It is 6:40 AM and our house is silent. I though it would be a good time to update the blog on some of the most recent events here in Egypt. Turns out they initial reason the demonstrators were protesting, as usual, has more to the story.
The elections were originally planned to be within since months of the fall of Mubarak. The military was going to step down at that time to allow the new government to rule. That clearly did not happen. Whenever a deadline approaches, the military extended the deadline, which then, extended their rule. Despite the fact that there as a prime minister and a cabinet, the military ultimately holds the power that the president would have. So, this is why the demonstrators are extremely agitated and irritated. Then, on Tuesday night, when General Tantawi spoke to the nation, his speech was extremely reminiscent of Mubarak's speech the day before he stepped down as president of Egypt in February.
Since Essam Sharaf's cabinet stepped down early this week, their needed to be a new prime minister. The new prime minister, Ganzouri, held the same position during the rule of Mubarak. Naturally, people here are not pleased because it is starting to look more and more like Mubarak's rule with a different name. The military has truly dug in its heals and is not resigning or stepping down.
The elections are going to be proceeding as planned this week. This is a good thing for the country, but, since it is so unstable right now, we are unsure what this holds for the upcoming week. The military tried to calm the masses in Tahrir down by announcing that there will be a new President by mid 2012. So, we will see if the military holds true to their word.
Again, the protests are very centralized and have not spilled out into other suburbs of Cairo. All I hear is birds chirping. Yesterday, we went to church in a different suburb, if anything, traffic was lighter than usual and we saw nothing out of the ordinary on our way. Today, we are going to the pyramids with a group of teachers from the school. I am super excited to ride a camel...it is on my bucket list. I will be sure to write about that experience.
I have also made a Guest Post today. The pastor of the church that we have been attending also keeps a blog at, www.maadicommunitychurch.com/blog/ . He has been blogging about what is happening in Egypt from a spiritual perspective, so I thought that I would include that here as well.
Continue to think of and pray for this country. Despite all the headlines, amazing things are happening in Egypt!
The elections were originally planned to be within since months of the fall of Mubarak. The military was going to step down at that time to allow the new government to rule. That clearly did not happen. Whenever a deadline approaches, the military extended the deadline, which then, extended their rule. Despite the fact that there as a prime minister and a cabinet, the military ultimately holds the power that the president would have. So, this is why the demonstrators are extremely agitated and irritated. Then, on Tuesday night, when General Tantawi spoke to the nation, his speech was extremely reminiscent of Mubarak's speech the day before he stepped down as president of Egypt in February.
Since Essam Sharaf's cabinet stepped down early this week, their needed to be a new prime minister. The new prime minister, Ganzouri, held the same position during the rule of Mubarak. Naturally, people here are not pleased because it is starting to look more and more like Mubarak's rule with a different name. The military has truly dug in its heals and is not resigning or stepping down.
The elections are going to be proceeding as planned this week. This is a good thing for the country, but, since it is so unstable right now, we are unsure what this holds for the upcoming week. The military tried to calm the masses in Tahrir down by announcing that there will be a new President by mid 2012. So, we will see if the military holds true to their word.
Again, the protests are very centralized and have not spilled out into other suburbs of Cairo. All I hear is birds chirping. Yesterday, we went to church in a different suburb, if anything, traffic was lighter than usual and we saw nothing out of the ordinary on our way. Today, we are going to the pyramids with a group of teachers from the school. I am super excited to ride a camel...it is on my bucket list. I will be sure to write about that experience.
I have also made a Guest Post today. The pastor of the church that we have been attending also keeps a blog at, www.maadicommunitychurch.com/blog/ . He has been blogging about what is happening in Egypt from a spiritual perspective, so I thought that I would include that here as well.
Continue to think of and pray for this country. Despite all the headlines, amazing things are happening in Egypt!
If you want to read more about the events in Egypt last night, check out this link from Reuters. Protesters Dig in to Keep Pressure on Egypt's Military
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