The Egypt Leopard
The future of Egypt illuminates or darkens. How to describe it? Let's say that there are more elements now to predict the end of this political crisis.
We saw on the screen an angry frenzied crowd with the victory of the already declared President Mohamed Morsi; later, thousands of Egyptians appeared supporting the president’s legal clashes with the ruling military leadership; finally, others, perhaps millions, viewed how the army ringleaders were withdrawn, with honors.
Does the picture look better for the future? Will these events mean a starting point for a better country, richer and socially inclusive? Will Egyptians taste democracy, as promised in a post-Mubarak era? Let’s make the analysis from two news stories. First, the African country formally asked the International Monetary Fund for a loan of 4.8 billion dollars, a larger credit to the 3.2 billion initially negotiated.
There are, however, some difficulties in this respect, as the Director General of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, said the terms of the package would have to be defined; in other words, it will be a conditional loan. Cairo has to bear new conditions... and we all know the IMF’s conditions required for poor countries in these cases. The worst part is that Egypt needs an urgent financial transfusion; nevertheless, investors packed their bags, capital fled and reserves plunged amid the crisis.
The other news is the upcoming visit of President Mohamed Morsi to the United States to meet with senior White House officials. Not by chance, though, the media remember that Washington is Cairo’s main lender in the military field. Bilateral relations are very important to the U.S.hegemony in the Middle East and the recent visits to the Arab country of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, indicates that Obama will not put aside this piece of his move.
Why is that the IMF loan and Morsi's visit to the United States will not offer good prospects for the Egyptian people, anyway? Although they were given a political tinge, Egyptian revolts began due to economic unconformities, for the excesses of so-called "Arab neo-liberalism". That is the model promoted by the IMF, and its conditions will be definitely aimed at preventing a more equitable one… the one who has the money rules; the recipient, just obeys.
To change a country demands its political independence. Washington managed to steer the direction of the Egyptian spring to its interests. Morsi's approach may be evidence that everything changed and yet nothing really changed, an idea gaining attention among the Egyptian people who greeted Hillary with protests, demanding that the U.S.keep its hands off Egypt.












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