#Jan25 : That time of year

And here it comes that time of year where it becomes so heavy and sad to just remember.
It is that time of year when my generation of once young Egyptians remember how they touched heaven and knew the meaning of freedom.

When Mubarak's posters were torn up in Mahallah on 25 January 2011
"Reuters"

We were fortunate and misfortunate at the same time because unlike old Egyptian generations, we brought freedom and then we lost it.

In the 1950s and 1960s, generations in our age lived the rise and decline of the so-called Nasserite dream that started with suppressing freedoms and ended by with a military defeat that whole the Middle East is paying its price right now.

Now we are the generation that once got stroke by a dream and ended up to live a nightmare reality because of older generations if you think about it.

I am not an ageist, heavens forbid but it is the reality of what happened.

We simply screwed because of old generation leading the scene when it comes to the political scene in Egypt whether the military or politicians or the liberals or Islamists or leftists or media figures or businessmen or religious men or artists.

We were naïve and trusted those figures. We were naïve and also trusted the world that hailed the Egyptian youth and their bravery in a PR move nothing more and nothing less.

We trusted the Gulf countries when it was working since day one against the revolution to ensure that this "disease" won't transfer to them.

Most of those who were killed in our revolution in all its stages up till now have been youth.

I am just reading that a group of detained Egyptian political activists including young political activists like Shady El-Ghazly Harb who participated in the 25 January revolution since day one have started a hunger strike to protest their pre-trial detention.

It is sad to see that the margin of freedom of expression especially in the media became lower than on 24 January 2011 currently, even online one must be careful. I will not even speak about the freedom of media and expression we enjoyed briefly after 11 February 2011.

It is enough what my ex-editor who is a veteran journalist once told me “You are a lucky generation, you practice true journalism and have got freedom of expression I have not seen in 30 years of working in Egypt”.
It was a brief moment.

Many of my friends and colleagues are leaving the country because it won’t get any better as they say.
They are more desperate than ever and I can’t blame them.

The 8-year challenge by Cartoonist Doaa Al-Adl 
On the right, the 25 January revolution in 2011 and the left the 25
January revolution in 2019

It is the 8th anniversary of the 25 January revolution that officially made sure the spark started in Tunisia to be transferred to the rest of the world especially the Arab world loud and clear.

It was like opening Pandora’s box to revolt against decades-long corrupted dictatorships, it brought ISIS and refugees crisis that led to the rise of the right wing and the revival of modern Nazism.

But you know in Pandora box, there was hope. There is hope. I am trying to hold to any hope whatever it is wherever it is now. The French revolution was more disastrous than ours and it took decades to become the mother of all revolutions.

Now I am following that growing uprising in Sudan and I feel nostalgic as well hopeful that the Sudanese will succeed in what we fail in.

I also feel heavy each year because it seems #Jan25 is fading away.
I will stop here.
May God bless the soul of all those died for the sake of better Egypt, you are in a better place.
May God have mercy on our souls.