Tahrir’s tryst

Tahrir’s tryst: "On the 17th day, everything changed. On Thursday evening, more than two weeks after protesters occupied Tahrir Square in the centre of Cairo and turned it into “the only free place in Egypt”, they gathered to listen to their octogenarian president, Hosni Mubarak, read out what they expected would be his resignation speech. For the entire day, one piece of news after another had first provided hope, which then hardened into a certainty: Mubarak would go. And so, when Mubarak’s speech dashed those hopes one by one, the anger and desperation in the square were correspondingly intense. After so many days, as the numbers of anti-Mubarak protesters swelled, had nothing actually changed?"