Glimpsing Egypt's Unrest

It's coming on 6 p.m. in Cairo, about 45 minutes before Eshaa, the Friday evening prayer, a particularly sensistive hour for what it may portend in the streets afterward depending on the mosques and clerical stances taken and the timbre in the atmosphere and admonishments promoted.

While on the web, reporting on Egypt remains lively, word direct from Egypt may be scarce as the government has moved to close virtually every global communications channel accessed by its citizens.  (CBS reports exception may have been made for the Noor Group ISP that provides services to an extensive list of western corporations.  The same goes on to note the government's targeted miscreants, among others, may be using Noor's dial-up service for access).

Yesterday, an associate noted to me, "I am about a day ahead on the news due to the accuracy of things coming through on the jihad site."

Where there is willfulness, there may be way.

As demonstrated in Burma not long ago, Pakistan also, Iran during the June 2009 demonstrations, and now in this latest from the Middle East, the empowerment afforded by global online communications remains yet predominantly in the hands of government and military officials who may with an order shut down their country's Internet hubs while leaning on other communication technology providers to halt common carrier services through a civil emergency. 

However the Tweeters may be doing it, they're reporting gunfire in Egypt (Twitter: #Egypt):

? sbelg? Al Jazeera- Heavy gunfire sound coming from the direction of TV building #Jan25 #Egypt #iranelection
Twitter - 2 minutes ago
? BritMuscovite? Ayman Mohyeldin for Al Jazeera reporting from balcony says hears gunfire. Very close to Min of Info, Egyptian TV. #Jan25
Twitter - 3 minutes ago
? ejesse? al jazeera: gunfire coming from radio, tv buildings, ndp hq #egypt #jan25
Twitter - 3 minutes ago

Remember "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"?

Well, the revolutions will be televised, camera phoned, webcammed, chat-threaded, Tweeted, Facebooked, Flickr'ed, etc.

The global communicating systems has been built large, democratized, and proven, now and then, to contain holes and leaks.

Reference

Al Masry Al Youm.  "Breaking: Security Block Main Streets."  January 28, 2011.

Aswany, Alaa Al.  "Police alone can't keep rulers in power.  Egypt's battle is on."  Guardian UK, January 27, 2011.

Bradley, Matt.  "Unrelenting Force Against Protestors."  The Wall Street Journal, W&J Blogs, January 28, 2011.

CBS News.  "Egypt Goes Offline."  January 28, 2011.

Fleishman, Jeffry.  "Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei returns to Egypt."  Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2011.

Islamic Finder.  Evening prayer time for Cairo.

Israelmustrise.  "Gil Scott Heron - The Revolution Will Not be Televised."  YouTube, August 31, 2009.

Kirkpatrick, David D. and Alan Cowell.  "Police Battle Huge Protests Across Egypt."  The New York Times, January 28, 2011.

Mekhennet, Souad and Nicholas Kulish.  "With Muslim Brotherhood Set to Join Egypt Protests, Religion's Role May Grow."  The New York Times, January 27, 2011.

New York Magazine.  "Egypt Turns Off the Internet as Al Jazeera-Fueld Protests Rage [Updated]."  Daily Intel, January 28, 2011.

Slate.  "Egyptians Hit the Streets: Stunning photographs of anti-Mubarak protests."  January 28, 2011.

Pixelpipe.  "In Memory of Neda Agha Soltan Symbol of Iran's Democratic Revolution - June . . . ." Students' Committee, Twitvid, April 2010.

Twitter. #Egypt.

Weisman, Jonathan.  "U.S. Shifts Tone on Egypt."  The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2011.

Wikipedia.  "Mohamed ElBaradei."

Wikipedia.  "Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr."