Egyptian Protests

saw it on the news earlier and about how the government was shutting down internet access to stop the protestors planning. i don't care what this government calls itself. no government has the right to believe in democracy or free speech and yet shut down the internet. i don't know if this government is democratic or whatever leaning they have, but they lost any support from me the moment they did that. No government should dictate how its people recieve its information and speak with the world.
 
saw it on the news earlier and about how the government was shutting down internet access to stop the protestors planning. i don't care what this government calls itself. no government has the right to believe in democracy or free speech and yet shut down the internet. i don't know if this government is democratic or whatever leaning they have, but they lost any support from me the moment they did that. No government should dictate how its people recieve its information and speak with the world.

We are talking about dictatorship.
 
And a place where hundreds of people are tortured in Cairo alone every day according to US diplomat cables.

Curfew now applies to the entire country. Egyptian state television is broadcasting an image of a peaceful Cairo, simply by aiming the cameras at the one place that is not on fire. Freedom fighters have stormed the Ministry of Interior.
 
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When I was at the gym today they had footage of protesters attacking a police station and the police shooting live rounds into the crowd.
 
This is the dangerous time. Even without orders, police might just get desperate and fucking scared. A big crowd is scary, very scary. They might very well act rashly..
 
The police (as well as firefighters and ambulances) are completely absent, the only other force on the street is the military and the protesters are welcoming them as their friends. Latest pictures in just a minute ago show the people are taking back what is theirs, walking out from the torched NDP party headquarters with golden chairs and other furniture.
 
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Strong echoes of Romania in December 1989, if you ask me... :| and that one ended with 1500 people (at least) shot dead on the streets.
 
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Personally, I'm not having high hopes that a potential new government is going to be any better. Mubarak isn't even that bad a dictator. Relatively speaking, of course.
 
When I was at the gym today they had footage of protesters attacking a police station and the police shooting live rounds into the crowd.

NPR reported that it's rubber rounds... not sure how that works though. Sounds painful still.
 
Usually, there are different types. But the norm is rubber coated steel. They can do profound damage if aimed wrongly. For instance, a shot towards the head will quite often be leathal. During the intifada, I even read interviews with Palestinian trauma doctors who said that they even present greater difficulties removing from the head, as they tend to sort of vibrate and cause trauma to the brain. I'm not a trauma specialist, though, so I'll have to take their word.

What I believe is the general rules for using them is to fire them towards the ground, and let them bounce onto people. I suppose their leathality increase if aimed at the body.
 
Mubarak says that without him there wouldnt be room for any protests and that egypt has him to thank for the freedom of speech. He intends to remain at his post.
 
The question is wether or not he has the choice. Perhaps the Kingdom of Saud is next? Or maybe not, they use mercanaries, so as long as the family of Saud can pay them... and they can.
 
steel shot coated in rubber.

Usually, there are different types. But the norm is rubber coated steel. They can do profound damage if aimed wrongly. For instance, a shot towards the head will quite often be leathal. During the intifada, I even read interviews with Palestinian trauma doctors who said that they even present greater difficulties removing from the head, as they tend to sort of vibrate and cause trauma to the brain. I'm not a trauma specialist, though, so I'll have to take their word.

What I believe is the general rules for using them is to fire them towards the ground, and let them bounce onto people. I suppose their leathality increase if aimed at the body.

Oww. Do not want.

Last I heard, they were targeting journalists. BBC cameraman was beat and needed to be treated at the hospital.

Mubarak dissolves Cabinet.
 
Nothing new about that. Journalists are quite targeted in that part of the world, same goes for Israel. Think about that next time you call us leftist wouzzes. We're like soldiers in war zones, only less popular an unarmed.

:p
 
Thank you for that. My old photojournalist mentor, a stringer for one of the big three papers in Norway once told us that "it's never woth dying for a picture". That's very true. I've done some thinking about it, but I can hardly imagine an image I'd risk my life to take. Life's too precious. As a digression, I remember the coverage of the Gaza war back in 2008/09. I encountered some debaters on the web (different forum) that told me that my bunch (photographers, that is) should go to Sderot and show the destruction there. Thing is, they were there. Pretty much the whole duration. He told me they started to consider digging a tunnel from the cellar of the hotel into Gaza so they could finally get in. Heh.

Anyhow, there's a lot of photographers, especially in places like Sri Lanka, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Burma etc. that are quite willing to risk their lives for a good image. They think like freedom fighters, only that their weapon is a camera, the truth. It's always like that. People did the same during the war, during Korea, Vietnam and so on.

There are some extraordinary people who do risk their lives to get the photos they need. It used to be said that the creed of a war photographer was to be able to control himself when faced with a spotty 8 year old with an AK-47, trainers and high on crack, for instance. Ever seen Saving Private Ryan? The opening was partly based on the images shot by Hungarian photographer Robert Capa. He was in the landing crafts going into Omaha beach on D-day.

That's guts. And stupidity. :)

But alas, I think we're going a little off topic.
 
Photographs can be more than photographs, they can embody an idea and ideas are worth dying for.
 
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