street roots
July 20, 2012
Google Inc executive Wael Ghonim addresses a mass crowd inside Tahrir Square in Cairo February 8, 2011.
People power against powerful people
BY JOE MARTIN
himself in protest. He died of his burns.
Outraged Tunisians took to the streets. They
arkness engulfed Cairo, Egypt. It’s
soon ousted their corrupt president.
past midnight. A young man walks in
Suddenly Egyptians realized they might do
the street’s dim light. In one startling
the same. By deft utilization of the Internet,
moment he is set upon by three men: “You
Facebook and Twitter, Ghonim found himself
will regret it if you scream,” he was told.
in the vanguard of a people’s rebellion.
Stuffed into a car’s backseat he is
By 2010 he was already engaged in
handcuffed, his belongings confiscated. His
subversive activities. On viewing the image of
a dead man on Facebook, Ghonim describes
shirt is used to blindfold him.
his revulsion: “It was a horrifying photo
Thus begins Wael Ghonim’s ordeal as a
prisoner of Hosni Mubarak, then president of showing the distorted face of a man in his
Egypt. An unexpected revolutionary, Ghonim
twenties. There was a big pool of blood
behind his head, which rested on a chunk of
helped spark events that would overthrow
marble. His face was extremely disfigured
Mubarak, who had ruled Egypt for 30 years.
and bloodied; his lower lip had been ripped
For 12 days he remained handcuffed,
blindfolded and alone. His gripping work
in half, and his jaw was seemingly dislocated.
His front teeth appeared to be missing, and it
“Revolution 2.0” recounts how he ignited an
looked as if they had been beaten right out of
uprising and endured captivity.
his mouth. The image was so gruesome that
Ghonim is married, a father and
I wondered if he had been wounded in war.”
ensconced within Egypt’s middle class. A
technophile, he is a valued employee of
The man was Khaled Mohamed Said, who
Google. It’s a dream job: “The Internet had
died in Alexandria at the hands of secret
been instrumental in shaping my experiences police. It was Ghonim’s transformative
as well as my character,” he says. “It was
moment: “I could not stand by passively in
through the Internet that I was able to enter
the face of grave injustice. I decided to
the world of communications (when I was
employ all my skills and experience to
barely 18) and network with hundreds of
demand justice for Khaled Said and to help
young people from my generation
expose his story to vigorous public debate. It
everywhere around the world. Like everyone
was time to lay bare the corrupt practices of
else, I enjoyed spending long hours in front
the Ministry of the Interior, our repressive
regime’s evil right hand.”
of a screen on chat programs. I built a
Ghonim created a Facebook page titled
network of virtual relations with people, most
“We Are All Khaled Said” and aimed it at a
of whom I never met in person.”
broad audience. The response was swift.
Ghonim could have focused on family and
Events known as “Silent Stands” were
career; he could have avoided the repressive
organized and encouraged involvement of a
forces of Mubarak. But like many Egyptians
wide array of citizens.
of all classes, Ghonim had grown disgusted
“Inspired by Gandhi and other advocates
with the stranglehold Mubarak’s regime had
of nonviolent resistance, I was keen to stress
on the country. Issues of poverty and
unemployment fomented anger and
regularly that our activities were to remain
peaceful at all costs. Gandhi is certainly one
resentment at all levels of society.
In late 2010 turbulent events erupted in
of my heroes,” says Ghonim. “I have enjoyed
neighboring Tunisia. A poor fruit seller “had
reading many books about his philosophy and
his cart confiscated by a police woman, and
about how he revived ahimsa, the ancient
when he complained to her, she allegedly
Indian religious principle of nonviolence
slapped his face, humiliating him in front of
toward all living things.”
everyone.” Later the desperate man returned
But any threat to Mubarak’s rule would be
to police headquarters and immolated
dealt with severely. Though Ghonim had
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
D
tried to remain anonymous, he was
eventually captured. While stating it is
difficult “to convey the psychological torture”
he suffered, he admits isolation and solitary
confinement is especially difficult for a
technophile: “The deafening silence and
blinding darkness could effectively render a
human being insane, and for an Internet
addict like myself,
who thrived on
communication and
whose phone and
Ofcoalm coaid h a w focused
e-mail never ceased
oh fa m ily and career^ he
their activity, it
could have avoided the
really was
unbearable.”
repressive forces of
Events took on
Mubarak® Bat lik e many
their own
Egyptians of a ll classes^
momentum in
Ghoalm had grow n disgusted
Tahrir Square.
Ghonim had no idea w ith the stranglehold
of the eruption’s
M ubaraks regim e had on the
magnitude.
Mubarak’s efforts at country»
damage control
proved futile.
People demanded
fundamental change. Days before the
president’s resignation, Ghonim was freed:
“One can only learn the value of freedom
when it is lost. Imagine losing your freedom
to move, to see, and to use your hands, not
for a few hours but for days, with no idea
what might happen next.”
At the time he was writing the book,
Ghonim and other Egyptians were awaiting
the election of a new president: “Inevitably,
in the wake of the fervor and unity of the
revolution, public opinion has fractured,
uncertainties have swirled, and we are still a
long way from a fully established democracy.
I do not pretend to have a crystal ball that
can foretell Egypt s future, but I do believe
that Egyptians will never again put up with
another pharaoh.”
Reprinted from Real Change News, Seattle
Wash.,