Day 5

A woman summarizing the hearts of Egyptian women and surely the stunted spirits of Egypt's men: "32 years are difficult for me, he (Mubarak) doesn't belong here, he has to go. I thought there were no men in Egypt, today I found there are Egyptian men."

While filming the exuberance and vehemence of protesters yelling and screaming into the camera "We dont want you! go!, get out!, go!, we hate you..." Nic Robertson noted that after 30 years of repressed frustrations Egyptians spoke with "unmodulated emotion"...euphemistic phrasing for intense passion mixed with rage, joy by a people who consider themselves already freed.

Interesting how American interviewers persist on asking if Islamists, the Brotherhood would jump into the void if Mubarak steps out. Over and over they ask who might be behind this spontaneous explosion...let's blame it on Tunisia, could be that Iran's 18 month old student uprising may have influenced Egyptians, or the recent pseudo elections where Mubarak enjoyed unanimous sweep of votes nationwide after kicking opposition candidates off the ballot, that must have been the last straw.

But listening to the street and Egyptian Americans who were interviewed after Mubarak's speech to the people where he supposedly was instructed to speak of reforms, sooth the anger..people clearly said Mubarak "either doesnt understand Arabic i.e. you must go or he is insulting the intelligence of the Egyptian people."

With Sulimon's appointment as 'vice president aka hatchet man for what's to come' there's all sorts of predictions...Gamal is now clearly out of the picture, so that means Sulimon will succeed Mubarak ..right?

I'll suggest that if Sulimon has been entrusted to take Mubarak's place, its with a priviso that Sulimon install Gamal once the country has been secured by the military. I wonder how Sulimon feels watching his soldiers wave flowers, shakes hands of protesters and wave while people mount and ride their tanks with them inside. But these are the lower ranks, the sons and brothers I mentioned previously who know and are related to protesters...as one Egyptian mentioned, every family has one son, brother or uncle in the Army. Its extended family, unlike the street police who are trained in torture and intimidation to keep citizens in line.

Layer upon layer of entrenched repression all built to ensure the power and autocracy of one man, not one people.

Mussolini came to mind yesterday. The same stout no neck arrogance. Italians finally caught up with their dictator, strung him up by his ankles, slit his gut so he hung upside down and bled to death.

I think there actually needs to be serious consideration given to providing therapists with expertise in PTSD for Egypt. A people do not live through years of this kind of mental and physical abuse, declare themselves free while screaming in the street, a man who may have been tortured in prison for trumped charges as many have, a man who may have not had work to support one or two families and all his children-the complexities of what is to be dealt with emotionally has not yet been discussed, but if there is to be a successful outcome, people need help dealing with their rage and grief. Many people have died in these 30 years, many more have found ways to flee the country and patriate elsewhere to make a life and are emotionally estranged from those they left behind.

The hard work is yet ahead...