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Waiting to See What Happens in Egypt

Rachael Myrow
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Egyptian anti-government demonstrators crowd Cairo's Tahrir Square on February 10, 2011 on the 17th day of consecutive protests calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. (Credit: MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

Wael Ghonim, the 30 year-old Google executive who's become one of the heroes of the revolution in Egypt,  posted this on his Twitter page today: "Guys, dont do much speculations for now. Just wait and see."

Easy for him to say?  CNN is quoting a series of Egyptian top brass saying President Hosni Mubarak is not leaving. He's expected to address the nation later today.

Sherif Hamdy in Oakland is cautiously optimistic. He's off work (doing content review for YouTube) today, watching BBC Arabic.

Hamdy doesn't like what he sees as the emerging narrative today.  Pundits are saying things like "The military is a good solution to restore order."  That doesn't make sense to Hamdy. "The people in the streets are calling for democracy. The military is not an independent entity. Everybody who's come before in the government was in some way part of the military establishment." Even Mubarak for the next six months would be preferable to Hamdy, presuming that leads to a civilian transition.

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His relatives in Egypt live mostly in the suburbs around Cairo. He's been using Skype to stay in touch with relatives, but notes cell phone service hasn't been too bad the past three or four days.

Got family in Egypt? Tell us about it! We found Hamdy through the Public Insight Network.

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