After things kicked off in Tunisia there were rumours that something might happen in Egypt. Egypt has been under emergency law for 30 years, people our age have only known one President, there were bread riots two years ago about the rising price of food yet so many live below the poverty line and many other factors contribute to the fact that change is due in Egypt. The question was would it ever happen?
About one week before the 25th January people started talking about it being a day of action and that everyone should go out and protest. 25th January is a National Holiday and so this seems to be why it was chosen as a day to focus action on. Some joked about them choosing a day that no one needed to be in work so that no one would lose business and other said that nothing would happen until the afternoon or evening anyway. We just weren't sure what would happen, but we wanted Egyptian voices to be heard if they did come out. Asking Egyptians that we knew at work they said they didn't think many would turn up for the march.
So the 25th January came and we were very happy to be proved wrong. The turn out and gatherings were amazing to watch (we followed using news websites and twitter and facebook) as they grew and grew in strength around the city and converged upon Tahrir Square downtown. It was amazing to see the thousands that had gathered there and to think about how strong they were together.
What was amazing too for us was to think about how this movement started. There wasn't one single leader, but many. The movement was fluid and dynamic; ever changing. By using twitter and facebook communications were allowing people to move quickly and respond to other groups as they gathered. By using these sites too news about what was happening, photos, videos, audio, were getting around the world in seconds. It was just amazing to watch how people movement has moved with the times.
Seeing the reaction of the police over these few days was worrying, upsetting and disturbing. What started as peaceful turned aggressive and violent for no real reason with the people struggling to defend themselves and stay standing. Images of water cannons being put on demonstrators as they prayed and demonstrators picking up and throwing back the tear gas canisters were shocking.
We were excited when the story of what was happening in Cairo hit the top news story on news websites. For us this felt really important that international news networks were giving it top priority and people around the world would see what was happening. This international attention we hoped would help the situation.
When we came into work the next day we were a little surprised that we weren't called to a briefing. We knew that students would want to talk about what was happening and we hoped that we would be given a "line" to follow in terms of what to talk about, and what not. As the day went on though the message came out to staff that there would be no activities after work and everyone would get the early bus home. We had already been told that there would be no off-site after school activities because of the religious tension since new year - now this was something else. We finally had a briefing and were given an update and an updated phone tree that would be used to pass on information if anything did happen. So it seemed things were being taken a little more seriously, but there was no further effect on work beyond getting early buses home.
So with this going on, we left work on Thursday and caught our flight down to Luxor for our run and my 30th birthday!
About one week before the 25th January people started talking about it being a day of action and that everyone should go out and protest. 25th January is a National Holiday and so this seems to be why it was chosen as a day to focus action on. Some joked about them choosing a day that no one needed to be in work so that no one would lose business and other said that nothing would happen until the afternoon or evening anyway. We just weren't sure what would happen, but we wanted Egyptian voices to be heard if they did come out. Asking Egyptians that we knew at work they said they didn't think many would turn up for the march.
So the 25th January came and we were very happy to be proved wrong. The turn out and gatherings were amazing to watch (we followed using news websites and twitter and facebook) as they grew and grew in strength around the city and converged upon Tahrir Square downtown. It was amazing to see the thousands that had gathered there and to think about how strong they were together.
What was amazing too for us was to think about how this movement started. There wasn't one single leader, but many. The movement was fluid and dynamic; ever changing. By using twitter and facebook communications were allowing people to move quickly and respond to other groups as they gathered. By using these sites too news about what was happening, photos, videos, audio, were getting around the world in seconds. It was just amazing to watch how people movement has moved with the times.
Seeing the reaction of the police over these few days was worrying, upsetting and disturbing. What started as peaceful turned aggressive and violent for no real reason with the people struggling to defend themselves and stay standing. Images of water cannons being put on demonstrators as they prayed and demonstrators picking up and throwing back the tear gas canisters were shocking.
We were excited when the story of what was happening in Cairo hit the top news story on news websites. For us this felt really important that international news networks were giving it top priority and people around the world would see what was happening. This international attention we hoped would help the situation.
When we came into work the next day we were a little surprised that we weren't called to a briefing. We knew that students would want to talk about what was happening and we hoped that we would be given a "line" to follow in terms of what to talk about, and what not. As the day went on though the message came out to staff that there would be no activities after work and everyone would get the early bus home. We had already been told that there would be no off-site after school activities because of the religious tension since new year - now this was something else. We finally had a briefing and were given an update and an updated phone tree that would be used to pass on information if anything did happen. So it seemed things were being taken a little more seriously, but there was no further effect on work beyond getting early buses home.
So with this going on, we left work on Thursday and caught our flight down to Luxor for our run and my 30th birthday!
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