Egypt's Revolution: Long Distance Solidarity

Humbled by the courage shown all over Egypt by those fighting to end Mubarak's regime, I had to the least that I could to show solidarity. I got to the rally in downtown Toronto (Yonge and Dundas) at 1pm on Saturday, when it was just getting started:

Lots and lots of flags. Predominantly Egyptian, of course, but also Algerian, Palestinian, and (unsurprisingly) Tunisian and Canadian:

Soon after joining the group, the crowd grew around us. Among the many signs, there was the great Tunisian statement:

The line, from a famous poem by Abul-Qasim Ash-Shabbi, roughly translates as "If the people one day will to live, destiny cannot but respond."

The rallying cries were varied. Some were well known: "الشعب يريد اسقاط النظام" "The people want to topple the regime", "يسقط يسقط حسني مبارك" "Down down, Hosni Mubarak", "عاش الهلال مع الصليب" "Long live the crescent with the cross". There were also some new cries (who comes up with all these line): "لا سليمان ولا شفيق الحكاية مش تلفيق" "No Suleiman and no Shafiq, this matter won't be rigged", and "شوفو يا خلق البيه الضابط عمره ما فكر فكرة وصابط" "Look people at the officer, he's never had an idea that worked". And, this being Toronto, there were many English cries as well: "One two three four, Hosni Mubarak out the door, five six seven eight, let Egyptians choose their fate", "Hey hey, ho ho, Hosni Mubarak has to go", "What do we want? Freedom! When do we want it? Now!"

And here's a line everyone can get behind:

Anti-regime sentiment has been growing steadily for years, but it really started ramping up last June when a young man called Khaled Said was beaten to death in public by police officers. He's shown here with the #Jan25 Twitter hashtag:

Here's a fun video, where one of the rally leaders said he wanted to offer an impromptu Arabic lesson to non-Arabic-speaking ralliers. What you're hearing is him calling out words in English, and the rest of us calling them back in Arabic. This was pretty much near the end of the rally, so I'll close with this one.