Dictators Speech

Crowds Reaction

February 2nd 2011 @ 03:33 GMT

Egyptian State TV has been showing images and video of Pro Mubarak protesters chanting Pro Mubarak slogans.  State TV has carried out little to no reporting on Anti Mubarak Protestors which is to be expected when the TV station is owned by a Dictator. Egyptians are clearly not going to give up with the Revolution with another protest march organised for this coming Friday 4th with some calling it the “Day of Ousting”.

February 1st 2011 @ 22:20 GMT

Crowds of people have started chanting “Where are the army?” has they start to demand that the Military step in and remove Mubarak from power.  Furthermore, Pro Mubarak protestors had started to enter “Liberation Square” where the majority of people against the Dictatorship where assembled.  Some protestors attempted to stop the pro Mubarak group from entering before both groups clashed.  The people believe that the Pro Mubarak group may be from the Police and Security forces.

February 1st 2011 @ 21:10 GMT

Mubarak has addressed the Egyptian people on State TV and is his second time in speaking with a nation which no longer wants him in power.  In his speech to the nation Mubarak blamed the recent Revolution on Politics.  This goes against the clear facts which show that economic problems along with a 30 year Dictatorship is what inflamed the people to revolt against this regime.  Mubarak said in his speech that he would instruct both houses of the Parliament to meet up and draw up changes to the Egyptian Constitution which would place term limits on how long a President can stand for.  Mubarak also stated that he would no stand for re-election and he expects to stay in power until the next election which takes place in months.

The Egyptian people reacted to Mubaraks speech by chanting “LEAVE” over and over shortly after his speech had ended.  The people of Egypt feel that Mubaraks concessions on Democracy and Freedom come too little too late.  The protests have since increased on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria since Mubarak made his speech.  It strongly appears that the people of Egypt will not accept anything from Mubarak who they no longer see has their leader. 

Mubarak Says He’ll Go but Not Just Yet: What Now?

As Egypt’s extraordinary uprising edged into its second week, hundreds of thousands of people poured into Cairo’s giant Tahrir Square on Tuesday, in the biggest demonstration the country has seen in decades. Jammed into the huge open area, people waved the national flag and prayed on their knees long after dark, flaunting the nighttime curfew, as they chanted their demand for President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster with a single word: “Go!” But what will the protesters do now that it seems likely Mubarak will not “go” immediately?

By essentially stepping aside and not running for re-election in a vote that was originally scheduled for September, Mubarak may satisfy enough of a populace that has grown weary of lawlessness and shortages — enough to sap the street action of much of its power. Some political groups may even be happy if they are given Cabinet positions as part of an immediate sharing of power in a transition, further eroding opposition unity. Protesters say they — and Egypt — have been profoundly changed by the past week’s experience, and many vow to maintain their almost nonstop demonstrations until the President goes. Yet Tuesday’s street-filling crescendo may be impossible to re-create. “It is a fiasco if the situation just stays like this,” says the well-known Egyptian actor Aser Yasin, who joined Tuesday’s protest in the square. “We have already won. But it is not just about winning. It is about rising up again afterward.”

CAIRO — More than a quarter-million people flooded Cairo’s main square Tuesday in a stunning and jubilant array of young and old, urban poor and middle class professionals, mounting by far the largest protest yet in a week of unrelenting demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in power. According to The Guardian, one million protesters gathered at Tahrir Square. One Al Jazeera correspondent said two million attended the protests in the square and its surrounding areas. The crowds – determined but peaceful – filled Tahrir, or Liberation, Square and spilled into nearby streets, among them people defying a government transportation shutdown to make their way from rural provinces. Protesters jammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, with schoolteachers, farmers, unemployed university graduates, women in conservative headscarves and women in high heels, men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes. They sang nationalist songs, danced, beat drums and chanted the anti-Mubarak slogan “Leave! Leave! Leave!” as military helicopters buzzed overhead. Organizers said the aim was to intensify marches to get the president out of power by Friday, and similar demonstrations erupted in at least five other cities around Egypt.

Mubarak will not step down, but will not seek re-election, he announces on state television. He said it’s time to “ensure a peaceful transition of power” and that it’s time for “someone to be elected by the people in the coming election.”

Facebook and Twitter Used By Syrians To Incite Protests

BEIRUT — Syrians are organizing campaigns on Facebook and Twitter that call for a “day of rage” in Damascus this week, taking inspiration from Egypt and Tunisia in using social networking sites to rally their followers for sweeping political reforms. Like Egypt and Tunisia, Syria suffers from corruption, poverty and unemployment. All three nations have seen subsidy cuts on staples like bread and oil. Syria’s authoritarian president has resisted calls for political freedoms and jailed critics of his regime. The main Syrian protest page on Facebook is urging people to protest in Damascus on Feb. 4 and 5 for “a day of rage.” It says the goal is to “end the state of emergency in Syria and end corruption.”

The number of people who have joined Facebook and Twitter pages calling for protests on Friday and Saturday is still relatively small, and some are believed to live outside the country. President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Monday that his nation is immune from the kind of unrest roiling Tunisia and Egypt. He was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as acknowledging that the events signaled a “new era” in the Middle East. But he said Syria, which has gradually shed its socialist past in favor of the free market in recent years, was insulated from the upheaval because he understood his people’s needs and has united them in common cause against Israel. Social networking sites were integral to rallying protesters in Tunisia and Egypt. Facebook is banned in Syria, which makes organizing more difficult – even though many Syrians manage to access the social networking site anyway. More than 2,500 people have joined the page calling for protests on Feb. 4-5, with another 850 joining a page in favor of President Assad. Assad, a 45-year-old British-trained eye doctor, inherited power from his father, Hafez, in 2000, after three decades of authoritarian rule.