STRIKE!!!

So today is a free day for me! There is a large strike all over the city and possibly the nation. Last month food prices rose 30%! It is crazy! The government has said in newspapers previously that they were subsidizing food so this would not effect citizens. However, the stores are raising the prices even though they are buying some items that are subsidized..

Interestingly, Egypt runs a bit different. The government pays and subsidizes so much --50% of national budget is for social type services(subsidies, education through university etc...) so there are too many people guaranteed jobs so the wage price is WAY too low. For example many Egyptians(blue collar) are only paid 300-600LE per month. To get too and from work on the metro is 60LE per month per person and VERY cheap lunch runs them about 120LE per month. and that is at uninflated prices. For example, yesterday when I was on my way home I was going to pick up a foul sandwich(refried bean sandwich) it is CHEAP egyptian food everyone eats for breakfast and lunch--it's only 1LE but they raised the price to 2.15LE and I only had 1LE on me, so I looked SUPER POOR at the cash register explaining I only had 1LE and he didn't believe me and thought I was trying to negotiate. My heart really goes out to egyptians, they simple can't afford to meet their basic needs. When a person only makes 300-600LE per month and meat costs 45LE per kilo it's just not a good situation. The shop owner is in the same situation, it’s not a good situation for anyone.

The government has promised to stop the rise in food prices by subsidies, but when that didn't work they came out and blamed egyptians and said they would 'crack down' on corruption--buying subsidized bread and selling it at inflated prices. Well, that didn't work and people are really suffering, so many groups have called for a strike. I guess to raise salaries or stop stores from inflating the prices. They are not spending any money today or supporting anything that has to do with money.

Fro example, they are not going to school(tuition/salary if employed at school), no cell phones, no going to shops, no taxis, no metro, no work, no anything supporting the economy. It started at Universities, professors are very much underpaid so it's the youth and adults so public universities are closing. Then many people are expected to protest outside of my university-the american university in Cairo. Why? not b/c 'american' it's b/c medan tahrir (the round-about) is in the middle of everything. It is VERY near the parliament, Arab League(UN for Arab nations) governors home, egyptian museum and it's all in the middle of downtown. It is where all the protests are held even back in the days of the King. That is probably why its name Tahrir b/c in Arabic it means Freedom.

It's a peaceful protest, but it is very dangerous for foreigners to be involved with protests. My university didn't close, but warned us about the danger. My friend Nadien (rich egyptian at AUC) knows a very high minister in the government who warned her not to go anywhere near Tahrir b/c the police are going to beat anyone protesting. There has been a whole slew of news articles about freedom of the press and rights recently. It has been very interesting to read in arabic(teacher explains most of it) the editor of a well established newspaper was thrown in prison for writing that the president was ill and went to the hospital, he is still in prison (that happened when we arrived) the government spokesman said the editor was a liar and the president is in perfectly good health. So lately there has been lots of writing about how this month marks the 99th year of the fall of the king and freedom of the press and still the president is throwing new editors in prison. It's interesting how things work in egypt. It's like everyone is free to do whatever they want--they can get a job wherever they want, major in whatever they want, women can work at directors of programs in academia, bank managers, in the parliament, in high and low gov't positions, but as soon as anyone threatens the power of the president, that person disappears, as soon as a group threatens the power of the president that group is beat if protesting, or blacklisted and targeted. 'you are free as long as the president can stay in power--do whatever you want but stay out of politics' that is the central theme of egypt. People follow it very well most of the time. Egyptians find out about mass corruption, police beatings, people getting thrown in jail etc...but they all say 'God only knows' they have a non-shalaunt attitude of 'oh well God wills it He only knows' it's very strange and allows these things to happen. Things won’t change until Egyptians want it to and do something about it, which I don’t see happening for a long time if ever.

Today, Casey is at school far from the city (out in the desert) and I am at home studying, far from downtown.