How revolution began
Wael Ghonim's contributions
The protests that led to the Egyptian Revolution last year were organized in part by an anonymous Facebook page administrator named Wael Ghonim. Over the past few years, Wael began working outside the box to make his peers understand that only their unstoppable power could make a change in Egypt. He quickly grasped that social media, mostly Facebook, were emerging as the most powerful communication tools to mobilize and develop ideas. Wael helped to initiate a call for a peaceful revolution and in response the revolution began. Google employee Wael Ghonim, working at night online from Dubai, ran his facebook group named “Kullena Khaled Said”. Administering the site anonymously under the pseudonym "el shaheed," which is Arabic for "the martyr," he filled the page with news about police abuse and torture. Ghonim, who is 30 years of age, rallied people around an issue that unified Egyptians. And by writing as a martyr, his words had the powerful impact of feeling like they came from beyond. Wael Ghonim explained that he wanted to expose the bad practices of the Egyptian police and bring Khaled’s case to a public case.
Facebook's contribution
Ghonim launched his Facebook group called, “Kullena Khaled Said”, which means “we are all Khaled Said”, after graphic pictures of a 28-year-old man named Khaled Said, who had been killed by Egyptian security began to appear on the internet. Khaled Said reportedly had possession of a video showing police selling illegal drugs. Ghonim’s facebook page anonymously called for accountability for Khaled’s death and an end to Egypt’s corrupt government. Egypt’s nameless revolutionaries would create a facebook event for January 25th in which more than 80,000 people clicked “yes”, indicating they would attend. Instructions for the protests were put on Facebook: Stand 5 feet apart (so they wouldn’t break Egyptian laws against public demonstrations), be absolutely silent, no signs, wear black, stand on the river or sea for one hour only, then walk away. Protesters communicated on the Internet so that police wouldn’t know, but during the protests the Egyptian government would shut down the Internet for 5 days. Facebook played a crucial role in starting the Revolution because that was where the idea started and spread around Egypt.
Why the government was so badEgypt has been a place of maddening torture, rape, and imprisonment. It has been a place of torture and repression because of its corrupt government. Egypt has failing economic policies and it is full of poverty, corruption, and unemployment. The gap between the rich and the poor is very wide in Egypt and that is a major problem. Police in Egypt are brutal and corrupt and that makes life even harder for Egyptians. Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak was alleged with corruption, the squandering of public funds, and the abuse of authority for personal gain. There have also been claims of him and his sons unlawfully acquiring wealth and abusing their power during the former president’s rule. The last thing a dictator would want is for someone to expose their bad practices to its people. The Egyptian government and police were very injustice and Egyptians finally decided that they wanted a change.
|
Sources
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/21/egypt.internet.revolution/index.html
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066437,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/hosni-mubarak-detained-corruption-allegations
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/09/146636605/wael-ghonim-creating-a-revolution-2-0-in-egypt
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066437,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/hosni-mubarak-detained-corruption-allegations
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/09/146636605/wael-ghonim-creating-a-revolution-2-0-in-egypt