Closing Down

An enormous store around the block from us which sells everything to everyone with its goods stacked high on floor to celestial ceiling shelving on three massive floors requiring staff to scurry up and down huge ladders like workers in a Sebastian Salgado Brazilian mining scene is closing down.

It's a landmark store and it's imminent closure must make local people wonder about the country's future. The ambience seems quieter since our last visit which may be due to a general sluggishness as people get back to work after the four day Eid holiday, and the cooler temperatures.

Looking behind the scenes a little, you see that there is a huge army and security clamp down on many university campuses up and down the country specifically targeted against supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Tourist traffic in the first half of 2014 was 25% down on the the same period of 2013 during the lead up to Mursi's overthrow, so hardly auspicious. August did have the most visitors for a singe month in three years, though.

Nineteen people are killed every day in road accidents demonstrating how limited driver education is and, elsewhere, the army are building a new cement factory which they will run for profit...yes, you read that right, the army are doing it as part of their Army Inc. conglomerate activities. And guess who will get the jobs in and profits from that little number.

President Sisi has won some kudos for helping bring about the Gaza ceasefire but I will need a little more time to find out what the people on the ground think of his now more than 100 days in office. My sense is many have simply fallen back, with a degree of comfort, into the old Mubarak regime ways; once bitten by democracy, twice shy.

The student unrest, however, seems wider than purely Muslim Brotherhood supporters and is, perhaps, a sign of that at least one thorn persists in this army state's flesh.