Adam in Cairo

Life back in Spain isn’t very exciting and thus I haven’t been updating this blog. However, Mr. A is in Cairo and unfortunately that is quite a thrilling story to follow. I just wish he was out of there already. He is safe and in the airport trying to get out, which I guess is good enough at this point.

It all started a week ago when Egypt was celebrating a national holiday: Police Day. I remember a couple days before the holiday Mr. A was telling me that he found such a holiday quite absurd and even annoying in a country with a dictatorship. A country where policemen are most often corrupted, and usually feared rather than respected. Mr. A even made a joke stating that instead of being a holiday that policemen can enjoy it always ends up being the day they work the hardest to control protests all over the country.

Protests were thus expected but no one anticipated what was about to happen. Suddenly the whole country realized that kicking out a bad leader can be easy: you “just” need thousands of people protesting in the streets, like Tunisians did a few weeks ago.

After 30 years of oppression, Egyptians have finally understood that they all have a voice. One voice might not be heard, but put together thousands, hundreds of thousands, and the message will be clear and loud. And the message is that they want Mubarak out. They do not want a change in the government; they want him out, his son out, his ministers out. They want a new country. They want to be able to choose their future, even their present.

The protests have been quite peaceful. Protesters in general do not have weapons, they are not attacking the police or the army, they are being loud, and that is all. I have received a translated copy of a booklet that is circulating all over Egypt on how to behave in the protests and one of the main ideas is to not use violence. Also they want to get the Police involved and the army, and they suggest shouting slogans such as “The Police and the People stand together!!”. They encourage citizens to invite their neighbors and coworkers to join the protests always using positive persuasion.

I must admit at first Mr. A seemed to be happy to be witnessing such a moment. He was part of History, even if he was living it all from his balcony. Him and 4 friends/coworkers had all taken refuge in their apartment, in Zamalek, a small island full of embassies, hotels, and wealthy people. A rich neighborhood just a few blocks from Tahrir Square (the square is outside the island, on the other side of the Nile).

No one saw this coming in Egypt because we all have the idea that Egypt is a stable country. And it is, Mr. A has lived there twice and he loves the country, he enjoys Cairo, but he will tell you it is a poor country. It is a country full of unhappy people, oppressed people, poor people. It is said that over 50% of the population lives with less than 2$ a day, that makes over 40 million people.

The problem with Egypt is that it has had the support of Europe and the US for a very long time. Egypt has a strategic location, between Africa and the Middle East, in the Mediterranean and next to the Gulf, thus the stability of Egypt is key in order to maintain stability all over the region. Also, the peace treaty they signed with Israel years ago has somehow maintained “peace” between other Arab countries and Israel. Egypt has without any doubt the most powerful army in the region and Israel needs to have a good relationship with them. But if Israel looses that, there will be trouble. That is also why Israel has remained quiet until today, but finally they have decided to officially support Mubarak. I don’t think Egyptians and other Arabs in the region will appreciate that support.

Anyways, going back to the streets of Cairo, Adam tells me that it is amazing to see the amount of empty cans of tear gas in the street. He says there are thousands; anywhere you look you find them. However the streets of Zamalek have been kind of calm the last few days because protests are downtown and not in their island.

They have been able to leave the house a few times without being at risk. They had to buy food and water, also some alcohol as he admits after 5 days without internet, without phone, and trapped at home, you start getting very bored. ATM machines have no money, thus there is no access to cash. Nevertheless, most shops are closed.

At night everything is different and dangerous. They have not left the apartment at all after the curfew. Lets put it this way, the protests are peaceful but there are people taking advantage of it. Since there is no police in the streets there are people robbing houses, hotels, shops etc at night. Neighbors are organizing themselves in groups to protect their private property in whatever way they can. There are gunshots at night and it is terribly scary, especially in a rich neighborhood as Zamalek.

Mr. A tells me that mosques instead of calling to prayer they are sending safety messages, asking people walking in the streets at night to be sure to identify themselves so that their neighbors don't take them for burglars. 

Mr. A also tells me that at night, well, as soon as the curfew starts (today 3pm Cairo time) he can see people in the streets with knifes, sticks and even samurai swords!! These people are the ones protecting their private properties.

It is a fact that Egyptians are being kind and not aggressive. This is not against tourists, not at all. Actually people are not at risk because of the protesters, the risk comes from those vandals that are robbing houses and shops and taking advantage of the chaos.

Please note that it asks for protesters to carry a flower to show they are protesting peacefully.

Things are out of control now and thus our office decided yesterday that Mr. A and the whole team should be evacuated. The US government, no disrespect, isn’t doing much. They might be saying on TV that they are, but as far as we are concerned they are being useless. It is true that it is a complicated situation, but I can tell you things aren’t being taken care of properly. For instance, when Mr. A called the embassy a couple days ago he was told to call Washington DC to deal with it. Keep in mind phones were working on and off, and of course an international call is a very expensive one. Other people called the embassy and got an answering machine advising them to visit the embassy’s website for more info. Keep in mind Internet has been down for almost a week now!

So our office decided they should all leave the country together and booked them tickets for today. They left their apartment as soon as the curfew was off this morning since they knew getting to the airport would be difficult. What they didn’t expect was that the toughest would actually be getting inside the airport.

Thousands of people are trying to access the terminal, many of them don’t even have a ticket but they are so desperate they are trying everything they can think of to get on a plane.

After a couple hours they made it inside the terminal, checked their bags and went to their boarding gate. This sounds easy, but it was a lengthy and tiring process. They were told there was no guarantee they would take off. And indeed their flight got canceled.

A bit later they were told they could perhaps take a different flight which was supposed to take off many hours earlier but it had been delayed. They didn’t make it to that flight either.

As of right now they seem to have tickets in a plane that could take off in 30 minutes. No one knows where their bags are, but that is just the last of their concerns.

So cross your fingers and lets all hope they will be out of Egypt tonight.

As for the Egyptian people, courage!!

* Hopefully Mr. A will be here tomorrow and we can add some of the pictures he has taken in Cairo.