Egypt: The World Watches

I feel like I'm supposed to write something about the events we are watching in Egypt the last few days. I found it quite astonishing how slow the American media was to covering the upheaval. Seems Jon Stewart on the Daily Show and Rick Sanchez via his twitter account seemed to be the only ones actually covering what has come to be known as #Jan25. Suddenly, on Friday it finally became all Egypt, all the time on CNN and MSNBC.

It is fairly fascinating television and at least in visuals reminds me of the Tiananmen Square protests from 1989. It appears to be similar on some levels to the Tiananmen Square protests in that these seem to also being led by young people who are pretty pissed off about the state of affairs in their country. Honestly, I know very little about how the people of Egypt live, but CNN tells me these young people are pissed off because even though many of them are well-educated they have very little prospect for jobs. Combine this economic frustration with limiting their ability to speak freely on the internet and you have a powder keg.

From an American perspective politically this is a very delicate situation. While I'm sure many could give me details of Mubarak mistreatment of the people over the last 30 years, he has played an immensely important role to the United States in that region. I can't help but worry about who would replace Mubarak in a real democratic election. Shouldn't it concern us that the people of Egypt may not only elect someone who isn't as friendly with the United States but could also be even more restrictive on the people of Egypt who happen to be women or non-Muslim believers? Some suggest the Muslim Brotherhood may not be as bad an option as many in this country would expect. Many have expressed concerns that the Muslim Brotherhood does not include women in its leadership.

Admittedly, I speak from a great deal of ignorance here. But, it is my hope that smart people are advising are very smart President on this thing. While it is my instinct to be supportive of the people in the streets I have to say I'm not sure we as a country would be very helpful to their cause if we appeared to be totally supportive. This is a struggle that needs to be resolved by the people of Egypt. The most we can do as a nation is strongly encourage restraint by the government in how it deals with the protests.

If you're not happy with the coverage on CNN, you can watch Al Jazeera in English here. I encourage those of you on twitter to follow SA Cosgrove and Sharif Kouddous.

I must say that it is quite amazing to see people take to the streets to claim their freedom.