Anyone looking for a first-hand sense of what’s happening in Egypt right now needs to read this 2.2 Pajamas Media column by Roger Simon, and especially listen to an mp3 interview with the Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey — “an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled” — that Simon has embedded within.
“The witty and courageous Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey is currently in hiding in his native city of Cairo, moving from one friend’s apartment to another, as supporters of Hosni Mubarak pursue him and other democracy demonstrators,” Simon writes.
“I had been trying to reach Sandmonkey — who has written for Pajamas Media — ever since the demonstrations broke out, because I suspected he would be in the thick of things. But as most know, the internet was cut in Egypt until Wednesday.
“When I finally got through to him late Wednesday night Pacific time, I discovered that, boy, were my suppositions ever correct. Sandmonkey was indeed in the thick of things and his on-the-ground observations that I recorded in this Skype audio-only interview were in many ways surprising and contradicted what we are hearing in our media.”
Final graph from Sandmonke’s latest posting: “The End is near. I have no illusions about this regime or its leader, and how he will pluck us and hunt us down one by one [until] we are over and done with and 8 months from now will pay people to stage fake protests urging him not to leave power, and he will stay ‘because he has to acquiesce to the voice of the people.’ This is a losing battle and they have all the weapons, but we will continue fighting until we can’t. I am heading to Tahrir right now with supplies for the hundreds injured, knowing that today the attacks will intensify, because they can’t allow us to stay there come Friday, which is supposed to be the game changer. We are bringing everybody out, and we will refuse to be anything else than peaceful.
“If you are in Egypt, I am calling on all of you to head down to Tahrir today and Friday. It is imperative to show them that the battle for the soul of Egypt isn’t over and done with. I am calling you to bring your friends, to bring medical supplies, to go and see what Mubarak’s gaurantees look like in real life. Egypt needs you. Be Heroes.”
