But most of the players in this Middle Eastern upheaval don’t have anything to celebrate, not yet. And it remains more important than ever to keep track of the voices that are calling for change within the countries themselves.

Syria’s uprising is still raging, with thousands filling the streets of Homs, Daraa and other cities despite at least 30 deaths a day by the growing brutality of the Syrian regime. Over eight months into the struggle, the Syrian situation continues to change by the day, with bumbling international politics trying to stop an end to the tragic violence that has killed an estimated 5,000 protesters thus far. In spite of this, protests continue to be mainly non-violent, although the Free Syrian Army is playing a growing role, and the revolutionaries have never been more convinced of the regime’s eventual fall.

In Bahrain, protesters continue to struggle against the government despite little media coverage, and practically no nuanced, well represented coverage. The Bahraini regime is expected to come out with its report to assess the “incidents” that have happened between anti-government protesters and the government itself, although few have faith in the commission backed by a government that has tortured doctors and imprisoned political activists for life.

Meanwhile protests in Yemen enter their 11 month, having maintained considerable protests against all odds all year. An estimated 2,000 protesters have lost their lives calling for the downfall of the regime, and thousands more have been injured in attacks by pro-government forces. As Saleh continues to promise an eventual transition of power backed by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council, protesters continue to refuse dialogues with Saleh’s regime and to demand his ouster before embarking on a more democratic path.

Moroccan protesters are still out demanding significant changes, despite the regime co-opting some of the protesters’ demands so as to stave off a full blown revolution.

The road to a freedom in these three countries, and freedom from tyranny and oppression throughout the Middle East, will be a long one, one that will claim more lives and more time. But already, not even a year into the uprisings, people are growing tired, overwhelmed, or otherwise losing interest in tracking these efforts towards freedom. Losing interest or patience is a luxury that people on the ground in Syria, Bahrain, Morocco and Yemen can’t afford themselves. We all must take part in our responsibility to amplify these voices of change across the Middle East, and to support them however we can. We must continue to keep track of what is happening on the ground, and not letting these people’s struggles be forgotten.

Constitutionally speaking the President has less than 35 days left to return before he has to hold elections so the clock is ticking. Nevertheless as much as Saleh likes to refer to the constitution in his speeches were he rants about upholding the law and the ‘unity of the republic’, I have a feeling that he won’t pay much attention to his own breaches. After all Saleh is the man who kidnapped ‘his guests’ the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) representatives in the Sanaa UAE embassy after he’d rejected their peaceful power transfer initiative for the third time!

Saleh left Yemen at the sound of his lunatic crew shooting into the night-sky, whilst at the same time his officials kept on promising a televised speech that seemed like it would never appear. Just as no one expected it, he emerged like never before giving his first speech since his incident from the Saudi Arabian capital; Riyadh on the 7th of July 2011. Coinciding with the 17th anniversary of the day; Saleh’s northern troops overran the opposition southern troops in the 1994 Yemeni Civil War. Moreover, he revealed that he had 8 successful operations but he did not move his bandaged arms whilst his face also seemed burnt. However the sight of his burnt face signified his resistance and defiance towards all that have called for his removal, while at the time showing that he had not died (as rumoured) to his doubters. The speech it’s self did not contain any dramatic revelations rather he continued churning out his usual hypocritical nonsense; saying that he welcomed power-sharing, while stressed that it should be “within the framework of the constitution and in the framework of the law”. From his perspective Saleh sees governance over Yemen, as sort of ‘Pick and Mix’ were he picks what he likes and ignores the aspects he does not. For example, Saleh chooses to ignore the on-going popular protests, he chooses to ignore the dire humanitarian situation while he eats up his own Al Qaeda fiction stories and his ‘democratic’ mandate to lead. I think Saleh prefers to call it: ‘dancing on the heads of snakes’, whatever that means.

At this moment in time, Saleh still remains in Riyadh at the discretion of the Royal Family, but by this point the Saudi’s must be aware that a Yemen with Saleh is not in their best interest anymore. Yes we all know how much Saudi loves to play it’s traditional game of ‘undermine Yemen’. But they now realises that if Yemen is not stable then Saudi Arabia is also not stable; for Yemen is the perfect platform for Al Qaeda to turn it’s Saudi aspirations into reality. Thus Saleh has clearly become a point of contention; now a source of instability rather than his former image of ‘the father of Yemeni stability’. The reality is that Saleh is no good for anyone (the West included), putting his health aside Saleh is not fit to rule because he longer has any creditability and the Yemeni people have woken to this revelation. Yes Yemen is limbo but it is a limbo that could start to be solved very easily if done correctly. Saudi has the power, once approved by Uncle Sam of course, to hold onto Saleh and refuse him a return to his ‘beloved’ homeland. This is the Saudi Antidote to Yemen’s Saleh problem. However, whether Saudi chooses to take the role of doctor to mend Yemen in the same way they have mended Ali Saleh’s toasted face, is another thing in it’s self. Yet one thing is for sure; for as long as there remains to be a Friday each week, then there will remain to be popular protests blazing in the face of toasted dictator.

Angry, unemployed, and oppressed youth finally broke the long silence and fear and burst into the streets calling for Mubarak to step down. As more and more people poured into the streets calling for “Mubarak, leave, leave, leave,” Mubarak finally decided to agree to “not run for presidency in the next election” and pledged political reform. The protesters took no heed to it and continued to protests. Day by day, the Tahrir Square of Cairo was being filled with determined and ambitious people calling for Mubarak to leave. Mubarak, on the 17th day of protest, transferred some of his power to a newly appointed vice-president, Omar Sulaiman, but that did nothing to encourage the protesters, now in millions, to go back to their homes. During an interview with ABC’s Christiane Amanpour, Mubarak said that “he’s fed up with being president and would like to leave office now, but cannot; for fear that the country would sink into chaos”.

Dictators and autocrats like to think of themselves as the sole protector of the nation. They like the population to think that without them, there will be chaos and violence and that the country will shatter. Thus, they began to make such comments. This is in fact their illusions speaking, thinking that the mass would listen to them and stop with protesting and go back to their lives. The lives that were ruled with an iron fist, with violence and suppression by the government; the life that there exists no equal opportunities in employment, education, social services. If these leaders are so sincere in reformation, why do they speak of reform after the people take the streets? Why do they not speak of them and take actions sooner? Why after 20, 30, 40 years?

This is precisely what the Yemeni President Ali Saleh said on March 22nd: “Those who want to climb up to power through coups should know that this is out of the question. The homeland will not be stable, there will be a civil war, a bloody war. They should carefully consider this”. And this he said 30 days after the Yemenis started to protest and after mass defections by top generals, soldiers, government ministers, his son-in-law Yehia Mohammed Ahmed Ismail, as well as his own tribe taking stance against him. In other words, he said this while he is weakest and trying to use the card to defuse the protests, but he failed. On March 25th, the soon-to-be-ousted President Saleh announced that he does not want power but wants to put the power into safe hands. And it is very clear how the protesters responded to that.

Seif al Islam Qaddafi, the son of Muammar Qaddafi, did not wanted to be left out of this trend so he warned on February 20th that because of the demographic of Libya, civil war will peril. The warning however fell on deaf ears and the rebels and the people continued with their demands for Muammar Qaddafi to leave. Muammar Qaddafi also blamed the problem on Al-Qaeda telling Christiane Amanpour “my people love me, they would die for me.”

The Bahraini government on February 26th dismissed several of its ministers. The government also announced to cancel 25% housing loans that have already been given. But these concessions failed to appease the protesters and they defiantly continued to protest. The protesters are mainly Shia sect of Islam, a majority in Bahrain, being ruled by the Sunni minority. The Shias have long complained about poor treatment in employment, housings, education, infrastructure, while the Sunnis benefit higher status. The Shias are also prohibited from important political and military posts. The Bahraini government security forces have very brutally cracked down on the protesters killing at least 21 and injuring over 600. The government has gone as far as keeping the access to the hospitals blocked.

The brutalities seen by these governments against their own people, these oppressed people, is mind boggling; and it only shows that these governments and leaders are not sincere to their leadership and to the vanguard of their nation and its citizens, it is only to accumulate more wealth and to maintain the control of power.

The world was waiting for Syria to join in the mass Middle East protests, and it finally did. The story of the Syrian government in treating its people is like the rest of these governments: oppressive, abusive, unequal, dictatorial; and the faith of the Syrians are like the same faith of other nations. So then on March 24th, the Syrian city of Daraa finally erupted drawing thousands of people calling “Freedom, freedom.” And, as expected, Bashar al Assad, Syrian president, vowed to increase public worker’s salaries, greater freedom of press, and may lift the 48-years old Emergency Law. The opposition groups and protesters, as imagined, have refused the concessions and are continuing with the protests. Syrian forces have responded as abusively as did their counterparts in other countries with more than 61 killed so far with Syrian army opening fire on the protesters.

Kurdistan region of North Iraq is also not immune to these protests. Although the situation in the Kurdistan region is much different and better than most of the Middle East, the region has also been plagued with corruption, nepotism, high unemployment, and rotten social services. There have also been increased attacks, assaults, and murder on journalists and members of the opposition groups. Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) must take great notice of these mass protests in the Middle East and do what these governments have not done by creating better institutions that is based on justice, equality, liberty; and to stop doing what these governments are doing, in repressing their citizens and curtailing basic freedoms. Kurdistan Regional Government, too, used the same excuse; excuse of pointing their fingers for their problems on somewhere else: Iran.

Many government-controlled media outlets blame Iran and its influence behind the protests. Do they mean Iran is behind the corruption, nepotism, high unemployment, attacks on those who criticize, and all the other problems in Kurdistan? Do they mean that those tens of thousands of people in the street are being influenced by Iran and not protesting because of frustration and they no longer will tolerate the injustice by the government? While it does not take rocket science to know that Turkey, whose prime minister Reccep Erdogan, is scheduled to be in Kurdistan region in a day or two, and Iran, whom just received Nechirvan Barzani, the former prime minister of Kurdistan region, would love to see Kurdistan region destabilized and would even help in its destabilization, neither does it take rocket science to know that those people in the streets are sick and tired of government taking them as fools by making empty promises of tackling corruption and providing better services such as clean water and electricity and yet nothing ever gets done. The Kurdish people endured much in the hands of Saddam Hussein and continually are being suppressed today in Syria, Iran, and Turkey; the people do not need to suffer any more under the rule of their own government.

The people must not stop until their legitimate rights are respected and responded; this is an opportunity that was long missing and must not be passed on easily. The liberty and equality of the people must in all ways be attained, and this battle must be won by the determined and revolutionary people of the Middle East. The world must condemn these nations and governments who suppress their citizens; and those who are responsible for assaulting peaceful protesters and journalists must be put behind bars. They must be brought to the Hague and face their crimes.

Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, we are waiting for your bravery and courageous steps to be taken in this fight of liberation, of dignity, of honor.

(1) R. Clemente Holder (1994-08). “Egyptian Lawyer’s Death Triggers Cairo Protests”. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Many spectators of Egypt’s political play this winter believe that they witnessed a revolution. Perhaps so; depending on the definition of “revolution” in your book.

It is laughable to think that a mere 2/80 million, or 1/40 millionth can possibly claim responsibility for ousting an autocrat of thirty years. It is naive to believe so. Mubarak’s leave of power involves a slough of factors–fear of more widespread protest may have been one of them. Revolutions used to happen with at least a majority of the population actively expresses their discontent.

However, it seems like this is one book we should judge by its cover. Egypt ’11 is perceived to be a revolution regardless; it is believed to be “the people toppling the president”. . . this (flawed) perception wields a considerable amount of power.

With the world watching and imagining that a revolution of 2 million people in the street ousted a 30-year-ruler, the perceived power of the masses will, if it already has not, be quite the show to see.

Image borrowed from here.

Yemen Portal, a partner of MEY, which is blocked in Yemen, launched today a special Arabic-language section, called Revolt Window, on its website in an attempt to cope with the rapid moving cyber activities on Facebook to coordinate and trigger Yemen’s revolution, which has already started by having regular peaceful rallies in all major cities across the country. The ‘revolution’ section aggregates Facebook groups done with the aim of organizing rallies, call for regime change, etc. It does so by automatically and regularly checking for posts and comments and trying to identify patterns of interests, exclusive material, and other content that does not necessarily find its way to traditional or online news media.

The webpage can be reached here, and has a few features including the ability to sort results based on the number of ‘likes’ or ‘comments’ as well as the possibility to search content posted on dozens of Facebook groups. Yemen Portal is already blocked in Yemen but can intermittently be accessed through its secure SSL address.

The aim out of this move is to enhance coordination between different Facebook group managers and members so they could arrange plans and activities together and know interests of different members. The project comes in a historic opportunity as Yemenis see a real potential in gaining their freedom by following the examples of Egypt and Tunisia and ending the authoritarian military rule that remains in charge for over 32 years.

If you’re currently based in any country which blocks any internet content, download AlKasir browser, partially sponsored by MEY, now to circumvent any internet censorship. It’s easy to use and doesn’t require any additional procedures. Just install it, and you’ll be back live! If AlKasir website is already blocked in your country, please ask for it by emailing: get[at]alkasir.com

For more information, contact Yemen Portal by email here: admin[at]yemenportal.net

Watch this CNN interview yesterday night about AlKasir here.

Stay tuned to CrowdVoice Yemen’s page to get all the updates about the Yemeni ongoing protests.

The last move of the king

Hashtag Tahrir, hashtag revolution, Lotus revolution, among many other names given to describe the ongoing protests in Egypt.

The last 12 days have seen a lot of twists and turning points since the very beginning, when we’ve expected here that Egypt was on the verge of several successive days of rage, following the first Day of Rage which has jolted the regime on Tuesday 25th of January 2011. Accordingly, the regime has had to step closer to a real democratic reform, but on the other side, the protesters kept their pressure up, their hands high, and their fingers crossed.

Mohamed Bouazizi has started it all in Sidi Bouzid. In Egypt, it was #SidiBouzid only which has broken the border of fear, it was the firing level and the parent of #Jan25. Sidi Bouzid has inspired a historic cyclone of sweeping revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa.

Today it’s in Egypt, but Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, and others are queuing. The world is following Tahrir closely with some mixed feelings, between admiring the Egyptian youth bravery and worrying about the Muslim Brotherhood rising power and massive popularity.

We’ve taken one step closer, and decided to penetrate the heart of the revolution, the famous Tahrir square, not the virtual one.

The first demand: To overthrow the regime

A spontaneous debate between a group protesters with different opinions has arisen in the making of this podcast; An English debate between a group of Egyptians in the heart of Tahrir. The experience of wandering the square, Maidan in Arabic, talking to people, debating, singing, laughing, chanting, eating, and even cleaning the square with the protesters was beyond all the expectations. Everything was well organized, and everyone was civilised. The protesters were expressing their opinions peacefully while respecting the others. This Tahrir Carnival should be commemorated every year, I can’t get enough of it really; the creativity, the high morale and spirits, and even the songs. So make sure you don’t miss this! Listen or download this exclusive podcast directly from the core of Tahrir square, Egypt.

The song used in the intro of this podcast is a sample of Rebel, a new song by Arabian Knightz dedicated to the Egyptian protests. Check it out on Mideast Tunes here.

Stay tuned to everything about the ongoing unprecedented protests in Egypt around the clock through Egypt’s voice on CrowdVoice here.

Browse and listen to Mideast Youth podcasts and Arabicasts all in one comprehensive place here.

Special thanks for Ahmed Youssry for his help and participation in the making of this podcast, and also I’d like to thank all the protesters who have taken time to record this from the square, risking being labelled as foreign agents “with agendas” by the state controlled media outlets in Egypt.

We received a notification from Walid al-Saqaf (founder of alkasir.com and YemenPortal.net) today that CrowdVoice.org has been censored in Yemen.

This is of course hardly shocking but highly inconvenient for those in Yemen who wish to stay aware about the ongoing developments of the protests and activities of government opposition groups.

For our friends in Yemen, we do recommend that you use alkasir.com to bypass the censorship for access to the site and its content.

Update: We received another note from a Spokesperson from the Yemeni embassy in Washington that it’s not blocked.

Please note that Yemeni government didn’t censor the below website. Kindly forward me claims and I will do my best to follow up and check.

I have responded to ask now if the site was blocked at all, and if so, for how long. CrowdVoice.org was reported as blocked by a user and then confirmed by the alkasir software as inaccessible for that time period.

Another user of the CrowdVoice page in Yemen has said this: “Sometimes our messed up internet censorship randomly blocks sites for a couple of hours.” Alkasir.com is still blocked in the country.

Update: On the 29th of January, news site Marebpress was also blocked for approximately 8 hours:

It is either a technical error that is causing certain sites to be inaccessible for certain periods of time or it’s intended censorship. In the meantime we’re just glad it’s accessible and that users can proceed updating the page from Yemen.

http://crowdvoice.org/yemen or https://yemenportal.net/protests.

To embed the page’s content in your blog post or sidebar, simply click on “Grab a Widget” from the sidebar and adjust it. Or you can simply “subscribe” via e-mail or RSS.

There is an English page available here.

Reporters Without Borders was among the international organizations that called for the release of Karman and the stopping of the ongoing ruthless attacks against Yemeni journalists. The Paris-based organization had added Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh to its list of the world’s 40 “Predators of Press Freedom” last year, and ranked Yemen as 170th out of 178 countries in its 2010 press freedom index.

Several national organizations including the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate denounced those acts and demanded the swift release of Karman and the other detainees calling the kidnapping an illegal act that violated the most basic constitutional rights of citizens.

Karman is the founder and director of the prominent NGO Women Journalists Without Borders and a strong advocate for the rights of marginalized groups, journalists and oppressed in the country. She is also known for her strong critique of the oppressive practices of the regime.

Plans are being set for further demonstrations in various cities in Yemen to demand the release of Karman and the other demonstrators and call upon the authorities to respect the constitution and human rights.

Human rights activists in Yemen called upon international human rights organizations and the international community to help in freeing Karman. Some hoped that the U.S. secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was on a visit to Yemen recently and personally met with Karman in Sana’a, to ask the Yemeni authorities to free Karman and the other activists.

Free Karman and the other detainees!

Al-Saqaf developed alkasir (Arabic for ‘the circumventor’), a software solution that allows users around the world to circumvent website or URL filtering through ‘split-tunneling’, which diverts traffic to a secure tunnel only if the accessed website is found to be among those verified to be blocked by the specific user’s Internet Service Provider. If a website is not blocked, alkasir allows traffic to flow directly and without tunneling. This mechanism makes circumvention more efficient and less resource-hungry. It also creates the possibility of dynamically tracking and studying filtering patterns around the world. Al-Saqaf is currently using alkasir as a research tool in a study about Internet censorship for his PhD degree in media and communication at Orebro University in Sweden.

Al-Saqaf said he considered the TED fellowship an honor and a recognition of “the talents and abilities of Yemenis and Arabs, of whom many had contributed various inventions and innovations which are not less important.” Al-Saqaf said he would like to dedicate this fellowship to “those yearning and acting for freedom, particularly Yemeni and Arab journalists and activists, who risk their lives every day for the pursuit of justice and to end of tyranny committed against the people in their respective countries.”

Furthermore, and to mark the first anniversary of the public release of alkasir, al-Saqaf announced the soon-to-be-released alkasir version 1.2.0, which includes a built-in browser with a dual Arabic/English interface. He noted that users currently using the old version will soon need to upgrade to the new one, which will be available soon. However, al-Saqaf also added that the new version will remain under development after its release and users’ feedback will be helpful to improve it further. “Members of Yemen Portal and alkasir websites will be informed immediately when and how they could get the new version, which has a host of new and exciting features,” he said.

Al-Saqaf also thanked MidEast Youth, a network of young activists dedicated to enhancing democracy and freedom in the Middle East, for supporting alkasir’s project from its outset and expressed hope that other Arab organizations would follow its example, particularly in its ability to use technology in new and innovative ways.

The fellowship comes on the heels of the Democracy Prize 2010 that was awarded to al-Saqaf by Orebro University in Sweden for his contribution to the advancement of democracy through Yemen Portal and alkasir. It also comes after an official invitation was sent to him to take part in the upcoming High Level Democracy Meeting to be held in Krakow, Poland in early July 2010. Al-Saqaf will be a panelist in a session on New Technologies for Democracy in the three-day event, which will be attended by foreign ministers from across the world to mark the 10th anniversary of the Community of Democracies.