Just a casual observation…
I went today to pay my Mobinil monthly bill at their Abbas el-Akkad Street branch. The shop has been fortified with iron bars that cover the glass windows. Inside the shop, now there is an armed private security guard holding a baton, watching the customers nervously and making everyone around him nervous too!
Two days ago, my car ran out of gas in Heliopolis, near Triumph Square. I walked to a nearby Misr gas station, trying to buy few liters in a plastic container to carry back to the car. It wasn’t easy. I had to negotiate with the workers, who told me there were orders from the government not to sell gas in any containers lest people use it to make Molotov cocktails. In the end, the shift supervisor at the gas station sent one of the workers with me to the car to make sure I wasn’t lying.