After the frigid week I had in New York, the no-coat-needed weather of Cairo has been such a relief. We were thinking about taking the kids skiing during their break in April -- and we still haven't ruled it out -- but a warm holiday is looking pretty appealing after spending a week in calf-deep slush.
It was good to come back to Cairo. I arrive at the airport with no trepidation at all anymore, which is somewhat ironic, given that it's far more unstable than it was during the years I felt uncomfortable here. I think some of that is just about familiarity.
I also think that some of the worry my friends have for me, while entirely understandable (and appreciated) in light of what they see on the news, has to do with a distrust of the Arab world. In January I had dinner with some friends who refused to accept my assertion that I was probably safer in our cloistered expat neighborhood in Cairo than we were in Tribeca. But there is no question that we live surrounded by security guards and police officers.
And yet my friends in New York -- who have never been here -- feel firm in their conviction that we are not safe. The funny thing is that I didn't get any of that concern from friends when I moved to London in the early 1990s, and the truth is that I felt far less safe there. I was always antsy about IRA bombings and was really shaken by the one instance in which we had to evacuate a restaurant.
That feeling was based on fact. Statistically I was in more danger there than I am here. During the 1990s eight civilians were killed in London alone, and many more people were injured. Over the 30 years of the Troubles, at least 650 civilians were killed. The IRA set off bombs in pubs, department stores, shopping centers, and subway stations and on busy roadways. There was no way to know what their target might be and when they might choose to strike. Yes, Egypt could still deteriorate that far, but it hasn't yet. For the time being, I live with less anxiety about terrorism here than I did in London. I'm just careful about where I go. And at least here I know what kind of places to avoid.
None of that is to say that I'm not worried about the turn things seem to be taking. I am, and I don't understand why the government continues to focus on the Muslim Brotherhood and has said next to nothing about Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, the Sinai-based terrorist group that has taken responsibility for nearly all the recent bombings. They keep trying to reassure tourists that they are still safe in Egypt. It seems to me that visitors would glean far more comfort from the arrests of the perpetrators than they would from empty promises.
I admit that I expected my kids to be shaken by the bombings, but they aren't worried at all. Their little world is so safe and secure that the danger feels far removed. T says he feels far more at ease here than he did in New York because there he worried about random violence, while here it is more predictable (no school or movie-theater shootings, for example). The school canceled a trip T's grade was supposed to take to the Red Sea for security reasons, and his only reaction was disappointment. The boys continue to insist that they want to stay here longer than the planned two years. For now, though, I'm sticking to the timetable.
The trial of the Al Jazeera journalists and their 17 co-defendants (some of whom have complained of torture) started this week and was then abruptly postponed until March 5. The whole thing is a joke and a travesty. Other journalists who have worked with the Al Jazeera crew at news organizations such as CNN and NBC have attested to their professionalism, and the heads of some of the most prestigious news outlets in the world published an open letter criticizing the prosecutions. Frankly I can't figure out why the hell the government thinks prosecuting these people -- some of whom have hardly spent any time in Egypt at all -- is a good idea. Egypt is being ridiculed the world over, and there is not a discerning mind out there that believes that these guys are actually Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers.
Egypt today is unquestionably more repressive than the Soviet Union was during its final years, when I lived there. And at least there you knew the rules. Here no one seems to know what they are -- including the people charged with enforcing them. Journalists have spent the past two months repeatedly asking if it is illegal to interview a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and no one in authority has yet to give a clear answer. What kind of government doesn't know its own laws, and how on Earth are people supposed to adhere to them if they don't know what they are?
Things tick along slowly on the domestic front. We are the proud owners of a coffee table. It doesn't match the TV console, which we will convert to a buffet in the dining room, but now we are left looking for a new TV console. It never ends. At least our dining room table is on its way over from New York. There's one furniture decision I won't have to make. Although I do think the chairs might need reupholstering....
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