Cairo Envoy - There is another week, Samer Ahmed, twenty-six years, worked as a financial analyst specializing in credit risk within the Bank of Alexandria. Put on short by the revolt which engulfed his country, he always treats the question of risk, but in a radically different context. With some friends, he manages a roadblock on the ledge of Zamalek, one of the bastions of the bourgeoisie Cairo.
Their mission is to prevent any unwanted intrusion into the streets of this green island, which houses a host of embassies, upscale restaurants and apartment buildings, just across Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising. Like them, hundreds of residents were forced to improvise Zamalek guards to overcome the loss of police on the streets of the capital, displacing potential raiders, attracted by the luster of their neighborhood.
"It's very simple, we ask drivers their ID and if they do not live in Zamalek, they do not pass," said Samer, already broken with the severity required by its new function. After retrieving his papers, the driver of a white Mercedes, wrapped in a fur coat, launches out of the window: "May God bless you, youth of Egypt!" To filter traffic, Samer and his new colleagues have a barrier on wheels, they have borrowed from a nearby embassy.
As weapons, they have a simple wooden stick after which they hung a sharp knife. The few motorists who venture into the streets of Zamalek, in the late afternoon of Sunday, January 30, bent gracefully to the control. "Everyone suffers from this situation, they know that we did it for them," said Samer.
Himself did not complain of his forced conversion. "We want change," he said. This revolution is not just the poor who have nothing to eat. It is also the middle class, which suffers from low wages, inflation and favoritism enjoyed by favorites of the regime. These people are frustrated by what is happening.
I had also some costumer. Corruption, I saw scrolling on my computer screen. " A policeman on a scooter, armed with a Kalashnikov, stops in front of the dam. It belongs to the special forces unit spared the stigma that affects most of the security agencies. He gives his phone number with instructions to call at the slightest glitch.
"This is an exception," said Youssef, a journalism student who comes to take his shift on the dam. Almost all police forces disappeared from circulation after the intervention of Mubarak on television on Friday. They seek to scare us, to sow chaos in order to discredit the revolution. " The tactic also is not completely ineffective.
A vague anxiety hovering over the deserted streets of Zamalek, along the garden club Gazira up a meeting place for the Cairo elite. At the wheel of his car covered with dust, Shenouda Badawi, twenty years, engineering student, says his discomfort. "My mother and my sister are terrified.
He must calm down. The message was heard. Mubarak must stay in power as long as the opposition structure. Otherwise there will be chaos." Member of the Coptic minority, a community shaken by the attack of Alexandria, which killed 23 people on the night of 31 December to 1 January, the young man is sensitive to the propaganda of the authorities, who continue to agitate the 'Islamist scarecrow.
"The Muslim Brothers are taking over the Tahrir Square. We see more and more beards," said Shenouda cons obviously. Two miles away, on Avenue of July 26, the main street of Zamalek, lined with restaurants, jewelers and gift shops, another dam is erected. Essam Kamel, 52, wearing a wool sweater on a gingham check shirt, it is volunteered.
In life before the revolution, Essam was a management consultant. Today, armed with a bicycle pump, it is the sentinel of Zamalek. "We ask drivers their papers, even the vehicle's registration, as there were many cars stolen in recent days," he said impressed with the importance of his mission.
Yesterday evening, several cars filled with shady characters have been repressed. There were even exchanges of gunfire. "Insurgents in Tahrir Square, Essam has only good things to say." They want democracy, like me, like him, like everyone else here. If Mubarak had an ounce of dignity, he would be gone.
For thirty years, he says he works for the good of the people. Then he proves it, and releasing. Even Suleiman [the chief of intelligence appointed vice-president Saturday], I do not want. It's too late, he is too closely linked to Mubarak. "Hussein Shafik, elegant fifties, is also descended into the street, with a curtain rod as a halberd.
Dressed in a beige fleece, this silver-gynecologist at the temples is ready to give a chance to Suleiman, the man liked to Israel and the United States, but only as long as free elections are held. "In a few days, the food runs out, he notes . The wages were not paid. The stock market has closed.
It should not be this chaos persists too long, "he adds. Spotters in the patrol unit he joined, there is a Bawab (caretaker) Nubian, son of two families, a station employee service and a small staff. A phalanx diverse image of the revolution without a leader who seems to galvanize the whole nation.
"It's normal," said Hussein. The scheme has attracted the hatred of all social backgrounds. Corruption, police violence or destruction of the education system, everyone suffers. "It is 20 hours. Silence reigns under the glow of streetlights. Samer Youssef, Essam and watch over the other nights of Zamalek.
Benjamin Barthe Article published in the edition of 01.02.11 
Their mission is to prevent any unwanted intrusion into the streets of this green island, which houses a host of embassies, upscale restaurants and apartment buildings, just across Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising. Like them, hundreds of residents were forced to improvise Zamalek guards to overcome the loss of police on the streets of the capital, displacing potential raiders, attracted by the luster of their neighborhood.
"It's very simple, we ask drivers their ID and if they do not live in Zamalek, they do not pass," said Samer, already broken with the severity required by its new function. After retrieving his papers, the driver of a white Mercedes, wrapped in a fur coat, launches out of the window: "May God bless you, youth of Egypt!" To filter traffic, Samer and his new colleagues have a barrier on wheels, they have borrowed from a nearby embassy.
As weapons, they have a simple wooden stick after which they hung a sharp knife. The few motorists who venture into the streets of Zamalek, in the late afternoon of Sunday, January 30, bent gracefully to the control. "Everyone suffers from this situation, they know that we did it for them," said Samer.
Himself did not complain of his forced conversion. "We want change," he said. This revolution is not just the poor who have nothing to eat. It is also the middle class, which suffers from low wages, inflation and favoritism enjoyed by favorites of the regime. These people are frustrated by what is happening.
I had also some costumer. Corruption, I saw scrolling on my computer screen. " A policeman on a scooter, armed with a Kalashnikov, stops in front of the dam. It belongs to the special forces unit spared the stigma that affects most of the security agencies. He gives his phone number with instructions to call at the slightest glitch.
"This is an exception," said Youssef, a journalism student who comes to take his shift on the dam. Almost all police forces disappeared from circulation after the intervention of Mubarak on television on Friday. They seek to scare us, to sow chaos in order to discredit the revolution. " The tactic also is not completely ineffective.
A vague anxiety hovering over the deserted streets of Zamalek, along the garden club Gazira up a meeting place for the Cairo elite. At the wheel of his car covered with dust, Shenouda Badawi, twenty years, engineering student, says his discomfort. "My mother and my sister are terrified.
He must calm down. The message was heard. Mubarak must stay in power as long as the opposition structure. Otherwise there will be chaos." Member of the Coptic minority, a community shaken by the attack of Alexandria, which killed 23 people on the night of 31 December to 1 January, the young man is sensitive to the propaganda of the authorities, who continue to agitate the 'Islamist scarecrow.
"The Muslim Brothers are taking over the Tahrir Square. We see more and more beards," said Shenouda cons obviously. Two miles away, on Avenue of July 26, the main street of Zamalek, lined with restaurants, jewelers and gift shops, another dam is erected. Essam Kamel, 52, wearing a wool sweater on a gingham check shirt, it is volunteered.
In life before the revolution, Essam was a management consultant. Today, armed with a bicycle pump, it is the sentinel of Zamalek. "We ask drivers their papers, even the vehicle's registration, as there were many cars stolen in recent days," he said impressed with the importance of his mission.
Yesterday evening, several cars filled with shady characters have been repressed. There were even exchanges of gunfire. "Insurgents in Tahrir Square, Essam has only good things to say." They want democracy, like me, like him, like everyone else here. If Mubarak had an ounce of dignity, he would be gone.
For thirty years, he says he works for the good of the people. Then he proves it, and releasing. Even Suleiman [the chief of intelligence appointed vice-president Saturday], I do not want. It's too late, he is too closely linked to Mubarak. "Hussein Shafik, elegant fifties, is also descended into the street, with a curtain rod as a halberd.
Dressed in a beige fleece, this silver-gynecologist at the temples is ready to give a chance to Suleiman, the man liked to Israel and the United States, but only as long as free elections are held. "In a few days, the food runs out, he notes . The wages were not paid. The stock market has closed.
It should not be this chaos persists too long, "he adds. Spotters in the patrol unit he joined, there is a Bawab (caretaker) Nubian, son of two families, a station employee service and a small staff. A phalanx diverse image of the revolution without a leader who seems to galvanize the whole nation.
"It's normal," said Hussein. The scheme has attracted the hatred of all social backgrounds. Corruption, police violence or destruction of the education system, everyone suffers. "It is 20 hours. Silence reigns under the glow of streetlights. Samer Youssef, Essam and watch over the other nights of Zamalek.
Benjamin Barthe Article published in the edition of 01.02.11
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