Egypt Revolts: Day Seventeen

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Since the day I was born, Egyptians were always proud of their past. They were proud of Ancient Egypt, Coptic and Islamic civilizations. They were proud of our flourished culture, our many colonies, our well educated Egyptians during the time of Mohamed Ali Pasha. They were proud of Ahmed Oraby, Mostafa Kamel and Saad Zaghloul. They were proud of the 1952 revolution and the many achievements of Gamal Abd El Nasser (that Mubarak and his gang sold). They were proud of the October 6^th war with Israel. They were proud of many things in the past, but were they proud of anything in their present, except maybe for winning the African Football Cup.  But this has all changed since January 25^th when we changed history with our own hands, when we made the whole world look at us with respect, when we used our mighty power. When we made a very civilized revolution, 100% peaceful, very well organized, very pure, with no internal or external agendas, with a great sense of humor. We showed our positivity and resilience, we showed how powerful we can be. We’re finally proud of our present and we’re not only a country of civilization, but also one with a very bright future. The biggest achievement of Gamal Abd El Nasser was that he brought back dignity to the Egyptians and the rest of achievements followed, and that’s what we’ve been doing since January 25^th, and the rest will follow.... 

...I don't know how to write what this; today has been filled with many different feelings and I don't know which feeling to start with. Today started with the feeling of optimism, then happiness, then victory, then disappointment, then anger, then more power. Today might change the face of this revolution forever, but whatever might happen tomorrow, our revolution will continue.

Protests continued all across the country today in all different places and Ikhwan came back. Tahrir today had more than a million, even though there was no call for a million man march. Everyone was protesting in all sorts of firms and companies and syndicates. It started raining, and as always, everyone got very optimistic and prayed that today will be the long awaited day when the regime falls.

On my way out of Tahrir today, I heard people cheering so loudly and rumors that Mubarak resigned were everywhere. I opened Twitter and found a piece of news about Mubarak delegating his authorities as supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces to the supreme council. I stood and read out the tweet, and in a minute found myself surrounded by tens of people.

This sounded like there's a military coup, and later, they gave us more signs that there is a real military coup. An NDP official said that Mubarak will resign today, Ahmed Shafiq said that Mubarak might resign today and that things will come back to normal soon. And then.... The supreme council started a meeting and brought out a communique they called communique number one. They said that they will be continuously meeting to discuss the situation of the country and the people's eligible demands. They said that more communiques will follow. At the hearing of this news, Tahrir and all other squares started celebrating and cheering, and more joined them. 

A while later, CIA said that Mubarak might resign tonight, but minister of media and Ahmed Shafiq said that Muabrak still has all authorities. Then the state TV announced that Mubarak will make a statement in a short while. Things started to get very confusing, and then they even got more confusing when some army officers handed their weapons and joined the protests. Then Obama said a speech, he said nothing of any importance, only let's wait and see. But the way he spoke made everyone feel that he knows that Mubarak will resign tonight.

The short while turned into six hours of waiting, and the disappointment was more than anyone can take. He said he's staying, but will delegate some of his authorities to the vice president according to the constitution. He gave some promises that everyone responsible for killing the protesters with be prosecuted, that the constitution will have some amendments to six articles, that the elections will be free and fair, then he said he's staying until September. People got really mad, and responded by taking off their shoes and holding them up to the screen, they chanted one word; LEAVE. The speech was very weird though, Mubarak looked very tired and not confident enough. There was a cut in the middle of the speech, and people said that this cut was because he fainted in the middle of the speech!

Revolutionaries everywhere were very angry and reactions started to happen without thinking, things started to get scary. No one knows what can happen next, it is very clear that Mubarak will not leave because of the protests in the squares of Egypt. And it is also very clear that the army won't do anything. How can we take it one step forward? Things might turn brutal, things might turn very bad.  Some of the protesters at Tahrir and the parliament decided to walk to the presidential palace and took off. This is sounded very scary, the number of tanks and soldiers here made me feel that the army might open fire on whoever comes here. Minutes later, Omar Soliman came saying that he's ready for a dialogue with the opposition and to do some changes. Nobody even listened to him, and of course he talked as if he's talking about another country.

I went to sleep at 1:00, hoping that we will  be wiser than the regime and stay as peaceful as we ever were. At 1:20, I woke up to the sound of gunfire.The demonstration has reached El Khalifa El Ma'moon. Army fired as a warning and sounds of chants (that I might've been only in my minded) were gone. Our building's security  guard said they're very close to us right now. There are tanks everywhere I though they'll have to stop at El Khalifa El Ma'moon, that they won't be able to go any further. But I was wrong again, they reached the presidential palace and started a sit-in there. Thank God the army didn't open fire, but I still don't know how this might end....