We the People?

I had fully intended to devote this entry to the most recent referendum here in Egypt to amend the country's constitution. It looked to be a contentious vote and one in which many Egyptians (some who had lived all of their lives under the rule of King Mubarak, some also under King Farouk) were going to vote for the very first time. Those who favored the amendments were one of a number of groups--the entitled members of the former regime, the well-organized, but much maligned Muslim Brotherhood, and those who just want their lives to go back to the way things were pre-January 25 as quickly as possible. Those who were against the changes were the many marginalized groups or those who were responsible for the initial protests--students, intellectuals, youth, Coptic Christians, splinter groups from the people in power. The whole thing looked like it could bring about another round of riots, looting and chaos. I waited anxiously to see what Sunday's announcement of the vote would bring. What a letdown--no noise, no riots, no excitement. People waited patiently in line and cast their votes. No crisis, no drama (ok, opposition candidate El Baradei had rocks thrown at his car, but so did Prince Charles and Camilla) ...just an exercise in democracy that seems to have worked, at least for now. Yes to the amendments and now onward to elections of a new government in the fall. I was going to then launch into a treatise on the lessons to be learned from the Founding Fathers and their compromises that led to such a solid yet flexible document that has lasted since its inception. Yada, yada, yada.

But my thoughts on how disparate groups can get along if they just keep calm and think logically were discombobulated by the discourse on how the international community is reacting to the events unfolding in Libya. Just when you thought there was a clear, megalomaniacal, evil nut-job at the helm towards whom it would be simple for everyone to rally against and put a good hate on, everyone goes strangely wiggly. Countries that had indicated support for UN Resolution 1973 are beginning to balk now that the rubber has hit the road, so to speak. Egypt claims that it will not participate in enforcing the no-fly zone for fear of hitting the not insubstantial number of Egyptian citizens still stuck in Libya. Turkey won't play...yes, the bi-polar nation that on the one hand has been petitioning to become a member of the European Union, but now refuses to lift a finger against a potential Middle Eastern ally (they are really torked off because they were not invited to the Sarkozy UN Security Council after-party). Russia abstained, huffing and puffing about the potential civilian casualties...yes, we know that has always been a heart-felt concern of theirs. UAE wants to know Western intentions vis a vis Bahrain before making a move. And of course, everyone is backpedaling quickly because nobody really has the money or the will to get involved in what, given the generally accepted level of absurd intransigence of Colonel Gaddafi, will certainly be a protracted fight. Thus, leaving the US holding the bag or letting go and taking the blame for any failure. Like we would be surprised if France decided to knock off work early? Do we really expect the cavalry to swoop in from Qatar? No, undoubtedly we will be the people to help form a more perfect union..or not, again.

The Year of Living Dangerously

Who knew that when our family decided to scatter to the corners of the globe, we would be choosing locations destined to make front page news in 2011? Yes, we did anticipate that Steph's gig in Afghanistan could be frought with peril, but we certainly did not expect that I would have to evacuate Egypt for a political revolution or that one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history would shake Alex in Tokyo! Nor did I have plan to have Adrie on vacation in tsunami prone Phuket on the same day as the Japanese event moved the country eight feet off kilter and sent monster waves across the planet. No, the calm, tranquil life that we were leading a year ago in Costa Rica now seems light years and many traumatic events away. So how to deal with all of this excitement? Well, I suppose I could duck down under a desk and wait for the all clear siren to blow. Or, I could could look at all the places and people who have it worse off (I did not take a job in Libya; Steph did not take a job in Haiti). Or I could embrace the chaos and hang on for the ride. I guess I choose the latter.

So where is the ride taking us now? Well, here in Egypt things are beginning to go back to some semblance of normal, but there is an undercurrent of uncertainty, not only in what is going to happen on a long term basis to the goverment of Egypt, but what the average day to day activities will bring. Right now, there are few, if any police working in Alexandria, and there have been many reported muggings, home invasions, gang related assaults and murders. Before getting too worked up, however, you need to know that, for what it's worth, the Egyptian people seem to love a good story...the more fantastic, the better. I have heard enough rumors and conspiracy theories to keep Oliver Stone busy for a lifetime, so it is difficult to sort out what the risk factor really is. Whether real or hype, however, it has created a somewhat chilling effect on activities outside of our school walls and people seem to be somewhat less willing to venture out too far or for too long. I am sure this is temporary, at least until there is a greater sense of order and there is a decision on who will be responsible for maintaining civic order. Right now, it seems to be available on an ad hoc basis only.

As for our Japanese based son, he seems to be none the worse for wear...shaken, not stirred and somewhat miffed at all of the coverage from the US based media making what he views to be a big hype out of things and making everyone worry. His part of Tokyo did not get the same treatment as the folks who suffered from not only the quake but the ensuing tsunami, so luckily he only was tossed around a bit and has not had any significant loss of services. But the visuals from the media are powerful and one can only hope that there is some relief in store soon for those whose lives were upended by this natural disaster. And, we keep our fingers crossed that the nuclear plants do not exude any significant radiation damage. That country has had its quota of atomic fallout, thank you very much.

The news I get from Afghanistan remains cryptic on a good day, and too much information on a bad day. As Steph is never on a secure line when I talk to him, I don't get the full story of what is going on around him, but since he has been increasingly confined to the base on which he lives, I can only assume that things are bad. As he said to me today, "Hey, I haven't been shot at since the last time we spoke" and that was somehow supposed to comfort me? The good news is that he is enroute to the US for a much needed home leave and then will join me in Bangkok, Thailand for some R&R. Maybe then I will get the real story, but unclear whether I will have the necessary clearances to post details here. Guess I will just have to learn to be cryptic, too.

Last, but never least, is our Scotland based daughter, who should have been the only one that was in a full safety zone in the UK (what risks are there?...indulging in too much really, really great scotch? Running into a herd of sheep?) No, it couldn't be that easy--she just so happened to have been vacationing in Phuket, Thailand with a friend..yes, THAT Phuket....the one that was engulfed by the tsunami in 2004. Thankfully, a less geographically challenged friend assured me that any tsunami from Japan would be a Pacific Ocean problem, not an Indian Ocean issue and therefore I had little to worry about. Easy for her to say...she doesn't have children yet! I was, of course, relieved when Adrie called on Skype from her apartment in Edinburgh with nothing more serious than a case of jet lag to report.

So let's hope that's all the excitement of this nature I have to write about for this year...or any other year, for that matter. But, it is only March, and at least in Egypt, there is a vote for constitutional changes at the end of this week and an historic election slated for September. So perhaps the year of living dangerously is only just starting. Bring it...and I'll hang on for dear life!

Eighteen Days: A Revolution, Surrealism and Jetlag

Sitting back here in Alexandria trying to fend off the jetlag that seems to have engulfed me and taken over my entire being, I am trying to sort out the past three weeks to see if I can capture what has been going on both in Egypt and in Washington, DC. A daunting task, I’m afraid, but I am willing to give it a whirl.

After my last posting, I spent another week in our nation’s capital where I was wined and dined by friends from as far back as my high school days. I would have gained several pounds had I not been walking everywhere and taking the Metro across the city. As each of my friends asked me about how things had been in Egypt and how I felt being back in the States, the only word that I could come up with consistently was “surreal”. Perhaps it was the jetlag again, or maybe it was just the juxtaposition of leaving a world in chaos and arriving in a world of order. I think it struck me most one evening when I was walking home from the Metro up a DC street and I realized that it was quiet…almost deathly quiet. No honking horns, no prayers from a minaret, no people yelling, no dogs barking or cats yowling, no babies crying, no vendors seeking used goods, no trams rattling or train whistles blowing or any of the constant background noise that is Egypt. In fact, there was virtually no noise at all except the heels of my boots on the concrete sidewalk. And why would there be? It was 10 pm on a weeknight, and everyone was safe and snug in the house settling down for the night. I now know how Dorothy felt-- I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

Adding to the surreal nature of the experience was the sense that I had been here before, but in a very different context. I used to live in DC and I pride myself in knowing all the Metro stops (except those in Maryland, which don’t count), how to stand to the right on the escalators, how to use a Metro card, that the Mall is not where you shop and that you really need to add NW or NE to an address if you want to get to the right place. And it’s not the expat repatriation thing. I have visited DC several times from my homes abroad and experienced what it feels like to have this town not seem quite like home anymore. But never have I felt so out of place and so profoundly dazed by being in the US. Perhaps it was because this was an unplanned trip, somewhat hurriedly put together? Was it because of the underlying uncertainly of what was going to happen to Egypt? Was it simply that the differences between my life in Egypt and my life in DC are so much further apart on any number of levels that I couldn’t reconcile them in such a sort amount of time. Or, is it just that I was so jetlagged that I never found my chi? Probably a combination of all of the above.

So, while Hosni Mubarak was playing a game of political “chicken” with the people of Egypt, I stayed dazed and confused in DC reading three newspapers each day (Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal) and checking the live feeds from Al Jazeera, BBC and CNN, trying to make sense out of this revolution. I’m not sure I have been successful on that front, and as everyone knows, the initial thrill of removing an unresponsive, abusive leader is only the first step. In talking with my students here in Alexandria, the sense of euphoria is still with them and they are rightfully proud of this youth-generated, social network supported revolution. However, they are not so good at coming up with what the next steps will or should be and have difficulty imagining how things will be different. While many of the newspapers articulated the events of the past few weeks as the “birth of democracy” I am reminded that birth is a very difficult, painful and messy process and most of us would do well to stay in the waiting room smoking a cigar until it arrives…and hope that there are no major complications.

Standing on the Shifting Sand

What a difference a day makes. On Friday, January 28, I was sitting in the Hague, drinking a double espresso and thinking just how clean, organized and orderly Europe was. By Saturday, I was sitting in the middle of a firestorm as the streets of Alexandria and Cairo erupted in riots over the recalcitrant Hosnai Mubarak and his government’s failure to resolve the problems of Egypt. On Tuesday, I was evacuated from Alexandria to Washington, DC, via Prague and Reykjavik and by Thursday I had walked from the US Capital to the Lincoln Memorial, bought a local cell phone, an ITouch, and had a glass of really lovely California Chardonnay. The surreal nature of the past week is only now catching up to me, so this posting may or may not be the definitive version of events. But it is the best I can do right now.

Who knew that the people of Egypt would finally boil over? But talk about a slow burn! For those of you who remember, Mubarak came into power in 1981 (the year I graduated from college!) when Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Keep in mind, Mubarak was not elected by the people of Egypt; he was appointed as Vice President of Egypt by Sadat in 1975. He was “elected” president on three occasions where he ran unopposed and one in which he had his closest rival jailed after the fact. So he has effectively managed to hang on to absolute power in a “democratic” country for nearly 30 years without ever being freely and fairly elected. During that time, he has strengthened the police power, legalized censorship, suspended constitutional rights, been accused of all manner of corruption, and, not surprisingly, survived six assassination attempts. In addition, the economic status of many Egyptians has deteriorated at a time when food prices are soaring and unemployment for Egyptian youth is staggeringly high. It's no wonder that, to paraphrase a 1980’s movie mantra“they’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore!”

So the protesters took to the streets while looters, who always seem to crawl out of the dark corners of society, created havoc in Cairo, Alexandria and the Sinai Penninsula. It was the looters and the potential for armed conflict that had me the most disconcerted in Alexandria. Since no one trusted the police (too corrupt, too brutal), groups of men would go out on the streets with bats, clubs and kitchen knives as a sort of vigilante neighborhood watch to make sure no one looted their businesses or broke into their homes. On my school campus, we had members of our staff running around looking for bottles , baseball bats and golf clubs to use as weapons. There was a major altercation out in front of our campus gate, during which warning gunshots were fired to stave off potential looters. We were safe for the most part because our neighbors were protecting the school. Still, when the offer came for us to take a charter plane to the US, most of us decided that it would be better to be in the US saying how we really didn’t need to leave than to be sitting in Alexandria saying how we really should have gone.

End in all, I have a great deal o faith in the people of Egypt. They are good, kind and intelligent people who will settle down and make some necessary changes in the government. However, the sooner Mubarak gives up the ghost and lets loose the reins of power, the more likely that scenario becomes. Even now, it seems that the safety concerns are decreasing and I fully expect to be back in Alexandria teaching in a week or so. But not before I have a few more really great cups of coffee, some pork products and a few more glasses of California wine. Inshallah.