Reasons to be cheerful...

Lenin once said “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Well that’s the way things feel in Egypt at the moment.

In the past fortnight there has been an election- where the “pro revolution” candidates did well, but their vote was split. Thus the runoff is between the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak’s old mate Ahmed Shafiq. I have written extensively about the election for The Sunday Business Post over the past two weeks.

It is not very professional to say this, but I was very depressed writing those articles. Although I am not Egyptian I find it hard not to empathise heavily with the pro revolutionary forces who find themselves with a not so great choice in the second round. There is an excellent discussion on the election in the most recent The Arabist podcast- and the contributors also share my gloomy mood.

Then there was the Mubarak trial verdict - the initial euphoria and then the resulting anger among the revolutionaries.

I will shake of this gloom and will be reporting and blogging extensively in the coming two weeks in the run up to the historic vote on the 16/17 June.

As of now- nobody can say for certain what will be the result in the runoff.

But with so much depression about there are still reasons to be cheerful , beautiful trees across Cairo (see above), catching a perfect fresh breeze down the Nile, Maggie Gyllenhaal, the music of Umm Kulthum, ice-cream, an ice cold Stella, Maggie Gyllenhaal, reading the novels of Naguib Mahfouz on a Cairo balcony, hearing the beautiful call to prayer from my local Dokki mosque, ice cream, smoking a sheesha in a local ahwa, enjoying a perfect Tameya...and eh Maggie Gyllenhaal and ice cream (sorry it’s got very hot in Cairo and its affecting my thought process).

Even this huge abandoned teddy bear on Dokki Street on the west bank of the River Nile, looks suitably depressed as he contemplates his choice in the 2nd round of the Presidential election. (He told me he voted Aboul Fotouh first round, but now he kind of wishes he voted Hamdeen Sabahi)