Hi Coach and Babba (and others),

Firstly, thank you all for your sentiments and I think the Egyptian people would react wonderfully to all your warm wishes and kind thoughts for their well being and their future. I am not one of them, but I do feel a great deal of pride in humankind for what we can accomplish when determined and brave enough to do so...

I understand the trepidation that many feel when thinking about what is next for Egypt and the region, especially when considering the scenarios Coach has mentioned above with regards to other 'temporary' military regimes. However, we westerners unfortunately (hard as we might try not to) do see this region through the eyes of Western media, which unfortunately sucks. I am born and raised in Canada and have watched western media all my life, and only once I was exposed to some of the less restricted/ censored media outside our sphere of influence did I see the other side of the coin. Obviously some of that media is seriously biased and edits in order to provoke reactions, but much of it is shockingly real and missing from our western media altogether. Here in my home I get both and the last 18 days were almost hilarious when comparing the imagery on CNN (very mild, lots of pictures of Tahir square tents), BBC (much better, but still very focused on tame imagery and peppered with 'the reaction' from world leaders) and then finally the Arab media where I saw images that will be burned into my skull for eternity.

For those who don't have the same TV access as I do, I plead you to have a look at the following three links. After watching the first one, the statement "fragile stability" will seem rather sad. What has existed is not fragile stability, it has been Western imposed and supported dictatorships and royal families keeping the peace through torture, intimidation, murder... by any means necessary. Mubarak would respond (whenever in trouble) by releasing thugs and murderers onto the street to rape, pillage and murder. Recently, his people trashed the Egyptian Museum and blamed it on the protesters... there are images in these films where you see citizens erecting barriers, those are average citizens who had finally had enough and were protecting Egypts heritage with their lives.

Something also to note... the many, many strong and powerful women in this revolution spurring on and supporting the young men. We are often led to believe that they are second class citizens in the Middle East. This is culturally true in some limited areas, but it is also true in many western nations... I have always found Middle Eastern women to be intelligent, proud, strong and sometimes ever fierce! (Remember my wife is one!)

Egypt has been poor. Damn, damn poor and depressed and lacking in pride. Poor nations with little economic development often have very high birth rates. This is very true in North Africa and much of the Middle East (and Ireland :) - Egypt has massive, massive challenges going forward, but it is very hard to see how it could be worse than what they had. The same goes for Iran. Things are horrible now, but hey, life under the Western supported Shah was simply brutal, brutal, brutal. It's no wonder the Iranians revolted and broke free from this oppression and perhaps their choice of government (or lack of one) is reflective of their opinion on Western nations who supported a government which brutalized them. Do you think they would trust us after that?

Actually I would hope that perhaps we westerners might start learning lessons from all this and start to choose our friends more wisely. Mubarak was one of the US's most treasured allies in the Middle East - a fact which probably didn't win many friends with the average Egyptian people... no wonder they have extremists in their midst. We were also friends with Saddam, the Taliban etc. etc. It's like we make tactical moves for short term goals, but just don't see the big picture. The big picture is: people without freedom, without self-determination, without pride are going to become very dangerous in the end and no amount of propping up corruption will keep the genie in the bottle.

I was asked my opinion on Mubarak's last speech. Basically it was pride. He dyed his hair and had a ridiculous amount of makeup on for the televised speech, and he spoke in the most condescending of ways to the Egyptian people (he started by telling them he was the father speaking to his children). He also dismissed the western powers attempts to tell him to step down (these calls from Western leaders were doing more harm than good really... just cut off the money and the result would have been much better). The result could have been disastrous and he knew it. He didn't care if the country burned to the ground, he simply wanted to save face and cling to power for a few more days. However the masses refused to move and (to their credit) they stood firm peacefully and waited for him to get the picture.

I warn those of you who are not used to realistic imagery (basically anyone whose only watched US news reports since the end of the Vietnam war) that the following links contains some very disturbing, but real images of life before and during the revolution. The violence was between the police (who were shooting people in cold blood and driving over them in cars) and the men woman and children who refused to back down. There are some remarkable scenes of bravery. Please note, the muslims and christians in the country were 100% united and working together during the revolution... they even took turns to protect each other during prayer times when the water cannons were trying to make them disperse. This was not a religious uprising, this was a brutalized nation saying 'enough is enough'.

By the way, I don't think the US coming out yesterday and warning the Egyptians that they 'MUST' recognize their peace treaty with Israel was a very smart move. They will interpret this as a clear sign of US priorities and reaffirms the suspicion that the US protected Mubarak and paid him to be nice to Israel despite their brutal suppression of Gaza. I really don't want to get into a debate on the US relationship with Israel... but the Egyptians I am sure are already suspicious of the US, so why add fuel to the fire so soon when the air is so filled with emotion already? Doesn't seem like a good move to me.

Oh and ECU :) For the record I also added at 1.10 and will keep adding while the morons try to suppress us. The fact is that the silver suppressors are as foolish as the Middle Eastern dictators. They may have the firepower and the long history of success, but we have growing numbers, determination and the truth on our side. We will prevail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9B6uOSt7Y0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUMB2RbZOlc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HGfFyqJMrk&feature=fvst

Soul