So just what the hell is going on? Viva La Revolución?
osterzone
quote:
Originally posted by TranceElevation
Aly & Fila are with Mubarak.
:stongue:
Nrg2Nfinit
quote:
Originally posted by hardcore trancer
From what I hear the people there have lots of respect for the military. Is there a chance that the military would join the rest of the people? In the Iran revolution this was the case and the military joined the people and the Shah had no choice but to leave the country.
Mubarak held high positions in the military before. It seems though that the people do respect the army more (one reason because they aren't nailing you with rubber bullets, tear gas and beating you with batons.)
Lira
Interesting...
My inner anarchist is giggling like a Japanese schoolgirl high on Nitrous Oxide.
malek
Go Egypt, Go Yemen, Go Jordan and ... GO Syria, wake the up and throw that mafia out!!!!
Nrg2Nfinit
hopefully to not only replace them with another one.
Lews
quote:
Originally posted by Lira
Interesting...
My inner anarchist is giggling like a Japanese schoolgirl high on Nitrous Oxide.
Yeah, because this is all about the West and how great we are. We allowed them to do this! Go us!
Hardly anyone in Egypt even has a ing cell phone, let alone a smart phone or the internet.
Great post I read somewhere else:
By Parvez Sharma
January 28, 2011
Cairo is burning. So is Egypt. Twitter is exploding. Everyone seems to have an opinion—many who do have never even been to Egypt but feel a strong sense of solidarity with the most remarkable revolution in a generation, perhaps. A revolution which importantly is not really caused by Twitter or by Facebook—as much as the self congratulatory social networking types in the West would like to believe.
Full disclosure: Sleepless but still sitting in relative comfort in my Manhattan apartment I am one of those relentless tweeters. However my obsession stems from a long love and association with Egypt and the presence of way too many friends who have jumped into the chaos not really knowing what consequences their actions might have for themselves or their friends and families.
I must also be clear. At this point, on this the longest Egyptian night in a generation, perhaps longer—most Western self professed Islam/Middle East and other assorted pundits have no clue about the harsh reality of Egyptian life. Many have probably never taken a walk down Mashriet Nasser, the largest slum in Cairo. This is why the do not realize that this “revolution” is not about social networking and its success. The majority of the 80 million people of Egypt live in abject poverty. They do not even have cell-phones let alone smartphones like the iPhone or the Droid. They go to kiosks to make calls. A pretty substantial number of them have NEVER used the internet and do not have email accounts: the complicated mechanisms of self-promotion and information gathering and sharing on social networks is not a part of their lives—they have never had the money or the resources to get access to this other world which often lives in the relatively more affluent neighborhoods like Zamalek or Garden City or Mohandaseen—all within some walking distance of where the dissent started in Tahrir Square.
The majority of the protesters in Cairo, in Suez, in Alexandria, in Luxor, in Mahla, in Manoura and all over this ancient land which is the very heart of what it means to be Arab—are not “twittering” or “facebooking” or “emailing” or even watching the landmark live coverage that Al-Jazeera is providing. They are out on the streets—and yes, without phone access—risking their lives and giving vent to three decades and perhaps more, of anger.
They are fighting for very basic human rights. They are fighting for affordable food. They are fighting for dignity. They are fighting for accountability. They are fighting to somehow improve the non-existent financial opportunities in their lives.
They are not interested in Mohamed AlBaradei’s Nobel prize or his rather recent and opportunist political ambitions. Most of them have not really seen him and have no idea of what he has been up to for the last three decades as they have suffered. They are angry that he decided to show up just last night and started posturing immediately as the potential savior and the best person to lead them into their uncertain future. Many here in the West would be surprised to know that a lot of these simple folk would actually prefer the “Muslim Brotherhood” taking over. Atleast they recognize the “Islam Light” the Brotherhood has honed to perfection after a pretty radical and conservative beginning with an idealogue like Banna.
My friend Fouad Hani though has had access to all of the above including a very nice smartphone. That has not deterred him from stepping out every night and after about six hours of trying I get him on the phone.
As always here are his primary bullet points unfiltered in his voice from a brief phone conversation (and yes, he has been dodging very real bullets today)
* My beloved city is on fire. My country is on fire. But each one of us on the streets is also on fire
* I am exhausted. Mobinil is down. So is Vodaphone. I have no idea what is happening beyond what I have seen myself. Facebook and Twitter seem like a joke right now
* I live in Mohandaseen and decided not to go the big Mostafa Mahmood mosque near my house, because I know that “they” would be there.I went to pray at a smaller mosque. It was beautiful to pray. I had tears
* But as soon as we stepped out they pelted us with tear gas and with tear gas canisters. We threw them back. But my hand got burnt
* They tried to separate all of us as we walked towards Tahrir square
* Police were throwing rocks at us
* There are bruises and bumps all over my body
* I saw two bodies on the ground in Tahrir. Like an animal I just kept on walking past them
* We threw Molotov cocktails at the police
* Is there a curfew Parvez? Really? I had no idea—it certainly did not look like a curfew when I was just walking home
* Has Obama said anything? I don’t expect much from him anyway, this Mubarak is his “puppy”
* Mubarak should go and share a room with that Ben Ali in his Jiddah hotel! We were chanting that in Tahrir.
* This is a joke. Btw can Obama find a working ing phone in this country? I guess Mubarak’s phone is working rt?
* Pray for us.
Fouad is one of the smartest young Egyptians I know. He has a ready wit. And I have always had a crush on him. He doesn’t know. Maybe he will after this? (if he can get online again).
As has happened with every one of my phone conversations with my friends in Cairo, I get disconnected. Silence again.
One more friend, for me to pray for.
Mubarak meanwhile stays in hiding somewhere possibly in his presidential palace in Heliopolis. The army is rolling through Egypt’s battered and smoky streets. Al Jazeera continues to televise this “revolution” like no other network has ever done before. Perhaps the pro-Israel lobbies in the US will start to respect this amazing network and allow it to broadcast freely in this nation?
Last night I said—Will it be the scent of Jasmine or the smell of blood in Egypt today?
I now have my answer. We all do.
Nrg2Nfinit
quote:
Originally posted by Lews
Yeah, because this is all about the West and how great we are. We allowed them to do this! Go us!
Hardly anyone in Egypt even has a ing cell phone, let alone a smart phone or the internet.
(Reuters) - More than 80 percent of Egyptians will start 2011 with mobile telephones, according to latest official figures which showed cell phone subscriptions grew by nearly a quarter during the year.
as for internet, perhaps not synomous, but your exaggeration is a bit obtuse.
16%, out of a population of approx 82,999,393 (2009) that is still a fairly large number.
Mobile phone usage is very prominent in egypt. The technology is cheap not to mention they are the primary finaciers of one of the top 10 (6th) mobile providers here in canada. (I'm mentioning this based on their telecom experience and ability to compete in canada).
80% of the population are mobile subscribers.
hardcore trancer
quote:
Originally posted by malek
Go Egypt, Go Yemen, Go Jordan and ... GO Syria, wake the up and throw that mafia out!!!!
+1000.
Lews
quote:
Originally posted by Nrg2Nfinit
I assume you were being sarcastic, if not...
16%, out of a population of approx 82,999,393 (2009) that is still a fairly large number.
Mobile phone usage is very prominent in egypt. The technology is cheap not to mention they are the primary finaciers of one of the top 10 (6th) mobile providers here in canada. (I'm mentioning this based on their telecom experience and ability to compete in canada).
80% of the population are mobile subscribers.
I've talked to numerous people who have lived in Egypt and they said hardly anyone there had cellphones and I've also read similar things online from people in Egypt or with family/friends there, such as the post I quoted earlier. That data is interesting, though, since I don't know why Reuters would lie about that. Maybe I heard wrong.
16% doesn't seem to be that much, personally.
I just feel like the media and the West seem to be trying to make this about them and how great they are. Fox News was even talking about how this uprising was a result of George W. Bush's policies :wtf:
Nrg2Nfinit
quote:
Originally posted by Lews
I've talked to numerous people who have lived in Egypt and they said hardly anyone there had cellphones and I've also read similar things online from people in Egypt or with family/friends there, such as the post I quoted earlier. That data is interesting, though, since I don't know why Reuters would lie about that. Maybe I heard wrong.
Im just showing you the statistics/ references, probably more reliable then heresay.
I have several friends, Egyptian, who live there and did their schooling temporarily in canada. I, on the other hand, hear that everyone has cell phones because the technology is so cheap. Its even more preferred then landlines (although i dont have a statistic to show that, it's word of mouth). I assume the lowest class is out of the mobile equation, being farmers or homeless; you can see that the majority of the protestors are students and middle class.
quote:
16% doesn't seem to be that much, personally.
i do agree with you there, but still 13 odd million or so internet subscribers is about half the polulation of canada. Significant in number, but not significan to percentage of total population.
quote:
I just feel like the media and the West seem to be trying to make this about them and how great they are. Fox News was even talking about how this uprising was a result of George W. Bush's policies :wtf:
can't disagree with you there. Egypt is a very important middle eastern aly to the states; keep that in mind. No political figure has yet to say "give them democracy" or "mubarak has to stand down" They are just being very general with there statements, hoping preferably that the situation difuses.
Joss Weatherby
quote:
Originally posted by Lews
I just feel like the media and the West seem to be trying to make this about them and how great they are. Fox News was even talking about how this uprising was a result of George W. Bush's policies :wtf:
You probably can if you do it in a round about way... If it weren't for good ol' GW we wouldn't have had the war in Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan would probably not have lasted as long... which would have caused an organization like wikileaks to not have been around or as influential as they are thought to be, and then there would have been no uprising in Tunisia and no motivation for those in Egypt!
Actually if you want to give anyone credit, give it to the idiots in Florida who couldn't fill out a ballot.
