"People holding a sign 'To: America. From: the Egyptian People. Stop supporting Mubarak. It's over!" so tweeted my brave colleague, Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous, from the streets of Cairo.
It's Friday, January 29, and the dining room at Nyood is packed. Vegetable antipasto, panko-crusted chicken, and malta braised short ribs are coming out of the kitchen of the restaurant in Toronto, courtesy of head chef and Food Network personality Roger Mooking. The lights are dim and the music is loud. Champagne and wine are flowing. A Tribe Called Quest is pumping from the speakers and diners are getting up to dance.
The front of the restaurant is glowing dimly in the light of a projection floating over the DJ booth on the rough white wall opposite the bar. On screen is the restaurant's twitter feed, which is shifting with updates in real time.
The Supreme Court of Canada's Chief Justice, Beverly McLachlan, raised many virtual eyebrows on January 31 when she expressed concern about the impacts of social media on Canada's justice system. Her worry is that people using social media as their main information source may be getting an inaccurate impression of the justice system.
Especially timely -- at least to West Coast Environmental Law -- was her question: "How can a medium such as Twitter inform the public accurately or adequately, in 140 characters or less, of the real gist of a complex constitutional decision?"
On January 25, 2011, the Egyptian revolution began. Spurred by the success of the Tunisian protests earlier in the month, activists coined the "Day of Rage" on the same day as the national holiday honouring police. Thousands take to the streets to march against the 30 year reign of dictator Hosni Mubarak. Protesters are met with tear gas from police.
The uprising was breathtaking as thousands, then hundreds of thousands more joined the protests in Tahir Square spanning almost a month. What wasn't broadcast were the days, months and years of activism leading up to the historic revolution.
On January 8, 1912, South African intellectuals -- including pioneering black newspaper publishers Pixley ka Isaka Seme, editor of Abantu-Batho, and John Langalibalele Dube, editor of Ilanga lase Natal -- formed Africa's oldest liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC) in Bloemfontein.
The brand new Academy of the Impossible nestles (huddles, coils?) in a low-rise strip of commercial real estate in Toronto's west end among other small, well-meaning enterprises. The space is bare, the acoustics are problematic, but it's already well-wired for Internet activity: social media, gaming etc. It plans to take a step beyond hacktivism toward the integration of online agitation with direct action in the streets, that the Occupy movements have embodied.