Egypte eRevolutie noch democratie

Technologie als quick fix voor autoritaire regimes: wat zou het toch handig zijn. helaas. Revoluties zijn complexer dan de mate waarin dissidenten twitteren, bloggen of vloggen. Voor omwentelingen (in Egypte overigens nog in volle gang, mocht u denken dat de revolutie daar ten einde is) van Arabische omvang is meer nodig dan een internetaansluiting. Veel moed, veel mensen en veel gevaar is een belangrijker ingrediënt. Vindt Virginia Eubanks:

However, as Zhuo, Wellman and Yu show, organized groups, informal networks, and formal organizing training played an equally (if not more) crucial role in these not-so-spontaneous protests. Established political groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the April 6 Youth Movement were central to organizing the Tahrir Square protests. Word of mouth and television spread more information and mobilized more protesters than social media and internet sources. Egyptian activists received face-to-face training and support from international allies such as CANVAS (the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies) in Serbia. So social media supported and supplemented on-the-ground organizing, rather than simply unleashing democratic forces. Even in Asmaa Mahfouz’s now-famous video blog, which some credit with launching the January 25 protests, she informs watchers that she’s to get off the internet, because she’s on her way to hand out fliers in the street.

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