January 29, 2012 - A Muezzin's call and beeping horns compete for attention on the streets of Cairo... A haunting sound that called into the streets thousands of Egyptians... Determined marchers slowly filled the squares and the bridges- from all corners of Cairo, from the neighborhoods or homes of those who were martyred, all heading to Tahrir again. It is a year since the revolution and the revolutionaries have surprised themselves. In commemorations that many believed would be celebratory acknowledgements of Mubarak's fall, the seeds of discontent have sprouted. And the harvest may well be a renewed revolution. As people gathered on the 25th and then the 27th and 28th the cries were the same: down with the military, return our revolution... and no more of the past. Even the Muslim Brotherhood, desperately trying to drown out the cries in Tahrir on Friday by turning up their sound system with music and Quranic prayer were denounced as the country edges closer to a new moment in history.
Here in the Mideast and North Africa, history is unfolding. The revolution in Libya trembles, the Syrian regime struggles, the Arab League balances authoritarianism with reform... And all seems to cry "What will our future be?" Populations are growing here. Religious belief the opiate of those who are denied education or opportunity. This is a tinderbox of extremism that need not ever be lit. Throughout the world desperate despots cling to power - their political position more important than whatever claim of intent drove them to take power. For in the end so many have only one aim: their own gain.
We have made governance a contest and office a prize. We have lost sight of the purpose, which is to govern, to provide, to make this crazy assemblage of millions of people here and millions there function together. We hide behind nation and religion when we fail, instead of accepting that our path has not worked. We forget to change, to assert, to try something different. We objectify those who care or who oppose us and we minimize them. We no longer see them as human, we see them as obstacles. And then there is reaction and death.
There is a better way.
None of us here are quite sure how this mass of citizens - angered by blocked streets and security crackdowns - rediscovered this revolution, but they have. Headlines in the English language dailies speak of it everyday - and sense its momentum. The SCAF have disappeared from the airwaves and the streets and a tension seems to underscore everything... anticipation in part, fear in part. There is something in the air... At first I wrote it off as the wishful thinking of friends, but now I have seen it for myself. And I wonder how it will turn out, half hoping I could be here to see that next step. But I leave tomorrow.
Yesterday one friend, Ahmed, said to me "It is a miracle - millions on the street in a city of millions and no police or military to be seen - and yet no crime!" I warn him that this might be a prelude, a ruse, a hope by the SCAF that by being absent crime will erupt and the people will turn on the revolution. But we talk about motivation and action and I learn that these revolutionaries have learned from their mistakes.
They are honing their demands - making them clear and simple, they are calculating their marches so as not to disrupt traffic and commerce too much, they are steady and calm and tolerate the Parliament, but do not cede that it was their power that brought that Parliament into being... It is as though there are two tracks - one, shaped by the SCAF that attempts to slightly remold the existing structure to pacify the rage that led to the overthrow of Mubarak one year ago February 11, and one that is demanding a free Egypt and goes forward now without regard to the efforts of the SCAF. They have learned that when one side plays this as a game, the other must rewrite the rules. And they are becoming very, very good at this rewriting...
Late evenings give way to magic... a poet, Mustapha, chants in classical Arabic and we are mesmerized by his hands, his eyes, his voice. Passion for politics gives way to ribald joking only to snap back with the mention of a Salafi or the Brotherhood or the latest Coptic killing.... The smoky haze of Cairo obscures nothing. Inhaled it gives clarity, expelled it is the scent of change.