Reflections on Cairo

I guess it's not particularly surprising that considering the events of the last few days that my mind would be flooded with memories of Cairo. Even though that is where my passport went missing (and thus launched a massive adventure which is chronicled in one of my longest blog posts ever) I still have incredibly fond memories of my time there. I'm including an odd little picture I took in Coptic Cairo at the Hanging Church, which speaks to the odd jumble of the ancient and the new in Egypt, and especially in Cairo. I'm glad that CNN finally stopped reporting on the events of Jersey Shore long enough to actually cover the event - which naturally kept me glued to the screen for hours. I was stunned that at one point they were talking to a reporter who admitted that since the Internet was down - and since he didn't speak Arabic - he didn't have much to add to the conversation. It was blindingly clear what a faint shadow of its former self - and what a pathetic joke - CNN had become; and that sadly it was still the best American news option. Thank god for the BBC app on my Droid. It was also amazing how CNN was spending so much time championing the role that Mubarak had played in suppressing Islamist parties and actions without recognizing that his tyrannical rule helped inspire that Islamist response. Until we stand on the side of freedom and meaningful reform we'll never recapture that very special place we held in the world's collective imagination. As one of my Arabic friends suggested - there was a time when America always stood up for the little guy in the face of oppression, and now we just play favorites like all the other bullying empires.