March 29, 2007

Activist blogger Al Sharkawy about TH

Your imitation of the Abdel Karim post is very good, beside a few sounds that are anyway difficult to pronounce for non-native speakers. I think that it can have a positive effect for the freedom of expression, because very often the repetition of the same message in a different form will increase its strength and potential. In any case everyone should recognise that your imitations require a hard work from your side because you don’t speak Arabic and this aspect should contribute to draw attention to what is being transmitted.

The activist bloggers consider their blogs as an extension of the street and also the street as an extension of the virtual space of the internet. We use the blogs to organise the demonstrations, invite people to join in and then go and demonstrate, get arrested and report about that on the blogs. The popularity of my blog do have an effect on my own daily live. Sometimes people recognize me on the street and congratulate me for doing this. Most of the activists are bloggers and also friends. Our faces are well known by the state security, that’s why we cannot just meet and demonstrate peacefully. Our goal is to wake up the street to claim for a real freedom of expression. We believe that generally people feel solidary even if they are afraid to join us. The foreigners who come to witness what happens here are useful to us, because they report about these events and give us more visibility outside of Egypt.

VOICE RECORDER

out of order