Civil disobedience in Port Said has been persistent, and has spread to other Egyptian governorates, cities and neighborhoods, while those in power move forward on their way, unaffected by what is happening around them. Thus they still speak of conspiracies being weaved, of incitement being practiced, and of some who covet their seats of power plotting and scheming against them. And while the situation of people's livelihood keeps deteriorating, the economy declining and services worsening, those in power promote the notion that the actions of the opposition, the legacy of the past and the deep-rooted corruption of the state are to blame, rather than their own mistakes, mismanagement, failed policies and the lack of qualification among those in charge of the country's affairs. The “battle of the beard" is ongoing between the bearded police officers and the entire state apparatus, including the judiciary, while the security situation lies in decay and disarray and is pleasing to neither friend nor foe. Had those officers exerted half of the effort they have spent seeking to grow out their beards on working to restore security to a normal state, people would have taken to the streets and demonstrated in support of granting them “beard rights"! These are paradoxes that reflect the state of affairs of Egypt, which is not very different from the confusion afflicting Egypt, with instances and their opposite taking place at the same time. Among such instances is the fact that the ruling party in its entirety is proceeding with preparations for parliamentary elections in two months without having resolved a single problem, having put an end to the tension, or having met even some of the demands of the opposition, at a time when other – non-Islamist of course – forces have not ceased to warn that holding the elections would plunge the country in turmoil, as long as the reasons for which the street has been inflamed still stand. Those forces in fact believe that the elections will not be held in the first place, and that what time is left until their scheduled date will witness developments that will force those in power to reconsider holding them! Thus, while Egypt's Interior Minister, General Mohamed Ibrahim, was speaking in defense of the police, denying that he might have turned the security force into the punitive arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, activists were appearing on television shows in which they told terrifying stories they claimed to have been subjected to at the hands of the police, speaking in great detail of incidents in which they were abducted from public squares or from the margins of protests and taken to barracks or security headquarters where they were tortured and humiliated in ways no different from, if not worse than, what used to take place under the former regime. And while the Office of the Attorney General was referring former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik, members of his family and others to the Criminal Court in a case regarding unlawful financial gain and abuse of power, and announcing that it had contacted the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to pursue Shafik, arrest him and hand him over to Egypt for prosecution, activists were standing in front of the offices of the Attorney General protesting the fact that statements accusing officials in the state and the Interior Ministry of killing protesters and of detaining and torturing others were being ignored. At the same time, journalists were organizing a protest movement to demand that the details be revealed of the incident in which their colleague Al-Husseini Abu Deif and others were killed near the Heliopolis (Ittihadiya) Palace, finding strange the “cover-up" of the case concerning the events of the Presidential Palace, to which around ten people fell victim, in addition to dozens who were injured, as opposed to security-related lawsuits against the President's rival in the elections being sped up. The situation on the ground does not at all indicate that holding the elections as scheduled will be possible. Suffice it to follow what is happening in the cities of the Suez Canal in general and in Port Said in particular to be certain of this. Moreover, what has been told of opposition members being tortured has been quite public, was followed by millions of people, and deserves for the Office of the Attorney General to conduct a thorough investigation. Similarly, the incident in which Abu Deif was killed has stirred public opinion, as it happened before all to see after youths from the Muslim Brotherhood attacked the protesters near the Heliopolis Palace. There are also accusations directed by activists against the police and state services of having had a hand in it. If such accusations are true, the Attorney General would have the duty to investigate the Interior Minister himself and those responsible for acts of torture. And if they are merely allegations on the part of some members of the opposition meant to smear those in power, the Attorney General should then investigate and punish those making them!! Such contradictions and such occurrences indicate that those in power are paying no attention at all to what is happening in the street, what is going on around them, what the country is going through, and what its citizens are enduring. The fact of the matter is that the President can no longer walk in any street, go to any city or visit any governorate under normal circumstances. In fact, there are those who believe that Doctor Mohamed Morsi is ruling only Cairo, and perhaps not even all of it. This is while Morsi insists – along with other prominent ruling figures in the government, the party and the Brotherhood – that what is happening is neither protests nor civil disobedience, but an attempt to thwart the President's efforts, or to combat the Islamist project!! Like a snowball, the Egyptian crisis is growing more complex, and all indications point to the certainty of it growing to such a massive size that it may well crush everyone underneath it – those in power, the opposition, and the people.
