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Mubarak Mobs and Street Vendors: Welcome to Egypt
I was in the middle of buying some mints from a street vendor on Cairo’s Talat Harb Street—right off Tahrir Square—when the rocks started flying. I had given a 20-cent coin to the vendor. He gave me one pack of mints, and all hell broke loose.
“Run, run,” people yelled at me. I saw a group of men running down the street, carrying a man whose face was streaming with blood. Then I saw the pro-Mubarak thugs, armed with rocks, metal pipes, whips. “Run, Run,” the Egyptians on the street told me. I ran for shelter as fast as I could.
This has become a pattern the past few days. Thugs hired by the regime, many of them plain-clothes police, try to create chaos on the streets just outside the entrances to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the Egyptian Revolution. They randomly attack people, including us foreigners. Many of us have been beaten, our cameras smashed. My CODEPINK colleague Tighe Barry had been picked up on this very street two days ago, thrown into a car, roughed up, and later dumped out with a warning to stay way.
Tighe refused to stay away, and so did a million Egyptians who, despite the threats of violence, teemed into Tahrir Square today in what was termed the “Day of Departure.” Young, old, rich, poor, religious, secular—they defied the desperate acts of a dying regime.
Ever since this uprising began on January 25, the determination and bravery of the Egyptians has been overwhelming to witness. The democracy forces in Tahrir Square have braved tear gas, water cannons, rocks, sniper fire and mobs storming in on horses and camels. All the while, they have stood their ground and continued to hold on to this sacred square.
Today they were determined to liberate the outside streets as well. While I was running away from the Mubarak mob on Talat Harb Street, a huge crowd came rushing out of the square, running towards the thugs. Just the sight of this oncoming sea of people was enough to frighten the thugs. The Mubarak mob disappeared as quickly as it had formed. Talat Harb Street, the site of street battles the last few days, was once again liberated. People cheered “Horreyah, horreyah”—freedom, freedom.
Out of breath from running so fast, I turned around and saw the street vendor who had sold me the mints. He had run after me. It turns out that the 20-cent coin I had given him was enough to buy two packs of mints, not one. He had come me to give me the second pack.
“Welcome to Egypt,” he said, smiling.
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19 Comments so far
Show AllCome Medea, how about leaving the guy a tip? He's probably supporting an entire family with his street vending. Thousands of dollars is being spent to land you in Cairo, leave the guy a dollar, or the equivalent in the local currency.
Anyway, I'm sure the street vendors are still doing well. They have more people than ever on the streets to sell to. I'm sure it would be really interesting sit out the carnage on the streets by hanging out in one of the coffee shops with a smoke and some coffee. Would be a hell of a lot more interesting than your typical Starbucks in the U.S.
Who knows? Maybe Medea Benjamin could become radicalized. Then we will know for sure that anything could happen as a result of the revolution in Egypt.
;-)!
Carnage would be interesting to you Oswald? You must be American.
I for one would love to be observing the incredible organization and caring among the pro democracy demonstrators that is being reported. I would love to see the mini clinic created by doctors to care for the injured. I would love to bring them bread and supplies. Extraordinary human drama happening right now. History making and humanity rising. To see it would be more than just interesting. I am grateful to those willing to risk being there to bring it to us through their eyes.
" History making and humanity rising."
Bang on, bhaktipol.
What I was getting at was wanting to observe the differences between the way Arabs and Americans interact in social settings. A lot of philistines claiming to support liberal democracy and modernity in the West like to bash the Arab and greater Muslim world as bastions of backwardness and Medieval-ism. Tariq Ali has often said that the news channels ought to film Arabs interacting with each other in the coffee houses in, say, Damascus, Amman, Cairo, etc.,., and compare the discourse you would hear in those locations in comparison to what you would hear in the typical McDonald's or Starbucks in the U.S. That comment often gets a lot of laughs, for obvious reasons.
Why is it that this kind of revolutionary upheaval seems a virtual impossibility in the U.S.? We have plenty of desperate people in this country, and given the direction of economic policy I expect there to be even more desperate people in the years to come. They're angry, but the Tea Party is a good example of the counterproductive and destructive direction that this anger can be directed.
Really all Mubarak forces would have to do is go into the crowds of demonstrators with 42" flat screen tvs, a happy meal, and maybe a new chevy. It works in America.
Thank you, Medea, for being there, offering support and solidarity to the brave Egyptian protesters. I was moved by your previous post, describing the demonstrators' warm and tearful reactions to your presence. It is so important for the Egyptian people to know that there are many of us in the US who are not indifferent to their fate, despite our country's criminal behavior.
It is exciting to be in the midst of explosions, chants, fire and young people who are tired of increasing costs of basic necessities items and lack of job opportunities for ever growing population. Just like in Gaza, the population of Egypt is very young, due to the extremely high birth rate, which is supported by the Islamic Jihadists, who like to sacrifize their childern to martyrdom, which is considered the highest goal in life: DEATH in order to murder Jews, American and "infidels", which will ensure those young suicide/homicide bombetrs a space in Paradise with 77 virgins.
This Egyptian revolution reminds me of 1979 Iranian revolution against the Shah, which was then hijacked by Ayatollahs and led to this wanderfully democratic Iran, with Ahmedinijad at head, who last month murdered 100 of his oponents who tried to topple him in 2009.
Maedea Benjamin is a nice woman who should study history, in order to understand Middle East and the link of the Muslim Brotherhood (and its offshool Hamas) with the Nazi-like ideology (of Jew hatred) and their participation in the WWII by Mufti of Palestinians who spent his WWII years in Berlin, egging Hitler on to exterminate all Jews, just as Hamas charter still advocates and Ahmedinijad spouts in UN: Death to the Jews and Anihilate Israel from the map of the world! NIce democracy where mobs can easily be turned from chanting FREEDOM to chanting Death to Jews ande Death to America! Those kinds of mobs do not understand neither freedom or democracy, since they have been brought up in hatred and envy of the "other". Koiran is filled with diatribes against the Jews, Christians and "infidels" and disses Jews for liking life rather then "eternal death".
Poor dogooders! What will they do when they find themselves forced to wearing burkhas and hijabs, as they do in Saudi Arabia, or be evicted from the Gaza for teaching girls gymnastics! Of if they find themselves in Pakistan charged with blaspphemy?! Death penalty is the Sharia justice for blasphemy, which is often invoked by the neighbors to grab their property!
This tolerance for intolerance and hatred-inciting Islamic Jihadists will make the world go back into 7th century Sharia ruled world, since their dmographics and spread in the West is incessant. Read history!
Islamophobes, Hasbarists, and reactionary fellow-travelers are spooked, all right.
And they have reason to be.
So much sexism every time Medea Benjamin posts. Somethings never change. All the boys know better than her.
Really? Where?
Media Benjamin, who has, at every nut-cutting moment, betrayed her supporters and thrown her support behind war-mongers, women haters, etc. has no authority to express an opinion on anything. Known for her flip-flops, Benjamin will flip or flop whichever way the money flows. Trust not Media Benjamin. She betrayed the left and supported both Kerry and Gore for the office of President where there were viable options available. She, like Dennis Kucinich, is just another paid Pied Piper, leading the left toward the Democratic Corporate Party, one of the two parts of the Corporation Party of the United States. The other part is the Republican Party. Notice how hard it is to tell which party Obama actually belongs to? In 1990, he'd be a Republican, without any doubt at all. Nowadays, there is no reason at all to even wonder since both are utterly corporate controlled. And so is Media Benjamin.
And what kind of organizing are you engaged in right now? Are you at the barricades of Tahrir Square right now?
A full, updated CV of you organizing skills... or shut up.
self deleted comment.
We have our own defacto Dictatorship Of The Two Parties. And it is a dictatorship in custom and law. I don't know what else you can call it. What is so frustrating about it is that is a much better dictatorship than the one in Egypt. Although nothing in the Constitution mandates that we have a political system the way it is now, it is now so entrenched in the customs and laws of our politics that it would take upheavals a la Tunisia and Egypt to change it. We all saw how easily the Nader/Green Party challenge was swept aside by the Dictatorship Of The Two Parties.
This uprising is happening in Egypt. Now where the hell is Benjamin when it counts in the war against the Dictatorship Of The Two Parties? She is a Democratic Party hack who helped destroy the Green Party post-2000 along with that other Democratic Party hack David Cobb. She would be on the wrong side of the barricades if this were happening in the U.S., urging the demonstrators to obediently "work within the Democratic Party, blah, blah, blah".
We have our own defacto Dictatorship Of The Two Parties. And it is a dictatorship in custom and law. I don't know what else you can call it. What is so frustrating about it is that is a much better dictatorship than the one in Egypt. Although nothing in the Constitution mandates that we have a political system the way it is now, it is now so entrenched in the customs and laws of our politics that it would take upheavals a la Tunisia and Egypt to change it. We all saw how easily the Nader/Green Party challenge was swept aside by the Dictatorship Of The Two Parties.
This uprising is happening in Egypt. Now where the hell is Benjamin when it counts in the war against the Dictatorship Of The Two Parties? She is a Democratic Party hack who helped destroy the Green Party post-2000 along with that other Democratic Party hack David Cobb. She would be on the wrong side of the barricades if this were happening in the U.S., urging the demonstrators to obediently "work within the Democratic Party, blah, blah, blah".
I keep picturing an event like this happening in the US where every redneck owns a gun or two and plenty of ammunition. As it is, Amerikans are killing themselves at the rate of 30,000 more or less per year just for sheer pleasure. Imagine the result if they were exposed to a catalyst such as the recent events in Egypt. The resulting carnage could not possibly be less than a million.
And I am not even suggesting the possibility of a revolution in Amerika, heavens no! For comparison purposes, I'm just attempting to come up with a complete hypothetical scenario arising out of unknown reasons (but perhaps due to the cancellation of FAUX News or American Idol).
I keep picturing an event like this happening in the US where every redneck owns a gun or two and plenty of ammunition. As it is, Amerikans are killing themselves at the rate of 30,000 more or less per year just for sheer pleasure. Imagine the result if they were exposed to a catalyst such as the recent events in Egypt. The resulting carnage could not possibly be less than a million.
And I am not even suggesting the possibility of a revolution in Amerika, heavens no! For comparison purposes, I'm just attempting to come up with a complete hypothetical scenario arising out of unknown reasons (but perhaps due to the cancellation of FAUX News or American Idol).