Sadat Scratched: Picture Time!

Sunday I ended up on the same metro that I was on the other day.  Unlike other metro cars where you only find Mubarak Station scratched out and replaced, this particular metro car has both Mubarak *and* Sadat station names crossed out.

In their place, we have the usual "al-Shuhadāʾ" (The Martyrs), which replaces Sadat.  Needing a different name to replace Mubarak, this particular writer chose to up it to "Damm al-Shuhadāʾ" (The Blood of the Martyrs.)

Sacred Geographies: Part IV - Contesting the Revolution

New sighting:  A new official metro map (something I have yet to post a picture of because it's at the "end" chronologically) with the official Arabic name for the station, al-Shohadāʾ (The Martyrs) crossed out in blue ball-point pen.  Overtop was hastily scribbled "Mubarak."

I've never seen an empty metro.  Granted, I've never been around on the earliest train, but to give you a sense, there's a metro on my line every 5 minutes or so throughout the day, and these are big trains.  TONS of people use these metro lines and it's hard to imagine being alone on one.  I imagined (perhaps wrongly) that much of the scratching out had occurred during the heady days of the revolution... or something.  Or when only people who were brave enough or crazy enough to head down to Tahrir despite all the dangers would have been riding the metro anyhow.  But the graffiti war continues.

I mean, I knew that people had their doubts about the revolution.  Some people I've talked to aren't too happy with the military regime or aren't too terribly concerned with anything but whether or not prices can be kept down and jobs can be found.  But that isn't the same as wanting Mubarak back.  There are certainly those who liked the old regime, but I just didn't imagine that they rode the metro... more the "have a nice car/exile-getaway in Europe" kind of people.  Not that I'm any more than a casual observer of Egyptian politics.  Though I did find the NYTimes version of the Muslim Brotherhood rifts amusing - "Election Reveals Rifts in Muslim Brotherhood."  If they had been bothered before that, they would have known that there were plenty of rifts and differences in that broad umbrella, and not just because a bunch of guys at the top all want to be President.

Sacred Geographies: Part III - Sadat gets the Scratch

So I was headed up to AUC in Tahrir Square today to get on a tourbus and see some ancient pyramids (from 2800 BC!) when I remembered to check the subway map.  Lo and behold there was something there I had never seen before!

Both Mubarak Station and Anwar Sadat Station were scratched out.  Not only that, the scribbled names were absolutely clear in black permanent marker.  Sadat had been replaced with "al-Shuhadāʾ" or "The Martyrs," while Mubarak Station was replaced with "Damm al-Shuhadāʾ" or "The Blood of the Martyrs."

Another subway artist added "ʾĀl"in front of both in a different color and hand, making it "The Family/Clan of the Martyrs" and "The Family/Clan of the Blood of the Martyrs." (Not exactly sure whether he meant the group of martyrs or whether he meant to honor the families of the slain protestors.

I was excited to see a new and unusual renaming project, so I reached into my bag to get my camera, which I had brought along to take pictures of the pyramids and tombs of Saqqara and Memphis.  Aaaaand... I forgot my camera.  Fortunately, others on the trip were happy to take photos for me, coming soon.

Sacred Geographies: Part II - Mubarak Replaced

So another week of CASA has flown by.  The apartment is still a bit of a cooker, but it's bearable during the day with the A/C and then bearable again at night with the cross-breeze.  I'm not sure what we'll do when it gets hotter in July and August.  I guess we could always just hope that climate change has reached us here on the African continent.

I haven't been taking my camera with me as much on the metro, but I have managed to pick up a few more interesting photos of the metro maps.  This is installment two, which is focused on pictures where stickers have been placed over the name of the station.  The most frequently-used sticker is a long, white sticker with thick, red letters.  It dedicates the station to "the Martyrs of the People's Revolution."  I've also seen a variation that simply says "Martyrs" and also transliterates it "al-Shohada" so that it can be placed over the English transliteration of "Mubarak" (not shown below).

I've also stuck in a picture of the first clear alternative that I've seen to naming the station after the martyrs (which has certainly taken hold).  The third picture down has "The Revolution" written in black permanent marker with the rest of what had been written scratched out.

Sacred Geographies: Part I - Mubarak Erased

I was wondering what would be done about the Mubarak metro stop, and the first time I was on the metro I saw at least part of the answer.  The stop formerly known as "Hosni Mubarak" had been scratched out and scribbled over.  Much of the scribble had then itself been scratched out, though I've seen both "al-shaʿb" (the People, ie. of the People's Revolution) and "al-Shuhadāʾ" (the Martyrs, ie. the Martyrs of the Egyptian Revolution on what people are calling "the days of blood").

Since then, I've seen several other attempts at renaming, all the way to official government-installed maps.  I've been taking my camera with me on the metro recently, and I'll be posting the different states of the ex-Mubarak Metro in what I take to be chronological order.  Part I: Mubarak Erased.

If anyone can make out what's scribbled here and then scratched out, please let me know!  Most of these look like they could be "al-Shuhadāʾ" but I've also seen a clearly written "al-Shaʿb," and they both start with the same letter...

The Revolution Continues...

On our first few nights here, as Anya and I looked for apartments, we ran into or heard a few protests. Amusingly, one of the simsaars (rental agent) took us to look at an apartment that he said was "behind the Turkish embassy," which is a polite way of saying "overlooking the ministry of the interior." In March, protesters ransacked the ministry of the interior, which had run domestic surveillance and torture in Egypt under Mubarak... later in March, parts of the ministry were set on fire. As we walked to this apartment to take a look, we passed by the burned out cars.

Later that same week, we were heading back from the apartment hunt in Maadi (where we eventually found an apartment), and the Metro got unusually crowded for a weekday night. To avoid a potentially problematic harassment situation on the Metro, we hopped off early and walked the rest of the way to our apartment, which brought us past the interior ministry. Low and behold there was a small protest in front of the ministry. Apparently someone died in police custody recently (a sign that extreme torture took place), and so protesters unsatisfied with the direction of change under the new military order demonstrated in front of the interior ministry.

We've also heard chanted slogans from afar and passed by small soap-box speeches in the subway station. Each was well-attended by police.

Yesterday (Friday), Anya and I headed down to Tahrir Square to help out the project "Tahrir Documents." It was a pretty calm day with different political parties marching in circles around the Tahrir traffic circle or holding small rallies. I picked up a handful of documents, often not from the people who were handing them out but from Egyptians who had come to listen or participate in the rallies themselves. After a while under the sun, we headed to a coffee shop to chat with some very nice young guys whom we met in the square, one was a high school student and the other a 30ish guy who wanted to talk all about Islamic geography with me.

It's really fantastic to see all this political participation going on. From what I read in the pamphlets I picked up and from my conversations with people in Tahrir and elsewhere, the main concerns are economic and about getting a government in place that can produce a job opportunities for everyone, though there's also plenty about Egyptian unity (between Christians and Muslims), about Democracy, etc.

The apartment

The apartment is nice enough, though it's on the fifth floor with big windows, so it gets a bit hot. There's AC, but we're trying to conserve electricity. At night, we can get a cross-breeze, and the Cairo nights are really quite nice. Day-times, however, are scorching hot, and it's only going to get worse in August. Interestingly, some Caireens use the numbers of the Gregorian months rather than the names. (I asked a taxi driver as we sat in blistering heat in Cairo's rush hour traffic about whether August would be even hotter, and he didn't understand what I'd asked. But when I rephrased the question, he affirmed that the 7th and 8th months would be worse. My Arabic instructor also used the numbers rather than the names, which I initially thought was because it the dates were written in numerals on the handout we were using.)

Views out the 2nd bedroom window. The AC in this room sounds like a large truck engine.

The kitchen: No AC and very little ventilation... but quaint enough.

The livingroom with the greenhouse windows. Most of my time at home is spent in front of the AC in this room.

Internet! Huzzah!

We have an apartment now (since Wednesday)! And internet (since about an hour ago)! Both were a bit of a struggle with various false-starts and side-winding adventures. Anya and I are now located in a district called "Sakanat Maadi," which is a nice tree-filled suburb south of the city center. The areas further away from the Metro are very "liberal"... there are a lot of foreigners living there, and both the foreigners and the Egyptians have a very different dress code (shorts seem acceptable for guys and tanktops of various kinds acceptable for girls). There's also a lot less harassment. Just as I found in Medinat Nasr two years ago, the fact that there's no chance that a tourist would ever visit the area means that people assume you're a resident. Life is certainly more pleasant here, and the metro ride is very manageable.

In any case, I now have a chance to catch up on the blog, which I will do bit by bit to avoid super-long blog posts. For now, it's picture time! Thanks to Stacey, my new friend from the trip who is now in Kazakhstan doing research, I have pictures from our foray into Istanbul. Istanbul now ranks as one of my favorite cities, and I'm definitely going back. It's like San Fransisco with medieval architecture!

This last shot is the "San Fran" one... except there's a beautiful out-door teashop that goes along this hill.

Jetlag (reposted from Tumblr)

(originally posted on June 4th-ish)

Jetlag causes me to wake up insanely early and surf the internet… which brings me to…

I’m tempted to sympathize with the historians who, hundreds of years from now, will pore over documents relating to the ride of Paul Revere, many of which are of later provenance… poems, made-for-Texas-schools renderings, and now this from everyone’s favorite fabricator:

* Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin offered a novel take on the famous ride of Paul Revere during her trip to Boston yesterday: “He who warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town, to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure, and we we’re going to be free and we were going to be armed.” For history’s sake: Revere rode to warn allies that British troops were headed to Lexington and Concord. Later in life, Revere became a bellmaker, but no bells were involved in the secretive ride.

Denial II (reposted from Tumblr site)

(originally posted May 31)

So I’m leaving for Cairo in about 12 hours. Denial is still very much a part of the experience. Today Anya and I went sailing on the Potomac River in a little Sunfish and then scrambled around like proverbial chickens lacking cephalic bits getting ready. I’ve brought way too many books, as usual… am hoping to finish Rogan’sThe Arabs before classes start, and there’s nothing like being surrounded by a sea of Arabic to convince me to read more English books (counterintuitive, I know).

It’s very strange to me that I’ll be back in Cairo in just about a day. Doesn’t yet seem very real. Nevertheless, I’ve added insha’Allah (God Willing) to my future-tense sentences as a nod to the immanent change that’s about to take place. Perhaps also apropos here: Allahu Aʿlam (God knows best).

Denial (Re-posted from Tumblr Site)

(a post from mid-May, 2011)

On the title of the blog: I have this odd memory that the phrase “denial isn’t just a river in Egypt” appears incessantly in Infinite Jest. I have tried to locate such a phrase there but have had very little luck. Regardless, the novel was a paean to and defense of the 12-step self-help program. In a nutshell, DFW located some of the deepest truths in the cliches that we might otherwise condemn as meaningless unintellectual blather. On cliches: ”This, like many cliches, so lame and unexciting on the surface actually expresses a great and terrible truth.” He discusses some of these cliches in the commencement speech to Kenyon called “This is Water.”

In this case, of course, the nile is also precisely a river in Egypt. It is a river that I very much hope not to end up in.

Denial Redux

My previous blogging tool (tumblr) removed my attempt to add a commenting function to the template. I figured it would be easier to just relocate to a blogging software that I actually understood and had in-built commenting, so here I am! I'll repost a couple of the "travel" postings so that this blog begins at the beginning.