CAIRO - Egyptians are normally too busy struggling to make a living to pay any attention to politics. But now things are changing.The recent revolution has inspired people from every social background to get involved. This was not the case under the former regime. “I used not to be interested in politics, but now my sons and I follow what's going on,” says Ali Abdel-Aziz, a 62-year-old civil servant said. “After January 25, politics entered our homes with a passion.” The recent popular uprising that swept the country has also swept the Egyptians' minds. It toppled the president and removed fear, anxiety and ignorance, as we saw when so many people voted in last month's referendum. The fact that Al Tahrir Square has witnessed huge demonstrations shows this too. “It is time to understand and participate; young people have started and we have to continue,” says Awatef Mohamed, a 60-year-old housewife. “This critical period, with the post-revolutionary instability, prior to the elections, needs all our efforts.” Legislative and presidential elections are due to be held late this year, besides a referendum on the new constitution. Abdel-Aziz's wife says she depends on newspapers to keep up with current events. She also likes watching talk show programmes about the latest news. “Today, our children are curious to know more. This spirit didn't exist before January 25,” says Emad Gad of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. Gad explains that Egyptians are thirsty for knowledge, especially before the coming elections, when their voices will form the New Egypt. “We are at a time of preparation, when people's sense of responsibility motivates them,” he stresses. You can see this in bookshops, where certain books are suddenly proving very popular.“Before the March 19 vote on constitutional amendments, hundreds of copies of a book about the 1971 Constitution were brought out from storerooms where they'd been gathering dust for seven years. They sold out within three days,” says Eid Kamal, a 41-year-old bookseller. “Then another book about the amended articles sold out within a week after the constitutional referendum,” adds Kamal, who works for a branch of Madbouli, one of Cairo's largest bookshops. Meanwhile, other books that were banned under Mubarak are now selling like hot cakes. One of them is General Saad Eddin el-Shazli's biography that tells of Mubarak's injustice to him, while another is The Republic of Mubarak's Family, written by Mohamed Taeema, which imagines what Egypt would be like if Gamal were to inherit power. According to Kamal, books that expose corruption under Mubarak are now being snatched from the shelves, as well as political ones that give suggestions for wise governance, like Islam and Governance by Sheikh Ali Abdel-Razeq. Kamal says that these books are being bought by anyone from teenagers to pensioners.
