We’ve seen protests in Greece and in France, then in London; more recently in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Italy. We seem to be in a period when people from different nations feel the need to take to the streets to challenge their elected representatives for a variety of reasons.
Of course there is nothing new about demonstrations but these recent ones seem somehow different - more organised, as if they are orchestrated to cause maximum impact, chaos and damage. Burning cars and destroying buildings does not come under the banner of peaceful protest and yet increasingly that is what we are seeing.
In Egypt, 18 days of protest lead to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. I imagine, that the Algerians, the Tunisians and the Italians are all hoping for a similar outcome in their countries.
The Egyptians celebrated when they thought that victory was theirs but the ex-president may still have the last laugh. It is thought that Mubarak used the weeks leading up to the period of unrest to shift his vast wealth which is estimated to be £3bn and possibly as much as £40bn into untraceable accounts overseas.
The Swiss have already said that they will freeze any assets he has in their country and are calling upon the British to do the same. My guess is that they will be too late. Whilst they may gain control of a small portion of his wealth, I’d bet that most of it is now safely stashed away well out of reach.
In the meantime, the people of Egypt have the unenviable task of rebuilding the country out of the void that is left. They might have won the battle but the war is far from over. It will be the same in all those other countries where the populace is determined to unseat their governments. Take the example of Iraq which may be rid of Saddam Hussein but is far from being a stable country to live in.
PS My apologies for the terrible misquote from Hamlet in the title.
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