Maintaining Empathy in a Persistent Conflict

Because of the daily talk of clashes between security forces and the Egyptian people in the news, it can be incredibly difficult to maintain the notion that this is not a "normal" thing.

When a place turns into a war zone, it is almost impossible to contextualize that, on a normal day, people live, work and play on those streets. 

I do not think this is any fault of our own, really. 

Mapping Last Week's Cairo Clashes

One of the biggest struggles in comprehending conflicts in unfamiliar areas is that there is usually no attempt to contrast the current images with what the area looked like before, in relative normalcy.

I've managed to scour through my photos of my time living in downtown Cairo and come up with a good "before" picture to provide some context for last week's clashes and give an idea of just how unrecognizable the area is now.

Early Returns: Strikes Not Happening

Reports from around Cairo seem to indicate that the nationwide call for a general strike has mostly fallen on deaf ears.

Bikya Masr is reporting that most shops in Cairo are open and operating as usual, and transportation at Cairo International Airport and through the Suez Canal seems to be normal.