Pawn recently reached out to friend and ex-patriot T, now living in Mozambique, for her opinion on the current events in Egypt.  T is an international teacher, and has taught in Los Angeles and Thailand, before living and teaching in Cairo for some time.  This was her response:

Great to hear from you.  Yes, J and I are glued to the news everyday.  I think it is absolutely necessary for the people to fight against Mubarak.  He has been a tyrant and a merciless dictator for too long.  It is a shame that some people will get hurt, but I agree with the revolt and think that Hosni should resign.

I think it is amazing that social networking can possibly be the unifying factor for many people throughout Africa.  Here in Mozambique when we had the riots last fall, people were being organized by text messages, until the government cut off all cell phone service.  That was the only way to squelch it.

Many Africans in countries with corrupt governments have needed a way to organize and join together to fight and be heard, now facebook, text messages, have reached the common man, the economies have been increaing and the technology has become available to the masses.  Just last month there were protests in Tanzania for the first time in twenty years and it was all organized through texts.

Again I don’t want to see people get hurt and looting and destroying property is horrible but If you mistreat people for long periods of time, you can’t help but expect them to fight back violently.  I just hope that the international community puts enough pressure on Mubarak so that he will actually step down.  I’m worried about  my Egyptian friends of course, and concerned for their safety, but I know they are ready for the regime to be toppled.