Continued revolution

When I was in the States in May of this year, I felt like I got a hard time from several people because I hadn't followed-up my last post about Egypt with a message that all is well. For those of you who are included in this group, all is well with my day-to-day life here in Cairo. I go to work, visit tourist sites, socialize with friends, shop, worship at church and go about the rest of my life just as I did before the revolution.

However, for the people of Egypt, all is not well. Protestors have continued to take to Tahrir Square each week since the revolution began. There has been "Save the Revolution Friday", "Friday of Cleansing", "Second Friday of Anger" (the first was January 28), "Friday of Retribution", "Revolution First Friday" and so the list goes on and on. The majority of these protests have been small, peaceful demonstrations by various factions who are unsatisfied with the transitional military government that has been in power since President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February. However, there have still been spats of violence between protestors, "thugs" from the old regime, police and military forces.

Each week, it seems, the government must give in to one of the protestors' demands in order to keep peace in the square (and, for that matter, in the country). Interim policies have been put in place and government officials have been replaced numerous times. Just this week, nearly 600 senior police officers were fired. Still, the people are growing more and more impatient with the slow pace of change and the lack of prosecution against corrupt politicians and brutal police from the old regime.

The next few months should remain eventful - Former President Hosni Mubarak is set to go on trial on August 3; parliamentary elections are to take place in September; presidential elections are to occur before the end of the year.

While the degree of violence that overtook Cairo in late January is long gone and the situation is nothing like the crises taking place in Libya, Syria and Yemen, the Egyptian revolution is far from over. In fact, some say it's just beginning.

Somali famine

The Horn of Africa, a region that includes Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and eastern parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, is currently experiencing the worst drought the area has seen in over 60 years. Somalia is the worst-hit country, due to a combination of difficult agricultural conditions, violent conflicts and militant groups that have deprived the country of national stability and any assistance that western aid organizations might be able to provide. Current estimates suggest that 3 million Somalis are on the brink of starvation and over 10 million are at risk across the region.

As a result, tens of thousands of Somalis are evacuating, seeking refuge at refugee camps in neighboring countries. Most are fleeing to Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp, in eastern Kenya. Dadaab is currently home to nearly 400,000 refugees, but over 1,000 new refugees are arriving from Somalia each day, starving and having traveled for weeks to reach this possible safe-haven. To say this puts a strain on camp resources would be an incredible understatement. To give some perspective, Ali Addeh, a refugee camp in southern Djibouti where I've started some work, is strained by the arrival of 500 new refugees each month.

I feel like Somalia is one of those forgotten corners of the world about which most of us know little other than the Battle of Mogadishu (a.k.a Black Hawk Down), piracy and Islamic militancy (e.g. al-Shabaab). It worries me that a country with this reputation may not be able to receive the assistance it needs in the face of a drought that is as much a natural disaster as any earthquake or cyclone.