Faces which had shined brightly since the eruption of the January 25 Revolution and until Mubarak stepped down have disappeared. With the passing of time, they have vanished, have faded away, have sufficed themselves with what they have given, have obtained what they had wished for, have won what they had not even dreamed of, or have seen the role they had played come to an end. Meanwhile, other faces have maintained their stances without even altering them, even if the positions they occupy have changed after the Revolution: in power, among the forces allied to those in power, or in the opposition across the spectrum. There are also faces that have changed what they had been during the Revolution, having come to adopt stances different from those which people had grown accustomed to seeing from them. Yet one faction has remained as it was, its members not changing their methods, their logic or their positions, always standing at the forefront no matter the circumstances or the reasons. We speak here of those who throw stones and Molotov cocktails: the people accused of violence, of targeting the police and of opposing the regime under Mubarak, during the period managed by the Military Council, as well as in the era of the Muslim Brotherhood. Not a single political faction in Egypt has concealed its fears that a “revolution of the hungry" would erupt and devastate everything if the political situation were to remain as it is, if the economic situations were to continue to deteriorate, and if security were to remain in such a decrepit state. Even the Muslim Brotherhood, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and their other Islamist allies have, as is the case with opposition forces, voiced similar warnings before and after their rise to power. So do prominent figures of the Salvation Front and other factions of the opposition the more the crisis grows tense and the street becomes inflamed. Yet none of those party to the political game have so far answered a call, taken heed of a warning or placed the public interest ahead of narrow personal ones. Rather, every party, as we can see, lays the blame on the other, not just for being the cause of violence, but also for the fast increasing numbers of the hungry. Protests always start out peaceful: marches, demonstrations, sit-ins... Yet they nearly never end without violence having erupted and blood having been shed, after attacks and retreats, rocks and Molotov cocktails against tear gas canisters, and bullets against bullets. Thus leap to the forefront of the scene those boys whom all parties distance themselves from later on. In fact, every party lays responsibility for them on the other, accusing the latter of controlling or even... paying them. They thus each list the evidence, proof and supporting arguments for their claims, and yet the scene remains the same: the boys throw rocks at the police, then Molotov cocktails – the police answers with tear gas, and soon guns, and perhaps live bullets, enter the equation. Thus “martyrs" fall and the crisis continues... or in fact worsens. Those in power, and the Islamists with them, assert that the Salvation Front, the remaining opposition forces and political activists are responsible for the protests and for such protests departing from peaceful action. In fact, some Islamists frankly accuse those organizing protests of planning for violence and making use of young boys in order to harm the President and his image, and to bring about the failure and gradual collapse of state institutions! The opposition, on the other hand, which usually distances itself from violence and the acts committed by these boys, in turn abstains from defending them and in fact often accuses those in power – the President, his party and the group he is affiliated to – of sending them in order to harm the image of peaceful protests. Whether or not these boys are spontaneously driven to confrontation without being controlled by anyone in power or in the opposition, they have become a “situation" and a phenomenon that deserves to be looked at and discussed, and one about which we should be able to reach results and overcome the goals and interests of politicians for making use of them or disassociating themselves from them. They are those who are angry and marginalized under every regime and perhaps in any opposition, those who despair of the use of relying on politicians, those who seek after their rights in their own way, which might be wrong but is for them useful and productive. Yes, they smash, destroy or set fire to things, because they are simply smashers, destroyers and fire-starters. They are members of neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor the Salvation Front, neither from the Wafd nor the Nasserist Party, neither Salafists nor Leftists. They are the hardworking unemployed who had formed the fuel of the Revolution, who then found themselves being burned by its flames and paying alone the price for the seat won by the Brotherhood, and for the spotlights surrounding the opposition, and who have thus decided to rule themselves... with rocks, and to attract the spotlight... with Molotov cocktails.
