Elijah Zarwan
Earth Times
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 Mohammed 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 Mohammed al-Ghonim's kidney hospital. Al-Ghonim is a highly respected figure throughout the Delta for his work treating poor farmers.
Al-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. "Egyptians want democracy! Egypt wants change!"
As they chanted, a team of young volunteers wearing t-shirts bearing ElBaradei's likeness handed out petitions in support of his seven-step program for political reform. Many - organizers said hundreds - signed, providing their national identification numbers as proof of their identity.
The crush at the impromptu protest was such that ElBaradei was forced to curtail a short walk with supporters and curious onlookers from the mosque to a bookstore.
Strangely - in country where riot police have beaten and detained hundreds of activists at similar protests in recent years - only plainclothes police informers were present at the march in al-Mansoura and at subsequent events in the nearby villages of Aga and Minyat al-Samanoud.
In the last village, ElBaradei responded to residents' questions on an unpaved road, while uniformed officers glowered from the gate of the police station across the road and plainclothes informers passed notes on participants to men who appeared to be from Egypt's domestic intelligence service, State Security Investigations.
Asked about what he thought of what he had seen that day, one uniformed officer made a dismissive gesture and retreated inside the police station.
While uniformed police were absent from the weekend's events, an ElBaradei supporter from the oasis of al-Fayoum has been badly beaten, allegedly by State Security officers, and the publisher of a book about him has been arrested, Cairo's Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said Saturday.
Al-Mansoura and its environs are known as strongholds of the Muslim Brotherhood, which, though banned, is Egypt's largest opposition group.
Adil al-Ganaidi, a member of the group, told dpa he had come out to support ElBaradei. But a second member said he would rather see a Brotherhood member become president.
"ElBaradei and America are hand-in-glove," Hassan al-Fotouh, 30, said. "We need someone who will speak strongly about what is going on in Palestine, not someone who will cower and say, 'Peace, peace, peace'."
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.
As he spoke, one woman grabbed the microphone.
"We want an honest president," she said. "Egypt has been waiting for you. Reach out your hand to her."
