Egypt with Mara Blog

Do you feel the change?  I feel it. I am home in Ireland, with my family for Christmas and New Year – the best in my entire life……and I can feel the change.  It feels to me like the entire world is slowing down, like the systems we have known and lived under are grinding…

Haven’t written in ages – simply had nothing I considered interesting to say.  Been in Ireland, then Cairo and now back in Luxor.  In light of all the media hype the last few weeks I wanted to write something but couldn’t muster up any enthusiasm for it.  However, my friend Edward has taken the time…

I opened up my Twitter this morning and one of the first tweets I found was the following: “There have been riots in Cairo over the presidential election results:” and the headline on the paper itself when I clicked on the follow through link was Anger in Egypt: riots in Cairo over election results Naturally my…

Making a film in Khan el Khalili about Napoleon

Internet app developers sometimes don’t know when to leave well-enough alone!

“Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness”  grand words, great aspirations, magnificient vision!  Do you  have these natural and “unalienable rights”?  We have gone through a revolution of sorts in Egypt and I am questioning the validity of it, the sense of it – was it of value?  Will there be change?  Will Egypt be…

I haven’t written much on any social media over the last few weeks – impulse to write just dried up and so I let it be.  Then I woke up this morning talking to myself – this is how I end up writing stuff down, to stop it going round in my head 🙂  What…

Luxor people want the tourists to return

The day did not start well for me….5.30am I am woken up by what sounded like a crowd of angry people shouting in the street outside….I wait about 10 mins and instead of fading away in the distance it had become louder…so I hopped out of bed, grabbed a jacket, unlocked doors and rushed to…

If a picture paints a thousand words…..

Been out shopping this morning – to my local food and veg market etc here in Cairo.  The atmosphere seems to have shifted somewhat…..everyone I spoke to had two things on their minds.  Firstly, they are all happy that the newly elected parliament have actually gone to work today!!  I am watching them all been…

One year later – what is the reality of the “Arab Spring”?  Who has gain what?  Who has lost what?  What is the future for Tunisia?  Egypt?  Libya? Syria? Yemen?  Iran?  Saudi Arabia?  I’m not a political analyst but some things are pretty obvious…..Tunisia?  A year ago one young fruit seller set himself on fire…

A couple of weeks ago protestors once again decided to camp out in Tahrir Sq.- clashes ensued for several days in one of the streets leading to Tahrir Sq.  Much media coverage and many photos circulating in the various media once again led to the closure of the Egyptian Stock Exchange and I received quite…

I can’t remember the last time I saw Luxor as alive as it is this morning – I am talking about the atmosphere.  There have been long lines of men and women waiting outside polling stations since before 8 am this morning to cast their vote in the first free elections.  Some of the lines…