The End, or the End of the Beginning?

Throughout the semester my group members and I followed the unfolding events taking place in Egypt, specifically on how the government, under Gen. el-Sisi, has chosen to respond to what has been named the "Egyptian Revolution." Our group covered protest from the Sinai Peninsula to the heart of Egypt in Cairo. Each week something new occurred which was beneficial to us because it allowed up to report on the latest events and give our insight on the actions taken by both the Egyptian people and the government. The people of Egypt, or rather supporters of the ousted President Mohamed Morsi,are reluctant to accept the new government under the Egyptian military and have expressed their feelings through their many protest and sacking of religious institutions, specifically Christian churches. With constant protest and vandalizing of public property the government acted with military/police force to try to quell the violence, but as the saying goes, you can't fight fire with fire. With Mubarak out of prison and Morsi and most of his senior officials behind bars it is interesting to see how events will unfold in Egypt. It is hard to say if there will be another ousting if el-Sisi wins the presidential election after Parliament has held their own early next year, but like before, if it is the will of the Egyptian people to restore Morsi to power and oust el-Sisi then their is nothing the United States or the United Nation can do except wait to see how things unfold.

Our group was able to do our research by collaborating with every Wednesday for about an hour and a half. We would each read recent articles posted on either Al-Jazeera or the New York Times and took from each article what we felt was important enough to post on our blog. After a while we ended up pairing up with another member and took turns writing the blog. Funny to say this was a lot easier to do then meeting with the entire group. We would try to focus on events we thought were crucial to the revolution as whole, of course everything that was going on in Egypt was, and still is, important but we simply didn't have the time to write about everything. As a side note, we tried our best to cite our sources in APA format and if we made mistakes we apologize for that.

Covering the events in Egypt has not only given me insight on another country and their political issues, but it has also made me think about the how things were to unravel if an incident like this ever happened here in the United States, would the military take power? Which party would come to power? Would there be as much bloodshed here as there was in the streets of Cairo? Ordeals like the one in Egypt give countries like the United States a kind of reminder to take a moment and pause and give thought to the question of whether or not it is a true democracy for the people, or only a selected few. I enjoyed reporting on the Egyptian people, it was interesting, and in some ways amazing, to follow history in the making. It was a great opportunity to get know my other group members: Akana, Brennan, Elvira and Nick and too hear their views on the matter. Altogether i believe the blog assignment was engaging in our learning of the international community.