Until now I am living the nightmare results of the Al-Jazeera documentary "The Egyptian Bloggers;the new voice of opposition" which was shown last Thursday and re-shown again on Friday and Saturday !!
The documentary that was made during the historical era of the Egyptian blogging glory , when the world spoke about what is those meddling kids are doing in the valley of Nile , as we accomplished something in blogging , most of the bloggers around the world didn't achieve , we became the new loud voice of opposition that is exposing the shameful acts of Mubarak's regime in Egypt, a regime succeeded in a period of 24 years to put or rather send Egypt in to the worst of its darkest age on all levels whether in politically ,economically and socially that i can say that we were much better in the darkest era of Gamal Abd El-Nasser in some aspects , at least the regime didn't pretend to be a democratic , freedom of expression pretender , at least at the that time we were respected among the Arab World and Africa "yes it was a bloody time but truth is truth and you must give credit to everyone , come on Nasser appeared on the Time Cover many times , Mubarak I guess didn't appear even for once , only his son Gimmy appeared on the cover of the bestselling Newsweek edition in Egypt from two years
We gave as the documentary said another view to what's going to Egypt far away from the governmental dominance on the media and also from most the Egyptian parties and independently somehow for some period , for the first time independent coverage for news in all kind of fields whether politically "mostly" or economically or even socially happens in what's was presented by Egyptian blog God father Alaa "May God help him and give him strength in his cell now " The Public Journalism . Our success came when Hussein Haikal , the famous legendary Egyptian last year talked about us as promising phenomena that proves of the changes is taking its way in Egypt
Our true power came in the coverage of both the presidential and Parliament elections ,exposing the regime to the whole as one big fat corrupted fascist liar
The important thing that we , the Egyptian bloggers most of us despite speaking in politics day and night ,don't work in politics in fact most of us don't join in protests and demonstration except a minority , the brave suicidal minority whose quest for freedom will be engraved by gold in the History of this ancient Nation . Most of us , like me at least took the blessing of the anonymity nature in the blog to express her political thoughts and opinions freely , the idea of tracing you down in a country like Egypt is easily if you write in newspaper or magazine and say your opinion publicly , it is so easy and so terrible at the same "already as raised in a journalist house I know what this means , since the monarchy Egyptian Journalists were always had two options either to shut up and write what the rulers want or they will be sent to jail "already my grand dad was going to jail for his coverage to the Ismailia battle on the 25th of January yet he didn't enter because at that time Fouad Sarg El-Din feared from the parliament anger !!". so you see suppressing the freedom f expression is not a product of Egyptian revolution more it is in our heritage but differs proportionally according the ruler , I guess the oldest and greatest operation of suppression was in the time of Ramses II , the pharaoh of Exodus in Ancient Egypt followed by the El-Hakam be Amar Allah in the middle Ages followed by both Mubarak and Nasser in the modern age , I put Mubarak before Nasser , because Nasser said it frankly on 1954 that there would be no democracy in his era and he didn't lie while Mubarak lies on us , the world and before them himself saying we are living the best eras of democracy in Egypt , in fact we never had this freedom before !! Anyway back to me ,blogging and Egyptian bloggers world , yes I am coward , but also I think realistically ,I think in the term of the Quranic versus that says "Don't throw yourself in to doom" and by doom here I mean the claws of the regime
I know many will think that I am coward but I don't want to be humiliated because I am not this type of brave girls , I am more of a cheer leader from her house "as we say in Egypt"
I guess what I am trying to say began to take a shape
My dear readers and friends bloggers I was terrified last Thursday when I saw the documentary despite my happiness and pride of those wonderful familiar faces and names to be seen on TV on of the world's famous news channel , faces like Malak,Alaa, Manal and at last I knew Wael Abbas , Mina and Shainaz Abd El-Sallam, I was terrified because those wonderful boys and girls became so suicidal , so bold that I felt that they didn't think about themselves or their safety and the safety of their families or even about the consequences of this documentary on the Egyptian blogsphere
Already everybody who watches the satellite will tell you that the Al-Jazeera is a supporter of the Egyptian regime like Al-Arabya , in fact the relation is getting worse and worse then ever since the arresting of Hussein Abd El-Ghanay the head of the Al-jazeera office in Egypt in the most humiliating way , and so they don't care much if they exposed the real achievements of the regime from poverty and dictatorship , in fact it was their pleasure since many years that to embarrass the regime in the Nile valley so it wasn't a surprise for me to see such documentary with its Criticise to the regime , they showed us the menace is threating the Egyptian regime , we didn't reach this stage , we are more than an echo of a bullet
The threat is that this can jeopardise the Egyptian blog sphere putting us under the microscope , already the great icons of political blogging in Egypt were arrested as I said , yes they weren't arrested for blogging but insulting the president in a demonstration but most of them if not all of them especially Alaa had crossed all the decency lines with the insults the Egyptian law and Egyptian "respectable " community condemn , I respect Alaa very much and God Knows what I felt when I knew his arrest but I know for sure that this was based more upon the insults he wrote to the president in the celebration of his birthday . I said it and I will say it again despite I do not agree with Alaa and many from the political bloggers on the same principles whether religiously or politically yet I care for them
Our greatest disaster that after Alaa's arrest and the western media concerns about him , the eyes began to move toward the blogs , we are in danger , already if you are participating in ISP in Egypt TE data "following the ministry of Telecommunication " and Link Dot Net "Naguib Saoiras" you will find several active political blogs like Alaa and Manal and sites like Egyptian without borders are blocked , you have to break the proxy if you got a DSL subscription , a scary move and this happened before Malak and Alaa's arrest
Already since Alaa's fall in the hands of the security forces , many bloggers close their blogs and leave the blog world , I know many of them and even there is an increasing opinion in the Blogsphere attacking Alaa and saying that he deserves what happens to him because of his indecent behaviour , forgetting that there are others with him boys and girls
Closing the blogs for fear is the worst thing ever , it is blow for the biggest and most important blogging community in the Arab community , the Egyptian experience became the lead
Already I am scared
Simply the regime can start a witch hunt against the blogging Egypt , starting with blocking Blogspot and it won't the first time in the world !! Yes it won't be the end the world of blogging as it is getting bigger and bigger with great blogging solutions but non of the Egyptians are ready to pay money to be hosted in Type pad or even to work with Word press
In numbers we are still too small to make difference in the society , according to the Telecommunication ministry in Egypt , the users of INTERNET in Egypt are only 5% and this is the greatest percentage compared to the Arab world if we take in consideration the number of the population , the majority of the this percentage still use the INTERNET as the rest of the world , the cyber space to hang out to communicate with each other , the Chat , the downloads and emails are still the major activities they usually do , only a small of this percentage of 5% understand blog world and are divided in to bloggers and readers ,and even this was in stages , I am proud to be from the first generation of bloggers despite that i didn't join the Egyptian blogging ring except last year yet I was in the blog world for 4 years now and I know what is feeling to feel that your voice is heard , to hear your voice , many times i said that i need a forum to hear my voice "this I took from Hussein Haikal from one of his Dream TV days ", since I began to blog , everybody began to see the difference in my personality , last year my aunt told me I feel that you are grown more than your age by 5 years , it is you and the world and you are giving your opinion boldly with no fear about it .
Now historically the Blogging Mania in Egypt began with the political activists who are familiar with the IT world like Alaa and co. then came the historical moment when El-Dostor , the most radical liberal opposition newspaper presented the world of blogging for all thirsty of freedom of Expression boys and girls on a silver plate
Then came the elections as I said and Egyptian bloggers covered it with posts, images and video
Why I am speaking this ? well I watched the documentary and beside me guess who was watching ?
My grand mother , she was happy yet she was scared that I join that crazy kids who are jeopardising their lives
she : "You don't write in those things !?"
Me: "I got a blog but I write in history plus no one knows my identity !!"
I had to lie , already only my mother knows about my blogspot space and that sometimes I speak in politics , yet from another way I didn't lie , this blog , this journal , will be considered a history source some time after 50 years in Sh Allah ,
in the morning Grand mother told my aunt who is my best friend
She : Please I don't want you even to enter these site to read it , they can trace and catch you , please they are bastards
Me : I swear I write only in history please they can't know me as I didn't reveal myself like those suicide bloggers "on the same rhythm of suicide bombers"
Already My aunt when I join University gave me the lecture that "don't work in politics , remember El-Karnak movie "
My message to all bloggers from Girls and Boys , stop acting foolishly , keep your identities secret , you won't change the world in a day and night , and don't count on western help
look to the play that happened in Congress and you will know that they don't care so much for you , they never were and they never will only for their benefit and their benefit is not in your hands fools
I guess now what I am trying to reach is clear to you
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