Received this email from my colleague ML in Alexandria Eqypt. I am thinking of him now
"We will not be able to host the Jr Fine Arts Festival (in April). We are disappointed that we had to make this decision but we cannot guarantee the safety of anyone right now.
Overall voilence has been increasing in the country in the last weeks. Instead of a few days or couple of weeks of chaos as most people expected this transition to last, the real impact of this so-called revolution is not taking good shape for now at least. Last week the headquarters of the State Security Investigations, who among other things is supposed to protect foreign entities, was attacked.
On January 28th, the police disappeared from the streets, now almost six weeks later, we see some traffic police during the day but the police stations are still closed and they don't respond to calls. No one is comfortable."
We just finished hosting students from Jordan, Oman and Kuwait who were supposed to attend the event in Alexandria. While I am glad that we were able to accomodate them, it breaks my heart to know that teachers, students and others who didn't wish for or ask for a revolution are being greatly affected. Friends in Cairo say that they're preparing for a major staff reduction as their school went from 1400 to 800 students.
So far, Kuwait is steady. There was an Embassy Warning sent out yesterday which stated there was a planned demonstration downtown, but it didn't affect us (We were too busy working on the musical ANNIE to notice anything else!)
The world is a strange place these days. The Chinese Curse--May You Live in Interesting Times has sure come true.
Keep your fingers crossed and if you do, PRAY for Peace and Stability
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