i watched the sun set by his side and as the last bits of golden light danced on the water's surface, he took me inside, into his arms.

with the darkness, the rains came, and we had to leave. thunder and lightning followed as he drove me home that night. he held my hand in his as he drove too fast on the dark, country roads, singing along to the music that pounded through the speakers.

he drove like nothing else mattered, just us.

trying to keep up with the music, the car, the rain, our hearts raced.

and it was then, with him, in the darkness, that i felt truly alive.

Side Notes:

1. The black abayas, I think I may know where to find it. Its somewhere in Arab St. In a secluded area. So I will inform you more after I have checked it out. 
2. Follow this link: click here. To be directed to the weather forecast website, i have found.
3. About the Saudi King, I think the answer is quite simple. They follow the monarchy system. So, after the death of King Fahd, the former King, the throne goes to the Crown Prince, which was then King Abdullah. Its not as complicated.
    

But, I find the Egyptian protest more interesting. This strike , which became a full blown protest was not just an out burst of agony, but a preplanned event. Egypt is a nation where as more than half of the population is in poverty. Egypt is nation in which doctors with 20 years of experience earn $80 per month. Which means the textile factory workers earn much less. April 6^th was supposed to be a strike against the law wages and the high food costs. But instead the strike has turned into a huge protests, where more than 200 people were arrested. These include those on the street and those who got the word out to mobilize the people to be a part of the strike. This includes bloggers, and social Internet groups’ administrators on sites like Facebook. One of those arrested was Ersa Fattah. Her Facebook group attracted more than 64,000 Facebook members.

Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube are changing the way we communicate and mobilize people to create social change, voice their opinion, or just simply hang out with friends. Even though computers are unfordable by most people; they are widely available to people though out the world at schools, universities, or Internet cafes. That is why youth around the world are using these social networks and other as well to get the word out. Even though not all Egyptian youth own computers, they are able to communicate with each other though voice (Skypecasts), words (email, blogs, Facebook, MySpace), images (flicker, YouTube). Before the April 6^th strike, there was an on line campaign though emails, blog postings, Facebook groups, and videos on YouTube. The result family and friends of the youth heard about the strike. The result was panic by the government, which lead to massive arrests of more than 200 people.

Esra Fattah was doing what she thought her right. She was simply speaking her mind, then before she knew 64,000 people joined her group. As a result, as she sat in the Internet café, she was arrested. After her mother pleaded to the government, the government released her. But that is not the case of others who were arrested for the same reason, of speaking their minds.

I just have the below video as an example. As you can see the video uses pictures that show unity amount the Egyptian people. It is not a call for violence, but a peaceful strike to stay at home and not buying anything for the day, to say that the low wages and the high cost of living is too much to bare. But as you can see in the other video the intended peaceful strike became a full fledged protest and civil disobedience.

I am not writing this to make you afraid from speaking what is on your mind and calling the people to act. The point is, social network groups on the Internet are very powerful, if you aim your call to the right crowd with the right message. Not to mention social online networking can also save your life. Twitter helped to sav e James Karl Buck’s life. He texted to Twitter “arrested” by Egyptian Police. Soon those who follow his Twitter page contacted the US Embassy for release. The next day he was released. But his Egyptian translator is still in jail, so he is currently on a hunger strike until he his Translator Mohamed is released. You can check on the updates your self if you go to his page.

Also, even though the strike did not go as planned, Egyptians are not discouraged. They are planning for another strike on the president Mubark’s birthday on May 4th. A new Facebook group is up and currently has over 21,000 members calling Egyptians to stay at home again. They hope the strike will be more effective.

Already, the president Mubarak said yesterday that the salary of the government workers will be increased by 30% this month. That proves my point, that your voice can be heard, if you are loud enough. At least that is what the government has said through its newspapers like Al-Ahram.

I am just curious to know if you are a member of any social networks. What kind of activities are taking place online did you notice that call for social change? what are they trying to change? Did they succeed in anyway?

]]> http://subalternate.wordpress.com/?p=79 Thu, 01 May 2008 09:19:56 +0000 subalternate http://subalternate.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/what-may-4th-means/ On May 4th 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the Inter Caestera Divinae, a papal bull which gave Spanish kingdoms jurisdiction of nearly all of the ‘New World'. Upon the suggestion of Columbus, the pope declared that Spain's demarcation would be one hundred leagues west of any of the Cape Verde Islands or of the Azores. No doubt, Portugal was upset with this announcement and protested that Spain had been given too much land.

On June 7, 1494, the two great powers came together to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which renegotiated the demarcation and drew a new line 1300 miles west of the Azores. All lands west of the line were granted to Spain and all lands east of the line were to belong to Portugal (If you have ever wondered why most Latin Americans speaks Spanish while Brazilians speaks Portuguese, the Treaty of Tordesillas is your answer).

This agreement between the two nations would have terrible consequences in Latin America and since that time, the continents white minority have ruled with impunity and ferocity. For more than 500 years, the whole of Latin America has been controlled by the ancestors of the Spanish and Portuguese, to the detriment of millions of indigenous and Africans, the latter brought over as slaves. One should not be surprised that these elite are not willing to relinquish their power.

Unfortunately, democracy has somewhat limited the ability to treat the countries of Latin America as their own personal possessions and the 2005 election of Aymara Indian Evo Morales is a wake up call to the whites that the indigenous are prepared to reclaim what was once theirs. Rather than accepting this outcome, the elite in Bolivia are seeking autonomy for their Departments. Their autonomy referendum is slated for May 4th, and much like Inter Caestera Divinae in 1493, they seek to keep as much as possible in the hands of the Spanish as possible. They will not accept the fact that the Morales government wants to redistribute land to the landless, land which is in the hands of a small minority.

I will be watching the wires closely on May 4th and while no international organizations will accept the May 4th referendum (here) it is important to see how things will develop in this long neglected country. Al-Jazeera does a full report on the autonomy issue. I just hope what I wrote gives the issue a bit more context!

Part 1

Part 2