Egypt Calls for Freedom, Day 6: Update Sun, Jan 30, 2011, 9.00 am

Jan 30, 2011, 9.00 am
Today is Day 6, and as expected, protesters have taken over the center of the Egyptian capital Cairo in demonstrations against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

The police have largely disappeared from the streets but there is a heavy military presence in the city, even though soldiers are not intervening in the situation.

The Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera which was covering the event has been halted. The Egyptian government had earlier ordered the Arabic TV channel, which has been showing blanket coverage of the protests, to shut down its operations in the country.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said
A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

What are we witnessing?


Jan 29, 2011, 11.30 am

The Egyptian President for nearly 30 years, Mr. Hosni Mubarak, 83, has started appointing a new cabinet for his new government after Egyptian government resigned this morning. So far, appointments made do not show any hope for a change. My. Mubarak is picking and choosing from his comfort zone. He is not in a hurry to reach to read out to the other side. The 83 year-old 3-decades president himself has not shown any indication he will step down.

He has been president for almost 30 years. For most of the protesters, Mubarak is the only leader they have known their entire life.

Any system which promotes the dictatorship of the few privileged instead of the initiative of the millions can never produce a happier and fulfilled people. Mr. Mubarak, as well as others like Mugabe, should know that their systems in essence imprison their people.

There will be freedom.


Jan 29, 2011, 10.15 am

The ancient Greek historian Thucydides once said “The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.”

This is exactly what is happening in North Africa right now. I’m watching CNN as I write this and I can hear protesters chant ‘Change, Freedom, Mubarak Go” and other anti-government slogans. My heart is in Egypt. I would be on the street if I lived in Egypt.

Happiness in life is an inner desire of the soul. As Thucydides said you cannot acquire this essential ingredient in life in the absence of freedom, and freedom won’t come before courage.

From the Sahara to the West Coast, and to the Southern belt, the African people need to demand for freedom. Let the ordinary people pioneer this movement. I’m glad that this time it is people like me, and not the military, who are calling for change.

There will be freedom on Our Land, in Uganda and in Zimbabwe

Jan 29, 2011, 7.30 am

The Egyptian protests continue today. In fact I would be disappointed if it wasn’t so. For the past three decades, Egypt has been about one person, Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak, 83, just as Zimbabwe has all been about the 87 year old Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

Mubarak’s cabinet resigned this morning but this does not make any difference; Mubarak stays on. Mubarak is the face of Egypt and he should just respect the will of the people. If Mubarak stays on, it will continue to make the situation worse. There is hope on the streets of Cairo that perhaps this could bring about the freedom people have dreamed of for decades.

The book of Proverbs says that ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick’. It’s for this reason that I believe Mubarak must respect the cry in the hearts of the Egyptian youth.

This revolution was overdue. The combustible material was in stock, it just needed someone to trigger the spark.

There will be freedom at last. In Tunisia, in Egypt and in Zimbabwe


Jan 28, 2011, 9.30 pm

The Egyptian protest continued today. The police were shut up and were replaced by the army to help bring order into the streets of Cairo. President Mubarak eventually came out to address the country.

If my ears were not deceiving me, as I watched the revolution, what the protesters were calling for was for Mubarak to step down. The 30 year old dictatorial regime leader rather promised he was going to dissolve the government on Saturday and form a new government. And who will be the president of the new government? President Mubarak. Nothing could be more annoying, more frustrating, and more depressing.

I wish the Egyptian protesters the best I can think of.

We shall be free, one day. May be very soon


Jan 28, 2011 10.30 am

Islamic States in North Africa are on fire. It started with the uprising in Tunisia which was successful in toppling the Tunisian dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Is this the beginning of the new African revolution? It’s exciting time in the North. Perhaps this is the only way we can get rid of tyrants in Africa. I personally prefer the youth fighting for their country than a military regime taking over governance through a coup d’état. Unfortunately there will be casualties: about 78 are reported killed in Tunisia already. But in human history, freedom has never been won without blood. I wish it wasn’t so.

There is a deep seated desire in the human spirit for freedom and sense of dignity, which most African states have not yet experiences. Egypt, Tunisia and Zimbabwe have been held hostage by dictators for decades. “Enough is enough. We have had enough”, this is what the North African protesters are telling their governments.

These countries have one thing in common: They face a lot of challenges, such as high unemployment. Young people who have gone to college in recent years expect a lifestyle that the current political regime is incapable of providing and doesn’t seem to care enough about.

We must hail and pay tribute to the Tunisian youth their successful uprising which sowed the seed for the new African revolution. They showed a way for other African countries to take similar action and tell their long-reigned tyrants that enough is enough.

All eyes are on Egypt now. And as Egypt goes, so……………….

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By Kwabena A-Manager

Kwabena, is the founder of Give Back Africa Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping kids from underprivileged communities realize their potential. He is a scientist in Pharmaceutical Research & Development. To support his charity, please visit http://givebackafrica.org

1 comment

  1. thank you, brother. We’ve been quiet for too long and expect the west to solve our problems. Time to take our destiny into our own hands.

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