So my Friday update for divergence is behind today, but I have an excuse this time. My roomie borrowed the internet by taking the modem and router to school, forgetting to tell the rest of us he was doing so. Unfortunately, he also forgot to bring them home so we are internet-less at the moment in my apartment.
I was going to make some jokes about how communication in the apartment has degenerated without the internet to keep us entertained, but then I did a quick check of news websites at work and found that the Egyptian government has completely shut down all internet service providers and most of the mobile phone service in their country. This is obviously an attempt by the government to limit communication between the protesters, which to this point has almost entirely been via social networks and mobile communications.
Journalists are still trying to get information out of the country despite the lack of resources and the fact that at agencies have reported violence against their reporters. Some silly people may discredit the reports that came from Al Jazeera, who has been accused of inciting and encouraging the protests, but CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman has also reported that his crew was attacked and his camera broken by police in Tahrir Square and other journalists have backed up these stories.
There is no question that those on the streets (and those trying to get information out of the country) are in very real danger.
I’m in over my head discussing politics in Egypt, especially when it comes to the reasons why Western countries have been supporting the current government there. But it seems as if elections in Egypt have been rigged and opposition parties suppressed for quite a while.
This is not acceptable behavior for a country which styles itself a democracy. The US and other western governments should not continue to support Egypt’s current leaders, no matter how afraid they may be of who might step into their place of power. We don’t have the right to control the governments of the rest of the world.