Paul Holmes: Egyptians overcoming their fear

It was the same in 1979 when the Shah was turfed out. The Egyptian people suddenly have ceased to be afraid.

Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, like the Shah in Iran, had a ferocious security apparatus which people have for many years feared. But suddenly the people of Cairo are in Liberation Square in their tens of thousands. The pictures are extraordinary. Nothing can withstand the will of so many. Mubarak is gone.

Not that he's going without a fight. He appears to be organising some support and he's had thugs riding into the crowds on horses and camels throwing concrete blocks on the people.

This is, of course, being badly received and some of the thugs have been dragged off their horses and camels and been given a severe beating.

Anyone who's been in charge of a country for 30 years hasn't done so honestly. Thirty years of rule defies the electoral cycle that applies everywhere. It defies what humanity expects. And he's not the prettiest creature in the world anyway.

The poverty in Egypt is relentless and remorseless. What's Mubarak been doing all those years? Once he said: "Our eventual goal is to create an equal society, not a society of privilege and class distinction.

Social justice is the first rule for peace and stability in society." He said that a week after he became president after Sadat was assassinated back in 1981. He should have remembered it.

Instead, says the Australian newspaper this week, "he grew arrogant like a king, fancying he could pass on his dynasty to his son ..."

Trouble for the Egyptian people is that there is so much poverty and it is so deep that the longer the disruption goes on the more the economy will grind down, shops will close, jobs will be lost. It will be misery. Well, the people know that, I guess, but they don't care.

But it is not just Egypt where the people are coming out. The people are suddenly demonstrating all over the Arab world. In Amman, Jordan, in Damascus, Syria and in Sanaa, Yemen, people are coming into the streets.

But this time, as Australian writer David Ignatius said, they are not shouting "Death to America" or "Death to Israel". This time they're calling for reform, for prosperity, for a relief from grinding poverty, from corruption, calling for jobs. And they're calling for freedom. And they're doing it themselves. Perhaps George W was right, that people want freedom.

David Ignatius observes something else I hadn't noticed. The radical Islamists are nowhere to be seen. The jihad boys are silent. This time it's the normal people, not the uptight demented fascist extremists. Whether they'll be the beneficiaries of any reforms we'll have to wait and see.

WE HAD a wonderful few days in Christchurch three weeks ago. Christchurch hosted athletes from more than 70 countries for the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) World Championships. It was the first time the event has been held outside Europe. The athletes - more than a thousand of them - were welcomed into Cathedral Square by the Prime Minister and the mayor and a warm crowd of welcoming Christchurch people.

I attended as patron of Paralympics New Zealand and I caught up with old Paralympic friends I hadn't seen for years. Duane Kale was magnificent in Atlanta in 1996 with four gold medals and a silver medal in the pool.

Duane did all his pre-Paralympic training in the little public pool in Havelock North and went on a blistering run in Atlanta. He couldn't do that now, he admits, so competitive and professional have the Paralympics become. Duane is being excessively modest. The Paralympics have always been tough. This year, Duane was Chef de Mission in Christchurch.

Duane moved me deeply by telling me that it was a documentary Chas Toogood and I made at the Barcelona Paralympics that inspired him to have a go at Paralympic sport, after a spinal tumour had rendered his legs pretty useless. Duane thought his life was pretty much over. He's now a senior man in the National Bank.

I saw Dave McCalman, our quadriplegic pentathlete at Atlanta, and Ben Lucas, who used to push his wheelchair over 5000m and 10,000m races. We went through lots together once upon a time.

They're all senior now in the Paralympic movement - the Paralympic Family, as we call it.

Dave Mac was on a basketball scholarship in California and went diving into a canal - but there was less water in it than here had been when he dived a fortnight before. Dave's neck was broken, just like that. The basketball was over.

Ben Lucas was riding his motorcycle along a road and someone in a car backed out. Just like that. They all have lovely families. That was the highlight of my summer, I think, introducing my wife to these wonderful old friends.

And we saw Oscar Pistorius, the extraordinary South African, run the 200m on those two blades of his. Pistorius is the man who is fighting a battle to run at the great able-bodied events, the Olympics and the World Championships.

We saw him complete a heat and he won it easily, but it was a glorious sight to see. He runs the 200m only two seconds slower that Usain Bolt and the 100m about one second slower. They call him "Blade Runner" and "the fastest man on no legs".

I was also given the word whilst there that there is growing frustration at the glacial pace of the earthquake reconstruction and the continued uncertainties facing people about their homes, their insurance, their livelihoods.

I did not know that Christchurch had endured an earthquake on Boxing Day that did as almost as much damage as the first. It was a tribute to the people of Christchurch and the Paralympics people that they still managed to host such a large event as the IPC World Championships.

As for Waitangi Day, I can't understand why the Maori charge TVNZ only a thousand dollars. But I don't want to give anyone any ideas. Mind you, I can't understand why TVNZ pays the money in the first place. Somebody round at TVNZ, some years back, has given in to extortion.