news update

This just came to me from an Egyptian friend:

“They are protesting in front of [Prime Minister] Shafiq’s office and wont let him in, asking him to resign.”

I haven’t seen this story yet, and will have to poke around on the news sites again. [Update: My friend cites “tweets and al-Jazeera” as the source for the news.]

The protestors seem newly energized by the release from jail of Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who was involved in organizing the protests.

“‘Protesters say [Ghonim] is potentially some sort of figurehead for them … they have been looking for a leader.’ Ghonim, a senior executive of the US internet search company Google, may be a candidate for such a position, despite comments he made on Monday saying he did not want to be seen as a hero. Ghonim, who was responsible for setting up the Facebook page that mobilised the start of the protests, was arrested by government authorities on January 28.”

And incidentally, I rejoined Facebook, since their role in all of this outweighs my very real concerns about their privacy policies. (And I may be dumping Vodafone Egypt when I get back as well, though I want to research that story a bit more. But I did receive the two Vodafone SMS’s on February 2 urging us to protest for the government, and that’s basically unacceptable, despite the excuses I’ve read. And on February 2, of all days! I can’t remember an uglier day at the moment.)