Revolt! Feb. 11 Alf Mabrouk Ya Masr!

By now you all know Mubarak stepped down and passed power to the military, rather than to his newly appointed VP and/or the shady Parliament. The people of Egypt welcome this transition to military rule and really do trust completely that the military will oversee a swift transition to credible democracy. Only in Egypt would "martial law" be an improvement to civil liberties and human freedom.

Okay, not only in Egypt...Yemen, are you listening?!?!

After yesterday's disappointing speech (one of the worst ever in history by my bet) in which the President refused to step down and made no further concessions, I'd gone to my friend's to practice some good old fashioned depressed escapism and watch Twilight. Forewarned by her dad that "the office of the presidency" was going to make a speech, we reluctantly left Edward and Bella (it was the first Twilight so not much Jacob, unfortunately) to tune into Al Arabia, an independent Egyptian news channel (i.e. not State TV). We were on alert that something was up because they were advising of an announcement from the Presidency, not the President.

VP Suleiman succinctly delivered the immortal words:
"Hosni Mubarak has waived the office of presidency and asked the army to run the affairs of the country."

Everyone freaked the f*&% out. Dancing, clapping, shouting, waving flags (where'd those come from?!). The streets exploded (really, actual gunfire, they were even shooting emergency flares, like the ones that come in liferafts, into the air) and cars began the traditional Egyptian celebratory honking in the pattern of beeep beeep beepbeepbeep, beeep beeep beepbeepbeep usually reserved for weddings and soccer victories.

I ran home and grabbed my camera and video camera (so yes, I will be spending all day tomorrow trying to remember how to upload video) and met up with Amani and Karim and their parents and headed across 6th of October Bridge to the Corniche, then past the Ministry of the Interior (where snipers had cut down protesters only two weeks ago) and the State Television building, past the back of the Egyptian museum and into Tahrir Square.

A note (Attention President Obama!) on the pronunciation of Tahrir, which by now everyone knows means liberation. The h is not silent. It is the sound you make when you blow on your hands to warm them up. So the Tah is not like how we'd say good by if we were being snooty (ta-tah!), it is similar but followed by a quick exhalation of breath: Tahh! Then role those r's when you say the rir part of Tahrir.

The five of us had to hold hands in a train when we got to the square and many other families and groups of friends were doing the same. Chants would break out, many of which were variations on the chants that have become familiar in the past weeks. Instead of "leave, leave," it became "he left, he left" and "He must leave, we will not leave," became "He left, we will not leave." There was another that sounded really snappy in Arabic but is a little more cumbersome in English. Amani translated it as "we have extracted him," which makes Mubarak sound like a leech, and BBC used the word "dislodged," which makes him sound like a barnacle. Both fairly appropriate metaphors. "The people, the army, one hand" popped up whenever we got near one of the tanks and groups of soldiers around the outside of the square (the soldiers were posing for photos with the protesters and letting them dance on top of the tanks with their flags) and of course "Allahu Akbar," God is great, is perfect for any occasion. My favorite (because it is also the name of a dive bar Downtown), shouted mostly by secular looking student-aged women was the simple "houreyya," or "freedom!"

Flags were literally everywhere but my favorite was worn by a boy of perhaps two on his mother's shoulders (sitting on her hijaab). Although in his sitting position, he was about two feet tall, the flag was easily four or five feet long and tied around his neck like a cape and trailing all the way down his mother's back to the backs of her knees. He looked like the world's tiniest Superman.

We passed three sets of human chains, two made circles within the crowd that protected men on their knees praying (one even used a flag as a prayer rug!), and one, which included civilians and military men, encircled the Egyptian museum, protecting it from further looting and vandalism. You often see grown men hold hands in Egypt, but rarely does it look noble, and even fierce, as it did tonight, when dozens, maybe hundreds, linked hands to protect the vulnerable men in prayer and the vulnerable relics of Egypt's history in the museum.

We made a half-circuit around the square and then tried to squeeze out by Hardee's. This proved to be a bottleneck point and as the crowd squeezed together, the kind of sexual harassment that, according to reports by my friends who have been protesting every day, has been completely absent from the protests so far, reared its ugly head. It is a weird kind of groping, similar to a snake flicking its tongue. A finger will dart into the wasteband of your jeans, touch the skin on your hip or back right where your shirt usually covers but sometimes rides up, then dart away. Or a more daring finger or two will slip into your armpit from behind, barely graze the side of your boob and then disappear. But because there were several snakes in the crowd, it is like when a little kid is trying to get your attention by poke poke poke poking. If I weren't in Egypt and didn't know what it was, I'm not sure I would even know it was sexual in nature and might just think it was accidental; a result of the crush of the crowd.

When we finally popped into a side street and found each other near Pizza Hut, we had to traipse through a few more side streets to get to Qasr el Aini street, the long, wide boulevard that connects our office to Tahrir. These smaller side streets answered my long-pondered question of where all those protesters have been going to the bathroom. My sneakers are sitting on my balcony waiting a good soaking in bleach tomorrow.


We passed by Parliament (where people were writing "this is where Parliament USED to be!" in chalk on a big sign on the front gates while laughing soldiers looked on, and by several other ministry buildings. The sidewalks out front were covered in tents (Coleman is getting some great advertising exposure they're probably not even aware of) and blankets with plastic (like the kind you use to cover your lasagna when you put it in the fridge) stretched over the trees and bushes to protect the blankets from the rain.



I got through my only checkpoint when a boy barely high school aged with flag as a bandana checked my passport (which he could not read, since it was in English) and serious young woman in a purple hijab and studious glasses searched my purse and I was waved through. The men got frisked but not the women. These were volunteers, not military or police, checking to make sure weapons didn't get into populated areas. After we were confirmed weaponless, we were allowed onto Qasr el Aini street and made our way back to our office for some coffee, tea, the leftover pasta I'd forgotten to take home yesterday, a much-needed bathroom break, and President Obama's speech.

It was a beautiful speech. The kind we haven't heard him give since the Primaries. He sounded like how a leader is supposed to sound. For me it was a relief, since I have been waiting for weeks for him to give that speech. I suspect it may have been a relief for him too, since although the US has had to hedge its bets publically, I like to think that somewhere, while Gibbs was giving his ambiguous press conferences, Obama was pacing the Oval Office, chomping at the bit to praise what has happened here. My favorite line was the "For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence, not terrorism, not mindless killing, but nonviolence, that bent the arc of history to moral justice once more." It was everything I remembered Obama used to be, that I don't think we've seen from him in a long time and it was everything the people of Egypt (and we people IN Egypt) have been waiting for him to say.

I think it will go a long way toward repairing any damage done by not weighing in on the right side earlier. Insha'allah. For another, smarter person's analysis, see Nick Kristof's review of the speech: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/obama-leaves-wishy-washy-behind/

Our bodies warmed by tea and our hearts warmed by the speech, we returned to the streets fortified (and empty-bladdered!) and headed for home. We were barely back on the corniche outside Garden City, the neighborhood that houses our office, as well as the British and American embassies, when we ran into friends of ours, one of whom was a lawyer in our office up until December. Of all the millions of people out on the streets and we found each other! We exchanged quick hugs and kisses and congratulations and, as one of them is of Iranian descent, we noted that this is the 32nd anniversary to the day of Iran's 1979 Revolution (the bad one) and exchanged hopes that Egypt's revolution would lead us in a different direction (forward).

We crossed Qasr el Nil bridge, one of my favorite places in Cairo and the best part of my commute to and from work each day. It connects Tahrir Square to the Cairo Opera House and is framed on each end by a pair of regal looking lion statues that seem to stand at attention, protecting the bridge. Men and boys had climbed to the heads of the lions, at least forty feet in the air and were waving flags while families, some with teeny babies, posed near the claws of the lions for what are sure to be awesome Christmas (Ramadan?) cards.



After ambling the length of Zamalek, we ended the evening at the Marriott, in their garden restaurant, surely the only restaurant still open three hours after curfew (I assume because the outer wall of the Marriott property extends all the way around the grounds it keeps out the rifraff, like the police, who would otherwise close the restaurant at curfew time. We ate a late dinner (though Egyptians are usually just getting dressed to go out at 11pm on a Friday night) and toasted the future and pondered whether our firm could get the job of tracing and freezing Mubarak's assets around the world.

Never having attended New Year's Eve in Times Square, this was the biggest party I have ever seen, and no one deserves it more as the people who are partying now have suffered for decades (ahem...Yemen...still paying attention?). The youth are intent on starting the future, as in tomorrow, on the right foot and Facebook and Twitter are abuzz (Google search Tahrir clean and click on the Realtime button on the left margin) with the news that there will be a giant community cleanup of Tahrir starting bright and early at 10am. I doubt many will go home in the intervening hours but those that do are encouraged to bring gloves and garbage bags. The dresscode, according to the Facebook event (https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=151128844945432) is jeans and a shirt, "any color from the Egyptian flag."

I am proud and humbled to know these people and honored to have shared even a small part of this experience with them. Alf mabrouk ya Masr, a thousand congratulations to Egypt on the success of tonight, the past eighteen days, and the future.

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.

Revolt! Feb. 6

It is raining again today. And Egyptians were standing in line (IN LINE!) at the banks this morning waiting for them to open for the first time in about ten days. The small trash cans attached to the street lights are being used and the street lights are on. Basically Cairo is becoming Oregon!

Well, not quite...

A really scary article came out in Al Masry Al Youm, an independent paper today giving more details about the arrests of foreigners, which have been grinding through the rumor mill for days:

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/foreign-residents-become-tense-amid-rising-xenophobia-egypt

Another guy posted on the expat list serve I am on that the secret police are sweeping apartment buildings in Downtown looking for foreigners.

My office has informed everyone that working hours will be 9-3 but so far is not providing any support for those of us foreigners who are still around (there are two of us who have stayed) to safely get to and from the neighborhood where we work, which is surrounded by roadblocks as it is a ten minute walk from Tahrir Square. This is extremely frustrating to me because although I am doing my best not to be hysterical, I do still want to be cautious, and the advice I’ve received is don’t be anywhere near Tahrir in the afternoon or evening, don’t take taxis because drivers are turning foreigners into police, and ride with Egyptians whenever possible.

Unfortunately, this makes me dependent on my friends for rides and as only one of my friends lives in my neighborhood, if she is not going back right when work gets over at three (and she rarely does), then I am in a situation where I must either take a taxi, stay where I’m not supposed to be into the afternoon or evening, or work from home instead of going into the office. I have chosen the latter for tomorrow. All my work is on the computer anyway and I have remote access so I have absolutely no problem with spending more time with my puppy in my PJs if there isn’t any secure way to get to and from the office.

The fires of xenophobia stoked again and again by State TV are manifesting in completely irrational and self-defeating ways. For one thing, the government is simultaneously blaming the Muslim Brotherhood (Egyptians) as well as foreign agents (of Israel and “the West”) for the protests and their impact on Egypt’s economy and security. We can’t all be involved because since when do the West, Israel, and the Muslim Brotherhood work together? In addition, encouraging ordinary citizens to fear and intimidate foreigners only works against the economy by continuing the billions in tourism losses Egypt has already suffered since the revolution began. By pressing the people to harass foreigners, Mubarak is undercutting the fabric (not to mention the funding) of Egyptian society, which, like much of the Middle East, is centered largely on hospitality; the welcoming and protecting of guests.

For those of us who have been in Egypt long enough to make friends and build lives, we feel a twinge of betrayal. Although our particular friends are sympathetic and loyal, we can no longer trust “the Egyptian people” as an abstract, and this trust that strangers will not only not do us harm, but will welcome and help us, is foundational to our ability to live and work in Cairo despite its various smaller dangers (traffic, pollution, untrained medical staff, signs all in Arabic, etc.).

I feel like because there are only two foreigners in the firm now who are not at least dual Egyptian citizens, the office is preoccupied with other things, like finding new work arising from the revolution, getting things back online and checking systems after the internet blackout, securing the office and the building from intruders since so many new people are in the immediate area now, etc. I can’t say I should rank at the top of anyone’s list of things to worry about in a time like this but at the same time, although I am ready and willing, I simply cannot go to work tomorrow because I have no safe way to get home. This is frustrating because I want to be a good employee and set a good example by being at the office but I feel extremely selfish informing human resources that their revolution is inconveniencing me.

I am loving the early work hours and the later curfew, which between the two give me four hours to run errands, walk the dog, and possibly find beer (that will have to wait for tomorrow, since I missed the time window for delivery tonight). On one hand, I am relieved that many things returned to normal today. Offices and restaurants reopened, delivery started up again (a lot of my friends got calls from the restaurants they normally order from notifying them that delivery was once again available…one friend got calls from FIVE places…guess she doesn’t cook much!), and the banks opened, albeit withdrawals from the ATMs are limited to 500LE (about $80). On the other hand, I am concerned that this government push for a “return to normalcy,” and the emotional response (relief, gratitude) from ordinary people like me will take some of the steam out of the revolution and reduce the population of the protesters. If this fizzles out and Mubarak weathers the storm, a lot of good people could be in great danger. So says the great Robert Fisk (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-wrong-mubarak-quits-soon-the-right-one-will-go-2205852.html) and although I am all for security and stability, the potential for many knocks at many doors is too high a price to pay for Normal.

On a lighter note, the pic of Whiskey on this post is not relevant to anything, he is just adorable.

Revolt! Feb. 5

A rainy day in Cairo! Almost as miraculous as Egyptians standing in line! All bets are off, it seems, though somehow I don’t think this is what Hillary meant by a “perfect storm.”

Besides my dog walks, I stayed indoors all day, out of the mud and rain, but tomorrow I get/have to go to work. We have limited hours, just 9-3 so we can get home before any craziness and still have some time to run errands but I also have Arabic class before work so I have to get out early early in the morning.

The protesters are trying to keep the momentum maintainable by having the hardcore people hold the square most days and calling for big representation from the general population certain days: Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. So tomorrow might be a big rally but it shouldn’t get started in earnest until after I’m headed back from work. I hope.

Curfew has been pushed back to 7, which is still not enough time for me to go to the movies or go out to dinner and the beer place still is not open so everyone’s stock is getting low but I miss socializing so I hope my friends and I are able to meet up this week. The talk on the list serve for expats is getting increasingly hysterical. There were a lot of reports of foreigners getting detained for questioning in different neighborhoods and people were even talking about how to flavor contaminated water and home remedies for diarrhea from drinking contaminated water if the entire infrastructure collapses. Considering the banks are supposed to open tomorrow and a lot of restaurants were open this evening, it seems some of my fellow westerners who have stayed behind are going off the deep end. I could definitely use some social time with friends and booze to decompress.

Apparently the people in Tahrir have felt the same need to vent some pent up anxiety. According to my friend who has been there the last few days, the atmosphere is still friendly and festive. Women are not being harassed by fellow protesters, despite sleeping overnight in the streets with strange men. They are being protected, fed, allowed to use the bathrooms in homes around the square, and generally supported and cared for by their fellow protesters and neighbors. My friend said they brought in speakers last night and a few people managed to smuggle in guitars and they had an impromptu concert in the square. With the army maintaining security and protecting the protesters from would-be attackers, I hope the protests stay peaceful. Military leaders visited the square today and the protesters clasped hands in a human chain to protect the path they walked through the crowds from any potential troublemakers.

There have been some interesting reports by legal analysts and constitutional scholars that say that Mubarak cannot just step down. If he goes on medical leave or something temporary, then the VP takes over but has limited powers, which do not include the power to reconstitute the parliament or call for new elections, or change any of the extremely oppressive election laws Mubarak himself put in place in 2007 which basically make it impossible to vote in a new government. If he steps down entirely, basically the same power vacuum exists, with worse people in charge than the VP. So if the protesters’ demands are met word for word, whoever takes charge of the transitional government will not actually have the constitutional authority to amend the constitution, hold new free and fair elections, or change the voting laws. I think these particulars are what is holding up the process and navigating these challenges may be what people are referring to when they say (as the New York Times did today) that Egyptian political leaders are looking for ways to nudge Mubarak out.

In the meantime, another positive step came today when the top leadership of the NDP resigned, including Gamal Mubarak. On the down side, recent reports indicate that as many as 300 people have died since the protests began.

I don't know how I am going to be able to do anything but read the news at work tomorrow!

Revolt! Feb. 4

Today was thankfully uneventful but it was like one of those westerns or thrillers where the good guys are like “it seems quiet…maybe a little too quiet” and then something blows up or the bad guys come out shooting. So my day was like that, except for the exciting part. Fridays are usually completely dead in the mornings. Most businesses don’t open until after prayers around 1 and people usually stay in with their families until then so it wasn’t unusual when I went for my morning walk with Whiskey that hardly anyone was around. It was a little weirder when I went to get lunch at a local bagel shop owned by an American and his Polish wife and didn’t see anyone on the way there. The shop was open as usual and I had an awesome grilled chicken sandwich for lunch with my friend Dena and her British roommate, Carmen. They were planning to head to Morocco for two weeks to escape the tension of feeling trapped in their apartment with nothing but State TV (they haven’t been in town long enough to get a satellite dish) so we had a nice lunch and quick chat and they headed off to get their tickets out of town.

I heard some rumors about foreigners getting beaten up or detained by police or, scarier, abducted by ordinary Egyptians on suspicion of being foreign spies and then turned into the police for questioning but the rumors were in other neighborhoods and I didn’t feel threatened as I went about my errands today.

I went to visit Amani and Karim and their family down the road from me. They have the most amazing chocolate biscuits they serve with tea or coffee so even on a Friday, which is supposed to be a family day, I can’t resist bothering them. With so many people evacuating, they are some of my few friends left in the neighborhood. I saw about four people on the fifteen minute walk back from their house and three were police officers guarding one of the embassies.

Another friend had called me while I was still at their place to discuss the targeting of foreigners so I was really freaked out right before I took Whiskey for his second walk around four but besides the streets still feeling like a ghost town, everything was fine. We got to walk in the middle of the road for most of the time because there was no one else around. It was the quietest I have ever seen any part of Cairo.

Despite the total absence of people, there was also a refreshing absence of trash since residents and shop owners have been sweeping the streets and bagging garbage themselves (people are actually putting trash cans in front of their stores and passersby are actually USING THEM!) and the garbage trucks finally made it into the neighborhood a few days ago to pick up the bags of trash. Now there is just one mystery bag that smells like about 8 pounds of poop sitting in a squashy lump on one corner that Whiskey and I carefully avoid.

My mom said Fareed Zakaria said on CNN today that whereas we are used to seeing protests lead by the likes of Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr., these protests have no leader. I have heard similar complaints on CNN International and BBC and find it a bit silly. This precise complaint proves that the protesters truly want what they are demanding: free and fair elections. They want a government that represents them, in all their chaos and diversity. They don’t want to switch one man out for another, they don’t, as a group, have a particular president in mind to lead them. That’s the POINT. They want the right to vote in an election where their votes are counted, not altered or cast aside, and they are not hunted down and beaten up for them afterwards.

The party of the guy they want out has a strangle hold on 97% of the parliament, yet one tenth of the population of Cairo has joined the protests. Do the math. The party in power doesn’t represent them. The parliament doesn’t represent them. They don’t all WANT to vote for the same guy. That’s the point.

Heard some disturbing stories about food, blankets and medical supplies sent by average Cairenes to support the protesters in Tahrir being confiscated by police and Mubarak supporters. Medical supplies tossed in the Nile and those carrying them detained and interrogated, sometimes for hours. One woman bringing extra blankets to the friends’ house she was planning to stay out AWAY from the city center was detained and questioned for four hours and her blankets were taken away even after they determined she was not headed to Tahrir. She was finally released, shaken.

The Egyptian police have arrested the Al Jazeera bureau chief and a Cairo journalist. Al Ahram, a state run newspaper reported the first death of a journalist in yesterday’s fighting. Al Jazeera’s offices were ransacked and burned by unknown thugs. Despicable.
The government reports that 5000 were injured in the violence of yesterday and the day before. Today’s protests were peaceful, with the help of the army which stepped up again to secure Tahrir against government thugs. The line to get frisked to get into the square stretched all the way over the Qasr el Nil bridge to Zamalek and what Amani and I noticed most prominently in the news coverage is that the video actually showed Egyptians waiting in line one behind the other. It’s a miracle! Egyptians have learned to stand in line! All it took was eleven days of revolution.

The helicopters kept up their nonsense all day but seem to have finally given it a rest in the last hour or so. No shooting tonight (I think they’ve run out of teargas – which, if you hadn’t heard, was manufactured in the US and was expired) and the atmosphere on the streets of Zamalek is fairly relaxed. I took a dog walk with my neighbor around 9:30 and we had to dodge around two soccer games among our protectors. A single truck of police are stationed in the middle of the island that can zoom off and report to trouble spots if necessary but so far all is quiet.

The Central Bank said something today about wanting to try to resume business on Sunday, but demonstrators are calling for big rallies on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday so I doubt I’ll be going back to work any time soon. I am one of very few foreigners I know who are still in Zamalek, and the only foreigner from my office still here. I am going to work my email contacts to try to make some new friends tomorrow and reconnect with some old ones!

Revolt! Feb. 3

February 3, 2011

9:53pm

Today has been a difficult day. The jubilance and celebratory atmosphere of the peaceful protests is marred now by the bloody street war yesterday. The good guys are a little on the defensive and thankfully the international media has picked up the truth of the story that many of the so-called “pro-Mubarak supporters” that attacked protesters yesterday were plainclothes police and/or paid to cause violence. Fortunately, the bad guys are on the defensive too, and I say fortunately because although the news is not good for me, with the new VP giving a long interview on State TV blaming foreigners for everything, the continued backpedaling and mixed messages from the administration (while the VP was blaming foreigners, the new Prime Minister said he would start an investigation into whether security forces were involved in the violence) is strengthening the stance of foreign governments against Mubarak.

There are some scary rumors of foreigners being targeted by government funded gangs (I heard a foreigner was beaten to death in Tahrir yesterday) and the media reports it is basically open season on journalists. The US Embassy has provided its last evacuation flight out of Egypt and those of us that wish to leave after this will have to make our own arrangements. Honestly, most foreigners were making commercial reservations anyway, as they are significantly cheaper than the evac flights provided by the State Department. Interestingly, I learned that most countries fly their citizens out of emergency situations for free. The US is fairly unique in requiring reimbursement. Even Mexico was evacuating its citizens from Egypt free of charge.

Mexico. Take a minute and think about that. What responsibilities does a government have to protect its citizens who choose to live on foreign soil? Do those responsibilities change depending on whether or not those citizens engage in peaceful protest against a foreign government? If there is no actual legal obligation for a government to protect its citizens abroad, does it have some moral obligation? Whether it is a moral or legal obligation, is it right that such protection comes with a price tag?

Many Americans have been disappointed by the lack of guidance and assistance offered by the Embassy here. No one from the Embassy ever called me, despite the fact that I am registered with them. Not knowing I was receiving Cairo Warden emails from the Embassy (proving I was registered), due to the Internet blackout, I had my mom re-register me. To complete my re-registration, the State Department sent me an EMAIL with a link I had to click and enter a code (HELLO – NO INTERNET). After 48 hours of me not entering the code I didn’t know about, they canceled the re-registration request (which turned out not to matter because I was already registered, they just weren’t calling me because they’re lame). No safe transportation was provided to the airport and I’ve heard reports of roadblocks on the way where foreigners trying to leave are first robbed. Even if you can get an evac flight, you are sent to the “safehaven” (and the safety of these places is debatable at best) cities of Nicosia, Istanbul, or Athens (no choice where you’re sent) and must provide your own accommodation or transportation from there, at your own cost, in addition to reimbursing the State Department for your evacuation at two to three times the commercial rate. No pets allowed, even as carry-on luggage.

The president apparently admitted to ABC today that he is fed up with being president and would like to step down but fears that if he does, Egypt will descend into chaos. I didn’t see the interview but if that is accurate, it is a surprisingly frank admission from what I have believed this whole time is basically a stubborn octogenarian blinded by his pride and his advisors (who supposedly keep a lot from him) to the reality unfolding in his country.

Officially, the two sides have come to a stalemate, as the VP declared the government will not negotiate as long as the protests continue and the protesters will not leave until Mubarak steps down. If Mubarak is making admissions in the foreign media about wanting to leave office, perhaps he is trying to soften his landing a bit but the crackdown by government forces yesterday, the continued non-intervention of the military or police to protect peaceful citizens, the stoppage of supplies into Tahrir by government lackeys and the sanctioned hunting of journalists and demonizing of foreigners weighs against the likelihood that he is preparing for a graceful exit. If he is, judging from the continued rage and frustration of the Egyptians I’ve heard from, he really shouldn’t take his time. If tomorrow’s protests are as big as Tuesday’s, or even as big as last Friday’s, he could be chased out before he has time to leave on his own.

If he’s not planning to leave on his own, his terror tactics are weighing against him in the court of international opinion.

10:46pm

Hillary is slamming the attacks on the peaceful protesters, foreigners, and journalists now and she totally called out the army for sitting on its ass while people were attacked around them. She fell back on the “immediately begin negotiations for a peaceful and orderly transition.” It isn’t enough to demand that negotiations begin immediately. The transition needs to begin immediately or those people on Tahrir are not going home. Sigh. That was disappointing.

The Health Minister says that 13 people were killed in yesterday’s fighting and some 1200 were injured.

Middle class Iraqis who had taken refuge in Egypt during the war are fleeing Cairo and returning to Iraq in search of security and stability. Yikes.

So it was a big day in the news but one of the most boring days so far in Zamalek. In the wise words of my friend Dalia, “this is what unemployment felt like.” Only with the caveat that unemployment comes with a little tingle of guilt like it is somehow your fault. This at least doesn’t feel like that. But there is a sense I should be doing more with my days, which is difficult when the day officially ends at five. I am going to make a better effort to exercise each day, in addition to my two half-hour dog walks and finish some projects I promised I’d do for my mom but haven’t been able to work on without Internet. Of course with the restoration of Internet, I’ve caught up on my TV shows, but it is time I buckled down and did some work too. Now that I am used to watching TV for 12-14 hours a day it will be hard to work anything else into my schedule but after 10 days, maybe some variation in my routine will be good for me.

The helicopters have been circling non-stop today but otherwise the streets are quiet. I can smell burning trash from the campfires warming the neighborhood watch groups (who I neglected to make banana bread tonight – hopefully tonight will be uneventful!) but I associate that smell with the burn barrel of one of my babysitters when I was little and would strike out on my own into the woods during the day to explore. It is the smell of adventure!

Thanks to those of you who continue to write and call. It is nice to hear from home and reeaaally nice to break up the monotony. Good luck with this year's snowpocalypse!

Revolt! February 2, 2011

February 2, 2011

1:16pm

I told my friend Dena last night that the surefire way to undermine the protests now would be to restore Internet service and let the protesters eat each other alive in the blogs and chat rooms, bickering about whether this latest concession goes far enough. Sure enough, we have Internet back today and there is a lot more debate in the streets about whether the protests should continue. Many people who aren’t participating and therefore aren’t getting a daily dose of patriotism and camaraderie at the rallies are getting tired of the curfew, tense from being cooped up and the pressure of having to provide for their families with limited cash supplies and no work. There will start to be more infighting soon between the opposition factions and it will be up to the organizers to hold it all together. I hope they do, otherwise we’ll have to go through this all again in September when Mubarak decides to run for reelection.

I heard this morning that around 300 have been killed across Egypt so far

4:54
Well, it has been a sad and exciting afternoon. A few hours ago, a horde of camel and horseback riding thugs rode through the military roadblock and began attacking the protesters in Tahrir Square. The two sides began throwing rocks at one another. Many people fled and many others were carried away with wounds from rocks. The army is trying to provide a cordon between the protesters and the attackers with tanks but is not able or willing to actively restore calm. The noise is incredible and clearly audible from my balcony.

The international news media keeps referring to them as “pro-Mubarak supporters,” which does not seem to be accurate. Possibly some of them are politically motivated, but the protesters are pulling the IDs off of the ones who started the attack and showing the cameras that these are security forces in plainclothes. The TV stations know this and reported this but instead of calling these guys “security forces,” or “hired thugs,” or “government forces,” etc., they keep calling them “Mubarak supporters.” I think that gives a really skewed view of what is happening. This is not a popular counter-protest movement, this is an attack by the government on the peaceful protesters and should be reported as such. This is very disappointing.

It appears from CNN’s coverage that Anderson Cooper has arrived in Cairo. This is the closest I have ever been to Anderson Cooper. Curfew just started so I suppose it is a bad time to go looking for him…maybe tomorrow…

I wonder if both sides will stop to pray at the evening call to prayer.

Life in Zamalek continues to be uneventful. I made a different kind of chicken soup today. I walked the dog twice again. Internet is back, at least temporarily, so most people I know have stayed home answering concerned emails of friends and family. I am immensely appreciative to be back in contact with the rest of the world but I am really disappointed that the police and the military are doing nothing to bring peace back to the protests in Tahrir and concerned about what will happen after dark. I am feeling cabin fever more than ever and my cold has moved into my chest so I will probably go to bed early. However, I am afraid that once darkness falls and the cameras don’t have so great a view, the government forces will start using live fire. Even if it is jus tear gas and rubber bullets again, I imagine the gunfire will make sleep difficult.

My neighbors have invited me over for dinner in a few hours. I hope they have wine. It has been a stressful afternoon.