I keep seeing flashbacks of Iran, 2009.

[RandySF]

The protesters in Cairo and Tehran are very similar: Young, urban, educated and cosmopolitan. Mubarek's speech also reminds me of how Ahmadinejad was able to drive a wedge between the Tehran activists and older, poorer, less educated Iranians, so the rest of the country did not react when the arrests came down. Is that what Mubarek has in store?

[RandomThoughts]

1. Posted that before.

If a group is not going to correct what is right, they are going to have to kill everyone, and they eventually will try to do that, since there will always be a group to be against.

If you are trying to suppress or control, it is that motivator that drives you, not any doctrine, and if you always have to control someone, you will always destroy.

Here is the thing, people are going to wake up, that don't want to be controlled, and you can't kill them all, since every time you try you create many more against you.


My point, I am due beer and travel money, and many experiences, and that has not been sent to me.

[happyslug]

2. Watch these reports about "Young Radicals" it is a term without meaning.

I always joke about my Father Walking out of the Pittsburgh Letter Carrier Meeting during the 1970 Postal Strike. He walked out in protest to how the leadership was holding the vote to continue the strike. The Union Leadership wanted the Strike to end for it was illegal and they were being threaten with jail. The problem was my Father had carried the floor at the previous union meeting when the Union President had told the Union Members that he could go to jail if they voted for a Strike, and My Father Rose up and yelled "And that is what we are paying to do" and carried the vote for the strike. On this second vote to continue the Strike the President wanted the votes to be sent each carrier's home, so their wives could put pressure on them to vote against the Strike (The Federal Government was making threats of Jailing all the Carriers for going in Strike). My father wanted an up and down vote at that meeting for he knew he could carry the vote on that day given the mood of the carriers. The President won the vote to send the ballots home, and my Father walked out in protest.

I bring this up for the next day, the local paper wrote about the vote and that "Two Young Radicals" had walked out of the meeting in protest. My Father was 51 and the younger of the two. My point is every time you have a protest like this it is always "Young Radicals" that are blamed NO MATTER THEIR AGES. I suspect the same in Egypt, the young are protesting, but the leadership, the people the young are looking to as "leaders" probably are in their 40s-50s. Old enough to have experience on how to behave in a protest, but still young enough to be able to move in a hurry if that is needed.

An example of this was his decision to take one of his children with him to the picket line. I was to old, I was 12, my younger brother was picked, he was only 10. As my father said to his fellow carriers, bring your children, that will slow down any effort by the Government to use violence (The last thing ANY law enforcement officers wants to be seen doing is shooting/beating up children, it does NOT look good on TV, no matter how you justify it). As to what would happen if the Carriers would be arrested, my father told his fellow Carriers, he knows what police will do, take the Children and give them Ice Cream till someone came and got them. That is experience talking, something people younger may not have and thus why most leaders of such protests tend to be in the 40s and 50s. They have been through it before, they know what to do (For example setting up the groups to protect public buildings, to collect the IDs of the people attacking those public buildings and getting those IDs, showing that they were tied in with Security Forces etc.).

One last comment, while the press would like the people in the Revolt to be "young, urban, educated and cosmopolitan", there is strong evidence that the majority of the people in the streets, reflect ALL aspects of Egyptian Society, including the Urban and Rural Poor AND the 20% of the Population that can not read of write. The Leadership of this Movement gladly accepted the endorsement and support of the Moslem Brotherhood AND accepted that support of, by and for the Moslem Brotherhood for the Moslem Brotherhood is the largest organized opposition to the present Government in Egypt (When Fair Elections have been held since 2000, the Brotherhood had won them, then the Government rigged the vote to come out on top).

I suspect many of out reporters are falling into the same trap they fall into when covering such revolts in foreign lands, they look to people who speak English and then accept them as speaking for the whole nation in revolt. Most Egyptians do NOT know English but are the Majority in this revolt. US Reports are NOT communicating with these non-English Speakers. The Reporters are NOT talking about how the Rural and Urban Poor are getting the news of where to be (I suspect the various Mosques, not so much from the Religious Leaders of the Mosques, but as a large meeting place, Churches often fulfill that same functions in revolts in "Christian" Lands, Buddhist Temples did the same in Thailand and Burma during the Civil Disturbances in those places).

Just pointing out this is more then the Youth of Egypt coming out. I remember the Iranian Revolt, again the press reported it as a "Youth Revolt" and who ended up being the most popular leaders of the Revolt? Khomeini, who was in his 80s at that time. Most of the leaders were in their 40s and 50s, the youth of the Iranian Revolution are only getting into power in the last ten years, as they enter their 40s and 50s (1979 plus 32 years is 2011, if we assume the "Youth" of 1979 were 18 in 1979, that would make then 50 today).

Just a comment, that I have NOT seen anything that makes the make up of this revolt any different then the Iranian Revolt of the Shah as to the make up of who is in revolt. These tend to be revolts of the masses, with people of all ages involved. The press report of Youth Lead Revolt is like the story of my Father being a "Young Radical" more an opinion of who the papers would like to be in revolt then who is in revolt.