Something’s Broken

The downpipe, the sofa, the pavement . . . and the country of Eygpt, for sure. The president is about to be elected unopposed, basically, for a second term after he carried out a coup d'etat four years ago. My taxi driver today, in a rare break with the generalised silence on the matter, screamed that he hated the current president, claiming he was a thief like all his predecessors. I asked how many of his friends shared his views and he said, 'All . . . only the rich support Sisi.'

Meanwhile, the President, himself, who has singularly failed to bring Sinai under his control has launched a huge offensive there to clear out ISIS. Yesterday, his Facebook page declared, 'I am proudly following up the heroic actions of my sons from the armed forces and the police to clear the precious land of Egypt from terrorists, enemies of life . . . as always, long live Egypt.'

The rhetoric has not changed for over sixty years during a parade of presidents who have all adopted a paternalistic position to the country, and 'the country within the country', namely, the army. All resorted to the tropes of 'heroism' and 'mother country'. No surprise they were all military men apart from Mursi who lasted a year and is now behind bars . . . along with many others of all political persuasions. The parade continues.