Why did Egypt protest

To understand why the people of Egypt rose up in violent protest against the government which is headed by President Hosni Mubarak, one must study the reasons that stem from thirty years of pent up aggression which had reached its ultimate point; finally on the 25th of January, 2011, the movement erupted. The effect of the Tunisian Revolution played a key role as the people were further motivated to stand up against the government by it. It should be noted that Twitter and Facebook had been used by the protesters to popularize and organize the movement for sometime before it finally erupted.

The main reasons as to why the Egyptians started to protest so violently involves extremely high food prices, unemployment and low wage standards for the working class. A minimum of seventeen percent inflation and a country full of people, who earn roughly two dollars each day, just do not go together. A version of uncontrolled and corrupt capitalism was at display in Egypt as the minimum wage standard had remained at approximately six dollars for a period of almost three decades. The problem is that Egypt does not have a failing economy if you look at it from outside as their economy has grown appreciatively over the years, but almost all of the money has been absorbed by the richest and the most powerful people of Egypt which has left nothing for the Egyptians except an unemployment rate of nine percent.

The Egyptian protesters have demanded and declared that they will not accept anything short of the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power from the year 1981. From that time onwards, the police have retained absolute authority that has allowed them to curb the citizen’s basic rights for the Egyptians dramatically. The people felt helpless without the chance of even a fair election as even the elections were only a show that was manipulated and controlled by Mubarak and his National Democratic Party to produce favorable results. Without an enlistment on the ballots, very few of the opposition party hardly ever made it to the government and even then, they were too few and too weak to initiate any sort of change. Mubarak has refused thus far from leaving his office before the next presidential elections in September and the tussle continues therefore.