Highbury Fields café owner Yehia El-Nerner says he may return home to Egypt
‘Anything that happens now has got to be better than before’
Published: 18th February, 2011
by PETER GRUNER
A POPULAR Highbury Fields café owner, who flew home to Cairo to take part in the recent mass uprising, spoke this week of Egypt’s “new spring” of optimism.
Yehia El-Nerner, who runs the Oasis in the Park Café – and whose customers include TV presenter Clive James, BBC TV political reporter Nick Robinson and London Mayor Boris Johnson – is now even considering returning to the country of his birth for good.
Mr El-Nerner, 60, a university-trained agricultural engineer who lives in Highbury with his wife and four children, went out to Cairo for a month to join the demonstrations in Tahrir Square.
“I have family in the city,” Mr El-Nerner said, “and when the protests against the former President Mubarak began, I decided that I had to be there.”
He added that, like millions of Egyptians, he had been waiting for the removal of Mubarak for many years.
“I never thought it could ever happen. That’s why I came to Britain nearly 40 years ago aged 27, to start a new life. I had to get away from Egypt’s corruption, lack of free expression and poverty.”
Mr El-Nerner, who joined demonstrators chanting “bread, freedom and dignity”, added: “You have to understand why what has happened in Egypt is so good.
“For many years we were told by the government that we were not important, that our voices stood for nothing. That is why people were so angry in the square.”
Unlike many commentators, who fear that Egypt could remain a military government or fall into the hands of extremists, Mr El-Nerner is optimistic. “Anything that happens now has got to be much better than before,” he said.
“Already, according to my mother in Cairo, the food prices are coming down. There’s a new sense of reality. For the first time, bread and vegetables have become cheaper. And this under military rule.
“Under the previous government, when you wanted a driving licence you had to pay bribes. Now officials are refusing money and saying you can have your licence because this is your right. Everything has changed. Even the streets are cleaner there than ever before.”
But Mr El-Nerner emphasised that it was not the military government – who have promised free elections in six months’ time – who are responsible for the changes.
“This is the people themselves bringing about improvements in every aspect of life. There is a new optimism and a democratic spirit. I can’t believe it will ever return to the bad old days.
“Not that I expect democracy overnight. There is no rush. But it will come. Like a lot of my friends in Britain I would go home now but things are not quite right yet. But if they continue to improve then I’ll probably go back.
“It doesn’t mean I have not been happy in Britain. This country has been very kind. It gave me a home and work to support my family. I am able to speak my mind here. But Egypt is my home.”