That's what I said to a fellow traveler I met at my hostel, when he started asking me about the Egyptian government.
You see the police everywhere. At every street corner, along the roads, around public buildings and tourist destinations, and placed randomly elsewhere, always dressed in black with moustaches and AK-47s. And to be honest, I have very mixed feeling about them. If I were to every get in any sort of trouble, they would be the ones I seek. If I need directions in a tourist area, I look for the police to ask (they aren't touts, for sure). They have always been nice to me, and I know they keep a lid on a small but passionate and potentially violent Muslim extremist minority here (ever heard of the Muslim Brotherhood?). Yet on the other hand, I know that they quash legitimate dissent and free speech, are corrupt, unfair, and reviled by many of the locals. Even the army doesn't like the police.
I can only wonder what happens when Hosni Mubarak passes away. Will his son have his ability to keep an iron fist on the country? Or could we see another "Islamic Revolution" a la 1979? And should I be writing this as I sit in Cairo...
(google images seems to have a number of images of him conveniently blocked out, I can't find a copy of my favorite poster of him hanging near my hostel where he looks like a badass with sunglasses and a gun... I posted the closest thing at the top)
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