And on a lighter note

Now this article I will whole heartedly comment on. In this day and age of black and white when it comes to acceptance and hatred, I find it more and more prudent to be able to make light of a negative situation. In this case, the suggestion fronted by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, who are in full swing in attempting to slap censorship on the Blackberry phones. Reason being?

Well...that's quite simple. The Blackberry has heralded itself as being capable of encrypting messages, one of the reasons it is so popular a device for business people to use. Not only can you safely view and send emails via your Blackberry, the infamous BBM is also encrypted to ensure no possible interception of your messages. Of course, this does not fly too well with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, whose media ("censorship") authorities distrust the encryption capability. Translation --> we don't like not being able to read everything and anything that you are sending. So the ideal result? Banning the Blackberry's ability to access the Internet/Email/BBMs within Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

This article puts such a great spin on this ridiculous suggestion, that I have to share it.

Gulf states order Blackberry users to cover their phones in a tiny burqa

New laws in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will require that every Blackberry user dress their phone a miniature burqa and face veil.

‘The Blackberry burqa means that people can still use their phones,’ said a Saudi government official, ‘but the tiny niqab that covers the screen will stop them from reading emails or accessing the Internet.’

The introduction of the burqa is intended to conceal the Blackberry from unwanted attention. With the veil in place only a tiny slit remains revealing just the time and date, thus preserving its modesty.

‘This is not about censorship or oppression,’ said UAE telecommunications regulator Mohammed al-Ghanem, ‘this is about preserving the essential purity of the Blackberry and protecting it from being corrupted.’

ome businessmen believe that making their phone wear a burqa can be very liberating. ‘It’s great,’ said one, ‘with the veil in place I am free to walk about with my Blackberry in public without the feeling that people are staring lustily at my multi-media application. It also covers my shame for not owning an iPhone.’
Some religious groups have welcomed the policy. ‘If Allah had meant us to freely access the Internet He would have given us web browsers in our heads,’ said a local imam, adding ‘There is absolutely no mention of instant messaging in the Koran and at no point did Muhammad, or any of his eleven wives, ever say LOL, ROFL or PMSL.’

If the Blackberry burqa is successful it may spread to other countries. However, experts say that dressing your phone in a burqa could result in poor reception, especially in France and Belgium.
The British government has yet to declare an official line on phone burqas although Immigration Minister Damian Green said that to ban them would be ‘very unBritish’. He went on to explain that, ‘the British thing to do, as always, is to grumble and tut.’

The Saudi government have promised that anyone who refuses to dress their Blackberry in a burqa will face harsh punishment. ‘I am not saying exactly what we will do,’ said their Minister for Justice, ‘but suffice to say that it isn’t so easy to text with your toes.’

Spreading Tolerance, or further animosity?

I shall leave my own personal comments on this article aside. Rather, I feel that it is important to reflect upon the message in this article, and consider what the implications for such an action truly are.

A Muslim victim of 9/11: 'Build your mosque somewhere else'

By Neda Bolourchi

Sunday, August 8, 2010


I have no grave site to visit, no place to bring my mother her favorite yellow flowers, no spot where I can hold my weary heart close to her. All I have is Ground Zero.

On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I watched as terrorists slammed United Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, 18 minutes after their accomplices on another hijacked plane hit the North Tower. My mother was on the flight. I witnessed her murder on live television. I still cannot fully comprehend those images. In that moment, I died as well. I carry a hole in my heart that will never be filled.
From the first memorial ceremonies I attended at Ground Zero, I have always been moved by the site; it means something to be close to where my mother may be buried, it brings some peace. That is why the prospect of a mosque near Ground Zero -- or a church or a synagogue or any religious or nationalistic monument or symbol -- troubles me.

I was born in pre-revolutionary Iran. My family led a largely secular existence -- I did not attend a religious school, I never wore a headscarf -- but for us, as for anyone there, Islam was part of our heritage, our culture, our entire lives. Though I have nothing but contempt for the fanaticism that propelled the terrorists to carry out their murderous attacks on Sept. 11, I still have great respect for the faith. Yet, I worry that the construction of the Cordoba House Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site would not promote tolerance or understanding; I fear it would become a symbol of victory for militant Muslims around the world.

When I am asked about the people who murdered my mother, I try to hold back my anger. I try to have a more spiritual perspective. I tell myself that perhaps what happened was meant to happen -- that it was my mother's destiny to perish this way. I try to take solace in the notion that her death has forced a much-needed conversation and reevaluation of the role of religion in the Muslim community, of the duties and obligations that the faith imposes and of its impact on the non-Muslim world.

But a mosque near Ground Zero will not move this conversation forward. There were many mosques in the United States before Sept. 11; their mere existence did not bring cross-cultural understanding. The proposed center in New York may be heralded as a peace offering -- may genuinely seek to focus on "promoting integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture," as its Web site declares -- but I fear that over time, it will cultivate a fundamentalist version of the Muslim faith, embracing those who share such beliefs and hating those who do not.

The Sept. 11 attacks were the product of a hateful ideology that the perpetrators were willing to die for. They believed that all non-Muslims are infidels and that the duty of Muslims is to renounce them. I am not a theologian, but I know that the men who killed my mother carried this message in their hearts and minds. Obedient and dutiful soldiers, they marched toward their promised rewards in heaven with utter disregard for the value of the human beings they killed.

I know Ground Zero is not mine alone; I must share this sanctuary with tourists, politicians, anyone who chooses to come, whatever their motivations or intentions. But a mosque nearby -- even a proposed one -- is already transforming the site from a sacred ground for reflection, so desperately needed by the families who lost loved ones, to a battleground for religious and political ideologies. So many people from different nationalities and religions were killed that day. This site should be a neutral place for all to come in peace and remember. I believe my mother would have thought so as well.

The Iranian revolution compelled my family to flee to America when I was 12 years old. Yet, just over two decades later, the militant version of our faith caught up with us on a September morning. I still identify as a Muslim. When you are born into a Muslim family, there is no way around it, no choices available: You are Muslim. I am not ashamed of my faith, but I am ashamed of what is done in its name.

On the day I left Ground Zero shortly after the tragedy, I felt that I was abandoning my mother. It was like being forced to leave the bedside of a loved one who is dying, knowing you will never see her again. But I felt the love and respect of all those around me there, and it reassured me that she was being left in good hands. Since I cannot visit New York as often as I would like, I at least want to know that my mother can rest in peace.

I do not like harboring resentment or anger, but I do not want the death of my mother -- my best friend, my hero, my strength, my love -- to become even more politicized than it already is. To the supporters of this new Islamic cultural center, I must ask: Build your ideological monument somewhere else, far from my mother's grave, and let her rest.

Neda Bolourchi lives in Los Angeles.

Finally, the honeymoon period is coming to a close

I am so happy to read that more and more people are finally coming out of their honeymoon period with the Obama presidency. Sure, he sounds great...but when push comes to shove, what has he really done since being in office? And don't even get me started on the Nobel Peace Prize. Since when is it enough to win a PEACE PRIZE by giving a speech?

Anyhow, interesting article that I recommend anyone who is interested in U.S. politics should read.

Taken from the BBC

Not much good news on President Barack Obama's birthday

By Katie Connolly BBC News, Washington

 
The inaugural ball was a happier time for Mr Obama, whose wife's approval rating now eclipses his own.

 

Barack Obama celebrates his 49th birthday on Wednesday. Grassroots organisers around the country are holding birthday events to help rally supporters, but will they help the president's flagging approval ratings?

In Washington DC, 18 months can seem like a lifetime. For President Obama, that frosty January morning when he took the oath of office before a veritable sea of well-wishers must seem like a distant memory.
Back then, over two-thirds of Americans rated him favourably. It seemed difficult to imagine that after 500 days in office, political pundits would be warning that this popular young president could be an albatross for vulnerable Democrats in November's mid-term elections.

And yet last week, Pennsylvania Senate candidate Joe Sestak, who is in a tough race against Republican Pat Toomey, told reporters he'd prefer that Michelle Obama campaign for him than her husband. She's now the most popular political figure in the country, according to a recent Gallup poll.

That scenario seemed unthinkable to the masses who lined Pennsylvania Avenue, huddling against the cold, to cheer the new president last January.

But in recent weeks, polling undertaken by the Gallup Organization has suggested disapproval of Mr Obama's presidency is outpacing approval on several occasions.

His approval rating, which has hovered around 47% for more than a month, hasn't broken 50% since mid-May.

 
Both Hillary and Bill Clinton are now more popular than Mr Obama.
 

His former rival Hillary Clinton has fared significantly better, achieving a 61% approval rating in 2010 - a figure matched by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Just 36% of Americans approve of Mr Obama's handling of the war in Afghanistan, down from 56% in July 2009, the poll suggests.

In mid July, a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found support for Mr Obama's economic policies at a new low of 42%.

On another significant issue, the BP oil spill, a June poll conducted by CNN found 59% of survey respondents disapproved of Mr Obama's handling of the matter.

Slow change

As the chorus of critics grows, Mr Obama finds himself on the defensive. In two recent television interviews, the president was at pains to remind viewers that many of the problems he faced were handed to him when he took office.

But that's an argument the public seems increasingly immune to.

"Change has not come fast enough for too many Americans, I know that," Mr Obama admitted via video to the online activists and bloggers gathered at the liberal Netroots Nation convention.

Presidential Approval Ratings

Continue reading the main story Figures for early August in the second year in office:

• Barack Obama: 45%
• George W Bush: 71%
• Bill Clinton: 43%
• George H W Bush: 74%
• Ronald Reagan: 41%
• Jimmy Carter: 39%
• Gerald Ford: 48%
• Richard Nixon: 55%

Source: Gallup

That group were committed early supporters of Mr Obama, but have grown increasingly disgruntled with his presidency.

There seems nary a bright spot for Mr Obama.

But Jeff Jones, managing editor of the Gallup Poll, doesn't think this seemingly precipitous decline in support is particularly unusual.

"I think it is pretty normal, if you look at where other presidents stood at this point in their presidency," Mr Jones told the BBC.

Mr Obama's predecessor, President George W Bush, had impressively high ratings at this point in his presidency, driven largely by a spike in presidential support after the 9/11 attacks.

But Presidents Clinton, Reagan and Carter were all in the 40% range at a similar point in their presidencies. Indeed Mr Obama outperformed all three in July.

"The common thread with those presidents is that they all took office when the economy wasn't doing so well," Mr Jones said. "One difference is that Obama came into office more popular than most elected presidents, so maybe the expectations were a little bit higher."

But when the economy isn't doing well, it is nearly always the most pressing issue on voters' minds, and Mr Jones notes that it is very difficult for a president to have robust approval ratings with a weak economy.
"The economy is generally one of the stronger predictors of how people evaluate the president," he says, which doesn't bode well for Mr Obama's immediate political fortunes.

Still, the president's supporters are trying to capitalise on his 49th birthday today to reignite the energy and enthusiasm that characterised his campaign.

Campaign zeitgeist After the election, the president's impressive campaign apparatus transformed into Organizing for America (OFA), a fundraising and activist organisation with access to the coveted e-mail and call lists compiled during Mr Obama's presidential campaign.

 
 The enthusiasm of the Obama campaign has dissipated during his presidency.
 

OFA is eager to reactivate the millions of Americans who raised money, made phone calls and canvassed their neighbourhoods for Mr Obama.

OFA is attempting to use the president's birthday to provide both a boost for the commander-in-chief and encourage willing volunteers for Democrats in the mid-terms.

"The events that focus on anniversaries or that focus on the president as a personality or someone that people like and identify with tend to do well, so its understandable that they continue to try to tap that enthusiasm," Ari Melber, a writer for The Nation who has studied OFA, told the BBC.

"However, everyone knows there is significant concern from Obama's base about his progress on changing Washington."

OFA supporters received an e-mail from Michelle Obama, asking them to sign a birthday card for her husband, and "let him know that we're ready to take on the year ahead alongside him".

The Washington Post reports that, in what looks like a spot of campaign nostalgia, OFA is urging supporters to bust out their campaign '08 "yes we can" T-shirts, hats and buttons and wear them on Wednesday.
But while recapturing that campaign zeitgeist seems desirable, Mr Melber warns there are risks, particularly for some of the most active campaign supporters who have become some of the most disillusioned.

"There is always a risk that if you only do these kumbaya events and you don't give people meaningful voice then they may tune out," Mr Melber says.

"Most of these people would still like to see Mr Obama re-elected, so we are not talking about a real crisis in his political support. But walking around with a button or wishing the president a happy birthday doesn't really achieve anything either."

For Mr Obama, whose wife and daughters will be out of town for his birthday, it may not be such a happy birthday. Lucky for him, he still has Bo, the family dog.

Warning, you may actually lose brain cells from reading this stupidity.

This is a story that I was pointed towards via facebook. I had to share it. For anyone who has ever lived in a Muslim country, or who has ever gotten to know the Islamic religion, or who has even gotten to know a Muslim, this article just screams blatant ignorance.

Honestly, have some people in our world become so entrenched in hatred and ignorance that it's all black or white? There's no longer any grey areas in between? Either your an extremist Muslim, or a law-abiding, God-adoring Christian? And lord forbid you even think of swaying your sexual orientation. :S

All I can say to these people, is be thankful that your church is in a country that protects the freedom of speech, or in this case, freedom of hatred.

(CNN) -- In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, plans to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The Dove World Outreach Center says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam. With promotions on its website and Facebook page, it invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

"We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times," Pastor Terry Jones told CNN's Rick Sanchez earlier this week.

Jones wrote a book titled "Islam is of the Devil," and the church sells coffee mugs and shirts featuring the phrase.

Muslims and many other Christians -- including some evangelicals -- are fighting the initiative.

The church launched a YouTube channel to disseminate its messages.

"I mean ask yourself, have you ever really seen a really happy Muslim? As they're on the way to Mecca? As they gather together in the mosque on the floor? Does it look like a real religion of joy?" Jones asks in one of his YouTube posts.

"No, to me it looks like a religion of the devil."

The Islamic advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Muslims and others to host "Share the Quran" dinners to educate the public during the monthlong fast of Ramadan beginning in August. In a news release, the group announced a campaign to give out 100,000 copies of the Quran to local, state and national leaders.

"American Muslims and other people of conscience should support positive educational efforts to prevent the spread of Islamophobia," said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper in the release.

The National Association of Evangelicals, the nation's largest umbrella evangelical group, issued a statement urging the church to cancel the event, warning it could cause worldwide tension between the two religions.
"The NAE calls on its members to cultivate relationships of trust and respect with our neighbors of other faiths. God created human beings in his image, and therefore all should be treated with dignity and respect," it said in the statement.

Dove's Facebook page, set up for the September event, has more than 1,600 fans.
"Eternal fire is the only destination the Quran can lead people to, so we want to put the Quran in it's [sic] place -- the fire!" the page says.

But another Facebook group with more than 3,100 fans says it stands "against the disrespect and intolerance that these people have for the Muslim people" and encourages people to report Dove's page to Facebook.
Targeting another group it calls "godless," the Dove center is also hosting a protest against Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe, who is openly gay, on Monday at Gainesville's City Hall. The group previously fought -- unsuccessfully -- to derail Lowe's election campaign.

"We protest sexual perversion because the Bible protests it. ... What is acceptable to today's leadership becomes acceptable to tomorrow's society," the church says in its blog entry about the event.

Lowe and other government figures and media outlets received e-mails from the church about the event, The Gainesville Sun reported. Lowe isn't concerned with Monday's event.
"I've got other things to do," he said, The Sun reports.

On the outreach center's front lawn, alongside a sign reading "Aug. 2 Protest, No Homo Mayor, City Hall," stands not just one, but three signs bearing the slogan "Islam is of the Devil."
One of the signs -- one reading "Islam" on one side, "Devil" on the other -- was vandalized. On its blog last week, the church said the sign will be replaced.

"This is private property and vandalism is a crime here in America," the blog says. "In Islam, many actions that we consider to be crimes are encouraged, condoned or sheltered under Islamic teaching and practice, though. Another reason to burn a Quran."

Cairo Re-visited

Well it's been a hectic week, including a trip to Cairo and a visit to Hurghada from my friend LeAnne. It's been quite some time since I've been back in Cairo, I think the last time I was back was in the end of April. Surprising, how quickly you can forget parts of the city, and aspects of life that defined Cairo living.

I was staying in Maadi, and immediately realised that I missed living there. I even asked Karim if he ever had regrets about moving away, or if he thought he would ever move back. My feelings of reminiscence however were quickly replaced by those of frustration, and albeit a short trip back to Cairo, I was reminded of why I left the city in the first place.

Firstly, Smart Village is ready for its grand opening in Maadi. This in itself has changed the dynamics of the once quiet, green, suburb. Now, driving around Maadi there are road signs newly erected, giant billboards that you pray will not topple over and crush an unsuspecting car, actual road blocks and roundabouts that almost appear to be working, and traffic. Oh good god, the traffic. Maadi is beginning to resemble parts of Zamalek during the day when it comes to the amount of cars that are going in and out, and unfortunately, adding a few whistles and bells does little to ease the chaos caused by the massive spike in the number of people entering the suburb everyday. Not only that, but driving around my old neighbourhoods, I see new grocery stores next to the old pet shops, new fashion designers displaying their ware where there was once a small bedouin crafts store. Maadi, once so charming and quiet, is beginning to look like its urban brothers Zamalek and Mohandessin. 

Making the trek downtown is always an adventure in itself, but with the cars on the roads in Cairo multiplying at an exponential rate on a virtual daily basis, the dodge-em traffic style really wears on you after a while. I don't really see very many donkey and horse carts in Hurghada, so although it was nice to see those on the streets again, it reminds you of the abject poverty that runs rampant throughout this country. The people attempting to commit suicide by running across the autostrad, the microbus drivers that have never had a day of driving lessons in their life. Ah yes, the hustle and bustle of Cairo.

I had my first taste of what it really feels like to be a part of an Egyptian family while I was in Cairo though, and that's an experience I can treasure. Karim's family took me wholeheartedly under their wing, and I was immediately adopted in as one of them. Women trying to teach me how to belly dance, and honestly I wouldn't be surprised to find out that some of these women have electricity running through their veins the way they can shake. The atmosphere of eating in an Egyptian family gathering, everyone bringing dishes, the amounts of food endless, reminding you that should you come with anything but an empty stomach, you will have to leave by rolling yourself out of the door. This was definitely the highlight of my trip back to Cairo.

I was also reminded of how difficult getting around the city can be. Not only do you have to deal with mountains of traffic, but the taxi drivers that will go out of their way to rip you off! Don't get me wrong, we have those in Hurghada too, but at least here I'm fully aware of the prices to get places! I actually had a taxi driver try to ask me for 50 LE to get from Maadi to Zamalek, (which shouldn't cost more than 30 LE at NIGHTTIME!), who then volunteered to go and "ask" other taxi drivers coming back how much they would charge. He even promised I would be surprised to hear 60 LE from these drivers. Listen buddy...I've lived in this city before, I know how your agenda works. Take your 30 LE, and be done with it. I'm not that stupid.

So after a long week, it's finally the weekend. And I am ready to hit the sack, and let the hustle and bustle of the outside world be one thing that I don't have to worry about!

Chewy Coconut Cookies! :D

Ok, enough heavy blogs, it's time for a nice and easy, yet delicious, cookie recipe.

I went looking the other day for chocolate chips, in the mind to make chocolate chip cookies.

I went to no less than four supermarkets around me, including Metro, and I could not find chocolate chips anywhere. But a bag of shredded coconut caught my eye, and I figure hey, why not try coconut cookies? I left with the bag of shredded coconut, hoping that the recipes I found wouldn't require any unusual ingredients.

Fortunately it didn't, and this is a great recipe for coconut cookies. I tweaked it after the first batch, and the result was perfectly chewy, delicious coconut cookies.

** Ingredients **

• 1 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 a cup of butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt.

I changed this slightly, rather than adding 1 1/3 cup coconut, I added 1/3 cup dark chocolate, shredded, and 1 cup coconut. It's a perfect compliment

** Directions **

• Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit (175 degrees C) I reduced this heat, my oven cooks too quickly from the base, so I dropped it to about 150 Celsius - helps with a chewier cookie
• Mix together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
• Slowly blend in the flour. The mixture will be quite hard, if you're having troubles stirring it just add a dash of milk.
• Add Coconut (And chocolate if you want ;) )
• Drop mixture of about a teaspoon full of batter onto your baking sheet. (Here's a little hint...have you ever noticed how some people's cookies come out almost perfectly round every time? Like frustratingly perfect looking cookies? I always had that problem, mine were still delicious, but looked "odd." With this batch, I rolled them in my hands once or twice to make little balls of dough. The result? Well...you tell me. :D)

Bake the Cookies for approximately 8 - 10 minutes. (I baked mine a little bit longer as the temperature was lower. About 12 minutes) If your cookies are finished, when inserting a toothpick into the center, it should come out clean.

Enjoy!

Egypt's Pharonic Rule

President Hosni Mubarak, or as many have deemed to call him, Egypt's modern Pharaoh, is reportedly very ill, leading many Egyptian commentators and critic to foresee great changes to the Egyptian political stratosphere. Will Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal, assume the Egyptian crown, or will the conservative Muslim Brotherhood live through their increasing popularity on the streets and gain control over the government in Egypt.

Many Egyptians have a great deal to say on the matter, but equally just as many are content to sit back and say nothing, having become accustomed to the inability to speak out about politics in their country. I ran across an extremely interesting article in The Economist that discusses precisely that, the changing regime in Egypt, and the changing face of modern day Cairo. I felt it pertinent to share it here for all, and have added my comments in bold.

The long wait

After three decades of economic progress but political paralysis, change is in the air, says Max Rodenbeck

Jul 15th 2010

TRAVELLING into Cairo, Egypt’s monster-sized but curiously intimate capital, it is hard to tell if these are the best of times or the worst. Visitors who have long known the city are in two minds. Egyptian expatriates returning home are liable to cringe at the worse-than-ever traffic, the ever-louder noise, the fervid religiosity, and what they often bemoan as a new aggressiveness that spoils their nostalgia for a sweeter, cheerier Egypt. But tourists who came here, say, 20 years ago, tend to delight in the sleeker look of the place, the surprisingly efficient and still friendly service, the far better quality and variety of goods in the markets, and the fact that some taxis now actually have functioning meters. side note: Although many taxi's now have meters, most still don't use them, or for those that do, many will double the cost and overcharge people

Both impressions are right. The new World Bank-funded, Turkish-built terminal at Cairo International airport is as blandly functional as Cincinnati’s or Stockholm’s. Gone are the sweaty officials and greasy baggage handlers of yore, the taxi touts and shoving crowds. A businessman arriving here may be whisked in an Egyptian-built car to the cigar bar at one of Cairo’s dozens of swish hotels—perhaps one at City Stars, a commercial complex on the scale and in the style of Las Vegas. Or perhaps to another fancy hotel in one of the burgeoning gated exurbs in the desert, surrounded by the lavishly watered greenery of a designer golf course. There, the talk will be of beach houses and yachts on the Red Sea, of hot stocks on the Cairo exchange, and of Egypt’s delightfully low-cost labour. which would then encompass less than a third of Egyptian society. Egypt's social strata is one where the idiom "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" couldn't be more true. Rich upper class Egyptians have more money than they know what to do with, while for many in the lower class, finding enough cash to feed a family for a week (let alone a month) is a far greater concern .

A less lucky traveller, however, might instead see these things as most Egyptians do: in the giant backlit billboards that clutter Cairo’s roadsides and rooftops, vividly flaunting the unattainable. The consumer paradise they display, with perfect hair, light-skinned children and men in pinstripe suits, stands in stark contrast to the harried, shuffling crowds below. Such sights will probably be accompanied by an earful of complaint from the driver stuck in a jam: about corrupt traffic cops and the absurd impossibility of feeding and schooling the kids on $150 a month, but above all about politics, the staple of all Middle Eastern conversationalists.

Political talk in Egypt has always been acidly cynical, but now a new bitterness has crept in (aided in no part by the increasing access to Internet that more Egyptian youth now have). This has not been prompted by any change from above, since little has really changed in Egyptian politics since President Hosni Mubarak came to office 29 years ago. The sour mood is informed instead by the contrast between rising aspirations and enduring hardships; by a growing sense of alienation from the state; and by the unease of anticipation as the end of an era inevitably looms ever closer.

It is not surprising that Egyptians should feel rather like driftwood on the Nile, accelerating towards one of the great river’s cataracts. Their current pharaoh is 82 years old, visibly ailing, and has no anointed successor. Most of his people have known no other leader. The vast majority have grown so inured to having no say in the course of events that the reflex is to float patiently rather than try to paddle. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for November this year and presidential ones for September next. As usual, few citizens are likely to take part. They will watch from the sidelines and accept the preordained results with grim humour.

Losing patience

Nevertheless, the expectation of a seismic shift is almost tangible in the air, and not just because of Mr Mubarak’s health. Egyptians may be renowned for being politically passive, but the rising generation is very different from previous ones. It is better educated, highly urbanised, far more exposed to the outside world and much less patient. Increasingly, the whole structure of Egypt’s state, with its cumbersome constitution designed to disguise one-man rule, its creaky centralised administration, its venal, brutal and unaccountable security forces and its failure to deliver such social goods as decent schools, health care or civic rights, looks out of kilter with what its people want.

For some time Egyptian commentators have been noting resemblances between now and the years before Egypt’s previous seismic shift. That happened in 1952, when a group of army officers rolled their tanks up to King Farouk’s palaces and tossed him out. The coup was wildly popular at the time. It had followed a period of drift and growing tension, marked by strikes, assassinations, riots and intrigues between Communists, Muslim Brothers and the king. Egypt was thriving economically, but the spoils flowed mostly to a cosmopolitan elite that was out of tune with the street. It had a functioning democracy, but ever-squabbling politicians seemed unable to get things done. To general chagrin they could not shake off the lingering influence of Britain, whose soldiers refused to budge from the Suez Canal where they had been encamped since 1882.

The officers’ coup replaced this genteel but dysfunctional constitutional monarchy with one-party rule, fronted by a strongman and backed by secret police, with the tanks idling nearby. Republican Egypt became a model for other Arab dictatorships and forced wrenching changes at home. Its promises of free health and education, land reform and jobs in state factories and offices did lift millions out of misery to mere poverty. The ideology of pan-Arabism trumpeted by the coup leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, gave Egyptians a place of pride in the world, even if his boldness brought ruinous wars in Yemen and against Israel.

Six decades and four presidents on, the revolutionary regime has metamorphosed into one that encourages private business and allows for some pluralism. Yet it looks to many Egyptians like a waning dynasty—the 45th in the long line of houses that have ruled the world’s most enduring nation since 3000BC. Its promises are largely in tatters. Schools and hospitals are indeed free to enter, but they are grim, bare, crowded places where getting learning or treatment requires cash that many still do not have. The lower middle class of army officers and bureaucrats who rose in the revolution have joined the gentry they were supposed to have ousted, adopted their haughty ways and now share Egypt’s spoils with them. The poor still queue for government-subsidised bread and must scrimp and save to buy a pair of shoes.

The government’s plan to perpetuate itself in office, via the traditional electoral rigmarole, is likely to go ahead. Predictions of change in Egypt have almost always proved wrong; generally it bumbles along much as usual. This time may just be different. The country now faces three main possibilities. It could go the way of Russia and be ruled by a new strongman from within the system. It might, just possibly, go the way of Iran, and see that system swept away in anger. Or it could go the way of Turkey, and evolve into something less brittle and happier for all concerned.