It was too much politics and demonstrations in my life in past few weeks. I needed a break from all of it and I succeeded.
First of all though, sorry I cannot help it, let me summarize the situation in Egypt as of now: it is far from stable, demonstrations of opposition continue, yesterday demonstrated also the Muslim Brotherhood in Giza to show its support to the president. President Morsi was speaking to public three times in the past week, trying to calm down the escalated situation, to explain his right and good intentions to put himself above the law, and last but not least calling for a national referendum on the draft constitution on 15 December 2012. New constitution was voted on by the Constituent Assembly last Thursday – a sudden vote, President Morsi had asked for extension of time for drafting constitution for another two months the week before… The opposition got consolidated, thanks to President’s Morsi’s last steps, in a new National Salvation Front (NSF). It plans to fight against President Mohamed Morsi’s constitutional declaration. The new constitution is far from perfect. Fortunately, the article 68 concerning women rights, I described in detail in my last post, was dismissed. But still there should be done more. You can read about the draft of constitution’s shortcomings in the Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, UK reports, and a comparison of Egypt’s suspended and draft constitutions was nicely done by BBC.
Back to life:
I went for a walk on Saturday. It was a perfect sunny day. I walked toward the Sultan Hassan Mosque and Salah El Din Citadel. Even though there were demonstrations happening in the city, I did not see anything. Everything was calm. Life went on. After I wrote this, I could not get this song out of my head: Noah and the Whale – ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.’ – yes, it does remind you of The Kinks’ Lola :-)
I was taking photos and started to relax. I love street vegetables and fruits vendors. To go to a market is one of my favorite activities here.
My Egyptian Intermezzo 