I write this mid-afternoon on the 'Friday of the Last Chance', after a week we are all scarcely able to comprehend has unfolded before our eyes. Since last week's demonstrations against the apparently unchecked and growing political power of the military government, SCAF, an impossible set of events has erupted across Egypt, each day bringing fresh waves of conflict and uncertainty to a country already wearied by revolution. But as has now been proven, the conviction, strength and determination of hundreds of thousands of citizens knows no bounds in what is viewed by many as a necessary component of the country's political upheaval - as one tweeter with a dry sense of humour put it, following perhaps the pulling up of metaphorical floorboards or the mopping of something the cat left on the carpet, 'now you vacuum'.
The week began with a night of mild unease last friday - it had been assumed (perhaps naively) that all the demonstrators would have left Tahrir square by nightfall but evidently some remained, and by the next morning, partially due to the arrival of a peaceful demonstration in memory of those who had died in February, fighting between the police and civilians had broken out. The next few days were rife with confusion and crowds gathered in Cairo and Alexandria daily to express their growing outrage; vast numbers of people had shown up purely to ensure those who needed to get out of the area for medical attention were able to do so, as to all intents and purposes Tahrir and a few districts in Alexandria have now turned into warzones. Unfortunately for around fourty people help did not reach them in time and in one particularly chilling interview on Saturday night, a girl described the bodies in the Cairo morgue killed unquestionably by real bullets.
SCAF has since apologised for the deaths but the question remains as to why officers were equipped with live ammunition in the first place - as if the devastating effects of the (mostly US-made) tear gas, beatings, injuries and frequent blindness caused by rubber bullets were not enough. According to Jack Shenker, writing for the Guardian, by monday many protesters had taken to writing their families' contact details on their arms in case they did not make it out alive... and the makeshift morque in Tahrir square had run out of coffins. There are also chilling reports of tear gas being deliberately fired into field hospitals, forcing volunteer doctors and the wounded to flee.
An Egyptian friend of ours, near his home on Saturday night, was caught up in the clashes in Alexandria and found himself hemmed in on all sides (and shot in the forehead, which left an attractive dent) - phoning at 2am he described the scene as "Horrible. Just horrible. There are doctors everywhere... they have bullets, and we have stones." One post circulating Twitter at this point pleaded with worldwide news agencies to remember that "Situation in #Alex is massacre. World attention needed!"; most of our information and footage of the city we were living in came from Al Hayat, an Egyptian channel, until about monday. A taxi ride passing Smouha on Sunday night reveals an almost unrecogniseable stretch of town, the air thick with the lingering tear gas that scorches the nose and the eerie orange streets empty save for groups of men running from the conflict, eyes streaming, faces grim. A number of streets where battle still rages are blocked off by rows of tense, black-suited riot police, and huge black vans carrying hundreds more speed past. It is all just a little too real.
Problems continued to escalate despite the voluntary resignation of Egypt's interim government. This failed to appease the demands of protesters by a long shot, as, according to a Twitter user and doubtless a large section of the population 'The entire Egypt cabinet have no power ... they have been and remain pawns in the SCAF chessboard'.
For the same reason the election due to take place on monday has now been thrown into severe doubt. SCAF have announced elections will indeed go ahead, in order to create some form of stability in the country and stand firm in the name of democracy; indeed a demonstration of around 15000 took place in Cairo today expressing support for the military government and its decision. But for the vast majority of those on the streets the idea of holding elections in such conditions is absurd and if things go according to plan monday will be nothing short of shambolic. In the last few days there has been a notable absence of representatives from a number of key political parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/25/egypt-muslim-brotherhood-alienate-people
Another fascinating minor event from today's demonstrations was the appearance of two uniformed army officers in Tahrir, who joined the chants against field marshall Tantawi. There was also a brief visit from key presidential candidate and Nobel peace laureate Mohamed El Baradei, who was mobbed by supporters on entering and stayed for friday prayers, in what most protesters have assumed was a display of support.
The most recent development has come in the form of the newly-appointed prime minister, Kamal Al-Ganzouri, an economist who previously served as prime minister under Mubarak but has since distanced himself from the old regime in the media; the decision was met with contempt in Tahrir, where chants of "We don't want him" arose, and on the internet, where a spoof Twitter feed in his name has been set up that is to Arabic speakers apparently a 'comedy gold mine': https://twitter.com/#!/KamalElGanzouri
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/11/2011112510285039729.html
Here in Alexandria we have spent most of the week either indoors or in lessons, glued to the television as far as possible and feeling quite useless. Protests continue on a nightly basis in Sidi Gaber and Smouha but the whole city feels subdued; shops close early and even the fearsome traffic on the corniche has lessened. We are under strict warnings to remain inside on monday.
To produce a detailed account of everything that has taken place in the last week would take months on end - suffice to say the atmosphere remains tense at home, and explosive outside, and looks to remain so for quite some time or until the demands of the (still overwhelming) majority of the people are met. Will post things that I feel deserve attention here and there as far as time allows.
On that note, I'm sure we can expect British politicians to break their silence any day now...
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