Responding to Protesters, Egypt Revamps Cabinet

Source: The New York Times

CAIRO — Egypt’s interim military government unveiled a promised cabinet shake-up on Monday aimed at mollifying a 10-day-old protest in Tahrir Square as the protesters themselves appeared for the first time to begin to lose some momentum.

Leaders of the coalition of groups that organized the protest dismissed the cabinet shake-up as insignificant, since full power still lies with the council of military officers that took over with the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak five months ago. It is unlikely that the changes meant much more to the tens of thousands of demonstrators who had filled Tahrir Square since July 8 to demand more sweeping changes from the Egyptian revolution, most notably the criminal prosecution of the country’s former leaders.

But perhaps because of an accumulation of such concessions or the unstinting heat of the desert sun, the demonstrators had dissipated enough by Monday afternoon that the square seemed like empty pavement surrounding a small tent city. Still, it was not open to traffic.

Fourteen of the 27 cabinet members were replaced in the shake-up, including the ministers of finance and foreign affairs. But the government left in place the ministers of justice and the interior, whom many Egyptians have blamed for what they say is tardiness in the prosecution of former government leaders and the restoration of security.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/world/middleeast/19egypt.html

elsewhere, they continue to fight. This should serve as a lesson to us all -- keep on keepin' on! :headbang: