I’ve always loved Egypt, ever since I was a little girl. It had something to do with the history; the pyramids, a beautiful yet mysterious desert, a bunch of dead guys wrapped in cloth. I was so enthralled that I wanted to be an archeologist when I grew up. Sadly, that’s not happening – even thought I still have a goal to visit Egypt one day – but which is why I enjoyed Franklin’s article “Whence the Revolution.”
The article tells the story of several unlikely Egyptian heroes: Abbas, Hamalaway, and Aswany. They used the power of the resources they had available to them: the media, books, blogs, their words, and their photographs to invoke change. They shared truth. They stood up to Egypt’s government.
The article states, “Informing the world about what’s happening in Egypt hasn’t been easy or safe even for those with the rights skills.” They’re not political leaders or protest creators, these are normal people… a man posting videos depicting police brutality, a photographer showing the world the intensity of protests, an author whose novel slipped through the crack of censorship and sheds light on the “government’s corruption and abuse and its blindness toward the massive numbers of poor.” They were normal people who put themselves out there, and showed the world what was really going on in Egypt.
They bravely stood up to their government, and I applaud them. With their help, Egyption news outlets experience less censorship, fear barriers are being broken, and resident demonstrators don’t have to stay off the street out of convern for their own safety. Maybe someday soon this pharaonic/republic/autocratic government will become an even better place to reside.