Egypt on the brink - Book Report/Review Example

According to Tarek Osman, the events in Tunis will be helpful to the Egyptians because they will grind their fears and lift their aspirations as well. He portends that Egypt stands at a better position of toppling its administration in an effort to change its tyrannical leaders led by President Hosni Mubarak. The parliamentary democracy, which is more of a mock to Egyptians, has already collapsed. Intimidation, gerrymandering and boycotts are some of the latest scenes in Egypt that indicates that revolution is on the offing.

These actions actually conspired to enable Egypt gain 420 seats out of the possible 508-governing bloc (Osman 54). Tarek Osman in this book confidently surveys the history of Egypt since the 1952 Nasser revolution in a very lively manner. It is recommendable to note that he captures all the major forces a very vivid eye. The Islamists’ dissidence stance of ‘everything to everyone’ loses its grip of appeal as Tarek Osman puts it. He also explores the manner in which the liberal capitalists have flourished under Mubarak’s regime.

Interestingly, their hopes are now dependent on Gamel Mubarak, the president’s son, who is expected to participate in the country’s September elections. . Tarek Osman goes ahead to hint at the possibility of the army shifting their position to an alternative leader whom they feel is more credible. Mohamed al-Baradei, former chief of atomic energy at the United Nations, comes in handy as a good alternative (Osman 39). The Egypt of today has scores of youths undergoing immense frustrations and anger.

Some are even a source of menace to the country. Tarek Osman gives this a surrealist painting, characterized changes across the social divide. Available statistics indicate that 75 per cent of the Egyptian population comprises of individuals less than 35 years of age. However, the rates of unemployment and underemployment continue to grip the country causing impatience and fury among the populations. These frustrations are exhibited in the manner in which people continue to lack incentives to stay in the country and subsequently seek to migrate to greener pastures.

For instance, in the year 2006 alone, more that 8 million people applied for the Green Card lottery to either live or work in the United States. This number represented more than 10 per cent of the Egyptian population. These people represented a generation that has grown helpless with a desire and passion to escape from the system failure that it feels to have inherited (Osman 41). Tarek Osman goes ahead to highlight a young population with unexploited talent and wasted energy that the tired regime has apparently held back.

He portends that with these critical population left idle, the regime is vulnerable to repressions. However, the author is right because he provides a solution by indicating that vital signs of enlightenment within the society may serve as corrective measure. This is in view of the fact that the secular civic societies are fast reviving in