Galal Amin - Whatever Happened to the Egyptian Revolution?
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- Book:Whatever Happened to the Egyptian Revolution?
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- Publisher:American University in Cairo Press
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- Year:2012
- City:Cairo
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In his latest exploration of the Egyptian malaise, Galal Amin first looks at the events of the months preceding the Revolution of 25 January 2011, pointing out the most important factors behind popular discontent. He then follows the ups and downs (mainly the downs) of the Revolution: the causes of rising hopes and expectations, mingled with successive disappointments, sometimes verging on despair, not least in the case of the presidential elections, when the Egyptian people were invited to choose between a rock and a hard place. This is followed by an outline of a possible brighter future for Egypt, based on a more balanced and faster growing economy, and a more democratic and equitable society, within a truly independent, modern, and secular state. The story of what happened to the 2011 Revolution may be a sad one, but if viewed within the larger context of Egypts economic and social developments of the last century, on which the authors previous books threw very useful light, it can be regarded as one important step forward toward a much better future.
Galal Amin: author's other books
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Dalia Mostafa
Abdelkareem Moaz
Alaa Al Aswany
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First published in 2013 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
www.aucpress.com
Copyright 2013 by Galal Amin
English translation copyright 2013 by Jonathan Wright
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Dar el Kutub No. 13680/12
eISBN: 978-1-6179-7352-9
Dar el Kutub Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Amin, Galal
Whatever Happened to the Egyptian Revolution? / Galal Amin; translated by Jonathan Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2013
p.cm.
ISBN 978 977 416 589 4
1. EgyptHistoryI. Wright, JonathanII. Title
962.055
1 2 3 4 517 16 15 14 13
Designed by Adam el Sehemy
It has been two years since the outbreak of the revolution of January 25, 2011, which within less than a month brought to an end one of the worst eras in Egyptian history, the era of Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for close to thirty years and presided over declines in the Egyptian economy, social conditions, and Egypts status in the Arab world and internationally.
Egyptians were overjoyed that the revolution had succeeded in getting rid of the head of the regime and putting an end to the idea of dynastic succession by Mubaraks son, and hopes rose that in the wake of Mubaraks downfall the whole regime would be uprooted and Egypt would embark on a renaissance and a new era of progress. But the revolution soon ran into many obstacles, creating anxiety and fear that the high hopes might not be fulfilled.
This book includes chapters dealing, first, with many of the symptoms of corruption and decline that led to the January 25 revolution. It then explains the reasons why the revolution created such optimism for a bright future and lays out the causes for concern that have arisen now that the outlook is gloomier. The book also contains chapters on what could constitute components of a renaissance in Egypt, democratically, economically, in social justice, and through shaking off dependency, if we succeed in dispersing those clouds of gloom.
The story told in this book ends with the elections that brought in Dr. Muhammad Morsi as the new president. The conclusion describes the growing anxiety felt by many Egyptians, even after the fairly free elections of both parliament and president. It also tries to explain how a very promising revolution may very well have turned out to be abortive.
Whenever I returned to Egypt after an absence of any length, as soon as I set foot in the airport, I would be struck by some manifestation of a class-based society: junior staff waiting for senior staff, someone carrying passports for an important group of people and completing the passport formalities on their behalf so that they could get out of the airport before anyone else, or the staff of tour companies, mostly university graduates, who could not find better employment than holding up a sign with their companys name for passengers to see, and so on.
As soon as I started putting my bags on the bus that takes you from the airport to the parking lot, two young men would appear from nowhere, then three of them and then four, all competing to help me and my wife carry our bags. Then, as soon as the bus stopped and I started taking the bags off, another four young men would appear from nowhere, competing to perform the same task.
I noticed that those competing to do this job didnt look the way porters used to look in Egypt. They were better dressed and younger, but the look of degradation on their faces was more distressing than the facial expressions of the old-time porters.
In such situations I would usually feel guilty in a way I had not felt all the time I was abroad, because travelers in Europe, the United States, or even in other Arab countries never come across such situations. Yes, of course, there are rich and poor, but not in this way. Yes, society there can be divided into classes, but they do not have the same privileges for the upper classes that you see in Egypt from the first moment you arrive, or the same servility among those beneath.
Social stratification is a very old phenomenon, of course, whether in Egypt or the rest of the world, but it has not always created this feeling of guilt on one side or bitterness on the other, because until recently the upper classes believed sincerely that they deserved their lives of luxury, as they were of a different breed because they were from distinguished families or simply because they owned vast tracts of farmland. In most cases they considered their wealth and their distinguished status to be a sign of Gods favor, and until recently the lower classes took this explanation for granted. Yes, we are of inferior stock, born to lowly families without status or land, which shows that we are out of favor with God for some reason or other, they would tell themselves.
Over the past hundred years things have happened to undermine these ideas or greatly weaken them on both sides of the divide. Race, color, pedigree, history, and religion cannot justify these class distinctions. Its all a matter of outright injustice, and what makes matters worse is that everything is now obvious: the poor all know exactly how the rich live, if not from the luxury cars they see in the street, then from television, and they know that the upper classes can obtain all this opulence only by cheating.
The sense of bitterness on one side and the sense of guilt on the other were bound to grow, even if everyone pretended otherwise.
I know full well how you obtained your money or your job. Thats what those stuck at the bottom of the ladder tell themselves, while the others, even if they never say so in public, know that they are basically impostors who got where they are by force or by fraud.
In such a climate its hardly surprising that we find plenty of things to complain about loudly: new and unfamiliar types of crime, sexual harassment, bigotry, religious fanaticism, and so on.
There were two young men standing at the movie theater entrance, neither of them more than thirty years old, and their only job was to check tickets. One of them might escort you into the theater to show you your seat. Theres nothing strange about that, but the surprise was the way they treated us, my wife and me, as soon as I gave them the tickets. Ive come across such situations before, but every time the shock makes it seem like the first. From the first word they uttered it was clear they were thinking only of their tip. We had arrived half an hour before the film started, so they suggested we sit in the movie theaters snack bar and promised they would come and tell us as soon as it was time to go in. I disliked the degrading way they were speaking and I found the situation most unpleasant: two good-looking young men wearing smart suits (no doubt the management required it) yet prepared to beg for tips in this manner.
I took another two steps and another young man of similar appearance came up to me, with a young woman in hijab next to him, helping him with his work. What kind of work was it? He was inviting me to take part in a competition, the gist of which I did not quite understand, but I gathered from what he said that if I won I would get a prize.
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