So the guys who did the horse and camel charge yesterday were really

[KurtNYC]

local vendors who make their living by charging tourists for horse and camel rides. And they were pissed that the protest was hurting their business.

Truth IS stranger than fiction.

[tekisui]

1. link?

[Turborama]

3. +1 Or at the very least some mention of a source. n/t

[KurtNYC]

13. digging out the link

At the 1:30 mark here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTIrOnF0scs&feature=related

"we now understand these were workers from the geza (sp?)..."

[tekisui]

18. Interesting.

BTW, here's an cool tip from youtube videos. If you pause on the place you want to start it, and right click on the video, you can copy the url at that time, like this:):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTIrOnF0scs&feature=player_detailpage#t=82s

[KurtNYC]

24. thanks for a great tip

saves buffering all the stuff before it. I note the link has the time in seconds; your link is to the 82 second mark or 1:22.

[cynatnite]

2. Indeed. n/t

[JI7]

4. actually that makes more sense

it was really weird but that makes more sense than actually planning that up as part of your strategy to stay in office.

[Mojeoux]

5. Well, any PR is good PR? nt

[BeFree]

6. Heh

I don't think they will try that again, do you?

Besides, that sure was an odd way of protesting.

Does anyone else find it odd that too many bystanders complain that protesters for freedom are costing the complainers a few pennies? Is life justl about money for people like that, or what?

[virgogal]

9. Maybe,just maybe.the vendors need the money to feed their families.

I doubt they are wealthy.

[Teaser]

10. food trumps freedom

.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. When those few pennies are the difference

between going hungry or getting some food in your belly...

I take it you've never seen people that close to the edge.

[sufrommich]

14. Some of those "complainers" only had a few pennies to

begin with and live day to day.

[JI7]

21. it most likely meant providing a meal for their family

[Maru Kitteh]

7. I don't know how anyone could have thought that would end well. Camel does not = tank.

[DODI]

8. I heard it on AC360 last night - I think Wedeman said it.

[grasswire]

19. he didn't say they were private businessmen

I got the implication that the animals were from the tourism industry at the pyramids, but not more than that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Some of the PRO MUBARAK people are for real

but that is not too popular here.

[KurtNYC]

15. not sure they were pro-Mubarak, maybe just pro-tourist bucks

would be like the Naked Cowboy storming Time Square because ___(insert name of political rally)___ was being held there for too long.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. No, you got some people who are deep into the

sytem, and their lives (until now) and livelihood, depend on the patronage system. This is mostly alien to Americans. but Egypt is a place where WHO you know and how you bribed, depends on where or even whether you work. That going down means that people, poor and middle class (The power elites left) are worried about that.

[Codeine]

20. I do wonder why everyone assumes Mubarak would have zero support

in Egypt. Those who prospered under his regime or who are willing to trade freedom for relative stability and safety would logically support him and fear the possible chaos of his ouster.

[grasswire]

16. How do we know the riders were not state employees?

The animals are used in the tourist industry by the pyramids, CNN said. But how do we know who gave the order to ride through the crowd?

[Catherina]

22. local vendors? Kurt they're pulling your leg. The Ministry of the Interior

commandeered the camels and horses but those weren't local vendors riding them. Local vendors don't arm themselves and charge the ranks of demonstrators in a secured area, armed at that. The thug they managed to capture riding one of them had a Ministry of the Interior government ID card, secret police in other words.


Local vendors don't go out of their way to trample Western journalists




This camels and horse business was deliberately calculated to Mubarak to present Egyptians as backwards people who still ride camels. After all the work they did to eradicate that stereotype, Mubarak throws it in.

[JI7]

23. that just doesn't make any sense

[Catherina]

25. Maybe this will help, the visuals of people running from secret police riding camels

after the Army let them through the checkpoints.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWvel6Z7qlU&feature=player_embedded#


And if that doesn't, the finer details won't help you either.

[KurtNYC]

26. maybe you could elaborate on why Mub would want to

embarrass Egypt with a stereotype. I'm not understanding that part either.