28th ?
Some days when you want to write something for your blog, there is not much to report. Today is not one of them, however I have no idea when I can post this as the government has taken down the internet in an effort to stiffle the protests that at the moment look likely to topple it.
It is the first day of the weekend today, Friday. We had a holiday on Wednesday this week, actually called “Police Day” which is rather strange as the police are not particularly well liked. Large scale protests on Police Day, something unprecendented, hinted at the growing reduction of fear amoungst the Egyptian population post the Tunisian revolt.
All was set for today when the protested, newly emboldened indicated a “second day of rage”. Normally under the draconian emergency laws mean that a group of 4 or more is a threat to the government and thus is broken up. However the government was between a rock and a hard place. Friday is a time when many people gather for Friday prayers - something the government feels treated by but cannot stop (they did cancel this weekends football games however!). Its was clear that today would either be a tipping point either for or against the push for change. My impression from talking to people at work was that this could be it. Normally apolitical people were fired up and ready to articulate their strong feelings against the government, something they would not normally do.
We woke up to an almost normal Friday, almost because before heading out of on the golf course I attempted to check the overnight news from downtown Cairo but the internet was down. We were half expecting this as the government had been complaining the chaos has been organised on Twitter and Facebook. In addition however the mobile phone network being jammed (our land line is currently working).
Following golf Mrs T picked me up and we started to watch Al Jazeera whilst eating lunch. It became very clear things were going to tip, with major trouble in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. The government had said there would be a no tolerance attitude to trouble, but as people started to come out of the Mosques they were quickly attacked using the normal methods, hired thugs and plain clothes policemen along with brutal riot police. Al Jazeera did a sterling job as we watched the drama unfold from their live coverage.
Eventually the army turned up as the troubles escalated and the police were in retreat. The police are hated but the army is revered. A little embarrassingly, and typically for Egypt, three armored personnel carriers were sen turning up outside the Hilton on the Nile, the third of which promptly broke down and had to be pushed by the last hundred yards by soldiers!.
I attempted to pop out of Katameya to fill the 4WD up with fuel - just in case there was a need to head out of town. However as I was heading toward the petrol station I saw a few cars coming towards me on the wrong side of the road - this is not an unusual site in Cario of course. However coming over the hill was a crowd of 300-400, mainly young men in trucks and on motorbikes, waving egyptian flags and sticks and heading towards the ring road. So I did a quick Starsky and Hutch handbreak turn and drove the wrong way down the street and back to the family.
The NDP (government party) office was torched that night and there was a worry that the neighbouring Egyptian Museum would burn - but fire trucks turned up. The army are being welcomed by the people and there are reports of police and army clashing. I can hear a number of helicopters overhead now. The have announced a curfew but it is being ignored everywhere. Mubarak is due to talk on TV soon - but Im not sure what he can say.
The situation has really tipped, Egypt is a different place to the one we woke up to this morning.
29th
Morning: Got up early after a quite night in Kattameya at least. TV is reporting on Mubaraks speech where he says he will sack the government and appoint a new one. He has really misjudged the populace I believe. Only the removal of him and his regime will suffice.
The US keeps on sending out mixed messages. Partly supporting the Mubarak regime as a support of Israel but uncomfortable at the dictator-like government. This is a popular uprising, not driven by any single group or religous party. There are middle class, poor, christian and muslim, men and women. The US is worried about the Muslim Brotherhood but they are seen, like the exUN man El Baradei, to have waited to the people rose up. The US needs to land this one....does it support a populist democratic uprising where normal people are fighting for their basic rights, or does it support key regional allie no matter how it treats its people? This is not helped by the fact that the tear gas canisters used by the US funded police have “made in the US on them”. Lets hope Obama comes out with a clear statement,
Around 10am we had a knock a the door and one of the emergency wardens came round. we were informed of a possible evacuation tomorrow depending on how the situation develops. We were instructed to get grab bags together and passports and essentials which we did.
We had friends over for lunch and got a call from the emergency managers that a large group of young men were at the front gates to the compound and things might start kicking off. We were asked whether we could accomodate a family as the guys who lived down in Maadi were going to be concentrated in Kattameya. The phones rang nonstop, luckily the mobile network was up now, we started to hear stories of major looting of stores in Maadi, the grand mall and Carrefour, which was set on fire. With the coffee on after lunch we had a call from the warden saying there is trouble in Kaatmeya, with possible looting and if we were ready (which we were) to move down to an area of new house called the extension, where 3-4 families were concentrating everyone in there house. We left in a rush. There was an eerie silence around the compound, only the odd car rushing around or a single egyptian family packing loads of suitcase into rucksacs.
In the Extension we stayed in a house with dutch friends and a another family. Next door the security team were busy working on plans and it was clear the 50:50 evacuations odds were a lot higher. We heard from others that were congregating that the army had moved some troops up to Kattameya and things had calmed down for a bit. I walked out to another wardens house at night down the road heard a few pops, with sounded like single rounds of gunfire (apparently later talking to the egyptians firing was reported on the news). We slept where we could in the house and awoke next morning, though i for one did not sleep.
Next morning a warden told us to be ready at 9.30am for the buses. As time went on more and more of us congregated and soon there were ca, 25plus cars outside the houses. The emergency team were doing a great job, the bus plan had fallen through. Plan B, using the work buses had fallen through also. So we moved onto using Shell drivers and cars in convoys. We were in one of the first.
Going past our house on the way out was rather sad, but we say 3 truck loads of soliders the other side of the wall which is probably a good thing. Coming out of the gate there was a peronsel carrier and 5-10 soliders and a M42 tank at the main gate and more tanks and peronel carriers on the main junctions. The road to the airport was good and we arrive to the toll gates in 20 mins. Things were really busy the airport, seriously busy. We started to congregate all 170 of us outside and then tried to move through a side entrance into terminal one. Luckily the company had arranged a special charter flight and we had desks to check in by the corner. It is hard to explain the chaos in the rest of the desks. It was just a solid wall of people, shouting waving passports, with masses and masses of luggage - arabs tend not to pack light. After checking in around 11.30am we made our first attempt to cross to the 150m to passport control. We made it 50m but the seething mass of bodies was not moving, and bags and people kept on rolling off the security tables into the hall. This was concerning and the risk of all being crushed in a panic was real. We turn and mustered back at the far end check in desk. Our security evacuation expert was working on other ways to get us though, but the plan to sit tight and hopeful wait for a dying down at curfew of the crowds seemed to be the most likely. After an hour we tried again, got 50m and then he crush was even worst, I was really concerned this time, got the kids over to a colum and then eventually back to our checkin desk. Around 12-18 had made it through passports.
We sat and waited but there seemed to be no let up. We heard the stories from the guys in Maadi of automatic gunfire, neighbourhood gangs set up to protect from looting. The people in Zamelek said it was crazy as they could see the looting downtown.
In fact the pandemonium at the desk was something to behold. It was like the fall of Saigon, egyptian style. Hunkered down now in the corner we waited for another 1 and half hours before giving it a final push, i had quitened down a little and we made good progress and at last the passport control. This was a typical 40 deep seething mass of bodies but relative to the manic scenes we had just left a relaxed affair. We manouvered ourselvs into the right area and got through and stamped in another 30 mins and we had made it out of the hell hole that was the baggage hall!
People were coming through in waves now and it was not long before we were bused and then bordered the plane, charter from iberia. The atmosphere on the flight was great, it was like a big holiday with all your work colleagues.
We arrived after 4 hours in Amsterdam and the company emergency response team met us on the plane and took us through the steps of what would happen. We were met at baggage by people with blankets (it was 0oC) and led to the onsite Hilton hotel pasted the press camera where the well oiled emergency evacuation machine was in place. There was food, medical desk, flights desk and hotel all arranged for us. It was very impressive and most welcome.
Currently the plan is to wait and see what happens and it will be at least a week before it maybe possible to return. we are heading to the UK, but depending on the time we may return to the netherlands and try and get the kids in their old school for a couple of weeks.
Anyway im off for some more sleep - some photos to follow......
