While I was Away

It feels good to be back from a trip out of town; it doesn’t matter where I go or how much more beautiful other cities are, Cairo is still Cairo… so full of love. Instead of trying to catch up with the past week’s news right away, let me tell you what the other bloggers have been up to, if you haven’t been there either for a while.

Baheyya, of course, knows what was happening on both sides of the doors when the president promised to be a good president for one more term. In particular she is noting the creativity of the new political generation. Big Pharaoh also attended the demonstration and ended up smoking shisha with Marxists and catching soldiers playing with Kifaya balloons. Meanwhile, our Egyptian Person is arguing the case for civil marriages and Freedom for Egyptians is picturing what would happen if Cindy Sheehan would come to Egypt. From Cairo on the other hand announced today that he is bored with his blog and will keep blogging at an anonymous location; the comments from Jane and LouLou catches what ought to be said. Across the Atlantic in the great colony in the West, Judith is as always well informed and quick to provide educated comments; here is one about Bush-aide Karen Hughes and Egypt. Hughes went to the KSA too; Sandmonkey caught her there while she was speaking to Muslim women. You shouldn’t miss ‘Aqoul’s take on the same issue. At the Arabist, Issandr have several interesting posts, including a press round-up about the Beni Suef theatre fire scandal. In response to Issandr’s criticism of Juan Cole’s article on the Egyptian elections, Sphinx says Issandr is too hard on Cole. Finally, from our neighbor the Religious Policeman, a post about a failed suicide bomber who got to tell his heroic tale on Saudi national TV…