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Editor's column

From Kommetjie to Cairo - 14 Feb 2011

By Sindy Peters, Africa editor

From Kommetjie to Cairo - Mon, 14 Feb 2011I followed the revolution in Egypt since the first "Day of Anger" on 25 January right up to when Omar Suleiman, on Friday, 11 February at 6pm, addressed the Egyptian people announcing the departure of former president Hosni Mubarak. Naturally, my twitterfeed on Tweetdeck flooded almost instantaneously in spreading the word - so if you were sipping on your pina colada on the white sands of Mauritius with smartphone in hand, you probably got the news pretty soon too.

I wasn't always in front of my laptop, which is where I followed most of the happenings in Egypt; but as I moved through my day I constantly switched media to keep up-to-date - from my laptop, to my mobile, to my television using live streaming feeds from Al-Jazeera, live broadcasts on TV and using an #Egypt Twitter search on my mobile.

Although there are approximately 7000km between my couch in Kommetjie on the southern tip of Africa and Tahrir Square in Egypt, I felt the overwhelming emotion and jubilation of the Egyptian people when Omar Suleiman announced Mubarak's resignation. And herein lies the beauty of communication technology today - the world is only a click of a mouse, the flip of a channel or the push of a few buttons, apart.

Congratulations Egypt on your new-found freedom; may your new rulers treat you well.

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