Ira Math­ur

He may have feared that fun­da­men­tal­ist op­po­si­tion groups like the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood would take over. But Mah­fouz knew mas­sive change was in­evitable. Un­em­ploy­ment among 15-24 year olds in the Mid­dle East where two thirds of the pop­u­la­tion is be­low 24 is the high­est of any re­gion in the world. Mubarak in a way hoist­ed his own petard. Back in 1990 over 200,000 stu­dents were en­rolled in Cairo Uni­ver­si­ty and the pop­u­la­tion is among the most ed­u­cat­ed in the Mid­dle East. They are a peo­ple who val­ue and un­der­stand their civil­i­sa­tion. Who read, write, think and con­tribute. These young peo­ple will re­store Egypt to its past glo­ry, and once again, show the peo­ple how to live. As for Ab­dul, I hope he, his camel, and his wives are safe, and that he didn't ac­cept the $100 to charge at pro­tes­tors in Tahrir square from Mubaraks sup­port­ers.