Egypt's Recent Crisis

Egypt's Recent Crisis

On January 25th, 2011, what began as a simple protest escalated into a full on riot in Egypt.   Protesters demanded to be heard on their serious want for change that struck a cord with the Egyptian government.   The issues that caught fire included police brutality, rising food price inflation, lack of free speech and free election, corruption, high unemployment, and low wages for workers across the country.   These issues were clearly a source of sore spots as the government shut down Egypt.

The Egyptian government tried to contain the protesters without using force but they were still using weapons that could inflict injury or death such as batons, water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets.   Attempts to keep causalities from happening failed and by the fourth day of the protest over a hundred citizens were dead.   The number of injured was well over the two thousand mark on that same same day.   The government is still trying to contain their citizens with curfews but the police and military are refusing to enforce it.   Slowly the Egypt’s Central Security police is being replace by military forces.   This is a change that protesters are welcoming because the military is less brutal and is trying to not inflict force against them.   With the absence of the police, chaos has broken out and civilians are forming their own militias to protect the buildings that they care for from the mass looting.

The fire of the protest has gone international and has received overwhelming support.   The support has enraged the Egyptian government so much that they switched Egypt off of the grid on January 28th, 2011.   Unfortunately for the Egyptian government, the protesters had enough support globally that global groups hacked into Egypt to provide ways of communication during the nationwide blackout.   On January 29th, 2011, some mobile services have been restored.