Cairo at dusk.
Egypt's choice
Egypt’s presidential election starts tomorrow. I would have never imagined this happening when I first got here in 2010. Two weeks ago I thought I knew who was likely to win … Basically, things change fast, and you never truly know what’s coming.
الانتخابات المصرية الرئاسية ستبدأ غداً. أبداً لم أفكر هذا سيحدث عندما وصلت هنا في 2010. منذ اسبوعين فكرت عرفت من سيفوز. لكن الوضع يتغير بسرعة و لا شخص حقيقةً يعرف ما سيحدث
These photos by Moises Saman express that sentiment of pace and uncertainty.
I went to Luxor with my boyfriend earlier this month, the same time the Abbasseya clashes were at their height in Cairo. In Luxor we saw the main ancient sites—Hatshepsut’s Temple, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, the Colossi of Memnon, Karnak, Luxor Temple and Medinat Habu. Our favorite site was Medinat Habu, less often visited by the tourist gangs and peaceful in the late afternoon (although it was fun to watch three Asian guys who were traveling around, taking pictures of themselves doing martial arts in front of Hatshepsut’s Temple and jumping in the air with the Sayedi guardians). The West Bank, mostly farmland and small, modest tourist outposts, was beautiful and quiet, and we rode bikes around to the ancient sites. The few people we talked to in Luxor seemed to support Amr Moussa, the former Arab League chief who is running in the presidential election, but there were also a lot of campaign posters for Mohamed Morsy (although that doesn’t necessarily mean widespread support, but rather that the Muslim Brotherhood has more resources) and a few for former Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh. We also took a hot-air balloon ride for a serious bargain (about $75), which was definitely the highlight of the trip. We were so happy about the trip that we decided to go back to Cairo early rather than walking the East Bank, where the city is. In Luxor we found fewer friendly people and more eagerness to take advantage of foreigners, which was depressing but not surprising, considering that we got a sense the tourism only affects most people indirectly, at best, and many are left to harassing people to convince them to take a ride in their horse carriage or taxi.
Tourists and their guide look at ancient Egyptian artwork on the walls of Hatshepsut’s temple, at the Deir al-Bahri complex on Luxor’s West Bank. Hatshepsut was one of the most significant pharaohs and one of the most prolific builders of the New Kingdom period in Egypt.
#karnak, #luxor #egypt (Taken with instagram)
#karnak, #luxor, #egypt (Taken with instagram)
find of the day: a copper #volkswagen in #cairo (Taken with instagram)
Hazem Salah Abu Ismail poster in #tahrir #cairo #egypt (Taken with instagram)
The First Breaths of Freedom by Hasiba Abd al-Rahman
A translated excerpt from the book of a Syrian political prisoner imprisoned in the 1990s.
“Don’t you remember … ? Only a short time ago, you were asked what you would do when you were released. You laughed: “I’ll buy a pack of Hamra cigarettes … a flask of èaraq, and then go to a park far away out of sight, and inhale the smell of soil soaked with blood and sweat. I’ll roll over the grass and the dew, and sleep under a blackberry bush.”
A bearded Tahrir promises less unity than hoped
“You need to get a lot louder, because I can’t hear you at all. Now, let’s try it again: Hazem will rip out America’s fangs!” His brow shiny with sweat, the man lowers his microphone and smiles broadly as the response comes — from the entire square, it seems. A few more rounds of call and response and the chant suddenly changes. For a few surreal moments, the only thing that can be heard in Tahrir is, “The people want Hazem Abu Ismail.”
—by Ali Abdel Mohsen in Egypt Independent
