I have to confess, I haven't followed the stuff in Egypt - can someone summarize what's happening

[LynneSin]

I'm trying to sort thru all the posts now and news report and well, seems to be alot of angry people.

Can someone summarize in a sentence or 2 what's happening?

I'm assuming this is connected with the other protests in Tunisia, Jordan and now I hear Saudi Arabia?

[justiceischeap]

1. Simply, it's about poverty and brutality

The people are starving and the secret police are brutal and they've grown tired of it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. People are uprising against the despot ruler of 50 years.

Here is live blog.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/28/friday-protests-liveblog

Here is live coverage, minute by minute.

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

[Recursion]

8. 29 years?

Or are you counting Sadat's term, too? (which would make sense.)

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. Despot rule...of fifty years...I think that is what I heard

online.
thanks.

[xchrom]

3. it's more about uncorrupted elections than anything else.

we could learn a thing or two.

[LynneSin]

7. Sounds like it

Instead we keep our mouths shut while teabaggers get all uppity because we aren't protecting the rights of the wealthiest 2% of the country

go figure.

[xchrom]

9. +1

[Cleita]

4. Egypt is one of the countries that we outsource our torture

to so you can imagine how brutal the regime is. The people are fed up with totalitarian rule and it seems what started in Tunisia is spreading to those countries in the ME who starve and brutalize their citizens. I hope our right winger, tax breaks for millionaires and no social services for anyone leaders take a look and see what the future of this nation might be if we keep going down this road the corporate DLC Democrats and Tea Party Republicans are leading us down.

[hfojvt]

5. I have not followed it either

Not ready to cheer on the protestors.

[cbdo2007]

6. Here is a brief synopsis....

The President of Egypt belongs to the NDP (National Democratic Party) and has been President since 1981.

They just recently got "fair elections" in Egypt, but those are extremely corrupted where they won't let any other major candidates on the ballots, so the President guy keeps winning and the NDP controls the congress type group also.

Inspired by the riots in Tunisia and the other countries, the people are uprising to get the President out of office, because his son is about to take over for him, again without fair elections.

[eissa]

10. Good recap, plus

it's important to note that these protests didn't just start up after Tunisia. There were some prior to that, but of course not on this scale. The Tunisian success in overthrowing their government, though, did inspire the Egyptians. There was a sense of "shame" (as one Egyptian colleague put it) that a country as small as Tunisia succeeded while Egypt, with millions more people and a far more repressive regime, couldn't. It became a test of "national pride."

For decades, the Arab populations that live under repressive regimes like Egypt, Iraq, Syria, etc. have been told "it's either us or the Islamists." So they tolerated the rampant corruption, brutality, economic stagnation and poverty. I think the wide-spread access of social networking, satellites, etc. have made them realize that (1) all their problems are not related to Israel, the US, or other conspiracy theories, and (2) they need not settle for the lesser of two evils. They can have both a secular and competent government.

Although realistically, the jury is still out on that last one. The Iranian revolution was initiated by the country's intellectuals and university students and was soon taken over by the religious hard-liners. We don't know what the final outcome will be in either Tunisia or Egypt, so this will be interesting to watch.

[woo me with science]

15. Everyday life for many Egyptians has become intolerable.

There is massive unemployment among young, able men, and food prices have skyrocketed. People are desperate to support their families, and young men do not feel able to marry, because they cannot support wives and children. People are tired of the extended reign of a dictator who does not attend to these problems, of governmental corruption that contributes to them, and of the army of plain clothes informants in the streets who punish any dissent with imprisonment and torture.

They have had enough.

[TBF]

11. Synopsis - Revolution. If you want more detail refer to Twitter. nt

[LynneSin]

13. Yes but I don't twitter

I like to get my news provided in sentences longer than 140 characters.

[L. Coyote]

12. Popular uprising, last evening Internet cut off, midnight Wikileaks leaks US cables,

Sun came up, but Land of Amun-Re is still dark

[The_Commonist]

14. This seems to be a good rundown...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Egyptian_protests

[damntexdem]

17. The revolution WILL be televised.

On Al Jazeera.

[L. Coyote]

18. Indeed, on Arabic television

[Turborama]

19. Al Jazeera have a global English channel

See my sig line and http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x293197">this OP.