The January 25 Revolution: lest we forget - Day 1: faith shall always win
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
On that day I am one of the many who don't think of joining the protests, I choose to be one of those following the events on television and social media rather than taking a positive action. Yes, I want to, but I am scared. Other people are not scared, thousands take to the streets in Cairo and elsewhere. The number of deployed Central Security Forces is probably unprecedented, but demonstrations coming from different parts of Cairo still make it to Tahrir Square, where it all began. Suddenly there are thousands of protesters, enough to call for something bigger, and so the chants for ousting Mubarak and bringing down his regime fill the air.
Television, as one would have expected, is a failure; there is almost no coverage of the protests. It is only Al Jazeera that is worth watching, but knowing that the Muslim Brotherhood are not taking part on that day, even Al Jazeera's coverage is far from sufficient. By midday, it becomes clear that social media is helping the protests by sharing their news and encouraging more to join, and so Twitter is blocked, together with some of the private newspapers' websites. Later, as the evening falls, protests start to make it to the evening news all over the world, except on Egyptian State Television.
Then it happens, in Suez a demonstrator is killed, and he becomes the flame that keeps this revolution burning until January 28.
This is the day many smell tear gas for the first time, and this is how the day ends. In Tahrir Square protesters decide to start a sit-in, but at night the CSF manages to violently disperse it, leaving millions of Egyptians not knowing what the fate of this still so young revolution will be. And this is where Suez plays its role.
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