Really interesting article about the "other side" of Dubai. Yes, I know a lot of this has been said and/or written about before, but one part in particular stood out to me. The writer is interviewing a young Emirati and asks about Dubai's ongoing downward slide, and the Emirati says (emphasis mine):
"The Middle East will be far more dangerous if Dubai fails. Our export isn't oil, it's hope. Poor Egyptians or Libyans or Iranians grow up saying – I want to go to Dubai. We're very important to the region. We are showing how to be a modern Muslim country. We don't have any fundamentalists here. Europeans shouldn't gloat at our demise. You should be very worried.... Do you know what will happen if this model fails? Dubai will go down the Iranian path, the Islamist path."
Just...interesting. I haven't been to the UAE (yet), though I often hear it described as being overwhelmingly fake. It would be weird, I think, to transition from Cairo, with its 4,000 year old pyramids, to Dubai, a city that sprang up from almost nothing in the last 30-odd years. I get that there are incentives, but it lacks the culture that makes the Middle East so appealing to me. Still, it's interesting to hear the country, now in a magnificent state of decline, described as the great hope for the Middle East. For everyone's sake, I hope that Egypt, and the rest of the region, can do better.
I'll end just by mentioning another quote from the article. While interviewing another Emirati, this one a political dissident who was blacklisted and had his passport revoked after speaking with Human Rights Watch, the man says something very telling in regards to both Islamism and freedom of the press in the Middle East:
"People who are told to shut up all the time can just explode."
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
sketchy bowling
I love bowling. I'm not very good at it, but I love the inherent tackiness and sketchiness of a bowling alley, everything from the questionable rental shoes to the pitchers of cheap beer. But the thing is, I often forget how much I like bowling until someone brings it up, and then I realize I really want to go. So I haven't been bowling in a really long time -- definitely not since I came to Cairo, and before then I can't even remember the last I went in Chicago.
But a friend told me about a bowling alley in Giza called Nile Bowling, and after going this weekend with four friends I am delighted to say that it was spectacularly sketchy. First, no bowling shoes necessary: you bowl in whatever footwear you have on, which in my case was a pair of flip-flops. Second was that in our lane, the bowling pins seemed to have some slight wobbling issues. Sometimes they just fell down of their own volition, even if a bowling ball was nowhere in sight, or the ball would roll into the gutter halfway down the lane and then the machine would give you credit for two pins down anyway (this actually happened to me on several occasions). Other times when you would go to bowl, the machine would just decline to acknowledge that roll, automatically reset, and randomly give the bowler extra frames. Ultimately, I bowled a 56, which might be a lifetime high for me without bumpers.
The whole point of this, though, is that after having been here so long, I expect things in Egypt to run inefficiently. That's part of the charm of Cairo, in my opinion. If we had gotten to the bowling alley and everything had worked properly, I think I actually would have been disappointed. Yes, people, it's come to that: my expectations are so low that I don't even need something to function to make me happy, I just need it to exist.
But a friend told me about a bowling alley in Giza called Nile Bowling, and after going this weekend with four friends I am delighted to say that it was spectacularly sketchy. First, no bowling shoes necessary: you bowl in whatever footwear you have on, which in my case was a pair of flip-flops. Second was that in our lane, the bowling pins seemed to have some slight wobbling issues. Sometimes they just fell down of their own volition, even if a bowling ball was nowhere in sight, or the ball would roll into the gutter halfway down the lane and then the machine would give you credit for two pins down anyway (this actually happened to me on several occasions). Other times when you would go to bowl, the machine would just decline to acknowledge that roll, automatically reset, and randomly give the bowler extra frames. Ultimately, I bowled a 56, which might be a lifetime high for me without bumpers.
The whole point of this, though, is that after having been here so long, I expect things in Egypt to run inefficiently. That's part of the charm of Cairo, in my opinion. If we had gotten to the bowling alley and everything had worked properly, I think I actually would have been disappointed. Yes, people, it's come to that: my expectations are so low that I don't even need something to function to make me happy, I just need it to exist.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
sandboarding is my new favorite sport
Well this is definitely a week late, but last weekend I was in Siwa, an oasis in the Western Desert. Siwa is almost completely isolated, and is the farthest away from everything of all the oases -- it is almost at the border with Libya -- and is about a 10-hour drive from Cairo. Because of its isolation, Siwa is known for having a culture different from the rest of Egypt. The people speak Siwi (a Berber language) in addition to Arabic, the women wear these really ornate outfits (though they are also exceptionally covered up), and Siwan crafts (like woven baskets) are very well-known. So yes, I was very excited to be going after hearing about it for so long.
We left Thursday night late and arrived on Friday morning, ready to explore the town. On Friday we did the tourist-y things in Siwa town, including some springs (Cleopatra's Baths, where apparently Cleopatra used to go bathe), the Temple of the Oracle of Amun, which used to be very sought after, and the fortress of Shali in the old part of Siwa, which has a great view of the whole oasis. (It's a huge oasis, with something like 30,000 people.) Friday night we slept in a hotel in Siwa, and then on Saturday we woke up and headed into the desert after lunch.
On Saturday, Sunday and Monday we were out in the desert. We went to more springs (hot, cold, salty), went dune riding in jeep 4X4s, which was awesome: the drivers speed around the desert up and down the dunes so it feels kind of like a roller coaster. So much fun! We also went sandboarding, which is like on a modified snowboard but used on a sand dune. Photos below! The camping was nice: two big tents, one for food and one for sleeping, and then a fire with a table for chilling at night. The food was really good -- Siwan food is more North African than Middle Eastern I think, i.e. cous cous and tagines instead of shwarma and falafel -- although one night definitely included a whole baby goat that had been cooked in this pit under the sand, and which I definitely did not eat. Seemed to be a popular local delicacy though.
I think my favorite part is that the desert around Siwa is very much like the kind of desert you expect to see in movies: just dune after dune stretching out as far as the eye can see. It's really beautiful, and really desolate. In the Black and White Deserts, there were rocks and formations and all kinds of things that sort of broke up the monotony, but out there was just...nothing. And it was amazing. We also took lots of evening walks and did some stargazing -- one of the best skies I've ever seen.
Temple of the Oracle in Siwa town. This oracle is the reason people in the ancient world used to seek out this oasis.
A view of the oasis from the Temple -- look at all the palm trees!
A2 and I on a donkey cart in Siwa
Siwan handicrafts
Fortress of Shali at sunset
Cold springs in the desert by the oasis
Ah, the peacefulness of the desert...
Part of the desert used to be an ocean, and those rocks are actually pieces of coral
Look at me sandboarding!
A1 and I attempting to roll down one of dunesWednesday, April 15, 2009
freedom of the press
The Medill Alums listserv has been updating on this fairly recently, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents. Roxana Saberi, a Medill alum, is an Iranian-American journalist (born in America, has dual citizenship) who has spent the last six years working in Iran and was arrested recently. I'm pretty sure it was initially for working as a journalist without the proper credentials, but the charges have since been upgraded to spying for America. Espionage, as you might imagine, is a pretty serious charge, so people have been following the case pretty closely.
It's cases like this that make me grateful to have grown up in a country with a free press. And it really makes me appreciate journalists who go out on a limb, reporters who put themselves at risk because they believe the public has a right to know what's going on in their country and with their government.
I often wonder about the state of the press in the rest of the Middle East, especially here in Egypt. Egypt doesn't have the best track record when it comes to press freedoms, and many bloggers in particular have gotten into trouble for speaking out against the government. There have been arrests, or journalists have been "disappeared," and there's certainly some amount of censorship. Obviously it's not as bad as in Iran, but I have to wonder if things are bound to get worse here -- after all, they're certainly not getting any better.
Anyway, you can read the full article here.
It's cases like this that make me grateful to have grown up in a country with a free press. And it really makes me appreciate journalists who go out on a limb, reporters who put themselves at risk because they believe the public has a right to know what's going on in their country and with their government.
I often wonder about the state of the press in the rest of the Middle East, especially here in Egypt. Egypt doesn't have the best track record when it comes to press freedoms, and many bloggers in particular have gotten into trouble for speaking out against the government. There have been arrests, or journalists have been "disappeared," and there's certainly some amount of censorship. Obviously it's not as bad as in Iran, but I have to wonder if things are bound to get worse here -- after all, they're certainly not getting any better.
Anyway, you can read the full article here.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
there is so much matzah in my kitchen
I realized I had never posted about being in Israel for Passover, so I thought I would write a quick update. I took the buses there on Tuesday (crossed the border without getting my passport stamped on either side again, which means I am 3-for-3 on passport stamp-age, knock on wood), and arrived in Tel Aviv in time for a late dinner with Sara. On Wednesday I relaxed on the beach for a bit, then got driven to Elkana to see the rest of the family (Dov, Bruria and extended counsins) for the seder. Seder was very enjoyable -- good food, not too long, plus I was able to follow along fine in Hebrew. Sara then picked me up late Thursday night, and I spent Friday shopping in Tel Aviv -- Nachalat Binyamin and Shenkin St. mostly. Though I have spent far more time in Jerusalem, I do have a few favorite stores in Tel Aviv, including HaOzen HaShlishi (The Third Ear), an excellent record shop where I picked up a ton of music, including the new Idan Raichel (woo!). I returned to Cairo by plane on Saturday night, in time to go to work on Sunday.
But I think the best part about going to Israel for Passover was just the holiday atmosphere. All the restaurants that remained open and kosher for Passover -- I still got to have an iced Aroma, and there were pizza places doing that kosher for Passover pizza which was not so bad -- plus everyone wishing you a Chag Sameach. I mean, it's like that a lot in Florida too -- there's never a problem finding good food and everyone else at the hotel we go to is Jewish also. Still, there's something uniquely awesome about being in Israel for Passover, and I was happy to experience it this year. How was I to know that last year when I said "next year in Jerusalem" it would end up being true?
Anyway, since then I have had a good week back in Egypt. Many friends have sampled the matzah I brought back from Israel, though I am definitely looking forward to the holiday ending tomorrow night (I celebrated in Israel this year, so seven days it is!). This upcoming weekend is also a long one, in honor of Coptic Easter, so I pretty much got two vacations in a row. I will be traveling to Siwa, an oasis in the Western Desert. Check back next week for some awesome photos and more updates!
But I think the best part about going to Israel for Passover was just the holiday atmosphere. All the restaurants that remained open and kosher for Passover -- I still got to have an iced Aroma, and there were pizza places doing that kosher for Passover pizza which was not so bad -- plus everyone wishing you a Chag Sameach. I mean, it's like that a lot in Florida too -- there's never a problem finding good food and everyone else at the hotel we go to is Jewish also. Still, there's something uniquely awesome about being in Israel for Passover, and I was happy to experience it this year. How was I to know that last year when I said "next year in Jerusalem" it would end up being true?
Anyway, since then I have had a good week back in Egypt. Many friends have sampled the matzah I brought back from Israel, though I am definitely looking forward to the holiday ending tomorrow night (I celebrated in Israel this year, so seven days it is!). This upcoming weekend is also a long one, in honor of Coptic Easter, so I pretty much got two vacations in a row. I will be traveling to Siwa, an oasis in the Western Desert. Check back next week for some awesome photos and more updates!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
exodus
I will be departing Cairo in about 5 hours to go to Israel. I will update later from there, but to get you in the Passover spirit, here is a video from The Prince of Egypt. Enjoy!
Personally, I am excited for my own little Exodus from Egypt to Israel for Passover (though to be fair, I don't feel like I am fleeing or anything since I like it here). But it will make many of the passages in the Haggadah so much more applicable this year!
And as another fun bonus, at my Arabic less today, my tutor taught me how to say "split the Red Sea," so when I am on the bus with an intense look of concentration I can explain what I am trying to do. For the curious, it is: Fil Pascua dee, ana eayza ae'sem bahr al-ahmar zay Mussa. (Literally: This Passover, I want to split/divide the Red Sea like Moses.) Impress your friends!
Personally, I am excited for my own little Exodus from Egypt to Israel for Passover (though to be fair, I don't feel like I am fleeing or anything since I like it here). But it will make many of the passages in the Haggadah so much more applicable this year!
And as another fun bonus, at my Arabic less today, my tutor taught me how to say "split the Red Sea," so when I am on the bus with an intense look of concentration I can explain what I am trying to do. For the curious, it is: Fil Pascua dee, ana eayza ae'sem bahr al-ahmar zay Mussa. (Literally: This Passover, I want to split/divide the Red Sea like Moses.) Impress your friends!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
what should i do with my extra hour?
The great Cairo Museum Exploration continued this weekend when I went to the Museum of Islamic Ceramics on Saturday. Like most of the other museums I have been to here (besides the Egyptian Museum), it was empty. A2 and I were the only people there, and while you might think it would be creepy, I find it pretty cool to have a museum full of priceless antiquities all to yourself. There was no ticket booth or anything, but when we walked in the attendant came over and asked if we were tourists. We said we live in Cairo (fingers were crossed for the Egyptian ticket price instead of the foreigner one!), and were asked for proof. I used my EgyCare health insurance card, and we were ultimately given foreign student price (it's usually good for a 50 percent discount, and is second cheapest after actually being Egyptian). Great success!
Anyway, the museum is housed in a former mosque, and the mihrab is still in front and there are cool arches and stuff, plus some really beautiful stained glass windows and great Arabic calligraphy on the walls. My inner Orientalist was pleased. The museum mostly has dishes, tiles, pots, jugs, etc. from all over the Middle East and surrounding area -- Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Persia, Andalusia (Spain in pre-Ottoman times was called Al-Andaluz, though Andalusia now refers to the southern region of Spain). Some went as far back as the 9th and 10th centuries. There were also some more modern ones that were modeled on those artifacts, and those were nice also. It's amazing how many are in such great condition, and really beautiful with vibrant colors and intricate details. I really like a lot of the Islamic pottery because I think they don't look ancient; a lot of those jugs were more than 500 years old, but they look you could just pick one up and pour yourself a glass of water right right here in 2009. Cool stuff.
Also, I recently realized that we're still not back on Daylight Savings Time, when the rest of the world appears to be. I know America already switched "sprang forward," like a month ago, and figured we in Egypt were just biding our time. But apparently not. I have heard they might not have it this year, something to do with when Ramadan falls. Can they do this? Can an entire country just opt out of Daylight Savings Time? And if so, isn't there some weird cosmic imbalance because I get an extra hour this year (from when we "fell back" in September) that I apparently don't have to give back? And if that's true, I feel like I should be grateful, and should come up with something really amazing and awe-inspiring to do with that extra hour. Thoughts?
Anyway, the museum is housed in a former mosque, and the mihrab is still in front and there are cool arches and stuff, plus some really beautiful stained glass windows and great Arabic calligraphy on the walls. My inner Orientalist was pleased. The museum mostly has dishes, tiles, pots, jugs, etc. from all over the Middle East and surrounding area -- Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Persia, Andalusia (Spain in pre-Ottoman times was called Al-Andaluz, though Andalusia now refers to the southern region of Spain). Some went as far back as the 9th and 10th centuries. There were also some more modern ones that were modeled on those artifacts, and those were nice also. It's amazing how many are in such great condition, and really beautiful with vibrant colors and intricate details. I really like a lot of the Islamic pottery because I think they don't look ancient; a lot of those jugs were more than 500 years old, but they look you could just pick one up and pour yourself a glass of water right right here in 2009. Cool stuff.
Also, I recently realized that we're still not back on Daylight Savings Time, when the rest of the world appears to be. I know America already switched "sprang forward," like a month ago, and figured we in Egypt were just biding our time. But apparently not. I have heard they might not have it this year, something to do with when Ramadan falls. Can they do this? Can an entire country just opt out of Daylight Savings Time? And if so, isn't there some weird cosmic imbalance because I get an extra hour this year (from when we "fell back" in September) that I apparently don't have to give back? And if that's true, I feel like I should be grateful, and should come up with something really amazing and awe-inspiring to do with that extra hour. Thoughts?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
me: 1, airlines: 0
After lengthy fights with half a dozen airlines this week, I have emerged victorious. Things I had to do included:
1. re-booking my return flight to America while attempting to avoid re-paying for the flight (I win);
2.fighting with Orbitz for a refund on my trip to Israel after they rebooked me on a flight that would have caused to miss half the Seder (I win); and
3. re-booking myself on the return flights from Israel back to Cairo (win again).
I will now be going to Israel via seven-hour bus ride to Taba, but on the bright side at least it's all over and I am done fighting with various airlines and travel sites.
1. re-booking my return flight to America while attempting to avoid re-paying for the flight (I win);
2.fighting with Orbitz for a refund on my trip to Israel after they rebooked me on a flight that would have caused to miss half the Seder (I win); and
3. re-booking myself on the return flights from Israel back to Cairo (win again).
I will now be going to Israel via seven-hour bus ride to Taba, but on the bright side at least it's all over and I am done fighting with various airlines and travel sites.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
the future freaks me out
Firstly, a special blog shout-out to my amazing roommate Adrienne (previously referred to as A1) for getting into grad school. SAIS (school for international affairs at Johns Hopkins) is lucky to have her -- congrats!
Seeing my friends plan for their futures makes me think a lot about what's going to happen when I leave Egypt this summer. It's a challenge for sure, because I know that if I were to stay in Cairo with my journalism background I could have my pick of jobs, even in this rotten economy. In fact, I kind of already have received two informal offers, or at least had people express interest if I chose to stick around. But the problem is that if I accepted either of those jobs I would have to plan to commit to Cairo for another year or so, and I am pretty sure that's something I am not willing to do right now.
I have, as some of you know, been thinking a lot about law school. It's always been something I considered, though I pretty much put it on the back-burner in college to concentrate on journalism. Well, the journalism industry now...makes me really sad. That will be another post for another time. But suffice it to say that law school is looking better and better. Anyway, I have been thinking a lot recently about life post-Cairo (right now it's a pretty scary thought), and so that's kind of what those thoughts are looking like right now. But it's months away, so who knows!
Anyway, I realized I never really posted anything about last week either - sorry about that! I had a good weekend here. On Thursday night we went to a party at the American Embassy thrown by the U.S. Marines who work at/guard the embassy, this one a belated St. Patrick's Day party. We've gone to several of these parties before, and they're always a good time. Still no green beer, but at least we got to celebrate St. Patrick's Day a little. Otherwise, earlier in the week we went to a bar called After 8, where a man sang Irish folk songs for an hour before an Egyptian band called Wust el Balad took over. Although there was a huge bar fight at the end of the evening that night, and that felt very Irish. Overall, though, compared to festivities I have seen in Chicago, where the Chicago River is dyed green, Cairo seems pretty underrepresented when it comes to authentic Irish culture. And also actual Irish people.
Instead of a museum on Saturday, I went to the Ezbekiyya Gardens in Ataba, which contain a well-known book market. Though I currently have a good deal of reading material, I went just to browse. The offerings, though disorganized, are so much more diverse than what you would find at a regular used book store in America. In addition to your standard worn copies of American paperbacks (old copies of Stephen King, Jonathan Kellerman and other types of typical airport bookstore finds), there are Mickey Mouse comics in Arabic, ancient copies of travel guides to countries all over the world, stacks of back issues of some truly random magazines (hello, scary fashion trends in Cosmo circa 1991), and, obviously, many copies of the Qu'ran. These are all on display in about 100 stalls, so it's best to just go wander. I quite enjoyed it; as someone who has been a lifelong book lover, sometimes it's nice just to wander and browse.
Seeing my friends plan for their futures makes me think a lot about what's going to happen when I leave Egypt this summer. It's a challenge for sure, because I know that if I were to stay in Cairo with my journalism background I could have my pick of jobs, even in this rotten economy. In fact, I kind of already have received two informal offers, or at least had people express interest if I chose to stick around. But the problem is that if I accepted either of those jobs I would have to plan to commit to Cairo for another year or so, and I am pretty sure that's something I am not willing to do right now.
I have, as some of you know, been thinking a lot about law school. It's always been something I considered, though I pretty much put it on the back-burner in college to concentrate on journalism. Well, the journalism industry now...makes me really sad. That will be another post for another time. But suffice it to say that law school is looking better and better. Anyway, I have been thinking a lot recently about life post-Cairo (right now it's a pretty scary thought), and so that's kind of what those thoughts are looking like right now. But it's months away, so who knows!
Anyway, I realized I never really posted anything about last week either - sorry about that! I had a good weekend here. On Thursday night we went to a party at the American Embassy thrown by the U.S. Marines who work at/guard the embassy, this one a belated St. Patrick's Day party. We've gone to several of these parties before, and they're always a good time. Still no green beer, but at least we got to celebrate St. Patrick's Day a little. Otherwise, earlier in the week we went to a bar called After 8, where a man sang Irish folk songs for an hour before an Egyptian band called Wust el Balad took over. Although there was a huge bar fight at the end of the evening that night, and that felt very Irish. Overall, though, compared to festivities I have seen in Chicago, where the Chicago River is dyed green, Cairo seems pretty underrepresented when it comes to authentic Irish culture. And also actual Irish people.
Instead of a museum on Saturday, I went to the Ezbekiyya Gardens in Ataba, which contain a well-known book market. Though I currently have a good deal of reading material, I went just to browse. The offerings, though disorganized, are so much more diverse than what you would find at a regular used book store in America. In addition to your standard worn copies of American paperbacks (old copies of Stephen King, Jonathan Kellerman and other types of typical airport bookstore finds), there are Mickey Mouse comics in Arabic, ancient copies of travel guides to countries all over the world, stacks of back issues of some truly random magazines (hello, scary fashion trends in Cosmo circa 1991), and, obviously, many copies of the Qu'ran. These are all on display in about 100 stalls, so it's best to just go wander. I quite enjoyed it; as someone who has been a lifelong book lover, sometimes it's nice just to wander and browse.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
paint fight
One of the great things about having friends from such diverse backgrounds means the chance to enjoy many different holidays and celebrations. On Friday, my friends and I went to the Indian Embassy to celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of color. They were giving out packets of colored powder, which are smeared on others for maximum color effect. The powder can also be combined with water to make a paste, which is used to continue to paint your friends. We also "borrowed" boxes of water to use in a large water fight on the lawn, so that after about an hour we looked like clowns in a sprinkler. But not scary ones! There was also a bar, delicious Indian food for sale, and plenty of Bollywood dance music. (Photo above, more on Facebook.)
Also, later on Friday (after a shower to wash the paint off, though in retrospect it would have been hilarious to walk around Zamalek splattered in paint for the facial expressions alone), I went to an AIESEC event called Global Village. This is the event that most AIESEC chapters will host eventually, and it's kind of AIESEC's signature thing. I am a pretty bad AIESECer -- I have not been to an event in ages -- but I thought this one sounded pretty cool.
Basically, there are booths for different countries, and each one is manned by a trainee (what I am) from that country, who is supposed to bring along things that represent their country: posters, food, music, etc. The America booth (other AIESECers represented, I just stopped by as a visitor) featured some Obama paraphenalia, peanut butter sandwiches, etc. The Morocco booth had what were possibly the best cookies ever. The girls manning the Japan booth spent the entire day in full-length kimonos.
This happened to be a good time for Global Village since Egypt is currently hosting an international AIESEC conference in Sharm this week, so they had loads of extra people from more countries to be at the booths. It was held in these gardens along the Nile, and they had a few local bands playing music also. I stopped by with a few other trainees I am friends with, we browsed the booths, enjoyed the weather, and then left together to get dinner. Many of the Egyptian AIESECers I am friends with asked why I never go to events and made me feel sufficiently guilty, so maybe I will try to go to more things this spring. Does it count as a New Year's Resolution in March?
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