Ecstatic about “reviving the revolution spirit”

I was really trilled and delighted on Friday noon once I made it into Tahrir square. Walking across Kasr Elnil bridge and seeing the check points organized by the protesters welcoming us and apologetic for having to check IDs and frisk us down for unwanted material brought a lot of happy moments. I suddenly started to feel a sensation of comfort and a lot of memories. It was preceded with a feeling of righteousness as I saw the weather since earlier in the day and how after a very hot and challenging sunny day on Thursday, cloud cover allowed more people to join and gave me a sense of peace that there is a force greater than all that wants this to happen. It was a blessing that was unexpected. As I walked into the square I was happier with the turnout of the day, there were numbers that were far more than I imagined and that reminded me of Jan 25^th, when I was expecting somewhere around 1000 people only to show up and was amazed at the numbers that walked then from Mostafa Mahmoud. I felts a great amount of internal pleasure and peace and hope of a better future ahead. Also the fact that the magnitude dwarfed the image of several political movements that have elected to be against this day even more and that their loss continues to grow day by day and that they resist to learn lessons of history.

"Go Egypt Go"

One other thing, realized a little more than despite my denial I have some emotional side to me, and that certain things can easily trigger a rush of emotions that I can't control.

Cairo ICT

Dropped by Cairo ICT today, nothing technical much to report other than the usual stuff and wouldn't bother to chat about that, but what really delighted me what that it actually happened. Despite all the events and that we are running in turbulence in general in Egypt merely organizing such an event and having it run without problems was a good sign. It is amazing how this country is one that holds itself strongly and firmly and has a genuine resistance to violence and wrongdoing. I have been advocating that compared to other places that have witnessed smaller events Egypt remains to be a safe place and that all we hear about is far less than what could have happened elsewhere in the globe. Riots in LA and after mass of Katrina had far more violence and lack of law and order than the Egyptian revolution. The only thing that I dreaded was the weather, it was HOOOOOOOOOOOT and if tomorrow is anywhere close to this (Forecast has tomorrow with the peak of this heat wave) the protest will not go well and the forces of nature would stand against reviving the revolution spirit

Nostalgia

Although I have parted heavily from news and from Facebook and immersed in so much work, I have a huge feeling of nostalgia for Tahrir square and the days of early February. The great feeling of purpose, pride and unity are things that feel so much of the past. Although there are steps forward and positives in some sense I feel that we have diverted from the leap frog steps and unified purpose that came with Tahrir square earlier this year, and hope that this feeling would come back strongly soon.

Killing of Bin Laden is a Function of the departure of Mubarak

Amazing feeling to being successful to avoid following news for a few days (I wouldn’t claim all the credit to will power, but to also too much procrastination that kept me heavily back logged on tasks). Almost a week that I haven't followed news or went on Facebook, I am now officially cured from the Facebook syndrome :). I guess the killing of Bin Laden made it past my avoidance and came to me on the radio. Upon hearing the news and then checking briefly some editorials and articles about the event a few things seem to hit me.

1. If you want to hide you don't go and live in a building totally odd within its local and expect to go unnoticed. It seemed extremely odd for the most notorious (a claim of the USA) extremist in the world to that. To me finding it would be as easy as finding a white Caucasian in West Africa, and that it seemed that his whereabouts were known for a while.
2. I honest think that the whole halo about Bin Laden was a making of the USA policy, the continuous need for a "bad guy" figure to justify that the USA is the "good cowboy" to save the day and give it reason (mostly to Americans) to go an purse this "bad guy" and save the world (just like the movies). So the USA needed Bin Laden as much as he needed it to explain himself and his beliefs.
3. The proximity of the events to the spring of change storming through the Middle East seemed too much of a coincidence. The seemed to be related together and not independent. Specifically the fall of Mubarak (more so that Bin Ali) and how the outlook to the global future is somewhat changing.

I couldn't help correlating the events.

As far as I see it, the spring of change has taken so many by surprise, and they find themselves needing to catch up. That means taking different policies and positions to mitigate the situation. I also think that policy makers in the USA as not as stupid as the once-leaders of the Arab world, hoping that change would go away on its own and then being surprised that it is too late for actions.

Putting them together I believe that the USA has decided to change its policy in the Middle east to avoid more frustration of the people in the Arab world that would hinder their engagement and involvement in the region. They need to go down a different path and that has prerequisites.

If the foreign policy is to change with organizations like Hamas, the USA public wouldn't accept it while Bin Laden is still there. His time is up and they need to deliver on this item to be able to have flexibly to act differently, so he had to go. Amazingly, Mubarak was the corner stone that kept Bin Laden alive.

I would add, that although I think the USA will change its policy with nations in the region beyond Israel, I never would claim that they would be on our side. They would still be with the Israel camp on many fronts, and ultimately, but they would avoid annoying the Arabs in the region and hence give them an opportunity to win some minds back. The policy change needs us to be weary of it, but make the most out of this change.

My 2 cents