Inside the Egyptian revolution Wael Ghonim

this is revolution two point oh no one

was a hero no one was a hero because

everyone was a hero everyone have done

something and we all use Wikipedia if

you think of the concept of wikipedia

where everyone is collaborating content

and at the end of the day you’ve built

the largest encyclopedia in the world

from just an idea that sounded crazy you

have the largest encyclopedia in the

world and in the Egyptian revolution the

revolution to point Oh everyone have

contributed something small or big they

contributed something to bring us one of

the most inspiring stories in the

history of mankind when it comes to

revolutions it was actually really

inspiring to see all these Egyptians

completely changing if you look at the

scene Egypt for 30 years have been in a

downhill going into a downhill

everything was going bad everything was

going wrong we only ranked high when it

comes to poverty corruption lack of

freedom of speech lack of political

activism those were the achievements of

our great regime yet nothing was

happening and it’s not because people

were happy or people were you know not

frustrated in fact people were extremely

frustrated but the reason why everyone

was silent is what i call the

psychological barrier of fear everyone

was scared if you you know not everyone

there were actually a few brave

Egyptians that I have to to thank for

being so brave going into protests as a

couple of hundred getting beaten up and

you know arrested but in fact the

majority were scared everyone did not

want really to get in trouble a dictator

cannot live without the force they want

to make people live in fear and that

psychological barrier of fear have

worked so for so many years

and here comes the internet technology

blackberry SMS it’s helping all of us to

connect platforms like YouTube Twitter

Facebook we’re helping us a lot because

it basically gave us the impression that

wow I’m not alone there are a lot of

people who are frustrated there are lots

of people who are frustrated there are

lots of people who actually share the

same dream there are lots of people who

care about their freedom they probably

have the best life in the world they are

living and happiness they’re living in

their villas they’re happy they don’t

have problems but they are still feeling

the pain of the Egyptian a lot of us

were we’re not really happy when we see

a video of an Egyptian man who’s eating

the trash while others are stealing

billions of Egyptian pounds from the

wealth of the country the internet have

played a great role helping these people

to speak up their minds to collaborate

together to you know to start thinking

together it was an educational campaigns

planetside was killed in jun 2010 the

photo i still remember the photo i still

remember every single detail of that

photo the photo was horrible he was

tortured brutally tortured to death but

then what was the answer of the regime

you know he choked on a pile of hash

that’s that’s that was their answer he’s

a criminal he’s someone who you know

we’re escaped from all these bad things

but people did not relate to this people

did not believe this because of the

Internet the truth prevailed and

everyone knew the truth and everyone

started to think that this guy can be my

brother here is a middle-class guy his

photo is was remembered by all of us a

page was created an anonymous

administrator was basically inviting

people to join the page and there was no

plan we didn’t know what are we going to

do I don’t know in few days tons of

thousands of people were there angry

Egyptians who were asking the ministry

of interior Affairs enough get us you

know get those who killed this guy to

just bring them to justice

but of course they don’t listen it was

an amazing story how everyone started

feeling the ownership everyone was an

owner in this page people started

contributing ideas in fact one of the

most ridiculous ideas was hey let’s have

a silenced and let’s get people to go in

the street face the sea they’re back to

the to the street dressed in black

standing up silently for one hour doing

nothing and then just leaving going back

home for for some people that was like

wow silenced and and next time it’s

going to be vibration you know people

are making fun of the idea but when when

actually people went to the street the

first time it was thousands of people in

Alexandria it felt like it was amazing

it was great because I connected people

from the virtual world bringing them to

the real world sharing the same the same

dream the same frustration the same

anger the same desire to for freedom and

they were doing this thing but did the

regime learn anything not really they

were actually attacking them they were

actually abusing them despite the fact

on how peaceful these guys were they

were not even protesting and things have

developed until the Tunisian revolution

but this whole page was again done

managed by the people in fact that the

anonymous admin job was to collect ideas

help people to vote on them and actually

tell them what they are doing it people

were taking shots and photos people

reporting violations of human rights in

Egypt people were suggesting ideas they

were actually voting on ideas and then

they were executing the ideas people

were creating videos everything was done

by the people to the people and that’s

the power of the Internet there was no

leader the leader was everyone on that

page the Tunisian experiment you know as

I’m loosing inspired all of us showed us

that there is a way yes we can we can do

it we have the same problems we can just

go on the street and when I saw the

street on the twenty-fifth I went back

and said Egypt before 25th is never

going to be Egypt after 25th the

revolution is happening this is not the

end this is the beginning of the end

I was detained on the twenty-seventh

night one day you know thank God I

announced the locations and everything

but then they detained me and I’m not

going to talk about my experience

because this is not about me I was

detained for 12 days blindfolded and

cuffed and I did not really hear

anything I did not know anything I was

not allowed to speak with anyone and I

went out next day I wasn’t I here

seriously with the amount of change i

have noticed in this square I thought it

was 12 years I never had in my mind to

see this Egyptian the amazing Egyptian

the fear is no longer fear it’s actually

strength its power people were so

empowered it was amazing how everyone is

so empowered and now asking for the

rights completely opposite extremism

became taller tolerance you know who

would imagine before the 25th if I tell

you that hundreds of thousands of

Christians are going to pray and tones

of thousands of Muslims are going to

protect them and then hundreds of

thousands of Muslims are going to pray

and tons of thousands of Christians are

going to protect them this is amazing

all the stereotypes that the regime are

trying to put on us through their so

called propaganda or mainstream media

are proven wrong this whole revolution

showed us how ugly how ugly such a

regime was and how great and amazing the

Egyptian man this Egyptian man the

Egyptian woman how simple and amazing

these people are whenever they have a

dream when I saw that I went back and I

wrote on Facebook and that was a

personal belief regardless of what’s

going on regardless of the details I

said that we are going to win we’re

going to win because we don’t understand

politics we’re going to win because we

don’t play their dirty games we’re going

to win because we don’t have an agenda

we’re going to win because the tears

that comes from our eyes actually come

from our hearts we’re going to win

because we have dreams we’re going to

win because we are willing to stand up

for our dreams and that’s actually what

happened we won and that’s not because

of anything but because we believed in

our dream the winning here is not you

know the whole details of the political

what’s going to happen in the political

scene the winning is the winning of the

dignity of every single Egyptian

actually I had I had this taxi driver

telling me listen I am breathing freedom

I feel that I have dignity that I have

lost for so many years for me that’s

winning regardless of all the details my

last word to you is a statement I

believe in which is Egyptians have

proven to be true that the power of the

people is much stronger than the people

in power thanks a lot