Cairo Exit

We crossed 6th October Bridge today en route to Cairo airport as we've done so many times before. Once again the country is in the midst of travails with twenty-one of its Christian citizens beheaded by ISIS in neighbouring Libya. The Sisi-led government has gone into action with air strikes in Libyan territory and is trying to build an international coalition at the UN for more interventions in Libya. It has also paid compensation to the victims' families and is to build a church in the home village worst affected by the losses.

Many say the government intervention is too little too late. Nothing was done during the forty-five days that the hostages were accumulated in separate kidnappings, it is claimed. 1.3 million Egytians work in Libya and many do not want to be evacuated. 'It's death in either country, so why move?' asked one man. Strongman Sisi is seen to be opportunistically seeking a place on the world stage through his phone calls with France's Hollande and hosting of Russia's Putin here last week. One of the presents exchanged between the latter pair of heads of state was a Kalashnikov rifle in a finely machined metal box.

Reports of the deaths of the twenty-one in Libya dominate the local press and outdo the attention paid to the deaths of the twenty-two football fans shot and killed during a crush before a recent match at the one gate open to allow them access to the stadium. Nearly forty of the survivors are reported to have been arrested and tortured to force statements from them to the effect that the deaths were caused by a stampede and that the security forces are innocent of any wrongdoing, despite a video that shows fans being shot at while pleading to escape the crush of bodies behind them.

Different narratives exist to explain recent events and all should be critically examined. Too often they are not and people get away with murder.

In other news, Dd accepted my proposal of marriage twenty-five years ago today on the shore at Bhunnahabhain on the island of Islay. We made our engagement rings out of seaweed and wore them all day. We still have them, now dried, in a small glass display case in our front room.