Informative Speech: Egyptian Revolution 2011 - Essay Example

Even though the uprising was generally a non-violent protest, there were numerous instances of violence and it is reported that around 800 have been and 6000 have been injured. Often there were clashes seen between the protestors and pro-Mubarak demonstrators. This revolution was termed as the victory of the youth who took part in great numbers in the protest.

Finally, after 18 days on 11 February 2011 President Hosni Mubarak was ousted after 30 years in power (Parks, 2011).The revolution achieved what intended to each sieve what baffles many is that such a revolution occurred in Egypt. Governments, academics, and pundits accept that none had expected a revolution of such scale and magnitude in Egypt. This is best summed by the statement from Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, on the day protests began: “We assess that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people.

” (Sowers, 2012). This is because Hosni Mubarak’s regime was a good example of durable authoritarianism and its rulers were smart authoritarians. Media was not controlled and relatively free; civic associations, parties, and elections were allowed; the government smartly managed the country as compared to other autocratic rules in the region or anywhere else. But then they were ousted in 18 days (Sowers, 2012).3 explanations have been put forward to make sense of the situation.

First is technology. Technology played a great role in the uprising. For the first time, young people participated in the protest in great numbers and employed new mediums made available by technology to keep the protest alive. Mediums like Twitter and Facebook were greatly utilized to gather crowds and spread the word about what was happening on the ground to the rest of the world (Parks, 2011). The use of technology not only gathered momentum for the protest internally but also attracted support from the international community (Sowers, 2012).

The second explanation is the inspiration provided by the Tunisian revolution that ousted the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali earlier in the same month the protests began in Egypt. The Tunisian revolution inspired the normal citizens to join the protest unlikelier protests which were limited to elites and activists. With the support of the masses, this protest would also have been managed and suppressed by the government (Sowers, 2012).Third explanation is the political, economic third legal conditions in the country (Sowers, 2012).

The conditions that fuelled the protest are emergency laws, lack of freedom of speech, lack of free elections, police brutality, government corruption, unemployment, poverty, soaring commodity prices, etc (Parks, 2011). These factors forced the general population of the country to support the protest and have the autocratic regime to be overthrown.