middle-east-in-the-wake-of-revolutions.html

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  3. Stefan Heidler2/12/2011 4:56 am

    I really doubt that the change in Egypt ends up in democracy. I think we will see a period of chaos which may lead to an increased influence of fundamentalistic demagogues. Let´s all hope that this won´t become reality...

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  4. Wow Eliza, you're reading Zaman.. I'm really impressed. It is the most objective Turkish newspaper and offers the news in english as well.

    And about the coctail party: I think, those, who are the neigbours of Israel, could very possibly follow this movement ;) It's not about the democracy, it's not about the government. It's all about Israel and USA.

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