If the ancient Romans had motorcycles...

...they might have been seen riding one of these:

Lack of internet brought about Egypt's revolution

I came across the following post by a user named "babyraymasr" on a comments thread at techcrunch.com in the comments of the article To Celebrate The Jan. 25 Revolution, Egyptian Names His Firstborn “Facebook". I think the author is 100% right. Facebook and the internet did not bring about the revolution. The lack of it did. When the Egyptian government cut off modern means of communication such as internet access and cell phones, it created wide spread anger and revolting among the population. They took to the streets and began talking with one another face to face and ended up forcing a 30+ year dictatorship out the back door.

The current generation in the United States thinks getting online and doing protest blogging and twitting makes a difference. It does not. It can make people start to think about how things could be better, but it doesn't create any real change. You have to get off your lard ass and get out and actually VOTE and PROTEST in person.

If you're in a country that has voting and you choose not to vote, you have no right to complain about what's going on in our country. Same goes with disliking your government. If you don't go out and physically protest with others, you have no right to speak a word about how you dislike what's going on.

My favorite "one liner" from it has to be: "You do not topple a dictator propped up by a super power by sitting at your keyboard."

I think that says it all. Now on to the post...

This makes me sick. I prefer to stay out of politics but this circus must not continue. Speaking as an Egyptian bred in in New York, who bought a one way ticket to Cairo the same day I heard about all this, I can say that Egyptians are a very proud people. They want the world to know that they are with the times and not the poor backwards arabs that they feel the world, rich arab countries and Israel makes them out to be. This is the reason why so many Egyptians are quick to expose how the internet and it's various social media brands helped their revolution. Weather it manifests as a Facebook sign in Tahrir, twitter graffiti or this demeaning and quiet frankly racist "news" about a baby called facebook. Egyptians want the world to know they are with it and are to be respected. Unfortunately the western media is jumping on this for all the wrong reasons and making a mockery of the true spirit of this revolution. The question is "how much did social media help mobilize the Egyptian people to revolt?" The answer is it did help, but not as we have been lead to beleive. The internet and social media exist largely as a means to manufacturer consent. The internet by and large, 99% of the time, exists as a way to PREVENT PEOPLE FROM MOBILIZING". Listen up Malcom Gladwell because you were indeed right. First a quote from my friend Lamya. She is one of the brave Egyptian ladies who truly spearheaded this revolution along with many other unsung heroes. "About that Gladwell article, I think he was not totally wrong. You know, the main reason that makes our revolution succeeded, is the internet blocking. We was only knows the date of the demonstration, we even didn't select a place to meet. Then they blocked the internet, they blocked the cellular phones coverage, there was no media cover. People got really anger, we didn't know what is going on at the streets. Thus, everybody ran down to the streets in a hysterical way. Then, people found that the real life connection is much more different than internet connection. Even when they brought the internet service back, people decided not to ''Facebook'' again, they decided to only use the ''Streetbook" to communicate." Street Book more on this later... This is Revolution was Revolution 0.0 just like every revolution before it and every revolution after it. You do not topple a dictator propped up by a super power by sitting at your keyboard. This revolution happened in the streets and was won with blood and immense virtue. Wael Ghonim tweets:"This is Revolution 2.0: No one was a hero because everyone was a hero" It is this weak pseudo egalitarian drivel that would be sprouted by a social media hipster. It is this kind of rubbish that only neuters us more and will prevent any real change. Lets talk about change. Heroes make change. Who are the heroes of this revolution? Were there heroes?" Hell yes there were heroes and they are the last ones you might expect. The ladies! Egyptian women lead this fight. They are the bravest women on earth and Egypt has a long history of female activism. The whole middle east does. http://english.aljazeera.net/i... It is ironic how American women "feel sorry" for those poor weak arab women with their faces covered but the truth is the average Arab women is infinitely more empowered, especially mentally, than the American woman. Now back to the truth at hand. The storyline of this revolution was as follows. 1. The ***Spark**** of this Revolution was lit by a fellow named Mohamed Bouazizi "It started with a young Tunisian man who set himself on fire, acting out of desperation after police confiscated the fruits and vegetables he sold without a permit. Mohamed Bouazizi was a 26-year-old university graduate without a steady job, trying to support his family." -http://www.haaretz.com/news/in... 2. A Brave Egyptian lady 26-year-old Asmaa Mahfou posts on Facebook asking for people to join her in protest at Tahrir. She also put up a youtube video in which she challenged all Egyptian men to be as brave as she was and stand with her. The video quickly went viral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... She was joined in the streets by 3 people.... Viral does not translate into mobilization. Not quiet the "spark" she needed but some brave Egyptians would soon come to her aid but Facebook and twitter were not their tools of choice. 3. Matches and kerosene- Four Egyptians set themselves on fire to protest corruption - Jan 18 -http://www.cbsnews.com/stories... 4. Wael Ghonim does his part. My friend Lamya wrote this. "And Wael Ghonim is not a leader or a hero, but actually he was the first one who gives the sparkle flame to our revolution, he have a fan page called '' We all Khaled Saeid " (Khaled Saeid was a youth killed by Mubarak cops and thugs in a savage way from a year ago) and Ghonim was invited his people ( more than 750.000 fan) to a silence demonstrations during this year, and he was just sitting on his keyboard at Dubai. And there were many others who killed and tortured by Mubarak cops this year, 25 jan. is the cops feast day, so Ghonim said 'how they gonna celebrate their day while they are killing and torturing all these people, we've to celebrate them our way' He came Egypt days before 25 jan., then he got arrested 28 jan. for 12 days. So we called it the internet revolution." -Lamya 5. Jan 25 rolls around and This is the day that will go down in history as the day Egyptians lifted the viel of fear that had kept them in oppression for 30 years. Egyptians took it to the streets. It only took a few Facebook fan pages, youtube videos and twitter trends to do it.. oh yes and a few people to light themselves on fire. Now that is a SPARK! 6. The internet and cellular datanetworks are shut off in Egypt. This was the problem I was coming to Egypt to fix, it turns out that there are two main internet shut off switches in Egypt. One in Cairo near the Consulate building, heavily guarded. The other in Alexandria right next to the Library. My initial plan was to get to Alexandria, gather some willing Egyptians and bust into the building and get the net backup. As it turns out the internet going down was the best thing to happen to the revolution next to the sacrifice made by those Egyptians who set themselves ablaze. 7. Feb 2nd. This is the only day I can speak about because I was actually in Tahrir Sq. Mubarak unleashes his thugs, Egyptians call them "Bultagaya" These were his police forces in plain clothes, released prisoners and whoever else they could bribe with 600 pounds (100 dollars) This was right after Mubarak issued a speech promising reforms. Obama also gave a speech and said absolutely nothing. One word from him could have prevented what was to happen on feb 2nd. I could write a book about what happened Feb 2nd in Tahrir (Liberation Sq) I might very well have too because I didn't take a camera to Egypt. I just got on a plane armed with only my love for a nation that was so close yet so foreign to me. It was my love for Egypt that gave me the courage to fight with those brave Egyptian warriors as we faced death. Gigi Ibrahim, a Brave 24 year old Egyptian lady wrote this about Feb2nd. ( she is cute too, Egyptian women ROCK! ) I was in Tahrir Square on February 2, when pro-Mubarak thugs attacked us with petrol bombs and rocks. That was the most horrific night. I was trapped in the middle of the square. The outskirts of the square were like a war zone. The more things escalated the more determined we became not to stop. Many people were injured and many died and that pushed us to go on and not give up. I thought if those armed pro-Mubarak thugs came inside the square it would be the end of us. We were unarmed, we had nothing. That night I felt fear but it changed into determination. The women played an important role that night. Because we were outnumbered, we had to secure all the exits in the square. The exits between each end of the square would take up to 10 minutes to reach, so the women would go and alert others about where the danger was coming from and make sure that the people who were battling swapped positions with others so that they could rest before going out into the battle again. The women were also taking care of the wounded in makeshift clinics in the square. Some women were on the front line throwing rocks with the men. I was on the front line documenting the battle with my camera. It was like nothing that I have ever seen or experienced before." - Gigi Ibrahim We spent the whole night fighting. I was one of the first to be wounded, 2:30 pm, that day as I took to the front lines against the Bultagaya and after I was patched up I went back to fighting, this time with a gutted computer monitor as a shield. I had some proud moments, throwing a moltov cocktail that landed unbroken, KO'ing a bulthugi with a left hook in a moment of desperation and just feeling like a real Egyptian the entire time. To make a long story short, the Sq was blocked off by the Bultagaya and we were all trapped with no choice but to fight. The Bultagaya were out to kill us and while most resist just enough to hold them back, my group spread the love and showed those traitors what true love is all about. We captured many of them and found their secret police ID's. It was this day that produced all those funny Egyptian helmets. Egyptians have a relentless sense of humor so they can poke fun at themselves even when facing certain death this is why they were proud to show off their helmets. If any of you have seen the picture of the fellow with the helmet made of bread please know he was Yemeni , not Egyptian, a true Egyptian would have eaten the bread. The Bultagaya even came at us with camels. Some even called it the "battle of the Camels" . Those with Anti Arab sentiments would love to call it "Battle of the Camels" I prefer to call it the "Battle for Liberation Square" , "The Bultagaya attacks." or "The Egyptians Strike Back" Pick on, just no camels please. I managed to escape and was rescued by an old freedom fighter. Our goal was then to mobilize as many people as possible to bust through the Bultahgayah blocking off the square and save those trapped within. The net had just come up but only in few places and I hacked out a secured connection. As I turned to Facebook, Twitter and every net resource I could find, I realized just how poor the internet was a tool for mobilization. Ironically this "facebook revolution" this internet revolution was not saved by a network but by a organization operating on hierarchy. The Muslim brotherhood marched 5000 people into the square in the early morning to bolster our ranks and saved our lives along with the revolution. I doubt any of you heard that on the news. Being a major geek I thought long and hard about this problem of mobilization. I looked at the chain of events and realized that the like all revolutions this one was sparked by acts born of poverty and desperation. The role of the interent here was first to inform people then second as a martyr itself when it was taken down. So how do we mobilize the people for a revolution, without setting ourselves on fire and taking the internet down? That is out of scope for this "comment" I just had to share my thoughts here. I love Egypt and I respect the Egyptian people. The powers that be are trying to use this event to herd more people into a machine for manufacturing consent. They want us to believe that we too can be powerful and create real change by not just being "non violent" but by not even leaving our homes. Resist this brothers and sisters. Egyptian blood and courage has shown us all that we can change the world. Let us not forget the blood.