ktravula – a travelogue!

Campus Students Protest

Yesterday, in a temperature of about ten below zero, Egyptian students and friends gathered at the Free Speech Quadrangle on campus to lend a voice to the protests in Egypt calling on President Mubarak to acquiesce to the demands of his citizens, turn mobile phone connections and internet back on, and stop visiting violence on peaceful protesters, and resign his position as president if he is unable to do so.

A reporter from the campus paper The Alestle came around at some point to interview the protesters. It was during this time in protest that we heard that President Mubarak had dissolved his government – an insufficient concession that doesn’t address any of the demands nor take the blame for thirty years of misrule. Among other hopes of the protesters on campus is that the United States which is Egypt’s biggest ally takes a stand with the people rather than with a dictator that has misruled a country for so long. History has shown that ambivalence in situations like this always benefits the oppressors and not the victims.

More protests are planned for St. Louis at the weekend, and at Egyptian embassies around the world.

Campus Students Protest was published on January 29th, 2011, with the tags , , , , , under the Observations category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Attention Egypt!

In a blatant crackdown on the right of people to protest, assemble, and demand for democracy and a better standard of living, the government of Egypt led by the 83 year old dictator Hosni Mubarak has turned off internet and mobile phone access in the country. Since yesterday night, citizens of the country have been unable to access the internet or use their phones to communicate with anyone outside the country. This is one of the most draconian measures taken so far in an effort to stifle protest rather than budge and give the people what they want. What will come next is predictable, the government will find it easy to shoot, kidnap, and round people up without word of it getting out to the outside world. This is unacceptable.

The protests springing up in the middle east and other parts of the world today represent citizens being fed up of the way things are run. First it was Tunisia where citizens rose up and sent a dictator fleeing. Now the heat is on Egypt, and this heated protests are led by young people. We’ve also heard of similar uprisings in Yemen. It is a fundamental right of citizens to be heard and for their grievances to be listened to. To have them shot at, arrested and punished for doing so not only makes the uprising justified, it makes it even more imperative. The United States, unfortunately, has not been unequivocally supportive of the people’s right to remove a non-democratic government that has been in power since almost thirty years. Come on, what ever happened to choice, to democracy and a representative government!?

My colleague here from Egypt has become worried since yesterday when all contact with her family in Egypt was cut off by government crackdown on the tools of global communication. Who knows what the government is doing to them now? I call on all people who hate dictatorship and government brutality and who love freedom and self aspiration to support the call on President Mubarak to support the aspiration of the people for better government and more freedom or resign his position and flee the country like his fellow dictator in Tunisia. Not only has he planned to remain in government for the rest of his life, he has even begun to prepare his son as a replacement when he eventually passes. Well, from what we see of people’s responses on the streets of Egypt, it looks like that is not going to happen after all. Or is it?

There is a planned protest of Egyptian students and friends here on campus today, and I plan to attend. Take that USA!

 

Attention Egypt! was published on January 28th, 2011, with the tags , , , under the Opinion category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Oh Yes!

“It’s been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come“- Sam Cooke

One of the greatest demonstrations of freedom took place in Nigeria on Tuesday the 16th. It was a youth rally that had over a thousand young professionals storm the Eagle’s Square and the National Assemby complex (the Nigerian Senate building) to demand a change to the way the country is run and the direction to which it is going. It was tagged Enough is Enough. It was a popular uprising that the country has had coming for a long time. One stupid national event after another that has brought disgrace to the name of the nation has happened many times and for weeks, months and years it had been necessary for something to come along and break the cycle of citizen complacency. This was it, along with other rallies that have taken place in the past weeks. And this was extra relevant because it was organized by young people, the main beneficiaries of the inevitable future. On the short run, it won’t solve any problems. It will need to be sustained and backed with vigilance and active participation in governance at every level, but as a demonstration of the will of the people to challenge misrule and bad governance, this is one of the best recourse of an enlightened citizenry. Luckily, unlike what these pictures show, it was actually a peaceful protest – albeit a very angry one, as it should be.

I followed the rally from my laptop as early as 4am on Tuesday on twitter and via the live video feed until I finally slept off by 8am. One thing I can say is that the audio and video feeds I got didn’t give me the best and most accurate portrayal of the event and I was frustrated half of the way. But here now are some of the most memorable, and favourite, pictures from the event, obtained from Facebook today thanks to Ohimai Godwin Amaize, former campus journalist and one of the guys on the front row. What can I say? I am proud to be a young Nigerian, and I align with those bold to challenge the status quo. I hope that more rallies like this take place around the country, and I hope that the required change comes.

Yesterday, the acting president dissolved his cabinet, which on some level could be seen as the beginning of progress. Who knows?

Oh Yes! was published on March 18th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , under the News, Observations, Opinion category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.