Democracy Tastes Bitter as Poverty Bites

By Cam McGrath

"CAIRO, Feb 24 2013 (IPS) - On a recent Friday, coppersmith Alaa Moussa parked himself in the same spot where two years earlier he had stood defiantly with a handwritten banner addressed to then president Hosni Mubarak. His petition that cold February morning in 2011 had listed the key demands of Egypt’s 18-day uprising: “bread, freedom, dignity”.

His new message for President Mohamed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood reflected the growing desperation among the nation’s poor and unemployed. It simply stated: “bread, bread, bread.”.....


The President’s supporters argue that it could take years to purge institutions and repair the economic damage from the Mubarak regime’s 29-year rule. Critics, however, accuse Morsi of mismanaging the economy and putting the Muslim Brotherhood’s political agenda ahead of fiscal prudence.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is only interested in the poor when they need votes,” says Shahin. “They have no experience running a country or setting economic policy, and their failures at both are destroying Egypt.”
Deteriorating economic conditions have created a backlash not just against the Islamists, but against the democratic process itself. Many Egyptians who supported the 2011 uprising have begun questioning its outcome.
“Of course I’m disappointed,” says Umm Farouk. “The revolution was supposed to make our lives easier. Everything is going backwards.”"