Egypt is in total lockdown.
Just watched an amazing clip on CNN, featuring an interview between Elliot Spitzer and Ben Wedeman (full disclosure: Ben's my brother). Ben has lived in Cairo for 11 of the past 13 years (having been in Jerusalem for the other 2). I thought forum members might find it particularly interesting, since it highlights the roles of technology and communication in forming the human glue that made this public uprising possible.
The link is clickable and/or paste-able, at:
cnn.com
Unfortunately, it's preceded by an horrifically complex, javascripty ad, which caused my machine to hiccup several times.
Parts not to miss:
Spitzer:
It seems that the communication among and between the protesters is on twitter, on facebook; is on social media. Is there any way for the government to shut that down?
Wedeman:
One important thing to point out is that Egypt has never put any blocks on the Internet. Egyptians can go to any site they want.
(Sara note: At one point in the afternoon, twitter did go down for over an hour. The government said it was due to overload on twitter's servers. Frankly, given the frequency of this occurrence in the course of any normal day/week/month, this is one case where I'd be inclined to believe the Egyptian government!)
Other key points from the interview:
1. Apparently there are two major facebook sites where protests are being coordinated.
2. Text messaging is widely used to spread the word.
3. Mobile phones are playing a pivotal role. Ben mentioned:
You'll see protesters spending half the time chanting, half the time looking down at their mobile phones to read their mobile phones to check twitter, to check facebook.
4. This revolution has nothing to do with religion. Another Ben comment:
What’s interesting is that the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition part is not taking part, and has declined to participate. Members of the MB are participating, but as individuals. People from all walks of life are coming out: christians, muslims, housewives, middle aged couples, businessmen....it's a secular movement with no religious undertones.
The latest, per CNN:
Mohamed ElBaradei, the Egyptian Nobel laureate and opposition leader, is now back in Cairo and plans to join what are expected to be a massive displays of anti-government ferment across the world's most populous Arab nation on Friday.
This is getting more interesting with every passing moment. Technology is disruptive -- literally and figuratively. When it helps topple dictatorships peacefully, it's a fine and wonderful form of disruption.
Wrote that yesterday, but now it's gotten far worse.
My brother and his camerawoman, Mary Rogers, just got into fisticuffs with the secret police (Egyptians call them "thugs") and had their camera stolen. The CNN offices are still on tv, but you can't get through via SMS. (I could even get through to Ben via SMS when he was in remote parts of Afghanistan, so that is pretty stark news).
Sara |
