New weekly column: "Dispatches from Cairo" in The Daily Organ

I am now writing a weekly column for The Daily Organ entitled Dispatches from Cairo. It will consist of short updates on my impressions and insights regarding events in Cairo as they unfold, as well as offering occasional social and cultural commentary on this fantastic and varied city. The first, introductory, installment is posted below:

Despite hearing rumours that events in Tunisia in December 2010 were threatening to spill over into the rest of the Arab world, when I moved out to Egypt in January I little expected that within a matter of weeks I would be chanting for the fall of a dictator of 30 years, and learning that washing my face with Coca Cola was the best way to reduce the stinging effect of tear-gas.


I moved to Egypt to work for an NGO which works to improve the lives of Cairo’s significant refugee population, but quickly found myself on a steep learning curve in the radically altered social and political landscape of post-Revolutionary Egypt. There was a mass-exodus of expats, as companies and universities evacuated, and they were replaced by an influx of journalists and political analysts, all falling over themselves to cover the biggest story of the year. Now, having joined their ranks, I write a blog covering events as they unfold across the Arab world, and try to offer insight into this period of evolution; the progress it makes and the setbacks it faces.

Walking around Cairo today, evidence of recent events is everywhere, most obviously in the impressive street art expositions dotted around the city, depicting revolutionary scenes, and symbols of power and victory. Downtown, riot police still encircle a grassy patch in the centre of Tahrir Square, which they have been occupying for the past three weeks since the military forcibly ejected protestors who had been holding a protracted sit-in.

Periodic outbursts of unrest continue to disrupt daily life, most significantly of late around the Israeli embassy, as people have been gathering to protest against the recent killing of five Egyptian security personnel in a border clash last month.

Outside the police academy building in New Cairo is another flash-point for violence whenever ousted-President Hosni Mubarak’s trial is in session, as both pro- and anti-Mubarak protestors gather, and the recent decision by presiding Judge Ahmed Refaat to stop televising the trial has done nothing to reassure activists that justice will be done.

Revolutionary spirit ebbs and flows in the city as various groups call for restraint or action, but it’s clear for many that this revolution is far from over.