[Air-L] Message from Egypt

[Dr. Rasha Abdulla]

Dear friends and colleagues,

I wanted to thank you all for the outpour of good wishes emails that I
received, and I apologize if I couldn't reply to each and every one
individually. As you can probably tell, there's so much for me to do in
Egypt right now.

I wanted to share this story and picture with you for now, it kinda
illustrates my point.
http://www.allfacebook.com/photo-of-egyptian-saying-i-love-facebook-goes-viral-2011-02

More later.
All the best
Rasha

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 2:30 AM, Dr. Rasha Abdulla <rasha at aucegypt.edu>wrote:

> Dear friends and colleagues,
>
> This is a brief message from Egypt at the end of a very long and tiring
> day. Just to thank you for the ISOC Statement on Egypt's Internet shutdown
> and for your wishes and thoughts. I have been down at Tahrir Square (which
> means "Liberation" by the way) almost everyday this week, and I can tell you
> our 7000-year-old nation is being re-born.
>
> I don't have any scientific theories to back me up right this moment (maybe
> I will when I'm better rested and I've had time to read all your messages on
> the subject, this is the first day we've had Internet access since Friday
> morning our time), but I can tell you this has been, to a very large extent,
> an Internet-based revolution. Even the illiterate classes who are down on
> Tahrir Square say this was started "by the youth of Facebook" and I do agree
> with them. Please forgive my lack of scientific support for now, but it's
> almost 2:30 am here and I really need some sleep for another long day
> tomorrow. I have three books to my name on different aspects of Internet use
> and its effect in the Arab world, and this will probably be the topic for my
> fourth book; and I also am founding editor of an Egyptian book series on
> "Digital Literacy" so I will claim that I know my stuff to a good extent. I
> do have a lot of elaboration to do, I know, but I'll ask that you bear with
> me till I have a little more time on my hands.
>
> I'm just writing to let you know that the youth of Facebook, who have
> revived this great country, are hanging tight in Tahrir Square, together
> with hundreds of thousands, at times millions, of people who have joined
> them, many of them not even Internet users. There's a new momentum in the
> air, and we hope it will lead to a much better future for this country and
> its people.
>
> Your thoughts, wishes, and prayers are much needed and much appreciated.
>
> All the best.
> Rasha
>
> --
> Rasha A. Abdulla, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor and Chair
> Journalism and Mass Communication
> The American University in Cairo
> www.rashaabdulla.com
>
>


-- 
Rasha A. Abdulla, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair
Journalism and Mass Communication
The American University in Cairo
www.rashaabdulla.com