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