By TREENA MIELKE
A former Bluffton resident who recently returned from Cairo, Egypt, didn’t have to read the newspapers to learn about the protests going on in that country.
Charles Montalbetti was actually watching from his hotel window as the streets of Cairo filled with mobs of angry protesters being forced back by the police with tear gas. He said the protesters even stormed into the hotel where he was staying.
“We were staying at the Hilton which was on the same block as the Parliament building that was set ablaze,” he said. “The protesters, feeling the harmful effects of the tear gas, came into our hotel, breaking some windows in the process. The wind carried the tear gas into our hotel and we could smell it.”
Montalbetti said having a ‘bird’s-eye view’ of the protesters did not frighten him, but it was a sight he won’t easily forget.
“It was a horrible sight, seeing these men and women moaning, weeping in pain from the stinging effects of the gas on their eyes.”
The 74-year-old Langley, B.C. resident, whose father, Ed, ran the general store and creamery in Bluffton for more than 40 years, said he did not, at any time, feel he was in danger while in Egypt.
“Their anger wasn’t at the tourists, it was at the government. Their bread and butter is the tourists. They don’t want to lose the tourist business. I was treated very well.”
Montalbetti said he can understand the protesters’ frustration.
“They are mostly young people and they have had 4,000 years of dictatorship. They can only take so much of this oppression. And there are a lot of poor, uneducated people.”
Despite being in the country when the riots broke out, as well as suffering from a broken fibula, which occurred when he slipped while getting off a river boat cruise, Montalbetti said he very much enjoyed his trip.
“I found the majority of tourists just happened to be retired teachers and they made for interesting and informative traveling companions. I was there for one week enjoying seeing the pyramids down the Nile River when the protesting erupted.
Montalbetti returned to Canada on Jan. 29. His original flight was cancelled, but later rerouted to Amsterdam.
“It’s good to be here. It made me appreciate Canada more; our standards, our way of life. It’s good to be home.”
Egypt erupted in mass protests last month as the revolution in Tunisia caused angry protesters to lash out against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak. The protests continued for almost three weeks and the armed forces signalled they would intervene on Feb. 10. However, on Feb. 11 Mubarak resigned and turned over all power to the military drawing to a conclusion 30 years of autocratic rule.