The muezzin’s early call to prayer blots the paper of dawn with its audible ink. I’d arrived in Cairo on a red-eye flight. Sleep had just come to me, when she was called away again by the nearby mosques – and there are many in this City of a Thousand Minarets.
Al Qahirah – dusty, dirty, deranged driver-filled. It’s got that rough charm that you either hate or love. Parchingly hot, a day before the start of Ramadan, I admire how faith can make a whole population go without food or water.
Mohamed, my friend and colleague, picks me up around lunch and talks about the revolution and its impact on the ordinary Egyptian. It’s been tough for a country caught up in the wave of change sweeping the North African States. After Algeria and Tunisia, Egyptians thought they would get rid of a despotic family, chronic cronyism and corruption, and restore the country to its rightful place as the richest and most well-developed African country of the 1970s.
With the Mubarak family finally ousted, a vacuum of strong leadership appeared and thus the power struggles began. Finally, the Muslim Brotherhood won the elections, but discontent soon followed. Naturally, the remnants of the Mubarak regime wanted to wrest control back, and many felt the Muslim Brotherhood were not strong enough as leaders. Their philosophy, according to Mohamed, was to unite all the Arab nations and stop the infighting which has been so rife in the Middle East. Conspiracy theories about how the west preferred to keep the infighting going led to much of the Muslim brotherhood leaders being arrested, imprisoned or killed. Even former president Morsi is now awaiting trial in jail.
We visit Mohamed’s offices in a well-to-do district. It used to be thriving once, he said. Now, it is just a shell of its former glory. A beautiful mosque nearby is mostly deserted since it was used by the Muslim Brotherhood supporters to campaign against wrongful arrests, etc. The army came in and opened fire on civilians, killing and winding many. Monuments were covered up in cloth and concrete. At one point, Mohamed had to carry a rifle to protect himself and staff from looters.
He points to the building entrance, pockmarked with bullet holes. Egypt, especially Cairo, is still suffering, trying to get on with life. Everywhere, street vendors selling delicious cactus fruit on carts try to make a living, alongside the myriad folk who risk their lives in daily traffic trying to hawk a newspaper or a hairband or a squigeed windscreen.
Tourists like me are prime target for anyone and everyone as an opportunity to earn ‘baksheesh’ (tea money, if you want to use their justification). They will grab your bags, open the door, push the button, all for 20 Egyptian pounds.
It’s not pleasant nor fun nor cheap. It’s a way of life for the survivors. Don’t expect handouts. Grab what you can. So, if you want to survive in Egypt, you will have to be hard-nosed. Less concerned about face and protocol. You have to dash across the roads as the cars won’t stop for you. You have to walk like an Egyptian.
