Storefront IV: Guns and Black-Clad Security Forces

This was definitely my favourite shop for today! As I was walking in the downtown area, I passed this gun shop. My heart was warmed at the thought of guns being handed out over the counter -- I felt like I was back in the US! Particularly reassuring was the fact that I turned the corner and saw three black Egyptian security-force trucks parked on the street.

The photographs are a little dark, but I hope you can just make out the faces of the security forces staring out through the small barred truck windows. Big police and security force trucks just like this seem to be parked everywhere and, if you look up at them, you see dozens of pairs of eyes staring down at you from behind barred windows.

One little aside on the black-clad security forces (compared with the white-clad police). The men who serve in the security-forces are conscripted from the poorest sections of Egypt (where people live on less than $1 a day). They have to leave their families and come to live in Cairo for three years. They live in camps on the outskirts of the city where conditions are reported to be terrible. Whenever there are demonstrations or civil discontent, it is usually these security forces who are ordered to come in and beat up the citizens - they get all the government's dirty work...