Egyptian Freedom Rally, 2011 (1)

Anti-government activists have been roaming the streets of Egypt ever since last Tuesday, with one simple wish to ask for, they want the Egyptian “King” Hosni Mubarak to finally give his presidency seat a rest and take a walk. Mubarak should be referred to as the “King” I believe since he has been clenching onto his position as a president for 30 years now, which is more than the period of presidency for some kings in other countries. It is important to note that during all this time, Mubarak has been representing the National Democratic Party… So much for democracy…

Protesters were faced with

“tear gas, beatings and live ammunition fired in the air.”-msnbc

. Apparently, the term (fired in the air) here means “horizontally towards a moving target (preferably a human one)”, rather than randomly in the sky to scare people off, as proved by the hundreds of deaths and even bigger number of injuries left by the demonstrations so far.

The Egyptian riots are a copy of the Tunisian ones which resulted in the fleeing of Tunisian president Zain Al Abedin Bin Ali to Saudi Arabia; leaving his people to finally take some control over their political destiny. Egyptian people seem to hoping for the same result, as they raised and chanted slogans demanding Mubarak to step down. Some also asked for a fair trial where Mubarak would pay for his crimes against his own people.

What has Mubarak done about this?

I bet he must be watching all those pictures of him being forced to bite on shoes, and all those slogans calling him names and asking him to step down, so what he and his people did was as follows:

1) Facebook was inaccessible in Egypt, the whole virtual web was then turned off, to be followed by turning off text messaging and cell phone services.

2) Mubarak had Al Jazeera channels broadcasting on the Nilesat disrupted. However, this was not a very successful step, as the channels broadcast on other Satellites as well, so he had the Al Jazeera’s offices in Egypt closed… Well, that was not very successful either, as I can still watch footage of the protests in Egypt on Al Jazeera channels; after all, they are professionals and know their ways around.

Besides, turning off a news channel would not stop the people from being angry, it will only make it slightly harder for people in other countries to watch what is happening inside, but that does not really make much difference if those inside are rioting with the same intensity.

3) Hosni Mubarak has, for the first time in 30 years, assigned a vice president. He also fired his cabinet, and made some shuffling of political positions. On a side note (a funny one actually) Egyptian Information Minister Anas Al Fiqi, who is supposed to be one of the FIRED ministers, is the one who ordered the closing of Al Jazeera offices in Egypt… so, are these political changes really in effect? Obviously fired ministers can still make such decisions?