Egyptian Activists' Action Plan: Translated - Alexis Madrigal - International. Egyptian activists have been circulating a kind of primer to Friday's planned protest.
We were sent the plan by two separate sources and have decided to publish excerpts here, with translations into English. Over Twitter, we connected with a translator, who translated the document with exceptional speed. What follows are side-by-side translations of nine pages from the 26-page pamphlet. They were translated over the last hour and pasted up in Photoshop to give you an idea of what's in the protest plan. While the plan itself contains specifics about what protesters might do, these excerpts show how one might equip oneself for clashes with riot police. As you'll read, the creators of the pamphlet explicitly asked that the pamphlet not be distributed on Twitter or Facebook, only through email or other contacts. The pages included are 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 12, 13, 22, and 26. Update 8:21pm: People have asked why these particular pages were chosen.
Firas Al-Atraqchi: Arab Earthquake: Egypt Is the Region's Turning Point. While media analysts debate whether social media is fueling revolt in the Middle East and North Africa or whether the US has helped keep regional dictatorships in power, one thing is very clear: The Arab masses are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
From Tunisia spread a renewed hope that Arabs are experiencing a re-awakening of the collective conscience. The protests we have seen there as well as in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Algeria and Yemen are not simply about the deposition of an authoritarian president or ruling party. They are about dismantling archaic forms of governance in which the ruler is considered to be beyond reproach and economic policies are determined by his self-preserving business elite allies. During World War I, Turkey was referred to as the sick man of Europe. If one really thinks about it, Arabs (with the exception of Lebanon decades ago) in the region have never known democratic or even pluralistic rule. Égypte : la situation vue sur place Organisation de manifestations, témoignages, censure, etc : les réseaux sociaux jouent un rôle certain dans la révolte qui agite l’Égypte.
Pour mieux en saisir l’ampleur, nous avons joint Tarek Shalaby au Caire. Concepteur de sites web, ce jeune Égyptien manie le web avec aisance, ce qui nous a permis d’entrer en contact avec lui facilement par Skype. « Il n’y avait pas de leader, de parti politique. Ça a été pour le peuple. […] C’est pour ça qu’on a utilisé Facebook », soutient-il. Et d’ajouter : « C’est plus facile d’avoir l’information [pour nous] et c’est beaucoup plus difficile pour le gouvernement de censurer ». Il évoque aussi le rôle des jeunes, les importantes manifestations prévues demain ou encore les difficultés d’envisager l’avenir de cette révolte. Malheureusement, les questions n’ont pas été enregistrées en raison d’un problème technique. Au fur et à mesure.
FDEP Documents the Government Crackdown on the Communications and Internet to Harass the Demonstrators. Reports of ‘massacre’ in Suez as protests in Egypt move into third day. Anti-government protests in Egypt moved into their third day early Thursday, with unconfirmed reports of police “massacres” of civilians in the port city of Suez.
In Cairo, protesters “played cat and mouse with police” into the early hours of Thursday, Reuters reported. Opposition groups reported on their websites that electronic communications had been cut off in the city center, and parts of the city were experiencing blackouts. The official death toll stood at six over the first two days of protests, but social networks were abuzz with claims of police shooting at protesters, many of those reports focusing on the city of Suez, where protesters torched a government building on Wednesday.
“Security forces are committing heinous massacres and there is zero media coverage,” read an update on the web page of Suez from Egyptian Association for Change – USA, an opposition group that had joined the call for an uprising starting on January 25. Suez is completely cut off. Like this: Related 01.