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Dateline, Cairo, Jan 28th. Three days of protesting across Egypt comes to a head after friday prayers. The Internet has been taken down already (27th) to prevent protesters from using social media to organise demonstrations. Tear gas hangs thick across freedom square in downtown Cairo. Muslims prostrate themselves towards mecca for afternoon prayers, even as police fire teargas canisters at them.
Christian protesters, only identifiable as such by the fact they're not praying, duck in to pick up the canisters and throw them away from the people in prayer. Meanwhile, police vans plow through crowds of protesters in Suez. An estimated 500,000 people are on the streets of Cairo by 4pm. It's the police versus the public, and only the police are armed. How did it get to be like this? To understand that, you have to understand Egypt is a false democracy, led by a brutal dictator who's been in place for three decades. When Tunisia went up in smoke, the people of Egypt decided they too were ripe for a people's uprising.
January 2011
- 17: A 50-year-old man sets himself on fire outside parliament, an apparent copycat of the suicide of a young Tunisian in mid-December, which unleashed an uprising that overthrew president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
- 18: A 25-year-old unemployed man dies after setting himself ablaze in the northern city of Alexandria. Another man, a lawyer in his forties, sets himself alight outside government headquarters in Cairo.
- 20: Two more Egyptians injured after attempted imolation.
- 24: Leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei says opponents of Egypt's long-running regime should be able to follow the lead set by the toppling of Tunisia's president.
- 25: Anti-government demonstrations bring several thousand people on to the streets across Egypt. Two demonstrators killed in Suez after clashes with police and in Cairo a police officer dies after being beaten by demonstrators. Footage of protester being shot in the head by riot police goes viral via twitter.
On the night of the 25th and 26th Cairo time, Social media lit up with people in Cairo planning massive, unprecedented protests to take place after Friday prayers on the 28th. Enough, they say, is enough. Mubarak must go. Mubarak's reaction? Cell phones networks and DNS servers at Egypt's international exchanges are ordered switched off on the 27th. No texts, no email, no twitter, no facebook... no protests? No chance.
The people of Egypt, in their hundreds of thousands, after decades of brutalisation and repression, are taking to the streets in numbers to throw out their government, and nothing will stop them.
Christian protesters, only identifiable as such by the fact they're not praying, duck in to pick up the canisters and throw them away from the people in prayer. Meanwhile, police vans plow through crowds of protesters in Suez. An estimated 500,000 people are on the streets of Cairo by 4pm. It's the police versus the public, and only the police are armed. How did it get to be like this? To understand that, you have to understand Egypt is a false democracy, led by a brutal dictator who's been in place for three decades. When Tunisia went up in smoke, the people of Egypt decided they too were ripe for a people's uprising.
January 2011
- 17: A 50-year-old man sets himself on fire outside parliament, an apparent copycat of the suicide of a young Tunisian in mid-December, which unleashed an uprising that overthrew president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
- 18: A 25-year-old unemployed man dies after setting himself ablaze in the northern city of Alexandria. Another man, a lawyer in his forties, sets himself alight outside government headquarters in Cairo.
- 20: Two more Egyptians injured after attempted imolation.
- 24: Leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei says opponents of Egypt's long-running regime should be able to follow the lead set by the toppling of Tunisia's president.
- 25: Anti-government demonstrations bring several thousand people on to the streets across Egypt. Two demonstrators killed in Suez after clashes with police and in Cairo a police officer dies after being beaten by demonstrators. Footage of protester being shot in the head by riot police goes viral via twitter.
On the night of the 25th and 26th Cairo time, Social media lit up with people in Cairo planning massive, unprecedented protests to take place after Friday prayers on the 28th. Enough, they say, is enough. Mubarak must go. Mubarak's reaction? Cell phones networks and DNS servers at Egypt's international exchanges are ordered switched off on the 27th. No texts, no email, no twitter, no facebook... no protests? No chance.
The people of Egypt, in their hundreds of thousands, after decades of brutalisation and repression, are taking to the streets in numbers to throw out their government, and nothing will stop them.
I had the TV going in one room, the net on in another. The disparity in information was incredible. I'm SO for unfiltered, unrestricted, UNCENSORED!!!!! internet access! It's the only way to actually find out about anything important these days.
you guys.
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