Egyptians pay tribute to the martyrs of the popular uprising

Remembering Egypt’s martyrs

Facebook pages set up to honour the memory of Ahmed Basuney a 31 year old teacher, Hussein Taha, an 18 year old student, and also Yasser Shoeib a 27 year old tailor. The web is paying tribute to the protestors who have been killed during the popular uprising in Egypt and on Sunday protestors marked a “day of Martyrs” to remember the dead.

This site is displaying the photos and names of the dozens of Egyptians who have lost their lives during the past two weeks, the circumstances surrounding the demonstrators’ deaths are also provided: most of them were shot.

This list of victims is an open document and web users are encouraged to contribute names. There are currently around 50 names on the spread sheet.

The UN estimates that several hundred people have been killed since the start of the protests. This song, composed by Hany Adel, looks back over their struggle and pays tribute to them. The track is illustrated with this video clip currently circulating on sharing sites.

But Khalid Said remains the emblem of these demonstrations which have rocked Egypt for nearly two weeks now. This 28 year old man was beaten to death by police in Alexandria last June after posting this video on the Internet which shows two police officers dividing the spoils of a drugs bust. His death has since become a symbol of the regime’s brutality and prompted, notably on the web, a strong protest movement which was reignited after the Tunisian revolution.

Tensions in Gabon

In Gabon, ever since opposition leader Andre Mba Obame declared himself the legitimate president on the 25th of January the dispute surrounding President Ali Bongo’s government has intensified. Over the past few days Obame has been increasing calls for mobilization to force the current head of state to step down. The mobilization is being widely relayed online.

There are numerous videos of the demonstrations organized by Obame’s supporters circulating on sharing sites. The rallies, like this one in Bitam in the north of the country, drew thousands of protestors who were demanding more freedom and democracy in Gabon.

But these demonstrations sometimes turned to rioting, as we can see in these images filmed in Libreville where angry protesters set fire to cars. Numerous clashes also broke out between protestors and the police on the fringes of the rallies, proving that the situation is particularly tense.

In this post on the site Koaci.com, Camarade says he fears the worst. He says that the violence in Gabon is taking on worrying proportions and could plunge the country into chaos. He does encourage his fellow citizens to continue protesting however, but to do so without using force and hence give Bongo’s camp no reason to do the same.

And the opposition can now count on the support from sections of the Gabonese community residing abroad. Several dozens of Andre Obame’s supporters gathered in Paris on Saturday to show their solidarity with the protestors and demand that Ali Bongo step down as soon as possible.

The protesting is taking part in the streets but also on the web and on Twitter in particular. The threads #revogab and #alidegage have been set up by opponents of Ali Bongo and provide real time updates on the situation at the scene.

Open data Paris

The City of Lights in the open data era: In a bid for more transparency, Paris City Council has started publishing public data on the Internet. Electoral results, the list of public parks and gardens and also the digital collections belonging to the French capital’s museums and libraries … anyone can now access this information on the web.

Healcam

Healcam is presented as the chatroulette of medicine. But on this site, you do not speak with random strangers. Diabetes, cancer, allergies … once you have selected what you are suffering from, the service will put you in touch with a person who suffers from the same thing. It’s a way of sharing information on treatments whilst overcoming the feeling of isolation when you are ill.

Video of the day

Dinesh Shivnath Upadhyaya from Bombay in India set himself the unlikely challenge of beating the world record for number of pencils fitted in the mouth. And he has become the new world record holder by fitting no less than 92 pencils in his mouth at the same time. It is a very impressive performance, although the point of it remains to be seen…