To the barricades, again

摘要

With angry crowds across the nation baying against him, Egypt's president wagged his finger at the people in a late-night televised speech. He declared a curfew for some cities, he called for support for the police, he deployed the army to the streets. Seemingly as an afterthought, he added a conciliatory call for dialogue with his political opponents. As on January 28th 2011, so on January 27th 2013. As with President Hosni Mubarak, so with President Muhammad Morsi. And in both cases to little effect.