27 Jan 2011

One day in Cairo I met a wise man

A Cairo suburb 1990
I spent one day in Cairo. And during that day 20 years ago, I employed the taxi driver to just drive around the city. What a city!
It was culture shock for me. But during the stop offs for tea I met a man who spoke perfect English. As it was he turned out to be a professor in politics. We talked and I enquired about the regional problems and how they will turn out. "Oh" he said "It is simple. We in this part of the world never take time too seriously. For we know that at one moment the people having had enough will rise up to take back what is theirs."
Is now that moment for Cairo, Egypt has a major role to play in shaping a modern North Africa. It needs a modern approach to government and the shifting of power from elites to the people. Making protest illegal in any 21st century country is unenforceable, unreasonable and unacceptable.