Egypte

De ontwikkelingen in Egypte zijn interessant omdat er een kwart van alle Arabieren in dat land woont op een oppervlakte zo groot als Nederland, de rest is woestijn, en met een geweldige werkloosheid en armoede. Elke 8 maanden komt er een miljoen babys bij. Als het corrupte Egyptische regime valt, dan zal dat verstrekkende gevolgen hebben voor de regio.

'High prices, bread shortages trigger protests in Egypt
By PAUL SCHEMM
The Associated Press

NASSER NASSER / AP
Protesters tear down a poster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during anti-government protests Monday in Mahalla el-Kobra, Egypt. Complaints that the government is not doing enough to help the poor have turned simmering dissatisfaction with repression and lack of economic opportunity into rare open unrest.

Hisham Allam
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Contributor from Egypt
Hisham Allam, a journalism fellow working at The Seattle Times, contributed to this report. His fellowship is through The Freedom House, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. In Egypt, he works at Al Masry-alyoum, an independent Cairo newspaper, writes a blog and produces a daily television talk show on current events.

MAHALLA EL-KOBRA, Egypt — Egyptian police attacked protesters who tore down a billboard of President Hosni Mubarak in a northern city Monday in the second day of violence fueled by anger over low wages and rising prices.
In another sign of dissatisfaction with the U.S.-backed government, the country's most powerful opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said it was reversing a decision to participate in local elections today because of mass arrests of its members in recent months.
Prices of cooking oil, rice and other staples have nearly doubled since the beginning of the year and there are widespread shortages of government-subsidized bread throughout the country of 76 million people. Nearly 40 percent of Egyptians live under the internationally defined poverty line of $2 a day. Complaints that the government is not doing enough to help the poor have turned simmering dissatisfaction with repression and lack of economic opportunity into rare open unrest.
Thousands of demonstrators torched buildings, looted shops and hurled bricks at police in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla el-Kobra on Sunday. Nearly 100 others were arrested elsewhere in protests over economic problems. Thousands skipped work and school and hundreds protested.
Protesters stormed City Hall in Mahalla, burned tires in the streets, smashed chairs through shop windows and ran off with computers. At least two schools were set ablaze and facades of banks were vandalized. The police responded with tear gas and detained more than 500 protesters, according to a report by Al Masry-alyoum, an independent Cairo newspaper.
Protesters, including families of 300 residents and textile workers detained since Sunday, tried to meet with visiting Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud. When they failed, they stoned his motorcade, an Interior Ministry spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said. Mahalla is the center of Egypt's textile industry.

Lees verder: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004333929_egyptriots08.html