CAIRO: I left him to speak, as he leaned over me and with his well moisturized arm reached out with the money having invaded my personal space (a concept that actually does not exist in Egypt), was paying for three canned drinks. Only when he spoke to the kiosk vendor saying “a pack of tissues" (without saying please) did I realize he was not, in fact, after a piggyback ride. Just before this, I had bought a bottle of water and was waiting for my change. As the man (who was very smartly dressed and sported a pair of D&G sunglasses and smelt rather awesome) abused the notion of taking turns, I turned around – while he was waiting for his change – and I said, with the sweetest smile I could muster, “excuse me, can I please ask you something?" Feeling quite smug, he looked at me with an I-know-I'm-hot-and-you-couldn't-resist-but-find-an-excuse-to-speak-to-me smile, replied “sure, of course.” “Thank you! I'm new to Egypt and I am really excited to learn about the customs here... and I was wondering if you could please explain to me (the smile now quickly disappearing off my lips) why it is you are completely unaware of anyone's presence but yourself, what is it that went through your head that made you possibly think it was OK not to acknowledge someone else, what about you is so amazing that you felt it was not a problem to take my turn in the queue?" Completely taken aback he mumbled something about car. I looked around and saw he had left the door of his BMW open and I went on to say “Ohhhhh, I see, so I am supposed to feel better about having walked half an hour in the scorching sun, been harassed about 15 times in the walk, because you are worried the a/c effect was decreasing? I apologize." He didn't reply. I was angry. I realized this was a huge problem on the streets of this beautiful city. No one cared about anyone else's feelings, anyone else's priorities, efforts, problems. People didn't give you personal space because as soon as someone else saw it, they would think it was a gap for them to push into. This is so contradictory with the nature of Egyptian people who if they saw you in distress or in need all get together to help you in anyway they can. However, it seemed that the idea that there is “not enough" – of whatever it is, time, food, etc. drove people away from that helpful, kind nature into one demonstrated by the good looking but nasty natured man of this morning. It had nothing to do with how well educated or cultured you were. Manners in Egypt are one of those mystic things; there are no rules and no patterns of behavior that are common to any one class, group, or creed. Each person in each of these grouping had his or her own set of rules of conduct – and it is beyond me what this is based on. This was the topic of conversation with a working class girl from the suburbs on our way home. Her interpretation of the behavior was that people “where you come from" are involved in setting the rules that govern them and their behaviour and so they respect it and respect each other, but, she went on to explain, over here in Egypt, people were never involved, they never had a say in what rules should govern them and so they each created their own that suited them, that would get their stuff done with the least amount of hassle in the shortest possible time. It doesn't really matter if she was right or wrong, what mattered was how political that comment was and how her being so analytical cheered me up. There are clearly boundary issues that need to be dealt with, but I've decided not to be so angry with those who are on their feet sweating for hours to get to and from work when they push in anymore, but elitists who step out of their BMW's and push in, will not stop getting a piece of my mind. Every time. “Queuing in Egypt" is just as much an Oxymoron as “British-Egyptian" and apart from the option of walking around in hula-hoops from head to toe, I can forget this British etiquette in Egypt altogether.
