EGYPT: Something quiet?

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The desert dust had blown away and the pyramids sharpened beyond the skyline. The air was brisk and clear; the children were out, racing amid bushes and flowers. There was abandon in their voices, perhaps they felt spring slipping closer to summer, or maybe it was the freedom of being unleashed beneath the stars. I listened to these neighborhood kids as the TV played in the background: killing in Gaza, uncertainty in Lebanon, warships in the Persian Gulf, bloodshed in Baghdad, bread lines in Cairo, not too far from where the children played.

I didn’t feel like blogging about any of that; the same images would be there tomorrow, the next day. Why not write something quiet? I turned off the TV and opened wide the window. In a region so accustomed to breathtaking hostility, it’s nice to let in other sounds: the creak of a swing, the laughter of a child, a mother’s call to come home.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo