I just got this off Yahoo. All you BBC listeners shut up. We know who the best news delivery organization in the world is, as well. However, watch out, BBC, here comes Al Jazeera. Anyway, here’s the news flash I just read off Yahoo. Blimey, the thought that I would get my news off the web is excruciating. But I must admit it. And revel in it. I am really enjoying the way people are taking reality in their own hands. Filling their hearts and minds and intention with the way they want to see it and then going out and making it real.
It is inspiring.
Here it is, this time, for real: “CAIRO – State TV says President Hosni Mubarak will speak to the nation Thursday night from his palace in Cairo. The announcement comes after Egypt's military proclaimed on national television that it stepped in to ‘safeguard the country’ and assured protesters that Mubarak will meet their demands. In Washington, the CIA chief said there was a "strong likelihood" Mubarak will step down Thursday.”
The army has chosen. And so it will be.
Beyond that, though, it goes right back to two things which have brought Egypt to the point of building democracy’s foundation right before our eyes: The right of people to gather in public without fear of governmental reprisals of any kind and with the protection of the authorities; and a military directed by civilians.
Ok, so it’s a bit shaky. And the end result is not going to look, to us, like what we pride ourselves in, a “Western Democracy”. But it is going to end up a participating democracy in the vision of Egyptians. But, when you were a baby, did you jump up and strut your stuff like you were running up the steps of the Metropolitan Museum on your way to the annual fundraiser in your smart tuxedo and your patent leather shoes?
Bloody right you didn’t. You didn’t wear shoes, for a start. Your little feet, with their tiny toes curling, stomping down on their sides, your little bowed legs bandying about, your butt padded.
But, once you were up: Watch out world!
Everything had to be child-proofed, right?
In Egypt it is time to child-proof things a bit. I see the continuance of the incredibly positive attitude of everyone over there. I see the women taking charge more strongly, for this is a “revolution” which is an “evolution” as well. It comes at a time when women, en mass, around the globe are growing so fast they are able to go from crawling to running up those steps in one sweet move. It can only be imagined what possibilities there are in store for their country, if Egyptian women—as I hear them wanting to do—take their energy, desire and will and create a new society for themselves and their men-folk.
The steps have to be coordinated carefully. The inclusion of students, intellectuals, religious leaders, women and industrial and business leaders is imperative. It is important for the Egyptians to watch very closely who emerges from Tahrir Square as “spokesperson”, because the downfall of the whole project could be inherent in whether that person is chosen because they have politicked themselves to the fore, or whether they were genuinely involved in the “movement” of the Egyptian people from the beginning, when they took the web and used it as a tool for creating and preserving freedom.
Finally, and this is where the women will be doubly important in encouraging everyone to have compassion and kindness and forgiveness in their hearts and minds, Egyptians have to engage in the “Nelson Mandela” process of Truth and Reconciliation which transformed South Africa. And, judging from the way the World Cup went and the amount of people from around the world who went there and were welcomed with open hearts in a democratic and energetic country with free speech, the right to gather and a military in the hands of the civilians for it, the revolutionary evolution in that country was pretty successful and came out of very similar circumstances to the ones Egyptians find themselves in, today.
Most fundamentally important is that we stop messing about and that no-one interferes with the Egyptians’ learning to walk.
And, that we continue to use the web for what it is so perfectly suited to: The evolving revolution.
©2010, Paul Martin.
All rights reserved. May be used with attribution, but not for profit, without permission.
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