Mafish Thawra: There is no revolution

Today was supposed to be a big deal. Activists were calling for a general strike throughout the whole country. Everyone was supposed to stay home, wear black, and then there were plans to march on Midan Tahrir, which is the Plaza de Mayo, the Times Square, the Washington Mall of Cairo. What were they protesting?
Primarily inflation. Reuters wrote, “Egypt's urban consumer inflation jumped to an 11-month high of 12.1 percent in the year to February.” which I have even started to notice. When my cheap food-sources, while still cheap, go up a pound or two, I notice. But it doesn’t hurt me seriously. But when you’re trying to feed a family, it matters. And in Egypt, there is no minimum wage, wages of government workers and others haven’t kept up with inflation. There used to be price caps but that hasn’t even been in place. IN addition to the economic issues, activists added a laundry list of grievances: lack of freedom, security, etc. etc. etc. The day was chosen because to make a statement before municipal elections in 2 days, but if it’s any indication, I didn’t have a clue about the elections until a couple hours ago.

The strike was publicized primarily through the modern technology of Facebook. Yes, Facebook. Around 100,000 people RSVP’s to the event. “Dr. Ayman Nour, former Al-Ghad Party President, announced on 'Facebook' his and his inmates' participation from Torah Prison”
Words also spread with blogs, text messages, word of mouth and flyers, but activists got into a little trouble for handing those out. But the internet, unlike in Burma, will not be turned off here.

For the sake of security, solidarity and in response to the rumor mill, some AUC teachers cancelled classes. Mine did not, in keeping with “official University policy” and told us to leave extra early (in her defense, we spent the first 45 minutes of class talking about what was going on and what it means for Egypt, and I don’t blame her for holding class). Since AUC is literally on Midan Tahrir, I decided to go to campus a whole 4 hours early, camp out on the roof of the Main Building and watch the drama unfold. We were told to go nowhere near the square. Demonstrations and strikes aren’t allowed in Egypt based on the emergency laws passed in Egypt after Sadat’s assassination in 1981, and foreigners most certainly are not allowed to participate in any demonstrations that might occur.

Everything happened and nothing happened. I waited for 3 hours with other would-be-witnesses, and all we saw were a couple hundred policemen in riot gear blocking off entrances to the Metro and standing in groups on the Square with their blackjacks. I ran into Fatima, my ‘ammiya professor and she explained to me, in Arabic, within my limited ‘Ammiya vocabulary that there were plainclothes policemen everywhere as well. .
It's what they call "a significant police presence." There were small groups of protesters, but nothing noticeable. And then AUC Security kicked us off of the main building where we were standing after a couple of hours. We asked “lay,” why?
“Likidda,” Because.

There were a handful of major events going on all over the country. I’ll post the links to some stories at the end of the article that I really encourage you to read. There was a factory strike in the Nile Delta that was shut down (somewhat brutally according to a couple articles), and a couple of events outside Cairo and at universities here were subject to a crackdown.

But in Cairo, it was business as usual. Traffic was a little lighter, indicating that some people, some workers stayed home today. But for the most part was riot police looking bored. The Government had proactively arrested a spectrum of people, and more were arrested today in different parts of Cairo. But in Midan Tahrir, I witnessed only the non-history of Egypt. In fact, there was a dust storm sweeping the city, so we couldn’t really see much at all, part of the "50 days of dust" from the Sahara that hits the city on a yearly basis. The BBC deemed the strike a “failed one.” All day, the weather combined with the apprehension created a strange and eerie atmosphere.

It’s really a lot more complicated. This is only my side of things, my understanding, what I’m gathering from the internet from English sources. But even I haven’t been in Egypt long enough to really understand how the machinery works. I’m just trying to understand and convey as much of to you as I can. I would bet that a general strike in the US would be even more of a failure; it’s just not a part of our political culture. But in Egypt, it’s about the only recourse. And all the news isn’t available; from what I’m reading on the internet much of the news about arrests is based on hearsay and rumor. It’s about as smoggy as Cairo afternoon, and I can’t really illuminate it any more than that; I won’t try to piece the puzzle together when I’m still missing half of them. When I read about what happened on the news, it feels very abstract because it's a different perspective; I read the news like an outsider, but also have the parallel realization that I was there.
Today was supposed to be a big deal.

Check out these sites, or just Google April 6 Egypt Strike for more information.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL06488125
http://www.arabisto.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?blogID=7&blogEntryID=1015
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a47Lg9rBLPFA&refer=home

This one is especially interesting, talking about the violence in Mahalla in Northern Egypt >>
http://arabist.net/arabawy/2008/04/06/police-abort-mahalla-strike/

UPDATE: Fatima explained in class today, in ‘Ammiya that several AUC students were arrested in Tahrir, one of which was an American taking pictures. Of course, the American, after contacting the US Embassy, was released within the day, but the rest, unless they have “Walid Kabir,” as Fatima put it, a big or important father, who knows what will happen. She said Cairo University students have been put in prison for 15 years before.

We talk about “Blue Magic,” or the special privileges of our pretty blue American passports, and this is a clear example. And I’m just not sure how I feel about it. I don’t want another American in an Egyptian prison, but I wish the treatment of Egyptians weren’t so dramatically different.