Habdallah

From Last days in ...

I succeeded in my first solo crossing of a Cairo street today, and I rode four times in a Cairo taxi in the last two days. So, having faced death, it's time to move on to another challenge. Off to Madrid where the Basque separatists have just announced that their "permanent ceasefire" has expired and they're all set to restart their campaigns.

I'm in the cafeteria at Cairo airport. Like all airports, it's a monopolist's paradise - I've just paid the same for a bottle of water as I paid for two people to share a huge lunch earlier in the day.

From Last days in ...

My guide and friend, Mr Ibrahim, took me for a walk through some parts of old Cairo yesterday afternoon and today. Wonderful history of course, most of which went in one ear and out the other. Not that I was uninterested, but it's hard to keep track of which sultan built which grand mosque to honour which brother he had murdered in order to gain the sultanate most of an millennium ago. I'll need to do some reading. Some of these magnificent buildings are being repaired - past due after 600, 900, and 1200 years. Today I was fortunate enough to be invited to climb up to the top of two of the minarets (baksheesh is expected). They're tall and narrow and the railings are not much above knee high, so it required a bit of nerve, but they do offer a fabulous view of the landscape below and across the city.

From Last days in ...

Yesterday also was the anniversary of the end of the 1967 war with Israel. Mr Ibrahim had been picked out of the people sitting in a cafe to give a Vox-Pop comment for Al Jazeera Television. His comments were to be expected: the Israelis, supported by an ignorant and fearful US, don't play fair. And Ibrahim is no zealot. He has been told that, even though he is an enemy of the people, he will be protected by some of his neighbours when the revolution comes because he has been so helpful and friendly towards the young people in his neighbourhood. The Islamic Brethren seems to be keen to move Egypt back to the 16th century as a caliphate. These power-hungry hypocrites seem to be gaining some support from the disaffected, angry young men of Egypt who have been let down by an over-stretched education system and a job market that offers little hope for those with little education or skills. And inequity is very clear: They must watch in amazement as I happily spend a days wages on a bottle of soft-drink. TV is constantly showing classic B&W movies from the 1950's, the heyday of Egyptian cinema, which show happy young people, well-dressed in Western garb, dealing with university, choosing a career, home-making and looking forward to a prosperous Egypt. Surely they must ask, "Why don't I have this?" But it's only a tiny minority that seems to harbour any resentment towards tourists, foreigners or even Americans.

Over the last two weeks I've walked and sat and eaten in some places that most people I know would regard as pretty dodgy, and I've never in any way felt uncomfortable or in any danger. (Okay, in an Aswan tea shop a man did rather assertively help himself to my fresh bottle of water.) Indeed I think that just about everywhere I went I met and talked with all sorts of people who were genuinely good honest caring folk. It's been a real pleasure.