Journal from Day 3 of Protests (Thursday, January 27), PART 3: A storm is brewing; Our responsibility as Western observers

I’ve never lived through anything like this before. You know it’s a revolution when the populace starts protesting in the street and the government’s only response is to send police to beat them down. This will be a major turning point in Egypt’s history. Everything is finally igniting into the protest that everyone has been waiting for. I don’t know if anyone anticipated the extent to which it would continue. Egyptians are finally breaking the crust of malaise and despair and showing the world their true colors. I cannot fully comprehend the amount of suffering and oppression that Egyptians have been living with for the last 30 years, but I’m beginning to understand it, more than I ever could were I not in Egypt right now, hearing the perspective of Egyptians.

I’ve also never been this anxious before in my life. We have no way of knowing how this will end. We just have to take it one step at a time and deal with the developments as they come. The best thing is to remain flexible and cautiously optimistic and hope for the best. I hope that tomorrow’s demonstrations receive the attention they deserve and achieve the impact they aim for, but the sooner this chaos and violence can subside, the better. With luck, we will soon see the end of Mubarak’s reign, and with it, the end of 30 years of stagnancy and oppression.

I've realized how important it is that I not only document my thoughts and impressions during this time, but that I share them with the world and tell everyone back home what’s really going on. Media coverage has been embarrassingly insufficient in the US, which is not surprising at all given that Egypt is the biggest recipient of US foreign aid next to Israel. And Egyptian networks are of course being cautious about what they report, and they can’t seem to agree on figures and facts. BBC and Al-Jazeera have been pretty reliable and objective, but even they can’t keep up with the news as it happens. The biggest contribution we as Westerners can make to this cause is to report the events and call America’s attention to them.