Jul 15, 2008
زلزال
There was an earthquake this morning. The epicenter was on the island of Rhodes, in Greece, but it was a 6.4 and I felt it here. My instructor and one other woman in my class did, too. Everyone else slept through it.
My instructor said it was the strongest and longest she'd felt since 1992. The earthquake of 1992 is to Cairo as Katrina is to New Orleans in a lot of ways — it was a moment when the government committed epic fail. Hundreds of people were killed while the administration basically stood around and said, "Gee, that's unfortunate." The Muslim Brotherhood stepped in, providing tents and food and water for people in poor neighborhoods, and the moment became a kind of catalyst or rallying point for the Islamist movement for the next five years or so, the closest Egypt's come to having a revolution since Mubarak's been in power.
Last night I went to the restaurant/pub around the corner and spent a couple hours talking to two journalists, both in their twenties, working for the foreign press. One of them said he wakes up every day and wonders how this city works at all.
