Arab Spring in my Step

Beers and Burqas under the Brotherhood in Cairo

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:12:00 +0000

(Stella Bar in Downtown Cairo on a quiet afternoon)

Late last month I wrote a piece for The Sunday Business Post (and reported for Morning Ireland) focusing on the major foreign and domestic challenges facing the new President of Egypt- Mohamed Morsi. I addressed topics such as the economy, Palestine, tourism, the constitutional crisis etc.

But it’s unlikely that these are the issues that most dominate many Western minds, when they contemplate an Islamist coming to power. The "big issues" that people often mention first are- Beer and Burqas.

Well of course, these are not really the "big issues"- but sure I will throw a few words at them anyway.

Alcohol is brewed and drunk in Egypt as a minority pursuit. In Cairo outside of hotels, there are not many bars catering for a city of 20 million.

The downtown bar scene is wonderfully counter culture, bars do not advertise their existence much, and although legal, drinking in them has an almost Chicago prohibition-era feel to it. Places like Stella Bar on Talat Harb, are difficult to find- but have an authentic local (baladi) atmosphere.

My favourite haunt is Hureya, where drinking on a Thursday has to be one of the most interesting experiences in Egypt’s capital. There is a decent guide to the baladi bar scene here on line, but even with the map sometimes it can be difficult to locate the bars. But the searching adds to the fun of an evening and oddly makes the beer taste better as well.

(Walking into Hureya, in Downtown Cairo, on a busy Thursday evening)

I personally think Morsi is unlikely to severely restrict the sale of alcohol, especially when attempting to attract tourists back to Egypt. However it is understandable that bar owners, and their patrons might be a little worried.

But headscarves and the issue of women’s rights is more complex.

When I wrote my book about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and occupation a few years back, I had one chapter entitled “More than one Wall” that focused on women in the region. My own observations of my time in the region were combined with wider reading on the subject. It was by far the most difficult chapter to write- partly because we all carry prejudice into this topic. I might consider myself “progressive” etc- but I am still a product of a patriarchal western society (albeit much more equal than a few decades back), and up until relatively recently a very conservative, religious one at that (Ireland). This might affect my own viewpoint, perhaps on a subconscious level, I don't know. Also the "west" (whatever that is) obviously does not have all the answers when it comes to sexual politics.

However the chapter got the most active (mostly positive) reaction from readers- maybe it’s because I had no very clear conclusions in it rather falling back on the easier position of saying “it’s complex”. (Maybe readers also liked it because I come across a little foolish in parts!)

(Scarfs- the first thing many people think of when they conjure up the image of an Arab woman in their mind. This is a picture from the local market where I lived in Dokki. Really Egyptian women have probably more to be worried about with SCAF than scarfs)

Egypt remains predominantly a traditional and patriarchal society. Undoubtedly the Brotherhood is a socially conservative organisation, and women rights activists will carefully observe every action taken by the new Morsi led government in this area.

Some of the issues women face in Egypt are somewhat specific, like chronic street harassment and female genital mutilation, others would be familiar in Ireland, like embarrassingly low representation in parliament and access to abortion facilities.

Morsi has promised that he will not enforce the wearing of headscarves for instance- but some still worry that if he cannot fulfil his commitment to improve the economic situation he may fall back on implementing “conservative social measures” to please his most religious of supporters.

But if in the context of sexual equality Egypt is not western Europe, it is far from Saudi Arabia either. The vast majority of Muslim women wear hijabs (a much smaller minority wear burqas), however among the young (and more middle class), the brightly coloured headscarves and the accompanying tight fitting clothes certainly do not disguise their womanhood.

For all the problems facing them, Egyptian women participate in media, business, education and many sectors of society.

Any major move to severely restrict women rights further would provoke the revolutionary and women’s movement, something that Morsi could do without considering the mountain of problems which already face him.

The weekend of the long speeches

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 10:05:00 +0000

(The Pyramids have seen it all before...well maybe not a "freely" elected President of Egypt, but that changed this weekend)

If you like a good speech, or at least a long one, then Cairo was the place to be over the last few days.

New Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, swore his oath of office in three different places, controversially in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court (the body that recently dissolved the democratically elected parliament), in Cairo University- and most symbolically in front of a massive, delirious crowd in Tahrir Square.

The intricate political significance of all this is somewhat complicated- and I deal with much of it in my article in today’s ‘Sunday Business Post’.

Morsi’s speech in Tahrir was dramatic and vaguely ‘rock and roll’ as the 60 year old rotund Muslim Brother worked the crowd. At one stage he swung his jacket open to reveal he had no bullet proof vest on. Saying he feared only God, and not the people of Egypt (apparently Mubarak went nowhere without donning his bullet proof attire).

Then, with his panicking bodyguards following, he went to the front of the stage and pointed at the crowd saying that they gave him power. His journey from prison to Presidential palace was complete.

It was passionate, chaotic, mesmerizing, sweaty, sentimental and historic. In truth I think it was a very Egyptian event.

As I write in today’s Sunday Business Post “President Morsi faces a massive task trying to oversee this unfinished revolution; a showdown between the Brotherhood and the military over the extent of his powers seems inevitable and the revolutionary movement remains on the streets.

“But while we contemplate all the difficulties facing the elected President, it is important to remember that it’s the very fact that he is freely elected, which is one of the great achievements of the Egyptian revolution.”

The Brotherhood are a contradictory phenomena and will not be able to fulfil the goals of the revolution. There is an excellent analysis by Egyptian socialist Hossam el-Hamalawy on the Brotherhood's victory here, which is well worth reading and to which I broadly concur.

But this week could have all been very different.

If last week’s election had been “rigged” the other way, and former Mubarak PM Ahmed Shafiq had come to power, then this would not have been a week of speeches and symbolism.

It would have been a week of anger, fear, loathing, clashes and most probably bloodshed.

It can be easy to be cynical about much of the symbolism of the last few days- but surely it is much better than what the alternative was.

The revolutionary movement under Morsi, can continue to organise, oppose and build. If Shafiq had won, it would have meant imprisonment, martyrdom and considering the political balance of forces here- most probably a massive blow to the revolution. But for now the revolution continues, haltingly maybe, but continue it can.

Thomas Kinsella and the Egyptian Revolution...yeah you read that correct.

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 13:52:00 +0000

‘Time = Hope + Disappointment’- from the Notebooks of Thomas Kinsella

I have never lived through a revolutionary period before, so I have nothing to compare this to. But it’s certainly more draining then I expected.

On a professional level I have tried to remain coolly detached in recent weeks- with reports for RTE Radio and 'The Sunday Business Post' and others. But in reality, although I am just an observer here, the mounting fears of counter revolution have sucked much of my energy out, and I am watching it evaporate in the unforgiving Cairo heat.

This is a period of deep concern for the “revolutionary movement”. Just in the last week a Supreme Court decision ruled that candidate of the old regime, Ahmed Shafiq, could stand in the Presidential election, and it also dissolved the freely elected parliament. The military gave itself sweeping new powers, thus rendering the newly elected President, in the eyes of some- little more than a figurehead. In the election itself the Muslim Brotherhood candidate appeared to win according to all tallies- however no official announcement has yet been made, and there are many rumours. Many, many rumours. There is heightened security across the country, and dropped into the mix is news that former dictator Hosni Mubarak is swinging between “clinically dead” and “technically alive” according to a confused state media.

Many supporters of the revolution feel squeezed between the military leadership and the Muslim Brotherhood.

In my report for today’s ‘The Sunday Business Post’ (23.06.2012) I write “While the daily details of constitutional crisis, parliamentary debates, street protests and election disputes can become overwhelming here (for Egyptians and foreign correspondents alike), the complexity tends to obscure an essential narrative.

“The revolution of January 2011 gained much, including the ousting of the dictator. However the revolutionaries did not come to power, therefore their agenda of equality and democracy was never fully implemented. Forces connected with the old regime remained in powerful positions, intent on defending their privilege.

“Thus the Egyptian revolution remains systemically unfinished. The coming days and weeks will do much to reveal which side, revolutionary or counter revolutionary, will have the most impact on how this will end.”

There are many cold, factual pieces about the revolution/ counter revolution battle in Egypt, and I have also written many. But in recent days, I have been contemplating the less obvious, and more abstract nature of this. Often observations about the Egyptian revolution written from outside the country can lack one essential aspect- the sense of heightened emotion people feel.

How passionate the participants (and us close observers) and general citizenry feel. How fears, hopes and disappointment moves people and organisations in great sweeping ways, during this revolution.

Thomas Kinsella is Ireland’s greatest living poet. His poetry is not really politically radical, indeed not very optimistic in many ways. My personal beliefs certainly do not chime fully with his poetic vision. But his body of work amounts to one of the greatest sustained engagements between an Irish writer and the questions surrounding our existence.

He may seem an odd place to retreat to, when contemplating the Egyptian revolution. But anyway that’s where my mind, melting in the Cairo heat, has staggered to in recent days. My thoughts are not systematic or fully formed- they are just a muddle- a bit like Egypt at the moment.

Because at this very moment, when the prospects of the revolution seem so perilous, when the spectre of counter revolution hangs heavy over Egypt- it may be worth remembering, that life is one of contrast. An existential dance between Hope and Disappointment. These dark days will surely pass, the revolution has won much and its inspirational hope will mean it will emerge again.

Kinsella sees reality as one of contested opposition. In his early notebooks he extols the equation, ‘Time = Hope + Disappointment’. Life is doomed by inevitable disappointment in this Kinsellian universe, it can be but endured. Poetry, love and other “urges” (sometimes political) are admirable hopeful strategies of adjustment to this doomed fate. The hope side of his dialectic is intrinsic to human experience, but in the end futile. Disappointment subsumes its opposite, synthesising it into infinite dehumanised time.

In his sprawling, muscular elegy, ‘The Messeger’ Kinsella charts his late father’s (a labour activist and trade unionist) lifetime in reverse. By inverting time’s arrow, Kinsella allows the inherent disappointment of the later life to be uplifted by the end of the poem, by the hopefulness of his father’s early idealism. It is a case of technical form triumphing over living inevitability.

In a series of scenes, his father John’s life is imagined, reading Marx as a young worker in the 1920s. John’s hopeful mind lingers upon the vision of tragic inspiration forever burnt into the collective consciousness of the Irish left. ‘Connolly strapped in a chair/regarding the guns/that shall pronounce his name for ever’. Later a faithful follower of James Larkin and his proletarian proselytising, John was instrumental in the formation of the first trade union in Guinness Brewery. Kinsella recalls his father at an election rally outside the Black Lion in Inchicore- fiery and heroic. “He is good looking and dark/He has a raincoat belted tight/and his hair is brushed back, like what actor/He is shouting about the Blueshirts, but his voice is hoarse/His arm pointing upwards.” Later Kinsella, a semi aware child, is led by his father’s hand out of mass, as Father Collier roars from the pulpit. ‘thick white hair, a red face/a black mouth shouting/Godless Russia after us’.

His father’s struggles are recalled, but the tone of respect is substantially qualified. The socialist hope in equality and democracy, personified in the “half fierce force” of his father, is flawed.

“For there is really nothing to be done/There is an urge, and it is valuable/but it is of no avail”

Of no avail not so much because of some inherent political or economic faults, rather because such a revolutionary project is rendered almost meaningless when set beside life’s constants - disappointment and death. To the action ready Leninist who yearns to know what is to be done? Kinsella replies with the sobering ‘really nothing’.

One reaction to these lines could be to denigrate them as product of weary bourgeois adulthood. But with each reading my mind moved from reflexive political scorn. Kinsella’s reflections are subtle. For even though he believes his father’s struggle “of no avail”, there is an urge to do good, “and it is valuable”.

Surely Kinsella is correct on at least one essential point, disappointment is a constant in life, and it cannot be decreed away. Every revolution is destined to disappoint, every hard won reform later to be damned as paltry by radicals or condescended as inevitable by lying conservatives. Every personal hope and dream unfulfilled as we originally hoped. Unquestionably our personal and public lives are rendered objectively meaningless by gorging time. Yet this is not enough reason to retreat from involvement in the progressive cause. There remains “an urge”, maybe just as much a constant as death and disappointment. This urge cannot overcome mortality, but it can achieve less insurmountable goals- for instance maybe the extension of democratic accountability into the market, with the replacement of private profiteering with conscious public planning? Maybe?

Alas, the cause of social justice can never compete with the religious promise of eternal life under the warm glow of God’s love- in so doing overcoming both death and disappointment. Democracy, socialism, or social justice may be good, but they are not that good.

Visualising his father making a fiery speech on a Labour Party platform, Kinsella remains sceptical, yet believes it is in such moments where something precious is found.

‘Goodness is where you find it/Abnormal/A pearl’

A world shaped predominantly by people like his father, would see disappointment continue to darken our lives and death destroy everything, but where temporal society would be decent. This is the hope.

The Egyptian revolution has sparkled brightly with all the young pearls that have supported, fought, and died for it. Even in a time of dark disappointment, like now, they still light the way of hope.

(I love this scene from an 'Arts Lives' documentary about Kinsella. It's so tender and funny. His lifelong muse Eleanor, the inspiration for much of his wonderful early love poetry, is both praising and gently chiding Thomas in an amusing, and dare I say, distinctively Irish woman's way...I think this is basically like having a video of an interview between Keats and Fanny Brawne.

How deep is your state?

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 09:18:00 +0000

After three weeks of a bitter Presidential election campaign Egyptians go to the polls today, only days after what some are calling a "soft coup" here in Cairo.

The place seems jaded and anxious on this historic weekend.

However last week’s dissolution of the elected parliament has yet to bring many protesters onto the streets. The Muslim Brotherhood (who have most to lose from this dissolution) has not called for protests yet, maybe wisely considering their man Mohamed Mursi goes head to head with the candidate of the old regime Ahmed Shafiq in the election this weekend.

However as a corrective to the “soft coup” hypothesis, it might be worth checking out a perspective from the left here, which makes the reasonable argument that the military has actually been in charge since the day Mubarak was ousted in February 2011.

The "deep state" of vested interests connected to the old regime, is well...very deep indeed.

I will be reporting in detail this weekend for the Sunday Business Post, next week for Liberty and on radio on 'Today with Pat Kenny', from a country rife with talk of an imminent military coup (despite the fact the military are already in charge), where people are electing a president (despite the fact there is no constitution) and where a parliament has been dissolved (despite the fact it was elected just over 7 months ago). It’s isn’t easy making sense of Egypt.

Almost every single Egyptian I have spoken to over the past fortnight say they think that Mubarak’s former PM Ahmed Shafiq (essentially the candidate of the deep state) will win. They seem surprised that I bother asking the question.

If he wins, he has promised “security” back on the streets within days. This will be cheered by many, who feel that Egypt has become more dangerous since the revolution. However the police forces that will be redeployed- have not been substantial reformed since the revolution. A revolution, it must be remembered, which was against the police state. Not only that, this police force, had to live with the ignominy of being on the back foot over the past 16 months. Their pride has most probably been hurt.

But those in the revolutionary movement- a Shafiq victory would represent "counter revolution", a betrayal of the martyrs of the revolution and their families (see some Downtown Cairo graffiti above and below), and plunge the movement into some very dark and dangerous waters indeed.

Someone said on Twitter the other day that trying to make predictions about politics in Egypt is ridiculous, considering how difficult it is just to keep up to date with what is actually happening every day.

So no predictions here- we will most likely know in less than 48 hours the name of the new President, and in days it will become clear if his victory is accepted by his opponents, or whether it sparks more instability.

(A relaxed looking Ahmed Shafiq. The face of sensible stability to some, the visage of counter revolutionary nightmare to others)

Reasons to be cheerful...

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:59:00 +0000

Lenin once said “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Well that’s the way things feel in Egypt at the moment.

In the past fortnight there has been an election- where the “pro revolution” candidates did well, but their vote was split. Thus the runoff is between the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak’s old mate Ahmed Shafiq. I have written extensively about the election for The Sunday Business Post over the past two weeks.

It is not very professional to say this, but I was very depressed writing those articles. Although I am not Egyptian I find it hard not to empathise heavily with the pro revolutionary forces who find themselves with a not so great choice in the second round. There is an excellent discussion on the election in the most recent The Arabist podcast- and the contributors also share my gloomy mood.

Then there was the Mubarak trial verdict - the initial euphoria and then the resulting anger among the revolutionaries.

I will shake of this gloom and will be reporting and blogging extensively in the coming two weeks in the run up to the historic vote on the 16/17 June.

As of now- nobody can say for certain what will be the result in the runoff.

But with so much depression about there are still reasons to be cheerful , beautiful trees across Cairo (see above), catching a perfect fresh breeze down the Nile, Maggie Gyllenhaal, the music of Umm Kulthum, ice-cream, an ice cold Stella, Maggie Gyllenhaal, reading the novels of Naguib Mahfouz on a Cairo balcony, hearing the beautiful call to prayer from my local Dokki mosque, ice cream, smoking a sheesha in a local ahwa, enjoying a perfect Tameya...and eh Maggie Gyllenhaal and ice cream (sorry it’s got very hot in Cairo and its affecting my thought process).

Even this huge abandoned teddy bear on Dokki Street on the west bank of the River Nile, looks suitably depressed as he contemplates his choice in the 2nd round of the Presidential election. (He told me he voted Aboul Fotouh first round, but now he kind of wishes he voted Hamdeen Sabahi)

Today we should remember the martyrs

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Wed, 23 May 2012 06:23:00 +0000

Today millions of Egyptians, for the first time, will get to decide who will be their President.

Yes there is some cynicism and concern about the election. (Which I wrote about in 'The Agenda' magazine last weekend and talked about it on radio on 'Today with Pat Kenny' earlier this week ). However I think the overall feeling here is pride and excitement.

And the Egyptians should be proud. They have toppled a dictatorship that was supported by some of the leading powers in the world, and they are attempting, against great odds, to replace it with democracy.

But it is important today to remember how this was won.

It was won by millions of people mobilising on the streets and in their workplaces, by the thousands who got injured in protests- and by those who sacrificed the most, the hundreds upon hundreds of mainly young martyrs, who gave their lives in January last year and since. For instance the people who were injured and died when I was in Tahrir last November (I blogged about this here and here.)

I come from a country where martyrs (from centuries of national and social struggle) are sung about, have buildings named after them, where their legacy is actively debated, contested, celebrated and libelled. My first book was about a famous Irish socialist and nationalist martyr James Connolly, and in that book I looked at how the memory of such a figure can mean very different things to different people.

However today in Cairo one thing can be said for certain.This election today, would not be happening if it was not for their sacrifice.

Even the people who will cast their votes for candidates who served the old regime, only have that right because of the bravery of the revolutionaries (one may wonder if these people will feel a tinge of shame after they cast their vote and walk past a mural of one of the young martyrs on the walls of Cairo and the other cities in Egypt).

So putting to one side debates over how much power the new President will have, we have to conclude that this is an historic, wonderful day for Egypt and an important moment in the living history of a revolution that many feel is still unfinished.

And today we should remember the martyrs.

So what the hell is going to happen?

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:04:00 +0000

(Graffiti in memory of the Revolution's martyrs)

This is the question I have been asking anyone and everyone in Cairo in recent days.

“So who is going to win?” I blurted out to an Egyptian friend at a party last Thursday night.

“I think Ahmed Shafiq will” he answered back quickly.

I laughed...but then I could see that he was not joking.

The polls back up this insight, Mubarak’s final Prime Minister, and the candidate closest to the old regime is apparently gaining ground.

I was on radio on the "Today with Pat Kenny" show on Monday, and I tried desperately not to make any prediction, because basically I do not know what is going to happen in the upcoming elections- and to look stupid on national radio is one of those things you normally like to avoid.

However I ventured two guesses on the show.

1. The next President will not be a woman (brave that one don’t you think?)

2. Former Foreign Minister and ex leader of The Arab League, Amr Moussa, will make the second round runoff.

However even the Amr Moussa prediction is called into question by Sandmonkey on his latest blog. So maybe I should have just gone on air and said nothing, or just talked about the Pyramids, or the downtown Cairo bar scene. Things I am more expert in.

Now back to Shafiq. If somehow he did win, then I think, despite his followers hoping he will bring stability, it will actually be destabilising.

A section of the revolutionary movement (and the Islamists) will regard him as not legitimate- because he represents the counter revolution.

Now you could say that his victory would be legitimate at the polls, but this is still a post revolutionary moment and there is a lingering feeling of “revolutionary legitimacy” or “Tahrir legitimacy” that still means something to some people here. A sort of legitimacy that may even trump the polling box, in the eyes of some (not the majority of people here by any means).

This is not the 2000 US election for instance, when the Supreme Court “stole” (sorry that is a strong word, I mean “robbed”) the election for Bush. The Democratic opposition was not going to take on the institutions of state no matter how angry it was with the verdict.

(Although it is fun trying to visualise Al Gore leading a ragged army of insurgents in the fields outside Washington DC, with Joe Lieberman becoming a sort of “Beltway Che” a poster boy of a guerrilla movement against illegitimate Bush rule.).

The institutions of state here may not be sufficiently bedded in or stable enough just yet, to withstand significant opposition to a certain election outcome.

However, as I have said many times here, it’s hard to know.

And anyway, I don’t think Shafiq will win. (Oops there’s a prediction!)

(The beautiful purple trees I mentioned to you before, have died away. But across Cairo as the summer begins to get very hot indeed, there are these stunning riotous Orange trees)

Felool v Felool to the max

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:39:00 +0000

(Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's final Prime Minister. Could he make an unlikely comeback?)

Sometimes you just do not have good choices.

A French leftist woke up on the morning of the 5^th May 2002 knowing that the only two candidates they could pick from for President was either right wing Jacques Chirac or far right wing Jean-Marie Le Pen. Not good at all.

Last weekend, on the final day of the English Premiership, the choice was do you want either Manchester City or Manchester United to win the league? City, a once great traditional club, has come to represent all that is hateful and commercially repulsive about big time capitalistic professional soccer- a team that has literally bought success through wads and wads of cash. While Manchester United represents what it always represented...the physical embodiment of evil...

Do you tell the woman you like- that your fancy her? If you do, and she says no, your heart will be ripped from your chest cavity and slammed against the wall. Two weeks later, you will be walking around your apartment in a dressing gown, swigging from a bottle of Scotch while humming Leonard Cohen songs...all at midday. Or if you don’t ask her, you will push your real emotions to the pit of your stomach where they eventually come out in weird ways. Like your ears start twitching during breakfast or a rash emerges on your forehead every time you hear her name.

Yeah c’mon you know what I’m talking about? Don’t you?...no?

Well anyway...it seems according to the latest opinion polls the revolutionary forces may have a pretty bad choice in the runoff in the upcoming Presidential election.

If Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh is squeezed out- then the fight could be just between Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq. (The top two in the first round go through to the second round in mid June)

The revolutionaries have a name for former members of the Mubarak era regime- “Felool” meaning remnant.

Moussa is an ex Minister for Foreign Affairs (for ten years) under Mubarak- he was not seen as especially close to the former dictator...but still he was part of the former regime. For many revolutionaries he is felool.

Ahmed Shafiq is felool to the max. The last Prime Minister under Mubarak- a vote for him can only be seen as a vote for counter revolution surely?

Many who will vote for these candidates will be voting out of fear of “Islamism”, and for some it will be in favour of “stability” in Egypt. (There are huge concerns here about the lack of security and a rise in crime since the revolution). But the irony is, a candidate who is perceived as being very close to the former regime, is probably the least likely to bring “stability” to the country- as revolutionaries will surely pour back onto the streets if he wins.

Either way, even as a “neutral” observer, one has to think that the inclusion of a candidate in the second round who is in some way identified with the hopes and dreams of the revolution ( we are essentially talking about Abul-Fotouh or Hamdeen Sabbahi here) is something to be wished for, so as the electorate will have at least some clear choice in mid June.

If not, the scenario of a Moussa versus Shafiq race in the second round, is...well...sort of depressing, and sure to anger the revolutionary forces here.

Anyway that is all a little downbeat...so here is some fist thumping early Umm Kulthum to lift spirits a little...

Let’s debate after midnight...

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Sun, 13 May 2012 05:17:00 +0000

In Downtown Cairo on Thursday night big screens were erected outside coffee shops and there was a sense of real anticipation as people congregated on the streets to watch. People were gathering in their homes, expectantly debating about what would transpire on TV later that night. Would there be a clear cut winner? Which side would make the most effective attacks and which would provide the sternest defence?

But this was not for a big game between Egypt’s soccer giants Ahly and Zamalek, although the “pre game build up” felt oddly similar. It was for a Presidential debate between the two leading candidates in the upcoming Egyptian election. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Amr Moussa, a former diplomat under Hosni Mubarak clashed on screen for over three hours.

The debate itself went on long after midnight- something that seems to me to be classically Egyptian.

The extraordinary interest in the debate and the election in general, must be viewed as a positive sign in post Mubarak Egypt.

I have written about the election in today's (May 13th) "The Sunday Business Post" in a little detail, but it does seem that the polls are making this a two horse race. Although polls are far from solidly reliable here.

The central tactics of the debate were clear. Moussa tried to paint Fotouh as still linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. As a candidate who speaks liberal to liberals but Islamist to Islamists.

Aboul Fotouh argued that Moussa, the former Minister in a Mubarak cabinet, was part of the old system and no supporter of the revolution- a revolution in which the old system was meant to be swept away.

Fotouh's campaign is interesting, and certainly the only one that seems to have energised even a section of the revolutionary youth who were the chief movers in last year's revolution and since. But as it happens, most recent polls suggest he may come up short in the coming race.

Many revolutionaries remain (understandably in many ways) cynical about the election- with some thinking that the future president, no mater who he is, will still be just a puppet of the military masters.

But it seems unlikely that this is the point that Aboul Fotouh was trying to make when he hired puppets to sing his insanely catchy campaign song...

Trying to make sense of it all...

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Sat, 05 May 2012 14:32:00 +0000

This has been a horrible week in Cairo.

More young people losing their lives on the streets of the post revolutionary capital. With more than 11 killed earlier this week, fighting between the army and protestors continued near the Ministry of Defence this weekend.

I have an article in this weekend’s The Sunday Business Post (Sunday 6^th May) trying to make sense of some of the clashes.

But here today, I want to write about the political situation- which can be summed up simply.

I promise...

Now I take a deep breath and go...

We are less than three weeks out from the first round of the historic Presidential election, but there is no constitution written yet describing the role of the President- thus it’s a race for a job, with no exact job description.

Added to that, significant doubt among revolutionaries and others, that the military leadership, will really submit themselves to civilian rule after the election.

13 candidates are on the ballot paper- although there were originally more, but they were deemed ineligible for a variety of reasons by the election commission.

Ok, back to the constitution.

The constitution is meant to be written by a committee established by the recently elected parliament. However that committee has proved highly controversial, with many accusing the Muslim Brotherhood with packing the committee with Islamists. So the committee is in limbo.

The parliament that picked that committee is currently on strike, because it wants the government (appointed by the military) to step down. However the parliament (with a Muslim Brotherhood-Islamist majority) may yet be dissolved by a future court ruling.

You still with me?

Added to this, riots on the streets following a deadly attack on protestors outside the Ministry of Defence, the attackers described in the local media as “unidentified thugs”. More than 11 are dead and hundreds are injured in the past few chaotic days in Cairo.

And it feels odd and unsettling living in a place where the army leadership has placed a curfew on part of the city.

However, those of us from outside the country should not be condescending. Look at the disorder, panic and lack of strategic thinking that has plagued the supposedly democratically sophisticated Eurozone in recent years (arguably for decades).

The Egyptian revolution emerges onto to the world stage without a blueprint to follow and its people are trying, against some major odds, to build their revolution.

Recently I have conducted a series of interviews with young Egyptians for a long feature that should be published in Agenda Magazine (in The Sunday Business Post) on Sunday 20^th, only days before the election.

These interviews have helped reinvigorate my enthusiasm for this country and this revolution. All these very different, but very impressive young people had their lives changed in different ways by the revolution. They, despite everything, remain positive about the medium to long term future.

Despite the horrific bloodshed on the streets in recent days and the setbacks suffered by the revolution in the political sphere- I still remain optimistic.

(There is not much natural beauty in Cairo- but Spring has brought out these beautiful purple trees, in the area around my flat)

PS. I also have an article about the media and revolution in Egypt in the most recent The Journalist Magazine

And you can now follow me on Twitter @DavidLynWriter

Out-takes, bootleg paragraphs and b-sides from my 'Sunday Business Post' piece

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 09:44:00 +0000

I am in The Sunday Business Post (page 15 in print edition) again today reporting from the streets of Cairo- this time focused on the Egyptian Presidential election.

In a 1,000 word piece much has to be left out- but I’d like to think I touched on the essentials.

A few things that space constrained me from mentioning include the controversy surrounding the strongly religious Salafist candidate Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail. At present it looks like he may not be allowed to run, because his late mother held foreign citizenship (he denies this). Something that is not allowed under the election rules.

When I was walking through Dokki near the west bank of the Nile on Friday afternoon, I stumbled into a feeder protest of Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail's supporters, they were Tahrir bound. Young, male and very earnest- they smell a plot against their man, and their reaction to his expulsion, if it happens, from the race will be interesting.

It also seems odd that this is happening, as posters of the smiling face and big bushy beard of Abu-Ismail are literally everywhere in Cairo.-despite the fact that the campaign has yet to officially begin.

You can see his poster on taxis, shop windows, on lampposts, on derelict buildings. Egyptians have begun an Internet trend of superimposing Abu-Ismail’s head on photoshopped pictures. Thus he has appeared beside the men on the moon, on the KFC advert and on a picture hanging in the Obama White House.

There are millions of Salafists votes out there for the taking. It is not impossible to conceive that the Salafist candidate could make it into the second round runoff (there will be a second round runoff between the two leading candidates if, no candidate reaches 50% in the first round). But an ejection of Abu Ismail from the race at this stage would be a blow to their plans.

As I noted in the SBP article, the revolutionary movement has no clear candidate in this election- but amazingly now the counter revolution does. Omar Suleiman, Hosni Mubarak's long-time spy chief and at one point his Vice President, has entered the race for Egypt's presidential seat. It’s a bit like the ousted royal family, standing for election for the National Assembly in 1790s France, or remaining members of the Romanov clan standing for the Petrograd Soviet in 1918 or something.

Suleiman is very well known here and there are many people who wish the revolution had never happened, including people still in love with the former dictator. But he could not win... Could he?... Really?

In terms of numbers, it is difficult to make predictions especially since opinion polls have not been conducted since the Muslim Brotherhood and Suleiman entered the race.

But it is hard to see how the Brotherhood candidate fails to reach the second round- with his opponent most likely at this point to be Amr Moussa. (But this is very, very speculative. Do not head down to the bookies just yet).

This does not set the pulses of the liberal and revolutionary youth racing- and here is a rather depressed but interesting take on the election figures here by a leading liberal blogger (note this was before Brotherhood and Omar Suleiman entered the race).

However for all the understandable cynicism emanating from the revolutionary movement over this election- we have to remember, the next President unlike Mubarak, will be elected by, and will be in some sense answerable to, the people.

And that is not an insignificant achievement of this unfinished Egyptian revolution.

The Sans-culottes of revolutionary Cairo

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 10:41:00 +0000

When I studied the French Revolution, I always found it difficult to visualise who the sans-culottes were, what they looked like, where they hung out, what they did on a Friday night after a hectic day of street fighting and bourgeois bashing.

I had this sort of foggy notion of an amorphous segment of poor Parisian society, that was consumed by passionate ideals of radical equality and liberty, but who were a bit rough around the edges.

The sort of person who would sing revolutionary ballads beautifully, but then moments later smashes someone over the head with a rock during a riot.

In my slippery conception, they were the most daring and most radical of the revolutionary leftist vanguard, so radical that they eventually came to believe that even 'The Incorruptible' Robespierre himself, was some sort of “sell out”.

That’s pretty radical.

They emerged from the working class districts, wearing their red caps of liberty, ready to shed blood on the streets of the French capital in the cause of revolution. They were the rioters, the barricade constructors, among the poorest members, but yet the biggest dreamers of the revolutionary movement.

They had the most to lose from the revolution’s failure so they pushed the revolution as far as they could.

After watching an excellent new documentary “Bulaq – Among the Ruins Of An Unfinished Revolution” (Trailer link below) it got me thinking about the role of the urban poor in the continuing Egyptian Revolution.

Bulaq is a small, crowded working class district of Cairo (often called “popular neighbourhoods” here). It is situated near downtown Cairo, along the Nile. Indeed it is only a few minutes walk from Tahrir Square.

Prime land for development, the neighbourhood came under increasing pressure from the Mubarak regime over the past decade. People were forcibly removed from the neighbourhood and transferred to a new community built in the middle of the desert.

“The ruins of Bulaq are the dust of paradise,” one elderly resident says.

“The one who goes out of here, dies like a fish out of water.”

The government and its supporters in investment companies wanted to get its greedy hands on Bulaq. But as the Fabio Lucchini and Davide Morandini directed documentary shows, this is a community of strong bonds and pride- and their emerged a resistance to the state’s plans. A campaign began for the people of Bulaq to defend their housing rights.

When the January revolution exploded, the young people of Bulaq poured out of the neighbourhood and joined the protests in Tahrir. Many of them ranked among the most passionate and daring in the peaceful protests and later street fighting that took place during the revolution. Many martyrs came from the district.

There is often a perception in the western media of the Egyptian revolutionary movement as composed entirely of the young, beautiful, fresh Facebook generation- middle class and connected. But this is very reductionist as anyone who has spent time in Tahrir can testify.

The revolutionary movement had, and continues to have, a significant working class content with supporters from the “popular neighbourhoods”.

Improving the lives of the urban poor in neighbourhoods such as Bulaq, remains one of the great tasks of the post revolutionary period.

The documentary is very short and lacks historical perspective; however the viewer gets a very intimate feel for the streets of Bulaq.

Beautifully filmed (cinematography Matteo Keffer) , this exciting social documentary, is a very good introduction to the revolutionary “sans-culottes” of modern Cairo.

'Bulaq: Among the ruins of an unfinished revolution' Official Trailer

PS. I’m reporting again from Cairo for ‘The Sunday Business Post’ (Ireland) tomorrow- this time on the Egyptian Presidential election, which is heating up, like the weather in Cairo.

"Welcome to Egypt"- It's all about context

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:04:00 +0000

(Aqabat (obstacles) in the White Desert)

“Welcome to Egypt”

You hear that often here.

Such a simple phrase- but it’s often delivered in two sharply different contexts.

In the majority of cases it is genuine. Verbally flung your direction, in a good natured way, by random Egyptians on the street or locals you get to know.

Other times it’s much less authentic, particularly in popular tourist spots and in Downtown Cairo. Here there is often an ulterior motive. (This is different than the verbal harassment that western and Egyptian women often experience in Cairo)

If this is said to you by someone walking by in Downtown Cairo, and if you react at all, it will be quickly followed by “Where are you from?”

If you say “Ireland” for instance- the “friendly guy” (it’s always a man), will say something like “Oh do you know Galway?” “Or do you know Cork?”.

They will rarely say our capital Dublin.

This goes for all European countries- it seems that the capital city is ignored and it is always the second or third city that is mentioned. It increases the authenticity of the hustle.

Then he will say “I have a brother in Cork” or “I have an uncle in Liverpool” or "my long lost pet goldfish lives in a lake in Lyon” or whatever.

Yep you guessed it- he doesn’t have a brother, uncle or goldfish in any of these locations.

All of this verbal play is about getting you off the street and into his shop, or for you to buy something of him, or maybe simply just to give him money.

These hustlers are harmless really. They can be annoying of course, but once you get used to it, it’s OK. Part of me admires the amount of research they put into their “craft”.

The other day walking down Talat Harb (the main street in Cairo), with my Danish friend- a guy suddenly shouted at us.

“Where are you both from?”

Despite everything I know, I answered for myself.

“I’m from Ireland.”

“Ireland. Wonderful,” he quickly replied- obviously delighted to receive to answer.

And then in a sort of half Egyptian half Dublin accent, he roars

“How’s the craic?”

For the uninitiated this is an Irish slang phrase (Irish Aameya if you will), basically asking how are you?

I was impressed that he had researched this phrase. But having lived here six months now, I would not be broken from my stride- so I stared ahead and kept on walking.

(I must note that Katrine who was walking with me- insisted that he had said “Do you want to buy some crack?”- but I really believe that something was lost in the Arabic-Irish-Danish translation...)

But such constant hassle can ruin an Egyptian experience for an average holiday maker- and there is a lot of hassle here in the tourist spots. It is conceivable that someone could leave Egypt after a two week holiday, and think that the place is intense and noisy and that all Egyptians are trying to hustle something (by something I mean money) out of you.

An extreme case of this was when I arrived in Cairo first and got talking to an English businessman I met in a hotel bar.

Generally moaning about the difficulty of doing business in Egypt (the veracity of which I do not doubt), he asked me had I visited the tourist sites. I said I would be going soon.

“They are great. The Pyramids are just wonderful,” he smiled for the first time in our conversation.

Then he looked at me and sort of with a mild snarl said “Even the Egyptians cannot ruin the Pyramids- but they try with all the hassle you get down there”.

But this is tragic, cause this is a country with so much to offer- and where “welcome to Egypt” is most often as authentic as it comes.

For instance - I have lived here almost six months- and apart from a couple of protests- I‘ve not been made uncomfortable about my “westerner” status. (Although it must be said that if anybody had dared say anything to me about Western Imperialism, I would have played my old “But I’m from Ireland- one of the oldest colonies in the world" card...). Maybe an Egyptian could spend nearly six months in Dublin, or in other western European cities and never encounter hostility to their nationality or race. I would certainly hope so- but I would not be certain.

Also this country has simply outstanding places to visit.

I took a trip to the White and Black Desert last weekend with friends. It was spectacular, sleeping under the stars and looking at the breathtaking rock formations that litter the lunar type landscape. The Aqabat (meaning obstacles) area was incredible and I must admit unknown to me before I walked over a hill and looked down upon a valley full of large, otherworldly narrow rocks, one after another.

Our guides, one Christian one Bedouin Muslim, were friendly- they cooked for us as well.

The evening ended with Bedouin songs around a camp fire.

It was nice to escape the crowded streets of Cairo for a weekend. I got lost in a sort of pleasant contemplation of the natural sublime, something I had not felt since I walked the Camino de Santiago last year.

I also sipped whiskey under a blanket of stars- never a bad thing.

The trip was relatively cheap and there was none of the usual feeling of hassle that surrounds some tourist occasions here. Tourism has taken a massive hit here since the revolution, but that does mean prices are cheaper for potential visitors.

The “welcome to Egypt” felt entirely genuine- and this is why despite everything, people should still come, look at the country through sympathetic eyes and enjoy a genuine welcome.

(Here are some Bedouin songs by a campfire in the desert)

Uncertain times...

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:02:00 +0000

(Some Muslim and Christian "unity" graffiti in Old Coptic Cairo. There are many examples of this on the walls of Cairo since the revolution).

When most westerners hear the Pope has died, they instantly think of an ageing German resident of the Vatican City.

After the initial shock, and when they are put right- the reaction is probably “I did not know there was another Pope...and living in Egypt?” People are genuinely surprised.

This week Egypt has been gripped by, particularly the 10 per cent Christian minority, the passing of Pope Shenouda III.

His official title was the 117th Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy Apostolic Seat of Saint Mark the Evangelist of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. He was also the head of The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria.

There have been days of official mourning, scenes of genuine and emotive grieving among Christians, and now talk about the future of the community.

For Pope Shenouda III has been much more than the “spiritual leader of Egypt's Coptic Christians” since 1971- he has also been a political leader.

This political role is understandable, considering that open civil opposition under the previous dictatorial regime was crushed. In such circumstances - a religious figure would always gain more prominence, particularly for a minority community who often feels itself marginalised and discriminated against.

Under President Anwar al-Sadat, Pope Shenouda said the community faced official discrimination. Sadat, angered by this charge of discrimination, put the Pontiff under house arrest!

Shenouda also criticised the peace deal with Israel, and was for his life a vocal defender of Palestinian rights.

Most editorials here have praised him as a great “Egyptian and Arab nationalist”.

However his leadership of the Copts under Hosni Mubarak has been strongly debated.

Close to the former dictator- Shenouda’s strategy for “protecting” his minority community was to court power. This is a similar strategy used by other minority communities under dictatorships in the region.

But the revolution last year saw another strategy for helping to promote the interests of ordinary Christians- this time with Christians fighting alongside Muslims for social justice and an end to discrimination for all.

The image of Christians standing in circles hand in hand, protecting their Muslim comrades in prayer, from security forces attacks, remains one of the most powerful from the 2011 revolution.

Before the revolution writer and activist Alaa Al Aswany wrote about the minority Christian community, and what he penned is interesting. Undoubtedly discriminated against, the author saw pitfalls in the Coptic religious leadership strategy of courting the Mubarak regime. He dismissed claims by the Coptic leadership that they need to support the regime, because it protected the minority community from Muslim extremist attacks.

“Egyptians are all persecuted. Millions of poor people in Egypt are deprived of freedom, justice, dignity, and the right to work, housing and healthcare. It is true that the Copts suffer a double injustice, once as Egyptians and again as Copts, but the legitimate demands of Copts cannot be met separately from the demands of the nation,” he wrote.

The future political direction of the community- as with everything else in post revolution Egypt, is in flux, and will come into sharper focus as we approach the Presidential elections in the summer.

Al Ahram Obit- http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/36988/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-Coptic-Orthodox-Pope-Shenouda-III-dies.aspx

BBC Obit- http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEkQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld-middle-east-17420084&ei=cJZpT4jpKoOXOpSf8bIK&usg=AFQjCNHD4gmHauQpnGGkAXgYiF5SFIF-RQ

Don’t Tase me Bro- in Cairo

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:35:00 +0000

(The narrow lanes in Cairo's wondrous ancient quarter)

The other night, sitting outside a crowded coffee shop in the heart of Islamic Cairo, my friends and I were offered everything and anything by street salesmen.

If I had so desired it, I could have left the coffee shop after just one hour, having had my shoes shined, purchased an Arab carpet, a new “authentic” Rolex watch around my wrist, armed with a Taser, a baby sized water pipe, a copy of The Koran, a hat and a pair of sparkly “real crystal” ear rings twinkling from my earlobes.

Yep- you might have spotted I said a Taser.

One salesman walked in between the tables and chairs crowded inside the narrow alleyway, waving around a Taser. The constant crackling sound that it made, and the blue flash it let off, worried me a little.

You can buy Tasers on the street in many places in Cairo- a few weeks ago a couple of kids were running down my very quiet street (by Cairo standards), excitedly waving their Tasers about.

A few people I’ve spoken to said people buy them for security reasons.

Security concerns are mentioned a lot here.

Most Egyptians speak warily about a sharp rise in crime since the revolution.

Crime is a strange thing though- even in places like Ireland, perceptions as to the amount of criminal incidents taking place in society can be totally out of line with the actual statistics.

Rumour and sensationalist media coverage can increase fear of crime to a massive level.

I feel safe in this city- and I think that is not just naivety. I think as big cities go, Cairo is still pretty safe, if politically unstable. But in recent weeks I have heard about a number of incidents involving foreigners and robberies.

Egyptians speak of the many prisoners who escaped from jail during the January revolution and also how the police have not been fully redeployed to the streets.

There have also been a number of well publicised incidents- including a carjacking and physical assault on high profile Presidential hopeful Moneim Abul Fotouh. http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/02/24/196648.html

Fotouh is an interesting character. A former Muslim brother, he is, in the absence of a clear candidate coming from the revolutionary forces, becoming the closest “Tahrir” has to a participant in the upcoming election.

He would not have many fans among the military top brass or the leadership of the Brotherhood (whom he split from)- but he has much respect among many Egyptians and at least communicates to the youth, revolutionary forces and the "moderate" Islamist movement.

Intriguingly his campaign team is headed by an American University of Cairo political scientist Rabab ElMahdi -often described in the local media here as a “Marxist” and a “feminist” http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1086/eg22.htm

Whatever happens in the coming weeks- crime and security issues will loom large in the presidential election campaign.

Every candidate will have to come up with policies that encourage locals to feel that they do not need to buy a Taser for their personal safety!

P.S.

My review of "On the State of Egypt" for 'Irish Left Review' has been highlighted on Alaa Al Aswany's own official Facebook page.

Many years ago Eamon Dunphy criticised some Irish sports journalists for being "fans with typewriters" when they covered the national soccer side...I think I might be a little guilty of that when it comes to Al Aswany.

Anyway I let you be the judge of that...here is the review of the book http://www.irishleftreview.org/2011/11/14/spring/

And also some thoughts on his bestselling novel "The Yacoubian Building" which got me thinking and writing about revolution, love and memory. http://www.irishleftreview.org/2011/12/19/real-yacoubian-building-woman-involved/

P.S.S.

.
..For those who might have forgotten- the whole “Don’t Tase me Bro” cry, came from this infamous incident in the US in 2007.

A tale of two Presidential elections

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:40:00 +0000

(The charred remains of the HQ of the former ruling National Democratic Party. The pic is taken from a felucca on the Nile)

The campaign in the first free Presidential election following the January 2011 revolution is beginning to heat up a little here.

The big news this week is that the Muslim Brotherhood has come out and said it wants “an Islamic President”- no shock there of course- but there are rumours that the military leadership here (The Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) ) may back such a candidate.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/35101/Egypt/Politics-/A-SCAFBrotherhood-consensus-president-could-bode-w.aspx

This is interesting for two initial reasons.

Firstly it is worth remembering the oppositional role the brotherhood held under the Mubarak regime- and how quickly they have moved to the position of the “mainstream” party of politics since the revolution.

Secondly such talk of a consensus candidate between the brotherhood and SCAF- will feed into the sense among the revolutionary youth and the radicals who still populate Tahrir Square, that the brotherhood has allegedly “sold out the revolution”. Such feelings of revolutionary betrayal are summed up in such political videos as this one;

But this is all complicated and I hope to tease out some of the nuances between presidential and revolutionary politics here in forthcoming articles in the Sunday Business Post and elsewhere.

However on the other side of the world- things seem a little less complicated.

I have been talking to a number of language students from the US here in recent weeks. I think it’s fair to say, they all voted Obama in ’08. And the giddy excitement among them is palpable as they watch the Republicans tear themselves asunder during their bitter primary battle.

Egypt and the “Arab Spring” do not seem to be a big topic in the Republican debates. Of course there are the constant, ritualistic statements of support for Israel from all the major candidates (actually the incessant declarations of love for Israel would almost seem over the top in an internal Likud primary election).

However one contender Rick Santorum- has made some interesting statements on Egypt.

Basically if things had gone the way this guy wanted- there would be no upcoming presidential elections here in Egypt, there would have been no revolution and Mubarak would still be the man in the top seat.

In a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) last year, Santorum essentially bemoaned the ‘Arab Spring’.

He said that Mubarak was “our ally, our friend, who hasn’t attacked us…who is not a radical theocrat who wants to control the world.” The U.S. “threw a friend of the United States and Israel under the bus” in supporting the “radicals” in Tahrir.

Now this is interesting for a number of reason- not least it proves that Santorum knows very little about the streets of Cairo- where traffic jams are so severe here that even if Mubarak was thrown under a Cairene bus, it would hardly be going quickly enough to cause him much damage.

Also the idea that US foreign policy during the January revolution was always on the side of the revolutionaries in Tahrir- is questionable indeed.

However my American liberal classmates- think this guy has little chance...although a US political journalist I heard on a New Yorker podcast last week said he thinks Santorum will win the Republican nomination process.

We will see.

(Santorum's comments about Egypt begin at 8.20m)

Joyce in Arabic

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:32:00 +0000

("James Joyce" in Arabic- or at least that's how I'd spell it!)

I am trying to work on a short oral presentation about James Joyce...in Arabic.

It’s not easy, especially when I spent much of yesterday in the gigantic Sayyida Zeinab mosque in south Cairo. (Interesting experience).

So if someone asked me what “Ulysses” is about? I’d take a deep breath, search my inner university memory for some pretentious phrases and let loose with something like...

“Well its Joyce’s masterpiece, a day in the life of a city and its inhabitants told in microscopic detail but in so doing the author sketches the outlines of the macro universe with his genius- it is the grand achievement of literary modernism, and with its utilisation of deep subjectivity and knowing narration, it serves as a death knell to classic nineteenth century realism and is the harbinger of much of what could be called post modern literature.”

After saying that (or something like that), I would sit back chuffed with myself, although pondering a little whether I actually understood all I said- or in fact does it make any sense at all?

But in Arabic- there are no such problems for me.

My vocab is limited in the extreme.

So in Arabic I could maybe just about say...

“ “Ulysses” is about a day in the life of 3 people from Dublin- a Jewish man Leopold , his wife Molly and a young writer called Stephen.”

Actually reading back on that, maybe the restricted vocabulary serves as a good discipline, because the second description is far more accurate and less weighed down with bull :)

(My attempt at writing 'Ulysses' in Arabic)

As it happens there is a student in my Arabic school who is half Irish, half Egyptian. The first time I met him a couple of weeks back, within a minute I found out his mother was from Sandymount- and 30 seconds later he quoted from 'Ulysses', “Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount Strand?”...obviously this is not completely typical of conversations I have with Irish people abroad!

But it was nice to briefly mention Joyce on the west bank of the River Nile (I actually discussed Joyce with a protester in the West Bank, Palestine once, but that is another story which I’ve written about before).

Anyway Cairo in 2012 is as far away from Joycean Dublin as I could possibly imagine. And I've briefly missed living in my city this weekend with its friendly faces... so on this overcast Saturday afternoon it’s nice to look at this short extract from John Huston's adaptation of Joyce’s “The Dead”. (You Tube clip at the end).

The final internal monologue is changed a little bit from Joyce’s final few paragraphs in the story.

But still they are among the greatest four or five paragraphs ever written- utterly intimidating and heart breaking in their sweep from the particular to the universal in just a few lines.

I suppose I have to concede that theoretically there could be some writing, somewhere in the universe, more breathtaking than the final passages from “The Dead”, but it is hard to visualise. Kind of like attempting to visualise infinity or eternity......oh hang on, Joyce did visualise that along Sandymount Strand.

The finale of “The Dead” is one of the reasons why every Irish writer trembles (or least should tremble) anytime they pick up a pen, or tap out the first few letters on their lap-top.

How could you not sweat buckets with this guy sitting on top of the national literary canon behind you?

The final scene of John Huston's "The Dead", adapted from James Joyce's masterpiece

Love in "The City of the Dead"

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:15:00 +0000

(My local flower store in Dokki...you have to go elsewhere if you want to pick up a bright red Camel, with hearts for humps ;))

Valentine’s Day is not so big in Cairo- at least compared to home.

You can buy flowers, cards and even stuffed red camels with hearts for humps in some local stores- but walking down Talaat Harb in Downtown Cairo this morning, there were not all that many people wandering around with roses in their hands.

I did not witness many overt displays of romance on Tahrir Square either, only the remaining revolutionaries, camping out with grim determination under their flags denouncing the military leadership.

But last night, I did experience a perfectly formed example of...well...love... and it came from Cairo’s infamous ‘City of the Dead’

I attended a screening of the new documentary film “The City of the Dead” (You Tube trailer at the bottom) in the Italian Institute last night. It’s a charming look at the lives of ordinary people in the “largest necropolis” in the world. Well over 100,000 people (the exact number is debated- some say 1 million) are said to live their daily lives in the Northern and Southern cemeteries in Cairo. They live in the tombs of the dead, sometimes renting them from the family of the deceased. They live, shop, marry, educate and die among the hundreds of thousands of graves.

The location is infamous in this city. When I told an open minded young Cairene that I was planning to visit the “City of the Dead” before Christmas, she baulked.

“Why do foreigners always go and visit there? When I am near I just run past,” she said.

The fact that tens of thousands of people live essentially in a cemetery, gives a glimpse into the vast social and economic inequality in this city, the years of neglect under the Mubarak and previous regimes- and most sobering of all – the gargantuan task that confronts any progressive post revolutionary government here to meet the desire for “social justice” that was part of the recent revolution.

However, the Sérgio Tréfaut directed documentary does not deal with the socio-economic reasons behind the existence of “The City of the Dead”. Rather, he takes its existence as a given, and explores instead the more meta-physical impact living among the dead has on the city’s inhabitants.

I think it works.

Obviously most of us have faced, and will certainly face in the future, death of loved ones, but in reality, in the developed world, death is not an ever present fact facing us down at ever turn.

For the inhabitants of the ‘City of the Dead’- death is everywhere, all the time.

As a local woman says in the documentary, "Living so close to death is bound to bring wisdom."

But back to love.

The star of the film for me is an elderly man (maybe in his 70s?) who has lived in the “City” all his life. He talks with pride of the place, arguing people should not be ashamed to live among the dead.

“With time we all turn to dust dear, didn’t God make us from dust” he says.

“We turn back to dust.”

But this man has already built the tomb he is to be buried in. He could not build it beside his dead wife’s grave, and his children objected to him moving his wife’s remains. So he built it as close as he could to her final resting place, in a corner where he could still “see” his wife.

He proudly shows the camera his tomb.

“Do you miss your wife?” the director asks.

The man goes silent for moments.

“We were together for decades not years. Decades,” he says sighing.

“What was she like?” the director continues probing.

With this the elderly man stares into the camera.

I was expecting him to say something like “she was a great mother to my children”, or “she was a dutiful wife” or she “was loyal”- all reasonable statements, but conservative in their own way. Expressions that you might expect to hear from a man of his age, and from the culture he is in.

But his eyes flare up.

“When I met her first she was a revolutionary!”

He then recalls her role in Egypt’s revolutionary past many decades ago.

His face is bright with respect.

The vision of his wife that he imagines first- is not as an unequal partner in a marriage, nor as just the mother of his children- it is as an independent lady, a revolutionary that he respected and loved. It’s this separate person that he fell for- who still passionately burns in his memory.

It’s this vision of independence that he holds of her- across the many decades that have passed in between.

Egypt is a pretty patriarchal place, yet the role of the women’s movement in the revolutionary wave over the past year has been vital. It’s hard to say what will happen- but I think we can say broadly that the revolution will be good for “women’s liberation” in Egypt in the medium to long term. Certainly many of the most tenacious of the revolutionaries in Tahrir have been women and I think this reflects an understanding that the advancement of their sex, is linked to advancement of the revolution. Certainly any counter revolution- would be crushing to what exists of the “women’s movement” here.

Also there have been the pleasant phenomena of weddings taking place in Tahrir Square over the past year!

There are obviously numerous arguments in favour of the fight for equality- from the fundamentals of feminism, to first principles of Human Rights to (the one I’m most sympathetic and it's linked to the previous two) ethics based on socialist solidarity. There are others of course.

However on this day dedicated to Love (ok... ok, I know it’s a corporate inspired event blah, blah, blah !)- I like to think the fight for sexual equality can be justified on those grounds as well.

Because like the old man in the “City of the Dead” with his heroic visions of his revolutionary wife from decades ago , true love surely cannot exist in a situation of inequality- and can only thrive in an atmosphere of egalitarian respect.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Trailer for "The City of the Dead"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nPaBCvua348

Getting too close may blur your vision

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:26:00 +0000

(A tense Tahrir Square on Saturday evening, street battles taking place to the left of this photo)

Two weeks ago my English flatmate in Cairo said:

“The thing about the Ultras and the role they played in the revolution here, very few people back home would have a clue about that.

“Even people very interested in the Egyptian revolution and supportive of it, would be ignorant about the Ultras”

He was probably right.

But things have changed utterly in 14 days- the Egyptian Ultras are now the most written about, talked about and debated set of football fans anywhere in the world right now.

Tens of thousands of words have been penned since the horrific, stomach turning events in Port Said last week- and I feel like I have contributed a fair share of them!

I wrote a long piece on the tragedy in Port Said and the role of the Ultra’s since the revolution in last weekend’s Sunday Business Post (News Focus section) http://www.businesspost.ie/

At the beginning of the year- prior to the Port Said tragedy I wrote a 3,000 word essay broadly about the interaction between soccer and politics here in Egypt- from the pages of the novels of Naguib Mahfouz to the revolution last year. It is to be published in Jonathan Wilson’s excellent “part book, part magazine” 'The Blizzard' http://www.theblizzard.co.uk/ .

The Blizzard is a quarterly, and I’m guessing in one of history’s rarest cases of a “stop press” moment for a quarterly, I have to do a late rewrite to incorporate the events of the last week. It's not easy- because even the near future is hard to predict here.

I also have pieces in “Liberty” and the forthcoming “Look Left” on the topic- I was meant to be on The Marian Finucane Show yesterday to talk about it- but alas discussions about Ireland’s never ending economic woes meant I was squeezed out of the schedule.

But getting too close to a topic- can blur your vision somewhat.

The Ultras are important in the political situation here, especially on the streets- but we should not overstate it. In reality the young men, who staff their ranks, are part of the broader revolutionary youth movement who were the vanguard of the uprising. They have the same concerns as most other young people in the country- unemployment, rising cost of living, lack of freedom, corruption in authority etc.

The future of the revolution will not be decided by the Ultras, but more likely by much broader forces in Egypt. Whether that is the trade union movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, the army etc...

Run for your life in Cairo- and that is official!

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:44:00 +0000

Every time I write an article about Cairo, I throw in a line like- “The city’s manic traffic” or the “commuter chaos of Cairo”. It is part of scene setting of course, helping the reader to build an image of this colossal city. But it does become tiresome and repetitive.

Indeed after living here a few months, you begin to internalise the traffic situation. Your previously held standards of what constituted dangerous driving, or reckless behaviour on the roads drops markedly. You actually begin to think to yourself- “it is not really all that bad here.”

So it’s helpful to take a step back and realise how monumentally mental it really is.

For example here is my favourite green man in Cairo.

As you can see in the video- he is not walking across the road.

He is not really even running.

He is charging across, propelled by mortal fear.

This is an official sign on a very busy road close to where I live.

I have pointed at this sign to taxi drivers and some have laughed. Others have reacted like they have never seen it before.

What does it actually mean? Well your guess is as good as mine.

Is it intended for the pedestrian? Telling them that if you plan to actually cross the road- you better start getting into serious training, because if you are not as quick as Usain Bolt you will end up as road kill Cairo style.

Or is it intended for the drivers? Telling them that commuters will be sprinting across the road here. So no need to slow down all that much because they will be pass you quick as a shot anyway.

Either way- the message is...shall we say... problematic.

Forget the Islamist parties here. Why is there no militant pedestrian party storming the parliament and seizing Tahrir Square?

It’s my birthday and I'll ...revolt or sit at home or eat koshari or enjoy a military parade or cry...if I want to.

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:59:00 +0000

Nah... not my birthday. That glorious event is creeping up though. Sadly 34 is one of those nondescript ages that conjures up few potent or inspirational images- at least my current vintage has the heavenly grandeur of the ‘Age of Christ’ attached to it.

Don’t believe me? Think I’m just indulging in some self pitying moaning as the sands of time pour through my ageing fingers?

Well then, just Goggle “34 years old”. The first link I got was a BBC story ominously headlined “Most expensive year of life: 34”- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4801323.stm.

But I’m not writing about that.

There is another big birthday bash planned for Cairo soon- the one year anniversary of the 2011 Egyptian revolution- January 25.

On Sunday evening I attended a very interesting gathering of international journalists in Downtown Cairo. Held in an underground space beside an art gallery, the location had more than a whiff of revolutionary sulphur to it. The speakers were Egyptian political activists, academics and journalists all talking about what they expected to happen on the 25^th.

So what was the consensus at the meeting as to what will happen?

Well there was none.

Almost every possible scenario was outlined though.

Maybe people will just watch a military parade.

Maybe there will be massive protests that will lead to further instability.

Maybe people will come out and celebrate and then go home.

Maybe there will be clashes between rival opposition groups.

Maybe another revolution.

Maybe all opposition groups will unite and call for stability.

Maybe Hosni Mubarak will emerge (rolled out of course) from a big birthday cake in the middle of Tahrir, wishing everyone well.

The lack of certainty about the future is not the fault of the speakers. They were all excellent, interesting and well informed (I will write in more detail about this soon). It is inherent in the very nature of the post-revolutionary situation here. Predictions are impossible.

Those of us attempting to write about the political situation in Egypt- are a bit like those unfortunate news reporters sent to cover huge annual hurricanes hitting the south coast of the United States.

They stand there in front of the camera, desperately holding onto their umbrella as it is pulled away by the high winds, their faces splattered with rain- and shouting into the camera over the angry roar of nature “The storm has hit us here. It’s very powerful”.

They can’t really say much more than that. They only say what they see is happening around them. It’s partial.

The real analyses of the storm, will take place when weather experts get all the data in and see a more total picture.

But in saying all that... I will be going into print this week and month in The Sunday Business Post and Liberty about the Egyptian Revolution one year on- and how it will be marked on the 25^th.

Now where did I put my umbrella?

A few questions for Cairo on my return

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

72 hours back in Cairo and my senses are primed to pick up on any changes that may have occurred over the Christmas period.

Was the relatively traffic free journey from the airport to Dokki on Tuesday night a sign of a significant change in Cairo’s commuting chaos?

Well after two more days here- I can vouch that it is not.

Is the fact that street vendors seem to have all taken to wearing black and white keffiyehs around their necks , a signal of some radical politicisation or a spontaneous act of Palestinian solidarity on behalf of the sweet potato sellers and others?

Well no. After two days in Cairo even the cold blooded Irishman has noticed that the temperature has dropped sharply here. Hence the scarves.

Is the fact that the metro station under Tahrir Square has many police men stationed in it (when before Christmas they were hardly seen, and in general there seems to be a higher security presence than before Christmas), a sign that the authorities are reasserting their control in the days before the first anniversary of the January revolution?

Well...we will have to wait and see on that one.

Is the fact that when one of the cleaning staff at my apartment welcomed me back in Arabic and asked me how I was...I actually stumbled in my reply to her and got embarrassingly confused...is this a sign that 3 wonderful and somewhat "liquid" Christmas weeks in Dublin can make me forget all the Arabic I learnt in 3 months?

Well, I’m afraid to answer that one.

Mahfouz - and the challenges in learning Fus'ha Arabic

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:44:00 +0000

The Al-Hussein Mosque in Islamic Cairo figures heavily in Mahfouz's 'The Cairo Trilogy'

***

Just a few tips if you plan to read Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz’s magnum opus ‘The Cairo Trilogy’.

Do not buy the three books at the same time. Looking at them piled on top of each other with 1,000 pages plus of tightly packed text, is incredibly intimidating.

Secondly- try and read it in Cairo. The city that Mahfouz depicts is long gone- but the sounds and smells of the Arab street still linger and can help the reader’s imaginary journey.

Thirdly- READ IT! It is regarded as the central work of Mahfouz’s long career, and a major reason why he won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Mahfouz’s sweeping tale of the family of patriarchal tyrant Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, between the two world wars in Cairo- is breathtaking. Three generations of characters populate your imagination in vivid detail. The changing politics and morals of a teeming Cairo in transition is brought to life, while the internal psychological lives of a middle class Muslim family with aspirations- and deep problems- was rendered understandable to this "western" reader in 2011. It creates tremendously complex and contradictory feelings of empathy in the reader for the characters- surely at least one of the signs of great literature.

When I reached the final 100 pages of the final volume- I unconsciously slowed my reading. I found excuses to close my book and leave my Cairo balcony- to surf the net, make another coffee, go get yet another 12 cent falafel (yep I said 12 cent!) from my local falafel place or just bounce around the room to Joy Division- anything to make the final page retreat that little bit further into the inevitable future.

The work is regarded as firmly placed in the great tradition of realist classics- mentioned in the same breath as Dickens, Zola etc. The characters speak with clear unaffected (if sometimes flowery) humanity. The character’s conversations, comforting in their clarity- the dialogue is solid and believable.

Well in fact- it isn’t.

The great irony of the ‘The Cairo Trilogy’ is that the perception of authenticity of language in the book- is just that- a perception.

For none of Mahfouz’s beautifully crafted characters spoke the words he lovingly placed on their tongues. None of these residents of old Islamic Cairo would have said the things he compelled them to say with his authorial command.

For Mafhouz wrote dialogue in Fus'ha Arabic (normally called Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)))- a language that is not the mother tongue of any modern Arabs. As far as I understand it, it has not really been the mother tongue of any Arabs since the Prophet and his early followers.

Most educated Arabs can read and write MSA, it is the language of politics, TV news, religion, newspapers, business across Arab borders, Al Jazeera etc- but it is not the language of the street, the living room or the coffee shop. Here Colloquial Arabic (or Aameya) is spoken. This colloquial dialect can differ drastically from country to country across the Arab world.

For instance in the language school in Cairo where I study MSA, there is an entirely different course for colloquial Egyptian Arabic. When I studied colloquial Arabic in Palestine seven years ago- I was never shown an Arabic letter. It was taught all through transliteration into the Roman alphabet.

They are almost different languages- almost.

So Mahfouz wrote in a language which he knew his characters would not have spoken. I find something puzzling about the idea that this realist masterpiece, the reading of which was one of the great literary experiences of my life, is also fundamentally flawed in its attempts at capturing reality.

Deploying MSA in dialogue was the literary convention of the time when Mahfouz wrote the trilogy - however apparently in recent years this has changed with writers of plays and poetry, in particular, using colloquial.

The connections, friction, and development in the often fractious relationship between MSA and colloquial Arabic has been much written upon and I am no expert. I’m just a poor western student trying to make sense of it, talking to my taxi driver in garbled MSA and then staring at him blankly as he answers me in flowing colloquial.

It would undoubtedly have been easier to learn MSA in the world created by Mahfouz- all the more reason why I felt tremendously sad when I closed the final page of his great work.

Souq near Islamic Cairo

Jogging in Dokki

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:50:00 +0000

I’m not one for extreme sports.

I think if you are on a bridge- you cross it. You don’t jump off it with elastic cord wrapped around your leg.

Playing 5-a-side soccer on Dublin’s north side on a cold Sunday afternoon, can be a bit extreme sometimes- but I don’t think that counts.

But jogging in Cairo- it does not get more extreme than that.

I run most days in Ireland. In Cairo I ran 4 times in 3 months- and one of those times was fleeing a Tahrir Square under attack.

I’m not particularly sure what Cairo’s streets are good for- but it is certainly not running.

Potholes, random bricks sticking out of the ground, uneven (very uneven) surfaces, bad street lighting, pedestrian pathways that are blocked by cars, piles of rubbish, insane traffic and the pollution all conspire to make running in central Cairo an unpleasant experience.

There were some local joggers in the Dokki area, where I lived. They ran along the Nile cornice and across the bridge- but they were few in number.

When I ran, I found myself so consumed by concentration, worrying about each footfall on the dangerous ground- that I got headaches. There was no zoning out, that comes from the pleasant runners high you gain while pounding through the Phoenix Park back in Dublin.

There is a serious issue here.

There seem to be very few public spaces for people (especially children) to play in. In 3 months in Cairo I only saw children play football on the streets a handful of times. The streets flow with constant traffic, there are few green spaces- how and where Cairo’s kids learn how to pass and move, or cross a ball- is not clear to me. (I could be mean and say this may be a reason why they have not qualified for the World Cup since 1990- but it would also be false, Egypt has had great success in the African Nations Cup and in the African club championship over the past two decades). There are many gyms in Cairo, but most would be too expensive for the average Cairene to join.

But despite these problems- I really like Dokki. Situated on the west bank of the River Nile, middle class (I think) by Cairo standards, it is residential and friendly.

There are no real tourist sites to attract foreigners (unless the ‘Agricultural Museum of Egypt’ rocks your tractor)- but the place bustles with the familiar sounds and smells of the Arab street- coffee shops, the bread man pushing his cart and calling at the top of his voice, the call to prayer, smoke rising from the street oven cooking the kofta camel, the bakeries etc...

I am looking forward to my return- but sadly I think my favourite pair of runners will be left in Dublin.

PS. I got a number of nice comments sent to me about my last post- many thanks for them. It's nice to know people are reading. (It also got highlighted on Irish Left Review http://www.irishleftreview.org/2011/12/19/real-yacoubian-building-woman-involved/ )

Merry Christmas to everyone.

The real Yacoubian Building and how “there is often a woman involved”...

noreply@blogger.com (David Lynch) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:06:00 +0000

The "Real" Yacoubian Building in Downtown Cairo

***

When I arrived in Cairo three months ago my first stop was not the Pyramids. Not the Egyptian Museum. Not even the beating heart of the revolution- Tahrir Square.

(Be warned your first trip to Tahrir will be disappointing- never has a more chaotic, confusing, and somewhat ugly collection of streets, buildings, and traffic islands played host to something as lyrically inspirational as the overthrow of tyranny).

No, on my second day in Cairo, I set out with my map to find a rather nondescript building on the bustling Talaat Harb Street.

The Yacoubian Building is the setting of the most successful modern Egyptian novel. Alaa-Al-Aswany’s tale of family, politics, crushing despair and redemptive love is a masterpiece. I had bullied my Book Club in Dublin into reading it before I left for Cairo- but this selfishness paid off, because to flick through the pages of ‘The Yacoubian Building’ is to receive an insight into modern Egyptian life that no guide book can provide.

The narrative is traditional in an old fashion realist way, no magic realism or even some of the extreme imagery deployed by Naguib Mahfouz in some of his novels. The tale is also somewhat soap opera like- a series of families and individuals interacting in the one building, their personal lives reflecting wider societal norms and problems.

However if it sounds like the form of the novel, may be suffocating in its conservatism- it is not. For the content, with its beautiful characterisations, the perfect pitch of pain and pleasure, the soft sweep of the storyline- is almost overwhelming in its delivery.

You care for these people- really care.

As it seems with most great novels, the most interesting characters are the women. (I’m thinking Molly in Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’, Amina in Mafhouz’s ‘The Cairo Trilogy’ eh...Holly Kennedy in Ahern’s ‘PS I Love You’)

But it was the tale of political and religious radicalisation of Taha el Shazli the young son of the building’s doorman that sticks with me. No need for a spoiler alert, I won’t give too much of the plot line away. But just to say, every step on this man’s journey to radicalism makes sense. Al Aswany’s genius is to make it intelligible to the reader- how the combination of disappointment and despair created under the former dictatorship helped to propel this young man into the cause of militant Jihad.

But it is not just dealing with the dictatorship that turns him- it’s also personal. His relationship with his childhood sweet heart Busayna is put under extreme pressure, because of social taboos, religious interests, and his lack of money and chances of progress in a crushingly corrupt country. His heart breaks- and slowly hardens.

The question of what principally moves us in our lives- the broadly political (as in society, our class background etc) or the personal, is a long standing one.

There have been some who have looked at the Arab Spring this year and sought very narrow personal factors as the principal motivator. At its most extreme, there have been unintentionally hilarious attempts to see the uprisings as the product of mass sexual frustration in the Arab world. http://mideastposts.com/2011/09/15/arab-spring-is-all-about-sex-apparently/

This begs the question if sexual frustration is a chief contributor to revolutions- why then was Ireland in the 50s and 60s not in constant open revolt...or say the Vatican City now- why are they not manning the barricades in St Peter’s Square? Such frustration may not be generally healthy in a society- but it hardly means that if you are not “getting any” your principal reaction would be to involve yourself in a political organisation or movement and try and overthrow your dictatorial government!

But at the same time I have spoken to young Egyptians who want to get married and have children- but they cannot because of finance, lack of work etc. This is a significant contributor to personal tales of hopelessness here. This personal despair is a reflection of wider societal problems, and in turn reflects how you view the world.

What Al Aswany displays so well, is how our actions and development are moved by both the political and personal. Both factors influence each other to such a point that “How can we know the dancer from the dance?”- WB Yeats.

One night during the “second revolution” here at the end of last month, I was walking towards Tahrir. In the square people were fighting and dying, but just ten minutes away, young couples stood under trees across from the Opera House. Giggling and flirting in the very restricted way (by western standards) that you can here. At one time in my life I think this would have really confused me. Too flippantly hold hands and joke while the fight for freedom takes place just across the Nile- sure that would almost amount to counter revolutionary behaviour ;) But at this stage in my life I know things are a little more complicated than that.

Even in a city in open revolt, all of life's aspects continue parallel. For every Molotov cocktail thrown, or bullet wound bleeding, somewhere else in the city there is a first kiss, or a baby born, a cancer diagnoses delivered, or a cute puppy choking on a chicken bone. It all goes on- all of the time.

The two weeks of revolt in Tahrir last month was intense in this city. For the rest of my life I will recall how it felt to be breathing at that moment in this city of 20 million people crowded around the Nile. I will remember the voices of brave resistance, the hopes and creeping despair- the governments falling, the tear gas swirling, the chatter of freedom and concern.

I think it will be the wide sweep of history that will chiefly frame my memory- but there will also always be the potent image of a pair of brown eyes and the inquisitive mind behind them that briefly shared some of those moments with me.

It’s just the political and personal- moving us, like the characters in Al-Aswany’s Yacoubian Building.