Engaging and Understanding the Egyptian Street

Two items of note on Egypt.  First is an Australian Date Line show about Facebook in Egypt: Egypt’s Facebook Face Off 

While it’s supposed to be a social networking site, Facebook has become the front line tool for the country’s struggling democracy movement, as Sophie McNeill reports.

Link to the video broadcast is here.

Second is a post from the Arabic Media Shack: Tails from the “Arab Street” (you’ll get the reference as you read)

Recently, Grandmasta and a friend were riding in a taxi, trying to cross central Cairo during rush-hour traffic.  Anyway, they got stuck in traffic.  Major traffic.  They just [happened] to be discussing Lebanon (in English).  Suddenly, the driver, Hassan, a guy in his mid 50s, who spoke no English, but [probably] heard the words Hezbullah several times, jumped in to offer his unabashed support for Hassan Nasrallah, calling him a hero for standing up against Israel aggression.  

This led to a long conversation.  Grandmasta mostly sat back and listened, wanting to hear his opinions on certain issues.   …

Read the rest at the Arabic Media Shack.  AMS should be on your reading list if you’re at all interested in the region.