Though the Revolution in Egypt has been going on for weeks and probably seems like old news to all of you I would like to devote my blog this week to their extremely organized, militant, and creative efforts which have successfully ousted their leader, Hosni Mubarak, and sparked a pro-democracy revolution in bordering countries with oppressive regimes. I am FASCINATED by their movement, and it has sparked my interest for the three reasons I listed in my title namely: onions, King, and soccer fans.
We've all gotten facebook invites to events like parties, community events, and recently for many of us..State Patty's day. The Egyptians utilized this medium in a different way; they created a group and invited people to join a revolution. A government overthrow was organized from a facebook group. As Wael Ghonim said in the New York Times, "I have never seen a revolution that was preannounced before". Over 100,000 citizens signed up for the event. However this was not a spur of the moment revolution, but a plan that had been developing for the past two years.
The core of the protest movement in Egypt came from a group of college students who were young, smart, and well-off. Many of their parents were supporters of Mubarak, and the protesters knew that if they didn't succeed they would be tortured and killed by the government. So they had an incentive to succeed and a passion for change in their government. These tech-savvy college students knew that good organization would be key their movement and collaborated over facebook with the protesters in Tunisia. Their counterparts had recently experienced success in revolting against their government and provided the Egyptians with tips on how to organize and survive protests and police violence. They told the to bring "lemons, onions and vinegar to sniff for relief from tear gas, and soda or milk to pour into their eyes" (New York Times). Some people created makeshift bulletproof vests out of cardboard or plastic bottles to protect from the riot police. All of these tips were transferred between the protesters through a facebook group, and the sharing of information proved invaluable to their success in Egypt.
Police violence and riot control created problems for the protesters. They created a cycle of protesters and as the injured recovered the recovered went back out into the streets. As the violence against the protesters increased two groups came to their aid, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the soccer fans. The Muslim Brotherhood was a secret, illegal organization that operated with a very disciplined hierarchy and were able to organize the protesters into disciplined groups to fend off the riot police and Mubarak supporters. The soccer fans of the two Egyptian teams, who were normally bitter rivals, also joined the effort to protect the protesters because they were used to confronting the police at the stadiums.
I have a deep admiration for the civilized protesting methods used in Egypt modeled after Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Last semester I studied Martin Luther King's non-violent resistance extensively and Egypt and Tunisia are a great example of the force and power behind unified non-violence. The New York Times cited a group of men who "stood silent as rocks rained down on them. An older man told a younger one to put down his stick". This college age group of facebookers and bloggers can be seen as the Gandhis and Kings of our time.
I am fascinated by the revolution in Egypt because I think it is a cool story. It is a story of rich educated college kids who saw a problem with their government and designed a facebook group to fix it. It is a story of over 100,000 dissatisfied citizens responding to a facebook invite to protest in Tahrir Square. It is a story of collaboration and sharing of information and inside knowledge and tips between two countries with similar goals. Finally, it is a story of unified non-violent resistance, in which a country illegal groups and rival soccer teams included came together and fought for a common cause and succeed. Egypt's movement has proven to be a catalyzing source of inspiration for other oppressed countries in the Middle East such as Bahrain, and should be a source of inspiration for all of us as an example of the power of a unified people.
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