A week ago one of my eleventh-grade students approached me after class. “It will be starting again,” he began. “This time the target will be against the military government. The first set of demonstrations will be this Friday, but they will continue until a second wave of the uprising will begin. This time it will demand the resignation of the SCAF"—the Supreme Council of Armed Forces. "It will be bloody and you should not go to the demonstrations. Maybe once all of the people come out, then you can come. For now there is widespread fear of Israeli spies and you will not be safe in these places for the [...]
Libya: You know what's an invitation to a (possibly short, possibly endless) war? The no-fly zone, which is not a thing that has been proposed to happen. And yet, you can understand why the rebels who are fighting on the ground, city-by-city, would want such assistance, as Gaddafi shells towns in his own country! This is madness. Fascinating to know: "Libyan envoys are meeting with European Union officials in Brussels."
Yemen: "Government security forces beat demonstrators and then opened fire on them late Tuesday night, fatally wounding a 20-year-old protester and leaving nine others with bullet wounds…. Protests in Sana, the capital, have been relatively peaceful [...]
“This country will never be the same,” my driver said when he picked me up at the Cairo International Airport two nights ago. This much Egyptians can agree upon, but this much only.
For the time being, order has been restored. The military is in control. Tahrir Square is clear. Tanks line the streets of downtown Cairo and there are no longer gunshots sounding through the night.
But this country, one that draws something like $10 billion each year in tourism, has been depicted as a war zone for the past three weeks. For now, until Egyptians (and the rest of us) know what happened down in Tahrir Square, [...]
• Best Facebook update ever? We are all Khaled Said: "Thousands of lawyers have taken their protest to Abdeen Presidential Palace. Thousands more have joined them and the palace is now surrounded. The army has now withdrew from in front of the palace. The president is NOT in this palace unfortunately. He is in another [...]
We understand: you're busy running your social marketing company/law firm/dying publishing establishment. Plus you're besieged as well—by information overload and first world problems. It's okay! Here's a handy digest so that you can stay informed on Egypt without having to read 4000 blogs and newspapers.
• Today's demonstrations are being called the "Day of Departure," or "Friday of Departure," which is a classy way to demand the immediate resignation of President Mubarak. Today has been described as peaceful and jubilant; for the most part, pro-government thugs have not been sent forth to create violence.
• Much of the city of Cairo is difficult to move through today, with [...]
It definitely now seems certain that the Egypt protest movement will not be petering out! It also sounds like tomorrow will be a huge, huge day. Yet still there are a couple of ways in which the protest movement there can be destroyed or damaged—and "total state crackdown" is an unlikely one. The state most likely does not have those kind of resources, and the movement has reached a state where state-sponsored violence will be met with resistance.
"We don't expect anything from Obama, whom we regard as a great hypocrite. But we hope and expect the American people – trade unions, professors' associations, student unions, activist groups, to come out in support of us. What we want for the US government is to completely get out of the picture. We don't want any sort of backing; just cut aid to Mubarak immediately and withdraw backing from him, withdraw from all Middle Eastern bases, and stop supporting the state of Israel. Ultimately, Mubarak will do whatever he has to do to protect himself. He will suddenly adopt the most anti-US rhetoric if he thought that would help him [...]
Back in April, Egyptians received a violent reminder that their post-revolutionary freedom to assemble in protest was a conditional one. That night was the first time activists moved demonstrations from Tahrir Square to the Israeli embassy in protest the Gaza occupation. By 2 a.m., the Egyptian army (known as the SCAF) had received orders to attack the group. Soldiers fired rubber bullets into the crowds and tear-gassed the corridor, killing one and taking hundreds into custody.
The message from the SCAF was clear: “You may gather in protest with our blessing—but Israel is off limits.”
But last Friday, five Egyptian border security guards were accidentally killed by [...]
"It may be a small group," said Sharif, a 29-year-old Coptic Egyptian, looking out the windshield of his BMW into the line of traffic that streamed down the highway in the mid-afternoon sun. “No station on television talk about this. I don’t know why—it’s not fair. All the stations are afraid of Tahrir."
On this dusty highway, celebration was in the air. A flood of Egyptians were packed into flat bed trucks and traditional third world, go-cart passenger cars. Horns honked. Hands flashed victory signs out car windows. Alongside Sharif, three teenagers on a motorcycle sped between lanes. The center passenger held an eight-foot Egyptian flag high in the [...]
The thugs #AJ keeps reporting at pres palace is group of 30 posh-looking men & women chanting EGYPT. They just want others 2 stop protestingFri Feb 11 13:37:48 via Mobile WebNadia El-AwadyNadiaE
• The events of the Egyptian Revolution are often subject to a giant game of telephone. Today it's: "Thugs at the Presidential Palace!" No wait: "Peaceful friendly protests!" And you saw what happened yesterday. Someone—two someones, really—who worked somewhere in the Egyptian government said "I think Mubarak is going to step down today!" And then [...]
•Today, perhaps the most enormous demonstration to date is underway in Tahrir Square. (Enormous! (Really!) There are still weapon-screeners and ID checks, but there also seem to be cheering welcoming committees as people enter. Today people report exuberance—and a very, very real sense that the Mubarak regime is ending. Protestors are now heading for the Parliament as well. Large demonstrations are happening in other cities.
I'm hearing from a lot of Americans who are, let's say, disenfranchised from the insane (and somewhat confusing) pace of Egypt news. So we're gonna try to break it down a little, to be useful!
• One development of the last few days is that the demonstrators who dislike the government have been standing off in the streets with "pro-government demonstrators." Who are the pro-Mubarak demonstrators? There are largely two kinds, it turns out, in this account. The first is "people over which the regime has some leverage," people whose bosses forced them to attend, and (to be fair!) some number of people who probably just like Mubarak! [...]
Gordon Reynolds—the pseudonym of a teacher in Cairo, dictated this over the phone to a friend not in Egypt. (For real-time dispatches on today's demonstrations, follow him here.)
“Mister, Are you going to the protests tomorrow?” a student asked me on Thursday.
“No,” I said.
“It’s going to be worse than Thursday. Everything begins after Friday prayers, around twelve-thirty.”
“If I were going,” I said, “What part of town would I go to?”
“If you were going,” he said with a grin, “Then you should go to the mosque in Khan el-Khalili on Al-Azhar Street.”
One fascinating development in Egypt: even the Cairo papers are displaying front-page photos of the protests. They almost have to: more than a thousand people have been arrested. It should also be noted that very substantial demonstrations are happening in non-Cairo cities, like Ismailia and Suez. Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Mohamed ElBaradei is supposedly en route to Cairo, and may become an opposition candidate. Tomorrow's demonstrations are expected to be massive. According to the FT? "Currency and stocks slide amid more violence"! Which, yes, the Egyptian stock market had a massive tumble, and was suspended, but I'm pretty sure it's not related to "violence" [...]
Over the weekend, beneath the hot sun, a bit more than 18 million Egyptians—41% of eligible voters—waited in same-sex lines to vote in a constitutional referendum that will shape the country’s transition from military rule.
I'll believe Mubarak is stepping down when I see it with my own eyes (uh, through Al Jazeera). Also? Oh great, stepping down to the evil, Cheney-esque Vice President! (Or, you know, the military. Neat.) But signs do look good: "Hassan al-Roweni, an Egyptian army commander, told protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Thursday that 'Everything you want will be realised.' Protesters have demanded that Hosni Mubarak stand down as president…. Ahmed Shafiq, the country's prime minister, told the BBC that the president may step down on Thursday evening, and that the situation would be 'clarified soon.'"
The other day, 19-year-old Dylan Sodaro was in line to register for classes at American University in Cairo. The Egyptian woman processing forms asked Dylan if he was Jewish. All week, people had been taking to the streets to criticize Hosni Mubarak, widely considered a friend to America and Israel. "Won't this hurt your people?" the Egyptian woman said. Dylan shrugged—at this point, he wasn't sure what the protests meant.
On Thursday night, the eve of the largest gatherings calling for Mubarak's resignation yet, a friend of Dylan's named Will was having a party. Dylan retreated to a bedroom with his best mates, Matthew Scarvie, also 19 and [...]
Anderson said he was punched 10 times in the head as pro-Mubarak mob surrounded him and his crew trying to cover demonstrationless than a minute ago via Mobile WebSteve BruskstevebruskCNN
Now we're at the terrible part of the protests in Egypt, when the government brings out the thugs, and some actual chaos does occur. (And not just Anderson Cooper getting beat in the head.) There's BBC live feed [...]
You know what is the worst possible thing the Egyptian government could have done? Detaining just-returned possible opposition candidate Mohamed ElBaradei. That won't inflame protests at all! Not that they need inflaming in the slightest; Cairo is apparently choking with tear gas. The good news? People arrested may not stay in jail for long: Al Jazeera reports that in Suez, "the police station in the port city has been taken over by protesters who have freed detainees." Meanwhile, French journalists have been arrested and CNN's cameras have been seized by police, as the country believes it can silence news about the brewing revolution.
