Comment by Yusuf Said on February 6, 2011 at 6:26pm

Egypt was not really oppressive at all, trust me I am Egyptian and use to live there. The only injustice that was really in Egypt and the on going problem for the past 20 years has been unfair wages. Other than that Egypt has been a fairly free country. I actually felt just as liberal there as I do now in the United States. The government did not tolerate protests well, but I don't really attend protests in the states either. The Egyptian people aside from the before mentioned wages were not treated badly by the government. At most the bureaucracy caused inconvenience in your life if you had to get a certificate or authorization for something.

Comment by Cody Gaisser on February 7, 2011 at 5:26pm

Thanks for weighing in on a subject that's been eating at my brain for a week now.  I can't possibly argue with your experience as you have lived in Egypt and I never have, but I've heard differing opinions from other Egyptians as well.  I am aware that conditions are not comparable to those under Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-il, or whoever.  I know that Egypt is a modern country with good education and such.  I don't necessarily think a nation has to be a third world disaster area for its people to be oppressed.  As you've said there were unfair wages and intolerance of political dissent/protests.  Looking at the situation from the outside, I also think that having a president who has been in office since 1981 (and vice president as far back as 1975) and who has retaliated at more-or-less peaceful and organized protests with violence and an utter refusal to obey the will of the people as fairly un-democratic.  And I don't mean "democratic" in the way the U.S. government does every time it "helps" another country become a "democracy."

You say you feel as free and liberal in the U.S. as you did there.  I have no grounds on which to criticize or undermine your experience of either of these two cultures.  Perhaps for me to call Egypt's government "oppressive" is unfair as I have never lived in Egypt or suffered under its current regime.  I am speculating based on indirectly attained information, so perhaps I have mouthed off too quickly and self-righteously.  I do support rule by the people EVERYWHERE though.  

And I DO have valid opinions and experiences of the U.S. to share. 

I don't feel particularly liberal or free here under our own regime.  Not the Obama regime specifically, but the entire Corporate/Capitalist/2-Party/Imperialist/Colonialist/Military/Oil & War/Patriarchal/Christian Fundamentalist/White Supremacist Oligarchy (I'm sure you can find more and better words).  Sure!  I (probably) won't get killed or jailed for stating t

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