Current Events Summary # 8

Middle East


In the Middle East, a lot of protests have been taking place. For example, in Egypt protests against economic conditions struck the nation. Though, police have been in the presence of most protests, making them fail. Many people working in a Spinning and Weaving Company found prices and wages too high, therefore they would spend their time, after their shifts, fighting to lower them. With all the strikes/protests going on, a great amount of public affairs were affected. For instance, for a while schools were cancelled because of fear that the streets were very dangerous. The government, in order to control this situation, had told police to use whatever tactic they need too; even if that came to using force/violence. The government showed zero-tolerance for this matter, not to mention strikes are illegal in Egypt (causing the government and the police to use even more force.) In all, people are fighting for lower prices on food and wages and their dissatisfaction has shined very much through the country. As a result, the Egyptian government has promised an increase in salaries and they have increased their financial support for food.

Note: While schools have been cancelled because of danger from strikes/protests in Egypt, children in Yemen were actually injured. Explosions/shells by unknown attackers missed the US embassy(which was thought to be the target) and hit a nearby school endangering kids and injury many.

While the discontent of prices of food and wages rising still take place, the people of Egypt are not interested in politics. Therefore this matter results in a low turnout in Egypt. The polls are being boycotted and local elections in Egypt have very small turnouts. Meanwhile, as time goes on. police begin to become more violent. Protesters claim that police used live ammunition to break up the strikes. With anger, protesters are torching buildings, tearing down billboards, and beginning to cause a lot of damage. Once again, the Egyptian government's power impacts the lives of the common people. Raising salaries and increasing the financial aid for food has been promised once again to the people in order to maintain control in the country without resulting in too much chaos that would not be able to be handled or injuries/death of the people.