Another bomb in Cairo

Less than a week after the Khan bombing, a mentally-ill Egyptian man who had spent time in a psychiatric hospital stabbed an American teacher there and then, today, a firebomb was thrown into a metro station. Thankfully no one was hurt in the attempted metro bombing because the device failed to explode. The motivations are unclear, but it's strange to me since it's not as though they were targeting foreigners. As is clear from the stares I get when I ride the metro, that mode of transportation is usually the domain of Egyptian commuters, not tourists. Halmiyat al-Zaytoon, where the bomb was thrown, was one of the stops along my ride to Ain Shams when I taught English there.
As for me, I'm doing fine. I didn't venture out today until later to meet Erin for dinner in Zamalek. We both worked diligently on reaction papers for law class beforehand to make ourselves feel as though Saturday wouldn't be for naught. When I did set off into the night, it was raining again and not just a mist or a light rain, but real rain. It was surreal to be sitting in traffic in Tahrir Square with raindrops on the windows. Aside from schoolwork, I did a bit of looking into where I might travel over spring break. Tunisia and Lebanon are both contenders at this point. In the nearer future, I'm joining my fellow ambassadorial scholars for a Rotary event on Tuesday. Dinner and a lecture by a Rotarian who is a doctor on one of the riverboats in Zamalek on the Nile.

News:
Foreign Policy article on the release of Ayman Nour
Secretary of State Clinton on her way to the Middle East
Netanyahu fails to persuade Livni to join coalition government in Israel

Passport Pickup & Conspiracy Theories

Though it's often not the case, I find sometimes that I am growing impervious to the many pitfalls of bureaucracy at AUC or in Egypt. In those magical moments either a spontaneously kind action on the part of someone else or steely resolve on my part yields the desired result and I feel as though I've won a little victory. My switching courses and joining the Master's and my fellowship application confirmation are all part of the former category whereas the retrieval of my passport which has been sitting, with my student visa inside, was of the latter variety.
I'll know about the fellowships at the end of April and my visa, inside the passport that took six phone numbers and four trips up four flights of fire escape stairs to reacquire, lasts until the end of June. Lots of waiting. I don't know my summer schedule yet, but I'll inevitably be in the States at some point to give Rotary speeches and to see family and friends.

The motivations behind last Sunday's bombing are no clearer even with arrests made. Egyptians on the street are, as they do with many things, quick to blame it on the Israelis. Yes, there are huge numbers of Egyptians who wholeheartedly and sincerely believe things like this are the work of the Mossad. I may've mentioned before that I was told at a Rotary function that "it certainly wasn't Arabs behind 9/11" and the shopkeeper at the corner market across from AUC's Greek Campus told a friend that the bombing in the Khan al-Khalili "couldn't have been Egyptians. There are no terrorists in Egypt." Who then? The Israelis. Riiiight. It is this genre of regressive ideas that keeps many Egyptians from approaching regional conflict in a clear-headed way. Given the Lavon Affair, I can see where it might come from, but the sort of conspiracy-theory nonsense that runs rampant in Cairo certainly is way off base. It makes it easier to have an "Other" to blame. Americans are guilty of it too; we're big fans of conspiracy theories ourselves. Think back to the presidential campaigns and those who were alleging that Obama was a Muslim hellbent on Islamizing America. May we all be just a bit more rational and clear-headed.

News and links:
"Mubarak flexes his muscles" in Foreign Policy
"The Fear Factor in Travel" at HuffPost
Egyptian human rights NGO criticizes public prosecution office