idrab....

It's a shame I put off the transferral of my journal entries from Jordan, etc. for so long....because real life has finally caught up with us. Earlier today, we received a text from Nehad, saying: "All classes tomorrow are cancelled. There will be strikes all over Egypt and it will be difficult to move around." We haven't received any emails from the State Department about it...officially this is not supposed to happen here, but the internet is buzzing. The most thorough coverage is coming from blogs among activists and freelance journalists here in Egypt (like this one and this one)...though any decent google search will turn up dozens of articles, mostly talking about Mubarak warning against the strike. There is apparently a facebook group for the strike, called "April 6". When I visited their page, I recognized the poster....these fliers are all over the walls across the street and around the University of Alexandria. They must have just gone up recently as well....I noticed them (I saw more than one man stopping to read), but in my usual attempt to walk quickly and avoid making eye contact with members of the opposite sex, I mixed up the word for 'strike' with the word for 'taxes'. I remember wondering to myself why there were posters up about a general tax!! Now that I think of it, this man was stopping to read posters right by a cluster of street policemen.

A while ago I remember reading an article talking about how agitation from the labor groups was what was really going to shake Egypt up (as opposed to solely political movements, like the pro-democracy 'Kifaya!')...we'll see if that's what is happening now.

Anyway, the facebook group has a long list of commands/demands, which I am sure are translated elsewhere, but I will translate them here:

Don't go to work.

Don't go to University.

Don't go to school.

Don't go to the store.

Don't go to the workshop.

Don't go to the precinct (police station).

Don't go to the market.

We want salaries to live on.

We want to be employed.

We want education for our children.

We want humane transportation.

We want hospitals to treat us.

We want medicine for our children.

We want fair elections.

We want safety and security.

We want freedom and dignity.

We want apartments for newlyweds [If you read the New York Times, you should have noticed an article about how young people in Egypt are unable to get married because of the rising costs]

We want bread and food.

We want social justice.

We want to cultivate, to build, and to manufacture.

We want trials for thieves.

We want to know our rights.

We want the Constitution to protect us.

We want our country to be for us.

We do not want rising prices.

We do not want favoritism.

We don't want thugs for policeman/officers.

We do not want torture at the precincts.

We do not want royalties.

We do not want corruption.

We do not want bribery.

We do not want arrests.

We do not want to fabricate issues.

We do not want empty speeches.

We do not want promises of prosperity.

We do not want to pass judgement.

We do not want forgery.

We do not want aid from America.

We do not want to have to resort to Israel.

As yet, we haven't heard anything about demonstrations in Alexandria or where they would be. It may just be that everyone stays home and the city goes dead. Since I now live in a fairly central area of the city, I'll probably know if anything happens. And if not, now that we have internet in our apartment again...we can find out that way.