Pieces of files of former GDR secret police Stasi in Berlin. The Stasi used a network of agents and informers to collect details of almost every citizen in East Germany, to better quash dissent.Picture by Frank Jordans AP/Press Association Images. All rights reservedI better understood the tendency of the Egyptian state and security agencies to protect themselves after a few hours at the Stasi Museum in Berlin.
It was there in the grim, soviet-style offices of the Stasi — the former East German Ministry for State Security — that I remembered another office in which I was humiliated 25 years ago. The managing editor of the state-owned news agency was sitting in a clichéd three-piece grey suit and a dark red tie behind a huge clean desk. He grew visibly annoyed as he looked at me. Instead of the customary, “sit down, please,” he said, coldly, “Is this the way you behave in your father’s presence?” I was surprised and wondered what he meant. Seeing my confusion, the editor bellowed, “Take your hands out of your pockets! And go get yourself a decent hair cut that is suitable for our respectable organization.” I moved from shock to incredulity and resisted laughing or exploding in his face. What stood between us was not just his unchecked authority over a young trainee reporter who could be sacked at will, but perhaps more importantly, an unbridgeable gap in world view.
The Stasi and Egyptian security agencies seemed to fear the same season: spring.
