Newshoggers Archive: Friday Hot Links

By John Ballard

July 8 marks the one year anniversary of one of the most important online collaborations in recent MENA history, Wael Ghonim's We Are All Khaled Said and Ahmed Maher's April 6 Youth (A6Y). A short article in Fast Company sketches the details.

On June 6, 2010, police yanked a 28-year-old businessman named Khalid Mohamed Said out of a cybercafe and brutally beat him to death. A picture of his mangled face was posted online, and it spread like wildfire. An anonymous Facebook user calling himself Al Shaheed, the Martyr, built a page called We Are All Khalid Said, and it quickly got 180,000 fans and became a hub for Egyptians sharing all sorts of thoughts, many, at first, apolitical but notable for their earnestness relating to the state of affairs in an evolving Egypt. On July 8, 2010, the page's founder, using the moniker Khalid Said, reached out to Maher to praise the work of A6Y. It was the beginning of a collaboration that would eventually lead to an elaborate January 25th demonstration put together by the two online groups. Equally vital to the demonstration was a rising tension in Egypt that was further fueled by the bombing of a church in Alexandria on January 1 that killed 21 people--it was suspected to be the work of the regime, an attempt to stoke tensions between Christians and Muslims. News related to the bombing and protests began to spark up on Twitter.

This development set the stage for what has come to be called the Arab Spring, set in motion in Tunisia by the self-immolation of Muhammad Bouazizi. US media outlets have enoough popular reports to fill air time and print space so events in the Middle East and North Africa are not likely to get even a footnote unless something explosive unfolds. This post, then, is aimed at that "News Less Traveled" part of the Newshoggers' tagline. Check hashtag #July8.

Take your pick of Tweetstreams tracking events in Egypt.

The Arabist

Lamia Hassan (Photojournalist -- check her pictures)

Andy Carvin (He's not on the scene but he's keeping up.)

Or follow the hashtag #Tahrir. ==>Check photos in the sidebar.

?The Free Gaza Flotilla 2 was blocked by Greek authorities at the main staging ports in Athens and Crete. The power of money creditors from the EU, US and Israel has them by the balls so they must be proxy to those powerful interests. Dave's post comes to mind. Meantime, the activists and the Greek people understand one another, even if the Greek authorities do not.

The unlikely alliance between Greek activists and the Flotilla

After a week of anti-austerity demonstrations and flotilla training, activists from both camps have emerged unified in their claim that Greek government no longer represents its people; rather it is now beholden to the interests of foreign bodies, be it Israel or the International Monetary Fund.

ATHENS � On a sleepy Friday afternoon in the Greek port city of Perama, just outside of the beleaguered Greek capital, a refurbished US flagged ferry boat, dubbed The Audacity of Hope, set sail for the Gaza Strip. With the attention of the international media and journalists on board from CNN and The New York Times, the boat�s captain, a sixty year old American known simply as Captain Jack, directly challenged the Greek Coast Guard to stop his ship. By nightfall, the boat and its passengers were detained after the Greek government announced, under clear Israeli diplomatic pressure, that no boats with the intention of sailing to Gaza would be allowed to leave Greek ports.

Athens provided a dramatic backdrop to the preparations of the flotilla over the past two weeks. Due to protests against overwhelmingly unpopular austerity measures, the Greek capital was literally upside down. Trash littered the streets, and urban infrastructure including telephone booths, subway stations and constructions sites lay in various stages of disrepair as Greek protesters channeled their aggression on the landscape of the city. In the midst of this urban chaos, flotilla organizers shuttled passengers between press conferences, media training and visits to the front lines of the demonstrations against the Greek government in the run-up to departure to Gaza.

In the trendy Athenian neighbourhood of Exarchia, flotilla organizers set up their base of operations. The neighborhood, known for its eclectic mix of chic bars and anarchist cafes, has served as an unofficial autonomous zone for exhausted demonstrators needing a break from the front lines of clashes between demonstrations and Greek riot police. At any given moment in the last two weeks, one could find anarchists gearing up to destroy a Greek bank across from flotilla organizers holding an international press conference. From this haphazard intersection of revolutionary activism developed a deep connection between Greek activists and the members of the flotilla as their goals slowly aligned.

�We are in full solidarity with the Greek people as they resist austerity measures which are going to ruin their country,� Lisa Fithigan, one of the passengers on the Audacity of Hope, remarked as a group of flotilla activists walked a short five blocks to Syntagama Square, the focal point of demonstrations in central Athens. �Our mission to Gaza has the full support of the Greek people. We are both against the foreign takeover of Greece and have become united on the ground in Athens.�

By chance, Greece was chosen as the staging ground for the flotilla at a time when the Greek people were in the streets fighting to save their country from foreign takeover. After a week of anti-austerity demonstrations and flotilla training, activists from both camps have emerged unified in their claim that Greek government no longer represents its people; rather it is now beholden to the interests of foreign bodies, be it Israel or the International Monetary Fund.

Activists, not to be deterred, responded by an Air Flotilla, flying directly into Be Gurion Airport instead. As I write, they are being met with a mixture of frustration and hostility in ways that reminds me of my days years ago in the picket lines of the Civil Rights movement.

Joseph Dana's Tweets provide a running report.

?I think this video is from Syria where the situation in Hama may be the most dangerous in the region for the greatest number of people.
I'm not well-informed about events in Syria but neither is anyone else.