Two days of working out of office. But this time, I have to park away from the place where I should be and walk through the famour Tahrir square for 10 minutes.
I've been in this place for more than 9 years now. My university is there and myoffice is there too. I've been through the streets, the underground, the fast food stores, the cafe's, the parking areas, the bus stops.. But since I bought the new car, I haven't been walking, especially downtown Cairo.
I found it depressing that nothing has changed.
The streets are the same, no rules followed, traffic jam, no right for pedestrians to cross the streets, you have to run through every single car to find your way to the other pavement across the street. You walk through people who are not well dressed, smelly, frowning, and unbehaved; actually yesterday, on my way back to the car, a guy riding a car actually called me "ya bashmohandessa" (engineer) and blew me a kiss.. Another gave me the lusty look. I get street harrassed when I'm actually veiled and the only things that show from me are my hands and face. Moreover, I usually never put make-up on, or walk slow. I walk like soldiers, wearing my "soldiers boots". Why on earth would anyone harass me when I'm not the "jiggly" Egyptian type?
I decided to walk down through the underground channels to avoid crossing the streets. However, I got shocked by the smell had to to breathe for the coming 7 minutes. Do people actually bathe? Do they have soap and shampoo? What is it that they're lacking? Is it deodorant? Has it become a luxury to own a deodorant stick? I know that the majority of the Egyptian population are poor. And I'm not being all classy and bourgeoisie, but I do ask people to bathe because cleanliness is important for health and for the health of others.
Yesterday, our Egyptian football "Ahly" team won the game with Cameroon and is going to Japan. All Egypt was celebrating the victory right after the match. They all wore red and they all had their car horns on the same beat. All shouting, singing, shooting fire from their mouths, blocking streets and preventing cars from crossing, and scaring the hell out of me. I'm glad we won, I'm also glad Egyptians are happy, because this is actually the only thing that makes Egyptians happy; winning football games. However, I always question their right of celebrating in the uncivilized way they usually do. I couldnt move in the crowded street of "Abas El Akkad" so I had to stay put, till the wild celebrations were over. People have gone official nuts. But I cant blame them. They have nothing else to make them happy. Everything in their world is a cause of worries.
I wonder who is to be blamed for whatever problem the people of this country are facing. The government is basically working to maintain itself and its president. How can a government work on making it better for the people, when its concern is not the people? Do ministers actually walk in these streets, take the underground? Cross the streets? Did our president move on those streets since he became president?
I'm a government employee. And for a second I thought, "I DID IT", I'm going to do something that would make this country better. I'm working on reforming the national budget process, making it account for the different needs of men and women. I thought that this would reallocate existing "scarce" resources and maybe satisfy the different needs of women and men, boys and girls. But will this project succeed in doing so? Will I ever be able to ever have even a little impact on this country and make a change? I doubt.
And as usual, at the end of all the worries, I get a call from my baby, and I forget about all what is in the outter world, and enter into my world with him. My happy world with him.
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