DIARY TO DEMOCRACY (7th Entry)

18th February 2011, Friday of Victory
Hundreds of thousands Egyptians went to Tahrir Square once on Friday the 18th of February to celebrate their victory exactly one week after Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Feb 11.
They called it the ‘Friday of Victory’ and in fact it was a Friday of utmost freedom and joy. Where else in the world can citizens decide to turn the centre of their city into a one million people party without needing an official permit, police or any organisation at all? Various groups sent out messages on Facebook, Twitter and by regular SMS, the word spread and rich and poor of all ages turned up to peacefully celebrate. What a fantastic change! Only four weeks ago the very notion of such great numbers gathering in a public space was not only inconceivable but life threatening.
People were commemorating the martyrs, as they call the victims of the revolution, displaying their pictures and praying for them. Everybody was waving flags and chanting “irfa3 rassak foq, inta masri,” (“Hold your head up, you are Egyptian”) expressing their newly found pride in being Egyptian. In the past 12 years, since I’m living in Egypt, I constantly heard people complaining about Egypt and expressing their hopelessness, not having the power and the courage to even change the smallest thing – everybody was caught up in a big corrupt machine. It made me very happy to know that people were now able to speak out against injustice. It was like an enormous version of Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, London – many men and women, spread all over Downtown, gave speeches about their ideas for the future and how to improve the society, or shared political ideas to anybody who would listen. Others were giving out fliers with pleas like ‘Don’t take bribes’ or, ‘Don’t drive the wrong way up a one-way street’, as it is widely appreciated that Egypt’s problems exist in all walks of life.
A military band was playing patriotic anthems before the masses came together for the traditional Friday Prayer that was held by the famous Sheikh Yousef El Qaradawi, Head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. “Today I will not only address Muslims; I’m addressing Muslims and Copts, I’m addressing all Egyptians,” Qaradawi said.
The song ‘Ya Habibti, ya Masr’ (My Darling, Egypt) by the famous and now retired actress and singer, Shadia about her patriotic love of Egypt, was blasted through large speakers and people were dancing wildly in the streets, singing along at the top of their voices. I hope many ‘Fridays of Freedom and Joy’ will follow in the coming years.

People in the flag business have quite a good income these days. 😉

All segments of society were in Tahrir Square, religious, secular, young, old, conservative, modern, traditional…you name it.

Facebook, twitter and other social networks are definitely an important tool of communication in Egypt. But it shouldn’t be over-rated as there are also millions of Egyptians who participate in protests without using the internet as means of communication.

Everybody wants his/her photo taken with soldiers and tanks. People still believe in the army as their friend and supporter. Something that I found quite weird from the beginning. I mean Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Field Marshal Tantawy is a close ally of former president Hosni Mubarak and always protected the corrupt regime. In return Mubarak gave the army the chance to build up a huge economic empire. Why should anybody trust them and why should one think now that they will help to democratize the country? In order to have a democracy wealth need to be distributed more equally. That would mean that the army has to give up huge chunks of its economical power.