February 11, 2011 (Friday)
The nation of Egypt is experiencing a crisis. Many people are demanding new leadership. The median age in Egypt is 24.3, that is, half the people are older than that and half the people are younger. By comparison, the median age in the United States is 36.3, and in England, 40.
Egypt’s president is 82 years old. One doesn’t have to think about that very long before entertaining the idea that perhaps after 30 years it’s quite natural for the younger people to want leadership that is more in tune with their interests and needs. I cannot forget the oft-quoted line from a famous movie, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
The age factor would not be an issue if the people were happy with their living conditions. But many are not, and in a nation where power is concentrated in one man and his cohorts, the people have come to believe that he is the source of their problems. They are demanding democracy.
Let us pray for the people of Egypt, that whatever is happening there will eventually result in individual freedoms and a government that protects individual rights. In other nations, such has not been the case. Other revolutions started out as quests for freedom and democracy, and along the way were taken over by individuals and groups that seized control and made life miserable for the people.