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Albertan a witness to chaos in Egypt – Metro US

Albertan a witness to chaos in Egypt

While standing guard outside the hotel he manages, Albertan Frank Naboulsi said he could hear gunshots ringing out from across the Nile River.

As the vice-president and general manager of the Fairmont Nile City in Cairo, Naboulsi said he’s experiencing Egypt’s anti-government protests first-hand, but he’s not scared.

“Unfortunately, when you have the circumstances that have taken place in Egypt with everyone demonstrating, everyone is taking the law into their own hands,” he said. “If we don’t show a strong stand, what they do is they enter buildings, take whatever they want, then put it on fire.”

At home in Edmonton, Naboulsi’s wife, Lisa, said she’s confident her husband is safe but worries about the future of his industry.

“I’m more worried about what’s going to happen five or six months down the road, when there’s no business in Egypt and all the hotels are empty.”

Naboulsi said while the tourists staying at his hotel are safe, many are choosing to leave the country, dealing a blow to Egypt’s tourism industry.

“At this point, we need the government to start taking control of the streets and put the laws back in place so we can start to operate again,” he said. “There is turmoil, we can’t deny that, but at the end of the day Egypt will rebound as it always has and Cairo will still be a destination for a lot of travellers.”