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Luxor, Egypt
When we came to Egypt in September, the last thing I thought we would witness was a revolution. As we sit here, in the relative safety of Luxor’s West Bank (the rural side of the river) watching events unfold on television, I barely know what to think, let alone what to write.
It is just after 5pm local time. Officially, the whole country is under curfew. From the balcony of our holiday flat the fields are bathed in low, rich, evening sunlight. Two women are driving a small flock of sheep along a path between banana trees. In the walled garden of the next house, a man in traditional dress is weeding the grass. His two kids are circling the terrace on the bicycles – just now they both tried to ride on the same bike for a while, but after half a circle they both fell off giggling.
Inside, on television, we are watching scenes of Tahrir Square (the name means ‘Liberation’ and it is a symbolic location for Egyptians) where thousands of demonstrators are gathering. Fighter planes have swooped down over the square, and helicopters have been hovering overhead.
So where do I start? My thoughts and feelings are so bound up with everything I have witnessed over the last five months, and the things I have learnt about Egypt and Egyptians. Last week one of our teachers suggested that we write a kind of ‘mid-term report’ on our impressions about Egypt. I was going to gather my thoughts over the next few weeks and write something at the start of February which would be six months after our arrival. But the latest events have accelerated my thinking.
What follows is not an organised, argued essay. It’s just a bunch of thoughts, hopefully not too much of a rant.
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Back in December, Egypt held parliamentary elections. I wrote an article about the elections for a friend’s political website. I did my research, spoke to people, verified what I was told; but in the end, Patrick and I decided that it was not a good idea express negative views about the Mubarak regime. (A telling sign of the way things are.) My article remains saved on my laptop, and reading it back now makes my heart heavy.
The fate of the Egyptian people has for many years been bound up closely in Western regional goals. Egypt has been a good ally to the US. When Mubarak wiped the floor with his opponents in the elections, the reaction from the US was lukewarm. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
The reaction from the international community has been half-hearted. The US State Department issued a statement expressing their “disappointment” and “dismay,” although of course their ultimate tone was conciliatory, emphasising their “longstanding partnership with the government and the people of Egypt” which they look forward to continuing.
This is the fundamental point. Iran’s controversial elections last year raised international outcry. The Ivorian Coast’s presidential elections are currently headline news on the BBC, with world leaders lining up to dispute the incumbent president’s overturning of the legitimate result. But Egypt is more useful to the West. As the US ambassador put it, the Egyptians are “perhaps the only player that can talk with us, the Israelis, and all Palestinian factions.” And the Egyptian government has maintained the blockade of Gaza (with US help), despite widespread criticism at home and abroad.
But Egypt’s foreign policy is closely bound up in its own domestic politics. As the US ambassador put it, “Mubarak hates Hamas, and considers them the same as Egypt's own Muslim Brotherhood, which he sees as his own most dangerous political threat.”I feel a little less certain about this last comment now. Does Mubarak really see the Muslim Brotherhood as his greatest threat? He has certainly made the rest of the world believe that it is the only alternative to his dictatorial rule. International commentators are warning that they do not want a new government “that doesn’t want democracy” – clearly a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood. William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, has been more explicit, mentioning the Muslim Brotherhood by name. So the world doesn’t want a party with an Islamist agenda in charge of Egypt. It doesn’t matter if the people of Egypt would like to democratically elect such a group. Equally, it doesn’t matter if they don’t want the MB in charge. Mubarak’s rhetoric has successfully duped the world into such a fear of Islamist government that no-one is being given a chance to express an opinion either way – or to demonstrate that there are other options.
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Let me break my rant. The sun is setting, and the TV shows thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square praying in unison. They kneel, touch their heads to the ground, pause, and rise again in waves. It is unbearably moving. The majority of Egyptians are Muslim, and united in belief. But it is more than religion that binds the people together. Reports from Alexandria on Friday said that Christian demonstrators stood around the Muslims forming a barrier against the police to protect them as they prayed. (Similarly, after the Jan 1 bombings, many Muslims stood outside churches during the Coptic Christmas services on Jan 7 to form a human shield in case of further attacks.)
According to Al Jazeera's Alexandria correspondent, women and children have taken to the streets for the first time, defying the curfew to march together against the government.
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Back to the rant. Over the last 30 years, as the fear of Islamists has grown in the West, Egypt as a whole has made money. Most Egyptians, however, have not. Illiteracy is ridiculously high. Teachers get paid peanuts. Here’s another extract from my article:
“I am a school teacher,” said our waiter, looking over his shoulder. “In the morning I work in a primary school. I would like to see my family more – I have a wife and three children – but I have to work as a waiter in the afternoon. My salary from the school is less than $50 a month. When I want to buy one shirt for work, it costs me $18. For my children, I have to buy used clothes and shoes.”Remember that figure, $50 a month for a teacher. Just for the record, here are some numbers we heard from our taxi driver the other night. (Not the first time we have heard these complaints.) A few years ago, sugar cost 1.5LE (about $0.25) a kilo. That price has now quadrupled to 6LE ($1.00). With these prices you can see why $50 a month doesn’t go far. Oh, and the price of meat has risen to around $10 a kilo.
For those who can afford it, there are excellent educational opportunities in Egypt: good schools, good universities – and hence the chance to work abroad, which so many aspire to. But with school teachers paid so badly, and education for the majority of such a low quality, social divisions will continue indefinitely.
Meanwhile, a minority of Egyptians have got grossly rich under Mubarak’s regime. It is very telling that a large group of prominent businessmen are reported to have left Egypt yesterday on chartered private jets. Call me cynical, but looking at the way Egypt has developed over the last 20 years, Mubarak’s dictatorial measures have been more about lining his pockets and those of his cronies than seeing off any Islamist threat.
And the resulting ‘stability’ in Egypt protects Europe’s oil supply (from the Gulf via the Suez Canal) and maintains the border with Gaza. Back to my comments in December:
But the problem with ignoring the voices of so many is that the status quo may not prevail for long. And as tensions rise in the country, Egyptian commentators warn of sectarian tensions and the US’s Council for Foreign Relations warn that Egypt might not remain stable for long – leaving the US without the ally it needs.But that’s not what’s important. I have talked a lot about politics, which I make no claims to know about. But over five months we have met a lot of wonderful people in Alexandria, and they are filling my thoughts right now. I hope they are all safe: those we have met through our Arabic classes: Magda, Eman, Jihan, Injy, Dina, Mohamed, Ahmed, Shereen, Hamdy, Amira; my classmates from the Greek centre: Sarah, Hadeer, Ebtesam, Yosra, Shokry, Emad, Moataz, Daniela, Souad, and so many more; Mohamed the manager of our local restaurant, and Dina who we meet there occasionally; Islam who runs a local café we frequent, who we have bonded with over conversations about cats; our friendly doorman and his family; the man we buy vegetables from; the boy who works at the bakery where we buy breakfast; the old man at the corner shop near the language centre who greets Patrick like a long lost grandson every time he goes in; the list goes on.
We need a stable Egyptian government that serves its people well – and more to the point, this is what the Egyptian people deserve.I wrote this in December, and watching what is unfolding before us, I hope this is what happens. I want my friends to get a good education. I want them to find work after they graduate (not sit at home for months on end, growing ever more despairing). I want them to have the chances to travel that I have had, the chances to learn, think and speak out. I want them to have hope again.
* * * * *
As night falls, we are staying indoors, maintaining our television vigil. We have stocked up on food. We are waiting to see what happens. The British Consulate in Alexandria has advised its citizens to leave the city, but so far there has been no warning for Luxor. As I said, we are in a quiet area. Most people in this village work in tourism, and they know what a huge impact these problems will have on their livelihoods.
Let me end on a lighter note. Here’s a fun game we have invented: Revolution Bingo. How many times do the TV correspondents say any of the following:
• unprecedented scenes
• iconic images
• this is a turning point
• the next few days/hours/minutes will be crucial
Mere words? I hope not.
