More scenes from today in Tahrir Square posted by Al Jazeera English
I just spoke with Ahmed Moor who has been reporting from Cairo since the beginning of the protests last week. He was in Tahrir Square today for the "march of a million people" and has this update:
Rush transcript:
So I got to Tahrir Square at about 11 and the density of the crowd was about 2 people per square meter, probably 100,000. Two hours later the crowd had gone to shoving room only, there was nowhere you could move without being up against someone else. At the high point, at 4 or 5, I think 1.5-2 million people. An impromptu p.a. was set up for speeches. People had organized camp spaces, prayer spaces, so there’s order that’s coming to the entire square.
Q. The chants? The demands?
Again what’s been really remarkable about all this is that very little has changed in terms of the chants. The chants we heard on Tuesday, horiya, horiya, freedom. [Other Arabic.] All chants go directly to the heart of the matter, that Mubarak himself needs to go… Really the same chants we’re hearing day in and day out repeatedly.
Q. We've heard that the opposition has issued a joint set of demands, Mubarak out, new constitution, new elections. What you’ve heard about that, knowledge of that?
People have discussed it. They mention those demands, mostly just around Mubarak. The understanding is that when Mubarak goes, everything else goes. That means the emergency laws, elections, the end of the dictatorship. Mubarak as a figure is the focus. The Mubarak regime is on people’s minds more generally. They mean Suleiman, the secret police, everything affiliated with 30 years of rule.
Q. What about the march to the presidential palace? Still a plan?
Well one of the issues-- I’m trying to help you visualize. This is a massive public space, and the avenues leading off this public space are also massive, just not large enough to accommodate a lot of people. The logistics of trying to communicate to everyone in the square that 1, we’re going to move in one direction and 2, we’re going to do it in an orderly way, while the army which creates a perimeter, which exists at every point around the squre, the army is in the way-- that seems like an incredible thing to do and you’ll get a lot of disruptions..Another point is I think people are reluctant to leave Tahrir Square. This was a hard fought battle Friday night for the public space. Symbolically I think it means a lot for people to have control of it and I don’t think people are willing to let it go.
Q. We heard Mohamed ElBaradei is not there, and they were critical on Al Jazeera, talked about him in his garden while people protesting. Any of that feeling?
I think probably the most truthful thing I can say about Mohamed ElBaradei is that no body is really conscious of his being one place way or another. This is the first time I have heard his name. Nobody seems to think about him very much. To the extent that he’s willing to step in and exercise some control especially now that he has the backing of the Muslim Brotherhood, I think people would say, Ok, fine, but he’s not the primary focus right now. People are talking about elections. They’re not talking about Mohamed ElBaradei. When I talked to someone about who he wanted to see run for office… he talked about public intellectuals, university professors in the diaspora.
Q. What's next?
There comes a point where you think there’s got to be a breaking event. I don’t know what it is-- what event or series of events are going to force Mubarak to reconsider to think of just leaving the country. I don’t know. What is very clear is that people here are determined, they’ve reached the point of no return. Everybody who has participated in these demonstrations has something real and tangible to lose if things return to what they were just a week ago, last Monday. I spoke to one man who is a public sector employee, who hasn’t been going to work since Friday, who’s thrown his entire weight behind these demonstrations, since Friday. That’s the kind of person who’s on the street today and that’s the kind of person who has a real stake in seeing that the status quo has been upset, and is upset.
Thanks again Ahmed. Very illuminating interview.
I was just walking near my snowy office and an activist friend (named Annie), responded to my “what’s happening?” with “Power to the people of Cairo”.
the Arab imagination has been LIBERATED!
looooooloooooloooooooloooooooliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!
The noor al ain, the light in those eyes after years of oppression is what stands out
amal ee masr ? Wallahi al atheem
Lydda, I thought the arab imagination was liberated in the ’60′s with the advent of a secular Nassar regime and the imagination it fired up in the poetic arabic consciousness but it was a false dawn. This may be the real thing.
It is always easy to blame the other. Blaming Israel. Or Blaming Mubarak. Blaming Obama or the United States. Israel has always served her purpose within the arab world as an ideal scapegoat to deflect or explain away the failures of a society with an ingrained despotic kleptocracy. The movement in Cairo looks inward and out at the same time. This is a societal protest of the highest order.
I say this not as a haughty westerner for we are guilty of the same issue. In our case China fits the roll of ‘the other’ who can be blamed for the malaise and decline of America. The other ‘others’ would be the pernicious Mexican immigrant washing dishes in New York. ‘We’ are no different.
In this sense the Egyptians are moving ahead, quickly turning history on its head. They will no longer accept the corrupt happy talk of inefficient westernized dogs with British accents and bank accounts, but to chart their own course as a people, culture and so on. What amazes me is this cultural explosion is rocking the arab world in a nanosecond and was out of the realm of the predicted or likely as of a few weeks ago.
The thing I love about these videos of Cairo is the beautiful sad buildings of a bygone era, suggesting a fallen splendor, or some sort of ruins of a splendid temple. A veritable Yacoubian Building in revolt or from a scene out of the The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit. The other thing I love and respect is the humanity of the Egyptian people who just want to be treated as human beings. The simple desire to exist as free men with awe, self-respect, but always, always, hope.
biorabbi, dude, you assume way too much. were you just looking for a space to express yourself, or did my joy really inspire all that?
No, I watched the Yacoubian Building a few weeks ago and it was an awesome movie. LOL. When I see you post and my response, it appears my own imagination was the one being liberated. But it simply stunning what is happening in Egypt today. I can’t get my head around it… how sudden and seemingly out of the blue the revolution has been.
now you’re blaming the Yacoubian Building, scapegoating, deflecting, explaining away.
maybe it’s not just “failures of a society with an ingrained despotic kleptocracy” that does that, maybe it is a human thing to do? Arab societies are hardly the only gov’ts that wield power oppressively and are characterized by greed and corruption. I think our system of government is just as corrupt but the despotic kleptocracy in the USA is more sophisticated in the art of deception.
amazing interview, i’m listening now. love the video. thank you!
what sort of world were it up to us?
not the power elites
check out egypt
our turn next
Great, glad to see the audio seems to be working better today. I hope to talk to Ahmed once a day. Please leave comments with questions you’d like me to ask him.
Are the Egyptian people going to be willing to wait until September?
Can you ask him about this? Ask him to comment? This is what one NYT columnist is reporting on his FB:
Nicholas D. Kristof Just back from Tahrir, and saw something unnerving. A small mob of pro-Mubarak forces, maybe 150 people, are running around very aggressively outside Tahrir. It’s almost as if they’re picking fights, or creating provocations. Then a couple of shots fired. I hope we’re not going to see clashes, perhaps as pretext for some kind of crackdown. Stay tuned.
From Ben Wedeman on CNN (paraphrasing): Sure, there were 1 M people demonstrating in Cairo, but what about the other 70+ Million of Egypt not demonstrating? he called them “The Silent majority” who surely just want things to get back to normal…(he gave no interview or other support for this).
Can Ahmed comment on this “observation”? I would be interested to know more in general about the level of support from ordinary Egyptians attitudes for the monumental events going on. Also, how are they taking the disruption to ordinary life and work and what do people feel about the cost to the Egyptian economy (which must be substantial)?
This is so moving and inspirational:
Youth in Egypt Organize to Protect Cultural Sites in Alexandria and Cairo
Here is another piece about the youth – this one on their role and perspective – with some unusual insights, from War in Context.
Inside the Egyptian Revolution
And Ahdaf Soueif: This is the young people of Egypt seizing their future.
Is Syria Next?
Youth Facebook group calls for Friday demos there….
Obama, in his speech just now, praised the role of technology in the Egyptian revolution. Yet he did not segue to the obvious, pressing demand that Mubarak restore Egypt’s shutdown communications.
More temporizing. Not good enough. He’s obviously deeply engaged in what’s going on, yet he just can’t catch up to the reality.
Tragically, his failure is probably not just personal, but institutional. Despite all the enlightened rhetoric, the US is not really a free, liberty-oriented culture anymore. ‘Stability’ trumps people power, there and here.
Please remove your shoes, empty your pockets, and step into the scanner.
Just want to quote from the GYBO (Gaza Youth Break Out) statement of January 2nd. As it turns out, they were the final prophets, sounding the last warning two days before Mohamed Bouazizi died on January 4th, and Tunisia’s wick ignited the Egyptian skyrocket:
————
There is a revolution growing inside of us, an immense dissatisfaction and frustration that will destroy us unless we find a way of canalizing this energy into something that can challenge the status quo and give us some kind of hope.
History is repeating itself in its most cruel way and nobody seems to care. We are scared. Here in Gaza we are scared of being incarcerated, interrogated, hit, tortured, bombed, killed. We are afraid of living, because every single step we take has to be considered and well-thought, there are limitations everywhere, we cannot move as we want, say what we want, do what we want, sometimes we even cant think what we want because the occupation has occupied our brains and hearts so terrible that it hurts and it makes us want to shed endless tears of frustration and rage!
We do not want to hate, we do not want to feel all of this feelings, we do not want to be victims anymore. ENOUGH! Enough pain, enough tears, enough suffering, enough control, limitations, unjust justifications, terror, torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights, dead civilians, black memories, bleak future, heart aching present, disturbed politics, fanatic politicians, religious bullshit, enough incarceration! WE SAY STOP! This is not the future we want!
We want three things. We want to be free. We want to be able to live a normal life. We want peace. Is that too much to ask? We are a peace movement consistent of young people in Gaza and supporters elsewhere that will not rest until the truth about Gaza is known by everybody in this whole world and in such a degree that no more silent consent or loud indifference will be accepted.
This is the Gazan youth’s manifesto for change!
link to mondoweiss.net
————
Recognize the tone? It rhymes exactly with what’s coming out across the border in Tahrir Square, including the parts which I didn’t quote, complaining about their arbitrary beatings and arrests at the hands of the [Hamas] police. Mini-Mubaraks are everywhere, it seems. But a broad broom is sweeping clean.
yes, I’ve been thinking a lot about this as well.
be what you seek
today
in cairo, alexandria, suez and other cities
young participants, cleaning streets, protecting museums and other public properties from vandals and agent provacateurs
other participants of all ages and backgrounds, organizing, mobilizing, preparing to retake the dawn and beyond
peacefully
upbeat
everyone having a say
everyone equally important not only in the day to day but in the total scheme of things
the emergence of a new egypt
by popular demand
Adam, Phil or Theo (webmaster, right?) this might be a stupid question but whatever, is there anyway to make it automatic that when we tweet the Egypt stories the hash tags Jan25 and Egypt get automatically added?
I don’t know if anyone has posted this yet, but Erdogan is supporting the protesters.
link to english.aljazeera.net
Pardon the uncials on this post, but they were made for emphasis on my present post on my blog. Here is a contribution which the Egyptian Revolution can give to the world, as they employ it to offset the onslaught of the current regime and its accomplices (USA) – try to get the message out far and wide, because this is where the real action is if any people want to see change –
PLEAS FOR BOGUS FORMS OF “REPRESENTATION”
CURRENTLY ALL FORMS OF REPRESENTATION ARE BOGUS, NOT ONLY IN EGYPT, BUT AROUND THE WORLD. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT AS IT IS CURRENTLY PRACTICED IS A FORM OF ISOLATING THE PEOPLE FROM THE DECISION PROCESS, BY GIVING THEM A CHOICE BETWEEN TWO OR SEVERAL EVILS FOR OFFICE WHICH WILL DO NOTHING BUT MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO. THEY TELL THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT, THE REVOLUTION, THAT EITHER TAKE THE CURRENT CHOICE OF APPOINTMENTS, OR THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A “SUPER-LEADER,” WHEN NEITHER IS THE CASE. WHAT YOU WANT IS WHAT WE WILL CALL PARTICIPATORY GOVERNMENT, WHERE THE PEOPLE AND THEIR WILL BECOMES PRIMARY – NOT A FORM OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE CAST ASIDE SO THEY CAN SERVE THE ELITE FEW EITHER FOREIGN OR DOMESTIC, OR BOTH. IN THE MEANTIME THEY WILL START TO CUT OFF VITAL SERVICES, LIKE FOOD, IN ORDER TO FORCE YOUR HAND AS A FORM OF GROSS COERCION.
SO WHAT MUST DONE IS THAT A COMMITTEE MUST ARISE FROM THE PEOPLES REVOLUTION. IT SHOULD BE A REVOLVING COMMITTEE OF TRUSTED PEOPLE AND A PERMANENT FIXTURE TO THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF THE GOVERNMENT. NOT MERELY SOMETHING WRITTEN ON PAPER LIKE A CONSTITUTION (WHICH CAN BE CIRCUMVENTED AND USELESS), BUT A LIVING BODY OF PEOPLE IN THE FORM OF A COMMITTEE WHO WILL SERVE THE INTEREST OF THE PEOPLES REVOLUTION, PERMANENTLY. MAKE THIS THE GOAL AND SEE THAT IT IS PUBLICIZED IMMEDIATELY AND THAN BEGIN THE PROCESS.
I was just watching the govt controlled Nile TV. They were showing the masses demonstrating in the thousands in Tahrir square. However it misrepresented what they were there for. It said they they were demonstrating “for stability” (ie, Mubarak continuity) and they interviewed a few selected people who stated as much. Thats about as low as you can get in propaganda and disinformation.
Adam, tell Ahmad to spread the word:
People of Egypt, do not stop now, you are past the half way to your freedom! Do not settle for anything less, but the departure of Mugabe and ALL his cronies and a goverment free of those leeches.
It is important to give the military a small role in the new goverment, remember Algeria, so they will not take over.
Salaam, my friends.
Those demonstrating for Mugabe are agent provocateurs, most likely members of the secret police, trying to create a chaos.
Let them do it, give them a smile or the finger, whichever is applicable, their days are counted.
Cairoians, you are doing just fine, keep it peaceful, the world is watching and is on your side.
Correction, above I said Mugabe instead of Mubarak. On the other hand, kick that dirty dictator also out.