i read somewhere--twitter i think---that there are something on the order of 1.6 million people involved with "security" in egypt.
there are 83 milliion people in egypt. around 90% are in cairo.
it's hard to say what a tipping point is in this kind of situation. it certainly appears at the moment that mubarak (or the apparatus that owes their various positions to him) thinks they can fight whatever it is that they are fighting...by which i mean that it may be that the state is locked into a dynamic they do not quite see (maybe) in which the attempts to fight the popular movement spread the popular movement.
this is the problem/limit of direct repression.
on the other hand, it's entirely possible that you're right and mubarak regime can maintain itself in place until hosni buys the farm.
there are calls racing around for a show of popular dissent on friday afternoon that'd be bigger than tuesday. no way at this point to know how that'll play out, but it's out there.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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