Circulating through the streets of Cairo Friday night, with families packed into cars honking their horns in celebration and everyone strolling to Tahrir Square, I heard so many celebratory chants, but none more accurate and powerful in its simplicity than this one: “The people of Egypt made the regime step down.’’

The overwhelming sense of personal empowerment here, by a people so long kept down and underestimated by their own government was a sight to behold.

Tomorrow we can all talk about how hard this transition will be, how many pitfalls and uncertainties lie ahead for Egypt, but to be in Tahrir Square tonight, to feel the energy and pride of a people taking back the keys to their country and their future from a tired old dictator, was a privilege. As a group of men who had commandeered a horse and buggy bellowed as they crossed the Nile Bridge: “Hold your head up high. You are Egyptians.’’

My guess right now is that there are a lot of worried kings and autocrats tonight – from North Africa to Myanmar to Beijing. And it is not simply because a dictator has been brought down by his people. That has happened before. It is because the way it was done is so easy to emulate. What made this Egyptian democracy movement so powerful is its legitimacy.

It was started by youth and enabled by Facebook and Twitter. It was completely non-violent and only resorted to stone-throwing when faced with attacks by regime thugs. It drew on every segment of the Egyptian population. There was a huge flag in Tahrir Square today with a Muslim crescent moon and a Christian cross inside it. And most of all, it had no outside help.

In some ways, President Barack Obama did the Egyptian revolution a great favor by never fully endorsing it and never even getting his act together for how to deal with it. This meant in the end that Egyptians know they did this for themselves by themselves – with nothing but their own willpower, unity and creativity.

This was a total do-it-yourself revolution. This means that  anyone in the neighborhood can copy it by dialing 1-800-Tahrir Square. And that is why my favorite chant of all that I heard coming back from Tahrir tonight was directed at the leader next door, Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. It said, “We don’t leave Tahrir until Qaddafi leaves office.’’ Hello Tripoli, Cairo calling.

In many ways, what we have witnessed in Egypt today is the real decolonization of this country. That is, after the British left Egypt, the country was ruled by an incompetent king and then, since 1952, by a stifling, top-down military dictatorship. For the first time in modern history, “Egypt is truly in the hands of its own people,’’ remarked Egyptian political scientist Maamoun Fandy.

And the sense of liberation is profound, or as another sign in Tahrir said: “Mubarak, if you are Pharaoh, we are all Moses.’’

Egypt has always been the center of gravity of the Arab world and because it drifted these past 30 years, so too did the whole Arab world. One can only hope with this liberation that Egypt can now start to catch up with history and become a leading model for Arab development. If it does, others will follow. If it does, the Arab world will have two emotional hearts, not just one.

There will always be Mecca in Saudi Arabia, where Muslims will make the pilgrimage to be closer to God. And there will be Tahrir Square, where people will come to touch freedom. For that to happen, though, Egypt will have to take this freedom it just earned and run with it – to show that it really can improve the lives of an entire nation. That will not be easy, and it will not happen overnight.

This country has a lot of catching up to do. But if Egyptians show just half the creativity, solidarity and determination in the next year of nation-building that they showed in Tahrir Square these last 18 days, they just might pull this off.

The Egyptian spirit and pride now back to life after years of internal unrest and dissatisfaction of the situation in Egypt, the light is back to cover the new land of Egypt, A land of dignity and satisfaction. Egypt, A new era has begun

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On the 25^th January 2011 the whole of Egypt was taken by surprise; the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the civilian and the army and most of all President Hosni Mubarak.  Nobody could have really believed that such protests would have gathered such strength. However, the demonstrations, which then became the revolution, was started by the Egyptian youth after several years of protesting on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Throughout the previous  years there were small demonstrations, but especially after the most recent fake parliament elections it was obvious that corruption had increased and the protest groups became larger , exploded on 25^th January  as revolution all over Egypt It was time to make change happen rather than hope for it.

So, the only way the voice of the youth could be heard was through social media – the form of media that could not be controlled by anyone – least of all Hosni Mubarak. Of course,

Egyptians everywhere were demanding more freedom, the removal of corruption and bribery from the core of all government departments, the change of the regime of the country which included Mubarak to step down and the removal of the Minister of Interior specifically because of the arrests and detaining of political people. We demanded that the Emergency Law be cancelled so that the police no longer have the power to just arrest anyone they choose for any reason they choose. This demand was met after a few days of protests. Once the protestors realised that their demands could really be met and their voices really were heard there was no stopping them and the protests became greater in number and in power. The youth asked for so much and got it. This year the heavens opened and they got more than they could ever have dreamed possible.

Little did people all over Egypt know that the things they were hoping for were about to come true. Little did the world know that hope and despair, frustration and anger, purpose and destiny were all boiling in the pot together and that on the 25^th January the pot would boil over and spill out onto the streets for the whole world to see.

This has created a new face of Egypt. A face, which shows expression rather than hides it. A face that smiles from deep within at the changes and what this will mean for our children and our children’s children. A face with eyes that sparkle with hope and gladness. A face, which can look to see what changes are needed and can now speak for those changes to come into place with a voice which speaks on behalf of those who have no voice. The old face of Egypt showed powerlessness, poverty for many and despair that their country would never change so that they might enjoy the freedoms that many other countries enjoy. The changing face of Egypt was like a woman giving birth: painful, messy, long and tiring and sadly with much spilt blood. But the baby was born – the future Egypt has arrived. A new era has dawned