'This is what hope looks like'

For the Egyptian people....

There's plenty of coverage this morning on the exciting events of last night. As always, Ahdaf Soueif writes so well, and from the point of view of someone directly involved, about the celebrations and hopes today. I've taken the title of my blip from her article.

This is a Middle Eastern palm, rather than the variety indigenous to this region, and these were originally brought here by returning pilgrims. Josiane Ubaud, the ethno-botanist, mentioned this in her fascinating talk last night, saying that they were brought as proof that the bearer had been to the Middle East. In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare refers to this, playing on the word 'palm' when Juliet tells Romeo 'For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, / And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss'. But eventually these trees became symbols of status. This one is in the garden of quite a substantial house in Roujan.

In LARGE you can see the dates on the left side of the palm.

Edit: if you read French and are interested in what Ubaud says, there's an article by her which summarises what she said last night.