I’ve been listening to a lot of Springsteen and Springsteen rip-offs recently. That’s why this week’s video of The Hold Steady rocking the fuck out in Brooklyn a few years ago:

If you need me I’ll be passed out in the bathroom of a downtown bar, just like The Hold Steady would want me to be.

Have a good weekend.

(That part about being passed out was a joke.)

Like most Americans, I’ve spent the past week reading and thinking about the horrifying shooting at Fort Hood. Unlike most Americans, I live in a country that is majority Muslim. I’ve gotten a few questions from friends and family back in the States about how the Fort Hood massacre is playing out here in Egypt, so let me share my limited impressions.

As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been much response in Egypt to the shooting. It’s barely made it across my radar on Twitter, Facebook, Egyptian blogosphere, the newspaper I work at, or conversation I’ve had with anyone over the past week. (With a few exceptions here and there.) This shouldn’t be surprising, really. Thirteen people died, but it’s essentially a local news story. Does the fact that Nidal Malik Hasan, the shooter, was a Muslim and an Arab mean that Egyptians have any stake in the matter? Not really.

It’s American Muslims for whom the Fort Hood shooting will really matter in the long term. The right wing has used this as an opportunity to unleash their most vicious anti-Muslim sentiments that you always knew were lurking beneath their shallow surface. (For example, Bill O’Reilly, the asshole of America’s assholes, lamented that “we can’t kill all the Muslims” which is why we have to win their hearts and minds.)

The right in America is blaming the shooting on “political correctness,” which they say doesn’t allow us to sufficiently discriminate against Muslims. Marc Lynch sums up the debate and the appropriate response to this approach well on his blog at Foreign Policy:

American security, therefore, demands dropping the “political correctness” of avoiding a confrontation with Islamist ideas and asking the “tough questions” about Islam as a religion and the loyalty of Muslim-Americans.

This framing of the issue is almost 100% wrong. There is a connection between what these critics are calling “political correctness” and national security, but it runs in the opposite direction. The real linkage is that there is a strong security imperative to prevent the consolidation of a narrative in which America is engaged in a clash of civilizations with Islam, and instead to nurture a narrative in which al-Qaeda and its affiliates represent a marginal fringe to be jointly combatted. Fortunately, American leaders — from the Obama administration through General George Casey and top counter-terrorism officials — understand this and have been acting appropriately.

It’s worth walking through the connection once again, because how America responds to Ft. Hood really is important in the wider attempt to change the nature of its engagement with Muslim publics across the world. Get the response right, as the administration thus far has done, and they show that things really have changed. Get it wrong, as its critics demand, and the world could tumble back down into the ‘clash of civilizations’ trap which al-Qaeda so dearly wants and which the improved American approach of the last couple of years has increasingly denied it.

I think that Lynch is mostly right here. I suspect that while the shooting isn’t a huge news story here in Egypt, a fervent anti-Muslim backlash in the United States would be. Discrimination against Muslim Americans would play into Egyptian’s and Arab’s worst impressions about the US. I’m proud that my country is more accepting of its Muslim immigrants and natives than European counties are. I hope we don’t let this incident change that.

This piece in the Guardian’s Comment Is Free has made its way across my Twitter, blogroll, and Google Alerts over the past couple days. It refers to a report by the Egyptian government’s investment authority assessing the success of Egypt’s economic liberalization. Here’s the gist:

Since 1991, the year Egypt yoked itself to an IMF structural adjustment programme and embarked on a series of wide-ranging economic reforms, the country has been something of a poster child for neoliberal economists who point to its remarkable levels of annual GDP growth as proof that “Washington consensus” blueprints for the developing world can work. Coming on the back of an economic crisis precipitated partly by profligate government spending on arms sales (subsidised by US aid), the regime of President Hosni Mubarak signed up to an IMF loan that was conditional on economic liberalisation. Those conditions – relaxed price controls, reduced subsidies, an opening up of trade – were met with gleeful abandon.

[...]

Then 2004 brought a new cabinet which swiftly cut the top rate of tax from 42% to 20%, leaving multimillionaires paying exactly the same proportion of their income into government coffers as those on an annual salary of less than £500. Special economic zones were created, foreign investment reached dizzying heights ($13bn in 2008) and, in the past three years, economic growth has clocked in at a consistently high 7%. The minimum wage, incidentally, has remained fixed at less than £4 a month throughout. The global business community applauded Mubarak’s rule as “bold”, “impressive” and “prudent”.

So Egypt is now a glitzier, more prosperous land with pharaonic-style riches to match its pharaonic-style leader (now entering his 29th year in power). Except, as the GAFI report inconveniently points out, 90% of the country has yet to see any of the bounty. Foreign investment has been largely channelled into sectors like finance and gas which create few new jobs. While national resources like natural gas have been sold at subsidised rates to the tycoon owners of iron and fertiliser factories, the cost of ordinary commodities like bread and cooking oil has spiralled. In fact since the IMF began hauling Egypt’s economy into modernity, Egyptians have got steadily and dramatically poorer: when structural adjustment began 20% of the population were living on less than (inflation-adjusted) $2 a day; today, that figure stands at 44%. In the past decade, when GDP growth was at its strongest, absolute poverty has climbed from 16.7% to almost 20%. Chomsky called neoliberalism “capitalism with the gloves off”; it’s hard, looking at this jumble of statistics, to discern anything but a shameless hit-and-run job perpetrated by a tiny band of Egypt’s business elite.

I’m going to be quite honest and say that I don’t know anything about economics. (In fact, as I’ve said before I’m pretty bad with money in general.) But this article points out what seems to be the glaring truth about economic liberalization in the developing world: GDP growth has very little to do with eliminating poverty. India, which is widely hailed as globalization’s greatest success story, seems like an even better example Egypt.

This is not to say that I’m completely in favor of a state-run economy. That, too, has its downfalls. But as Shenker points out in the Guadian, the current way of doing business benefits only a few.

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.