Egyptians adjusting to the new Egypt
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Cairo schools and universities have reopened, people have returned to work and the democratic transition is evolving in a more or less orderly fashion. The capital of 18 million, which managed to function throughout the uprising without a police force, has returned to its usual state of chaos, its daily traffic jams sometimes gnarled by a wave of revolution-inspired protests, many aimed at ousting employers with ties to the Mubarak regime. The city is cleaner than it has ever been as young activists continue to help collect garbage. School walls from the pyramids road to the ritzy enclave of Zamalek are decorated with murals celebrating the revolution, while even garbage bins and lamp posts have been painted in the red, white and black stripes of the Egyptian flag.
Still, dark corners remain. Police have not returned in full force to the country’s antiquities sites, 24 of which have been looted since the revolution began. In the past two weeks, thugs abused female protesters on International Women’s Day, while the army, tarnishing its neutral image, resorted to using Tasers, batons and whips to evict the last residents of Tahrir Square’s tent city set up by protesters during the main uprising.
Meanwhile, the ongoing loss of income has devastated families reliant on tourism. Outside the wall protecting Giza Plateau lie dozens of carcasses of horses and camels that have been allowed to starve to death because without tourist riders their owners can no longer afford to feed them. British veterinary charities and the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals have stepped in to donate feed and medical care to the owners of the plateau’s 3,000 working horses and camels to help as many as possible survive the tourist drought. In desperation, unemployed youths form blockades on the Pyramids Road, jumping on the bonnet of any taxi carrying foreign passengers to coral them towards riding stables where they earn client commissions.
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