Egypt: A Contrast of Optimism and Pessimism in Cairo Protests

Feb. 1, 2011 - PRLog -- The world is focused on Egypt and one million protesters in a central square in Cairo.  The events and protest movement provide an opportunity for me to expound on the contrast of optimism and pessimism inherent in this international crisis.

The Egyptian protest movement is another chance to show how optimism is born of pessimism; how a pessimistic moment often precedes an optimistic one or at least presents a problem that can be turned into an optimistic opportunity.

Nine Transitions of Pessimism into Optimism from the Egyptian Crisis

From Pessimism:

   * All roads to Cairo have been shut down.

To Optimism:

   * Thousands defied the transportation shutdown and found a way to travel to Cairo from the Nile Delta Region by foot, bike, rogue car or truck.

From Pessimism:

   * A teacher after 22 years of teaching only makes $70 a month.

To Optimism:

   * The teacher wants a better education system so she can teach in one that guarantees her students a good life after school.

From Pessimism:

   * Older generations could never say no to Mubarak.

To Optimism:

   * Young people today are proving they CAN say no.

From Pessimism:

   * Thousands of protesters sleeping on the streets.

To Optimism:

   * Protesters are sleeping in the square next to schoolteachers, farmers, unemployed university graduates, women in conservative headscarves and women in high heels, men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes.

From Pessimism:

   * High-handed police demand bribes from local business in order for them to stay open.

To Optimism:

   * Small business owners have taken the risk to join the protest because they want their children to have a better life without humiliation from authorities and a chance to choose their president.

From Pessimism:

   * Troops and Soviet-era and newer U.S.-made Abrams tanks stand at the roads leading into Tahrir Square in Cairo where hundreds of thousands, perhaps even a million will be protesting.

To Optimism:

   * Protests, by and large, have been peaceful, and troops and tanks have not fired upon the crowds. The military promised on state TV Monday night that it would not fire on protesters.

From Pessimism:

   * An unprecedented shutdown of the Internet was is in its fifth day.  

To Optimism:

   * Reporters from CNN and other international networks are giving live interviews from Tahrir Square and tweeting out about it.  Hackers have re-opened the internet channels out of Egypt.

From Pessimism:

   * In response to the protest, President Mubarak tried to make a minor change to his government by simply dropping his interior minister who heads the police forces.

To Optimism:

   * The protesters and President Obama rejected the plan immediately.  A Mubarak aid has announced on state TV an offer to have a dialogue with “political forces” for constitutional and legislative reforms.

From Pessimism:

   * The protest involves a range of social movements with conflicting agendas including students, online activists, grass root organizers, old school politicians, and fundamentalist Muslim groups.

To Optimism:

   * Despite the potential for conflict between these subgroups, we hope they keep a single mindedness of purpose focused on the higher order common goal to establish a true democracy despite any secular differences.

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