Revolt! Feb. 9

Yesterday practically half the lawyers in our office went to Tahrir. It had been peaceful all day and by afternoon it was clear they’d already set a record for the greatest number of protesters so far. Again, I didn’t go, but on the way home, I got to experience some of the protest as my car had to weave around the swarms of people on their way to Tahrir. They were literally every type of Egyptian I have ever seen. Women in full hijab and niqab, little babies in fleece coats with hoods pulled up over their noses in preparation for sunset, fashionable girls in skinny jeans, young guys hauling blankets ready to stay the night, old men who looked like they’d come straight from the mosque, guys in workshirts carrying their sons on their shoulders. Everyone had flags or were wearing the Egyptian colors in headbands and armbands.

Zamalek is basically a parking lot for the protesters. Cars are double parked all along the broad avenue along the Nile called the Corniche to the point that there are even uniformed parking attendants who wave people into the tightest imaginable spots. One way streets have become two way streets (which freaked me out when we first turned onto a formerly one way highway in the morning and had to dodge oncoming traffic!) but Egyptian drivers just go with the flow and make it work.

My friend showed me pictures from the protests yesterday of how, after rumors that the army was planning to move their tanks further into the square to restrict the open space protesters could use, protesters set up their blankets around the tanks and would sleep at night in front of the wheels and actually lay with their heads in the cogs of the wheel mechanism so the tanks cannot be moved.

There were so many people yesterday that the protest spread to the Ministry of the Interior (where thankfully there are no longer snipers!) and the State Television building and throughout many of the streets downtown. Today protesters have surrounded government buildings, including the Parliament building with Parliament still inside (they were in session to discuss what to do about the protesters when the protesters boxed them in and told them what they could do with themselves!).

As yesterday was a record number of protesters, obviously many people came who had not been to the protests before. When interviewed, they said that they were not deterred by VP Omar Suleiman’s morning speech that the President had decreed a roadmap to constitutional reform and many cited the speech of activist and Google exec Wael Ghonim moments after his release following 12 days of police detention as the reason they joined the movement. His speech, which was less than two minutes long, was given off the cuff when asked how it felt to be out so soon after his release that he was literally still being embraced by friends and family. It was so emotional and so moving that a coworker had to excuse himself immediately after watching it on my friend’s iPhone so he wouldn’t cry in front of us. It has been disseminated through blogs and tweets and is now on everyone’s Facebook page. Here is the interview, with an English translation at the bottom. Try to read along at the pace he speaks to get the full effect (to assist in this effort, listen for the words “masryeen” – Egyptians, “camera” and “insha’allah” –God willing to pace yourself).

http://ircpresident.blogspot.com/2011/02/wael-ghonim-is-free-and-his-first-words.html

You can follow him on Twitter to hear the new voice of the youth movement.

Another recent speech which had exactly the opposite effect on the Egyptian people was that of Tamer Hosny, a pop superstar popular with teen and preteen girls, who made possibly the dumbest PR move EVER this morning. Last week he made a really dumb speech about “how can you be upset if Mubarak overlooks you, you are eighty million and even a father of three or four kids mixes up his kids’ names sometimes.” Then this morning he went to the square to tell the protesters to go home had to flee when people booed and essentially chased him out.

Also, this morning the new VP basically stated that a coup followed by a military dictatorship would be the only way to resolve the situation if the protests continue. He called the protests a “grave threat to society,” and basically said he would use the army to grab power and impose martial law to stop them if necessary. And this is the guy the US seems to be backing?

Suleiman reminds me of the skinny, gaunt, hollow-eyed caretaker guy who is always behind the Scooby Doo haunting who “would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” Check out this quite awesome independent Egyptian paper for more fantastically creepy quotes:
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/egyptian-vp-holds-firm-says-only-alternative-dialogue-coup

The workers from two petroleum companies and one of the Suez Canal companies have declared a strike to demand higher pay and better working conditions. So far it is not interrupting Canal operation.

My friends’ mom just told me two people got married in Tahrir a few days ago. I looked it up and it is true!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/07/tahrir-square-wedding_n_819603.html
What a beautiful idea.