By Carles Grau Sivera Cairo, Jan 31 (EFE).- With stubbornly high inflation and a weakening currency, meat has become both a luxury item among Egyptians and a product that butchers struggle to sell. Sitting behind a counter, shopkeepers at the centuries-old Bab al-Louq market in central Cairo wait silently for customers who never come. “I’ve …
The torture killing of an Italian student in Cairo has prompted the European Parliament to cut military lead to Egypt. But the European leaders may not be able to make the break.
Unmatched Cairo
It’s nearly impossible for me to write here. The streets beckon, and I’m a street rat, for sure.
Right this moment, I could be in that bitsy Bab Al Louq café, having my first cup while watching people and traffic swarm by, or I could be on the subway, heading to Al Azbakiyyah, with its thousands of street stands flogging everything. Many have a tiny, tinny speaker looping the same pitch. Layered, they become a minimalist symphony of mutually cancelled come-ons.
Yesterday morning, I poked around Bab El-Wazir, with its centuries-old mosques all magnificent yet decaying. Passing that of Ibn Tulun, completed in 879 thus the oldest in Africa, I marveled at its Tower of Babel-like minaret, but I’m not really drawn to great sights. Small surprises hold me, and there is an infinity of them, for people are so delightfully fresh. At best, we’re here to amuse each other.