Frontline World

EGYPT - Inside Cairo's Living Room, December 2003
a FRONTLINE/World Fellows project
Cairo's Cafes: Taste and Tradition
Pitcher of fresh mint under a faucet
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If Saddam Hussein was an Arab problem, why hadn't Arabs fixed it? I got an answer in another café talking with a couple of media-savvy young professionals.

Hesham Eissa, a medical doctor, said: "I want to feed my babies. This is why the Arabs didn't do it. We didn't want to go to jail. We have a red line. If we have food, and peace -- even if it is horrible by Western standards -- we are happy. We are in a police state and for us to make protest or civil disobedience risks more than it does for you in the U.S."
Cairo's Streets: Go