Now that strongman Hosni Mubarak has made it clear he wants to die in his country and will not leave office before the end of his term, what should happen next?Egyptians resident in Bermuda are as divided over that question as their compatriots back home. There are probably around two dozen Egyptians living in Bermuda. We caught up with three of them yesterday all of whom happen to work at Donte Hunt’s eclectic Middle Eastern-inspired eatery Plaza Café.One thing they share, besides their nationality, is an anxiety about what today, dubbed by anti-Mubarak protesters The Friday of Departure, will bring to their country. “I think it will be a very bad day tomorrow,” said Executive Chef Mohamed Wafik yesterday. “I want to say to, and for, all the Egyptian people: Enough. Stop. Please. Enough.”The goal of anti-Mubarak protesters is to force him out by the end of today. And as the deadline loomed, the streets of Cairo have become increasingly chaotic and dangerous.Wafik, 38, believes that far more than the 100 or so reported deaths have occurred since the Cairo mayhem began. And, he says, democracy is not worth dying for.The three have been phoning home to check on loved ones on a daily basis since anti-Mubarak protests began on January 25. No one disagrees that the Mubarak years have brought misery and oppression to the Egyptian people.Their families have, thankfully, been spared any fatalities or injuries so far. But there have been a couple of close calls. Four escaped prisoners tried to break into the apartment block where Mr. Wafik’s wife and seven year old twin sons live.They were repelled by security and one was killed. His brother, a captain in Egypt’s army, happened to be on his vacation when the strife began but has his hands full organising security for his neighbourhood.“A lot of people have died for no reason,” said Mr. Wafik. He would have joined the peaceful protests in the beginning but would have ended his involvement after Mubarak’s promise not to seek another term of office.Amre Gelsayed, a 50 year old restaurant flipper and long term Bermuda resident, agrees.“Even though I would love to have democratic change, I don’t think you can have democratic change overnight because democracy is not just about elections,” he said. “You build up an infrastructure, roads, an educational system and a political system.”Mubarak should not be forced to leave power immediately because of the risk of a dangerous power vacuum, he added.“If you look at Russia, it changed overnight, and there was a massive vacuum resulting in a lot of kidnappings, armed robberies and violent crime. If you look at the Chinese example, it was done in stages.”Mr. Gelsayed added that Egypt needs the help of the West in building “true democracy” which is built from the “bottom up, not the top-down”. “This (true democracy) might be the only way we can overcome terrorism.”The United States would get a much better return by investing in the people vulnerable to extremism instead of trying to introduce democracy through one person or through military interventions, he said.“I think the investments in the leaders of the Middle East did not work. We still have problems in Afghanistan, Iran.”And today, in Egypt, different powers are preoccupied about their own interests.Wealthy Egyptians want to preserve their wealth, the government and military are interested in preserving power, Israel is concerned about their own security, he argued “but nobody is saying what about Egypt. If we take care of Egypt, Egypt will take care of everybody.”At 50, Mr. Gelsayed is old enough to have lived under three regimes Gamel Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and now Hosni Mubarak.Both Nasser and Sadat were at the forefront of Egypt’s first “revolution”, a military coup which sent King Farouk into exile, and institutionalised the Egyptian army as a political force, before abolishing the monarchy.Sadat, who signed a peace treaty with Israel and was assassinated by members of his own army, was a “visionary” who was misunderstood by the rest of the Arab world, says Mr. Gelsayed.“After 50 years of very strange rule, it (democratic transition) won’t happen in a week. Expectations should be lowered and people should be told it’s not going to happen overnight.”But the thousands of anti-Mubarak demonstrators are not in the mood for patience.Ahmed Ali, 38, chef at Plaza Café, would have been among the throngs today had he not left Egypt for Bermuda four months ago, leaving behind his wife and five young children who are safe in Esmaila, a city as yet unaffected by the troubles.“I don’t care what they will do, because together we have power,” he said.His fear is that if Mubarak does not leave immediately, he will retaliate against his opponents and have enough time to spirit away the wealth he has gained after a lifetime in charge.Ali is eager to tell of the gated wealthy enclaves coexisting with the squalid conditions of the majority and widespread corruption.He is particularly irked by the fact that people long dead somehow manage to vote in presidential elections in Mubarak’s Egypt.And, yes, he says, democracy is worth dying for. Egyptians have already shed blood for their land, he said, citing the conflict with Israel. “People have to die for democracy. It’s okay. I need to choose my president myself.”