Egypt and the revolution
Ok, I guess it's going to be yet another boring subject since probably few give a crap about politics and the world and even less about some Arabic country in North Africa but it had to be done. At least maybe you should check it out for the pictures.
I was born in Romania in 1987 , 2 years before the Revolution of December 1989 that removed our own Dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, and the communist regime. So, even though I was too little in 1989 to be active in it or even "feel" it, the knowledge of what it means to have a revolution is embedded in my genes . Now, if you're from a country that didn't go through this in the past 50 odd years chances are you have no idea but we here do, this is in fact quite similar. Knowing this also means I am far more interested in what is going on and in these people succeeding.
As some of you (if not all of u, I'm judging everyone who doesn't ) know, there's a revolt in Egypt, one that started on Jan 25th . The Egyptian people are trying to overthrow their President , Hosni Mubarak , who is a dictator, has been in charge for 30 years and his regime has been abusing the people and taking advantage. Egypt is a country that reached 80 million people and its Capital, Cairo, has over 20 million, it's the most populated city in Africa. There's a lot of poverty, there are virtually only 2 classes, rich and poor, the ones in between are closer to poverty than richness , the corruption is insane and the police bullies the people around whenever. In Egypt there's a permanent state of emergency, declared many moons ago, so they are not allowed to gather in groups and protest and generally when they do the riot police comes and beats them,arrests them,etc.
Anyway, so , on Jan 25th, encouraged by the Tunisian revolution which was successful in getting rid of Ben Ali the dictator, Egyptians took their fate in their own hands and decided it was time to ask to be given their rights . People who know about Egypt should know that this is not something that started over night, the opposition has been getting more and more volatile and losing their patience, people ,the youth especially, have begun speaking out against the regime and try to make change possible. Now it just all erupted .
Last week most days saw more or less peaceful demonstrations, the only clashes were the ones against the abusive riot police, there were some bad clashes on the 29th especially , some people got shot ,some beaten, etc. Then when the police retreated all was peaceful in the square but there were problems on the streets where looters were having a field day . On Tuesday there was a so called "Million People March" in Tahrir Sq. totally peaceful and positive. Yesterday, Wednesday, all Hell broke loss after , in the evening before, Mubarak held a speech where he didn't announce any resignation but only that he won't be running again in the next elections this autumn. So, on Wednesday , so called pro-Mubarak supporters came to Tahrir Sq and the area around and started a brutal battle against the anti-Mubarak supporters. Most say that those pro Mubarak supporters are in their majority members of the police force ,people paid by their bosses to go fight ,people who were promised different things if they went to fight. The shit hit the fan yesterday afternoon, they were throwing rocks at eachother, the pro Mubarak ones were throwing Molotov cocktails ,some had gun and clubs and other stuff,thousands were wounded, some killed but the anti Mubarak protesters in the Sq remained there and they are still there now.
I've been watching Al Jazeera(God Bless you tv channel from Heaven)online almost non stop in the past few days and right now, although there are less people than in the last days and the battles have been less brutal today , the atmosphere is basically the same. There were at least 2 correspondents of Al Jazeera who reported live from the Tahrir Sq area in the past couple of hours and said there was shooting, you could hear it in the background in fact and one of these guys got progressively terrified cause someone was shooting in the direction of the crowd he was part off a little off Tahrir Sq. It's crazy !
Anyway, I've been to Egypt 7 times in the past 9 years, I love that country, the people are very friendly and the place has a unique charm , a mix of the Arab world and Africa ,they have the most amazing treasures in the world, the Pyramids,the temples, the artifacts , remains of probably the most amazing civilization to have lived . They also have some amazing scenery , the Nile, the Red Sea ,the desert.
Fun fact : I stayed about 4 times in the Ramses Hilton hotel that is rich across the road from Tahrir Sq, right by the Bridge over the Nile and the place where I think most correspondents are staying right now. That hotel offers amazing views OMG , it has a bazillion floors and I always stayed around the 19-22nd floor and you can see impressive views of Cairo, it's breathtaking and one of my favorite things to do in Egypt is to stand on the balcony before bed and after I wake up, looking at the city.
Things that impressed me so far :
- the solidarity of the people and their peaceful demonstrations unless attacked - provoked
- muslims praying while Christians were protecting them and vice-versa
- people protecting their neighborhoods and forming checkpoints to protect eachother and themselves from looters
- people forming a human chain around the Egyptology Museum to protect it from looters and one guy crying (about how sad it made him)when interviewed about what he thinks of people going into the Egyptology Museum
Here are some video compilations of events(mostly before Tuesday) and pictures from today and yesterday mostly but also a couple from before that AND pictures I took of that area and how I hope it will soon look like again. The videos are interesting . The first one is very popular now on the internet ,you should watch it ,there's this one guy in the beginning who complains about not having food and clothes for him and his children and how he'll die that day . The second video has more footage and the 3rd one is from yesterday when pro Mubarak supporters entered the Square with horses and a camel (these guys are probably from the Pyramids,that's where they have horses and camels to take the tourists around).
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
hotel in the background on the left
right by the bus terminal
from last night
Tahrir and the Egyptian Museum where, among others( hundreds of thousand of artifacts), you can find Tutankhamoun's treasures and the mummy of Ramses II
from last week
cute soldier haha
awww...cute and that guy has pretty eyes
these pictures are mostly taken from AlJazeera's flick'r account
Now on to my pictures of the area and how I hope it will soon look like again
That is the bus terminal under the bridge and there's a picture above where u can see more or less the same side of the bridge at that intersection . Straight in front is the entry to Tahrir Sq which is towards the right outside the frame
the Egyptology Museum is that reddish building and right after it is Tahrir Sq . In and around this area to the bridge and the streets around is where they are fighting. That big tall,long building in the front was actually burned,don't think it fell but they set it on fire.
I was born in Romania in 1987 , 2 years before the Revolution of December 1989 that removed our own Dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, and the communist regime. So, even though I was too little in 1989 to be active in it or even "feel" it, the knowledge of what it means to have a revolution is embedded in my genes . Now, if you're from a country that didn't go through this in the past 50 odd years chances are you have no idea but we here do, this is in fact quite similar. Knowing this also means I am far more interested in what is going on and in these people succeeding.
As some of you (if not all of u, I'm judging everyone who doesn't ) know, there's a revolt in Egypt, one that started on Jan 25th . The Egyptian people are trying to overthrow their President , Hosni Mubarak , who is a dictator, has been in charge for 30 years and his regime has been abusing the people and taking advantage. Egypt is a country that reached 80 million people and its Capital, Cairo, has over 20 million, it's the most populated city in Africa. There's a lot of poverty, there are virtually only 2 classes, rich and poor, the ones in between are closer to poverty than richness , the corruption is insane and the police bullies the people around whenever. In Egypt there's a permanent state of emergency, declared many moons ago, so they are not allowed to gather in groups and protest and generally when they do the riot police comes and beats them,arrests them,etc.
Anyway, so , on Jan 25th, encouraged by the Tunisian revolution which was successful in getting rid of Ben Ali the dictator, Egyptians took their fate in their own hands and decided it was time to ask to be given their rights . People who know about Egypt should know that this is not something that started over night, the opposition has been getting more and more volatile and losing their patience, people ,the youth especially, have begun speaking out against the regime and try to make change possible. Now it just all erupted .
Last week most days saw more or less peaceful demonstrations, the only clashes were the ones against the abusive riot police, there were some bad clashes on the 29th especially , some people got shot ,some beaten, etc. Then when the police retreated all was peaceful in the square but there were problems on the streets where looters were having a field day . On Tuesday there was a so called "Million People March" in Tahrir Sq. totally peaceful and positive. Yesterday, Wednesday, all Hell broke loss after , in the evening before, Mubarak held a speech where he didn't announce any resignation but only that he won't be running again in the next elections this autumn. So, on Wednesday , so called pro-Mubarak supporters came to Tahrir Sq and the area around and started a brutal battle against the anti-Mubarak supporters. Most say that those pro Mubarak supporters are in their majority members of the police force ,people paid by their bosses to go fight ,people who were promised different things if they went to fight. The shit hit the fan yesterday afternoon, they were throwing rocks at eachother, the pro Mubarak ones were throwing Molotov cocktails ,some had gun and clubs and other stuff,thousands were wounded, some killed but the anti Mubarak protesters in the Sq remained there and they are still there now.
I've been watching Al Jazeera(God Bless you tv channel from Heaven)online almost non stop in the past few days and right now, although there are less people than in the last days and the battles have been less brutal today , the atmosphere is basically the same. There were at least 2 correspondents of Al Jazeera who reported live from the Tahrir Sq area in the past couple of hours and said there was shooting, you could hear it in the background in fact and one of these guys got progressively terrified cause someone was shooting in the direction of the crowd he was part off a little off Tahrir Sq. It's crazy !
Anyway, I've been to Egypt 7 times in the past 9 years, I love that country, the people are very friendly and the place has a unique charm , a mix of the Arab world and Africa ,they have the most amazing treasures in the world, the Pyramids,the temples, the artifacts , remains of probably the most amazing civilization to have lived . They also have some amazing scenery , the Nile, the Red Sea ,the desert.
Fun fact : I stayed about 4 times in the Ramses Hilton hotel that is rich across the road from Tahrir Sq, right by the Bridge over the Nile and the place where I think most correspondents are staying right now. That hotel offers amazing views OMG , it has a bazillion floors and I always stayed around the 19-22nd floor and you can see impressive views of Cairo, it's breathtaking and one of my favorite things to do in Egypt is to stand on the balcony before bed and after I wake up, looking at the city.
Things that impressed me so far :
- the solidarity of the people and their peaceful demonstrations unless attacked - provoked
- muslims praying while Christians were protecting them and vice-versa
- people protecting their neighborhoods and forming checkpoints to protect eachother and themselves from looters
- people forming a human chain around the Egyptology Museum to protect it from looters and one guy crying (about how sad it made him)when interviewed about what he thinks of people going into the Egyptology Museum
Here are some video compilations of events(mostly before Tuesday) and pictures from today and yesterday mostly but also a couple from before that AND pictures I took of that area and how I hope it will soon look like again. The videos are interesting . The first one is very popular now on the internet ,you should watch it ,there's this one guy in the beginning who complains about not having food and clothes for him and his children and how he'll die that day . The second video has more footage and the 3rd one is from yesterday when pro Mubarak supporters entered the Square with horses and a camel (these guys are probably from the Pyramids,that's where they have horses and camels to take the tourists around).
Video 1
Click to viewVideo 2
Video 3
hotel in the background on the left
right by the bus terminal
from last night
Tahrir and the Egyptian Museum where, among others( hundreds of thousand of artifacts), you can find Tutankhamoun's treasures and the mummy of Ramses II
from last week
cute soldier haha
awww...cute and that guy has pretty eyes
these pictures are mostly taken from AlJazeera's flick'r account
Now on to my pictures of the area and how I hope it will soon look like again
That is the bus terminal under the bridge and there's a picture above where u can see more or less the same side of the bridge at that intersection . Straight in front is the entry to Tahrir Sq which is towards the right outside the frame
the Egyptology Museum is that reddish building and right after it is Tahrir Sq . In and around this area to the bridge and the streets around is where they are fighting. That big tall,long building in the front was actually burned,don't think it fell but they set it on fire.