Status update: good morning Egypt!
Tweet me this, tweet me that, who's still afraid of the big black bat? Injy El-Kashef follows the virtual steps of a revolution that has inspired the world at large
The difference between Egypt this week and Egypt only two weeks ago is nothing short of miraculous. To watch the icons of corruption fall one after the other like flies and to witness the current abstinence from any of the Mubarak-style rhetoric which made the ex-president appear, as Robert Fisk states in The Independent of 12 February, "demented", borders on hallucination. How can 18 days of light deliver a nation from 30 years of darkness? As veteran political analyst Mohamed Hassanein Heikal states also in The Independent of 15 February, "All the most modern technology in the world was used in this uprising. The people want something different." The first manifestation of change and a huge show of good will, it is safe to presume, is learning to call a spade a spade and refraining from past strategies of denial which ultimately transformed the entire government-owned media system into nothing more than a trumpet for brazen deceit serving the interests and agendas of the regime with criminal disregard for professional, or even human, ethics.
Egypt will never forget, nor forgive, government-owned television for broadcasting a quiet and peaceful image of the Nile Corniche, basking in a romantic midnight glow, while only metres away pro-democracy protesters were being bombarded with Molotov cocktails, showers of rocks and gunfire in a bloodbath that lasted the entire night. It is precisely thanks to this culture of government-backed media fraudulence that the influence of social media came to bear the ripest possible fruit, standing as it did in such stark contrast ñ with its accessibility, veracity and street pulse ñ against the isolated island of illusion that had been spinning cob webs of lies with which to cloak government brutality and corruption, decade after decade after decade.
The marvel of the 25 January Revolution, however, lay first in capitalizing on the fact that freedom of expression could only be attained online ñ as crackdowns on protests and political detentions had become routine government exercises ñ thus permitting the rallying of hundreds of thousands of anonymous users around the same cause. Second, it managed to metamorphose into demonstrations in the flesh, on the streets, thanks to several pivotal factors: the still fresh ousting of Tunisian president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, the provocative police brutality which galvanised the masses in incensed, albeit peaceful, revolt and the genius government faux pas of shutting down telecommunications, thus literally forcing pro-democracy advocates away from their keyboards and onto the streets. The greatest irony resides in the fact that Ahmed Nazif, Egyptian prime minister until Mubarak dissolved the cabinet in hope of appeasing the 25 January demonstrators, was the man who had largely boosted Egypt's Internet connectivity plan. During his tenure as minister of communications and information technology, Nazif had greatly facilitated and promoted the introduction of both computers and connectivity inside Egyptian homes and businesses. It was, therefore, thanks to none other than Egypt's premier that the "Facebook Revolution" technically enjoyed the massive online support that it did. Nazif's mistake was neglecting the reality that stepping into the technological revolution would necessitate shedding 30-year-old skin for the regime.
Although the 25 January Revolution is by far the most spectacular evidence of the power of social media, it is certainly not the first. Although the number of Facebook users has multiplied six-fold since President Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, rising from 100 million members worldwide to 600 million today, America's first African American president had also heavily relied on social networking sites. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, "That same year, a young engineer in Colombia mobilized millions of people by starting a Facebook group to protest the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC." The Chronicle also mentions how Twitter, "with more than 175 million members, played a key role in spreading news of a 2009 post-election protest in Iran".
The Tunisian uprising's proximity to Egypt in time, space and culture allowed for the instant transfer of experience, the simplest example of which being the Tunisian youth's sound advice of using vinegar and onion against the tear gas that protesters in both countries were subjected to. Nor did the Facebook ripples of the Egyptian 25 January Revolution end with ex-president Hosni Mubarak stepping out of office either. On the very next morning of the revolution's victory, a Facebook group and Twitter tweets were already advocating solidarity with the Algerian youths whose turn seemed to have come in facing their authoritarian regime as well. The Guardian's online version published, on 11 February ñ the day Mubarak finally was no more ñ an interactive map showing the Twitter network of Arab and Middle East protests (). According to Heikal, "People want a change for a present to a future. Every revolution is conditioned by where it starts and where it is moving. But this event showed…that it is possible to defy the terror of the state. I think this will revolutionise the Arab world." And with it, certainly, the future of international politics.
The 25 January "Facebook revolution" was crowned by no less than the toppling of one of modern history's greatest dictators, an event hailed by world leaders as a historic victory for people power. According to President Barack Obama "We must raise our sons to become like the Egyptian youth"; to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi "This is no news from Egypt, as they have always made history"; to Jens Stoltenberg, prime minister of Norway "Today we are all Egyptians"; to Austrian President Heinz Fischer "The Egyptian people deserve the Nobel Prize for Peace"; and to British Prime Minister David Cameron: "We have to teach the Egyptian Revolution in our schools".
What cannot be taught in schools though, but can be earned by years of suffering combined with the extraordinary triumph of peace over brutality, is the renewed sense of pride at being Egyptian which has tainted this year's Valentine's Day celebration with a love for the country, its people, its past and certainly its future. As the nation takes its first steps on the road of radical change -- inconceivable only three weeks ago -- 271 697 Facebook users already "Like" the hours-old page declaring the creation of a 25th January Party, likely to become the next leading political party in Egypt. On YouTube, 7, 280 clips documenting the "Egyptian Revolution 2011" are circulating, while local music videos about the revolution have already been translated into English, French and Spanish. Furthermore, innumerable calls on Facebook and Twitter advocating the rebuilding of Egypt's economic, cultural, educational, social and professional environments attest to a snowballing resolve by the Egyptian people to protect and nurture the country they had been feeling increasingly alienated from due to a growing sense of estrangement borne of the deposed regime's dispensing of its resources as though they were private property. On social media sites, starting 12 February, status updates resounded with "Egypt is once again your country, keep it clean, work conscientiously and report anyone who causes it any damage," reflecting the new greeting exchanged on the street which had changed from the old "good morning" into "a morning of freedom and pride to us all."
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