Over the past few days, I’ve found out how proud I am to be an American citizen, and to enjoy the rights I have, as stated by the Constitution. The freedom of speech. The freedom of press. The freedom of life in a country that, despite internal disputes, remains unarguably one of the greatest in the world.
On January 27, the Egyptian government stopped the Internet. Egypt cut off all telecommunications between Egyptian citizens and the rest of the world. As hundreds of prestigious news organizations, including CNN and the Committee to Protect Journalists have reported, this most certainly wasn’t an accident. The focus in the mainstream media has primarily been focused around the importance of non-violence and the limiting of access to the Internet and communications; since it’s important to me, I’ll talk about the latter.
The Internet itself was founded upon principles of freedom in communication. The web, in its current uncensored state, would never have flourished like it did if governments had put limitations on its distribution. This we take for a generally accepted fact; for those who need convincing, look no further than conglomerates like Google, Facebook, and companies who have re-invented the way we communicate.
Five years ago, a battery
In fourth grade (nearly five years ago!), our class began to study basic electricity. As part of the unit, every student (around 20 or so in our class) received a small box with our names on them, containing four snippets of wire, a large D-size battery, a small light-bulb, a battery holder, and a few other trinkets.
Our teacher told us to be careful with our new equipment. We were told that this was the only set of items we would receive; if broken, the student would simply be left with nothing, and he or she would be forced to only watch as others conducted experiments. Then she told us, ironically, to play around for 20 minutes or so.
Immediately, everyone opened their boxes and examined the items. Some students, me included, already understood a bit of what we were doing. We placed the battery in the holder, looped wires from both ends to the light-bulb, and smiled when the light flickered on. These lights were dotted around the classroom, serving as an engine of jealousy for those other students who were furiously trying (and failing) to get their light-bulb to light up.
But after a few minutes, everyone else had figured it out, the room was now filled with lights corner to corner, and when the teacher turned off the lights, the classroom was a firefly show. It was no longer “elite” to simply have a weakly glowing bulb, and the focus was now on other things. Read More »