So Tweets Wael Ghonim, the young Google executive spirited away by Egyptian secret service agents and kept blindfolded for twelve days, only to reappear as a hero in the last moments before Hosni Mubarak stepped down. Nothing against the man, and I’m sure he has the best of intentions for his fellow citizens, but this is more than a little troubling.
Egyptians in the know, such as Gigi Ibrahim, are already taking Ghonim to task, and good thing, too. (See her and others in conversation on Al Jazeera English, featured here, under the appropriate title: “Owning Egypt’s Revolution.”) It is the people, broadly defined, from across the wide spectrum of Egyptian society, who should decide Egypt’s fate, not the international business community, no matter who its official or unofficial representatives may be.
And with that, how about we give the whole Twitter/Facebook/Google/YouTube—choose your multinational social media brand—Revolution speak a break. It’s a people’s revolution, or none at all.
