I wrote this while we were watching the protests on Friday — I never imagined that I would have to post it from America . . .
Remember the scene from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities where Madame Defarge sat at the foot of the guillotine and kept knitting away as heads rolled? I felt like her all day today as I knit away on a pair of pants for Camille as we watched this Egyptian revolution unfold on TV.
We woke up to find that we no longer had internet and a few hours later all cell phones were cut off. Josh went to listen to Friday prayers at the mosque to hear whether the Imam was encouraging people to protest. Rather than pushing revolution, he preached a very fervent sermon on loving your neighbor. I thought it was nice that he encouraged his congregation to include Jews and Christians as “neighbors.”
Around 2pm we started watching the news (Friday prayers end around 1pm and that is when the demonstrations were expected to start). I was really thankful that we had our Egyptian satellite access since we were able to watch Al Jazeera and other Arabic channels to get the Arabic perspective of what was happening and not just the American or European interpretation of events.
Egypt is ruling with an iron fist. They are trying to quash any information being spread by cutting off all forms of communication. The police are arresting and beating journalists, they cut news channels that were broadcasting in Arabic and at 5:30 they announced a curfew that would go into effect at 6pm. The latest news is that the Egyptian president ordered the military to take to the streets to assist the police in fighting against the protesters.
The ugliest things I saw today were the Egyptian police driving through crowds of protesters, trying to run people over and 3 and 4 plainclothes cops at a time picking people out of the crowd and dragging them away, beating them with nightsticks. It reminded me of things I read about happening in Nazi Germany when the SS would come in and drag people off and they’d never been seen again.
I wish I had bought stock in tear gas because the Egyptian police are burning through it like it’s free. Josh was downstairs talking to the guards and he came up and said that he could smell it in the air.
After determining that it was safe to go out here in Maadi, Josh headed to church with Calvin. Of course, soon after they left is when the government decided to impose a curfew. I wasn’t sure how they would get the news (since no phones), but the cops that protect the area around the church came into the service to let everyone know that they had to disband and head home. I was relieved to see them walk in the door at 6:01.
Watching the American press talk about the situation here has been so aggravating. The press secretary and Hilary saying they were “concerned” and calling for Egypt to resume access to social networking sites – yeah, cause that’s what the Egyptian people want. They’re all upset because the government took away their Twitter.
What about expressing condemnation for a government that in an attempt to control its people cuts off all contact with the outside world, including phone and internet, and is kidnapping and beating journalists and shutting down television feeds to keep the rest of the world from knowing how deeply they are abusing their people? How about that Joe Biden?
Anyway, I don’t do politics, and now I remember why. It’s a whole bunch of people talking in circles about stuff that they don’t have first-hand experience with. Unfortunately, it looks like there are a whole lot of politics in our future here.
I really do hope that this brings about great change in the government to the benefit of the Egyptian people. One of the women interviewed during the protest today said, “Without change there is no tomorrow. We are already dead.” You can see the truth of that statement in how they drive, how they cross the street, how everything is “enshalla” (God willing). They don’t feel that they have any control over the events in their lives. Josh and I would love to see Mubarak forced out and turn over control of the government to the Egyptian people — giving them the opportunity to fairly elect their leaders.