While some protesters with Occupy Seattle this week are getting arrested or awakened by cops in the wee hours of the morning , no one is getting run down by a car. Not so in Egypt.
This week, the car carrying the Dean of Mansoura University in Egypt ran over 15 students who were protesting university policies. I found this out this morning while talking with Nihal, an activist from Egypt now working with the World Bank in Washington DC, as she told me of the shocking responses by some leading university officials to demands of Egyptian students seeking change. And yesterday, Sumyia, an activist teacher I spoke with through Skype video in Cairo, informed me that Muammar Gaddafi's death had just been officially confirmed, according to official sources in Egypt.
No longer are we confined to just reading or watching the news about events in other countries. We can easily now gather first-person, unfiltered news directly from those experiencing events in other countries.
I am currently interviewing activists in Egypt in preparation for a presentation for the Global Washington Annual Conference at the end of this month. I will be moderating a panel with two other international activists as we examine the effects of the Egyptian revolution on education and non-governmental organizations (NGO's) operating in Egypt.
Using tools like free Skype video calls, the Egyptian activists and educators are sharing very personal stories with us about what it is really like now in Egypt. Despite the rare but shocking violent responses Nihal reported, there is also a sense of determination by most activists I spoke with, indicating that "we won't turn back to how we were before". We will not only share these comments with the participants at this conference, but we will bring in some of these voices from the field directly to you through a live Skype video broadcast. I hope you will come, ask your own questions, and get answers directly from our Skype participants in Cairo. See you there!
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