Monday, January 31, 2011

My on the Street Interview with Egyptian Citizens

Sometimes, you don't have to go to Cairo to interview Egyptian citizens about what is going on in Egypt.

On my way to a lunch meeting earlier today, a couple stopped me on Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan and asked me for directions to Times Square. After giving them the directions, as is my habit, I asked them where they were from. "Egypt," they replied.

Thus, my opportunity for a "man on the street" interview with Egyptians.

I asked them what they thought was going to happen. The man did all the talking. He replied forcefully, "They are not going to stop until Mubarak is gone."

I asked him what the riots were about, he said no one had anything except for a rich few. "Only Mubarak and some mayors are rich," he said. His English was very good but not New York Times perfect. I took his comment about mayors to mean other government leaders, perhaps some type of regional governors.

He went on, "The streets are dirty." I took this to mean a hint of the poverty.

He said he did not think the police or soldiers would fire on the people.

I asked him, who he thought would replace Mubarak, and herein lies the problem and the potential for simply another totalitarian, he said, "We don't know."

3 comments:

  1. "We don't know."

    No one in Egypt knows how to improve the country's overall situation . . . so Mubarak has stayed in power until now. He's like Saddam, a strong man who made the trains run on time. Except he was better at it, needed to use less blood to grease the wheels to make the trains run on time.

    But now that the man is in his 80's, he's growing weaker. And Egypt is going to boil over once he either dies, or is removed from power. It'll be good-bye secular government, good bye Coptic Christians (they'll eventually be wiped out by the Muslims if the government turns Muslim too), and hello Iran, Part Deux.

    Then, things will get more interesting for Israel.

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  2. @Splodeydope

    What are you talking about goodbye Coptic Christians? You do realize there are 300,000 Christians living happily in Iran dont you?

    I hope they do establish a 2nd Iran. Then I hope they re-establish the Caliphate.

    People need to stop watching the mainstream propaganda machine.

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  3. Today I went to the Mall to shop. There was a Middle Eastern looking man stopping shoipers trying to sell hand cream or bath salts. That's a difficult job, cold call trying to sell something most people don't care about. His first words when he approached me were "I'm Jewish". Wow, I mean, that's nice, I'm of mixed background, with lots of Slavs some Poliski, a sprinkling of Russian. Why was being Jewish the hook to his sales pitch. I don;t think I looked Jewish.

    My guess, being Midder Eastern he was getting a lot of prejudice from everydy Americans. Being a Jew made him a democrat (small d) and a non-terrorist.

    Anyway, I have no opinion on Egypt, except we should but out. We don;t paty other countries hundreds of millions of dollars to enter into treaties with their neighbors, and we never should have sold them a moden military. It seems to me it was all done to make Jimmy Carter look like some sort of peace superhero. I am sure that if we paid the same millions to one African tribe, we could convince them to not attack any other African tribe, but we can't pay off every thug on earth.

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