The Real Net Effect: Andy Carvin & the Power of Twitter

Many readers who follow EAWorldview (@EANewsFeed) on Twitter are likely to know the name Andy Carvin (@acarvin). Carvin, the senior social media strategist at NPR and an established foreign policy journalist, has spent the last year Tweeting the revolutions and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.

And few would dispute Andy's prowess on the social media platform. In 2011, The Daily Dot said that no one had done more to transform Twitter than Carvin and the hacking group Anonymous. The Columbia Journalism Review even asked, "Is This the World’s Best Twitter Account?" Carvin has been called a "living, breathing real-time verification system," and has often spoke about the power, and sometimes the pitfalls, of using social media to spread the news.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Newsflash --- "The Killings Continue"

2135 GMT: Zainab Alkhawaja provides details of this latest woman killed in Bahrain. According to her Twitter stream, the woman is named Fakhriya Jassim, 55 years old. She inhaled teargas in the town of Isa on New Year's Eve. According to Zainab:

Fakhriya's son says a day before she died his mother kept saying "this time the tear gas is different" she could barely talk. The night be4 being exposed to the teargas Fakhriya was fine, she went out shopping

She was the mother of 5 children, and had 10 grandchildren, according to alKhawaja.

We're still hearing rumors of more tear gas in Bahrain tonight.

2127 GMT: We've been tracking reports of teargas in Bahrain for the last hour or so, but not activists are reporting that a woman has died from teargas suffocation tonight. Said Yousif Almuhafda reports:

#Bahrain picture of fakhrya jassim alsakean who died today after sofecatung from tear gas .im with her family now

2050 GMT: This video was reportedly taken earlier today in Hama. Citizens talk to the Arab League observers, and one yells out, "They've massacred us."

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Teenager's Death for the New Year

Claimed footage of the moment that Bahraini security forces opened fire today on the funeral procession of 16-year-old Sayed Hashim (see 1530 GMT)

See also Bahrain (and Beyond) Opinion: Does Sayed Hashim's Death Matter?
Happy New Year: 10 Predictions for 2012 --- From US Election to Syria to No War With Iran to EA WorldView
A Resolution for a 2012 WorldView: A Global Community Built On Communication, Not Conflict
Saturday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Protesting, Filming, Dying

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2115 GMT: Video from Bahrain today of security forces chasing a young man and finally shooting at him:

2100 GMT: 1954 GMT: A mass demonstration in the Qosour section of Homs in Syria denounces the "Tyrant who murders his own people":

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Happy New Year: 10 Predictions for 2012 --- From US Election to Syria to No War With Iran to EA WorldView

A Reliable Prediction? Right to Left: Tunisia's Ben Ali, Egypt's Mubarak, Libya's Qaddafi, Yemen's Saleh, Syria's Assad, Iran's Khamenei

See also A Resolution for a 2012 WorldView: A Global Community Built On Communication, Not Conflict
Happy New Year: Rap News Presents #Occupy2012

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President Obama will call on the international community to intervene in Syria. He may not be the loudest public voice, but he and his team will be working the diplomatic backchannels in Europe and the Middle East hard. He wants to avoid war in Iran, but not so secretly, he is rooting for the domino theory to hold with the fall of the regime in Tehran. He will sell more arms to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to pacify their unease with his policies, while preparing a backup plan if there is no movement in the Islamic Republic.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Protesting, Filming, Dying

1934 GMT: Two Syrian opposition parties have signed an agreement in Cairo, promising to unite against Assad. The interesting part of the agreement - the two parties, the Syrian National Co-ordination Committee and the Syrian National Council, are committed to resist international intervention. But as Al Jazeera points out, many in the opposition are in favor of intervention:

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Egypt Feature: "The One Citizen" --- Political Prisoner Maikel Nabil's Powerful Critique

See also Egypt Special: Are Writing and Walking Really Such a Threat to the Regime?
Egypt Video: Alaa Abd-El Fattah Speaks Out After Release from Prison

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I am not addressing myself to the military, for they are advancing toward their end like the enchanted, ignoring all indications of their fate. I am addressing myself to society, a society that was taught to accept the violation of One Citizen’s rights for the greater good of the community, as if the power that oppresses one will be able to later respect the rights of the community. This society that has accepted the displacement of the Nubian community in the name of national interest, that has accepted the expulsion of Egyptian Jews, the confiscation of their property, the revoking of their nationality, in the name of the interests of the majority. The same society that has sequestered gay rights, that has limited the individual freedoms of individuals under the guise of maintaining the family system and the interests of the greater society. It is time for the 85 Million to understand that their freedom is tied to the freedom of that One Citizen, that all freedom is lost once they allow the wolf to choose the first victim from amongst the herd, that they cannot regain the freedom of society unless every One Citizen is free.

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Pounding Homs

1955 GMT: One of the conditions of the Arab League observers was supposed to be the withdrawal of tanks from the cities they were visiting. Well, those appear to the the observers, that is absolutely a tank, and this appears to be Baba Amr, Homs:

1927 GMT: An activist describes this video, reportedly taken today in Hama:

Demonstrators in the al-Baroudiyeh neighborhood, trying to reach Assi square, and in the video they [gather] behind buildings because of the presence of snipers; among the chants - "we don't bow down except to God," and, "oh Homs, we are with you till death."

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Egypt Feature: The Military's Hidden Role in the Economy (Al-Khalsan)

Soldiers in Front of Egypt's Stock ExchangeShould the production of pasta, mineral water, butane gas cylinders, and gas station services qualify as classified military secrets? And does discussing these enterprises in public pass as a crime of high treason? The leaders of the Egyptian Armed Forces believe the answer is “yes.” 

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Egypt, Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: An Activist is Freed

Egyptian activist Alaa Abd-El Fattah joins chants in Tahrir Square after he was freed on Sunday

See also Yemen and Media Opinion: Does a Life March Take Place If No One Covers It?
Sudan Special: A New Spark for 2011's Forgotten Revolution?

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2140 GMT: The Local Coordination Committees claim that 40 people --- 33 of them in Homs --- have been killed by Syrian security forces today.

A rally tonight in Houla in Homs Province in sympathy with the shelled Bab Amro section of Homs:

A protest in the Damascus suburb of Saqba calling for freedom and the toppling of the regime:

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Syria, Egypt, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Women March

A women's march in Yemen on Tuesday

See also Bahrain Feature: Protests and Clashes Across the Kingdom Tonight
Middle East/North Africa Special: Policing the Female Body...and the Women Who Resist
Tuesday's Syria, Egypt, Bahrain (and Beyond): Uncertainty of Death, Certainty of Conflict

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2025 GMT: Students from Ain Shams University in Cairo marched today to the Ministry of Defence. Click the image for a full gallery.

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