Iedere revolutie kent zijn helden, de meeste anoniem. In Egypte zijn er misschien wel tienduizenden, sommigen met gezicht, sommigen met alleen een naam.
Sandmonkey is er daar 1 van. Een jonge Egyptenaar die de onderdrukking, de armoede, de uitzichtloosheid en de ellende van het dagelijks leven zat is, en die bereid is om zijn leven in de waagschaal te leggen terwijl hij doet waar hij in gelooft. Hij is een van de meest opvallende twitteraars en bloggers van de afgelopen week, mede door zijn uitstekende beheersing van de engelse taal en zijn goed geschreven artikelen en updates.Vanmiddag is hij opgepakt, in elkaar geslagen, zijn spullen vernielt. Na uren te zijn vastgehouden is hij inmiddels (godzijdank) weer opgedoken, sommige van zijn vrienden waren helaas niet zo gelukkig..
Een blog van de frontlinie :
Thursday, 3 Feb 2011
Egypt, right now!
I
don’t know how to start writing this. I have been battling fatigue for
not sleeping properly for the past 10 days, moving from one’s friend
house to another friend’s house, almost never spending a night in my
home, facing a very well funded and well organized ruthless regime that
views me as nothing but an annoying bug that its time to squash will
come. The situation here is bleak to say the least.
It didn’t
start out that way. On Tuesday Jan 25 it all started peacefully, and
against all odds, we succeeded to gather hundreds of thousands and get
them into Tahrir Square, despite being attacked by Anti-Riot Police who
are using sticks, tear gas and rubber bullets against us. We managed to
break all of their barricades and situated ourselves in Tahrir. The
government responded by shutting down all cell communication in Tahrir
square, a move which purpose was understood later when after midnight
they went in with all of their might and attacked the protesters and
evacuated the Square. The next day we were back at it again, and the day
after. Then came Friday and we braved their communication blackout,
their thugs, their tear gas and their bullets and we retook the square.
We have been fighting to keep it ever since.
That night the
government announced a military curfew, which kept getting shorter by
the day, until it became from 8 am to 3 pm. People couldn’t go to work,
gas was running out quickly and so were essential goods and money, since
the banks were not allowed to operate and people were not able to
collect their salary. The internet continued to be blocked, which
affected all businesses in Egypt and will cause an economic meltdown the
moment they allow the banks to operate again. We were being
collectively punished for daring to say that we deserve democracy and
rights, and to keep it up, they withdrew the police, and then sent them
out dressed as civilians to terrorize our neighborhoods. I was shot at
twice that day, one of which with a semi-automatic by a dude in a car
that we the people took joy in pummeling. The government announced that
all prisons were breached, and that the prisoners somehow managed to get
weapons and do nothing but randomly attack people. One day we had
organized thugs in uniforms firing at us and the next day they
disappeared and were replaced by organized thugs without uniforms firing
at us. Somehow the people never made the connection.
Despite it
all, we braved it. We believed we are doing what’s right and were
encouraged by all those around us who couldn’t believe what was
happening to their country. What he did galvanized the people, and on
Tuesday, despite shutting down all major roads leading into Cairo, we
managed to get over 2 million protesters in Cairo alone and 3 million
all over Egypt to come out and demand Mubarak’s departure. Those are
people who stood up to the regime’s ruthlessness and anger and declared
that they were free, and were refusing to live in the Mubarak
dictatorship for one more day. That night, he showed up on TV, and gave a
very emotional speech about how he intends to step down at the end of
his term and how he wants to die in Egypt, the country he loved and
served. To me, and to everyone else at the protests this wasn’t nearly
enough, for we wanted him gone now. Others started asking that we give
him a chance, and that change takes time and other such poppycock. Hell,
some people and family members cried when they saw his speech. People
felt sorry for him for failing to be our dictator for the rest of his
life and inheriting us to his Son. It was an amalgam of Stockholm
syndrome coupled with slave mentality in a malevolent combination that
we never saw before. And the Regime capitalized on it today. Today, they
brought back the internet, and started having people calling on TV and
writing on facebook on how they support Mubarak and his call for
stability and peacefull change in 8 months. They hung on to the words of
the newly appointed government would never harm the protesters, whom
they believe to be good patriotic youth who have a few bad apples
amongst them. We started getting calls asking people to stop protesting
because “we got what we wanted” and “we need the country to start
working again”. People were complaining that they miss their lives. That
they miss going out at night, and ordering Home Delivery. That they
need us to stop so they can resume whatever existence they had before
all of this. All was forgiven, the past week never happened and it’s
time for Unity under Mubarak’s rule right now.
To all of those
people I say: NEVER! I am sorry that your lives and businesses are
disrupted, but this wasn’t caused by the Protesters. The Protesters
aren’t the ones who shut down the internet that has paralyzed your
businesses and banks: The government did. The Protesters weren’t the
ones who initiated the military curfew that limited your movement and
allowed goods to disappear off market shelves and gas to disappear: The
government did. The Protesters weren’t the ones who ordered the police
to withdraw and claimed the prisons were breached and unleashed thugs
that terrorized your neighborhoods: The government did. The same
government that you wish to give a second chance to, as if 30 years of
dictatorship and utter failure in every sector of government wasn’t
enough for you. The Slaves were ready to forgive their master, and blame
his cruelty on those who dared to defy him in order to ensure a better
Egypt for all of its citizens and their children. After all, he gave us
his word, and it’s not like he ever broke his promises for reform before
or anything.
Then Mubarak made his move and showed them what useful idiots they all were.
You
watched on TV as “Pro-Mubarak Protesters” â.. thugs who were paid money
by NDP members by admission of High NDP officials- started attacking
the peaceful unarmed protesters in Tahrir square. They attacked them
with sticks, threw stones at them, brought in men riding horses and
camels- in what must be the most surreal scene ever shown on TV- and
carrying whips to beat up the protesters. And then the Bullets started
getting fired and Molotov cocktails started getting thrown at the
Anti-Mubarak Protesters as the Army standing idly by, allowing it all to
happen and not doing anything about it. Dozens were killed, hundreds
injured, and there was no help sent by ambulances. The Police never
showed up to stop those attacking because the ones who were captured by
the Anti-mubarak people had police ID’s on them. They were the police
and they were there to shoot and kill people and even tried to set the
Egyptian Museum on Fire. The Aim was clear: Use the clashes as pretext
to ban such demonstrations under pretexts of concern for public safety
and order, and to prevent disunity amongst the people of Egypt. But
their plans ultimately failed, by those resilient brave souls who
wouldn’t give up the ground they freed of Egypt, no matter how many live
bullets or firebombs were hurled at them. They know, like we all do,
that this regime no longer cares to put on a moderate mask. That they
have shown their true nature. That Mubarak will never step down, and
that he would rather burn Egypt to the ground than even contemplate that
possibility.
In the meantime, State-owned and affiliated TV
channels were showing coverage of Peaceful Mubarak Protests all over
Egypt and showing recorded footage of Tahrir Square protest from the
night before and claiming it’s the situation there at the moment.
Hundreds of calls by public figures and actors started calling the
channels saying that they are with Mubarak, and that he is our Father
and we should support him on the road to democracy. A veiled girl with a
blurred face went on Mehwer TV claiming to have received funding by
Americans to go to the US and took courses on how to bring down the
Egyptian government through protests which were taught by Jews. She
claimed that AlJazeera is lying, and that the only people in Tahrir
square now were Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. State TV started issuing
statements on how the people arrested Israelis all over Cairo engaged in
creating mayhem and causing chaos. For those of you who are counting
this is an American-Israeli-Qatari-Muslim Brotherhood-Iranian-Hamas
conspiracy. Imagine that. And MANY PEOPLE BOUGHT IT. I recall telling a
friend of mine that the only good thing about what happened today was
that it made clear to us who were the idiots amongst our friends. Now we
know.
Now, just in case this isn’t clear: This protest is not
one made or sustained by the Muslim Brotherhood, it’s one that had
people from all social classes and religious background in Egypt. The
Muslim Brotherhood only showed up on Tuesday, and even then they were
not the majority of people there by a long shot. We tolerated them there
since we won’t say no to fellow Egyptians who wanted to stand with us,
but neither the Muslims Brotherhood not any of the Opposition leaders
have the ability to turn out one tenth of the numbers of Protesters that
were in Tahrir on Tuesday. This is a revolution without leaders. Three
Million individuals choosing hope instead of fear and braving death on
hourly basis to keep their dream of freedom alive. Imagine that.
The
End is near. I have no illusions about this regime or its leader, and
how he will pluck us and hunt us down one by one till we are over and
done with and 8 months from now will pay people to stage fake protests
urging him not to leave power, and he will stay “because he has to
acquiesce to the voice of the people”. This is a losing battle and they
have all the weapons, but we will continue fighting until we can’t. I am
heading to Tahrir right now with supplies for the hundreds injured,
knowing that today the attacks will intensify, because they can’t allow
us to stay there come Friday, which is supposed to be the game changer.
We are bringing everybody out, and we will refuse to be anything else
than peaceful. If you are in Egypt, I am calling on all of you to head
down to Tahrir today and Friday. It is imperative to show them that the
battle for the soul of Egypt isn’t over and done with. I am calling you
to bring your friends, to bring medical supplies, to go and see what
Mubarak’s gurantees look like in real life. Egypt needs you. Be Heroes.
Thursday, 27 Jan 2011
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