A single courageous protester blocks the water cannon truck in Cairo, Jan. 25, 2011. (OB Rag screen capture of video)
UPDATE: Police fire teargas at Egypt overnight protesters
CAIRO Jan 26 (Reuters) – Police fired teargas at Egyptian protesters who were camped out in the centre of Cairo early on Wednesday morning after a day of nationwide protests calling for President Hosni Mubarak to end his 30 years of rule. Thousands of demonstrators had said they planned to stay out in Tahrir square in central Cairo until the government fell.
Three dead as protests continue across Egypt into the night
By Kristen Chick / Christian Science Monitor / January 25, 2011
Cairo – Today (Jan 25, 2011) Egypt experienced the largest outpouring of public fury at the government since January 1977, when cuts in government food subsidies saw hundreds of thousands of Egyptians pour into the streets in an uprising that shook the government of then President Anwar Sadat.
That ended three days later with dozens dead but the Egyptian poor who spearheaded the action triumphant: Sadat restored the subsidies.
Thousands of demonstrators protest in central Cairo demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak and calling for reforms, 25 Jan 2011
The protests in Egypt today, with tens of thousands on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, industrial Nile Delta towns like Mahalla El-Kubra and Tanta, and the port city of Suez, were thankfully nowhere near as violent (though late in the evening in Cairo on Tuesday there were reports of security forces taking a tougher line with protesters camped out in Tahrir Square). And the chances of today’s protesters having their demands met in anything like the time-frame of 1977 are slim and none.
After all, they’re seeking the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, who ascended to the presidency after Sadat’s assassination in 1981. A popular uprising in Tunisia may have just pushed out President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, but Egypt — the Arab world’s largest country, with a vast security establishment — is something else again.
But activists, political analysts, and average people in Egypt insist that something crucial shifted for Egypt today. Egyptian political scientist Mustapha Kamel Al Sayyid predicts that now the dam has broken, protests will continue. “the reservoir of discontent is huge,” he says. He adds it is much too soon to talk about a revolution in Egypt, where several factors would make a Tunisia-style toppling of Mubarak much more difficult.
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For videos of street protests, go here.
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I get pretty emotional watching the vids of people fighting for their freedom. And give me some kudos, will ya, for this screen capture – it took awhile for me to get just what I wanted. Plus this image reminds me of that Chinese man who stopped that line of tanks in China in 1989, ‘member?
People of Egypt must make decision about their next leader, not Tel Aviv or Washington DC. I am sorry for your view, you think all people in Egypt are slave of Hosni Mubarak or his son Gamal. His son is gone, and Hosni Mubarak will leave for Germany on February, and the people of Egypt will chose their next DEMOCRATIC leader. Please review your writing, and do not support DICTATORSHIP.