Clashes ignite at presidential palace

[Hafiz]

Does anyone have any evidence that any tourist or expat out of tens of thousands of tourists or expats, either in Cairo, the coast or Luxor has been assaulted or killed over the past week or two.Threatened yes. The violence is directed at political figures not foreigners - unlike many other places. If anyone has evidence of death or assault they should produce it rather than speculate and question the motives of others including those in Luxor.

Blogs by Europeans in Cairo state that the trouble is specific to several locations. There are no press or blog reports of widespread disorder or looting. Suez and Port Said seem to be worse.

Clearly things are not good, but get a sense of proportion and don't get succored into the media's focus on conflict and violence. Syria, the rape in India, the nightclub fire in Brazil, the attacks in Yemen, the regular bomb killings of hundreds in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Berlusconi and Putin, the jihadi killings in Algeria and the war in Mali are horrific (and that's just in the last few weeks) so save your feelings of horror for real horrors and don't debase the currency.

Quote "All this stuff is hitting the headlines WORLDWIDE" I am not aware of any major western newspaper where Egypt is on the front page. In Australia its page 5 or 7 the New York Times gives much larger coverage to French gay marriage and the Scotsman covers the capture of an escaped (Scottish) snake, but not Egypt. A sense of proportion wouldn't go amiss.

All the advice by people on the ground in Luxor is that things are reasonably quiet but tense and I have no evidence to doubt that advice. Again if there is evidence to the contrary, produce it.

[LivinginLuxor]

I have to agree with Hafiz's balanced view of the situation here. I've been accused (many times) of living in a bubble here, but I do actually wander around - and not only to bars! and I don't see rioting hordes, petrol bombs etc - there are occasional protests, of course, which do seem to be quite peaceful. I've seen reports here that suggest crime is increasing due to lack of adequate policing, but the type of crime described (against tourists) ie - bag-snatching, burglaries and scams definitely occurred pre-revolution, and I don't see a great increase in its presence now. But, as we are living through a revolution, such occurrences tend to receive more publicity than in the past.

I come to Luxor4U in the morning making small bets with myself, as to how many cut and paste stories about the situation here will have been made, and how many of them ever get commented on! Seeing so many 'negative' reports on one column can over-emphasise the problems, which are mainly confined to small areas in the large cities of the north.

Revolutions are ongoing processes, often taking many years to complete. The first elections were won by the party that had the best organisation but once the opposition parties here get their act together and produce coherent policies and organisation, the next elections could provide a springboard for a new Egypt. Of course, for that to happen, the old guard - the rump of the Mubarak era - will have to be removed. To me, they are the reasons for much of the unrest - organising petrol shortages and suchlike to 'prove' to the people that life was better under the old regime.

On a lighter note, it was good to see this in the Guardian this morning - why not enter if you've never been here, so you can see for yourself what Egypt is like? (It only applies to people living in the UK)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/extra/2013/ja ... MP=mic_344