Everything Kaputt

Soon after I moved in, I noticed that many things in the apartment are broken. Near the bathroom, the wood pieces of the parquet floor fall apart. Water enters the floor and the walls in several places. Few days after my arrival, the light in the bathroom broke, only to be followed by the light in the kitchen. The latter took weeks to be replaced - as you could open the fridge's door to have light in the kitchen; while the former was replaced more quickly just to break again soon thereafter. The toilet seat is shaky and the shower curtain is really a curtain and totally powerless to prevent water from penetrating it. When I do my laundry, the water used by the machine enters the hallway after it is done. The antenna of the internet router broke off recently. And one morning, I was preparing my breakfast on the table in the kitchen, when one leg broke away letting the whole table fall over with all the ingredients, spices and oils on top of it. What a mess! 

Too much is broken so that I don't think, my landlord will ever learn. His standards must truly be different. However, wonders happen! He fired the cleaner to replace him with a lady. She was overwhelmed by all the dirt in the apartment and immediately requested more money for the job... 

Nevertheless, broken things remain broken...

What Happend to you, ya Egypt?

Everyday, I take the bus to school. Sometimes, these are from the brand ISUZU. But mostly, they have names like Nasr Auto, Hashim, or others. Nasr Auto is the state owned company that was founded in 1960. But recently, it has been struggling competing with imports of cheap foreign brands, as it itself has not invented any distinct car model (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasr_(car_company)).

Why do I study Egyptian Arabic? Because it is the most widely spread Arab dialect. That is mainly due to the dominant position of Egyptian pop culture and media. This position is increasingly threatened by the gulf states and their money feeding into their own media outlets. Nevertheless, musicians of other Arab countries sing in Egyptian dialect to increase their audience. Egyptian movies are somewhat legendary until today. However, their "golden age" was in the fourties and fifties. My Arabic teacher talked about them with great fondness. Shem mentioned the great attention to detail and aestethics. Her remarks reminded me of the French and Italian cinema tradition that declined as the Egyptian did, just to make room to the sloppier, more entertaining style of U.S.-American cinema.

My teacher talks of the time of the Egyptian monarchy in general with great admiration. People used to take care of their surroundings, would clean the streets and the king would not be corrupt but take care of his people. In those days, between the twenties and fourties, Cairo was often compared to Paris and still today I meet Egyptians of different ages who look back on this era with great melancholy.

What happened that these things changed? Surely, international pressures increased. But something internal to Eypt has changed, too. The attitutde of the people, the degree of education and development. Why are so many things broken? Why is there so much neglect and disregard? Poverty is surely rampant, but does this explain it all? I wonder if there is a comprehensive book on the history of 20th century's Egypt...

Job Search

After a slow start, I have been quite successful in looking up development organizations and networking with people who are active in the field of youth participation and civil society empowerment. Particularly those young Egyptian activists I met gave me the energy to continue despite the difficulties of finding a job opening and enduring Cairo’s street life.

Today, I had the first serious job interview of my life, which was quite challenging and I am not sure about my performance, followed by another informal interview. Being in the area already, I also looked up a German foundation and the regional director would immediately take the time to talk with me because of my Columbia business card… It took a few attempts to find their office in one of the many office towers in this neighborhood:

I also connected to local NGOs as well as international NGOs and foreign foundations or development organizations. So, I can draw a limited picture of the current peacebuilding landscape:

After Hosni Mubarak was ousted, large quantities of money were released. Mainly the Americans invested in the country, but without a clear strategy. Thus, some few consultants were paid high salaries, who were not necessarily the best qualified. Quickly, the money and lots of reputation were gone. Then, fall 2011, there was a crackdown on foreign organizations. USAid staff was put on trial, the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation closed and its country director expelled from Egypt. This put the foreign investments on hold.

With an advertisement campaign claiming foreign conspirators as the organizers of the protests, xenophobia increased and foreign engagement became even more suspicious. The attacks on U.S. and German embassies after the disgraceful Californian Mohamed movie contributed their share to tightened security and less engagement.

So now, some foreign organizations closed down their country offices in Egypt. Many froze their investments and particularly programs dealing with civil society support, democracy and related topics have been affected. Even the U.N. agencies keep a low profile and, as USAid, do not publish their real address online and put a sign on their door. At the same time, Egyptian activists identify safe spaces for dialogue, conversation and exchange, listening and hearing of all the different political groups as one of the main needs at the moment. There is a vibrant civil society that has been organizing events and proposing projects in this area to be funded – and that with quite some success. Much more activism is going on now than during Mubarak’s time. However, how much more could happen with the resources only foreign donors could supply? An example is the GIZ’s project tackling informal neighborhoods in Cairo. Generously funded by the Gates’ Africa Funds, they seem to have more than enough money. But their focus is on classical development issues, not hot button topics like disempowerment, self-organization, peace education, etc.

In other words, precisely when our support is needed, we refuse it. With good reason: to protect our staff members and not to discredit projects with ‘suspicious’ foreign funding. Nevertheless, we did not refuse to pour money into the country during Mubaraks regime, knowing about Human Right violations and possibly that much of the money would disappear in corruption.

Personally, this situation means that I have to choose. To cover my expenses for health insurance in Germany, I cannot accept any job offer in Cairo. Those openings at local NGOs that pay local wages are unlikely to pay the minimum I need. They are usually engaged in conflict resolution and the topics I find most interesting, while foreign NGOs work in development, but can afford me…

Anyway, I keep looking and have sent emails to all of the big names present in Cairo. From now on, it’s about keeping my fingers crossed and wait what is going to come up. If I won’t be successful, I’d be sad, but can say that I tried my best.

Café Beladi, 3 Midan Tahrir

As my landlord does not care about most things that are broken in our apartment (probably a universal truth J ), I spend a lot of time in places where there is free WiFi. My favorite is Café Beladi, situated in 3 Tahrir Square. Its current owners brag about the fact that Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz has wrote many of his works in this place under previous ownership. Since the 2011 revolution, this event is another source of identity of the place, which is a rather Western style café and not an old coffee house (unfortunately). Its WiFi is relatively reliable, the prices are not too high (which is usually the case in Western style cafés) and the waiters are friendly and know me by now. Another great advantage of the place is its large window on the first (Americans: second) floor. From here, one has an overview over a large chunk of Tahrir Square. On normal days, one can visit the crazy traffic and some people arguing or screaming their opinions in the middle of the roundabout.

Today, however, more is going on. As usually, I come to do some internet job search and emailing, while outside protesters are gathering.  But I forgot that today is Friday and it has become sort of a ritual to protest after services have finished. On last week’s Friday, there were violent clashes between opposition and Muslim Brotherhood; while it looks like peaceful protests today.

They started on a relative medium scale, but half way through my emailing and some cups of tea later, the whole square is covered with people. No more chance to study Egyptian driving. Every now and then, one of the customers stands up and looks out of the window, intriguing all the others to look as well whether anything has happened. People carry banners and posters I do not understand. And sometimes a group of people runs across the square. The TV on the wall shows Aljazeera Egypt’s coverage of the gathering that seems to gain in size and importance beyond the usual Friday protest. Their angle on the square is almost exactly the same as the view from our window. They must be only few floors above the café…

Activists pour into the café to drink and eat something. A dozen people share a tiny table and engage in heated conversations. One of them carries a bag with a Tahrir Diaries sticker on it (http://tahrirdiaries.wordpress.com/). As fast as they appeared, they leave and others follow. 

Suddenly, the atmosphere shifts and a crowd in front of the window starts throwing stones. Not at the window of the café, but apparently at the cameramen from Aljazeera. But as correct aim is not everybody’s piece of cake, some hit the window and the owners lower the shutter.

I think of my friend from Berlin who stayed throughout the beginning of the revolution. It is her policy to avoid such gatherings and protests. She had witnessed the participation of many Western foreigners during the 2011 protests, who later became a target of a advertisement campaign aiming foreign ‘spies’ to be the organizers of the revolution (http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/10/219777.html). Particularly from Israel – to destabilize the country. This conviction has prevailed in parts of the society and may delegitimize foreign participation in the protests. At least it makes oneself suspicious and potentially the target of outrage. Therefore, she circumvents anything that could turn into a protest. Now, I have witnessed how quickly peaceful can turn to violent.

I wait till things calm down and then head for the metro entrance situated five meters in front of the café without difficulties and without taking any pictures of the crowd.

We know Everything about you

Shortly before midnight, I returned from the Community Market and "The District" community office space in Maadi. I had met interesting people there and had great talks. Before the metro would stop running, however, I had to get home to Dokki. On the way, I grabbed something to eat: Dolma - filled eggplants, zucchini and bell peppers. The tree guys from the small street restaurant were smiling at me as I was trying out my bits and pieces of Egyptian Arabic. One of them had a dark-brown mark on his forehaed, which is typically worn by religious people who want to show off how hard they pray when they bend over and let their head rub the floor... He asked where I was from and asked me what I was doing in Egypt. I told him, I was German and came to Egypt, because  believe, that there should be more dialgue between Europe, North America and the MENA region. I want to learn about Egypt. He replied that Egyptians know everything about us.

I: "How?"
He: "We have two sources: 1. family members who live abroad who share their experiences; and 2. from the Holy Qur'an."
I: "The Qur'an tells you about Germans?"
He: "Yes, it telly us about all peoples: Christians, Jews, Romans,... Everything is in there. Also all inventions that were and will be made."
I: "Also the TV?"
He: "Yes, everything! Maybe you should read it!"
I: "Maybe I should."
He: "In shaAllah!"

Now, let's not confuse this attitude with Islam in general. I have not heard this argument from other people in the streets before, even though I know it from my studies. But like a Christian or any other member of some ideology, one still has an individual choice of the specific interpretation one holds true. What does it tell about a persons worldview if one believes that not only essentially, but also peripherally (e.g. the invention of TV) nothing has changed over 300 years and that nothing new will happen, as everything is already foretold and static... How can such a person be convinced of social change to serve needs that presuambly do not change over centuries...?

This experience reminded me of a friend who said that currently the greatest threat to the Egyptian revolution is the attitude of many member s of the Muslim Brotherhood to know everything better. They feel to be right in every regard and want to attain the majority in every committee. Convincing all sides to come together in peace to discuss the future of the country on a level playing field is a major task at the moment. Creating safe spaces for dialogue, exchange, listening, hearing and cooperation is probably the major need when it comes to contiuing the revolutionary transformation of the country. Otherwise, the Brotherhood might simply take over in all aspects of political life and just becomes another dicatorship.