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.
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.
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