A group of us gathered at the location documented above to express our
solidarity with the people of Egypt in the fight to send their dictator
packing. Photo by my fellow PhillyIMC person Baba
Bob
Shipman.
We ultimately got up to about 70 or 80 people. As one can see, it was a
pretty cold day out. Very
cheerful
news from Egypt:
The Egyptian army made clear late
Monday afternoon Cairo time that it would not repress peaceful
demonstrations. A spokesman read out a statement on television: The
military said it was fanning out through the streets to prevent looting
and acts of sabotage. It said that the military recognized the
legitimacy of the demands of the people and of the demonstrators who
are asking for vast political and social adjustments. It said it would
“never resort to the use of force against this great people.”
All photos not specifically marked as being Bobs' are mine.
We got an emailed
press
release out on the rally a few hours prior to it taking
place, so we had a number of reporters show up. In the middle picture,
the reporter seems to be saying "Why you taking a picture of me? I'm
not part of the story."
...today hundreds of thousands if not
millions have massed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for the biggest
demonstrations yet against the Mubarak regime. Disparate movements –
not just the Muslim Brotherhood but student groups, intellectuals,
online activists, and members of the political opposition – have
converged to speak with one voice, united against Hosni Mubarak
remaining in power.
Bob took this photo. The fellow holding the "Stop U.S. Aid" sign and
the one reading are both Egyptians who showed up to add their voices to
ours. The handsome fellow with the cane is your faithful reporter.
Mubarak has
done
his
best to cut Egypt off from communications with the rest of
the world. From a
young
Egyptian
woman:
Um, so I wanted to let everyone
know in case you don't get any feedback from what's happening tomorrow,
and I didn't want anyone to worry about us.
They did this before; the only
difference is the last time they did this, I was completely freaked
out. I was too scared that they are going to shoot us all and nobody
would know about it.
This time, I'm not scared at all. I
feel as if, like, I want to ask them 'bring it on!' We are excited. We
are happy. We are going to be in Tahrir Square tomorrow.
YouTube video by Bob. [Evening of Feb 1st] Late-breaking news! Hosni
Mubarak has offered to "not
run again for President." Claims he's too old anyway. Not at all
clear if Egyptians consider that sufficient. As to the crowd
on the scene:
The reaction in Tahrir Square, where
televisions were set up to watch the address, was immediate and
dramatic. The chant was “Erhal! Erhal!”, or “Leave! Leave!”
The bottom line is that this will not
placate the protesters, who want the Mubarak regime out right now.
CAIRO -- More than a quarter-million
people flooded Cairo's main square Tuesday in a stunning and jubilant
array of young and old, urban poor and middle class professionals,
mounting by far the largest protest yet in a week of unrelenting
demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in
power.
Reporter interviews an Egyptian protester. We know that Al
Jazeera has been doing absolutely heroic work in covering the
revolution in Egypt. How's the traditional US media been doing? Uh, not
good.
It’s kind of funny watching how the
media operates- if anything the protests in Egypt are increasing and
reaching a critical mass, yet CNN, which had
breathless round the clock coverage for the past week, has dropped the
story like a prom dress in favor of the imminent MASSIVE
ONCE
IN
A
CENTURY SO BAD THEY ARE FREAKING OUT IN CHICAGO snow
storm.
*Sigh!* And people wonder why
the left blogospher/netroots exist!
