Kerry trip continues with stop in Egypt

>>> secretary of state john kerry touched down in cairo, egypt a few hours ago. it's his first time in the arab nation as secretary of state. he flu in from turkey and is currently on the sixth day a nine- day trip through the middle east . with a good evening your time. what is the schedule like in egypt ? what happened today?

>> reporter: well, u.s. officials traveling with the secretary of state say it is a very intense day of meetings. today the secretary of state met with some of egypt 's opposition forces, though some of the more notable figures boycotted that meeting. he's also meeting with members of egypt 's business community . there's no doubt that the u.s. feels that to get egypt 's economy back on track there has to be a political reconciliation under way. that hasn't happened so far. tomorrow the secretary of state is going to meet members of the civil society , some of them who have been complaining about a shrinking of human rights if you will. and then he will meet with egypt 's president, minister of defense and the powerful intelligence chief. so he does have a very busy 24 hours ahead of him, alex.

>> tell me, is egypt turning into what the u.s. had hoped it would after the arab spring?

>> reporter: well, there's definitely signs of hope. but i think the overall consensus is it still hasn't turned a corner. it's struggling to get its footing. the transition has been very rough. lots of violence, lots of street protests. the economy has all but collapsed. so it is not the optimistic egypt that many people had hoped for. but nonetheless there have been signs of progress, especially on the issue of media. a lot of freedom of expression , the right to protest. but still a lot of work that americans, europeans and most importantly egyptians say still has to be done.

>> picking up on that freedom of expression , the harlem shake is being used as a form of protest? tell me about that.

>> reporter: yeah. well, there's no doubt about it. one of the issues people have been complaining about in egypt is the social restrictions that are being put. that's not anything official. the government hasn't imposed anything. so people here always creative, trying to find ways to protest. they went to the headquarters of the muslim brotherhood which traditionally has frowned on things like public forms of dancing and concerts and sometimes to some extent music. they really used the harlem shake there to try to demonstrate publicly outside the headquarters. it was a peaceful event. not too large of a turnout. nonetheless the protesters got the message across the individual rights of people whether it's through music or expression should not be touched. and it was in their eyes a successful event. it even drew the attention of some muslim brotherhood members who were watching although they didn't participate.

>> but you know, it was