BBC ran a short video yesterday about the call to prayer in Egypt. I can’t figure out how to embed it, but the link is here. They report that the government plans to sync the call to prayer in every Cairo mosque to a radio broadcast.
They do this in Amman, Jordan, where I lived and studied for a semester. This means that throughout the whole city the call is more or less uniform, with the same start time, the same accent, etc.
In Cairo, by contrast, the call to prayer is as chaotic as everything else. Each mosque, from Al Azhar to the one room storefront down the block from my apartment, does the call to prayer on its own. Naturally, this leads to cacophony as each mosque tries to drown out the other in enthusiasm and volume. Some mosques have a muezzin with a beautiful voice and clear diction; the aforementioned mosque on my block has a muezzin who sounds like he has emphysema.
I know that it’s cliched and it’s probably Orientalist, but I love the call to prayer. It’s one of my favorite things about being in Arab countries. The sound is haunting and it’s beautiful. I often tune it out completely, but sometimes it grabs my attention and I stand at the window and–man, this is getting corny–feel a little spiritual. Incidentally, the call for the fajr, or dawn, prayer is a good indication that you’ve stayed up way too late.
I like the way the sound bounces off the buildings and, in certain parts of Cairo, builds toward a crescendo that resembles thunder as each mosque joins in, one by one. It’s pretty cool.
So I guess I’d vote against syncing the whole city’s calls to prayer up to someone’s iPod at the Ministry of Awqaf offices.
But I obviously don’t have a vote.
It turns out that the United States hasn’t completely given up on efforts to promote democracy in the Arab world. The Christian Science Monitor reports that Secretary of State Hillary was in Morocco today to meet with the Arab league about democracy.
Apparently, Hillary thinks that Morocco is a model:
Clinton kicked off the day with opening remarks that held up Morocco as an example for positive reform in the region. She recalled a visit to the country 10 years earlier, when she met an illiterate father who had supported his daughter’s aspirations of becoming a doctor. She also spoke of “devout women” who had gone on to become human rights advocates.
“Examples like these remind us there (is) much in Morocco’s experience that we can look to to guide our efforts today,” she said.
Michael Posner, assistant US secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, said on Monday that the Obama administration would use “principled engagement” to encourage regional governments to adopt democratic reforms – “both to provide security and at the same time to build democratic institutions that protect their own people.” Posner said that change “occurs from within society” and is “very hard to impose from outside.”
Hicham Houdaifa, a commentator with Moroccan magazine Le Journal that recently had its bank account frozen by Moroccan officials, says he was “disappointed” that Clinton did not address the issue of press freedom. In the lead-up to the forum in Morocco Reporters Without Borders sought to draw attention to a recent crackdown on the Kingdom’s press, but was prevented from holding a press conference by Moroccan officials.
Freedom House gives Morocco, which is a hereditary monarchy, middling grades on freedom and transparency. But I guess that makes it better than, you know, Syria.
Meanwhile, a recent internal audit of USAID funding to Egypt says that it is, for the most part, ineffective. USA Today reports:
More than $180 million in U.S. foreign aid to promote democracy in Egypt over the past four years has produced few measurable results, in part because the Egyptian government has stymied the effort, a newly released government audit says.
The “impact of (American-funded) democracy and governance programs was unnoticeable” in Egypt, said the report by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s inspector general. USAID auditors based their conclusions on international indexes of press freedom, corruption, civil liberties and political rights.
Then again, the US can’t afford to piss off crucial, albeit authoritarian, allies like Egypt. And Jordan. And Morocco, for that matter. So when the Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor says (quoted in CS Monitor story) that the US needs to use “principled engagement” and that democracy is “very hard to impose from the outside,” what he really means is it can’t be too much of a priority.
Al-Jazeera English did a good piece on food subsidies in Egypt–always an important issue. It doesn’t say that food subsidies will be phased out, but seems to suggest it’s a possibility.
I guess you know you’ve settled in when the weeks start going by incredibly quickly, just like they do at home. It’s already the weekend again. How did that happen? Anyway, apologies for the light blogging. If this happens again, here are a few Egypt blogs I recommend to keep you company:
- Egyptian Chronicles is one of my favorites. Zeinobia is always on top of the latest Egyptian news and she is relentless in her criticism of hypocrisy. And undogmatic! Great blog.
- 3arabawy is another one of my staple Egyptian blogs. The author is Hossam el-Hamalawy. (Full dislcosure: he is my boss.) His perspective is distinctly Marxist, Trotskyist, in fact, but even a non-comrade like myself can get down with his daily links about human rights issues, workers strikes, and wankers. Beware of the death metal videos, though.
- Sirgo’s Labyrinth is a pretty new blog, but Sarah El Sirgany, the author, writes thoughtful, longer posts about Egyptian and global news. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.
- I’m also a big fan of The Boursa Exchage, a very well-written, often very funny blog about life in Cairo and Egyptian news. The perspective is definitely a Western (I’m pretty sure American) one and so I feel like I can relate to, like you know, trying to find a good cake pan in Cairo. TBE also translates Arabic newspapers sometimes, which I appreciate. Sometimes includes tangents on Arabic linguistics that are over my head.
- I’ve said before that Cairo doesn’t deserve its reputation. But there is still plenty to complain about. Haisam Abu-Samra, writing on Buttfuck, Egypt, is brutal and hilarious in taking down whatever pisses him off at the moment. Written in flawless Superbad-speak. Sadly, Haisam hasn’t been blogging recently.
- These days tons of students studying abroad maintain a blog as a way to keep in touch with their friends and families back home. Usually, they are pretty inane. Carl, on the other hand, manages to write interesting and thoughtful posts about his day-to-day life as a masters’ student at American University in Cairo. (Okay, I know, sometimes you don’t care what he had for dinner.) He also posts a handful of useful links. And he does it every single day, which is pretty impressive.
Obviously, there are probably hundreds or thousands of great blogs in Arabic. Sadly, at this point I can only skim. (Hmm… something he said something government something something Gamal Mubarak something something something.) Therefore, my blog roll is naturally limited. There are also a ton of other blogs that I like about all kinds of things. But these are a few Egypt-specific blogs to get you started.
These recommendations are meant to supplement, not replace, Next Year In. So stay tuned.
PS: I once wrote a paper at Oberlin about the Egyptian blogosphere. I was looking for it while I wrote this post but I can’t find it. I wonder if it made any sense.
It’s the beginning of the weekend, so I’m going to post some happy hour music, just like I used to in the good old days. (Friends in America: Did you know that the weekend in some countries is Friday and Saturday? Yeah, I know. Total mindfuck. Thursday really is the new Friday.)
Without further ado, check out this video of John Prine in 1989. The hair and clothes are hilarious, but it’s a great song:
Cairo has a pretty shitty reputation.
Westerners who visit the city are awe-struck by the endless chaos that is Cairo traffic. (See Anthony Bourdain’s episode of No Reservations in Cairo.) The Lonely Planet warns in great detail about the air quality and the overcrowding.
Arabs don’t have much more love for the city, either. When I was living in Jordan and told people there I was going to Cairo, they would invariably say, “Cairo is too dirty! So crowded! Why go there?” I’ve heard plenty of Palestinians and Lebanese say the same thing. For that matter, Egyptians will often disparage their capital. My Arabic tutor had me repeat a sentence the other day that translated to “New York is cleaner than Cairo.”
Even expats who have lived here for years talk about what a challenging place it is. But you know what? I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as everyone says.
Yes, it is dirty. Yes, it is crowded. Yes, it is hot. Yes, the air is full of particulates that leave you with black boogers at the end of the day. But living here is not the Herculean struggle that people make it out to be. Sometimes the gridlock traffic makes me want to tear out my hair, but that happens in North Jersey, too.
Cairo is a big city and in a lot of ways it’s not that different from New York. I wouldn’t expect it to be as comfortable as, for example, a small college town in northeast Ohio. But in Cairo you find a way to make it your own, find calm in the chaos, develop systems for yourself, just as you do in any city. Drink a glass of orange juice and watch the traffic. It’s kind of fun.
It’s worth noting, though, that I am not a woman. This seems like an exceptionally unpleasant place to be female, particularly as a white woman. Sexual harassment is ubiquitous and appalling. A few days ago I was walking along a main street on my way back from work about ten feet behind two Egyptian women wearing hijab. For the whole half mile that I was behind them I watched as groups of men—old, young, unemployed, police, any kind of man you can think of—yelled catcalls at the two girls. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if they were blonde girls in T-shirts. (There will probably be more posts about this topic in the future.)
But precluding that, I think this city gets an unfair rap. I find it pretty damn livable. Then again, maybe you should check back with me again in another six months.
…for training purposes, that is.
Via Hossam, who says, “Welcome to Egypt Assholes.” I’ll refrain from name calling, but don’t you tell me that we’re not an empire.
It seems clear that Youssef Abu Zuhri, the brother of a Hamas leader, was tortured to death in an Egyptian prison last week. If you want some gruesome proof, Zenobia is running photos that I am frankly too squeamish to embed.
My sympathies don’t lie with Hamas, but that has nothing to do with this. No matter what your ideology is you have to stand against beating people to death in prisons. It is simply savage. Sadly, this was not an isolated incident in Egypt. (And yes, I know that my own government has done the same. Let’s hope it’s stopped.)
Hossam asks the right question: “He’s neither a blogger nor secular… will the international human rights watchdogs, like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, demand an investigation into the death of Youssef Abu Zuhri in Mubarak’s Gulag?”
I hope so. You can contact Amnesty here and Human Rights Watch here. Let them know that no one, not even an alleged “extremist” deserves this kind of treatment.
Have you heard that an Israeli-American billionaire is going to buy a fifty percent stake in Al Jazeera? Well, it’s probably not true.
The story is everywhere. It goes like this: Haim Saban, an Egyptian-born Israeli-American billionaire, who is the creator of Power Rangers and the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, is going to buy up to fifty percent of the Qatari news network.
Haaretz is covering it, as are other reputable Middle Eastern newspapers. The blogosphere is abuzz with talk about the potential purchase. But I encourage everyone to take a close look at the news stories about the deal.
What evidence do any of the stories offer? It was reported in the independent online Egyptian newspaper El-Masryoon. Anything else? No. No comments from Saban. No comments from Al Jazeera. No off-the-record comments from the supposed Egyptian intermediary. In fact, the story isn’t even being reported in any other local newspapers.
I hate to say it, but just because something is published in an Egyptian newspaper doesn’t make it true. A post on Mondoweiss said today, “Mondoweiss couldn’t make this up. What Zionist control of the media?” But actually, someone else could have made it up very easily and probably did.
I think it’s pretty unlikely that the Qataris would sell a huge portion of the most-watched news network in the Arab world to an Israeli. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. Saban’s ownership would seriously undermine Al Jazeera’s credibility with its viewers. Doha, of course, knows this.
So let’s just stop, take a deep breath, think this through, and try not to repeat rumors as fact.
I cried when Barack Obama got elected. I went door to door trying to convince rural Ohioans to vote for the guy. I proudly self-identify as an American liberal. I want a public option in the health care system. I support global nuclear disarmament and an emphasis on engagement in international relations.
I think that the Nobel committee’s decision to award President Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize was seriously ill advised. In fact, I think it was totally crazy.
Obama hasn’t gotten the US out of Iraq. He is contemplating sending more troops to Afghanistan. He has yet to get Israelis and Palestinians to sit down together. (In fact, Israel’s Foreign Minister is trying to dispel any hope for a comprehensive peace plan.) Obama hasn’t gotten a real agreement to reduce the world’s supply of nuclear weapons or made any substantive changes to international regulations related to global warming.
What has Obama possibly done that would warrant a Nobel Peace Prize? He gave a pretty good speech in Germany. He gave another pretty good speech in Cairo. He… Actually, those are the only things I can think of.
So why did he get the prize? I think that the primary reason is because he succeeded George W. Bush, the worst American president ever and the greatest threat to international peace of the last thousand years. Some people (the Nobel committee, apparently) think that’s a big enough achievement to deserve a prize. I do not.
If President Obama is smart he’ll turn down the prize. He’ll say, “This is a great honor, but let’s revisit it in a few years. I have a lot of work left to do.” And then he’ll get some credibility for being humble and realistic. And Obama is smart. He’s very smart. But I doubt that his ego is going to allow him to turn down one of the most prestigious awards in the world. And so he will raise expectations for his accomplishments to unreasonable heights.
I’m not saying I don’t want Obama to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. I hope that by the end of his first term he will achieve an equitable settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians. I hope that he will rid the world of nuclear weapons. I hope that he will stop global warming. Then he can get a prize.
