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Faced with an event of Berlin Wall magnitude on its home turf, the Arab media is torn over the uprising in Egypt and how to report it, if at all.
In the old days, the media's role was not so much to report the news as to "guide" the public, shielding them from "harmful" information or anything that… Read more
A doctored photograph from the semi-official al-Ahram newspaper, showing Mubarak leading the way during his visit to the White House last September
With Egyptian protesters beginning a "million-person march" today – probably heading for the presidential palace – Mubarak's… Read more
This is a guest post by Parvez Sharma
“Please use my real name Omar from now on—we have nothing left to hide anymore”
That is how the man I was calling Yousry started his remarkable interview ith me a few hours ago. At a point in our conversation he also said “ Please tell Mubarak we do not… Read more
This is a guest post by Parvez Sharma
It's lonely and I am thinking (and dreaming) in 140 characters or less. The only people I have spoken to in the last few days are friends in Egypt, friends from Egypt in the US, my boyfriend and a few reporters. I have turned down requests to be ferried… Read more
A poem by Yahya Labidi
What is to give light
What is to give light must endure
burning, a man once said
Another man became the matchstick
that set a nation aflame
But fire, and its appetite, cannot be
calculated, like freedom
Injustice and desperation make… Read more
The Mubarak regime still doesn't get it. Nothing illustrates its attitude more clearly than the decision yesterday to send F-16 warplanes roaring low over the thousands gathered in Tahrir Square, in the expectation that they would scurry away like frightened sheep.
Instead, the protesters stood… Read more
Just a brief post to take stock of the situation in Egypt this morning.
President Mubarak is still clinging to what remains of his power. Yesterday, he appointed Omar Suleiman as his vice-president (a post that he had kept vacant for the last 30 years). At the very least, this suggests… Read more
This is a guest post by Parvez Sharma
American television networks and an endless parade of mostly white men pundits (brought out and dusted off with their cobwebs) should take lessons from Al-Jazeera in live reportage, in not having pundits talk over the chants of a mass of humanity, in… Read more
With his plans to attend the Cairo Book Fair today regrettablydisrupted, President Mubarak will instead spend the day choosing a new cabinet to replace the one he dismissed on television last night.
But his sudden offer of "dialogue" after 30 years in power is not going to cut any… Read more
This is a guest post by Parvez Sharma
Cairo is burning. So is Egypt. Twitter is exploding. Everyone seems to have an opinion – many who have never even been to Egypt but feel a strong sense of solidarity with the most remarkable revolution in a generation, perhaps. A revolution which… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
