What happened in Port Said is not alien to the world of football. Sheffield, Johannesburg, Guatemala, Kathmandu, Brussels and Moscow all have horror stories to tell about football and death. In 1974, 49 people were trampled to death in Cairo Stadium - more than today, if one considers Egypt had at the time less than half of the current population of 80 million.
Why would 70 - 80 people die over a match off football? Regardless, the SCAF (Egyptain Military) had frankly fooled us all. They've had a history with the Egyptian football team, and in this case, it was a bad one. I received reports that Security were only ordered to protect the referees, and that they allowed people to die infront of them.
Has this what we humans have succumb to?
Its pathetic. Its disgusting. It shows how demoralized our world is.
Ironically, there is a "trophy" and there is a game, except it is not "football". It is the only game in town brought about the winds of the Arab Spring and the revolutionary youth of Tahrir Square: dignity, bread and freedom - the game of democracy, as Western transitologists would call it.
The "trophy" of power - may be as a zero-sum game - is what is coveted. The Muslim Brotherhood have not won this trophy. But they have come closest through a majority of seats through free elections to claiming the trophy of power.
One thing in Egypt, that is, its prowess in the process of what is going to be an arduously complex and protracted transition is both its blessing and its curse: its multi-layered and pluralist society.
Right now, this is normal in the midst of a revolutionary moment - especially one that is not engendered through intellectual or ideological fervour. As if the Arab revolutions are seeking the "thinking" and "knowing" substance so far still missing
In Egypt, the centrestage that was Tahrir Square is now the "launching pad" of all kinds of sites of "struggle" - regardless of their legitimacy or lack thereof. Contests and counter-contests abound.
There is always a chicken-egg dynamic: what comes first?
Elections, constitution or president?
What to do with SCAF?
The elections to be boycotted or not?
The election results to be respected or rejected?
Are the Muslim Brotherhood friend/foe of the revolution or of SCAF?
The PortSaid massacre has led to protests day in and day out but
There is nothing imaginative in pointing the finger at SCAF as benefiting from the chaos: it instigates it to hang on to power. Nothing is straightforward. However, SCAF is not to be blameless in the Port Said violence. Standing as an incompetent "protector" or "caretaker" of the revolution hurts more than helps the embattled SCAF. The revolution has confirmed one thing: the army is not fit to govern - neither in Egypt nor in Syria or Yemen.
Bending the rules of the political game is vital when asserting people's sovereignty. All nations with great revolutions had to undergo this. But to bend all politics as if it were a ball - before reaching the stage of defining new rules for the political game - should not jeopardise the life of the baby (revolution) in the process of seeking to throw out the bathing water.
I personally, recieved several reports claiming that the SCAF planned this nightmare, and that they allowed people to hit each other. I was also told they were only instructed to protect the referees and leave the rest to die. I, was not the only one to recieve these absurd, but true, reports. Its shocking.
It just shows how dark this world really is. Its not filled with fairytales, like one would like to imagine. Its only going to get worse from here. I ask those who read this, to prepare, prepare for the mass killings, prepare for the calamities that will hit us. Prepare, just prepare. The day is near, I can feel it in my heart that beats in the warmth of the night.
Thank you for reading.
Follow me on twitter; @OhSweetArabia - For constant updates regarding the current wave of Arab Revoutions, especially Syria.
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