Looking for the artists

I dropped by yesterday's Artists' Protest (no, not these ones) in downtown on my way home from work. I guess this was organized by the Artists for Change Movement. There are so many change movements nowadays that I lost track of them. Any group of people with anything in common seem to come up with a new movement for change these days. You know how it goes in Egypt, someone starts something, and then everyone else does the same and it becomes so trendy so fast. This could be the same thing, but its just not picking up that well.

Well, it was very convenient to drop by this protest. I was in downtown already, grabbed a shrimp sandwich for dinner while walking across Talaat Harb square to take the cab home, instead of being stuck in traffic trying to cross that area while inside the cab. I wanted to check out the artists too, you know, hang around with some famous people. It was really a disappointment though. They were probably less than 100 people, and I hardly recognized anyone famous there. Well, I'm not really familiar with the show business, so there must've been artists there whom I just didn't know.

I basically stood there for five minutes checking the protest out, trying to find someone famous whom I might know. I thought maybe the camera would catch me with one of them, but I knew no one. It was more like a bunch of friends hanging around. I did recognize the pictures they held though, Umm Kalthoum and Sayyed Darwish. How do they know that these dead artists support their cause?

I wonder if these protests are getting boring. I was bored all along those protests so never mind what I think, but now even those Police officers had special plastic chairs that they were sitting on this time. I thought it was funny, they arranged for chairs this time, some were sipping tea from the next door cafe. I was almost sure some of them must be in Groppi eating some French pastry. And just in case, atleast a handful of Amn Markazy security soldiers cars were filling the side streets of the square.

I thought that the more exposure and publicity the demonstrations get, the more people would want to join, the bigger those protests would be. But I was surprised at how small that one was. Maybe its because it was for the elite, novelists and artists and their friends. Or maybe the crowd was much bigger and they got bored and left early before I made it there (which was an hour and a half late). I don't know, it just didn't look like anything significant.

The second hearing for the lawsuit against the constitution referendum and its results was supposed to be last Monday. I was really interested in that case, thought it was more worthwhile than those protests, but I never bothered to ask what happened there. Anyone knows?

Anyway, so after checking out the protest and finishing my shrimp sandwich, I stopped a cab to go home. The driver asked me why the traffic is at a stand-still. I told him, oh, its just one of those small protests. He laughed and hoped that time passes quickly till September 7, so that the elections are over and we are saved from all the hassle and waga3 eldemagh.