Two years ago at this time, I was returning from a trip to Egypt. When I was a sixth grader and studied Egypt for the first time, I knew that I had to visit the land of an amazing ancient civilization sometime. Because Americans generally do not know (and in many cases, don’t care) about what is occurring in other parts of the world, especially distant regions, and our mainstream media usually do little to educate us unless sensational or violent events occur, potential tourists have to do research about whether and when to travel. Since the middle of the decade when there were bombings in Dehab and Sharm el Shiekh, there had not been any large outbreaks of violence that made the news, so our family decided to visit the land of Pharoahs in January when the weather is not uncomfortably hot. We were in Egypt leading up to and during the Obama inauguration. It was a time of hope for Egyptians as well as Americans. When people in the streets realized we were Americans, they would start to chant, “O-bam-a, O-bam-a!” There were some cynics who thought that Obama would change nothing, but most Egyptian citizens appeared to be almost as ecstatic as Americans at his victory. By this time, they very much disliked George W. Bush and his policies, especially his invasion of Iraq. They, like many of us, hoped for a different foreign policy, but at the time I didn’t know how deep the rumblings for change were among the Egyptians whose leadership was pillaging the population more and more every year.
As many tourists do, we thought we were going mainly to see the pyramids and other amazing artifacts of the time of the pharaohs, but as happens on any good expedition, we learned so much more than we expected, especially about how the people live today. On the streets of Cairo large posters with Mubarak’s portrait hung prominently as if to say, “Don’t forget who is in charge here.” And, amongst the priceless artifacts were a people now extremely poor with a level of unemployment that would never be tolerated in the United States. Although young people attended college, they came out to a jobless future; in particular, women had almost no employment possibilities. It was no wonder that we were accosted “enthusiastically” at every tourist attraction by hawkers of every imaginable Egyptian ware.
I liked Egyptians whom I found to be friendly and eager to provide good customer service. Of course, they viewed Americans as rich merely by the fact that we were Americans, and they wanted some of our money to supplement their meager living wages. It was interesting that Egyptian tour guide was a highly regarded and well paid career. One thing several shopkeepers talked about was how much they hated terrorist groups because they scared away the tourists, their lifeblood. Even on a short stay, I had the distinct feeling that Egyptians would not turn to al Qaeda, but I, like the U.S. government evidently, never thought the people would rise up in such numbers against Mubarak and could bring down his government so quickly. As I stated before, many were what Americans would label as poor to very poor and resented the corruption that allowed the cronies of their president and the other “haves” to keep getting richer at their expense, but with the ever-present police fully supporting Mubarak and controlling many aspects of their lives, I thought their fear would keep them from rising up. For example, when groups were out touring sites, we were protected by police in the front and the rear of the group armed with automatic weapons. We were told that they did not want the bad publicity of having something negative happen to a tourist, especially an American. I felt very safe when I was there, so it is somewhat ironic that two weeks after we returned, there was a Islamic extremist bombing in Khan el-Khalili, the largest mercantile and tourist bazaar in Cairo (and, btw, across from the revered Hussein mosque) that killed a French teenage girl who was visiting with a school group.
I suppose the latest rounds of inflation that deprived some of enough food to feed their families were the last straw. I believe that many had no hope that their lot was going to improve, and they were courageous enough to be the change that was needed in their country. I don’t know how much President Obama’s speech in Cairo last June affected the events of the last two weeks. He said the right things about implementing a new era of respect for the Muslim world, but Egyptians watch our reactions to the Israel-Palestinian hostilities that have been such an obstacle to peace in the region as well as our friendship with Middle East authoritarian rulers as determinates of our integrity and sense of justice. Fortunately, our government eventually came down on the side of the people in this uprising. Egyptians needed to see that we walk the walk and not just talk the democratic talk. Egypt is fragile now, and they need the support of the United States as well as other democracies. The worst immediate problem is the economy. Tourism accounted for about 11 billion dollars in revenues last year, and obviously people aren’t visiting and haven’t been for the last couple of weeks. In addition, people have not been working, and businesses have been closed as people protested. Couple that with the inflation that was already in effect, and all these factors together make the markets wary. The new leadership, whoever that ultimately may be, has big challenges to surmount. I hope they are able to sustain a democracy and establish an economy where fairness is the norm. Mubarak’s autocratic rule allowed and even promoted corruption that stole more than just money from the people – it stole their dignity. We owe the people of Egypt our friendship and support as their try to reestablish their legacy.