The BEST thing about Twitter is that, you can get so much information that is not published in the media. You can follow the events as if you’re there! And that’s what I like and that’s I’m doing right now. I’ve been following Egyptian activists and journalists for the latest news about Egypt. I’m going to put some of these tweets that are worth mentioning (warning: only recent tweets are published here as I didn’t save those that were published last week).
This is my favorite tweet by an Egyptian journalist, Nadia El-Awady:
Your worst day living in a democracy is better than your best day living under a dictator.
She also wrote about losing her camera: (I concatenate multiple tweets here)
I did not cry or cringe when I was tear gassed and shot at by Egyptian police. I did not cry when I saw dozens injured, unconscious or dead emerge from the front lines of fighting with Mubarak police or civilian thugs. I cried when my camera was broken by Mubarak thugs. My camera was my weapon in this revolt. It was the tool that created a role for me. Today, I leave home without my camera. I will not be able to afford a new one for a long time. But I will not be intimidated to stop reporting. I am equipped with two phone batteries and will tweet as long as I have internet. I will continue to give eye witness accounts to international, regional, and local media of what is happening on the ground. And I will resort to old school journalism. I will WRITE. I will write what I witness. I will continue to play my role as a reporter as long as there is still breath within me. My tools are changing but my role remains.
Sarah Abdallah, an activist, posted these tweets:
"We will never be slaves again. We will have our freedom." ~ Slogan being chanted by 2 million protesters in Tahrir Square.
There is no greater power than the unity of a people standing together against oppression.
Another Egyptian activist, Alaa Abd El Fattah, who is the son of Ahmed Seif (a human rights defender & activist who was prisoned and tortured for 7 years in 1983), was in Tahrir Square on 2 February, when Mubarak thugs attacked the peaceful pro-democracy protesters. These protesters tried so hard to protect and safeguard the square from being occupied by the thugs. The battle took at least 15 hours, day and night. He tweeted:
The battle of the [6 October] Bridge is won, at a great cost, at least one more martyr [was lost]. Army was deployed after fact shooting in air. I can’t believe the bravery and determination of revolutionaries. I abandoned the post thinking this was impossible to win. It required rushing en mass under barrage of fire from above and in face of live ammo. The sad truth is no politician in this country is worthy of the support of these heroes. At some stage, I found an elderly university professor throwing rocks next to me, I had to drag him away by force. One of the doctors giving medical aid to protesters broke down and cried while giving report to AlJazeera Arabic. This is how bloody it was.
Last but not least, Wael Ghonim, the admin of We Are All Khaled Said Facebook Page which drove many people to the streets on 25 January, tweeted:
Dear Egyptians, failure is not an option.
Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for it.
Indeed.