What do you make of the unrest in the mother land? There's some REAL trouble brewing over there. :(
Yeah, it's a godawful mess. I have a lot of different perspectives on it and it's always changing, but there are a couple things I take away from it.
We as Americans tend to think that "all those (Middle Eastern) countries just need some democracy." Truth is, in almost every case I can think of, those democracies that we either put in place or help to put in place, or by some miracle, put themselves in place, are the horrific. We think we want an organized political system based on the freedom of people to express themselves, until it turns out that the democracy means they are honor killing women and lopping off the hands of thieves, and then we're like "oh no, we meant democracy like we have it HERE."
The Egyptian Military in the beginning kind of did the right thing. Morsi was surely elected by a majority, as was his party, but the moment he suspended the court system so he could ramrod his farce of a Constitution through, he was marking time until the next coup. It's very sad to me because the truth is, he was elected, and he couldn't possibly have fixed the country in one year, or even in ten. But no one trusts a president who suspends the rules when it fits him. He lost the faith of much of the country. And the West.
That said, a coup is one thing. Mass killings of protesters is another. The military has been gunning people down in the streets. More than 1000 dead! That, after the initial revolution was almost completely bloodless. That's not what we pay 1.35 billion a year to the Egyptian military. We paid for those bullets, whether directly or indirectly. It's very disturbing to think that the Muslim Brotherhood, which was actually literally outlawed in Egypt for 50+ years, was then allowed to reemerge legally for about a year and a half, and then the military started massacring them. There is no love lost between the military and the brotherhood. Surely, the Brotherhood squandered their moment to shine, and basically did exactly the kind of crap everyone hoped they wouldn't. but that doesn't excuse killing them in the streets.
The worst part of it is this was the revolution of the young, the secular, and the hopeful, and it's become a power game between the old guard brutalizers and the old islamic brutalizers. The majority of people who effected revolution have no hope of seeing it turn out the way they wanted now.
So yeah, it's a mess.
I don't ever read much about this type od thing, so that was the best overall analysis I've heard. Pretty muched summed up what I felt and filled in some gaps where I wasn't sure what happened.
I sincerely hope that whatever family you may have remaining there is safe.
Ok, been reading more in the papers since your post. Geez, what a mess. :(