Rewind?

After a week of the most impressive uprising of the people that I've ever seen/heard of/read about, Egyptians have given up.

I lost count of how many people have passionately tried to convince me that our time is up and that we should settle back down. What's ironic is that those very people were participants in the January 25th protests. So what exactly happened those past couple of days? Let's recap:

Mubarak gave a couple of speeches addressing the need for "constitutional change" and "political reform". Not much later, thugs on camels and horses were storming Tahrir square beating protesters with sticks. Much to their convenience, the internet happened to be turned back on. The world ended up being presented with civil feud between those that claimed they are pro-regime against protesters that have been literally fighting for a new system for the past week.

This is where the interesting part comes in. Subsequent to these arbitrary attacks on protesters, many Egyptians started getting certain epiphanies and they go something like this:

"If Mubarak has come out publicly and promised the world he would not take part of this year's elections, then why are we still downtown going hungry, sleepy, and tired? If this is all orchestrated by 'external forces' then why are we bothering? Let's just all go home, get some sleep, start going back to our jobs and re-instill the stability we once had."

Upon reading that, you belong to one of two camps: those who believe that this has been a big mistake and only caused disruption to our country and thus agree with the statement, or those who believe that every single detail of that statement is pregnant with fallacy. You can probably guess which one I belong to.

Let's take a step back for a second and dissect every contention being made in Mubarak's favor, let's try to be impartial so we can actually come to a reasonable rational conclusion:

After much expressed hatred and condemnation from almost every reputable developed nation in the world, it's no wonder he felt compelled to "appear" to appease the protesters. We all watched him make that speech in utter anticipation. We thought maybe, just maybe, we have done it. But no, we found out that all we're getting is a PROMISE. One that is declaring to the world that Mubarak will NOT run for reelection this year. He was CONCERNED about the stability of the country and believed the status quo needs to be maintained in order for it to be resumed.

The tragedy in all this is not the fact that he's not giving us what we want, it's in the fact that HUNDREDS are falling for it.

They are basically saying that a dictatorial tyrant that has ruled with a heavy hand for over thirty years is suddenly having a change of heart, thus not feeling like reelecting himself for another term in order to give the people what they want. At the young age of 84. What a sacrifice.

Let's look at everything that this revolution has been representing, that has NOT even been addressed so far in Mubarak's speeches:

• Ending the Emergency Law that has been in effect since Sadat's regime. A legislation that was put in place to handle violent Islamist political outbursts in the 1970s. But now, Mubarak has transformed it into an extensive torturous instrument to keep his public (especially dissidents) in check.
• Madda 88, which addresses judiciary duties toward monitoring elections to ensure fairness and prevent ballot manipulation, has not been enforced throughout Mubarak's regime.
• Parliamentary elections have been conducted in a certain way to ensure victory of the NDP ever since God knows when. Further more, lower class citizens get bribed to say that they voted for them (20 pounds to be exact - Who knew selling your soul would cost little more than a Ta3meya sandwich).
• Opposition parties (yes including the Brotherhood) have been demonized for a very long time, giving the international community the impression that Egypt is a harbinger of terrorism and chaos waiting to unravel (very ironic, in my opinion, look what the NDP themselves have sparked up).
• Egypt has been dubbed a "police state" (a shameless euphemism in my opinion) for good reason. Police brutality against citizens has become absolutely ludicrous. In what world should a human being be absentmindedly subservient to ruthless authority figures? That doesn't sound like something America would be supporting, does it.

I've listed only a few basic flaws in the Egyptian regime. Only a few. Once you start immersing yourself into the hellish calculus that is the structure of the Egyptian society, you begin to notice the amount of suffering that so many people have to experience on a daily basis. Matters of food, health, shelter, security, things we don't give second thoughts to.

That situation is due to one very simple fact - Egypt does not have a government.

I'm thinking that would be sufficient to explain the cause of what we've seen so far this week. Now to all my fellow Egyptians that are NOT supportive of the uprising - are you really willing to settle after everything that we have put ourselves and our nation through?

300 dead and thousands injured, just so you can decide after a few days that you're too tired to protest?

Or have we just given up since he turned out to have a much thicker skin that Bin Ali?

What I'm trying to say is that a revolution doesn't happen over night. A revolution comes with a cost but for a very invaluable outcome. I'm not going to give you that spiel about democracy and its importance. But would you rather start working on picking up the economy right now still under the same authoritarian regime and under the same conditions? Or endure relative chaos for a some time in exchange for the system we've been lacking for an overly long time?

I'm vowing never to mention this debate again. Because to tell you the truth, it's infuriating.

Egypt will make the right decision.