Cairo used to be – sort of – European, but more exotic and busy and always exciting. It’s still fun and quintessentially Arab and colorful, but now it’s not so safe; not so multi-culturally harmonious; not so able to attract foreign visitors; business-wise not so bustling and prosperous – and is clearly no longer the leading influence in the Arab world. Sadly.
Walking home alone at night is a big no-no apparently, and is regularly followed up with a number of other warnings. Drive with your car windows rolled up and your doors locked. Don’t stop for any car accident. Never leave your vehicle on the highway. Avoid isolated areas. Leave all valuables locked up always. Use your horn if suspicious people are approaching your vehicle. If you take a taxi, write down the vehicle registration number and SMS it to a friend. Don’t sit in the front in a taxi. Never talk on your mobile in the street. Don’t let the electricity or gasman into your apartment to read the meter.
With 21,000 criminals escaped from nine Egyptian prisons, maybe this is not surprising. Smart residential areas such as Maadi now look rough, litter-strewn and without civic pride. Cairo used to be so ethnically mixed, with Sudanese in national costume, Coptic Christians going about their business quite freely, and Orthodox clergy strolling through the streets in their robes and heavy crosses on chains. But now the streets and especially the airport are thronged with overseas Egyptians selling-up, and pilgrims dressed in simple white robes going to Mecca. “I thought I had landed in Yemen or Saudi”, observed one Egyptian colleague, who always wore Western clothes, like most educated and middle-to-upper class Cairo city-dwellers.
Non-Muslims (and not all non-Muslims) who enjoy a glass of beer or wine were always able to buy a drink, and could visit the popular and convenient “Drinkies” off-license in downtown Zamalek, near the Marriott. Being closed for Ramadan is not new for this store; but all the stock being removed under the watchful eyes of Muslim Brotherhood officials has never happened before. Rumors that Egypt will go dry have not been denied by the Tourism Minister, who suggested somewhat naively that “people don’t come to Egypt to drink, but to go to the Pyramids!”
It used to be OK to use pleasant non-religious greetings to friends and passers-by; such as “Sabah Al Khair” and “Sabah Al Nour” – simple “good morning” salutations. Now only “Salaam Alli Kum”, with the compulsory answer “Alli Kum Salaam” is accepted. Teaching in English in schools and colleges may no longer be allowed in future. Beaches in Alexandria and on the Mediterranean coast may be gender segregated.
Cairo used to be Tourism City, especially Zamalek, the decadent but slightly shabby yet genteel district where I tend to hang out. Foreigners of every colour and race walked freely among antique shops, ice-cream parlours and shisha joints. Street vendors selling flowers, strawberries and roasted sweet potatoes were particularly adept at accosting foreigners – but now there are almost none to accost, except the ubiquitous Chinese. Those few foreigners remaining are advised to “dress modestly, to avoid attracting attention”.
Leaving the hotel wearing a tee-shirt and knee-length shorts, I heard cries of “haram!” (forbidden!) and fingers were pointed at me. Even though the temperature reached over 45oC in July, I took to wearing wrist-to-ankles outfits to avoid any more accusations. I did walk home alone late at night, but I felt uncomfortable, and was careful to avoid eye contact with anyone.
Arriving at Cairo International Airport, I disembarked, changed money, bought a visa and was processed through immigration – in less time than it takes me to arrive in my holiday home island of Malta from another Shengen destination. Malta has a population of less than half a million (Egypt has over 80 million and Cairo alone over 20 million). Except the last time I flew in, in late June, just after the new President had been elected. The airport was heaving. “These are all rich overseas Egyptians with foreign passports who have come back to sell their assets”, my local friend observed, with bitterness tinged with envy.
Another local friend, a Christian with a successful consulting business in Cairo, had just returned from a trip to Canada to gain landed emigrant status. “Business here in Egypt is right down”, he complained. And Canada is not taking any more Egyptians.
I was contracted to run two executive training courses before I arrived in Cairo, but both were cancelled. My MBA and DBA classes were packed, however. But these qualifications from a foreign university are the ideal ticket to a better life and more money – outside Egypt. Two other friends running consulting practices – one Egyptian, one German – had no new business contracts for the last six months.
Several Egyptians – especially the more elderly, upper class and internationally savvy – bemoaned the reduction of Egypt to the status of a third-rate nation. Rumours of the new President renting the Suez Canal to Qatar for 99 years, given the shortage of foreign exchange in Egypt, were lamented. Egypt going cap-in-hand to Saudi, Kuwait and Qatar – almost literally in the person of the new President within days of his election – were regarded as pathetic and scary.
Harking back to the heady days of King Farouk and Gamal Abdul Nasser, the older generation remembered the time when Egypt told the rest of the Arab world what to do, and were taken very seriously by Europeans, who could see their zones of influence in Arabia slipping away. To say nothing of nostalgia for studying the land of the Pharaohs, with their five-star living standards, and epoch-making monuments created more than five thousand years ago: no other country has an “ology” except Egypt…
