Revolutionaries on the rooftop (part three)
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Of the youth who are here, 90% of them are university graduates or are still students
90% of them have had higher education
They are cultured people who are aware of their rights and obligations
They know how to get their rights
They are people who have aspirations of living in peace and safety
very normal people, not terrorists like they say
we are not affiliated with any political party, we are from all strata of society
Some people are well off, high class, and some people have very low living standards
Every social and intellectual level, every sect
And as I mentioned 90% of them are university graduates
who are educated and aware
unlike the thugs he employs
For me to get into the square, four days ago
I came here from my house and to get in I had to stand with the thugs outside
for about two hours to be able to get in here
They stand outside and don't let anyone in
and whoever they catch they beat up
In those two hours I saw kinds of people I have never seen before
People of a very low standard, who don't understand anything
90% of them are uneducated, with primary school degrees
or former convicts, people with criminal records
people with roughed up faces, people from bad neighborhoods
people who don't understand anything
These people have either been paid, or are being led blindly
But thank god the people on our side are well educated university graduates
and people who are politically aware
And what do you think Mohammed?
The youth who are hereā¦
by the way they are not just youth
there are people other than the youth
There are old men, there are people over 40
there are those younger than 20, there are women
The people who are here represent a state of aggravation throughout the whole nation
Everyone suffers, there isn't one person who doesn't suffer
Everyone down there is struggling, everyone at home is struggling
even the people who come to oppose us, they suffer
those who support the president struggle as well, but they've been paid off
Our demands, the demands of the youth
are not related to a specific social class
they are not because of a particular thing we hate about the regime
or something we don't want or want to fix
Our demands are because of general corruption
which is now present everywhere
in everyday dealings, in everything
in every part of society there is now corruption
You have to deal with bribery
you have to deal with favoritism you have to deal with nepotism
When you speak your mind you have to be very careful of your words
in case someone from the secret police or from state security is listening
so they don't arrest you and frame you in some case
People are afraid to exercise their natural rights guaranteed by the law and constitution
so they don't get taken away to any police station
and subjected to insult and abuse
Thats why when people took to the streets on January 25th and 26th
when they burned the police stations,
there was a sense of oppression and anger within all people
They burned the stations because of this sense of oppression
they were letting it out
the abuse that they've seen at the hands of police and the interior ministry
and the corruption we can see in the system
Our regime is trying to make it seem like some of these youth groups
have been infiltrated, to try and affect Egyptian public opinion
trying to make it seem that there are foreign elements
to affect Egyptian public opinion
People in their homes who sympathize with us
will not anymore, they will think we are agents
of foreign countries who are trying to destabilize our nation
On the other hand they try to make it appear that these youth
are affiliated with certain groups, banned groups
like the Muslim Brotherhood
because the West are afraid of Islam
They hate Islamists, or they are afraid of Islamists coming to power in a certain country
And there are examples of this
there is Pakistan and the Taliban and Iran
When Islamists take over a regime
they become enemies of the West, particularly America
So they try to present this image
that these youth are being driven by and Islamic trend, or a Salafi trend
They want to tell the west quite simply
these are the ones who will take over in Egypt
the Islamists that you suffer from everywhere else
that you fight against everywhere else, this is the alternative you will have in Egypt
so do not support them, they try to take away the West's support for us
by spreading these ideas
that whoever are leading the youth are Muslim Brotherhood
They also try to spread other ideas to people, to Egyptian society
that amongst the youth are other political factions
who want to lead them and come to power
and among them are foreigners whose only aim
is to uproot the stability of our nation
and to spy for the sake of foreign entities
even though the foreign entities the government refers to are their patrons
They are agents of America and Israel
they say Iran is a threat, but Iran is far from being able to do anything like this to Egypt
Their efforts go towards making it look like these youth are part of the Brotherhood
They want to pull away the West's support for us
they want to show us like we are agents and traitors
and that we will uproot the stability of the nation
To take away the sympathy of those in their homes, who won't sympathize with us anymore
That's it, these are the youth who are here
The people who are here represent all strata of society
Some are well off, some are average, some are below the poverty line
There are people from all strata
There are intellectuals, there are ignorant people
but for each person his demands are not classist
We are not here because of specific demands
not because of living standards or anything like that
In our current situation we are living on the bare minimum
surviving on anything, under very difficult circumstances
with many dangers
But we feel that at this moment, we are living with our dignity
The Egyptian citizen can live with his dignity
and be satisfied with the bare minimum, as long as he has his dignity
But what people feel now is that they are living on the bare minimum
and not even that, and without dignity still
You could convince me to live on this bare minimum
if you said the reason was that you weren't taking aid from America
so you don't have to bow to their demands
so you don't become an agent of the Jews
so you don't starve Gaza
so you don't spread corruption in the country
But he does all of those things, and is still letting us starve
he insults us in our own country, and he discourages us from practicing our political rights
We don't express our opinions
which is a right guaranteed us by the law and constitution
The youth who are here today express 99% of public opinion
99% of public opinion
The people who stand against us are people who either don't understand
are members of the ruling party, are sympathizers of the president
are being paid, are being used by NDP candidates
NDP candidates have gotten used to this after 30 years
using thugs to collect votes and to rig elections
they are used to this, these are their methods, and we are used to this
They use their power to gather people, it is now a game of politics using force
whoever is powerful is the one who participates in politics
Whoever has money will be able to hold power in his hands and participate in politics
Its like what the president did, the marriage of authority and money
this is what created all the corruption in Egypt
Ahmed Ezz has monopolized steel, and many other things
and businessmen have become close to the president
including Hussein El Sayed who owns two thirds of the tourist resorts in Sharm El Sheikh
And by the way Hussein El said is a personal friend of Mubarak
and was with him in the air force
El Maghrabi, Hisham Talaat Mustafa, many people
In our system here, quite simply, there is no accountability
It doesn't bring to account whoever makes mistakes
we have a saying which says " El Ala raso batha.."
Or "Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones"
So when Mubarak holds a minister accountable for something
or an official who made a mistake, or a businessman who spread corruption or made mistakes
this guy will come out and expose what the president does as well
He is afraid of this and this is why he protects them, so they can protect him as well
So they don't expose him
This is the opposite of what would happen before when there were people who were more noble than him
more dependable, more generous
who were in charge of the country and would hold people accountable
they provided us with a dignified life in our country
Yes we lived on very little but we felt like we had our dignity in our country
As I said, we are prepared to live on the bare minimum
as long as we feel like we have our dignity
that we are walking down the streets with our dignity
Not like when a policeman sees me in the street and decides to make life difficult for me
asking me about my ID, and even if I have my ID and am obeying the law
and I have my military paperwork, obeying the law
I don't have a weapon or hashish or drugs or anything
just for the sake of it he will stop me and make me pay to pass
And if you don't pay, he will make up a charge and throw you in prison
this is how things work here
The people down there are not here because of one or two or three things
they are here because corruption is everywhere around them
it surrounds them everywhere, that's all