chapters 4,5,6

Chapter 4

”It was becoming clearer to me that Arabs, no matter how divided they seemed, shared a very deep common anger.” Page 85

This is clearly a good reason to start a revolution. When an entire nation of people can all agree to hate something and protest it, it will surely have to fall. There was so much hate for the regime it was only a matter of time.

Face book post: “This is the new Arab generation… A thousand Tunisians came together to support khaled said… If Facebook youth in this country unite against corruption and injustice, Egypt will become a better place.”page 86

I think it is interesting that they referred to themselves as the facebook youth… Its amazing to me that an entire generation can be identified as all being users of FB, and that it has become their most powerful tool to have a voice for their generation. I wish that youth in our country used facebook in similar ways, rather than using to waste time.

“more than 50.000 members of the page watched the video in the next few days.” Page 86

He is talking about the video he made and posted on the FB page. It’s amazing what FB I s capable of these days. A video itself is a powerful medium, but when you are able to share it with over 50,000 people instantly it becomes a super meme capable of infecting the minds of people everywhere overnight. The Kony video is another good example of something that seemed to appear out of no where and be a topic on everyone’s mind around the country.

Chapter 5

“At 11:30 that morning he returned to headquarters, and as a protest, set himself on fire.” Page 122

This isn’t the first time that self immolation has happened. I googled self immolation, and found that many people have done this in protest. The Buddhist monks in South Vietnam burned themselves in the 60s, and generated a lot of talk about why they did it, and it is still happening today by protestors in countries in need of revolution. There has been 33 people who set themselves on fire in 2011 in china to protest the Chinese government. And 14 people in Egypt did the same to protest their government.

“Often when a traffic officer would pull me over to issue a ticket, I would bluntly say, “I do not pay bribes.” Most of the time the officers would let me go, because he was either disappointed or embarrassed.”

There must have been a lot of corrupt cops! Clearly their police force was not doing its job, when cops are more interested in easy bribe money than upholding any laws or protecting anyone.

“Even some women in the niqab, the face veil, attended church services that night. We published their images, and those of the muslims who held up signs stressing the unity of Egyptians in the face of terrorism in all its forms.” Page 129

Even the dividing lines of organized religion were forgotten during this time of protest. That says a lot about how ready for a change Egypt was. Muslims and Christians settling their differences before the people and the police and regime could settle theirs, is amazing. Maybe someday there will be no religion or government to separate the people at all, but what they were moving towards seems to be a brighter future.

Chapter 6

When the guard at the airport asked him about being on the watch list he said “I don’t like Hosin Mubarak, and that’s why my name is on the list.” “God willing this will be the last time I am searched, because we will catch up with Tunisia on January 25^th” The guard agreed with him, and continued to do his job with a smile.

Many of the guards and police were actually good people who also hated the regime, and that is always a good sign. The fact that the people within the regime were starting to voice their opinions as well, could only help the protestors cause.

Number 8 on the list of instructions for the 25^th protest states “It is very important not to come out alone, because friends come in handy in situations like these.

It is hard to imagine being in a situation like that. Where police could capture torture and kill you, and no one would know what happened to you unless you were with a group of people who knew you. It must have been terrifying just to go about an average day in Egypt knowing that police were capable of such brutality.

“It was then that I Discovered that for the first time in Egypt, the government had blocked Facebook and Twitter.”

 The two internet sites have become such powerful tools! I hope someday our country might be able to harness their power to over throw our government, but what will most likely happen is the government will gain control over them, and use them against us creating bogus propaganda, and using it for advertisement to sell us more stuff we don’t need. I think the future of FB will be used for mind control over US citizens, and corruption of younger generations.