AFP photo

Egyptians protecting the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo (though looters, reportedly agents provocateurs from the police force) did get in and damage two mummies. Source HERE.

more from a well-connected source

Sounds like the citizens of Egypt did a pretty good job of restoring order by themselves. If I had read this first I might have boarded:

“Totally civilian protection of the city now.. they are closing off streets and checking car by car for ids before they come in! unbelievable unbelievable! sooo proud and impressed!

more from others: THE ARMY STARTS DEPLOYING ITS TROOPS IN ZAMALEK, MOHANDESEEN, HELIOPOLIS AND MAADI WITHIN THE NEXT 2 HOURS TO PROTECT THE RESIDENTS AGAINST THE LOOTERS…MEANWHILE, THE RESIDENTS HAVE BEEN REPORTED TO FORM VERY STRONG AND EFFECTIVE HUMAN SHIELDS TO PROTECT THEIR HOUSES, STREETS AND FAMILIES…OSTOR YA RAB EL 3ALAMEEN

other from maadi: via [name deleted]: Maadi 7.20PM, talked to my father: new maadi self-organized community watches. streets have been closed off and only letting in one by one, upon showing ID. the different entry points are closed off and people holding watch are civilians. they are well armed. so, safe for now.”

from Mumbai Airport

At the airport, again stunned by an airline employee who can’t figure out why I’m asking if flights are still going into Cairo. They’ll make me pay a small penalty to postpone the ticket a few days, but it’s worth it. Two factors:

*word fom the New York office that the first week of the semester is cancelled (it should have begun tomorrow, Sunday, a teaching day in Egypt).

*more importantly, reports that the gangs of thugs who have emerged with the disappearance of the police are roaming freely even in Zamalek now, with Zamalek residences defended in some cases by vigilante owners with knives and in a few cases even automatic weapons. Hard to picture, but those are the reports.

I’ve seen how explosive normal crowds can become even over a soccer loss, and this is of course in a totally different league from soccer, criminal bands in a state of nature. I can’t even be sure that my flat hasn’t been looted by now, and that would be the least of my worries tomorrow afternoon, it sounds like. Hard to get any sene of what’s happening. But the protesters are in the city center, I believe. The looters aren’t protesters, but thugs on motorbikes accordng to reports, many of them just boys.

In any case, no reason to go back into that when there isn’t even work to be done.

I’m very worried about dozens of friends whom I have no way of contacting at the moment.

[ADDENDUM of Jan. 31: The thugs seem to have been provocateurs, and many claim proof that they were actual police. Far from state of nature, in other words.]

more from a good source

An Egyptian living currently outside Egypt, but well connected by phone to the country:

“spoke to more people – news from yesterday-
a friend marched all the way from heliopolis to maspero on corniche el nil. he said the streets were full of people marching as far the eye could see – old women, families, linking arms, calling people down from balconies and they came down, People driving were stopping their cars and just getting out and marching with the people. He said there would be trucks on fire and things burning and next door koshks would still be working, selling water, blasting the radio… he said it was unbelievable. Later as they got closer to the center they started getting attacked with teargas and rubber bullets. He said that he saw two police men take off their uniforms and join the march in their interior clothes. Later when battles became ugly the soldiers who were hurt were taken into houses and helped..

but i think the mood was hugely different in different areas of the city. Now it sounds things are getting ugly again”

Dharavi

Tonight’s activity was a visit to Dharavi, a very large and significantly impoverished area. Art installations were in place, the first of them being a sort of cave made of toxic waste drum looking things (actually expended cannon shells, I later learned) with terrifying sounds playing from the inside: bee swarms, gunshots, aggressively begging children.

At times it was very difficult to tell the difference between installations and actual elements of Dharavi life, which I suppose was part of the idea.

Suleiman as VP

That’s obviously the big news in the few hours since I’ve been gone.

I’m looking hard for an interesting article I read in November (but can’t find at the moment) outlining how this gentleman would be the likely replacement in the event of the decease of the incumbent. That puts the news in a serious light.

back on the studio roof

The trip is ending pretty much where it started: on the roof of the studio in Bombay. Nice to end on a good note here, and it sounds like a few more tours may be fit in this evening.

some people are just rotten

This morning a sock puppet account appeared on Twitter called “sanchez7475,” referring to one of my posts out of context and earning it a healthy number of hits. Indeed, pretty much all of the “sanchez” posts are about me.

Coincidentally, sanchez7475 follows only one individual account on Twitter: that of my good friend Levi Bryant (my own original Twitter account was disconnected months ago). Then there are 7 additional news sites he follows that appear designed to make him look like someone with genuine political interests, though his real interest seems to be keeping an eye on Levi’s tweets. (Is anyone on the planet really interested *only* in Levi Bryant and political news and no other individuals?)

There are also striking similarities of formulation between “sanchez” and words blogged a bit later in the day by our old familiar adversary, writing under his usual alias. He tweeted a large number of people, including friends of mine as well as the Huffington Post (!).

There’s something deeply wrong with this person. People should realize that he isn’t just a blog heckler. He also sends colorful emails. In early October our job ad (with which I had absolutely nothing to do) listed Ecuador as the country in which Cairo is located, obviously as the result of someone making a simple and easily correctable pull-down menu mistake.

What would a normal person do? Send a polite correction. What does this person send me instead?

“Hey, moron – before you announce your job all over the world, you want to make sure that your Chronicle of Higher Education Ad does not say ECUADOR, instead of EGYPT – are you completely incapable of even the simplest task like posting a job with a CORRECT LOCATION? Too busy blogging about your most recent ‘good things vs. bad things’? I’d file this under ‘Things I f*cked up because I have too many things going on’ – i.e. a bad thing…

Screenshots attached, *sshole!”

In a strange irony, the screenshots were actually useful and allowed me to alert the people responsible for such matters.

But he’s much too old for this sort of thing: indeed, well out of the age and status range where this sort of thing might be forgiven. These are just rotten things to do.

oddity of the day

I did go all the way to the airport to see if the flights were still going into Cairo, and the GulfAir person there was baffled by the question– had no idea anything was going on in Cairo at all.

She was helpful, though.

another email from a trusted source

From an Egyptian I know abroad:

“im hearing positive news… people are happy, eager, energized, going back. They are saying its glorious, thats there is incredible collective movement.”

And then:

“although i’m also hearing there is open fire and madness too…”

Looks like I’m heading back unless things really melt down a few more degrees tonight. If GulfAir thinks it’s safe to fly there, then I guess it’s sort of safe to go from the airport to Zamalek at midday.