Monthly Archives: February 2011

On my way home today a crowd suddenly emerged out of the darkness. A large group of men. A teenager was at the front, his face contorted. I initially thought that he was chanting, and that this was another small … Continue reading →

Yesterday witnessed an encounter with an Egyptian Jane Fonda on crack, and fun and games with the army. It being a Friday, Tahrir was again transformed into a fantasia of flag-selling, popcorn-eating and memorabilia-buying, with a spot of protesting every … Continue reading →

The fury and violence of the Libyan uprising has been making me reflect on the Egyptian revolution, and the (still not ancien) regime’s modus operandi. Extricating that mad bastard in the toctoc will inevitably be bloody. Reported deaths have already … Continue reading →

Hello. Am abusing the blog for work-related purposes. Please pass on this note to friends and family who were in Egypt during the revolution and might have been the target of the harassment and attacks I describe below I am … Continue reading →

On Friday night, three hours into the celebration, I saw a man in the masses on Qasr El-Nil bridge say to his wife as he took off his glasses and wiped his face, “ah…meshayna keteer ya Hosny [ah…we’ve walked so … Continue reading →

PROBLEM PAGE Dear Agony Aunt After 30 years with my husband I feel like I need a new start, but he doesn’t feel the same way, and now I can’t get rid of him. I married my current husband in … Continue reading →

I moved to Egypt in 2003, intent on recapturing the magic of a year I spent in Alexandria during a study year abroad. The study year abroad, and the decision to learn Arabic was itself guided by memories of the … Continue reading →

The atmosphere in Tahrir Square is such that when you’re there you think that Mubarak has no choice but to resign at some point in the next ten minutes. Then you go outside the square’s perimeter and feel Egypt will … Continue reading →

I didn’t go out at all today (Thursday) because as part of its campaign against the Tahrir protestors the regime has ordered the media to initiate a vile hate campaign against journalists and foreigners – which I am sort of … Continue reading →

A strange peculiarity about the Egyptian regime is its insistence on attempting to retain a veneer of legitimacy – even after 30 years of flagrantly falsified elections, torture, corruption and, most recently, an ill-advised Internet blackout that succeeded in making … Continue reading →