We were startled awake at noon by Chris's cell phone ringing. It was his editor calling from Abu Dhabi. What's going on in Cairo? We hear there are protests, big ones. Get out there!
We had arrived just hours before on a late-night plane from Rome, where we'd spent four days inhabiting a world circumscribed by the cobblestone alleys and candlelit enotecas of Trastevere -- a neighborhood we'd chosen as our base precisely because it was an escape from reality, across the river from the main tourist sites of the city and nearly inaccessible by public transport. Egypt is a place insistent on rubbing your face in reality under the best of circumstances; Rome -- European, well-heeled, morally permissive, its summertime exuberance muted by January rain -- was our chance to fortify our defenses before returning.
And now here we were, reality knocking down the door before we'd even gotten a full night's sleep. Chris left immediately to find out what was happening. I stayed home and caught up on a week's worth of emails, mostly unaware of the events unfolding in the streets outside. It was Police Day, a national holiday commemorating the date in 1952 when fifty Egyptian police officers defied British orders to relinquish control of a police station in the Egyptian canal city of Ismailiyya, and it had been chosen by the fledgling pro-democracy movement as the occasion for their first round of protests.
While still in the US, I had read the accounts of Egyptians lighting themselves on fire in imitation of the Tunisian vegetable-seller who torched himself on December 17 in a public statement against government injustices, and I knew that the Egyptian population had seen in the departure of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali less than a month later a ray of hope for their own country. But I was no newcomer to political unrest in Egypt -- I was here in May 2006 when Egyptian judges took to the streets to protest the fraudulent presidential elections the preceding fall, and on April 6, 2008, when thousands of workers in the northern industrial town of Mahalla al-Kobra demonstrated for higher wages -- and I assumed that this latest round of civil disobedience would be no different. Brief, sparsely attended, ultimately ineffectual.
I made plans with a friend to go to the Cairo International Book Fair that weekend. I never once turned on the TV or checked local news websites. It was only that evening when Chris finally returned, having spent the day covering a multi-pronged march that ended in a violent confrontation with police in Midan Tahrir, that I began to realize that something new was going on.
Concerned friends outside the country began messaging me as soon as the international media broke the story:
We had arrived just hours before on a late-night plane from Rome, where we'd spent four days inhabiting a world circumscribed by the cobblestone alleys and candlelit enotecas of Trastevere -- a neighborhood we'd chosen as our base precisely because it was an escape from reality, across the river from the main tourist sites of the city and nearly inaccessible by public transport. Egypt is a place insistent on rubbing your face in reality under the best of circumstances; Rome -- European, well-heeled, morally permissive, its summertime exuberance muted by January rain -- was our chance to fortify our defenses before returning.
And now here we were, reality knocking down the door before we'd even gotten a full night's sleep. Chris left immediately to find out what was happening. I stayed home and caught up on a week's worth of emails, mostly unaware of the events unfolding in the streets outside. It was Police Day, a national holiday commemorating the date in 1952 when fifty Egyptian police officers defied British orders to relinquish control of a police station in the Egyptian canal city of Ismailiyya, and it had been chosen by the fledgling pro-democracy movement as the occasion for their first round of protests.
While still in the US, I had read the accounts of Egyptians lighting themselves on fire in imitation of the Tunisian vegetable-seller who torched himself on December 17 in a public statement against government injustices, and I knew that the Egyptian population had seen in the departure of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali less than a month later a ray of hope for their own country. But I was no newcomer to political unrest in Egypt -- I was here in May 2006 when Egyptian judges took to the streets to protest the fraudulent presidential elections the preceding fall, and on April 6, 2008, when thousands of workers in the northern industrial town of Mahalla al-Kobra demonstrated for higher wages -- and I assumed that this latest round of civil disobedience would be no different. Brief, sparsely attended, ultimately ineffectual.
I made plans with a friend to go to the Cairo International Book Fair that weekend. I never once turned on the TV or checked local news websites. It was only that evening when Chris finally returned, having spent the day covering a multi-pronged march that ended in a violent confrontation with police in Midan Tahrir, that I began to realize that something new was going on.
Concerned friends outside the country began messaging me as soon as the international media broke the story:
Trying to follow the news, looks like people really have turned out for the protests?
yeah, chris was there all day
he got tear gassed but he's ok
yeah, chris was there all day
he got tear gassed but he's ok
Oh jeez!
that sounds scary
that sounds scary
yeah
he said people were really getting hurt
incl the police
lots of blood
he said people were really getting hurt
incl the police
lots of blood
And with another friend:
wow - tunisia part deux huh? Are you guys ok over there?
thankfully so far yes
wow - so it's as serious as I'm reading then
i guess so
we'll see what happens tomorrow
people seem to think that this might be the BIG thing that finally topples the govt
but i don't know, i've heard that before
we'll see what happens tomorrow
people seem to think that this might be the BIG thing that finally topples the govt
but i don't know, i've heard that before
I read something with a woman saying "I hope someday when our children are studying they will learn about the revolution of January 25"
i suppose it's exciting in a way -- this govt is long overdue to leave power
i just hope we stay safe
i just hope we stay safe
The revolution was beginning.
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