so far

So far, every media report about chaos has been largely negated by every human contact I’ve had in the city. (This is all indirect: friends and students and former students of mine who are phoning people and then telling me what was said.)

But no contrast has been more comical for me personally than reports of chaos in the banking system. Yes, I’m sure it’s impossible to find a working ATM or open bank in Cairo right now, and people must be having a hard time as their cash on hand is depleted and they have trouble buying what food is left. But repeatedly, I have been able to work with my Egyptian bank from Bombay with no difficulty. I’m going to try again now, and am expecting no problem.

Actually, I shouldn’t just repeat the phrase “buying what food is left” as though it represents hard fact, because again only the news reports have suggested that food is running out. My human contacts have repeatedly described going into supermarkets, buying food, distributing some of it to the poor, etc.

Either way, I’ll soon see the truth up close. A journalist friend of mine is already there, and I’ll probably be keeping my friend company on the reporting trail once in awhile, assuming we can find each other. Arrangements have been made of the sort often found in pre-telephone days. I didn’t quite say “throw a pebble at my window and then idly whistle the first bar of Yankee Doodle,” but it’s almost along those lines.