Egypt’s brief wind of change
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ten years ago, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, was ousted after weeks of protest in Tahrir square in Cairo. Demonstrators proved an unstoppable force despite a brutal crackdown by authorities killing hundreds. But the post-Mubarak era has not heralded a period of greater freedoms. Kevin Connolly, who covered the fall of Mubarak, looks back on the protests in 2011 which have now fallen silent.
President Emmanuel Macron has chosen not to impose a further lockdown, instead tightening borders, closing shopping malls and imposing a night-time curfew to keep the virus under control. Mr Macron now has one eye on the looming presidential campaign as two polls this week suggested his lead over the far-right’s Marine Le Pen is narrowing. Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.
It's Oscar season again – and Pakistan’s entry in the best foreign film category is making the headlines. The plot centres on the fictional story of a devout Muslim and estate agent whose life is turned upside down when he dances sensually to a song at a wedding. The film has angered a religious group, and the government has postponed its release – indefinitely, says Secunder Kermani.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Bulgaria’s authorities moved swiftly to impose stringent lockdowns on the country’s Roma communities. Many Roma settlements are cut off from essential services. In some neighbourhoods, military police barred the exits. As Bulgaria starts to re-open, Jean Mackenzie visits one settlement.
On the ski slopes of Lake Tahoe, it’s taboo to mention the pandemic. In the Diamond Lake ski resort, slopes are full of visitors, happy to visit the restaurants – and casinos. It's a different story down the road in California, says Alice Hutton.
Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Serena Tarling
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts |
| 0:05.1 | Today in Pakistan, the country's Oscar entry for Best Foreign Film has the unfortunate |
| 0:11.0 | fate that very few people have been allowed to see it. |
| 0:15.2 | In France, President Macron has his sights on the looming presidential campaign and there's |
| 0:21.3 | a slow rollout of vaccine highlighting the way the pandemic and politics are entwined. |
| 0:28.0 | In Bulgaria, we're in a Roma settlement where more basic needs dwarf the struggle with |
| 0:33.6 | Covid-19. And miss the ski season, they're whizzing down the slopes in Nevada, but cross |
| 0:40.5 | the border to another American state, California, and it's a whole different story. |
| 0:46.3 | First, to Egypt. Ten years ago, the world watched as thousands of protesters filled Tachria |
| 0:53.4 | Square in Cairo for weeks, leading to the downfall of President Hosni Mabarak. However, |
| 1:00.0 | the succeeding years under the current President, Al-Sisi, have seen freedoms with her, a clamp |
| 1:06.6 | down on activists, journalists and opposition supporters, and a change to the constitution |
| 1:12.4 | two years ago, which could mean he's in power until 2030. Kevin Connelly looks back on |
| 1:19.0 | that period of Egyptian optimism. |
| 1:22.4 | When you're a reporter, there's one thing more unsettling than working in a police state, |
| 1:27.9 | and that's working in a police state where the police suddenly melt away, leaving the |
| 1:32.8 | streets to peddlers and protesters and petty criminals. In the Egypt of the Arab Spring |
| 1:39.6 | as we'd begun to call it, their disappearance felt like one more sign that everything was |
| 1:45.4 | on the point of changing. In the weeks leading up to their sudden, |
| 1:50.8 | it turned out temporary disappearance, the police had been everywhere as usual. They |
| 1:56.6 | were not, generally speaking, an impressive body of men, often to be found brushing sandwich |
| 2:01.8 | crumbs off bulging jackets and clapped out Russian cars. |
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