Dear friends and colleagues, I wanted to thank you all for the outpour of good wishes emails that I received, and I apologize if I couldn't reply to each and every one individually. As you can probably tell, there's so much for me to do in Egypt right now. I wanted to share this story and picture with you for now, it kinda illustrates my point. http://www.allfacebook.com/photo-of-egyptian-saying-i-love-facebook-goes-vir... More later. All the best Rasha On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:30 AM, Dr. Rasha Abdulla <rasha@aucegypt.edu>wrote:
Dear friends and colleagues,
This is a brief message from Egypt at the end of a very long and tiring day. Just to thank you for the ISOC Statement on Egypt's Internet shutdown and for your wishes and thoughts. I have been down at Tahrir Square (which means "Liberation" by the way) almost everyday this week, and I can tell you our 7000-year-old nation is being re-born.
I don't have any scientific theories to back me up right this moment (maybe I will when I'm better rested and I've had time to read all your messages on the subject, this is the first day we've had Internet access since Friday morning our time), but I can tell you this has been, to a very large extent, an Internet-based revolution. Even the illiterate classes who are down on Tahrir Square say this was started "by the youth of Facebook" and I do agree with them. Please forgive my lack of scientific support for now, but it's almost 2:30 am here and I really need some sleep for another long day tomorrow. I have three books to my name on different aspects of Internet use and its effect in the Arab world, and this will probably be the topic for my fourth book; and I also am founding editor of an Egyptian book series on "Digital Literacy" so I will claim that I know my stuff to a good extent. I do have a lot of elaboration to do, I know, but I'll ask that you bear with me till I have a little more time on my hands.
I'm just writing to let you know that the youth of Facebook, who have revived this great country, are hanging tight in Tahrir Square, together with hundreds of thousands, at times millions, of people who have joined them, many of them not even Internet users. There's a new momentum in the air, and we hope it will lead to a much better future for this country and its people.
Your thoughts, wishes, and prayers are much needed and much appreciated.
All the best. Rasha
-- Rasha A. Abdulla, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Chair Journalism and Mass Communication The American University in Cairo www.rashaabdulla.com
-- Rasha A. Abdulla, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Chair Journalism and Mass Communication The American University in Cairo www.rashaabdulla.com