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Article: Carlos Latuff

Early life

Carlos Latuff was born in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is considered by many as "the hero of freedom of speech." In an interview with the Huffington Post, he said that his grandfather was Lebanese and that it is one of the reasons why he is supportive of the people in the Middle East.

History[edit | edit source]

Although he resides in Brazil, Latuff was up to date with the protests that were happening in Egypt, and was in support of the protesters. In 2011, he created several cartoons that criticized the military rule in Egypt and its attacks on protesters.

Published works[edit | edit source]

Additionally, Latuff also contributes to several Middle Eastern newspapers, including Alquds Alarabi, Huna Sotak and the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project - IRDP. Although Brazilian, Latuff has been politically active in several other regions including South Africa, Asian, and the Middle East. In 1998, he visited occupied territories in Palestine, and became a well-known supporter of the Palestinian cause ever since.

Themes

He started publishing his work on the web as soon as the invasion started. According to his narrative, "war is not a video game, and technofetishism is not to be celebrated, but exposed." Latuff challenged the image of the Iraq War portrayed by the Bush administration as "war without blood" by releasing caricatures showing the damage done by war, and the few people benefiting. He also compared the Iraq War with the Vietnam War in his caricatures; in both wars, the military leaders thought they could win the war through technology, but in reality soldiers end up facing unfamiliar lands and people. He did so by painting a picture of an American soldier getting shot by a soldier in the jungle and another in the desert. Carlos Latuff views the Israeli, British, and American militaries as the new Nazism of this era, and as a result, he often uses images of the American superhero to condemn these militaries. In one caricature, Latuff symbolized the state of Israel as bottles of gasoline to represent the state as a source of death and destruction. In another, he drew former prime minister Ehud Olmert as an evil figure standing over Gaza and Lebanon and dropping bombs, causing more death and destruction.

During the Arab Spring, Latuff was openly supportive of the revolutionaries. In the Egyptian Revolution, he was consistent and fast in using themes from the streets and people in his art. Latuff sharply criticized the Supreme Council Armed Forces (SCAF) after they called protesters "thugs" and "outlaws," and personally criticized Major General Mohsen Al-Fangary who gave the speech.

Article: Death of Khaled Mohamed Saeed

Personal life[edit | edit source]

In an interview on live television, Khaled's mother denied that he ever used drugs and confirmed the description given by eye witnesses. In another interview, Saeed's neighbors described him as very polite, shy, and loyal, and said that he spent most of his home surfing the internet and listening to music. His neighbors also denied that he is a drug dealer or that he even consumed drugs before.

Death[edit | edit source]

According to Rouass Saeida, author of Eighteen Days of Spring in Winter, police forces also demonstrated against their own brutality.

We are all Khaled Said[edit | edit source]

In an interview with David Degner, Wael Ghonim said that he started the page because of the injustice, fear, and dictatorship in Egypt. He felt like it could have been him in Khaled's place because they're close in age and social class. Ghonim also mentioned that he considers himself patriotic and felt that it is his duty to start the page. He chose the title We are all Khaled Said because he believes that, unlike old style revolutions, the newer style of revolutions (which he calls Revolution 2.0) has no leaders because everyone is a leader.

The page spread quickly; within two minutes of its creation, the page had already gained three hundred likes. Within an hour of releasing Ghonim's first article "You People Deprived of Humanity, We Will Extract Justice for Khaled Said" on the page, the number of likes increased to three thousand. Ghonim also wrote most of the posts on the page using Said's voice.

The campaign was started on June 10, 2010, roughly a week after Saeed's death. While Gonim started the campaign, he added more administrators to the page, including Ahmed Saleh and Nadine Wahab. The administrators were constantly attacked by the government, and security officials constantly used bots to spam the page and bring it down.

In an interview with Ghonim, he stated that the "Jan 25th" event started online on January 14th, and other people took it offline. He also said that when the government shut down social media platforms and the internet, it actually helped their cause because increased the number of protestors on January 28th as it made them feel stronger.

Article: Egyptian revolution of 2011

(Pre-)revolution timeline

28 January 2011: No fatalities have been reported in Cairo, however, 11 people were killed in Suez and another 170 were injured.1,030 people were reported injured nationwide.

2 February 2011 (Camel Incident): 2 February 2011 (Camel Incident): The camel and horse riders later claimed that they were "good men," and they opposed the protests because they wanted tourists to come back to keep their jobs and feed their animals. The horse and camel riders deny that they were paid by anyone, though they said that they were told about the protests from a ruling party MP. Three hundred people were reported dead by the Human Rights Watch the following day, since January 25th.

Suez[edit | edit source]

The MENA news agency reported the death of two protestors and one police officers on January 26th. A fire station and police station were burned to the ground and street battles broke out all around the city. Hundreds of protestors were detained by police forces since Tuesday. Families of protestors who got killed and injured also cut off the highway between Cairo and the Sokhna port, one of the main ports in Egypt. In July 2011, four American journalists were arrested by citizens who handed them over to military intelligence for allegedly not having identification cards.

Prelude

Self-immolation[edit | edit source]

On 17 January, Abdou Abdel Monaam, a baker, also set himself on fire to protest a law that prevented restaurant owners from buying subsidized bread, leading him to buy bread at the regular price - which is five times higher than the subsidized. Mohammed Farouq Mohammed, who is a lawyer, also set himself afire in front of the parliament to protest his ex-wife, who did not allow him to see his daughters.

In Alexandria, an unemployed man by the name of Ahmed Hashem Sayed was also a victim of self-immolation.

Art (new addition)

Art was used extensively during the Egyptian Revolution. Carlos Latuff, a Brazilian artist who used caricatures to attack the government, is a prime example. Latuff criticized many dictators in the region, including former president Mubarak, through his art. Cairokee is another example of art being used in the square. The band recorded many songs that supported the Revolution, including Sout El Horeya (Voice of Freedom), Ya Al Midan (Oh Midan, in reference to Tahrir Square) and Ethbat Makanak (Stand your Ground). The songs expressed feelings of euphoria, nostalgia, and encouragement to the Egyptian people. Art was also present on the street; photographers took the streets to record the violence, street artists drew graffiti on the walls describing the battles fought between the police and the protestors. The art used in the revolution also brought international exposure to local talents that was unprecedented. A new satirical show was started by Bassem Youssef, also known as "the Egyptian Jon Stewart," with the goal of mocking and criticizing the government in a funny way. The show started on YouTube and was shot in Youssef's living room, and within a couple of years, the show became the most watched television show in the Middle East.

Analysis

Alexandria church bombing[edit | edit source]

Main article: 2011 Alexandria bombing

[Correction] Early on New Year's Day 2011 a bomb exploded in front of an Alexandria church, killing 21 Coptic Christians and injuring more than 70.