The Revolution Has Just Begun

As a result, according to Dr Andrea Teti of the school of social sciences at the University of Aberdeen, "nearly 40 percent of Egyptians over 32 million people now live on or under $2 per day, or less than half of the price of an average cappuccino in Cairo's upmarket Zamalek district."

Outside factors are important too, of course, with wall street's follies and the subsequent collapse cutting into the remittances sent to Egypt. This was especially felt in the rural areas, where most of Egypt's emigrants originate from and has hastened the urban drift which has left some villages completely de-populated. Then there was the spike in food prices that began in the second half of 2010, caused in part by problems with crops and increasing demand, but also in party increasing speculation in the commodities markets fuelled by cheap money from the Federal Reserve.

All this provided the background of desperation against which the egyptians saw the protesters in Tunisia, about which a similar story can be told, bring down the dictatorship that had, as well as trampling on their rights, completely ignored their needs too long.

The rest, as they say, is history – but nothing is settled yet.

In Tunisia (which had been lauded by western institutions like the IMF as an “Economic Miracle” as recently as December 2009) the original protesters, Mr Bassil says, are worried now that their “original slogans” about bread and butter issues may be forgotten in the fanfare surrounding the birth of a democratic state. The fear, says Dr Bassil, is that either (or both) of these countries could end up following the path of South Africa, where political rights were won, but economic reforms remain allusive, and poverty endemic.

However, the Egyptian people have shown themselves to be remarkably brave and politically sophisticated. There is also a labor movement in Egypt that was growing in strength (and increasingly escaping the control of the state appointed leaders) even before the revolution began. What's more they have the model of Turkey, which has maintained good relations with western backers without submitting completely to their economic demands. In such circumstances it seems that claims by people like Klein and Bassil, that “free markets” are only possible on the backs of unfree people, too terrified to object, may well hold.

Whoever ends up running Egypt may find they have to give the Egyptian people both bread and freedom, or neither. The Egyptian people have made it clear that the latter is not an option. They will no longer be terrified of anyone. Inshallah, they shall not buckle.