el-Ignoramus, I hope you and yours are OK right now

[david petley]

el-Ig, I have been watching the demonstrations on the streets of Cairo for the last week, and just wanted to touch base to find out if you, your family and friends are OK?

Here's hoping...

david

[gerbick]

We've talked. He's not in Egypt, but his family still is.

[david petley]

thanks gerbs, it is looking pretty crazy in Cairo, although the army has said it will not fire on protestors.

[Flashock]

Is the internet connection still functioning there? I heard from the news that major network is down. Hope he and his family is fine!

[el-Ignoramus]

Thanks guys, I check on them by the phone daily, Mobile lines in Cairo are still shaky but land lines are trusted old copper behemoths that need a nuclear war head to melt them, they are fine, my neighbors and the youths are taking turns watching over the area, Protesters are peaceful so far, but the intentional release of 2500+ prisoners made people edgy about their safety, there's an Army Tank nearby my home in Cairo, looters are being apprehended by the army or the protesters and handed over to the Army

So far the attempts by Mubarak to reconcile or resolve the situation are hilarious, His wife Suzanne I spotted her two day ago in Oxford street shopping at Selfridges, I was checking out her son's 6.5 Million US$ Apartment next to Hydepark when I spotted her, too bad I didn't have a camera to take a picture of her.

It seems that the Army is siding with the Egyptians in their rightful attempt to overthrow Mubarak, Police have started reappearing in th streets after more than 72 hours of absence but no one trusts them much anyway they are still our brothers so we do NOT attack them, protesters are reminding one another to keep it peaceful

Thanks everyone for your concerns, pray for us

[japangreg]

Glad to hear you're okay - was a bit worried too.

Best to you and yours.

[WannaBe_80z]

Great to hear an update about it all. Scary situation over there.

The US will be next, no?

[hanratty21]

The US will be next, no?

No. The US is a net exporter of grain and other food products. The government stocks strategic reserves of commodities like grain, sugar, gold, oil. When world commodities markets go to sh*t, we simply open the reserves for internal consumption to last until the madness dies down.

Just like OPEC has the western world over the barrel (so to speak) so do we when it comes to farm products. In certain years, the US Government still actually pays farmers to NOT grow more food so that we keep prices in a stable place.

Fat Americans will stay fat, indeed.

[WannaBe_80z]

So you're not rooting for some form of civil war in our life time? bummer.

[WannaBe_80z]

Any more updates? Just heard the president is stepping down.

[david petley]

Any more updates? Just heard the president is stepping down.

There has just been a pre-recorded address to the Egyptian people which did not go down well with the protestors in Tahrir Square.

The response as it was broadcast seemed angry, and there were lots of showing of soles of shoes (I guess if Mubarak was there, they might have actually thrown them at him).

It seems like his speech today was a repeat of his previous stance, and there was no real sign that he is stepping down from power earlier than the September target.

There may be more people anger, rather than jubilation.

david

[WannaBe_80z]

We have NPR going on at work and heard that. Tomorrow seems like it's going to get hairy...

[silverx2]

Congrats Egypt, Step one is complete. I hope you unite and select a new leader/group that will help you move forward, and not retread that same ****.

[el-Ignoramus]

[david petley]

[el-Ignoramus]

There's still a lot to do, we still have people who live in the past when Egypt was a royal Kingdom and still insist on using the titles bestowed on them by the king, even after 60+ years of the monarchy's failure, I see lots of people who got so used to being tread on that they do not know what life could offer them, and they are like a cornered mouse, they fight ferociously, not to mention there are so many people who still have so much gain from the current status - corrupted business men/politicians...et all- it's a challenge but it took us 18 days to tear down this one, hopefully if we have another one we'll benefit from the experience and do it in under a week