Yesterday we decided to spend the day at a Shopping mall that rivals West Edmonton Mall and the Mall of America. It is simply huge. I get lost just thinking about where things are let along walking around actually trying to find specific stores. It is about an hours drive from our house, so we left planning to spend the day.
It was fun to window shop and look around for Christmas presents. As I have mentioned before, the whole idea of Christmas consumerism has been lost on me this year. It really has not crossed my mind that we "should" be spending a small fortune on stuff right now. Sure, we have gotten the kids a few things, but that is about it. The trip to Spain is a present in itself and that it will create memories to last a lifetime. But, it was easy to get caught up in the consumerist mentality while we were at the mall. Watching people walk around with bags upon bags of items in their hands, it made me think that perhaps we were not doing enough. But, I know we are because we have been consistent with sharing the Birth story of Jesus, and that is the true reason that we celebrate. Princess LOVES the Polar Express...I think that we have watched it everyday for the last two weeks, but she still thinks that Santa is a fictional character...Dimples is oblivious to all things commercial in regards to Christmas.
As we concluded our day at the mall, we called our driver to come and get us. Turns out, he was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic because, "something was happening downtown". When you looked around the mall it appeared that no one seemed to know about it. My mind started racing at the vague statement and went dozens of directions, including, the "are we going to get home safely" thought, to "we should have stayed home" thought. We went through downtown to get to the mall earlier in the day, and had been unaware that anything was being planned to happen. Typically the local media alerts those in Cairo of any planned unrest or protest. When we hear these types of alerts, we stay home in our safe haven of a community. So, needless to say we were caught off guard. So, with our driver stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, he suggested we take a cab. Our driver, the kind and considerate man that he is, talked to the cab driver and told him very specific directions to take us home so that we would avoid and major traffic concerns and downtown unrest. The driver got us home efficiently and safely and we saw nothing unusual on our trip.
This protest seemed to be very haphazardly called together and resulted in Egyptians chucking rocks at the military. For the most part, people have been camped outside of parliament buildings waiting for the military to step down. They have not caused much disturbance lately, mostly making a statement by their presence. But, in the end several people died because the military came into the group of people with guns and weapons, including chunks of concrete. Women were being beaten and shots were fired. The irony is that the current Prime Minister said that the military would not use excessive force in dealing with protesters, yet, yesterday, that was clearly not the case. The people are still fighting for the military to step down and hand the power of the country over to a group of civilians. It had appeared that this "fight" had come to a standstill and the elections began without much disturbance. But, the military came in with their guns blazing yesterday, not taking into account human life. At least 7 people died yesterday as a result of the clashes. Rocks were being thrown at the military by the civilians and the military threw rocks back. The streets looked very messy from the disturbance last night.
The way the military acted will likely result in some serious push back by the protestors. There is a lot of tension here politically and the Prime Minister stating that they will not use force was proven incorrect yesterday. That is sure to set a fire beneath the Egyptian people. The next few days will be interesting. We will be keeping our ears and eyes wide open as we venture out and about.
This is an excellent article that indicates there is a lot of finger pointing between the two groups. A lot of he-said-she said types of attitudes. Read More.
It was fun to window shop and look around for Christmas presents. As I have mentioned before, the whole idea of Christmas consumerism has been lost on me this year. It really has not crossed my mind that we "should" be spending a small fortune on stuff right now. Sure, we have gotten the kids a few things, but that is about it. The trip to Spain is a present in itself and that it will create memories to last a lifetime. But, it was easy to get caught up in the consumerist mentality while we were at the mall. Watching people walk around with bags upon bags of items in their hands, it made me think that perhaps we were not doing enough. But, I know we are because we have been consistent with sharing the Birth story of Jesus, and that is the true reason that we celebrate. Princess LOVES the Polar Express...I think that we have watched it everyday for the last two weeks, but she still thinks that Santa is a fictional character...Dimples is oblivious to all things commercial in regards to Christmas.
As we concluded our day at the mall, we called our driver to come and get us. Turns out, he was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic because, "something was happening downtown". When you looked around the mall it appeared that no one seemed to know about it. My mind started racing at the vague statement and went dozens of directions, including, the "are we going to get home safely" thought, to "we should have stayed home" thought. We went through downtown to get to the mall earlier in the day, and had been unaware that anything was being planned to happen. Typically the local media alerts those in Cairo of any planned unrest or protest. When we hear these types of alerts, we stay home in our safe haven of a community. So, needless to say we were caught off guard. So, with our driver stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, he suggested we take a cab. Our driver, the kind and considerate man that he is, talked to the cab driver and told him very specific directions to take us home so that we would avoid and major traffic concerns and downtown unrest. The driver got us home efficiently and safely and we saw nothing unusual on our trip.
This protest seemed to be very haphazardly called together and resulted in Egyptians chucking rocks at the military. For the most part, people have been camped outside of parliament buildings waiting for the military to step down. They have not caused much disturbance lately, mostly making a statement by their presence. But, in the end several people died because the military came into the group of people with guns and weapons, including chunks of concrete. Women were being beaten and shots were fired. The irony is that the current Prime Minister said that the military would not use excessive force in dealing with protesters, yet, yesterday, that was clearly not the case. The people are still fighting for the military to step down and hand the power of the country over to a group of civilians. It had appeared that this "fight" had come to a standstill and the elections began without much disturbance. But, the military came in with their guns blazing yesterday, not taking into account human life. At least 7 people died yesterday as a result of the clashes. Rocks were being thrown at the military by the civilians and the military threw rocks back. The streets looked very messy from the disturbance last night.
The way the military acted will likely result in some serious push back by the protestors. There is a lot of tension here politically and the Prime Minister stating that they will not use force was proven incorrect yesterday. That is sure to set a fire beneath the Egyptian people. The next few days will be interesting. We will be keeping our ears and eyes wide open as we venture out and about.
This is an excellent article that indicates there is a lot of finger pointing between the two groups. A lot of he-said-she said types of attitudes. Read More.
No comments:
Post a Comment