I originally posted this commentary on my Facebook page on March 2, 2010.
I saw the most disturbing sight in Egypt today.
I jumped on a bus to nowhere just to explore the rural villages outside of Cairo. As the bus passed by the University of Helwan, I saw tons of black trucks loaded with at least a thousand men in black carrying machine guns and wearing black helmets. They were parked outside the school as the students were all getting out. I thought someone had set off a bomb or something because all these intimidating soldiers and officers were lined up at the entrance as if something seriously bad had just happened. So I asked an old man sitting next to me, "What happened? What are all those police and soldiers doing there?"' And he tells me, "Nothing. Standard protocol. They're just there to scare the kids."
SO I ask, "What do you mean 'scare the kids'?" And he turns to look at me with a grin on his face and replies, "It's not people my age that start revolutions."
WTF?!!!
(The picture above is the closest thing I found to what I saw. The bus went by so fast and I was too afraid to pull out a camera. Nobody is allowed to photograph police or military in Egypt.) Here is a better photo closer to what I saw...but there were thousands of more men in tons of black and dark green unmarked trucks!
