TV review: MSNBC's 'President of the World,' basking in Bill Clinton's afterglow

Valentine's Day was a week ago, but MSNBC's Chris Matthews has belatedly gifted a particular former president with a mash note - strike that, a one-hour special called "President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon," airing on the cable news channel Monday night.
Why? Because it's Presidents' Day. Also because it's been a full decade since Clinton left office, embarking on an epic quest to remain at the forefront of the celebripoliticomedia hive mind. Or, as Matthews reminds us much more than once: He is Everywhere.
"Bill Clinton's position in the world continues to grow. He's part dignitary, part humanitarian, part politician, part international statesman, and somehow, greater than them all," he intones.
For much of the hour, you'll wonder if you're watching one of Robert Smigel's old "X-Presidents" cartoon parodies for "Saturday Night Live." Matthews, aided by the likes of Terry McAuliffe, Mary Steenburgen and various biographers, remarks again and again how smart Clinton is, how generous, how famous, how friendly, how productive. Perhaps this special is some sort of MSNBC covert-op to cause paralytic apoplexy over there on the right? The kind of people who still keep the Starr Report at the ready?
There is no doubt that Clinton has busied himself in a number of worthy ways, especially when he heads toward human and natural disasters (wars, tsunamis, earthquakes, hostage crises) to raise relief funds or broker a solution. He loves the world and, as we see on many a tarmac and in convention halls and hotel lobbies hither and yon, the world still loves him back. The best part of the special is the story of how two American reporters who were arrested and held in North Korea in 2009 reacted when he showed up to rescue them: The door opened, there stood Bill Clinton, and they collapsed into his arms, weeping with relief.
The not-very-sub subtext of "President of the World" is a nostalgic grieving for the glory of the Clinton years. Matthews's special reminded me of a line from this season of "Glee," an exchange between Artie (the guy in the wheelchair) and Brittany (the uncannily dense cheerleader). Artie says, "I thought I was over someone, but I still think I have feelings for them."
The Clintons?" Brittany asks. Ever cooperative, Clinton grants Matthews interviews and permission to tag along for a few days. Nothing new is revealed or reflected upon, except how good he feels at 64, and what a charge he gets out of globe-trotting. We learn little of the partnerships and financial underpinnings of the nonprofit Clinton Global Initiative and its philanthropic offshoots. We get little insight into Clinton's daily life as a millionaire VIP.
The real story - glossed over and merely admired here - is how Clinton discovered previously uncharted territories of fame and motivates other celebrities to do their saintly best. There is also an unforgettable narrative about a marriage here, but the name Hillary Clinton barely comes up, except in the context of his role in her 2008 presidential campaign or how his travels often pave a way for her diplomatic efforts as (you may have heard) secretary of state.
"President of the World" triggers another thought: We need more time apart, him and us. Bill Clinton is too young - and too alive - for anyone to make a good one-hour special about, just yet. Matthews has merely made a promotional film for someone who isn't running for anything.
Comparisons are made to other X-Presidents (I somehow never knew Herbert Hoover oversaw European famine relief after World War II, but we've certainly seen Jimmy Carter lift cinder blocks), but finally we are told that there is no ideal job description for a former president. As seen here, everything is just afterglow.
President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon (one hour) airs Monday at 10 p.m. on MSNBC.

Five myths about Ronald Reagan

By Edmund Morris

Friday, February 4, 2011; 5:00 PM

It has been argued that Ronald Reagan was a myth himself, a construct of his own and other people's imaginings, rather than an extraordinary American about whom some untruths are told. The sentimental colossus his acolytes are trying to erect today, with gilded pecs, red-painted smile and an NRA-approved pistol in each manly fist, bears no resemblance to the man I knew: in private a person of no ego and little charisma, in public a statesman of formidable purpose.

 
1. He was a bad actor.
Well, yes and no. Most of the movies he made as a Warner Bros. contract player are unwatchable by persons of sound mind. When he was president, it was easy to laugh at them. The spectacle of the leader of the free world, a.k.a. Secret Service agent Brass Bancroft, deploying an enormous ray gun against an airborne armada was especially hilarious in 1983, the year he announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, that vaporizer of foreign nuclear missiles. "All right, Hayden - focus that inertia projector on 'em and let 'em have it!"
Even when Reagan believed he was acting well, as in "Kings Row," he betrayed infallible signs of thespian mediocrity: an unwillingness to listen to other performers and an inability to communicate thoughts. Now that he is dead, however, one feels an odd tenderness for the effort he put into every role - particularly in early movies, when he struggled to control a tendency of his lips to writhe around his too-rapid speech.
Ironically, he was transformed into a superb actor when he took on the roles of governor of California, presidential candidate and president of the United States. Then, as never in his movies, he became authoritative, authentic, irresistible to eye and ear. His two greatest performances, in my opinion, were at the Republican National Convention in 1976, when he effortlessly stole Gerald Ford's thunder as nominee and made the delegates regret their choice, and at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1985, when he delivered the supreme speech of his presidency.

I asked him once if he had any nostalgia for the years he was nuzzling up to Ann Sheridan and Doris Day on camera. He gestured around the Oval Office. "Why should I? I have the biggest stage in the world, right here!"

 
2. He was but a movie-set soldier in World War II.
It's true that Reagan spent virtually all the war years flying a desk at the First Motion Picture Unit, USAAF, in Culver City. But that hardly means he did not passionately want to fight for his country overseas. Army doctors found his vision to be so defective, at "7/200 bilateral," that a tank could advance within seven feet of him before he could identify it as Japanese. His Warner Bros. colleague Eddie Albert, a veteran of the Pacific War, later told me about presenting Reagan with a souvenir from the bloodbath of Tarawa. "I've never forgotten the way he looked. Like I'd humiliated him."
In the spring of 1945, Capt. Reagan, as the FMPU's intelligence officer, spent weeks processing raw color footage from the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. The images so burned into his brain that later in life - quite understandably - he imagined he had been there at Ohrdruf and Buchenwald. He kept one of those Army reels to show to each of his children in early adolescence, so that they could learn about man's inhumanity to man. Ask Patti. Ask Ron.

 
3. He was warm-hearted.
No. But Reagan wasn't cold - except in his detestation of totalitarianism - so much as cool, in the way a large, calm lake is cool. Like many another natural leader (George Marshall and Charles de Gaulle come to mind), he viewed those who clustered around him abstractedly. He registered audiences rather than individuals. Reagan intimates have confessed to me that they were never sure he knew who the hell they were.
His three younger children have publicly stated that there were times (decades before any rumors of dementia) when he treated them as complete strangers. As for his marriage to Nancy, I'll note only that she was the fourth short, tough, street-smart woman he dreamily depended on to organize his everyday life, the others being his mother, Nelle Reagan; his first fiancee, Margaret Cleaver; and his first wife, Jane Wyman. He had no close friends. And until young Ron reminded him, it didn't occur to him to put a headstone on either of his parents' graves.

 
4. He was only a campaign Christian.
On the contrary, Reagan was a "practical Christian," that being the name of a mainly Midwestern, social-work-oriented movement when he was growing up. At 11, young Dutch had an epiphany, prompted by the sight of his alcoholic father lying dead drunk on the front porch of the family house in Dixon, Ill. In a moving passage of autobiography, Reagan wrote: "Seeing his arms spread out as if he were crucified - as indeed he was - his hair soaked with melting snow, snoring as he breathed, I could feel no resentment against him." It was the season of Lent, and his mother, a devotee of the Disciples of Christ, put a comforting novel in his hand: "That Printer of Udell's" by Harold Bell Wright. Dutch read it and told her, "I want to declare my faith and be baptized." He was, by total immersion, on June 21, 1922.
I read a speckled copy of that book in the Library of Congress. Almost creepily, it tells the story of a handsome Midwestern boy who makes good for the sins of his father by becoming a practical Christian and a spellbinding orator. He develops a penchant for brown suits and welfare reform, marries a wide-eyed girl (who listens adoringly to his speeches) and wins election to public office in Washington.
Shy about his faith as an adult, Reagan was capable of conventional pieties like all American politicians. He attended few church services as president. But on occasion, before critical meetings, you would see him draw aside and mumble prayers.

 
5. He was an "amiable dunce."
Yeah, right, Clark Clifford. Ronald Reagan only performed successfully in six different careers: radio sportscaster, movie actor, trade union president, corporate spokesman, two-term governor and two-term president of the United States. Lucky for him he wasn't hampered by Jimmy Carter's intelligence!
Edmund Morris was the authorized biographer of Ronald Reagan. In addition to "Dutch," his life of the 40th president, he has published a trilogy about Theodore Roosevelt.

Gebelein predynastic mummies

The Gebelein predynastic mummies are six naturally mummified bodies, dating to approximately 3400 BC from the Late Predynastic period of Egypt, and were the first complete pre-dynastic bodies to be discovered. The well-preserved bodies were excavated at the end of the nineteenth century by Wallis Budge, the British Museum Keeper for Egyptology, from shallow sand graves near Gebelein (modern name Naga el-Gherira) in the Egyptian desert.
Budge excavated all the bodies from the same grave site. Two were identified as male and one as female, with the others being of undetermined gender. The bodies were given to the British Museum in 1900. Some grave-goods were documented at the time of excavation as "pots and flints", however they were not passed on to the British Museum and their whereabouts remain unknown. Three of the bodies were found with coverings of different types (reed matting, palm fibre and an animal skin), which still remain with the bodies. The bodies were found in foetal positions lying on their left sides.
From 1901 the first body excavated has remained on display in the British Museum. This body was originally nicknamed 'Ginger' due to his red hair; this nickname is no longer officially used as part of recent ethical policies for human remains.
In 1895 and 1896 the ruins at Abydos, Tukh, Hierakonpolis and Gebelein were excavated. In 1892 Jacques de Morgan, Director of Antiquities in Egypt, proved that pottery found at Abydos and Nakadah pre-dated the dynastic period, stimulating interest by many European Archaeologists. As each excavation was completed, local Egyptian residents would continue to search the sites for remains. In 1895 E. A. Wallis Budge, on behalf of the British Museum, procured inscribed coffins and funerary furniture from the 12th Dynasty tombs at Al-Barshah by working with the Egyptian Service of Antiquities. Budge started purchasing predynastic finds from the locals including bowls, spear and arrow heads, carved flint and bone figures and partial human remains (described as chiefly bones without skin or flesh remaining).
In 1896, Budge was approached by a resident of Gebelein who claimed to have found more mummies. Budge was taken to the bodies, and he immediately recognized them as from the predynastic period and the first complete pre-dynastic bodies identified. He began excavations and a total of six mummified bodies were removed from shallow sand graves at Baḥr Bila Mâ (Waterless River) located at the eastern slopes of the north-most hill at Gebelein.
The only grave goods were a pot found with the female adult body and partial remains of wicker, fur and linen with the other bodies. In the predynastic period bodies were usually buried naked and sometimes loosely wrapped. In such a burial, when the body is covered in warm sand, the environmental conditions mean that most of the water in the body is quickly evaporated or drained away, meaning that the corpse is naturally dried and preserved. This method was widely used in the pre-dynastic Egyptian period, before artificial mummification was developed. The natural mummification that occurred with these dry sand burials may have led to the original belief in an after-death survival and started the tradition of leaving food and implements for an afterlife.
All bodies were in similar flexed positions lying on their left sides with knees raised up towards their chin. In comparison, most bodies excavated from Egypt dating to the predynastic period are in a similar position, however at Merimda Beni Salama and El-Amra bodies were found on their right sides. From the time these bodies were buried up until the Middle Kingdom period, the dead were laid on their sides. After this period they were buried on their backs (dorsal position), and from the Fifth Dynasty the bodies were always fully extended.
Archaeological interest in Gebelien started in the early 18th Century and was included in Benoît de Maillet's Description de l'Egypte. The site includes the remains from a temple to Hathor with a number of cartouches on mud bricks and a royal stela from the 2nd-3rd Dynasties. Later period finds include 400 Demotic and Greek ostraca from a 2nd-1st century BC mercenary garrison. As well as official excavations, many artefacts from the site were traded on the antiquities market and can be found in the museums of Turin, Cairo, Berlin, Lyons and the British Museum.

King Djer’s Tomb

Tomb at abydos (called tomb o) arrests 300 accessory burials, scarce weest of Aha; made of brick 70 x 40 meters. Discovered by Emile Amelineau in 1895 with a 5 year abbreviate for archaeological site. He was a hapless archaeologist – credibly he got the abbreviate because he was friends with the conductor of the Egyptian ancientnesses Service in Cairo – and discovered the “Tomb of Osiris” in Umm El Gaab, an region simply loaded with artifacts. He completely cleared the tomb between January 1 and January 12th, flinging whole piles of art artifacts and continuing only accomplished aims. Most matters were merely discounted if the experienced them of no appraise.

He base a basalt statue on a bier (alike to the funerary cast of King Tut) in the tomb, and a skull in one chamber. He decided (quite arbitrarily, based on the staircase) that this was the tomb of Osiris himself, and the skull was that of the deity – or, in his aspect, a real historical anatomy. The skull was later discovered as that of a woman, just this didn't change Emile’s aspect

Amelineau was put back by Petrie in 1900, when Maspero absorbed the directorship of the Egyptian Antiquities Service. Petrie is recognized as one of the chivvy archaeologists of the time and he altogether re-excavated the tombs.

He ascertained much that Amelineau bore overlooked – admitting an arm allay adorned with jewelry. Petrie acquired to volumes of contingents almost ht diggings- these volumes got the example for future archaeological work. It was discovered that h tomb had been modified to act as the tomb of Osiris – in the 13th dynasty by Khendjer. The staircase had been appended for the convenience of the pilgrims and tourists.

Tomb is alike two others in the region, with chambers delve the ground and roofed over. The chief room was probably floored with wood or wooden blinds, but only carbonized timber continued when dug.

Mummy

A mummy is a corpse whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness (ice mummies), very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs. Presently, the oldest discovered (naturally) mummified human corpse was a decapitated head dated as 6,000 years old and was found in 1936. The most famous Egyptian mummies are those of Seti I and Rameses II (13th century BC), though the earliest known Egyptian mummy, nicknamed 'Ginger' for its hair color, dates back to approximately 3300 BC.
Mummies of humans and other animals have been found throughout the world, both as a result of natural preservation through unusual conditions, and as cultural artifacts to preserve the dead. There are more than 1000 mummies in dry Xinjiang China. Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats. There are so called mummies of mythical beings.
Mummia or Mumia, is a kind of powder taken from mummies. It traditionally originates as asphaltum, bitumen, mineral pitch or carabe which has in the past been used as one of the ingredients in the preservation process of mummies.
Asphaltum is a resin but it is not commonly used as incense and the smell is rather unattractive; but it was an ingredient in Plutarch's version of kyphi and is still sometimes used as incense by occultists and magical practitoners. Asphaltum is often used nowadays as a pigment, and also is used in some types of folk medicine. In ancient times it was used to fill out the body cavities of some Egyptian mummies. Reportedly, the black color of the mummies was attributed to the use of this pitch, although it is known nowadays that the blackened color is only a result of the drying process which the bodies would undergo. Nevertheless, this erroneous notion caused the belief that all mummies contained large amounts of asphaltum in their making.
The term "mummy", referring to preserved corpses, is derived from the ingredient mummia. Ancient Egyptian mummy-making often utilized asphaltum (Persian: mumiya) as an ingredient for filling the empty body cavities once the organs were removed. In the Middle Ages, the resin that had been used on ancient Egyptian mummies was believed to have superior medicinal and chemical value to regular asphaltum, and the resulting demand for the ingredient caused the term to be applied to the dead bodies required to harvest it as much as to the ingredient itself. In The Chemistry of Paints and Painting by Arthur H. Church, a description is given of mummia's preparation for paint-making:

'Mummy,' as a pigment, is inferior to prepared, but superior to raw, asphalt, inasmuch as it has been submitted to a considerable degree of heat, and has thereby lost some of its volatile hydrocarbons. Moreover, it is usual to grind up the bones and other parts of the mummy together, so that the resulting powder has more solidity and is less fusible than the asphalt alone would be. A London colourman informs me that one Egyptian mummy furnishes sufficient material to satisfy the demands of his customers for twenty years.

Mummia was offered for sale medicinally as late as 1908 in the catalogue of E. Merck. 
While Egyptian mummies were traditionally the source for mummia, as demand increased throughout the Renaissance, other types of corpses came to be used including non-Egyptian mummies and bodies of the recently deceased that were specially prepared. This was sometimes called mumia falsa

The Egyptian mummification process

The earliest known Egyptian mummy , nicknamed 'Ginger' for its hair colour, dates back to approximately 3300 BC. Currently on display in the British Museum, Ginger was discovered buried in hot desert sand. Desert conditions can naturally preserve bodies so it is uncertain whether the mummification was intentional or not. However, since Ginger was buried with some pottery vessels it is likely that the mummification was a result of preservation techniques of those burying him. Stones might have been piled on top to prevent the corpse from being eaten by jackals and other scavengers and the pottery might have held food and drink which was later believed to sustain the deceased during the journey to the afterlife.
From the Middle Kingdom onwards, embalmers used salts to remove moisture from the body. The salt-like substance natron dried out and preserved more flesh than bone. Once dried, mummies were ritualistically anointed with oils and perfumes. The emptied body was then covered in natron, to speed up the process of dehydration and prevent decomposition. Natron dries the body up faster than desert sand, preserving the body better. Often finger and toe protectors were placed over the mummy's fingers and toes to prevent breakage. They were wrapped with strips of white linen that protected the body from being damaged. After that, they were wrapped in a sheet of canvas to further protect them. Many sacred charms and amulets were placed in and around the mummy and the wrappings. This was meant to protect the mummy from harm and to give good luck to the Ka of the mummy. Once preserved, they were laid to rest in a sarcophagus inside a tomb, where it was believed that the mummy would rest eternally. The mummy's mouth would later be opened in a ritual designed to symbolize breathing, giving rise to legends about resurrected mummies. In some cases, a mummy has been discovered in an unmolested tomb, only to be found in a state of advanced decomposition due to the proximity of the water table. This was the case with the discovery in 1998 of the mummy of Iufaa, an Egyptian priest and administer who lived around 500 BC.

Pyramid guides urge tourists to return to Egypt

Hundreds of Egyptian tour guides gathered on Monday in the shadow of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids to urge tourists to return to the country following the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime.
The upheaval of recent weeks and media coverage of days of violent clashes have combined to scare off visitors and stifle Egypt’s key tourism industry, threatening thousands of jobs.
Inspired by the success of political protests in bringing down the regime, workers in several public and private sector industries have launched a wave of strikes to demand pay rises.
But the message from tourism workers was simpler.
The guides - whose business has been badly hit by the crisis - gathered at the Giza Plateau site, bearing Egyptian flags and banners in English, French, Russian and German reading: "Egypt loves you."
One by one, the guides mounted a tribune to plead for tourists to return in a variety of languages.
Behind them a handful of Egyptian visitors were at the site, but there were no foreigners to be seen and Cairo’s hotels and gift shops stand empty.
"We need to make tourism come back to Egypt. We want to send the message to tourists all over the world that we they are welcome here. They will discover a new country and new people",
i was one of the tens of thousands of protesters who seized central Cairo’s Tahrir Square and occupied it for two weeks as part of the nationwide demonstrations that bought down Mubarak.
But some of those working at the pyramids opposed the revolt, fearing it would harm their trade.
Workers from tourist stables charged the demonstration on horses and a camel during an attack by stone-throwing pro-regime thugs on February 2.
On Monday, however, politics was forgotten, and the guides were simply concerned with persuading their foreign guests to return.
"The return of tourists is in our interest, but also in the interest of the entire country,"
Tourism accounts for six percent of Egypt’s gross domestic product, and February would normally be the height of the holiday season.
The sector brought in $13 billion in 2010, with a record 15 million people taking their holidays in the Land of the Pharaohs.

Strikes by government employees have erupted throughout the country to demand higher wages and benefits, despite Egypt’s newly-formed government vowing to raise public sector salaries and pensions by 15 percent.

 

 

Hawass says : it is not safe

Last week Dr. Zahi Hawass stated that Egyptian antiquities and Egyptian sites are all safe. Today he says:


“The staff of the database department at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo have given me their report on the inventory of objects at the museum following the break in. Sadly, they have discovered objects are missing from the museum. The objects missing are as follows:

1. Gilded wood statue of Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess

2. Gilded wood statue of Tutankhamun harpooning. Only the torso and upper limbs of the king are missing

3. Limestone statue of Akhena

ten holding an offering table

4. Statue of Nefertiti making offerings

5. Sandstone head of an Amarna princess

6. Stone statuette of a scribe from Amarna

7. Wooden shabti statuettes from Yuya (11 pieces)

8. Heart Scarab of Yuya
An investigation has begun to search for the people who have taken these objects, and the police and army plan to follow up with the criminals already in custody. I have said if the Egyptian Museum is safe, than Egypt is safe. However, I am now concerned Egypt is not safe.
In another terrible turn of events, last night a magazine in Dahshur was broken into; it is called De Morgan’s. This magazine contains large blocks and small artifacts.”

Mubarak Departure ......Egypt Celebrate Its New History

"I'm 21 years old and this is the first time in my life I feel free," an ebullient Abdul-Rahman Ayyash, born eight years after Mubarak came to power, said as he hugged fellow protesters in Tahrir Square, where crowds remained all through the night.
Egypt has inscribed Its New History on a New Liberal Pyramid built in Tahreer Square by the rebellions of the Jan 25  ,with a base of dignity ,honor and self sacrifice for a bright sunny future and for a glorious Egypt.
Around 11 a.m. EST, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president for almost 30 years, resigned. In a 30-second statement, his vice president, Omar Suleiman, announced that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces would manage the state's affairs. The military now appears to be fully in control of the country. Suleiman, Mubarak's ally, is still part of the governing body but with potentially diminished influence.  It is a fluid situation, and how power ultimately will shake out is unclear. The Supreme Council is made up of the heads of the different branches of the military as well as the Minister of Defense and the General Chief of Staff.  Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi chaired the most recent meeting of the Council in Mubarak's absence.
How will the transition work?



What is clear is that a process will begin in which the opposition parties will be involved, though how it will work has not been defined. Much depends on how the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will structure the tasks ahead.  The military already has said it will not accept the legitimacy of the state, meaning it has no intention of maintaining power for the long term. The Army probably will now step back to establish a play book by which the nation moves to both change laws in the Constitution that have hindered democracy—and set up a process by which new political groups get a role in determining collectively how a fair election needs to be structured.

Did the White House play a role in Mubarak's decision to step down?

Yes, the White House mattered but certainly did not play the decisive role.  The Egyptian public catalyzed the events that brought Mubarak down.  The White House defined the core principles that it most cared about—no violence, respecting the right of people to assemble and protest, and calling for meaningful, inclusive transition—and these became the frame for many other key nations and commentators.  This principle-driven pressure from the United States made a difference but was not what mattered most.


Will the protesters leave Tahrir Square?

Tahrir Square probably will remain a heavily populated site for weeks to come, not because of protesters but because of celebrations that the people there on that site changed their history peacefully and powerfully. 
Cries of "Egypt is free" rang out and fireworks lit up the sky as hundreds of thousands danced, wept and prayed in joyful pandemonium after 18 days of peaceful pro-democracy protests forced President Hosni Mubarak to surrender power to the military, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.

Ecstatic protesters in Cairo's Tahrir, or Liberation, Square hoisted soldiers onto their shoulders Friday and families posed for pictures in front of tanks in streets flooded with people streaming out to celebrate. Strangers hugged each other, some fell to kiss the ground, and others stood stunned in disbelief.

Chants of "Hold your heads high, you're Egyptian" roared with each burst of fireworks overhead.

Egypt & The liberation square '' Tahreer Square ''

The Liberation square :
Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the site of 16 consecutive days of protests aimed at forcing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to resign, has been host to several public demonstrations since it was built in the 19th century.
The square, known as Midan Ismailia before the leaders of the revolution of 1952 renamed it Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, was the focal point of riots in 1977 that were sparked when President Anwar Sadat announced the government was ending subsidies on basic foodstuffs such as bread and cooking oil. The square was also the site of demonstrations in 1881 against the ruling Khedive Tawfik and in 1919 against British occupation.
“Its importance is due to its size and its closeness to vital sovereign institutions and embassies,” said Obada Kohela, a professor of history at Cairo University. “This is the first popular revolt against an Egyptian ruler.”
The protests have left more than 100 people dead and roiled international stock, bond and oil markets, with investors concerned they may spread to other countries in the region or lead to the closure of the Suez Canal Mubarak last night said he won’t run for another term.
Egypt is the fourth-largest recipient of American foreign aid based on the Obama administration’s budget request for this year, according to the Congressional Research Service. Mubarak has backed efforts to encourage Arab acceptance of Israel, oppose Iran’s nuclear program and isolate Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian Museum
Karima el-Hefnawy, a pharmacist who took part in this week’s demonstrations, said that after she and several thousand other students were arrested in 1972 following a sit-in to demand that Egypt wage war with Israel, protesters gathered in Tahrir to demand her release. “That night and in the absence of communications, all Egyptians headed toward Tahrir Square and indeed we were freed one week later,” she said.
In 2003, the square, which holds the former main campus of the American University in Cairo and the Mogama, the center of government administration in Egypt, hosted demonstrations against the war in Iraq. The most recent protests that started on Jan. 25 have seen thousands of Egyptians gather to call for end to the rule of Mubarak.
“The protests in Tahrir square are a pain in the back of government officials,” said Mervat Helal, a real-estate tax employee. It restricts their movements because the protesters are in control of the center of town, he said.
One of the city’s main traffic intersections, the square features a central grassy area and radiates wide boulevards. The Egyptian Museum, which houses antiquities including the death mask of King Tutankhamun, lies to the north of Tahrir, which once housed the barracks of the British army.