Right: Casey’s 2011 Citizen of the Year Roger Lord has fled the violence in Egypt and has found refuge in Jordan.By Lia Bichel
HE should have been toasting his top honour, instead Casey resident Roger Lord was trapped in violent chaos overseas.
Mr Lord was absent from an Australian Day celebration last week where he was named Casey’s Citizen of the Year, only to be stuck in Egypt while gunfire and violence erupted around him.
The riots stem from peaceful protests which began last week in a response to a people-power revolt that saw Tunisian dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali thrown out of power two weeks ago.
The protests turned ugly – with looting, violence and rampage in city streets.
Mr Lord was taking a break from his numerous volunteer commitments in Casey to relax on a cruise on the Nile.
Once the cruise finished, Mr Lord arrived in Cairo with his tour group to an eerie atmosphere, where streets were deserted and army tanks patrolled.
“We returned on the overnight train from Aswan arriving at 5.30am in darkness, to unaccustomed rain and relative quiet,” he wrote in a letter to the News.
“Usually the station is swarming with porters, but there were very few people around, just tanks guarding the station.”
The tour group Mr Lord was travelling with was taken to safety by a large van, but he had not expected to see the destruction left by rioters.
“We were horrified to pass tanks and a row of burnt-out police vehicles. Litter covered the streets which were normally swept clean,” he said.
“It felt more like 6pm and not 6am, with a heavy feeling of expectation.”
Once arriving at the hotel, the tour group were told their daily activities were cancelled and they were not to leave their rooms.
There, they sat all day and listened to gunfire on the surrounding streets and watched crowds grow outside their hotel.
The hotel’s management set up boxes of Molotov cocktails behind the pillars of the front door, and hid fire extinguishers inside for protection.
After a couple days of anticipation, the group boarded two vans and fled to Jordon, where Mr Lord is currently finding refuge.
Mr Lord is renowned for his contributions to the City of Casey, serving as an executive committee member and president of the Audit and Risk Committee at Beaconhills College; a board member and treasurer at Rideability Victoria; a board member and treasurer at Disability Capability; and treasurer for the Parenting Foundation.
Each week, he also teaches English to a Vietnamese student as part of the Adult Multicultural Education Services Tutoring
