Scene at Tahrir thousands and thousands despite the extreme hot weather.
After Friday prayer the protesters held a martyr prayer dedicated to the people of Syria,Yemen and Libya
Not less than 4 stages are there
This is bigger than May 27th
Salafyo costa and the coalition of Salafists youth are there
The sit in tents are at the gardens in front of the AUC. People are resting there from heat.
The Muslim brotherhood is there with banner calling for justice.
The Middle class is there.
It is crowded , people from all ages and background here. I saw men and ladies as old as my grandma attending the protest along babies who came with their families.
Ramy Essam chants new songs criticizing SCAF in one stage "The liberal stage" while on another stage "The Islamist" famous constitutional jurist Tharwat Badawy was saying the States and Israel the main enemies working against the revolution. There are not less than 5 stages in Tahrir square. As I said there was liberal one , Islamist one , the one in front of Hardees , the Wafd party stage "first time to participate at Tahrir in this way as far as I could tell" and besides them ironically is the Nasserist parties stage !!
I noticed that the Islamists Stage or the Muslim brotherhood stage was less critical to the SCAF from the time I spent watching it unlike for instance the Hardees stage or the liberal stage.
I did not see anyone being forced to leave the stage despite I heard and read that some Muslim brotherhood member and Youth revolution coalition member Ziad El-Alimy were forced to leave the stage at some point. I am sure about that.
I saw potential presidential candidates Abdullah El-Ashal and Mohamed Salim El Awa at the square while potential presidential candidate Bothina Kamel announced that she would start an open sit in at the square. Presidential candidate Amr Moussa attended the Friday prayer at Omar Markam and stayed for a little time at Tahrir square before leave. Potential presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabhi and Hisham El Bastawisi participated in the protest at Alexandria.
These are our demands if anyone was asking.
Potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei did not participate in the protest despite he supported it because he did not to know this to be interpreted in the wrong way yet he will speak on CNN about it shortly.
There were parties and group distributing surveys , applications and flyers , here is one of the surveys asking the people to evaluate the performance of the SCAF. I had a copy from that survey.
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| From Mohamed El-Garhey |
There were political dialogues all over the place between complete strangers who were only few minutes at Tahrir square.
I visited the field hospital and according to the doctors there most people came there complaining from low blood pressure because of the heat. Based on the ministry of health not less 170 were sick because of heat.
The hospital needs this supply ya people :
- Blood pressure meters
- Stethoscopes
- Alcohol
- Glucose meters
- Diclofen pills
- Braddoral pills
- Epicotil pills
The street vendors were there as well selling cold beverages ,t-shirts and cheap souvenirs as it is a golden opportunity for them. Despite the fear from what would result from today "thanks to the mainstream media" , I believe McDonalds , Pizza Hut and Cilantro had their best days today.
I saw reformist judge Khodairy at Cilantro but I could not approach him because both of us were tired but I managed to speak with the amazing Hala Fahmy , the reformist TV hostess from the national Egyptian TV. Hala Fahmi was roaming the square with a big banner rejecting Osama Heikal as minister of information and the ministry of information altogether.
Ironically she was standing in front of the ERTV van which everybody attacked and refused to speak with its crew. One lady told me that she refused to speak with that TV crew after knowing that it was the national Egyptian TV.
The Egyptian TV was not the only TV unwanted in the square , CBC was reportedly kicked out of the square and they had to film from that big building over the square , same thing happened to Al Hayat channel. I have heard that Al Jazeera correspondent in Alexandria was kicked out of the protest still I am not sure.
Al Nahar TV channel showed a footage for two thugs arrested with knives at Tahrir square and detained. It is worth to mention that the security check points are extremely organized.
I met today Loai Nagati and his spirit was high and great.Yesterday Loai was released because of health reasons still the case is on. Last night he appeared on ONTV and he criticized field Marshal Tantawy like no other on TV to the level of freaking out Reem Maged :) I met Loai with wonderful tweeps/bloggers/activists Reem Awad , Salma Talaat and Mohamed Sobhy as well.
The protest was not in Cairo or Alexandria or Suez but reportedly in not less than 21 governorates. The protesters in Alexandria started to have their sit in at Saad Zaglol square. There were reportedly protests in Upper Egypt for the first time since February 11th , same thing in Sharkia and Tanta which witnessed a big protest as well. There were protests even in Sharm El Sheikh as well as Aswan.
There were protests at Bani Sawif , they were bit violent because some people broke in to a police station there to free some detainees.
The Suez sit in gave a warning to SCAF that if their demands are not to be met "concerning the rights of the martyrs" , there will be a civil disobedience in the city tomorrow. You must bear in mind we are speaking about the workers of the Suez canal authority affiliated companies who are currently on strike.There is a sit in in Alexandria , Mansoura, Damietta , Ismailia and Tanta as far as I know
The Youth now at Tahrir are currently having their sit in , there are thousands there since last night. They cleaned the square.
Here is a video from Sharm El Sheikh in South Sinai where protesters stood outside Sharm El Sheikh hospital and attacked its most famous patient former/ousted President Mubarak. The people of Sinai do not want him there already.
Here are photos from Al Arbin square from short while ago at Suez Online.com