Sherat had been in Egypt for a week during their Arab Spring uprising. He shared the experience with us. Not only did he have a lot of factual material to illustrate the differences between the Egyptians and us, he also had background stories One factor that surprised me was that he said one factor behind the riots was food shortages. Matters had come to a head when a food vendor named Mohamed Unis had doused himself with gasoline and burned to death when his application for a vending permit was denied. Seems like he wasn't the only one in the Arab world facing touch choices. Many of the rest had taken to the streets.

He explained that the vast majority of the people in the square were very peaceful. There were pictures of volunteers sweeping and he said "that happened every day."

He showed us gripping footage of mobs throwing rocks at each other. While that footage was on the screen he explained that the guys with their backs to us were the protesters occupying the square. The other guys were day laborers whose usual rate is $2/day being paid $50/day to be the status quo's troops on the ground. It seemed like there were always a few projectiles in the air, rocks that seemed to vary from baseball to softball size. Somebody said "you must have put yourself in danger to gather that footage." He demurred, indicating he was farther away than it looked. Sherat has good camera equipment.

There were also some things that gave me that "I don't get it" feeling. For example, there was footage of women chanting. The tone and body language were very similar to what I see union activists doing outside hotels when they are on strike. The difference was that they were chanting for women to "join us and build a fourth pyramid of light." Sherat explained that there are three pyramids at Giza, and they have permanence far beyond anything here, and they anchor Egyptian culture." Light is very transient stuff. A spiritual pyramid? Our ideas will last thousands of years? I still don't get it.

  

People were quiet and listened attentively. There were lots of questions. Only a couple of people were dragged in by our endless leafleting, but those individuals had no trouble staying through the entire talk along with the rest of us.