The Death March!

Why is Cairo awesome you ask? I'll tell you.

Yesterday I was walking to get pictures taken for some IDs at the Mogamma building, where all sorts of mysterious judgements and courts and trickery take place in a huge building donated by the Soviets that is a fine example of neo-bomb shelter architecture. As I am approaching this massive and daunting building, I hear the sounds that are only too familiar to my ears: The Star Wars "Death March." ( you know the dum dum dum dum da dum dum da dum). I look around me and people are all hurrying over to where the sound is coming from, and I, like a good want-to-be-Cairene, join them. We're held back from the railing of the street by an officer, but we still have a pretty good view of the festivities. After a few minutes a military corp comes marching, stiff legs thrown out, and the death march gets louder and louder. I have to admit that there were slight variations to the theme, which did in fact render the band's song as something other than the famous Star Wars theme, but it sounded so similar. * (Footnote for VH1 followers) Following these erect soldiers are the army band members, and following them are three men carrying big flower arrangements with banners on them, the type you often see in Catholic processions (maybe just funeral processions in general). After these came a truck with a coffin on top draped in a white sheet with red official-looking emblems. At this moment all the men around me started blessing him, to me it was a chorus of "Allah...... Allah..... Allah....." Following the truck are tons of security men looking all snazzy in their sunglasses and suits and walkie talkies, and then it's over. A man looked at me, shrugged, and said "We can go now." I found out later it was some 83 year old ex-minister who had died, but for me it was more than an ex-minister's death; it was quite an experience.

* The differences in the song were much like the differences Vanilla Ice claimed for "Ice, Ice, Baby" in comparison to "Under Pressure" in his oft-shown bit on VH1.