Egyptian soldiers join protesters in Cairo

Egyptian soldiers join protesters in Cairo

An Egyptian Army officer carried through Tahrir Square as a hero. This video was posted online by a group of citizen journalists called Mosireen that was set up after the revolution that led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak. A number of uniformed soldiers have now joined the protests against military rule.

And the most famous of these soldiers is without a doubt Ahmed Shoman. The army captain defected in February to demonstrate his opposition to the former regime. And now he is once again defying the authorities, declaring armed forces should not be put above the Egyptian people.

Many web users, like Fatenn Mostafa, have hailed the show of solidarity towards the Tahrir Square protesters. Some still hope it will be possible to fraternize with the military. This drawing by Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff has been widely circulated on social media platforms: it’s appealing to soldiers to refrain from using force against protesters.

Others are more wary. Blogger La Scheherazade is urging protesters to not glorify these deserters, as their real intentions are not known.

The soldiers have been strongly criticized by protesters who accuse the army of wanting to hold on to power and of using violence to try and quell the protests in recent days.

Activists have distributed this ‘wanted’ poster around Tahrir Square, offering a reward of 5 000 Egyptian pounds, that’s a little over 600 euros, to the person who finds this man. He is a member of the security forces accused of wounding a protester in the eye. He was seen in this video which has been circulated all over the Egyptian blogosphere.

Ongoing protests at UC Davis

Student protests continue at the University of California, Davis, in the United States. The campaigning began on Friday after police officers’, who we see in this amateur video footage, pepper sprayed students who were peacefully protesting on the university campus as part of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement which has been gaining ground across the country since mid-September.

Thousands gathered on Monday to protest against the brutal intervention of the campus police. Demonstrators demanded the immediate resignation of the University Chancellor, Linda Katehi, who many hold responsible for this unjustified outbreak of violence.

A petition calling for her to step down has been circulating on the web over the past few days and has already been signed by over 77 000 people.

And it does not look like UC Davis students are not about to back down any time soon. Social media platforms have been abuzz with calls for a general strike on the campus on Monday. Objective: voice their anger with Linda Katehi by bringing the entire university to a standstill.

And as they wait to see the outcome of the next rally, some activists have been poking fun at the police. One of the pepper spraying officers, who has since been suspended for his actions, has unwittingly become an online sensation. He has been edited into all sorts of scenes and scenarios, mocking his fondness for spraying protesters. It’s an original way of denouncing the violent actions of the campus police.

Chinese activists go nude in support of Ai Weiwei

These Chinese web users believe nudity is not pornography, and have decided to go nude in support of activist and artist Ai Weiwei, who is currently being investigated for spreading pornographic material online. This is the photo that sparked the controversy; it portrays Ai Weiwei with four naked women. This is not the first time activists have shown support recently: earlier this month many donated money to Ai Weiwei who the authorities are also accusing of tax evasion.

Now trending on social networks

Stanislaw Lem was a Polish science fiction and fantasy writer and he is trending heavily on social networks at the moment. His recent rise in popularity is partly down to the Google doodle published on Wednesday to mark the 60th anniversary of his first book. Fans of Stanislaw Lem are delighted, as are all those who have been given the opportunity to find out a little more about one of the great masters of this literary genre.

Video of the day

In this beautiful video Tanguy Louvigny has put together a series of natural landscapes boasting the most magnificent colours. He has used the time lapse technique which gives you the impression time is moving faster, and in this case we are taken to a dimension somewhere between dream and reality.