Let My People Go

It took me a year to post a new blog entry, but the Egyptians managed to finish a whole revolution in less time than it takes to complete a Seder. (Don't tell Moses.)  Little did I know when I invoked the mighty Tweet in my last blog that it would lead to all of this.

It seems that a 30-something Google exec Wael Ghonim (wasn't he in The Lord of the Rings?) sparked an online protest campaign to oust President Mubarak.  Google even launched a special speak-to-tweet service to help Egyptians without Internet communicate.  They used it to leave voicemails at one of three international phone numbers that Twittered their message.  (Is that how Congressman Lee wound up on Craigslist?)

Soon after, as Google has compiled, angry crowds began filling Tahrir Square and telling bad Mubarak jokes (Personal secretary to Mubarak:  "Are you writing your farewell address to the Egyptian people?"  Mubarek's reply: "No, where are they going?")  Sounds like a Rodney Dangerfield punch line.

As things began to get out-of-hand, a prominent reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei issued the frantic Tweet warning, "Egypt will explode"  and then Tweeted, "I call on the the Egyptian army to immediately interfere to rescue Egypt.  The credibility of the army is on the line." Lots to lose there.

That's the same army that Mubarek vowed a few days earlier would lift military law "once security and stability are restored."  Egypt's Woodstock moment has begun.  Let my people go, Google.