[nlwhittemore]

I lived in Cairo on and off for up to 6 months at a time between 2004 and 2009. The whole situation has been somewhat surreal to watch. The places are all the same, where I lived and spent time, but the context is so radically different that it's hard to imagine this - even watching the videos on Al Jazeera.

But there is something about the quiet of this memorial and the simplicity of the names and ages of these people who I was in classes with just a few years ago, or riding the metro with, or practicing Arabic with, juxtaposed with the brutality of the way in which they died, that really hit me.

I'm glad you took the time to email 1000memories and I'm glad that they responded like they did.

[mhashim]

Thanks for your support. When I saw a picture and a name in my news feed on facebook I had the same feeling as you describe. I believe as people we have come desensitized to hearing massive numbers of people being killed all over the world, but when a face is put to a name, and in this case when a whole profile is put to the name, the world might really feel the magnitude of the loss and its every individual.