Egypt Opinion: "Why I Am An Optimist About the Future" (Ghonim)

Wael Ghonim, February 2011Months have gone by without any meaningful change in how the country is governed. The military is not listening to the angry youths who led the revolution; some have been arrested, tried in military courts and thrown into military prisons. Leaders of the former regime have been tried in ordinary courts, despite the gravity of their crimes against the nation. Each day that passes without a clear road map for radical change in the management of our country leads young people to feel more frustrated and driven to escalate the situation.

But I believe that anyone participating in effecting change cannot be a pessimist. This is why, when it comes to Egypt’s future, I am an optimist. Revolution is a process; its failure and success cannot be measured after only a few months, or even years. We must continue to believe.

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Syria 1st-Hand: Life with Assad's Alawites (Rosen)

A Pro-Assad Demonstration in AleppoI told the sheikh that the opposition said Alawites controlled the regime. "This is rejected," he said. "It's for justifying the attack against the regime." He listed ministers, governors, and director-generals and insisted very few were Alawites and most were Sunni.

"Our president is Alawite and we suffer from this," he said. "There are four million Alawites," he claimed with some exaggeration. "We don't have even one per cent of the positions in the government." He and his guests said they believed Syria was being pressured so it would make a deal with Israel.

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Egypt Letter: Activist Wael Ghonim Asks Military Rulers For Change, Dialogue, and Democracy

Wael Ghonim in Tahrir Square, Feb 2011After weeks and months, the mode of governance in our nation has not fundamentally changed and the excuse has been “stability,” and it did not matter if the result was stability at the bottom of the pit. No dialogue has engaged the youth, who have been angry at the significantly slow pace of fulfilling the revolution’s demands; the very revolution that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has not missed a chance to show pride in having safeguarded. In fact, some of these young Egyptians have been arrested and detained in military prisons after a military trial, while the key figures of the former regime continued to appear before civil courts despite the atrocity of their crimes. Accusations of treachery have targeted individuals who oppose SCAF policies under the premise that they are trying to sabotage the trust between the people and the Army. However, some of those accused were prominent members of the frontlines of a revolution that the SCAF has described as one of the greatest historical moments in the life of our nation.

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Egypt Social Media Special: A Daughter Named Facebook (Tsotsis)

Cultural relativity is an amazing thing. While American parents worry about their kids being on Facebook, Egyptian parents are naming their kids “Facebook” to commemorate the events surrounding the #Jan25 revolution.

According to Al-Ahram (one of the most popular newspapers in Egypt) a twenty-something Egyptian man has named his first born daughter “Facebook” in tribute to the role the social media service played in organizing the protests in Tahrir Square and beyond.

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Egypt Feature: Protesting Like An Egyptian

Another Friday...another protest. However on this occasion, it is a day of celebration. It’s a rare occurrence to find Egyptians gat,ering in mass numbers, waving their flags, for causes besides football, but this was a day of prayer, thanksgiving, requests, singing...and, yesm even remembering and forgiving Mubarak.

Tahrir Square in Cairo has established itself as a place people can chant, speak, ‘shout’ out their opinions. It reminds me of London Hyde Park’s Speakers’ corner, but only on a larger scale. A much larger scale, and louder, and...Egyptian!

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Iran Special: Protest --- From Tunisia to Egypt to the Green Movement (The Newest Deal)

As a special for today, amidst the possibility of opposition marches we post The Newest Deal's analysis of protest in North Africa, the Middle East, and Iran:

Despite what the movement's leaders, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, are forced to say publicly, this is no longer a struggle merely aimed at "reforming" the existing system. Those days are over, and both Mousavi and Karoubi likely recognize this in private.

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The Latest from Iran (11 February): The Regime's Big Show?

2205 GMT: Claim of the Night. An opposition website asserts, "The word 'Bahman' has been filtered in Iran Farsi Google search."

2145 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mohammad Housein Mehyimni, the son of the former Governor of Golestan Province, has been arrested.

2130 GMT: A New Role. What better way to end 22 Bahman than with a feel-good story?

The Basij militia are providing the dowries of needy brides.

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Egypt Video: Tuesday's Protests in Tahrir Square and before Parliament

In front of the Parliament building:

Freed detainee Wael Ghonim speaks:

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Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Surge

2150 GMT: Prominent activist Wael Ghonim today on CNN, telling the regime, " "If you are true Egyptians, if you are heroic Egyptians, it's time to step down":

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Egypt in Pictures: Icons of the Uprising

Wael Ghonim and the mother of Khaled Said --- Ghonim's Facebook campaign "We are Khaled Said", who was killed by Egyptian police, was one of the catalysts for protests