An Interview From the Bletches:
A Chat With Alaa and Manal
I recently (ok, it was the end of February!) had a nice chat with Egyptian blogging gurus Manal Hassan and Alaa Abd El Fatah, owners of the excellent and award-winning www.manalaa.net .
What award would that be? Well, among others manalaa.net got the special REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS AWARD from the 2005 Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards. (Check it out at ( http://www.thebobs.com/thebobs05/bob.php?site=winner_kat&katid=18 )
Without further ado, let’s find out what Manal and Alaa have to say!
SB= Sally Bishai
MA= Manal/Alaa)
*
SB:
If you had to describe your work in a few words, what would you say?
MA:
We both work on using
computer and internet technology (especially the Free/Open Source variety) to
empower communities; this is broadly
referred to as ICT4D.
*
SB:
What’s your site called,
and what do you talk about on there?
MA:
Our website is Manal And Alaa's Bit Bucket (http://www.manalaa.net).
Only a small part of it is our blog; we provide some services through our
website that are probably more interesting:
The main services are:
* Egyptian blogs aggregator that collects posts from all
known Egyptian
blogs every hour (http://www.manalaa.net/egblogs
)
* An event calendar that advertises independent culture,
art,
technology and political events (http://www.manalaa.net/event
)
* Free website hosting for Egyptian non for profit websites and blogs
(http://www.manalaa.net/free_drupal_hosting_promo)
* Volunteer help with designing and developing websites; we provide
that for causes we believe in, or speech that is prosecuted in Egypt.
* Publishing important documents and multimedia files that are not
available on the web, used with a manifesto and a bunch of advocacy
tools/initiatives to promote online citizen journalism in Egypt
(http://www.manalaa.net/citizen_journalism).
We do a bunch of other things with our servers and website and it
changes all the time but that's what we are famous for.
The blog, on the other hand, tends to be about Manal and Alaa; whatever we do in
our life is reflected there, at the moment this means sharing experiences about
participating in the pro-democracy protest movement, talking about books, music
and films we like, an occasional political rant and a lot of talk about
technology we are excited about.
*
SB:
Your blog (and work!) is
very successful.. How long did it take to get that way?
MA:
The blog has been up since 20th March 2004, however we did
not start
blogging regularly until we discovered other Egyptian bloggers and
worked on forming a network; talking alone is not much fun you see.
The turning point was on 25th of May 2005, I was part of a small group
of protesters that was attacked by regime thugs and anti-riot police, I
was probably the first person to write about the events and share his
experience (http://www.manalaa.net/the_bastards_stole_my_laptop), a
couple of friends who went through this painful experience with me sent
me accounts of their own to publish, after a while we realized that no
media outlet was covering the story properly, and no media outlet would
be able to express how it feels to be there (it was a specially horrific
event since the thugs sexually harassed female protesters).
In a couple of days all the different accounts and material available
on this event were collected in a single document (http://www.manalaa.net/never_forget
).
Since our website was the central place where everything was collected,
overnight we became a very popular website, our traffic hit the roof and our
poor server collapsed under the load; since then the growth has been very
steady.
*
SB:
Why blog?
MA:
Dunno, why not?
We never made a decision to start blogging, we wanted a space to help people
build websites, we wanted to experiment with web publishing tools that we felt
could empower activists, and we wanted to see a strong citizen journalism
movement develop but we never thought of having a non-technical role, somewhere
along the way we got sucked in.
*
SB:
Do you think that blogging
will die out any time soon, or just get more popular?
MA:
We don't think expressing
yourself in a personal space that can be loosely networked with people who share
your interests will die, but maybe the current tools and approaches will change,
maybe we will not call it blogging, but the essential act will remain.
*
SB:
What do you think of the
recent happenings in Egypt? (Brotherhood, elections, etc.)
MA:
Hohoho that's why we have
600+ Egyptian blogs to answer that question, how can we summarize it all in one
paragraph :-)
Let's just say that we are very excited at the dynamism of the past two years.
Egypt has never felt like that, we don't have high expectations and won't risk
predicting any outcomes but we're just happy to see more people trying to get
engaged politically (especially young people from our generation), and we are
happy to see more people trying to make their voices heard.
While we don't like the brotherhood we do realize that they're what most people
in Egypt want, you might think a 25% voter turnout is small but considering the
dangers voters faced (30 dead) and the general feeling of hopelessness that used
to reside over us all 25% isn't that bad. In short we are happy that our fellow
Egyptians managed to make a choice even though we are not happy about the choice
itself.
*
SB:
Do you think that the 'new
generation' of Egyptians (18 to late twenties) is showing good signs of being
involved in trying to improve Egypt?
MA:
Not broadly, but it has
been our experience that when given a chance people from our generation do not
match your stereotypical apathetic Egyptian youth who doesn't give a s--- what
happens around them.
However, a chance to take your own initiative is a very rare thing, we have been
blessed these past few years me and Manal with many opportunities to take our
own initiative or participate in other youth lead initiatives and to be in the
center of many exciting things, I think if you give any young person in Egypt a
taste of that, a taste of purpose and ability to achieve something no matter how
small she will rise up to it.
*
SB:
Do you think that
democracy can EVER come to Egypt, and if so, how?
MA:
Aha, another big
question... at times we feel it's hopeless, we feel we are in the middle of a
volatile region with the whole world focused on us, there is no way we'll manage
to evolve into democracy like that, but most of the time we are optimistic.
Ultimately democracy will come, we don't think you can deprive people of liberty
and democracy when they know they want them, and Egyptians are increasingly
getting aware of how important it is to have a democratic system.
“How” is the most difficult question, there are many obstacles and the “how”
must involve solving them.. one way we can see is by liberating institutions one
by one. If you can reach a stage where major institutions like labor unions,
professional syndicates and universities are free and run in a democratic
fashion then you're already halfway there. And the nice thing about these
institutions is it's up to their members, if they really want to be independent
they can be, the legal mechanisms are there waiting to be used.
But that's when you start hitting issues of class and religion, that's when you
start realizing that among you are individuals who benefit from the current
state of affairs (corruption is rampant)—would a university professor who flunks
Christian students or a doctor who cares less about poor patients be able to
outgrow their personal corruption and make a stand?
*
SB:
What tips do you have for
writers or bloggers or Egyptians who want to get involved in
writing/politics/improving Egypt (or America, or wherever they live)?
MA:
Can't tell if the
following will actually work, this is what we try and do:
*Know your tools; using technology without understanding its basics is not a
good idea... as a blogger technology is not only a tool to you it's also your
medium, your PR vehicle, your interface with the world; if you believe you can
replace or compete with or compliment mega media organizations, then you need an
arsenal of tools and you need to know them well.
*Work in groups, don't blog as if you're on your own, especially if you have a
mission; find your comrades and link to each other, remember that if you want to
have an effect, that effect will have to be offline, and offline there is no
Google, people will not find you if you're on your own. Besides, fellow bloggers
make for fun conversations.
*Link to the past—growth of readership means most readers are new readers, link
to past posts and discussions so they can get to know your words better and
understand things in context.
*Be personal, this goes beyond the “be yourself” advice that any writer should
abide by.. blogging is about the personal touch. Forget being objective (just
make it clear you're not trying to be objective), express yourself, share your
own feelings as well as your thoughts.
*Finally, be informative; sometimes we get lost in the “express my own feelings”
part and end up talking about ourselves to ourselves. Each person has a unique
experience, each blogger knows more about something than some of her readers,
don't just share your opinion, share your knowledge and experience too. When
talking politics combining this point with the previous one makes for a great
blogger.. if you can reflect on how policy affects you as an individual or your
immediate community, then you're much more valuable than a bus full of highly
paid political analysts.
*
SB:
Wow, great advice, all. Thanks so much, Alaa and Manal! May you continue your excellent work, and here’s hoping Egypt realizes what a precious gift they have in www.manalaa.net ... and in you!