Who Says Chutzpah's Not Egyptian?

Update: Today's Al-Ahram headline was about demonstrations in Lebanon. Not enough local news, I guess.

I really should have stolen posted this sooner, a screen cap The Arabist posted yesterday and entitled "A New Standard for Desperate." I'd call it a new standard for some combination of chutzpah and toadying to the regime. It's from Al-Ahram's website.


Now, January 25 was chosen as the day for demonstrations because it is "Police Day," celebrating the date in 1952 when police in the Canal Zone were killed in a firefight with the British, in other words, when the police were fighting for Egyptian freedom. The headline reads "Chocolate and Roses for Police Day." The roses are on the left; the chap on the right is Interior Minister Habib al-Adly in a very old photograph (or after a visit to Mubarak's hair colorist). Adly heads the Interior Ministry and its famous State Security Investigations, Central Security Forces, and other chocolate-and-roses loving groups. He also serves as a reassurance that President Mubarak will never be called the most hated man in the country. His replacement is at the top of the demonstrators' list of demands.

The text starts out, "Citizens exchanged chocolate and roses with policemen in the provinces," and goes on to provoke gag reflexes with its description of the gratitude of the citizens for the police and their mutual exchange of felicitations. It looked to most viewers as if they were exchanging paving stones and tear gas canisters (or in Suez, live ammunition), not chocolate and roses.

The police were handing out roses at the airport, apparently. Well, that makes it all better.

The Arabist used a screen cap since he didn't have any confidence they'd be gutsy enough to leave this online. I haven't checked, but surely even the security guys would realize this just makes them laughingstocks.