Uma Ramiah Photo
Mohamed Ali was grilling up breakfast at his Lombard Street diner when he heard the news: Hosni Mubarak, the man who had ruled Ali’s homeland for three decades, had stepped down.
“I saw it on the television, on CNN,” he said. Excited, Ali, known to friends as “Mo”, shared what he called joyous news with a couple of customers. “When you get the head of state,” he said, “the body crumbles.”
“I felt so good about it,” said the 51-year old Egyptian native.
Under Mubarak’s iron-fisted rule, human rights and personal freedom suffered. But in January, protesters took the streets in Cairo and elsewhere for 18 days of demonstrations, calling for an end to the dictatorship. They succeeded.
Ali is proud of his country — in fact, he wishes he could have been part of the revolution. “I would have gone back,” he said, “but I have to run the diner.”
Ali was born and raised outside of Alexandria, Egypt. His parents have passed away; his brother remains in Egypt. His nephew, a doctor, went to Cairo when the revolution started to treat wounded protesters in Tahrir Square, at the center of the protest.
It was the actions of young people like his nephew that overthrew Mubarak, Ali said in an interview at his diner Monday. “And I think this revolution will change the whole world.
“Not just Egypt, not just the Middle East. The whole world.”
It’s Still a Better System
Ali’s been in the diner business for years. He came to New Haven from Egypt in the mid-‘80’s, just after Mubarak took power.
He spent a semester studying at University of New Haven.
“School wasn’t for me,” he said. So he quit. But he didn’t quit the city. He met his wife, Roberta in New Haven and they settled here; they live near Lighthouse Point now. His only son is in college at Brandeis University.
Ali opened the New Star Diner on Lombard Street at a gateway to the Fair Haven neighborhood and has been grilling ever since. It’s an old school diner, a throwback to the fifties — complete with a silver counter, swivel bar stools and an exposed grill, where Mo can be found from early in the morning. Sometimes, he joins a customer for a chat in one of his vinyl-lined booths.
The restaurant business is tough, he said, but he’s made it this far. He still greets each customer with a smile and personal greeting. “I don’t even count the years I’ve been here anymore,” he said.
Each of the three customers who walked in during a conversation Monday greeted him by name. As Fox News reported on the situation in the Middle East on a TV in the corner, one woman asked him about Egypt.
“So Mo, I hear that a phenomenal number of Egyptians are under the age of 30!” she said. He nodded, talked to her and her husband for a bit, and took their order of eggs over easy with bacon.
“Oh boy, you’re really eating today!” he said, sporting a white apron and a smile.
Though he clearly enjoys interacting with customers (and makes a mean grilled egg sandwich), he said business has been tough. The economy’s down. People are struggling to get by in this country.
“But,” he said, nodding, “it’s still a better system than Egypt.”
He left Egypt in search of that better system, he said. “It [his departure] was because of all the bribery, the corruption.”
While there is an educational and state system of institutions in Egypt, he said, they were destroyed by Mubarak. “This guy starts to corrupt all these institutions,” he said. “He’s looking out for himself, and not the people and the institutions. Those Egyptian people who are rich, are really rich.”
And the poor, he said, are really poor. That’s how it works with dictatorships, he said.
It was hard to find work when he lived there. “And now it’s the same for all these young people [in Egypt]. They are all educated, but nothing to do.” Younger generations, looking to raise their circumstances, pursued higher education en masse. “They spent all this money, and six or more years on education,” he said. “But where are the jobs?”
Mubarak spent 30 years stealing from Egyptians, Ali said. Estimates of his stashed wealth vary from $1 billion up to 70 billion.
“Human beings are greedy,” said Ali. “How much is enough?”
It’s widely known, Ali continued, that Mubarak’s people are well paid. “One guy has 15 villas because he’s the head of agriculture, a big guy,” he said. “The other has 10 because he’s an army guy.”
The Mubarak system, he said, just didn’t work.
“He made Egypt very bad,” he said. “And America helped him too. They wanted to keep the peace and keep their own interests. But now they must stop.”
Reuters reports that the U.S has given Egypt an annual average of $2 billion since 1979. Most of that has gone to the military.
Dictators are no good, said Ali. “You can’t keep the guy for 30 years in a system that worked for him and the people around him — like if you know someone from the government you can get a job, if not, no. What kind of system is that?”
Family in Egypt
Ali said he knew revolution was coming. While he was overjoyed when he heard it had started in January, Ali worried about his family. His brother, 58, still lives outside of Alexandria with his three children, all doctors. “My nephew Ahmed, as soon as he heard about the protests, he went to Cairo,” Ali said. A general practitioner, he wanted to help the revolution.
After the start of the protests, Ali tried to get in touch regularly with his family. “I’ve only spoken to them a few times,” he said. After the government cut off the Internet on Jan. 27, Ali wasn’t able to get in touch.
“I was scared, of course,” he said. He kept the diner open, and hoped for news. Internet service was finally restored on Feb. 2, and he was able to call his brother. “I just talked to him Friday,” he said. “Everyone’s safe, though one of Ahmed’s friends was shot in the legs by police in Cairo.”
The friend is recovering, he said.
“Used to be, I called them once every two weeks,” he said. “Now, I’m trying every couple of days.”
What’s Next?
“This isn’t the end,” Ali said. Indeed, as protests flare in Yemen, Iran, Bahrain and elsewhere, it seems the region is on fire with revolution.
“And after Tunisia, we kept it going,” said Ali. He predicted Algeria and Jordan will be the next to see similar upheavals.
In Egypt, what comes next is getting Mubarak’s people out, Ali said. “And they have to put the right person in power.” There are plenty of scholars and other qualified candidates in Egypt, he said.
Currently the Egypt’s military high council holds power.
“And you must notice,” Ali said, “the protesters tried their best to be peaceful.”
He emphasized the educated, peaceful nature of Egyptian culture. “No one wanted violence.” Whatever violence there was, was stirred up by the government, he said. “But Egyptians protested the right way.” They orchestrated block watches, clean-ups of Tahrir Square, and demonstrations.
“This is a country with incredible history, and culture.” he said.
He struggled to find the phrase.
“It’s the cradle of civilization,” he finally declared. “The mother of the Arab world.”
Young people, he said, are firmly connected to that culture and history. “They wanted to defend that.” Now, for the first time in 30 years, they can be proud to be Egyptian, he said.
“Now we see Tahrir Square, and we have pride now. We took the country back from this dictator.”
Ali misses Egypt every day; he hasn’t been back in 12 years. He looks forward to the day he can go back and celebrate its newfound freedom.
“But,” Ali added, “I can’t forget the diner!”