Hands Together Now, and Pray.

I can't bring myself to blog about the acceptably fine weather in London, meeting Robert Pattinson, the joy I feel every time I find myself lost in the streets / tubes of London when MY FRIENDS OVER IN EGYPT ARE STILL IN EGYPT.

For the people who are uninformed about the situation in Egypt. Then... Shame on you.

Last Friday, when I left my house in Alexandria, Egypt for Cairo, I didn't inform what's left of my housemates (2 of them, another is in Malaysia) that I was leaving, coz all of us had a late night, and I didn't want to have to wake them up. I figured that they know where I'm headed, so all will be okay.

However, later on whilst I was on the train to Cairo, I wanted to let them know, only to find out that there was no reception. I thought it was because I was in the train and, oh, I don't know... The place that we were going through wasn't populated or something. But oh boy oh boy, was I wrong.

It turns out that Egypt's government had shut down phone lines COMPLETELY. And to make it more interesting and 'intriguing', they decided to shut down the INTERNET as well. So, in other words, there exists no method of communication in Egypt, unless you've been secretly training a pigeon to play postman.

Luckily enough, I was able to call my housemate the next day and was informed that both of them had personally evacuated themselves to the MARA building in Alexandria. BIG FAT SIGH OF RELIEF ON MY PART. Coz only God knows the amount of frightening situations they were in that I've imagined in my mind. 

Alhamdulillah.

My parents are against me going back to Egypt. I never wanted to. Revolution, or not, honestly. EHEH. So most probably, I'll be staying here in England for a while longer, before hopping on a flight home to Malaysia. 

And I can only pray that my friends over in Egypt would be able to do the same. Coz at the moment, I'm entirely baffled by the time it takes for our government to make the decision to bring Malaysians home. I mean, HONESTLY, and pardon my language: What the FUCK is there to even think about??

Buildings are being burnt to the ground (The airport in Alexandria is just a pile of ashes now, and how long before they burn Cairo's), students' homes are broken into, ATM machines don't effing work, phone line's down, internet's down (I can't imagine the state of parents who are having problems to reach their children there), PRISONERS RUN FREE:

(Source: Hanis Zalikha's Twitter)

DUDEEEE 700 PRISONERS ARE ROAMING FREE AMONGST THE PEOPLE. DO WE EVEN KNOW WHAT THESE PEOPLE ARE CAPABLE OF? It doesn't even matter, coz as of now a whole country is behaving like criminals. So having these people 'released' into public makes very little difference to the already critical situation that Malaysians face there.

:'-(

I can only pray that my friends are okay amidst all this. I mean, I support the Egyptian wanting to break free from a clearly dictatorial government, but not up to the point that it potentiates this much harm to the people I care for very much.

I, of course, along with everyone else, wishes for everyone to be safe. But I can't help but be a little biased. So help me God, save these friends of mine, coz they mean so much to me and have been playing sunshine to what would've been my cloudy days in Egypt. I also hope You provide protection from any harm, the people I have known and love oh-so-dearly for about 6 years: Hasif, and especially especially Wina, coz I can't seem to get a hold of her.

**Update: I hear the Malaysian government is working to evacuate Malaysians to Egypt's neighboring country. Alhamdulillah.

Though I'm still sightly pissed that they can't just send a chartered flight and ship the students home. I'm sure that is what everyone prefers.

But this is good enough. At the very least, they would be away from all the mess.


***Update 2: Turns out the airport in Alexandria is fine and dandy. Not burned down. But might as well be coz there ain't any flights coming in or out of there ATM.