Current Events

Off and on all weekend I've been trying to write something coherent about Egypt.  We've been following unfolding events on television, and on the web.  Some great reporting, from the media I usually follow and some I haven't before, like Al Jazeera English.  Learning about the complexity of how the military and the security forces are organized and how the fissures and factions and loyalities there will shape what follows.  Admiral Mike Mullen on the Daily Show (the Daily Show!), talking about the close ties between the U.S. military and the Egyptian military.  In clinic on Friday, sneaking a quick look at Al Jazeera's live blog between patients.  Yesterday afternoon, I turned on the television, looking for an update about what was happening.  CNN didn't even have any news on (isn't the second N supposed to stand for "news"?) but MSNBC did. 

The key factor that determines outcome, when the citizens of a country take to the streets, is whether or not the organized guys with guns - whether it be the police or the military - will kill their own people.  All week, waiting to see what was going to happen.  It seemed, last week, that it might be the day that Things Turned Bad.  Gangs of thugs were attacking the protestors and the journalists who were sharing the story with the rest of the world.  Remembering Iran, in 2009, and before that, Tiananmen Square.  What would the military do? 

As it has played out, tt seems that they are planning on outlasting the Mubarek government, whose days are numbered, and probably in days and not weeks.   What will follow?  Hopefully a government that is more responsive, and less corrupt, and less inclined to let thugs in uniform terrorize its citizens.

I was embarrassed, the other night, with Piers Morgan asked an Egyptian official if he would like to take the opportunity to apologize for the attacks on Western journalists, as if roughing up Anderson Cooper was somehow worse than attacking Egyptian journalists.  One Egyptian journalist has been killed, already, and countless others have been beaten, harrassed, intimidated, and detained.  It has been a systematic assault on the reporters who have bringing us the news.  They are brave people, and I am grateful they are still there.  A free press is critical to democracy, and in the long run, that's what will build peace, and prosperity, and stability to the country and the region.

I remember 1989, when the Iron Curtain came down, and one country after another declared their national independence.  Who could have imagined that in a few months, the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe would come to end so quickly, so bloodlessly?  Just because we didn't see it coming, doesn't mean it can't happen.  We do not know how this particular story will end, but we are hoping for a peaceful transition to democracy. 

So the other night, Tom mounted the flag holder on one of the columns on our front porch, and we hung the flag of Egypt.  I haven't heard of a march is support of the people of Egypt here in Atlanta, and if there was one, I probably wouldn't have time to go to it.  But if you are on Wessyngton Road, you can find our house. 

It's the one with the Egyptian flag on the front porch.