I am so cheering for voices like Mahmoud Salem, a popular Egyptian blogger who has this to say at his blog Rantings of a Sandmonkey:
If you are a revolutionary, show us your capabilities. Start something. Join a party. Build an institution. Solve a real problem. Do something except running around from demonstration to marsh to sit-in. This is not street work: real street work means moving the street, not moving in the street. Real street work means that the street you live in knows you and trusts you, and will move with you , because you help them and care for them, not because you want to achieve some lofty notions you read about in a book without any real understanding on how to apply it on Egyptian soil. You have done nothing of the kind so far, and it’s the only way you will get ahead.
You must read the whole post from which this is excerpted here: Chapter’s end!.
[Also: Not that I’m trying to pick a fight, but those Quebec “revolutionaries” who have the audacity to use the metaphor “Maple Spring” for the student protests in Montreal, have the humility to read Mahmoud’s post. It is an insult to the bravery and sacrifice of Mahmoud and hundreds of thousands like him all over Egypt that some in Montreal would even consider comparing themselves to that struggle.]