Egypt, two years after Mubarak. “Morsi like Hitler, they’re killing the revolution”
“Morsi is like Hitler”, and he is even “worse than Mubarak”. “They’re killing the revolution, we trust in the military”. Strong and bitter words, by two young from Cairo to AND. At a first glance, the pictures seem to have captured the same scenes, the same moments, but it is not like that. After two years, Egypt is still in the squares, ready to protest. People is asking for “bread, freedom, social justice”: the same claims that marked the end, on the 11th February 2011, of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Now, some months after the first democratic elections, with the rise to power of the Muslim Brothers with President Morsi, the situation is still inconstant, with the feeling that every day could be either the last or the first, depending on the point of view.
C. and S., sister and brother, 32 and 28 years old (Financial Accountant and Computer Engineer), from Cairo, described to AND what’s happening in their Country. Warning: Morsi doesn’t fare well, worse than Mubarak. And the revolution of 2011 seems to be just a far dream. “We don’t miss Mubarak, we hated him just as we hate the Muslim Brotherhood – explain the two guys- he was just less worse. He and Morsi are both dictators, the Muslim Brothers are Muslims and they are supposed to rule by the Islamic ethic, but they are no way close to what the simple people expected them to be, and it’s one of the biggest reasons they lost their common supporters. Because whenever they promise they’d do something, they just do the opposite.”. With Mubarak, there was “corruption everywhere in the Country, starting from the President to the smallest government employee” and “the National security was too brutal, the Law wasn’t firm and just”.
Now it is worse than two years ago. “The situation really changed to the worse – tell C. and S. – The Muslim Brotherhood came to power, they rule the justice. They use religion to reach their political purposes. We started to fear the big beards, as well as the Americans feared the muslims after the 11th September”. And more. “Morsi is like Hitler. They are a big net with Qatar and Egypt has been sold to Qatar. The youth here is so brave, but their blood is wasted for nothing. We are all protesting, but the medias often make protests seem bigger: we try to protest in the safest way, but the situation comes often, inevitably, to violence, and not for our fault.”
The guys do not spare hints on possible electoral fraud. “We didn’t vote for Morsi. And there were so many rumors that Shafik (The Old regime’s candidate) was the one to win the elections. But under threats of the Muslim rothers to strike all over the country, the results was manipulated..”. The exposition of the guys does not give too much space to a better future. “We wish that one day we’d eliminate or reduce ignorance and illiteracy in Egypt (which was the result of a 30 years of dictatorship). Only then we’ll be able to have a true and healthy Democracy. Otherwise we’ll be just wasting lives of the young people and screwing our welfare. We don’t have a strong Democratic Party representing the people. Our leaders (Like El Baradie and Sabahy) aren’t real revolutionaries, they are trying to play politics which will lead us nowhere under such a fascist regimes.”
As in a modern version of the Gattopardo (an Italian literary work), “everything has changed to not change”, except for the worse. “Both the Police and the MB’s/Salafis are using brutal force to eliminate our revolution. They are persecuting, harassing, even shooting at the young revolutionaries, especially the ones they know that might be a threaten to them – conclude C. and S. – Our only hope now for a little better Egypt (not the Egypt we wish to have, but better than now) is for the military to take over the Country. The main feeling now is that the revolution is being killed and we need the firm control of the military to take the power back from the Islamists.”
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Elena Griffante – Enrico Albertini
trad. Elena Griffante
