Cairo - This weekend each year, for as long as anyone can remember, the seasons have changed in Egypt. For 3,000 years at least, Egyptians have marked the change with the Sham al-Nassim holiday. This Sham al-Nassim, many of those who came out to greet former UN nuclear agency head Mohamed ElBaradei on his first trip to the countryside to promote his campaign for political reform in Egypt said they felt the political climate was changing too. "Today, I feel there is still hope," Ibrahim, a young student from the Nile Delta city of al-Mansoura, said after listening to ElBaradei address villagers in the nearby town of Minyat al-Samanoud on Friday. ElBaradei shrewdly began his trip in al-Mansoura, with a visit to Mohamed Ghonim's kidney hospital. Ghonim is a highly respected figure throughout the Delta for his work treating poor farmers. Ghonim and ElBaradei prayed at the al-Nour mosque just down the street from the hospital while a throng of supporters gathered outside. Some on the sidewalk outside prayed on the Egyptian flag. As prayers finished, hundreds sang the national anthem. "Long live Egypt! Long live ElBaradei," they chanted. Adil al-Ganaidi, a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, told dpa he had come out to support ElBaradei. But a second member said he would rather see a Brotherhood member become president. Taking questions from villagers in Minyat al-Samanoud, ElBaradei himself said he supported the right of the Muslim Brotherhood, and all Egyptians - "Islamists, secularists, Liberals, and Communists" - to form political parties and participate in public life. "If we are serious about change, we must join hands and speak with one voice," he said. ElBaradei has met with Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated lawmakers, but the group has so far held him at arm's length. Within hours of ElBaradei's arrival in al-Mansoura, the Brotherhood put out a statement saying it did not support his appearance there. "I think it shows that people are hungry for change," ElBaradei told the German Press Agency (dpa), commenting on the crowds who greeted him wherever he went in the Delta. "We 80 million Egyptians have survived 7,000 years," he said. "We must move from a pharaonic regime to democracy." "Egypt, with all its resources, deserves better. It does not make sense that 40 per cent of the people are still below the poverty line and 30 per cent are illiterate," he said.
