25th of January 2011 - Police day demonstrations

What a day! I went with my roommate and a couple of friends to the demonstrations, which were announced on Facebook by the group "We are all Khalid Saeed" http://www.facebook.com/ElShaheeed

The 25th of January is a National Holiday in Egypt. On this day 58 years ago, the police fighted against the British occupation. Today the Egyptian police are oppressors.

Egypt is facing similar problems Tunisia has. There is a high unemployment rate under young people, prices are rising, the emergency law from 1982 is still in place...

We began watching a small demonstration by the supreme court. It was only a small group of protesters surrounded by a big group of police men.

After a stop of half an hour we went on to Tahir street, where the Cairo Museum is located. The whole area was locked down by the police, even tho as a person you were allowed to pass. Cars were stopped.
Impressions from Tahir street:

 Here was a critical point. We were a group of about 10 people. But tensions got higher and we got separated. The police was starting to hit the demonstrators and the situation began to escalate. Some of us found a save place in a gateway to a shop. After the situation got clearer we went out and went behind the police.

The situation seemed to be clear, but as I was taking this video the police started to throw with tear gas grenades.

I actually wanted to celebrate my birthday that evening in Downtown, but as the protests are still going on in the night I decided just to go to a restaurant in my safe neighborhood in Heliopolis.

First 22 Days of 2011

Hello 2011!

I can't believe that you are already 22 days old. Here we are........ and now? What happened so far in those days? For me the new year started very good at a nice house party with some of my friends. We had a good time that night. And then in the morning, bad news. 

I read in the news about the bombing in front of an Church in Alexandria. 24 people died, many more were injured. Will this have any effect on the stability of the country? 

As I talked to my friends about this tragedy I found out that the bombing had the opposite effect of what the terrorist may wanted: Split the society. To show solidarity, Muslims went to church. But even before this bombing happened, Muslims and Christians are living in peace side by side. My Muslim friends have Christian friends, vise versa. 

People in the Western World get sometimes the impression that Christians in Egypt are repressed. This is just not true. A simple example: In Egypt the Catholic Church is allowed build churches, but not in Turkey. 

Few days later, another time, bad news. 

On the 4th of January my parents, and one day later my sister and her boyfriend where supposed to visit me in Egypt. But life is not that easy. On the 3rd of January my grandpa died. I knew that he was sick and already 84 years old, but still you hope that he may survive till you come back. Of course my parents and my sister cancelled the flight to Egypt. The next day I decided to fly back to Germany to go to the funeral of my grandpa. My boss at work was very sympathetic and gave me a week off. 

Back in Germany I was very happy to see my family again. Given the circumstances I was still enjoying the time with my family. A few days later I was back in Cairo.

Second day back in Cairo, it rained. Not just a bit, it actually rained heavily. The air was fresh again.

Lets see what the rest of the year brings...

Good luck everyone!

"Never take life too seriously, nobody gets out alive anyway."
This quote is from a bathroom wall at King Street Station, Seattle, WA