Monday, February 14, 2011

Egypt's Revolution Has Other Aging Autocrats Anxious


Cairo -- The suddenness and sweep of the people's revolution in Egypt has unsettled many other autocratic regimes across the world. Despite a long entrenched power structure, tight control of all communication, an elaborate system of patronage and decades of abuse and cover-up, the aging Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak was no match for a people who longed to be brought into the modern world and were no longer intimidated by their leaders' dire warnings about the dangers of greater freedom, equal rights for women, or change in general.
Meanwhile in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI warned his Catholic followers, "Don't get any smart ideas."