EVANSVILLE — Upon learning this week that groups of men were organizing into citizen police forces and patrolling neighborhood streets around Cairo, University of Evansville senior Felicia Holland said she no longer feared for the safety of friends she made while studying in the Egyptian capital in fall 2008.
Holland, 21, said after days of trying to reach some of her friends — and constantly watching news coverage of the protests — she finally reached one of them, Ahmed Ahmed Abs — known as Amir — via Skype on Monday. Her friend had been helping a group of his neighbors check for weapons in passing cars.
Though looting has been a problem as supplies begin to run low, Amir told her most people were being cooperative, which helped quell some of her initial fears about the protest against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"From what I gathered, everybody was working together. There is very communal spirit that I think the Egyptians are very proud of, and I think if that continues I (won't) worry about it too much," said Holland a political science major.
At their core, most Egyptians are very patient, said Rania Mousa, an Egyptian who teaches accounting at UE.
But even they have gradually grown tired of empty promises from their longtime president, and discontent has culminated in large-scale protest in Cairo, the country's capital city. Mousa said she's still surprised her fellow citizens chose to take to the streets demanding change, but said anger toward Mubarak has been simmering for a long time.
A controversial election that left much of the country feeling cheated turned up the heat.
"We asked for a change back in 2005, and we were not given the chance to have someone else other than President Mubarak," she said.
"I think that those presidential elections of 2005 triggered all this frustration that there was not going to be any change and he doesn't want to step down."
On Tuesday, under pressure from the Obama administration, Mubarak announced he would not seek re-election.
While Mousa, 34, said she agrees with many of the protesters who have demanded that Mubarak step down immediately, she said the bigger issue is that Egypt becomes a true democracy.
"There are high expectations among the people that these demonstrations will lead to a better future. We have already experienced the worst, so we will never have a worse situation other than the existing one, so people feel a sense in the air of hope in and high expectations."
Holland said she sensed that discontent during her time in the country but felt as if many Egyptians didn't know how to channel those feelings and were afraid to express them.
However, she noticed that her peers carried around a different kind of discontent that could easily be shared on the Internet through Twitter and Facebook.
She believes she knows several of the protesters.
"I knew there was a different passion among the younger generation," she said.
Like Holland, Mousa initially feared for the safety of her parents and older brother, who live in Cairo but are a safe distance from the center of much of the demonstrations.
However, she was able to speak with her parents on Friday.
Egypt is one of the major powers of the Middle East and Africa and has been stable for many years. Many Americans probably would be surprised to learn that the country has been struggling for some time, both politically and economically, Mousa said.
"I believe that people think that when a society is stable, it means that it is democratic," she said. "... (Egyptians) have been putting up with the deteriorating conditions and a standard of living day after day and year after year, and they have been looking for reform to be implemented, but it hasn't happened."
Holland also speculates that the importance of looking good to the rest of the world, both for political reasons and tourism, also contributed to many Egyptians keeping their true feelings to themselves.
But now that those feelings are out in the open, it easily caught on, though she feels that as a whole, the protesters have remained orderly.
"I don't think chaos is the word for it," she said.
One person who is not actively protesting in the streets is the very person Holland talked to inside the country, Amir.
"He himself was not protesting, and he loves Egypt. He said, 'I don't like Mubarak, but he stabilizes things,'" she said.
But a more immediate concern of Amir's is the country's dwindling supplies, Holland said. As member of a family with military ties, Amir is taken care of by the Egyptian government, a trademark of Mubarak's rule.
Holland said many in the military have remained neutral during the protests but may have to soon make a choice between their county and their leader who lavishly gives to them.
"I honestly don't see them turning on their own people, but at the same time, food is getting a little more scarce," she said.
"But army families are always well taken care of, and Mubarak has always done that, so it's going to very interesting to see what happens."
Source: Courier Press
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