reuters image
An injured anti-government protester gestures as he is treated by medics during clashes in Tahrir Square on Wednesday. (Tara Todras-Whitehill/AP). by Toronto Star at 12:13 PM
Hello dear readers,
The peace sign is universal, a throw back to the 60s and anti-war protesters of US involvement in their war against the Vietnam and its people. Three million people, mostly landless Vietnamese peasants lost their lives because the US tried to install a US friendly client state in South Vietnam.
Isn't it ironic that an Egyptian pro-democracy, pro-change protester is holding his hand up in the symbol of people popularized by American citizens who stood for justice in all corners of the world? Where is the voice of America now?
Why doesn't Obama tell Mubarak to step down immediately? What is wrong with the man who spoke so eloquently of change when he now sees the change before him but still supports a person and a regime that denies people change and democracy? Is the US support of Israel and the US military technologies that Egypt is given for maintaining a repressive dictatorship that helps keep Israel safe some of the reasons why Obama does not intervene by speaking out and telling Mubarak to leave NOW? Won't Obama help stop the violence now?
I am following live updates of tweets and photos on the Toronto Star blog on the horrifying events happening in Tahrir Square. Pro-government, pro-Mubarak supporters, some who have been caught with police ID, are battling pro-democracy supporters in Tahrir Square. Up to 500 people have been injured, with dead bodies in Tahrir Square being reported, too. Molotov cocktails have been thrown from the Egyptian Museum, at it, and some reports say, inside it. Here are some recent posts and tweets to the up-to-the-minute live streaming of news from Tahrir Square:
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Mahmoud Ali Sabra, a former director for Mubarak calls the government supporters on the street today "criminals."
He also has a message for U.S. President Barack Obama and other Western leaders:
"(We need you to) announce very clearly to Mubarak to step down now this is the only message we can accept from the leaders of the free world."
by Toronto Star at 11:44 AM
A fire has been set near the Egyptian Museum, and Molotov cocktails have been fired at the crowd.
The anti-government protesters say the government supporters are undercover police officers sent into Tahrir Square by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Protesters have taken ID cards of the supporters, which say they are undercover police officers. The government denies this.
Molotov cocktails are being thrown inside the Egyptian Museum. Army trying to put out fires inside and outside museum. #jan25
by DailyNewsEgypt via twitter at 11:09 AM
Army seems to intervene with water cannons to stop fire on museum but does not stop attackers / bomb throwers nor protect civilians! #jan25
by Dima_Khatib via twitter at 11:08 AM
Pro-government and supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (top) and anti-government demonstrators (bottom) clash at Tahrir Square in Cairo February 2, 2011. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)
by Toronto Star at 11:47 AM
Reuters photo.
Egyptian army F-16 fighter jets have been flying low over the crowds in Tahrir Square, gifts of the US to Mubarak. Can you image this killing machine over your head? (Reuters image)
This photo is from a Facebook site, set up by Leil-Zahra Mortada, who has been compiling photos in an album called the “Women of Egypt,” chronicling women protesting in Egypt. I found this photo on an article about women's participation in the Egyptian uprising, "Taking it to the Streets."
Tut ankh Amen. image source
I know I don’t have to introduce Tutankhamen to you. People in the West have had a long history of interest in the antiquities of ancient Egypt. This is evidenced in a special cable to the New York Times, written up in the Feb. 16, 1926 NYT article, “Tut-ankh-Amen’s Inner Tomb is Opened Revealing Undreamed of Splendors, Still Untouched After 3,400 Years.” “EXPLORERS ARE DAZZLED” begins the article, which glowingly reports on the speechlessness and gasps that followed the opening of Tut ankh Amen’s tomb. This momentous unveiling was the particular privilege of a primarily Western audience of, to quote the article, “EXPLORERS.” With one Egyptian official named as part of the party, the article notes that “There were twenty in all, to whom must be added the laborers who carried down the huge trays for the reception of seals, & amp;c [sic].”
Jan. 28, 2011, looters smash cases to steal antiquities from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo
artifact thrown onto the floor of the museum in the midst of smash-and-grab
Over the years, interest in the artifacts of Tutankhamen’s tomb has only grown, and they circulate the world to the delight of audiences everywhere, and, as well, millions of tourist visit Egypt each year to see the national treasures of Egypt in their homeland. And today, rather than read about the colonial adventures of Western explorers in American newspapers, the news from Egypt accessed online through various media sources, including Arab digital media, speaks of challenges to the legacy of colonialism and to state repression by the descendants of the unnamed “labourers.”
I am sure that you have been keeping up with the news about the recent popular uprising in Egypt that came to a head this Friday and Saturday and continues as we speak. The Egyptian people, inspired by the grassroots revolt for democracy in Tunisia (led by young people and enabled by social media), have been gathering, demonstrating, and defying government curfews and military violence in their demands for the resignation of Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak. The uprising is a response to increasing poverty (40% of Egyptians earn $2/day), unemployment, rapidly rising food prices, political corruption, and a 30 year long American supported ($1.3 billion military and security “aid” each year; US economic aid in 2009 was only $200 m.) repressive dictatorship, i.e. the government of Hosni Mubarak.
smashed case of antiquities at the Egyptian Museum
Egyptian army tanks move in to secure the museum
The Egyptian people have been demonstrating for days and nights in cities across the country, and many people have been killed (100-150 deaths) and injured (over 1000) by Egyptian security forces. In Cairo, where demonstrations are particularly intense, people have been gathering in Tahrir Square (Freedom Square), which the Egyptian Museum faces.
The building beside the museum is (I should say, was) the headquarters of the despised ruling party, which the anti-government pro-democracy protesters set on fire on Friday night and destroyed. The raging fire engulfed the party headquarters, which endangered the museum due to its proximity, and in the melee “dozens of would-be thieves started entering the grounds surrounding the museum, climbing over the metal fence or jumping inside from trees lining the sidewalk outside.”
Egyptian army securing the interior of the Egyptian Museum
The first people to secure the museum and stop further looting were the people, the anti-government demonstrators. As reported in the article by Maggie Michaels (that I linked to above), people formed a human chain around the museum, preventing more looters from entering the museum:
“One man pleaded with people outside the museum’s gates on Tahrir Square not to loot the building, shouting at the crowd: ‘We are not like Baghdad.’ ….
Suddenly other young men — some armed with truncheons taken from the police — formed a human chain outside the main entrance in an attempt to protect the collection inside.
‘I’m standing here to defend and to protect our national treasure,’ said one of the men….Another man…said it was important to guard the museum because it ‘has 5,000 years of our history. If they steal it, we’ll never find it again.’”
Egyptian army patrolling the museum
Tourist police assisted the pro-democracy demonstrators in protecting the museum until the Egyptian army arrived to secure the building. However, looters destroyed two mummies by ripping off their heads, damaged 10 other artifacts, smashed glass cases, along with other damage; some of which you can see in the photos I have posted. I took the photos yesterday while watching the Al-Jazeera English website, which is live streaming the uprising in Egypt. So they are images I snapped from webcasts that I was watching on my computer monitor and my TV.
Above is a short (about 1 minute) newscast of the destruction at the museum that I found on the Al Jazeera website.
artifact smashed into pieces
Along with the Egyptian army securing the museum to prevent further theft, the fire in the adjacent building was extinguished. However, the museum is still not safe until the burnt building is torn down (Zahi Hawass says that it can fall onto the museum, causing damage), and, of course, the current volatile instability in Egypt is resolved. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is a particularly valuable cultural archive of North African antiquities, important not only to the Egyptian people, but to all humanity.
The Egyptian Museum (Museum of Egyptian Antiquities) is a “two-storey museum, built in 1902, [which] houses tens of thousands of objects in its galleries and storerooms, including most of the King Tutankhamen collection.” The looters, thankfully, were caught and the stolen artifacts retrieved, according to this report.
However, the situation in Egypt remains insecure, tense, and unpredictable. Unlike Canada and its aging population, the countries of the Middle East have young populations; overall, 70% of the population is under 30 years of age. In light of high unemployment, skyrocketing food prices, increasing poverty, censorship, and violent repression of any dissent against the ruling government, young Egyptians and their allies, family members, and neighbours, male and female, have taken to the streets to attempt to change their futures. On Saturday, as Manar Ammar reports on the collectively written blog, bikyamasr (which, according to my husband, translates roughly to “all the bits and pieces that make up the problems in Egypt and you don’t know where to start”), “Egyptian demonstrators took their protest movement on the offensive, braving gun fire, tear gas and violence to protest in front of the ministry of interior. Reports from the scene are anything but harrowing [sic], with one reporter saying lines of people would brave the live fire and march toward the ministry, only to return with blood and wounds, in a Gandhi-like protest against state tyranny.”
The short video above clearly gives you a sense of what the Egyptian people are against, and their determination to free themselves from the stupidity of Mubarak. I am heartened by the courage and rage of the peoples of Egypt (and Tunisia) in rising up against their repressive regimes, standing up against corruption and for their human rights, and I wish them success in their struggles.
There are few houses with icicles as long as the icicles dripping down from the roof of my home. When it is brilliantly sunny, as it is today and has been for the last few days, regardless that it is -20c something, the sun still manages to do its magic. Behind the rooftops of homes and garages in my neighbourhood you can see an imposing looking old brick institution. That was a high school that has since shut down, so it sits empty.
Here is a photo from my walk yesterday. We had a lot of light snow fall all day long, making everything look clean, white, and pure. As you know if you are a regular reader of my blog, I like to walk down back lanes. Walking down back lanes is great in the winter as you are protected from the winds and, as well, there is next-to-no vehicle traffic. So it's quiet, except at times for barking dogs that growl at you as they run back and forth behind fences. Also, in back lanes the ground is earth, not paved, so it is more forgiving on the feet, ankles, and knees. Of course, this doesn't make as much difference in the winter as the snow underfoot cushions your step. 
Here is a photo taken from the parking lot at Lakehead University, after I stepped out of my car. Along one edge of the parking lot, there is a strip of old tall spruce and tamarack, among other trees. Last month, I saw a lynx run into this strip of wood, on its way to somewhere else as this is not a wild spot. Indeed, in the area around the university, more and more urban forest is being taken down for "development." Thunder Bay is more a car culture than a place of public transit, so the university has a lot of parking lots. I am one of those car culture folks who takes her car to work rather than wait for public transit. This is a pretty edge of one of the lots. I will show you other photos later; I will go up to the fifth floor of the ATAC building and take some photos of our parking lots.
