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Egypt's Perilous Drift

(New York Times) Thomas L. Friedman - Egypt is running out of hard currency and can't buy enough gasoline and diesel for power stations. Long lines are forming at gas stations, worsening Cairo's titanic traffic jams, and electricity cuts are commonplace. Morsi's government has been a huge disappointment for many Egyptians. Many non-Islamists voted for Morsi - it was the only way he got elected - because they felt they could not vote for the candidate favored by supporters of former dictator Hosni Mubarak, and because they believed his promise to be "inclusive." When you talk to them today you can feel a palpable hatred for the Muslim Brotherhood and a powerful sense of theft: a widespread feeling that the Brotherhood tricked them and now they have failed to either fix the country or share power, but are busy trying to impose religious norms. What happened two years ago was more musical chairs than revolution. First the army ousted Mubarak, and then the Muslim Brotherhood ousted the army, and now the opposition is trying to oust the Brotherhood. Each, though, is operating on the old majoritarian politics - winners take all, losers get nothing.
2013-06-17 00:00:00
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