Egypt Protests: Wow.

Last night, I found the pamphlet being distributed non-digitally throughout Egyptian cities, giving demonstrators some tips on how best to get out their message, and survive, during today's planned biggest-demonstration-yet. I looked at it, thought long and hard about posting it before now, decided against, and tried to go to sleep to blog another crazy news day.
I failed in the sleeping bit. It just felt like what was brewing was going to be really intense.

Lo and behold, within seconds of Friday prayers letting out, it was.

They detained ElBaradei after they saw him in the streets. They shut down the internet and texting functions again, "in select areas" (namely, anywhere a protest was likely--upwards of 8 cities all over the country). The UN issued a stern fingerwag, as they are wont to do.

Some selections from the excellent Guardian.co.uk liveblog that I am checking every 3 minutes:

A Human Rights Watch advocate on the scene says that police are withdrawing in the city he's in.

Journalists from every stripe have been beaten--AP, Reuters, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, CNN...mostly by plainclothes police.

In Suez, two soldiers were disciplined overnight for refusing to fire on demonstrators. Al Jazeera now has footage of police throwing tear gas canisters....and demonstrators throwing them back.

In Cairo, a female protester has been killed in the central plaza--but the police are throwing teargas canisters away and siding with the protesters.

In East Alexandria, as soon as security arrived they began shooting teargas and rubber bullets. When they ran out of those, the protesters blocked in police in the yard of a mosque. Now they're begging the protesters to stop--and the protesters are begging them to join them.

It's afternoon prayers, and police are putting down their weapons and praying with the people in the streets.

This whole situation is absolutely blowing me away--and I could wax poetic all day about the right to democracy or about how the Egyptian example is an amazing, brave and ballsy physical manifestation of the desire for government accountability in the face of overwhelming craziness. But everything that I could say turns into paltry internet crap--watch the footage. Be inspired that people from all walks of life care enough about their situation that they put their lives on the line to change it for the better.

Praying, in Alexandria. With the people previously trying to bash your head in.
Amazing.

The US and the UK are both on the fence, issuing largely ambiguous statements calling both sides to end the violence. This is probably due to the fact that their significant aid money to Egypt paid for every bullet being fired at those protesters--and to the fact that they already knew about the huge problem with police brutality in Egypt. Thanks, cables!


Meanwhile, a protest begins in Jordan...

Egypt Gets Concerning, with Yemen Not Far Behind

Things are crazy all across Egypt right now.

The protests that started on the heels of Tunisia's regime-overthrow are still raging, and they're not looking like they're going to stop. Suez, Giza, Cairo, North Sinai--they're all crammed with people vowing not to stop demonstrations until they get responsible government.
They're also crammed with police in the middle of an insane, brutalist crackdown on demonstrators. As of Wednesday, 800 people had been detained. Tear gas is flying all over the place, and police are trying everything they can think of to prevent marching.

Reuters has footage of a protestor being shot to death and dragged back into the crowd.

Apparently, this is the way Egyptian police
deal with permitless marches

Wide reports are surfacing that the government (or someone) has shut down internet and text message services across the entire country--something that's never happened before, ever.
Human Rights Watch is nervously watching, because they're worried that the police will open fire on the crowd. Which would be terrible.

Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and former nuclear chief at the UN, is being seen as the best bet for alternative leadership after the Mubarak regime falls apart under the pressure.  He returned to Egypt after 30 years away, and is pledging to join the protests.

this is Yemen. this looks familiar.

Meanwhile, Yemen is brewing some protests of its own: tens of thousands of folks in the capital, calling for the disposition of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The difference here is that the president appears to have his own chunk of supporters running counter-marches. 

Yemen also has people serious enough about getting rid of the government that they're self-immolating.

To all you brave folks out there demanding what's right from your government: you're inspirational and excellent.

And please, please don't get shot or trampled.

In Which Egypt Takes Cues from Tunisia, and Loudly Demands Some Sense Up In Here

Hey, remember that thing I said about the Jasmine Revolution being important because of its potential for replication in other Arab states?

Yeah, this is happening. In Egypt. Right now.

Welp, in true I-told-you-so form, Egypt has erupted into "anti-government demonstrations" calling shenanigans on the past 30 years of "torture, poverty, corruption, unemployment," and uninterrupted rule by President Hosni Mubarak. Protests are raging in eight cities all over the country. Cops are using rubber bullets and tear gas to try and restore zen, and because Egypt has a standing ban on all gatherings without permits, anyone in the streets is liable for detainment. Isn't that just awesome.

Two civilians and a police officer have been killed. Thousands of folks in Arab countries are taking notice, and a small handful of ruling elites are probably booking passage to the Grand Caymans about now.

A protester with the before and after images of Saeed

Many of the Egyptians out in the streets are mobilized from the We Are Khalid Saeed movement that started on facebook (and here in meatworld) in 2009 after Saeed, an Alexandrian small businessman, was dragged from an internet cafe by cops and beaten to death in the street. The campaign posts the names of abusive cops, and acts as a watchdog and protest group against police and institutional brutality. It's also yet another reason why I wish I read Arabic.

Al Jazeera has an interesting twitter feed next to the first story linked above, fed largely by people involved with the protests (which there appears to be no shortage of). However, there are also reports that twitter and facebook have both been blocked by the Mubarak regime, who make it no secret that they hate all this techy bullcrap. They've got a special seat in hell reserved for dissident bloggers, too, which gives me the warm and fuzzies. It's so nice to be thought of...

Also to toss in the two cents of the resident superpower: Hillary Clinton is calling Egypt's government "stable".
I wonder if she heard that on Fox.