Dialogue of Civilizations

Christmas Eve in Cairo, and all is well (as well as can be expected). Egyptians did indeed take to Tahrir Square yesterday, as mentioned in my previous post. Upwards of 50,000 people (estimate by Dostor news site) demonstrated against SCAF ("the military"), in particular their tolerance toward those in the army and police who killed, beat, and otherwise abused protesters over the past week. The protest was dubbed "Friday of Reclaiming Honor", given that the police and army were especially abusive of women protesters, ripping their veils off, exposing their bodies, kicking and beating women - both protesters as well as passers-by, who sought to help their Egyptian sisters and save them from the boot of the army. See today's report in almasryalyoum (by clicking here) Also demonstrating on Friday were those who support SCAF. They appeared in the thousands in Abbasiya Square chanting pro-military slogans, and denouncing those in Tahrir as "thugs" and van...

Greetings from a subdued Cairo. Remember that "still waters run deep". Egypt is calm, which doesn't mean it's at ease or fully secure. Egyptians went to the polls yesterday (Wednesday) for the second round of Parliamentary elections, and Tahrir Square was quiet. However, a friend of a friend of mine was killed in Tahrir the night before, having been shot by live ammunition. He was shot in the stomach and by the time he got to hospital, they could do nothing for him. He bled to death. The young man was a student at Ain Shams University, an athlete, and a huge fan of Ahly, the national football (soccer) team. Today (Thursday), Egyptians of various walks of life tell me they will go to Tahrir tomorrow - first, to protest last week's brutal crackdown, which lasted at least 5 days and resulted in at least 13 demonstrators killed, and which targeted women in particular. Young men (teenagers and 20-somethings) and "older dudes" (50+) tell me they are go...

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Nevenka and I came to DC today. As we met an Egyptian friend in the Mayflower (Marriott) lobby, the world shook and it was obvious what it was - a major earthquake. People screamed; people rushed out of the ballroom and restaurant; we just sat there and acknowledged what it was ... I texted Jo and Grace to tell them we were fine; Nevenka called Ali and Hassan. And we continued our talk about Egypt "post-political earthquake" (i.e., post-"Revolution"). We later took a walk to the Mall and we discovered that the new Martin Luther King memorial was being prepared for its official opening by President Obama later this week. But we were allowed a "sneak peak", before the official ceremony. It's an inspiring memorial, on a beautiful spot along the Tidal Basin, with Dr. MLK looking across to Thomas Jefferson (former slave owner, but otherwise great guy!!). If you can read the side of the monument, it states what MLK stated - and why the artist...

While many students continue their travel in Europe and the Middle East, most of the rest of us arrived safe and sound at Logan tonight around 8:15. Soooooooo nice to be home! Wrap-up pictures coming soon. Meantime, off to sleep.

After our adventures in Dubrovnik, we headed for Split. 1 night there, then off to Plitvice Lakes region. We spent 5 hours hiking in this National Park - with its "layered" lakes and countless waterfalls. From there, we headed to Zagreb (sleepy Zagreb). We had 4 meetings in 2 days. The highlight for me was our first meeting - with the Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of Croatia (spelling of this Professor/Advisor's name is pending ... coming soon!). Zagreb in August is dullsville. No one is here (is anyone around otherwise?) and the streets roll up and things shut down around 9:30 pm. The upside of that is students also are bored silly, so have been hunkering down in the hotel lobby (the only place to get wireless!) doing their final papers/projects for us.

A lot more to our visit to Dubrovnik than these beautiful pictures ... I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.