Daily News Egypt is doing a good job of using Twitter to cover Obama and Clinton speech at Cairo University today
Like a lot of Cairo workers today, I have been asked by my boss to “work from home.” Road closures, security details and the general hoopla that accompanies a state visit have forced many of Egypt’s bosses to, in effect, grant their workers an “Obama Holiday.” The workers are glad for the surprise three-day weekend.
And many that I have spoken with are staying home today to watch President Obama make his speech from Cairo University. I visited my colleague and his family last night for dinner in New Cairo (a new suburb 30 km outside of the city center) and they will be taking their kids out of school today to bring them home to watch the historic speech together as a family.
An older colleague of mine told me the story of President Nixon’s visit to Egypt in 1972. A time when the president could take the train from Alex to Cairo and be treated to a hero’s welcome by ordinary citizens.
No doubt a modern president cannot afford this time-lost luxury. Sad, also that Obama will be given the grand tour of Cairo’s sights without having the chance to really encounter the real treasures of Egypt. The Egyptian people themselves. He will only catch glimpses from behind his car’s bulletproof glass, and when he flys over the Nile in Marine One to the Pyramids. He cannot hear the call to prayers echoing through the dusty streets from inside this bubble. So I feel a little sad for his blurry experiences here.
Marine One will be operating very close to my home here on Zamalek, where you recall remember, I am working today. Have been hearing her blades practice all week.
And I am going to have lunch with the president. sort of. He speaks in about 20 minutes and I will go to my balcony to enjoy the erie calm of these suddenly painted and starkly quiet streets.
I’ll take a mango juice and listen to him speak. I have already been out on Zamalek’s streets this morning filming the guys with the power washers who are trying in vain to wash away the dust and debris from along his overland route. It’s probably a good thing that these guys have not been able to completely whitewash away the incredible mix of old and new, the chaotic and exotic that lends Cairo her sublime charm.
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