Mubarak has stepped down.
Through peaceful, patient & persistant demonstrations, the people have won.
I can’t beging to express how moved I am.
Egypt’s path forward won’t be simple or easy, but I trust this is the first of many positive steps towards a peaceful & free future.
He’s gone, alhamdulillah, he’s gone.
Protests in Egypt are continuing & today was yet another unsatisfying speech from Mubarak.
It’s strangely impressive that Mubarak has managed to hang on, seemingly unperturbed by the millions of people across the world calling for him to step down and leave. The Arabist nicely sums up a few possibilities of what may be behind this:
- Tone-deafness: Mubarak genuinely thought that he could defuse the situation with a hat-tip to the protesters, and that his transfer of powers would satisfy the protesters. He may also have thought back to his Feb 2 address, where he stirred up some genuine sympathy and regained the initiative, and was trying to repeat the performance. However, he so badly mangled his speech, and struck such an arrogant tone, that he made things worse.
- Cussedness: Mubarak projected arrogance and intransigence so as to call the bluffs of everyone — the protesters, the Americans, and presumably now the military — who are pushing him to leave. Maybe he allowed expectations to be raised, so as to make the blow fall that much harder. If you can’t get rid of me after this, he is saying, then you can’t get rid of me until I’m ready to go. Show your hand, or give up.
- Worse is better: Mubarak wanted to stir things up, to provoke a march on the palace and possibly trigger some violence. The regime had its greatest success undermining the uprising when the situation was at its most unstable. The return to normalcy on the other hand this week provided the opportunity for people to come together in the workplace, remember what they really dislike about the stagnant and corrupt status quo, and go on strike. So, he thought he might end the normalcy, rekindle fears of long-lasting anarchy, and put pressure on the demonstrators to quit with what concessions they have already won.
Who knows.
I’m so glad to see that someone at AUC has added a collection sites relating to the protests into Archive-It. It’s being crawled almost daily & contains a wealth of information, commentary and photographs. This is going to be an incredible resource and I’m absolutely thrilled that someone had the vision to capture it.
A few days ago these images came through my Google Reader [I follow a collection of Egyptian blogs] and they made my heart skip a few beats.
Photo by Ahmad Salah
Photo by Ahmad Salah
Apparently there are special forces stationed at City Stars mall. This is the mall that I lived near & frequently complained about – it’s one of the most ridiculous places ever:
My Egyptian friend said it’s because it’s the largest mall in Egypt, it employs a lot of people, there are a lot of expensive stores with valuable merchandise, houses a lot of international companies and that it’d be a big loss if something were to happen to it. There are also 2 hotels attached to the mall and various military complexes in the surrounding area.
Even though I passed by men with AK47s twice a day on my way to & from the bus & armed police were a normal sight around town, there’s something menacing about their full body suits that makes me tense.
Regardless of the reason they’re there, it definitely sends a message that something is going on & that someone is uneasy about it.
Like many, I’ll be watching closely the new few days/weeks/months to see how this all plays out.
I’m not going to pretend I have anything insightful, important or new to say about what’s happening in Egypt. I’m a foreigner & an outsider, but I still can’t tear myself away from following the developments through Twitter/Al Jazeera/Facebook.
I appreciate everyone who has started a conversation about this with me, asked questions, showed doubted and expressed concern.
Here are some recommendations for more information:
Al Jazeera’s live-stream
Al Jazeera staff Twitter accounts
A Primer On Following Egyptian Protests On Twitter from NPR
We Are All Khaled Said Facebook group [my post on the Khaled Said event this summer is here]
Really, that this is happening isn’t much of a surprise. The Egyptian public hasn’t been happy with Mubarak for years [decades!]. I think what’s most striking are the images of places I have frequented many times.
I can’t help but wonder what permanent changes this will bring about, but I hope they’re all for the better.
Kasr al-Nil bridge, connecting Tahrir to the Opera House.
June:
January:
From The New Yorker
Midan Tahrir [the center of the protests]
June:
January:
From Foreign Policy
The friends I’ve heard from in Egypt are all safe, thankfully.
On Saturday there was a protest in Dearborn to show solidarity. They rallied in front of City Hall, which happens to be directly across the street from the museum. I’m happy to be part of everything in some very small way.
From the Free Press
I trust that the coming months will bring a safe, secure and equitable future to Egypt.
Not much to say lately.
Today I was supposed to go to Alexandria to get a tour of the library. I got to the train station at 8:30am, but there weren’t any trains until after 2pm, which would get me there too lately, so I had to cancel. I was definitely bummed, but at least I’ve been able to visit the library twice before [but never behind the scenes]. Lesson learned = buy train tickets in advance.
To make sure today had some sort of adventure, I decided to try to get home by tram. Heliopolis has a fairly extensive tram system, but I’ve never been able to find any information or map for it. It begins at the train station so I hopped on & had a great ride & it a cool way to experience the city. Although I didn’t make it all the way home & had to grab a cab eventually, it was well worth the 50 piasters [.09 US cents].
A week ago, my friend Dan & I went out to dinner, as he’s left for vacation in the States & won’t be back to Egypt until I’m gone. We ventured to Nasr City to try out El Borg – a four story restaurant famous for it’s fish from Port Said. We had tiger prawns, boori, a soup with a broth that was mostly butter & a variety of salads. It was a delicious meal! Then, walking out, I was taken by surprise by these giant pelicans! Definitely not native to Cairo, but hopefully well kept & fed by fish scraps.
Strange to think that this month would mark the end of our Peace Corps service if we had stayed in Bulgaria. But we didn’t stay. We can home & got jobs & started grad school & I fell apart & I pulled myself together & now I’m in Egypt. It’s crazy the places life takes you & the experiences you’ve been given.
I’ve been giving a lot of though to the rest of my life lately. It’s a little frightening. Here are my conclusions: I can’t live in a city, I need to have a garden, I need a place to put my hammock. Bonus points for being near water. A short commute would be nice too. We’ll see.
Just 3 days left! I’m already 85% packed, but I’ll find plenty of ways to fill my time.
Yesterday will go down as one of the best day I’ve had thus far in Egypt & well worth documenting.
In the morning, Pete, Martha & myself headed to the Pyramids. We took the Metro as far as we could & got a ride the rest of the way with an Egyptian who offered to take us for a good price. We spent 2 or 3 hours walking around, taking photos & soaking in the scale of the Pyramids – it’s so hard to convey just how huge they are in photos. The weather was absolutely perfect – clear skies, fluffy clouds & a refreshing breeze. Although I went in 2007, it’s definitely an experience that’s still just as epic as it was the first time.
In the afternoon they went to get bus tickets & rest & I went home to take a much needed nap. We met back up around 7 & headed down to the Nile for a boat ride. There were 4 of us & we met 2 other Americans who joined us. It was beautiful to watch the sunset on the river & watch the city slowly light up – a wonderful way to spend an hour.
After that we headed to the Swiss Club in Imbaba to watch the football game. It was a great space outdoors, with cold Stella, good shisha, delicious spinach quiche & the game projected onto a big screen. The crowd was a mix of expats & Egyptians, with slightly more people rooting for Ghana than the US. Despite the loss, it was a great time.
Eric & Katie, the Americans we met on the feluca ride, came with us to watch the football game. When we met up with another friend at the club, it was absolutely amazing to discover that they knew each other and had worked together at Brown. It was such a happy & serendipitous moment!
I put up over 60 pictures from yesterday & some from our trip to Al-Azhar park the day before on Flickr.
Only two more weeks left in Egypt.
Too soon.
