Day after day they show up in the heat and cold, subject to scrutiny of the secret police, demanding democracy, to have a vote that counts and to make their living free from corruption.
The heroic Egyptians continue to amaze the world.
Since Jan. 25, they have risked their lives and those of their families to fight corruption and rid their country of a dictator and oppressor.
It’s a struggle that’s gripped the world in real time and can only be compared with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 that marked the end of the Iron Curtain.
In Egypt, dictator Hosni Mubarak is, for all intents and purposes, done. While he refused to step down completely on Thursday, despite the anticipation of millions who’ve awaited his departure, his announcement that he’s transferring powers to the vice-president to await elections in September, is also a victory.
While he may technically may still have the title, Mubarak is no longer in control. In the past few weeks, he’s made concession after concession. That trend won’t stop until he’s gone completely.
Providing there isn’t a bloody reaction of inhuman scale, the people of Egypt, who’ve already tasted freedom and self-determination, won’t let up until there’s no trace of Mubarak and his henchmen.
It’s a lesson we should mind in comfortable Canada: Free elections, democracy, a clean government, freedom of expression, never should be taken for granted, even here.
Each generation must ensure this torch is passed to the next.
To Egypt, your liberation is at hand.
The world salutes you.
– The News
