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On the other side are the likes of Asmaa Zanaty, a teacher who can’t believe her colleagues turn away students too poor to pay. Her beloved, Mazen, a workers’ representative, says the problem is not the teachers but the whole rotten system. Their letters span the revolution, taking in both the false dawn when Mubarak stepped down and the security forces’ massacres of protesters. Many Egyptians, egged on by the old regime, blamed the revolutionaries for stirring up chaos. Asmaa gets the last, depressing word: “The majority of Egyptians are happy to be oppressed. They consent to corruption and have become a part of it.”
另一边的革命派则是阿斯玛·扎纳蒂这样的老师，她不敢相信自己的同事会拒绝招收那些穷到付不起学费的学生。她深爱的工人代表马赞表示，问题不在于教师，而在于整个腐朽的社会制度。他们的信函贯穿埃及革命，既包括穆巴拉克下台的假象，也包括安全部队对抗议者的屠杀。许多埃及人在旧政权的怂恿下，指责革命者挑起了混乱。阿斯玛最终得出了令人消沉的一句话：“大多数埃及人乐于受到压迫。他们支持腐败，并已成为腐败的一部分。”
If this novel ever has a sequel, the author himself might be a character. He supported the uprising against Mubarak and has been sued for insulting Egypt’s current strongman, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi (probably an inspiration for General Alwany). But in between Mr Aswany praised Mr Sisi, then a general, for toppling Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. As others have, Mr Aswany hints that, before its election victory, the Islamist group had colluded with the army. Many Egyptians think Morsi then tried to entrench the Brotherhood in power; Mr Sisi’s coup against him was quite popular.
如果这部小说有续集的话，作者本人可能就是其中的一个角色。他支持反抗穆巴拉克的起义，并因侮辱埃及现任独裁者阿卜杜勒·法塔赫·塞西（可能是阿尔瓦尼将军的灵感来源）而被起诉。但在这期间，作者阿斯万尼还赞扬了时任将军的塞西推翻埃及的第一位民选总统——穆斯林兄弟会的穆罕默德·穆尔西。和其他人一样，阿斯瓦尼也暗示，在穆尔西选举获胜之前，伊斯兰组织与军队有所勾结。许多埃及人认为穆尔西当时试图巩固兄弟会的权力；因此，塞西将军发起的反对穆尔西的政变颇受欢迎。
But Egypt is now back where it started, with a Mubarak-like figure in charge. Might Egyptians have found more legitimate ways to counter Morsi and hang on to democracy? Thousands did take to the streets to protest against him (a movement itself backed by the army and Gulf dictators who hoped democracy would fail). Morsi did not budge. To lots of Egyptians, a coup may have seemed the only option. Perhaps that sequel should be called “The Republic of False Choices”.
但如今拥有穆巴拉克式的掌权人的埃及又回到了起点。埃及人能否找到更合法的方式来对抗穆尔西，并捍卫民主？数千人涌上埃及街头抗议穆尔西（这场运动本身就得到了军队和希望民主会失败的海湾独裁者的支持）。但穆尔西没有让步。对很多埃及人来说，政变似乎是唯一的选择。或许这部续集应该被称为《错误选择共和国》。
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