LIVE FROM CAIRO: Egyptian Rage Is Now Focused On The US Ambassador In Cairo
Wafaa Badry for Business Insider
Just past noon Wednesday in Tahrir Square
Wafaa Badry is a broadcast journalist based out of Cairo, covering the military's overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. She is in contact with Business Insider, relating events to us as they unfold on the ground.
Sunday July 7: Badry says that crowds once again poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square carrying signs and one large national flag reading, "Go Away." Following Saturday's rising violence, Sunday's protests both in Cairo and Alexandria killed more than 30 people before crowds began thinning out toward midnight.
Though Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi was removed by the country's military last week, his party has no intention of stepping aside without a fight. Badry says the Brotherhood isn't going to fade away or settle for a part in the military's interim government. Instead it plans to keep protesting until Morsi is reinstated.
Badry says residents are scared. Their ability to provide for themselves and their families has never been more difficult or uncertain. The heavily subsidized gas that powers the country's vehicles has been cut, raising prices for fuel along with utilities and food. Coupled with a rising twelve-and-a-half percent unemployment rate and a plummeting currency, even the jobs that are available often don't pay more than a few dollars a day.
If the aid provided by the U.S. were cut, even that would be harder to earn. That decision rests with the Obama administration's choice on whether to call Morsi's ousting a coup. Resentment toward the White House and its ambassador to Egypt is growing by the day.
What Egyptians should be focused on in their new leadership is its dedication to returning the country's law and order. People here have relied on the tourism trade for so long that without incoming crowds spending foreign currency they're left with little means to earn income.
To assuage the fear keeping tourists away, the country needs to be safe and law needs to be enforced. When Business Insider visited Cairo in April, residents had stopped even calling police after a crime. If the station answered at all, they told us, the police responding to the call lacked resources to do more than file a complaint.
Egypt has a monopoly on the history and ancient structures people flock there to see, and while looking at the Pyramids is unlike anything else on the planet, it's not something people will risk their life to see.
Badry has been plagued with Internet outages today and was unable to deliver her photos. We've posted an image below from the Associated Press.
Check back for updates throughout the day.
(Live updates from Wafaa Badry below photos.)
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