Revolution

I suppose you were expecting me to introduce myself, and to state the purpose of this blog.  I was going to do just that, but then I found this plea for help on the site of one Mohammed Sameer, a Linux programmer in Egypt.  Right now, revolution is brewing in the Middle East.  The government under Ben Ali has fallen in Tunisia to street protests sparked by the self-immolation of a single disaffected young man two years my senior.  In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak is unwilling to yield to the democratic aspirations of the Egyptian people.  Communications in Egypt have been almost entirely blocked, and it is possible that a crackdown is imminent.  There has already been a massacre reported in Suez. 
 
Here are a couple of articles documenting what has become the first wholesale shutdown of the Internet anywhere in history:


http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml


http://bgpmon.net/blog/?p=450


Both are from companies that monitor Internet traffic.  I found both on the wiki for a hacktivist group: 

http://werebuild.eu/wiki/Egypt/Main_Page#Recieved_messages


This page in particular appears to be a repository for messages coming out of Egypt.  


Some are in Morse code. 


The winds of a storm like this can change at any moment.  Those who began revolution might not be the ones to finish it.  I cringe when I think what might happen in Cairo on this morning of January 29th, 2011.    


If anyone is reading this debut post of mine, share what's happening in any capacity you can.  If you feel it is within your power to strike a blow at the government forces arrayed against the protesters, please do so.  But bring it up in conversations with friends and co-workers.  This is important history in the making, and its outcome will affect us all.  There is a very real possibility that despotism in the land that invented despotism will be snuffed out forever.


The common wisdom up until now has been that authoritarianism in the Arab world is intractable for a number of unique and interrelated reasons.  They are namely the wealth produced by oil, the strategic oil-based partnerships with western nations, and a global fear that radical Islam is the only other option.  This may all be proven wrong any minute. 


Nice to meet everyone.  May the force be with you.


photo source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Day_of_Anger_marchers_with_out_signs.jpg