Egypt Revolts: Day One

Tuesday, January 25th 2011

 

Who could've known it would be that big? I mean, most of us knew today would be no ordinary day, but no one could've predicted that it would be that extraordinary. I've heard many words of pessimism, of passiveness in the past ten days. I've heard so many I don't cares and there's no ways. I've heard people saying that Egyptians are cowards, they will never demonstrate, they'll never stand against anything. I've heard people saying that Egypt is no Tunisia and that what happened there could never happen here, that if this happens here, then it's us who will lose the most, that lower classes will only be able to reach us and will try to take their revenge from us without thinking if we're with or against them. I've heard people saying there's no leader encouraging people to revolt and that nothing big could ever happen without a leader. I've heard people saying that this is only a keyboard revolution called for by someone who knows nothing of poverty, of torture, of loss, of oppression.

Today has broken all the rules, it has opened all the Egyptians eyes, it made them understand the power they have, it made them know that they can stand up and say what they want. It has made them believe that there will always be hope as long as we all stand together as one. If I regret one thing, it is that I wasn't part of today's demonstrations, that I wasn't able to feel that I'm doing something for Egypt, for liberty. This is one of the reasons why I'm writing this, to report the changes that has happened in Egypt today, the change that will always be remembered.

I woke up today full of hope, hope that there will be a demonstration of maximum 2000 in Cairo. I have been following all the updates on Facebook, Twitter and TV since then. I have been doing so for 15 hours now, so I believe I have the complete picture of all the events that took place in the different cities of Egypt today.

• My Day has started by reading a note that made me laugh, cry and had filled me with anger. A note that, I'm sure, sent the message to all who read it. It's message is why should you do something for Egypt. I got the link to this note through Khaled Said's page on Facebook whose admin called for today, the day of anger. Here's the link to the note.خايف من يوم 25 يناير 2011

• The second thing I've noticed was that the event's page was closed. This event had more than 80,000 attending guests and the invitation has reached more than a million. But this was expected, and another page, RNN, was created to report the news. This page has now more than a 100,000 fans.

• Then I saw the video of a small demonstration that took place in New York two days ago. I have to say that even though this was a very small demonstration and it happened in America, it has filled me with hope and optimism. Here's the video:

 

• Next, was news that the police was all over the streets of Egypt. I thought this would scare people, that this would stop them from participating in the demonstrations. That there might be harassment which would scatter people.

 

• There was also news about the changing of places. This could have done bad as much as good; people might have missed the updates and gone to Cairo University. But luckily, people have always worked on updating everyone they knew. Only the police have missed it for a while, yes a short while, but enough for people to group.

• The demonstrations started in many cities across Egypt as small groups of people. The numbers were not enough to do any change, but the fact that these groups were in many cities made a great start. These cities included: Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta, Tanta, El Mahla, Aswan, Suez, Ismaeleya, Port Saeed, El Mansoursa, El Zakazeek, and many more. 

• The media had absolutely nothing about the demonstrations, not even Al Jazeera until around 12:00 pm. When R.N.N started sharing news about thousands of people protesting in the streets of the above mentioned cities, Al Jazeera was only talking about a few hundred in Cairo.

• A little later, I've started seeing pictures and videos of the demonstrations in the streets of Egypt. I'm sure many have seen the pictures and videos too, they have seen that the police was treating the protesters in a civilized way. This has definitely encouraged many people to join them. Here are some of the many pictures I have seen during the day.

• At around 11:00 am, the protesters broke the security barrier and are walking to Tahrir Square:









• There was also a live stream from Bolaa' that showed hundreds of people in the streets at around 11:30 am.

• At around 12:00 pm, there was definitely more than two thousand people in Gameat El Dowal in Mohandeseen.

• At  around 12:30, there was news about thousands of people coming from everywhere to Tahrir square.

• The numbers kept increasing and increasing in different parts of the city to reach tens of thousands and they all decided to go to Tahrir. 

• People increased and have broken all the barriers put by the police and surrounded them.

• Newspaper websites were blocked, and a while later Twitter was blocked. But of course, this has never stopped anyone from opening them using other proxies.

• Tens of thousands all protested in all the other cities. Of course, JSC started to show more and more news as the numbers increased until they showed the real numbers by the afternoon.

• As the sun began to set, almost a hundred thousand got out in the streets in Tahrir Square, Liberation Square, to see the sun of liberation set on the first day of Egyptian dignity coming back to life.

• This huge number of protesters decided to spend the night in the square. That's when the police started to use violence; tear gas and rubber bullets. This of course made a lot of people leave, promising to come back tomorrow.

• This has happened in other cities too, but in Suez it was different. In Suez, Live bullets were used, in Suez three died today. 

• The question that remains now is will this turn into a revolution, or was it just a one day protest that was born today and will die today? I say, it will turn into a revolution, if for no reason in the world then for the martyrs who died today in Suez. I'm going to sleep today full of hope that Egypt and all Egyptians will be free again very soon.