Seems that the will and resolve of the people have outlasted the will of the military to follow their former leader and end this demonstration with violence and weaponry. I will confess to not being an expert in Middle East politics as my assignment is Asia. (Not that I’m an expert in Asia, just happen to cover it for two years so I at least have the experience of the culture and understanding of working in area.)

The peoples voice was finally heard, and the unwillingness of a military to fire on its people is what ended this. This of course is just my opinion, limited as it were. There is something infectious about the joy and utter euphoria of the people as witnessed on the night of Feb 11. The tears for the people that gave their lives in the violence, the tears for the great expatiations that the people have for their freedoms all of these are things that make one pause and thing about what we in North America have. The freedom to criticize, to speak out and to vote, these are the simple things that we take for granted and these are the things that the Egyptian people want. I just hope that they aren’t left disappointed by the change. The Vice President is from the same stripe as the outgoing regime. Will the emergency rule end? Will the SSI end its imprisonment and torture of its own people? I don’t know. The other thing I wonder is where did the thugs disappear too? The Pro Mubarak demonstrators vanished as quickly as they appeared. There are many questions that need answers, but unfortunately we the media will be long gone when they start to be asked. I just hope the people in the square, the ones who welcomed us and thanked us for coming and showing the world what we could of Egypt aren’t disappointed and are able to achieve the things that we have.

Cairo-Friday

After the fun of Wednesday Jas and I kept pretty close to the hotel on Thursday. He didn’t sleep much do to all the shooting going on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. I did sleep well. Not sure why, but did.

Friday things had calmed down a bit and the rock throwing had abated, so it was time to venture out again. The hotel was taking camera as people were coming back in and also wasn’t in the mood for another confrontation so went armed with an iphone.

Just outside the hotel we headed right, towards the back of the square. We where turned around by military, so then we headed left. Well that didn’t work either. We were stopped and taken over to two officers, we were quickly joined by two more people in plain cloths. They asked to see our passports and cell phones. “What are you doing? Where are you going?” We said that we where tourists, stuck in the hotel and wanted to get some water a food. I doubt they bought it. They looked at our cameras and we had to delete every photo and video on the spot going back to my last picture of China. Once satisfied, they then said we can’t go anywhere and said to return to the hotel.

We walked the 100 meters or so back, turned the corner and bumped in to a CNN crew who live here. A little discussion and trade of information took place, as we are all one big family in this kind of thing. They went there way and we went ours. Our decision was to try a cab and see if we could get out of our secure area. A little to secure for my liking. Three more passport inspections and 150 Turkish Pounds and we were final able to get near the square. By the way, the distance was about 500 meters.

As soon as we where in the crowd the sense of safety returned. The Anti Government protesters welcome us and we feel secure that we can engage in doing our job and talk to people openly and frankly. We gathered material on both phones, and after a couple of hours we though it wise to start heading back to the hotel. Military check points that we had attempted to cross seemed like wrong way to go so we got a cab and headed toward the back of the hotel in a round about way. Over the river, South, a few hundred meters then back over the river behind the hotel. This is where things went a little nutty.

As we crossed the bridge, traffic slowed and we were being check out by club welding kids. Through the yelling we deciphered that they wanted to know who we were and what we were doing in their country. Clearly they were edgy and fired up. They checked the trunk and some guy jumped in and we drove down under the bridge and were surrounded by more people who gave off the appearance of being less than friendly and very unwelcoming. We stopped at a barricade and were escorted through some yelling to the police. Once on the inside of the barricade I was physically patted down by a gentlemen in his 40’s who was obviously allowed to be there but wouldn’t tell me what his authority was. My guess would be plain clothed police. After a short walk we were passed to a different set off military officer who spoke some French and English.

They inspected our passports and asked us where we were going. We explained again that we were trying to get to the Hotel, which he could see was about 600 meters away. We left out the part about being journalist, but did thank him for getting us way from the mob. He returned our passports after several questions and said to go ahead. We thanked him and off we went, glad we wouldn’t be going back through the less than welcoming crowd.

Not 70 meters away we went to squeeze by the tanks when again we were stopped by military and asked for our passports. We produced them and pointed at the officer who had granted us permission to pass. This guy didn’t seem to care and said that we could go any further and needed to go back and turn right and try our luck with the crowd. This was less than appealing and we continued to try and negotiate our way passed. Explaining that we had concerns for our safety if we went back the way we came was met with a shrug. As time passed and Jas and I agreed that going anywhere near that crowd was not going to end well, we returned to the Officer who gave us permission to pass and he asked why we had returned? While explaining the situation Jas spotted more foreign people coming through the crowd. Turns out it was CBC’s Glen Kugelstadt (former Beijing bureau camera for CBC and friend) reporter Nahlah Ayed, Margaret Evans and there producer and local hire. They too had just had an encounter that was less then pleasant and were now concerned about how to safely get to the Hilton.

Thanks to Nahlah, their producer and fixer and some endless minutes of discussion, we where finally escorted past the troublesome military checkpoint and given passage to our hotel. Seems that they were two different militaries and both had different ideas of what would be our best direction. One way was along the river straight to the hotel with the military spaced about every 100 yards, the other was back through Pro Mubarak supporters with clubs and bats. I’m glad we were finally allowed option 2.

Cairo

Jas and I arrived in Cairo on Tuesday noon and got out on the streets around 3:30. Had little trouble navigating civilian checkpoints of the anti-Mubarak groups. The mood in the square was up beat and almost festive with people overjoyed with the ability to have the freedom to express them selves. Many families and youth out and chanting their message. We gathered our material, using a digital still camera actually, and returned to the hotel once again without much hassle. We filled our story and felt pretty good about the day, considering it started Monday morning at 8 am in Beijing and ended Tuesday morning around 2 am Cairo time.

Feb 2 we headed out to gather material around 11 am and within 20 meters of the hotel found Pro Mubarak protesters heading towards state TV. Just as passionate as the anti Mubarak protesters but as the crowd built you could sense the less than friendly attitude. After 2 hours or so we were heading away to try and get some pictures to contrast the demonstration but keep getting told to shoot what was going on around us. They seemed to think that we hadn’t covered their demo.

Jas and I hopped in a cab and headed back towards the airport and found some areas that seemed quiet and I got out to take a couple shots around a busy bank machine. Quickly started to get the impression I wasn’t welcome so left. As I was getting in the car I was getting a street shot and as the frame ended a cab pulled up with a Mubarak photo and flags flying.

I bailed and hopped in the cab off we went. A mile or two up the road we found a shop selling fresh juice and another convenience store with some others closed. The kind of shots we were looking for. Was getting the picts when I heard a car roll up behind me and I headed for the cab. Was confronted by about 5 guys yelling at me to shoot pictures of there car and Mubarak signs. Did as asked and then jumped in the car and locked the doors with Jas yelling to the driver to go. We were block in from behind and within seconds blocked in from the front by another car. At this point there was more than a dozen people around us, pounding at the vehicle and asking us who we were. We attempted to talk to the ones that were calmer and told them we were Canadian. They wanted and insisted we wait. They tried to check our passports but we wouldn’t hand them over, just showed them. The pounding and anger continued for about 20 more minutes and finally police arrived. An officer eventually got in the cab with us and got us out of there, we thanked him but then we headed down back streets and he wouldn’t tell us where we were headed. We reached a dead end and he wanted us to come with him so he could “check our documents” we refused, suggested that he take a photo of our passports as we would get stuck because of the looming curfew. We wouldn’t get out of the car and he finally gave in. Told us to cover the camera and get directly to the hotel. We did, and after some backed up traffic, several back streets, emerged close to the hotel and final felt that we were safe.

That, was Wednesday, a big contrast from Tuesday. Later that afternoon and night the protesters from both sides clashed in the rock throwing assaults that were seen around the world. The gunfire and petrol bombs continued until the early hours as witnessed by Jas and Dan Hodgson. Luckily I have a back facing room and slept pretty well.

If you look at the video, you will notice, it was the same cab in the first picture of the street that rolled up behind me down the road. To me it looks like these were Pro Mobarak thugs out to target the media and turn them over to police.

Video runs a little long, and the shot isn't great but hey, didn't get thumped and I call that a win.