We at USDemocrazy have been spending a lot of time surfing the Internet in search of constant updates on the uprising in Egypt. (See our previous coverage here and here.)
Every cable news channel, blogger, newspaper, and Twitter account has a different take, which could lend to information overload.
Here’s the tne news in a nutshell: the situation is scary and uncertain.
Overnight in Cairo, pro-Mubarak and anti-Mubarak demonstrators clashed in a dangerous way in Tahrir Square. CNN’s man in Cairo, Ben Wedeman gave a great analogy on the fighting between the two groups, insinuating what many have thought: that the government is organizing the pro-Mubarak demonstrators.
“It’s been going on for fifteen hours. Imagine if you had, in Times Square, two gangs fighting together for 15 hours, and the government didn’t intervene. There’s no other explanation.”
Five people were shot dead in the early-morning protest and recent reports are coming out of upwards of 800 people who were injured. Major news outlets reported guns and molotov cocktails flying in Tahrir Square last night.
When Egypt was without Internet, there was a huge backlash against this technological repression orchestrated by the government. So, one group, called Anonymous, retaliated by taking the government off the Internet by hacking their Web pages and proving a point, which The New York Times reports with a perspective from a hacking insider:
“We want freedom,” he said of the group’s motivation. “It’s as simple as that. We’re sick of oppressive governments encroaching on people.”
It’s been well reported that the uprising in Tunisia has influenced what’s happening in Egypt, and then of course what’s happening in the rest of the Arab world. The Week has a good rundown of what the domino effect is doing in Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Libya,, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia. (Put simply, governments are being replaced, dissolved, or reformed.)
A lot of Americans have been turning to Al Jazeera English to keep posted on the situation in Egypt, and we remind you that you can keep up with the conflict on their live-blog of the protests!
