Rich and poor are worlds apart in Egypt (News Feature)

By Anne-Beatrice Clasmann Jan 30, 2011, 15:23 GMT

Cairo - 'We'll make sure that (President) Hosny Mubarak clears off and then everything will be alright,' young demonstrators, who gathered on Sunday in central Cairo's Tahrir Square, say.

'But what about all the looting, the escaped criminals who are now running around the streets?' asks an Egyptian journalist.

'Well, I think these reports are exaggerated,' another young demonstrator replies. The journalist is outraged. 'Who can you be so naive?' she says.

Khalid Baligh, who lives in Cairo and runs a large farm in the Nile Delta region with his family, belongs to those who support the fight for more democracy and human rights.

But he is also deeply troubled by the failure of young protesters, most of whom are middle class, to understand that criminals are now exploiting the current power vacuum.

Some of those now roaming the streets of Cairo with sticks and knives also want revenge - on the police, but also on the rich and the middle classes, whose lifestyles they regard with a mixture of envy and contempt.

Only a few of the protesters seem to understand that they may also present a target for criminals.

'The gap between the different sections of our society is simply very, very big,' says Baligh. Neither side understands the other.

Ibrahim, a Cairo native who works as a chauffeur, agrees. The activists, who first organized their demonstrations via the internet, have no idea what the poorer classes think of them.

'The only times people who live in better-off areas come into contact with those who are socially disadvantaged - many of whom live in illegally built shanty towns - are when they see their cleaners, their drivers, their concierges,' Ibrahim says.

Baligh is hoping that the demonstrators, whose protests have meant the military has gradually stepped in to take over some of Mubarak's power, will now make concrete demands.

The military should also restore order, he says. He heard shots in his neighbourhood the night before.

'They should say: change the constitution, Mubarak can't run again and parliamentary elections need to be held as soon as possible,' he says. 'And then they should give the political leaders a month to prove that they're ready to do just that.'

But leaders of the opposition have been keeping a low profile since Saturday. Most people are thinking of themselves and the safety of their families.

Others are also asking how thousands of convicted criminals managed to escape from prisons to the south and north of Cairo over the weekend.

It remains unclear whether the prison guards ran away, whether they were overpowered by prisoners or whether they deliberately released prisoners to spread chaos and panic.

The last idea then begs the question of who stands to benefit from such a stunt.

Egyptians who are ready to believe the worst of Mubarak and his regime suspect this could all be part of a plan to allow the army and parts of the political establishment to present themselves as heroes - and cling on to power.

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