Egypt's Pain

I have been watching the news coverage and blogosphere chatter about the economically driven unrest in the Middle East with a mixture of nostalgia and concern.

I spent quite a lot of time talking to friends of my former fiance whilst in the Sinai about how they view their country.

The Egyptians and Bedouin don't often see eye to eye but they do seem to agree that the current regime's foreign policy is sound, even admiring President Hosni Mubarak's ability to walk a very difficult line between Israel and the Arab states.

It is Mubarak's approach to domestic issues that concern them, in particular

• the high rates of unemployment and the way in which curtailment of freedom of speech impedes economic development
• that the suppression of extremist Islamic views has spilled over into any and all criticism of the current regime even where comment might contain positive suggestions
• heavy handed application of the outlawing of the Muslim Brotherhood has made it more difficult to prevent the spread of the kind of extremist forms of Islam that the majority of Egyptians do not want to live under
• the degree of corruption amongst within the government and civil service
• the lack of application of human rights within their penal system that has resulted in large numbers of people being 'disappeared', held without trial, and tortured
• twenty years of a 'state of emergency' which has enabled the state to excuse its own poor behaviour

In short, what most of them want is a fair chance of a job that earns them enough money to get married and to have a family in average comfort, all in the knowledge that they will be treated fairly economically and legally.

The current situation has been brought to a head by the global economic crisis and by the Egyptians themselves being given the confidence to act by the knowledge that the world was already watching due to similar protests in other countries.

I have been watching a blog in Facebook that is highlighting all the demos in Egypt and the authorities' response to them. What is not clear on mainstream TV coverage is that this civil unrest is not confined to the main cities. Several have already lost their lives due to the heavy handed response by the police, including one lad in a small village in the Sinai.

I hope and pray that this time things change for the better in Egypt and that the change happens without civil disobedience turning into civil war.