Is not the right to have food and shelter about freedom? Sam wants the old status quo to continue ie of debt slavery to international banks and keeping the masses poor,ignorant and slaving in foreign corporate factories.

So let me get this straight, Sam thinks Egypt should stay a dictatorship because it's good for the economy?

So the lesson has to be learned again: you can't reliably get any options other than barely surviving or starving unless you have political and economic freedom. I didn't hear a lot of Rousseau or von Mises or [insert your favourite philosopher of freedom here] being quoted in the footage I saw, but the point is made nonetheless. Under a dictator you're always going to run out of bread and the circuses aren't much chop either.

Sam, you've set up a false dichotomy and your logic is stuck accordingly. Good luck with that.

"spiralling food prices, resurgent inflation, and growing income disparities between rich and poor"

Correct

"the absence of job prospects"

Correct

"Egyptians want him to pay the ultimate political price"

Correct

"So, why are they crying out for “freedom” and “democracy”?"

Um, well what would we do in Australia if the above situation was true? Thats right, replace the leaders at the next election. Egyptians do not have this option, thus the demonstrations.

I don't understand how the author could be so close, but yet so far.

There's an implicit idea here that there have been revolutions in the past where the rhetoric of liberty and freedom has been invoked sincerely, rather than as a device for more mundane and material ends.

If they exist and have produced lasting results, I'm not sure I can find them. The spirit of years like 1688 and 1776 were very much self interested political constituencies using useful rhetoric (and whose democracy was a painfully limited suffrage). Both may have created a better world, but it's foolish to believe that either was any less materialistic and self interested than those in Egypt. There's a reason both civil rights leaders and segregationists were plausibly claiming the mandate of the founding fathers in the 1960s whilst Rhodesian apartheid was adopting their rhetoric. Maybe they were sincere in 1789 and 1848, but the legacies of both these years is far more Napoleonic than liberal.
So yeah, the Egyptians are interested mainly in the mundane, but who in history has not been?

Richard Tsukamasa Green

Yep.

Absolutely right.

Most revolutions end in tears for those whom the old regime oppressed. As it happens I know many Iranians. They wanted out from under the Shah but they did not want the mullahs.

Whoever governs Egypt will probably not be able to address the one issue all protesters seem to have at the top of their agenda - jobs.

Dear AndrewElder...*I like your style*... and of course, in saying that, I've given you the kiss of death around here :) ('me' saying that)

But..press on with your well founded comments please.

From the Article:

Home run- Egyptian GDP up 5% in 2010,
Strike 1-comestibles soared by 17% and
Strike 2-unemployment ratcheted up to 9.7%.

That doesn't sound like what he says next....

"Hopelessness" is a potent combustible:

America has around the same unemployment..but... no riots yet. (Beck says they're coming.. so must be troooo :)

Sooo...... where are all these riots coming from ?

The EDL has a noteworty take on the issue:

http://englishdefenceleague.org/content.php?204-The-Prophet-and-the-Proletariat

Seems quite plausible. The riots and crowds are not 'spontaneous'... they are clearly orchestrated....

by.....?

Ingredients.

Iran
-Perceived "US interference..propping up puppet gov't."
-Socialists, well organized stir up workers.
-Islamists, well organized stir up students and unemployed/poor
-Long exiled Islamist religious leader returns home

Hmmmmm...sounding more like Egypt each day

Stevenlmeyer "Most revolutions end in tears" He is trying to imply that the Egyptians remain slaves to international corporate thuggery.Webster Tarpley thinks that the USA/Israel saw the writing on the wall and initiated the overthrow of Mubarak just to give the people a choice of more palitable despots anf more of the same.

Arjay,

Whatever the result of today's march and the timing of Mubarak's ultimate demise, it may well become "more of the same". That seems to be the fate of so many countries these days destined to see the sticky little fingers of the US and their masters, Israel doing all they can to control the middle east.

I think Sam should stick to narcissism as his future looks dismal in creative writing and rational thinking.

As for a shortage of food, a common problem in a lot of countries, a little less spent on armaments, military weapons and Presidential largesse could have gone a long way to overcome that. Did Sam mention that?

I do fear the emergence of yet another dicatator, as they are the people that receive the political backing from the US, its total history showing the removal of good people and then replacing them with dictators, South America being peppered with the sad results of their interference, the best example being Pinochet, 16 years of murder

So it may well be, more of the same. Let us hope not.

rexw,I think this is why they are getting Mubarak to announce he will not stand for President but stay on for a peaceful transition to a new leader.Murbarak will be manipulating the situation as usual beacuse he will be in power until the elections.

Tarpley is not confident that there will be real change unless the masses get a free internet to organise and inform.I have to say I agree,since very few really understand the mechanisms which control them,even in the West.

The author is on the right track. Egypt is committing demographic suicide with its two per cent population growth rate. More people mean more food is needed. Yet Egypt's oil exports are declining while its food imports are increasing - at some point it may not be able to import more food. Meanwhile the Aswan Dam stops replenishment by silt of the Nile flood plain, particularly the Delta, so you get ever declining soil quality and a subsiding Delta, exacerbating food insecurity. And with rapidly expanding populations in the other nine countries of the Nile Basin, they too may rise up and demand more of the Nile water, depriving Egypt of its current 55 per cent share. It doesn't rain much in Egypt, so the country is almost wholly dependent on the Nile for water (domestic, industrial and agricultural). If Egypt loses its current share of the Nile waters, all hell really will break loose.

The graphs in this article from the Oil Drum give a good picture of declining oil exports from Egypt (used to pay for subsidised food and fuel for the people), problems with obtaining enough food, and skyrocketing population growth. A 2% population growth rate, if it continues, will cause the population to double in about 35 years.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7425

No doubt motivations for protest vary, and there are people, especially middle class students, who really are primarily concerned about freedom and democracy, but that doesn't mean economic factors can be ignored. Most of you probably pay about 10% of your income for food and may be grumbling at higher prices. If it was 40%, as in many poor countries, the same percentage increase in prices might tempt you to take to the streets. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Food Price Index is at its highest level ever, even higher than 2008, when there were food riots in 34 countries.

http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/FoodPricesIndex/en/

Andrew Elder,

There are many counterexamples to your position. Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea experienced massive growth in living standards under authoritarian rule. General Park in South Korea, a military dictator, presided over the fastest rate of improvement in living standards in human history. China has done much better than India, etc.

But is it not true that the French revolution was fueled, if not inspired, by "hunger and malnutrition in the most destitute segments of the population, due to rising bread prices (from a normal eight sous for a four-pound loaf to 12 sous by the end of 1789)" ? Consequences of mismanagement by undemocratic kleptocracies to the point that popular fear is overcome is surely a major engine of positive change, which can be self-reinforcing to bootstrap development in western terms.

Sam have you ever lived in Egypt or even visited Cairo? No I don't think you have, I think you are an armchair theorist who has read a couple of articles on the country. So how can you assume that the Egyptians don't want democracy and freedom?

I have done both visited and lived in the hot teeming city of Cairo. I know that the poor are wretchedly poor hardly able to feed their families this isn't new to Egypt. The difference between the haves and the have nots has always been extreme. They don't have a substantial middle class that usually acts as a stabilizing factor in a country. Yet what middle class they have are also demonstrating.

They listened to and saw how Tunisia disposed of their corrupt dictator. They saw the obvious rigging of their own elections and they were convinced that Hosni Mubarak was preparing for his son to take his position something that they were unprepared to accept.

So the riots aren't just about food, inflation and unemployment. They are also about freedom and democracy. They wanted a say in how Egypt appears on the world stage. The Arab League is made up of 22 countries and represents 360 million people. The head or Secretary General is Amr Moussa an Egyptian so Egypt has far more power and influence then its own population of some 80 million would indicate.

While you in the West was still living in a cave somewhere with no transportation, no homes, no government Egypt had one of the greatest civilisations ever created. Who would have thought then that the West would build huge cities and towns and the entire infrastructure that went with it and have the ability to discuss the representation of the people who if they mismanaged the country could be changed?

So kindly don't assume you have some magical power that can read into the hearts and souls of a truly great people that you know absolutely nothing about and attempt to map out their future.

Actually I was in Egypt since this revolution started and until now.
I can say this is a full scale revolution which included the rich, the poor, the educated, the illiterate, christians, muslims, young and old.

Funny thing is that on the 25th of January, the protest wasn't about the regime. It was about the basics: oppression, freedom of expression, wealth distribution social justice and more jobs.

The government (which was sacked) was accused of incompetence, dishonesty and had slow response to the crisis. Ignoring the protests for few days added fuel to the fire quickly and millions went to the streets.

The lack of feedback mechanism and security paranoia made people reluctant to trust the new government. The surfacing of many large scale corruption cases is helping the trust although raising questions around accountability mechanisms: does a revolution have to happen to catch a thief?