The second draft of history in Egypt

by David Safier

We read and watched the first draft of history as the events unfolded in Egypt and the media followed them as well as they could without having enough time or information to talk about the back story.

A fascinating article in today's NY Times tells more of the tale, detailing the intricate system of social networking spanning years which allowed Egypt's uprising to function as well as it did. The sense of calm, order and organization that pervaded the days of protests were possible because of careful preparation, which included  Mohamed ElBaradei, who, according to the article, "returned to Egypt a year ago to try to jump-start its moribund political opposition." Egyptians and Tunisians shared ideas and created coalitions. When the protests began to gather steam, they had a plan.

I'm not sure if this makes what happened in Egypt more or less miraculous. It certainly makes more sense that this kind of thing doesn't come out of thin air, that there has to be planning. But even the most careful planning only makes things like this happen if the time is right.

And if anyone thinks Facebook is nothing more than a frivolous time waster — and, of course, it often is a frivolous time waster — read the article to see how it was used to gather together a critical mass of supporters which told the organizers of the protests that they had enough support to start things rolling.

And anyone who thinks Obama was a passive bystander, read the article. While advisers were telling him this would go nowhere special, he saw that something real was happening. And he was on the phone with Mubarak and other Middle Eastern leaders, staying on top of things and helping steer the events in the right direction.