This semester my time has been consumed by insatiable urge to help the Caravan succeed. It has been a daunting task. Late nights, no sleep and missed deadlines have given me wrinkles and white hairs.
But it's been an experience I would not trade for the world.
I've seen my dream come true on a smaller scale. In one year my team and I have created a school paper which offers real in depth information. We did our homework, kept our ears open and tried to get all sides of the story.
Our stories have had impact and our pictures have been daring. Thanks to the help of our two star photographers and the photo journalism class, we have been able to publish a paper that not only reads well, but looks good too.
We've also learned how to adapt to the changing world around us. You may not know our website, you may not even care. However, I guarantee you within the next 2 years you will. The world is going online, and AUC is on the brink of this change. When you start to notice it, we'll have already been there.
And we've done what every good paper does. We've pissed off a whole bunch of people. Student, faculty and staff have all been infuriated by our content. We've been refused interviews and asked for pre-printed copies of our stories. Our newsroom is frequented by people asking us how we could print such a thing.
Our culture has taught us that either you say something nice or you say nothing at all. We praise, but we do not question. It has been embedded in us. Egypt has a history of being submissive. Leaders have come and gone, and until '52 we did not rule ourselves. Yet in all of this we have had a tradition of peace.
There are those who say our country will break out in violent revolutions. That one day things will hit rock bottom, and the world will see an angry and blood-thirsty lower class. I say no. I say my people are a people of peace and reasoning.
This is why having a free and impartial press is so important. Our press is littered with rubbish. Conspiracy theories, accusations and editorials fill independent and opposition papers. Government papers ignore what is actually going on and openly promote a lack of democracy.
So although we have angered our readers, we stand behind our decisions to take journalism in a new direction. We are proud of the work we have done. Our educated readers understand this is the way to a new democracy. Although our culture has been one of kind words and acceptance, we hope our work this semester has shown the value of transparency.
This is how our change will, and our peaceful change will make histroy.
