Mubarak and the Sin of Hubris

I recently caught up with Mubarak's interview. The message was simple: 'I wish I could go, but the country will collapse without me'.

What can I say, my heart bleeds out for the guy...

For the last 60 years, all he wanted to do is to serve his country. Although all he wanted in life is to work hard and serve his country, the difficult circumstances of this time period have compelled him to follow a much different course. After a very succesful service at the Air Force, he was made its Chief Marshal after the October War (Yom Kippur) when he had the rare achievement of not having his entire force eliminated on the ground within five minutes.

After that, his country needed him to take a higher calling, he hesitantly accepted president's Sadat request that he becomes Vice President. It was only the assassination of Sadat that forced him to temporarily fill the presidential seat, which he has been temporarily occupying ever since.

Since then, Mubarak has been working difficult long hours on behalf of his noble constituents. Taking upon himself long hours, cramped in his shabby Cairo office strictly out of his deep concern for all Egyptians, whom he saw as his children. To reward his hard work, he has been awarded a small, modest country home at the town of Sharm Al Sheikh.

He dutifully served his two terms of office with honor and dignity. Unfortunately, due to his immense popularity and lack of any capable leader in the largest state in the Arab world, he reluctantly had to modify Egypt's constitution in order to answer the call of the people.

And now, after all these years of selfless service, his children rejected him. He is old and tired, but cannot vacate his seat, as his country needs him. All he wanted is to fill his current term peacefully and oversee a smooth transition towards a true rainbow and lollipop democracy.

Sarcasm aside, the sad thing about the situation, is that under the current more probable scenarios we will probably miss him. Egyptians included. And this is by no means a compliment to his 30 year long reign of terror.

-QP