Obama in Cairo

Thursday was a strange day. I was not woken up early in the morning by the sound of heavy Cairo traffic, nor did I really hear many of the normal sounds I would hear on a daily basis in Cairo. I left my apartment in Garden City around 10:30 that morning in an attempt to go to my favorite street side café in Doqi, eat some breakfast, and hopefully watch Obama’s speech. I wanted to see how Egyptians were going to react to what he said more than I really cared about what Obama had to say.
The first thing I saw as I left my apartment was an empty city without the normal honks and humming of vehicles in the streets. As I turned the corner of my street I saw a young Egyptian man with a police officer next to him looking through his video camera to make sure he had not been videotaping the mass groups of police officers throughout the city. With my camera bag in hand I walked by and continued to Kobri el-Gamaa (el-Gamaa Bridge) where I saw police turning people away, telling them that the bridge was closed. Feigning ignorance of Arabic I continued to try to cross the bridge. When a police officer stopped me and heard me speak English, he realized I was an American and waved me through, only to be stopped 5 feet later by a higher ranking officer. Continuing to play off the tourist role, I explain where I was going and the officer made me get into a taxi to continue my trek to the other side of the river. No one was to be walking on the bridge that Obama would be crossing in a couple of hours.
Once in I was in the taxi and we started moving I began to speak Arabic to the driver. He started to laugh, understanding that a tourist can get away with many more things than an average Egyptian can in Egypt, thus, my reason for avoiding using Arabic around the police that day. As we conversed I looked at the rows of police lining both sides of the street and the divider in the center of the road all the way across the river and continuing all the way to Cairo University, where Obama was set to give his speech. When I arrived in Doqi, the area was completely abandoned besides a few open bodegas and a few people sitting on the curb. The government had declared that everyone should be at work before 7 am or be forced to stay home. In parts of Cairo closer to the airport, no one could even leave their house, open their windows, or even stand near their windows.
When I arrived at my destination, I found the café was closed. I decided to walk back downtown, to see if cafes a bit further away from the University were open. As I walk across Kobri Tahrir, there were less police, which allowed me to stop and look at the Nile. As I looked down the river I noticed only police boats patrolling back and forth, with all other boats docked along the banks. On the bridge I saw foreigners with cameras in hand walking in the direction of the university. These would be the only people allowed to stand at the gates of the university.
Once in the Downtown area, I found the same sight I had seen in Doqi, a complete shutdown, save for a few newspaper stands, and of course, the Hardy’s and the Pizza Hut. I decided I would listen to the speech at the hostel I stayed at when I first arrive in Egypt. When I arrived I noticed that my friend working there looked pissed off. It did not take long for me to realize the extent of his anger. He was ranting about how he wanted Obama to go home so that he, and the many others who did not even make it to work, could go get some food. He then turned on the radio and we listened to reporters speak about the mosque and palace Obama had just visited. Finally, after some time, Obama finally made his appearance at the university.
Throughout the speech I was not alone in the feeling of sheer frustration. Although Obama said a few things that I never heard come from the mouth of a US President, his tone sounded to me to hold the same western superiority that has always been in place here. Revising history to act as if only the Palestinians are using unlawful force, and ignoring the will of a people by forgetting that Hamas won a legitimate election, Obama attempted to walk a thin line between the Palestinians and the Israelis that offered no solutions, only the same ideally pragmatic proposals the US has attempted to broker. All the while there was ecstatic clapping from the audience and “I love you” being yelled in Arabic, as we sat listening to the radio, grimacing. Then about an hour later the speech ended.
A few minutes later the buzz of helicopters could be heard. As I looked up from the rooftop I was on, I saw 4 military helicopters flying low and doing maneuvers around the two diplomatic helicopters that had just left the university. It was only later that night as I sat in the same café I had attempted to go to in the morning that I saw clips of Obama at the Giza Pyramids, looking like a movie star in his short sleeve button up shirt and surrounded by security. It turns out that the military escorted was escorting him to a private walk around the pyramids and the sphinx. After that, he flew to the airport and left for Germany.
So went Obama’s visit: condensed, simplistic, and romanticized as connecting with the Middle East, but also like a tourist’s dream: clear streets, no (political) hasslers, and no conversation with the locals. No plans laid out, only promises to a people forced to stay indoors. Thus is the location Obama picked for his speech; a country that is meant only secondarily to be enjoyed by its own people. Some people have insisted that the section about democracy in Obama’s speech was meant as a message to Mubarak to loosen his grip on Egypt. To which I respond “it is nice that he can say it, but come time for the US to give Egypt it military aid, will that money be withheld after the police unlawfully round up opposition, or when live ammunition is fired into a crowed at an anti-government rally, or any such attacks on basic rights that occur all the time here. If we want to get a sense of how Obama thinks about democracy in the Middle East just wait and see how the White House responds if today the opposition bloc in Lebanon wins a majority. Then we can see what he really meant when he said Washington will support governments that reflect the will of the people.
While many were in jubilation over Obama’s visit and speech, others like my friend were just purely frustrated with the fact that he and others could not even go to get a bite to eat, while supposedly having a hand stretched out to them. With America coordinating security with Egypt, I wonder if it ever occurred to them to think what type of image shutting off Cairo for the president’s personal tour gives off. I know that at least for me, as I watched the helicopters fly over head, I was filled with a strange sense of domination.