2008
Apr 
20

The Speed of Traffic

12:35 — General Update  
 

I am Frogger, hear me roar

A number of things have happened in Cairo since the strikes a couple of weeks ago. The most immediately noticeable of these was a relative increase in the speed of traffic.

It turns out that since the government and security forces warned the general public about participating in a strike, everyone has been a little edgy about gathering together in groups, moving around the city and country, and also going out at night.

It is a common Cairene pastime to drive around at night. Usually the streets are packed, especially on the weekend nights, until the wee hours of the morning. This contributes to the relative slowness of traffic which enables people to cross the street without cross-walks, traffic-signals, foot-bridges or tunnels.

No longer is this the case.

Now, with the empty streets and since no one cared to follow the speed limits—a paltry 60 km per hour, seldom reached due to the often deadlocked traffic—it is dangerous to cross the street. It may not actually be the case,

Usual speed of traffic but it certainly now feels like we are attempting to cross an interstate highway in the States.

I have decided to think of the whole thing as a big game of Frogger. Very thankfully, I was excellent at on the ol’ Atari as a kid. It might be time to drag out that Atari anew for some honing of the traffic-dodging skills.

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2008
Apr 
17

High Rise on the Rise

10:10 — General Update  
 

“Clang, clang, clang went the hammer…”

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It seems, and do keep in mind that I live in a relatively well established residential neighborhood in the middle of the city, that there is continuous construction around me. I can look out my window and see no less than nine new apartment blocks being constructed. More to the point, moments ago, I awoke—again—to the sound of a hammer pounding on something in the alley. This means that someone is getting a new railing on their balakon or closing it off altogether to extend the space in a particular room. What amazes me though is that it seems to be happening all the time. Except in the early morning hours, which is, thankfully, when I sleep.

Continuous construction is a major theme in this country though. I remember a a few years ago when I came to Cairo for the first time. There was the city, there was the Ring Road, and there was the desert. Now it is very different. Past what used to be the edge of Giza—which used to be mostly sand and hills, there is a sea of red-brick as far as the eye can see. This only subsides when you continue further out toward the desert highway and you can see the Pyramids to the south. Here now, instead of sand, is even more development. This used to only be home to a gigantic swath of palms. Thankfully, the continuous construction hasn’t damaged or encroached upon the palms, but they are very cozy neighbors.

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It is like this in every direction as well. The city keeps expanding in this way. There are little suburbs that are set up—like 6th of October City to the north-west of Giza—and then blammo, before you know it the space between what used to be the city and what used to be a suburb is eaten up by new construction.

Back to downtown, buildings are getting taller. I live in a relatively short apartment block. It has only six floors. Those around us, though, average about eleven to twenty. This is one of the shorter parts of the city. Not for long though. Shorter buildings are always being torn down to make way for taller. On a street adjacent to mine, I noted over the course of several days a lovely two story villa being torn down and the lot upon which it had stood being cleared out. It stands empty now, but diggers and cement trucks are soon to follow and likely a 15 story apartment block will be erected in its place.

To further demonstrate a point that I made earlier, note that I just referred to my district as “downtown.” Mohandessin and Doqqi used to be considered suburbs of Giza. Now the whole thing is referred to commonly as Cairo, which doesn’t really help anyone know where they are.

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The one major saving grace of the city is that there is a great deal of green-space within the city itself. The medians of many of the streets are planted with trees and low palms. There are huge parks and clubs dotted throughout the city. I live next to the Shooting Club, which is situated next to the Ministry of Agriculture facility. Both take up several city blocks each and are filled with trees and other plants. The net result for me is that my apartment overlooks a giant green-space which stretches almost all the way to the river.

Now, this is not to say that most of these spaces are publicly accessible. No, no. Many of them are private clubs—like the Shooting Club— and almost all of the “public” parks have an entry fee, which varies depending on where you are from, of course. Even so, it is still reassuring that there is greenery at all here. In the States in many places, we have been forced to retrofit greenery instead of building around it—or, gasp, incorporating it—in the first place. That is not very sustainable, now, is it? I am by no means indicating that the situation here is sustainable, but at least I never feel as though I am really in the concrete jungle, since there is often real jungle just a stone’s throw away.

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2008
Feb 
9

Sand and Camels

16:00 — Gallery, General Update  
 

Oh yah, and the Pyramids

A few photos from the Giza plateau near the pyramids. Jeff, Mamoon, and I rented camels for a few hours and hired a guide—Ragab—to take us riding and then get us in the “back door” of the Pyramids site. Something that he insisted was the “Egyptian way.”

It was a great time, even though we did get chased off by the cops, on camel-back. The kid that was minding the camels pulled the reins of mine down so that the camel would lower his head and then somehow scrambled up his neck and threw himself onto the saddle in front of me before inciting the camels to trot away from the cop at a clip.

Fun times.

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