According to a piece in today's Wall Street Journal, protest rally organizers selected 21 centers from which activists would begin to walk to Tharir Square. The 21st cite was kept utterly secret.
"They sent small teams to do reconnaissance on the secret 21st site. It was the Bulaq al-Dakrour neighborhood's Hayiss Sweet Shop, whose storefront and tiled sidewalk plaza—meant to accommodate outdoor tables in warmer months—would make an easy-to-find rallying point in an otherwise tangled neighborhood no different from countless others around the city.
The plotters say they knew that the demonstrations' success would depend on the participation of ordinary Egyptians in working-class districts like this one, where the Internet and Facebook aren't as widely used. They distributed fliers around the city in the days leading up to the demonstration, concentrating efforts on Bulaq al-Dakrour."
Protesters in small groups made for the sweet shop, with no police oversight.Then, the article goes on to say:
"The lack of security prompted neighborhood residents to stream by the hundreds out of the neighborhood's cramped alleyways, swelling the crowd into the thousands, say sweet-shop employees who watched the scene unfold."
What exactly are Egyptian sweets? Here is what Egypt Sweets has to say:
Assorted Egypt Sweets: (6 pieces)
1 piece of semsemia (sesame, sugar, glucose).
1 piece of homosia (chickpea, sugar, glucose).
1 piece of fouleya (peanut, sugar, glucose).
1 piece of bassima (coconut, butter, sugar, glucose).
2 pieces of malban with walnut (starch, sugar, glucose, walnut).
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