The Other Side of Me

Friday, January 28, 2011 After two days of rage in Suez, after people in Cairo and Alexandria proved that they're not giving up. After the police became more and more stupid. Rage has increased inside every person, not just those in the streets. The day started at 12:00 am with my internet connection cutting off. Although the rumors of the internet and SMS services stopping were there all night, I still couldn't believe my eyes. I tried my neighbors open Wi-Fi and it worked for a few minutes, enough to write my last Facebook post for the next five days, "The internet is cut off!" I tried my Vodafone USB modem, my Mobinil mobile internet, a dial up connection, all dead. Although I knew that this was it, I couldn't believe that stupidity would reach this limit and I kept trying. I wake up early next morning to find that, of course, the internet is still off, so is the SMS service. Al Jazeera shows the streets filled with CSF trucks, empty of people. The Cai...

January 25, 2011 I wake up early, wondering and hoping, after a night of wishing and dreaming. I know I will be at home today, not because I want to, but because I'm too scared to join a protest. I turn on the TV, and there's nothing about Egypt, only protests in Lebanon. I turn my laptop on, too many pages to follow, too many tweets to read. Kollena Khaled Saeed posts this song. Even though it is very depressing, but it meant so much. Nobody is happy, everyone wants a revolution, but how many are courageous enough to revolt? How many of us are ready to die? I am not, I'm scared. Rassd starts uploading pictures of protests, big ones, then some of them turn out to be old. How can anyone believe anything unless they see with their own eyes? How I wish I could be there. Pictures flood Twitter and Facebook, from many people, trusted people. Then The Al Jazeera starts airing the protests. We're stuck in front of TV, me and my parents, we have a broken refrig...

I've been planning to write this post for so long, but every time I had tried to start my mind would go blank. It doesn't go blank because nothing has happened in the past year, no, NO, so much has happened, enough to fill hundreds of papers. My mind goes blank because I remember so much, so much that my mind can do nothing, think of nothing, but those wonderful memories that define who I am right now, who we are. Memories that define a revolution, that define Egypt, the new Egypt, the free Egypt. Yes, we're on the route to freedom. If you think nothing has happened in the past year, I can assure you, you're wrong. If nothing had happened, I'd probably not be writing this right now, you'd probably not be reading it later, but this isn't about you and me.... Or maybe it is. If overthrowing a regime head is not enough for you, you're a positive person. If overthrowing a regime head is nothing to you, not a step, then you're too negative. But this isn...