Jubilation

There is jubilation in the streets of Egypt.  Hosni Mubarek has stepped down.

Omar Suleiman says:

"President Hosni Mubarak has waived the office of president."

Now the hard work.  Now the people of Egypt need to put together a new government, a new Egypt.

Kudos to Egypt, this was essentially a non-violent revolution.  Kudos to Mubarek, he left peacefully.  My fears yesterday were unfounded.

Let us all hold Egypt in our prayers as they set out now to build a new nation. 

Peace

Egypt's Mubarak refuses to quit

The president of Egypt has just addressed his people.  They were expecting him to step down and end the protests.  He didn't.  He blamed "outside forces" for the revolt and has declared he will not submit to those pressures.

The protestors in Tahrir Square are furious.  Live blog feeds and tweets from the square show that what has so far been a peaceful protest may well now turn violent.  Tweets are calling for the execution of Mubarak.  CNN is showing video of people leaving Tahrir Square and marching presumably to the media center or possibly the president's residence.

The Vice President is now addressing the nation pledging to God and the people that he will work to resolve the problems.  He is telling the people to go home, go back to work, and not to listen to the satellite news stations that are fomenting this unrest.

I am afraid that this is going to get ugly now.  I suspect that the key will be what the military does now.  So far they have not taken sides and have been welcomed by the people as brothers.  I would not be surprised to see a military coup.  The next 12 to 24 hours are going to be vital to the future of Egypt.

I always close my posts with this prayer . . .
PEACE

Egypt in revolt

I have been glued to the CNN reporting from Egypt since Monday.  The people of Egypt are revolting against Mubarek and the leadership in Egypt.  This is history in the making and the media coverage has been mesmerizing. 

This is the first time that I know of that modern communication technology has played such an important role, not just in the reporting but also the organization of the protests.  The internet, Twitter, Facebook, cell phone, texting - all of this has contributed to the story.

The reporters are saying that this is not an organized protest of one group but an uprising of the people of Egypt.  Early on, the marches were impromptu gatherings organized via the internet.  Some of the earliest reports came out from bloggers in Egypt.  Blog posts and Tweets are still some of the most fascinating reports coming out of Cairo and Alexandria.

Sadly, what was for 8 days a peaceful protest, today turned violent.  We see images of Anderson Cooper being attacked, pictures of Egyptian citizens who have been beaten and shot.  It is clear that Mubarek can not stay in office but there is no clear path out for him or his country.

I guess all this old bearded PH can do is pray, as always, for  PEACE.