Crisis in Egypt

Inspired by the people of Tunisia who have recently overthrown their government, the Egyptians are protesting Hosni Mubarak's 30 year rule of their country. After days of protesting, Mubarak announced that he had fired his cabinet, and that he recognized the demand for political and economic reforms. This did not satisfy the protesters,and clashes continue around Liberation Square. The protesters had planned a peaceful march, and the government announced that they would not fire on those taking part. While the police surrounded the protest, nothing violent was happening to the protesters, and it seemed like things would work out. On February 1, Mubarak announced that he would not be running for another term, thinking that this would satisfy the demands of his opposition, but this was not the case. They waved their shoes in the air (an insult in the Arab world), and vowed their protests wouldn't stop until Mubarak quit the presidency. The next day things got violent as pro- and anti- Mubarak protesters battled each other in Liberation Square, using rocks, chunks of concrete, and Molotov Cocktails as weapons. Anti-Mubarak protesters claim that the pro-Mubarak protesters include plainclothes police officers encouraged by the government to fight. Recently, there have been multiple attacks on American journalists and citizens in Egypt. To help stem the spread of revolution early on, the government shut down the internet.

Honestly, the whole crisis in Egypt scares me a lot. Under Mubarak's rule, Egypt made peace with Isreal, and gave Americans an ally in a place where we have few. While he may not have been the best ruler in the world, it is beneficial to the United States to have him in power. With Mubarak out of power, who's to say that a radical anti-American group doesn't gain power under the cloak of democracy? While the revolution may be a great thing for the Egyptians, how will it affect us Americans? We can only hope for the best I suppose.

Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/03/egypt.protests.timeline/index.html?hpt=T1

Finished!!

So, we finished taping all of the interviews for our hope project, and they ended up suprising me a lot. Instead of everyone having disctinct answers, the answers that were given were very similar in nature. Most people, when asked to define hope, said that it was optimism, or the feeling that things can always get better.I thought for sure that people's backround and beliefs would alter their answers. It seems that hope is a universally definable word.
 What I found interesting, and slightly depressing, was that some people said that they didn't have hope for humanity. When asked, they replied that the shooting in Arizona that had happened just the week before had taken away their hope for humanity. I find this really sad; how can you have no hope for humanity? No hope that there's people out there that are good? No hope that people are trying to make a change? All I know is that if I didn't have any hope for humanity, things would be very bleak.
Okay, on to the video that we made. We ended up only making a preview sort of video because of a time crunch, but I think that it was pretty powerful. Like I said earlier, we taped people of all ages and backgrounds to learn their perspective on hope. I'll attach the video later, because the computer is being tempermental, but I think that we did a great job on it. Later, we'll hopefully be able to make a video that includes all of our interviews.