The World is Changing (2011)

Algeria, Yemen, Libya, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Bahrain.  All happening at once and hard to keep track but here are some links to help you out.

Global Voices
mosaic
a new worlds in birth
Iranian
linktv
MENA at Gulf News
Emergency in Algeria to go
Changes in Egypt’s constitution within days
axis of logic

Facebook pages:
Mosaic.WorldNews.MiddleEast
Bahrain.Angry.Day
globalvoicesonline
Bahrain Youth For Freedom
(this one is in Arabic) TrueRoyalDemocracy

In-depth analysis on why Egypt is not Iran:
why Egypt is not Iran

Quote from: Why Egypt is not Iran 1979

Alarms have been raised by those observing the popular uprising in Egypt that, while it is not itself a Muslim fundamentalist movement, the Muslim fundamentalists could take it over as it unfolds. The best-positioned group to do so is the Muslim Brotherhood. Some are even conflating the peaceful Brotherhood with radical groups such as al-Qaeda. I showed in my recent book, Engaging the Muslim World, that the Muslim Brotherhood has since the 1970s opposed the radical movements. In any case, the analogy many of these alarmists are making, explicitly or implicitly, is to Iran in 1978-79, which saw similar scenes of massive crowds in the street, demanding the departure of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, their king.

Misagh Parsa argued that the revolution of 1978-79 was made by several different social groups, each for its own reasons. The revolution was fought against the monarchy, which presided over an oil-exporting economy that had gone into overdrive because of the big fourfold run-up of prices in the 1970s. Many felt that they were not sharing in that prosperity, or were inconvenienced by the Shah’s authoritarian government…..

Proof that the higher-ups in the Army are still loyal to the regime (something that I wasn’t expecting because of naivety):
axis of logic article

Quote from: The Inside Story of Egyptian Soldiers Refusing to Massacre

It is good that Hosni Mubarak hasn’t left Egypt and they should not let him leave because he has some very serious charges to face. We now know that on the night of January 30th, at one of the most critical junctures for the Egyptian Revolution, that President Mubarak ordered the army tank command to massacre the people in Tahrir Square and the tank commanders refused. As Robert Fisk reported on Friday:

The critical moment came on the evening of 30 January when, it is now clear, Mubarak ordered the Egyptian Third Army to crush the demonstrators in Tahrir Square with their tanks after flying F-16 fighter bombers at low level over the protesters.

Many of the senior tank commanders could be seen tearing off their headsets – over which they had received the fatal orders – to use their mobile phones. They were, it now transpires, calling their own military families for advice. Fathers who had spent their lives serving the Egyptian army told their sons to disobey, that they must never kill their own people.

[….]

Please note also something else that can be deduced from Robert Fisk’s description of these events (below). Namely that it was the low level officers in the tanks, the ones that got their orders over headsets, that refused to carry out the mass murder in Tahrir Square. Had the top brass refused Mubarak, those orders never would have been heard over headsets…..

Latest post on OccupiedCairo:
occupied Longdon | Cairo

Quote

Last night in Tahrir Square there were thousands of people waiting to hear the presumed resignation speech of a fascist dictator on his last legs. Instead we heard a condescending old man tell us he was not going anywhere and that we should all go home and get back to work. The cries of outrage lasted for hours afterwards and, if anything, the speech served to galvanize the protest movement. We heard immediate roars of ‘get out, get out’ then calls to remember the dead, ‘my brother’s life is not that cheap’.

Group calls shortly afterwards responded to the speech by calling for a march the next morning to the Presidential Palace. Others, inspired by rage immediately started to move towards the palace and the state TV building, Maspero. Surprisingly, both groups arrived at their destination without bloodshed. As I write there are 10s of thousands moving towards the Presidential Palace and around 15000 in front of Maspero demanding it cease broadcast…..

News Video that summarizes most recent events:

People are trying to form a rally for the 20th of this month in Morocco.  My contact from there says that rumor is is that these people are siding with the king and that they are Polisario.  I found an interesting article about this on an equally interesting site:
The inside story of Polisario

From: Moroccan internet surfers have led to failure the Polisario’s attempt to manipulate facebook

This Monday 31st January 2011, the Moroccan internet surfers have succeeded to put down an attempt to manipulate the internet through facebook, probably operated by the Polisario front and the Algerian secret services. Through a facebook page, the mysterious internet surfers called the Moroccans to demonstrate on the 27th February in all the cities of the Kingdom. Putting a question about this date, certain internet surfers have immediately called for the boycott of this manipulation reminding that this date commemorates the anniversary of the creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

Even if the managers of the Facebook page have tried to adjust their position by calling for the demonstration on the 20th instead of the 27th, the manipulation has drawn the attention of the Moroccan community on Facebook, which has alerted, through the net, about the dangers of this disinformation attempt, probably managed by the intelligence and security  Department, Algerian intelligence services…..

occupied London | Cairo

That link is for all those that don’t know what’s going on or don’t have a clear view on this. It’s a blog that is run and written by people living in Egypt. They update almost daily with pictures and sometimes videos.

This revolution was long coming and Tunisia showed the youth what they can do with Facebook and Twitter. It showed them that it is possible. Mubarak has been running a police state for decades while letting the economy go down the drain. People go to college and university but end up with no job no matter what they studied because the job market is dead there. You need to know someone to get anywhere which is kind of like how the US is heading right now with it’s job market. When I was over there, the streets were filled with male and female youths just wandering the streets, not shopping or anything. Most of them college graduates.

As MuertoMushroom previously said here, the average Egyptian is poor.  Meat is a luxury. When I was younger, I remembered the beasts of burden used to be healthier and stronger and now they’re as starved as most of the people. The Egyptian pound used to be only a dollar and some change less in value than the USD, but now it’s almost 6 Egyptian pounds to a USD. Then there’s the constant oppressive police presence on the streets of Egypt. Police brutality and corruption is horrible over there. Worst yet is that the people have nowhere to turn to for justice in Egypt. Mubarak has not only been silencing and brutalizing those that become too religious, he has also been targeting free thinkers, agnostics and/or atheists. Especially those that are bloggers or those that write for any domestic publications.

Which brings me to the women. Believe it or not, women are as much a part of this movement over there as the men are. Female free thinkers and bloggers are a large part of the sharers of information on the net from there. Main reason is because women there are oppressed as well. Domestic violence is not a strange or unheard of occurrence especially in rural areas. In fact, in those places it’s oddly normal and women try to support each other emotionally in those instances but nothing gets done. Main reason is because, again, there is no way for them to get help and they’re told that it’s normal.

Child abuse is bad there too. It’s only been about four years or so since hitting children in schools was outlawed (and that was only because someone SUED the school system and won). But the physical abuse was the least of it. Children were, and probably still are, verbally abused by their teachers in school.

Of course, in regard to the men and the teachers, not all of them are like that like that but the majority are. The more you leave the cities, the more true it becomes.

This will never be a religious revolution. To those that say it will, I suggest that you read up on the history of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and read up on ElBaradei who has taken charge of all parties of the revolution. Another thing, this revolution comprises of four major parties who have united from day one against the government: the christians, the muslims, the agnostics/atheists, and the Muslim Brotherhood (a minority in the uprising until recently).

ElBaradei is a liberal and if they win this then I am hoping that civil rights will follow. Someone suggested that they write a bill of rights. I am all for that idea.

EDIT:Here are some more links to blogs from protesters and reporters in Egypt:

http://inanities.org/
Egyptian Chronicles

This Facebook page is founded by the guy, Wae’l Ghounaeim who worked as a representative of Google in Egypt, that basically set all this in motion. He did not like that a blogger got framed and killed by police when he uncovered them splitting confiscated drugs amongst themselves. He made the Facebook page, which I learned about roughly during the time that roughly two people were killed themselves in protest in Tunisia which was..mid to late December last year. The page was only in Arabic then but this one is an English one which was made once the protests went full-swing.

El Shaheed

Let me clear up some misconceptions about this movement:

1) Rubber bullets were not used on the protesters. They were being shot at with live ammo. Videos from Associated Press and those posted from people in Egypt on youtube can attest to that. Matter of fact, the first video that was leaked of an unarmed man being shot in the head is what caused the government to shut down net access in the country.

2) There were not pro-Mubarak protesters that were being violent and causing mayhem. Those people are payed by the government to do that and some are actually plain clothed police officers.

3) People did not go into raiding, raping and killing frenzy once the protests and net blackout started. Guards left their posts at several prisons which in turn freed prisoners into the streets. In Upper Egypt, the Bedouin tribes (they live in the desert of Egypt and normally don’t mingle with Egyptian society) invaded some prisons and freed their imprisoned brothers. The police and paid thugs did their fare share of that carnage as well.

4) This is not a religious revolution. It was not started by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Christians were in on it too and there is video evidence of them fighting the police as well. The average Muslim and Christian have been banding together since the bombing of the Church in Alexandria (never was confirmed who did it but investigations say it was Al Qaeda’s handiwork..surprise surprise) some months ago. That solidarity has continued and grown during the course of the protests. There has also been a notable presence of the free thinkers, agnostics and atheists in the evens of the past couple weeks. Indeed, a good deal of the blogging online from Egypt is done by that minority. The Muslim Brotherhood has not shown face until recently and one of the main reasons for that is simply because they had no hand in this. Also, because they are enemies of start according to Mubarak’s regime and they have been routinely jailed over the years with largely no basis for imprisonment (as per usual). The Muslim Brotherhood has also made it known that they will not interfere in the political proceedings on the country once Mubarak is out.

Just heard from things in Egypt.  Jails are emptied so all the looting that’s going on is done by the convicts and people are being raped. He also cut off all food and gas supplies. Entire cities and towns have empty grocery stores and no gas. The regular police force is non-existent and the the only police presence is that of the riot police who kill and beat people on sight. The army is concentrating on protecting national treasures in museums and the like while avoiding hurting regular citizens.  The army has also been protecting people from the riot police and convicts.

People go out at night and stand infront of their homes with knives and whatever they can find to protect their family and houses from the convicts.

I also heard about how this started. It started with a few educated people that gathered in Cairo and started a peaceful demonstration. The police then surrounded them and started to physically torture them and that’s when nearby people came in and intervened. Things spiraled out of control from there.

The source of this information is a friend who heard from one of her uncles who contacted family there via their landline phone and numerous articles that I have been reading and posting on Facebook verify it.

Sources:
Reddit Egyptian Revolution
shocking police
Facebook lead to a global revolution
Egypt Protest
Egypt kill switch
Egyptian army storms museum to protect from looters
Egypt violent protests erupt outside capital

Addition, people have been constantly going on about this being a religious movement. That is all lies and there are tons of articles out there to prove how wrong they are if they just searched and did some reading.  Here is one such article with an update: reform leader calls on Egypt’s Mubarak to go

Quote from: Article

CAIRO—Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood and the secular opposition banded together Sunday around a prominent government critic to negotiate for forces seeking the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

The announcement that Mohamed ElBaradei would represent a loosely unified opposition reconfigured the struggle between Mubarak’s government and a six-day-old uprising bent on driving him and his party from power.

Though lacking deep support on his own, ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and diplomat, could serve as a consensus figure for a movement that has struggled to articulate a program for a potential transition. It suggested, too, that the opposition was sensitive to the uprising’s image abroad, putting forth a candidate who might be more acceptable to the West than beloved in Egypt.

In scenes as tumultuous as any since the uprising began, ElBaradei defied a government curfew and joined thousands of protesters in Liberation Square, a downtown landmark that has become the epicenter of the uprising and a platform, writ small, for the frustrations, ambitions and resurgent pride of a generation claiming the country’s mantle.

“Today we are proud of Egyptians,” ElBaradei told throngs who surged toward him in a square festooned with banners calling for Mubarak’s fall. “We have restored our rights, restored our freedom, and what we have begun cannot be reversed.”

Earlier, he criticized the Obama administration, which has expressed support for the rights of the protesters but pointedly refrained from calling on Mubarak to step down. In an interview with CNN, Mr. ElBaradei called that approach “a failed policy” that was eroding American credibility.

“It’s better for President Obama not to appear that he is the last one to say to President Mubarak, it’s time for you to go,” ElBaradei said.

Whether ElBaradei can emerge as that consensus figure remained unclear. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for his work as director of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Even in Liberation Square, the crowd’s reaction to ElBaradei was mixed — some were sympathetic but many more were reserved in their support for a man who spent much of his adult life abroad.

One Brotherhood supporter, Mohammed Fayed, an engineer, said that even if ElBaradei could replace Mubarak, he should stay no longer than a year: “ElBaradei doesn’t live here and doesn’t know us. We need a leader who can understand Egyptians.”

Last year, when ElBaradei returned to Egypt, the hopes of many of the 20 or so of Egypt’s opposition movements, leftists, seculars and Islamists alike, were pinned on him. Within weeks, he managed to collect more than 900,000 signatures for his candidacy, but the laws enacted by Mubarak prevented him from running.

Then he disappointed many: Instead of remaining behind to fight the regime, ElBaradei preferred a luxurious exile in his Vienna estate, leaving his supporters behind to bear the brunt of the secret police.

His standing suffered further when it appeared that ElBaradei was willing to cooperate with the regime, instead of calling for the radical change that seemed impossible just a few days ago.

But this dent in credibility and popularity seems to have been overcome ever since Baradei demonstrated with the masses in Tahrir Square on Friday and was hosed down by a police water cannon. Now, Baradei is slowly evolving to become the courageous and outspoken opposition leader his supporters had always hoped he would become.

With files from Gil Yaron

Proof of the prisoners roaming the streets harming people: Egypt in crisis: vigilantes and prisoners on the streets

Quote from: Article

Inmates escaped from at least four jails across Egypt, including suspected Muslim extremists and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist.

In one jailbreak at the Abu Zaabal prison on the outskirts of Cairo locals told The Daily Telegraph that 18 people had been killed after gangs of gunmen fought a six-hour battle with guards to free jailed associates.

Meanwhile as darkness fell last night, groups of club-wielding “Citizens’ Committees” manned checkpoints at road junctions across Cairo and other cities in a bid to stop looters.

Egyptian police have been absent from the streets since Friday night, when they lost control of vast demonstrations demanding the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

The army has been on the streets since then, but is largely restricted to static guard duty in tanks and APCs.

On Sunday many Egyptians claimed that the jailbreaks and looting were deliberately orchestrated by Mr Mubarak in order to convince them that an end to his rule would simply lead to chaos.

“Egyptian state television has been showing the pictures of looting all day,” said one man. “This is designed to get protesters to leave the streets and go back to guard their homes.”

At the Abu Zaabal jail on Sunday, bullet marks could be seen on the perimeter walls and prison trucks lay ditched in a nearby river.
Locals claimed that thousands of prisoners had escaped after posses of Bedouin tribesmen from Sinai – an area near the Israeli border notorious for smuggling and banditry – came to spring jailed fellow clansmen from the facility on Saturday evening.

“The Bedouin came just before sunset in cars and trucks,” said one eye witness from a nearby town.

“At first they just fired randomly into the air, but then they started shooting at the prison guards, who fired back. Eventually the guards could not keep control and they left the jail. Thousands of people escaped, and Bedouins took their friends off with them in trucks.”

He said the escaped prisoners included members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement that contests elections in Egypt and aspires to be one of the power brokers in any post-Mubarak government.

On Sunday the area around the prison was still lawless, with groups of youths wandering around with clubs and gangs of looters stripping the jail of food supplies and furnishers.

There appeared to be no inmates still left in the jail, although a small number, who had only months left to serve in their sentences, surrendered themselves to a nearby mosque in the hope of not jeopardising their parole.

At the same mosque 18 bodies from the jail battle were also taken, and later removed by ambulance.
“Why didn’t the army protect us?” asked one resident. “We are scared now that the town is full of criminals.”

As night fell large groups of men and youths formed check points all over Cairo, some also armed with knives and pistols. On the route back from Abu Zaabal back into the city centre, The Telegraph encountered checkpoints almost every 50 yards in some areas.

“We are protecting ourselves and the people,” said Mohamed Kamal, 21, wielding a large black baton. “Last night we arrested 12 criminals and handed them to the army, and today we caught another three. We support the demonstrations here but not any kind of destruction.”

At a nearby police station that was attacked and burned out on Friday night, rap sheets bearing suspects’ mugshots littered the streets, with locals claiming that weapons had also been stolen from the armoury.

Overall, though, apart from a currency exchange store that had been broken into, The Telegraph saw little evidence that the looting of private property had been particularly widespread.

Most Egyptians were at pains to dissociate the protests from any criminal acts.

“Please tell the world that we are law-abiding people, not thugs or thieves,” said Ahmed Ghazi, 45, an engineer, as he saw The Daily Telegraph outside the burned out police station.

MUBARAK FINALLY STEPPED DOWN!!! TAHYA MASR!!!

Also, the meeting with my dad was fucking awesome. He seemed to be genuinely happy to see me. I learned about my great great grandfather, Hassan who was a revolutionary that fought against the Turks. His struggles and contributions were recorded in a history book written by a famous historian from Cairo. The book is titled “The History of Egypt” and the author’s name is Gamal [something]. Thing is about my family name is that it was originally something else before a judge changed it because there was another family in Monufya with the same last name as us. Basically, it was done to avoid confusion. My father had told me when I was about six years old to not tell anyone about that and I never understood why until now. Our family is originally from Old Cairo.

My father also told me about the creator of the “What Khaled Said” Facebook page and how the man was pissed off about the government and how he began to set things in motion. He told me the man’s name and occupation but I forgot it. I will have to ask him again tomorrow when we meet again.

EDIT:  I remember the man’s name and occupation. It’s Wae’l Ghounaeim and he worked as a representative of Google in Egypt.