more thoughts on the speech

I know I have written about Egypt's Jews before. Just the same, I saw this article today and thought it was interesting -- and sad.

"Mr. Obama had harsh things to say to the Arab world about its treatment of women. And he said much about America’s debt to Islam. But he failed to remind the Egyptians in his audience that until 50 years ago a strong and vibrant Jewish community thrived in their midst. Or that many of Egypt’s finest hospitals and other institutions were founded and financed by Jews. It is a shame that he did not remind the Egyptians in the audience of this, because, in most cases — and especially among those younger than 50 — their memory banks have been conveniently expunged of deadweight and guilt. They have no recollections of Jews."

So true -- the people my age in Egypt have very little idea of what their country is missing. They know that their parents or grandparents used to have Jewish friends and spoke positively of them in many cases, but they have no idea about the cultural legacy they have lost.

the cairo speech

Obama was in Cairo Thursday to address the Muslim world from Cairo University, and though I was only able to watch the speech on CNN International just like everyone else, I wanted to share some thoughts anyway.

First, the atmosphere in the city all day (well, even all week leading up to this) was pretty interesting: there was a lot of anticipation for the speech, and Cairo got a pretty impressive sprucing up. Freshly painted bridges, redrawn traffic lanes on major roads, working street lights in the more bustling areas of the city, and an additional effort to get rid of the garbage normally clogging the city's few fractured sidewalks.

Every taxi I got in last week, when the driver figured out I was American (usually they assume Egyptian...until I start speaking Arabic with my very obvious accent), the first questions they would ask was whether I was excited about Obama, the speech, what did I think he would say, etc. Most Egyptians seemed to cautiously optimistic -- they felt that Obama was coming out on a limb by coming to Egypt and promising to address the Muslim world, and they hoped he would live up to their expectations. The fact that Obama was coming was all anyone could talk about -- and it was really refreshing for me to see how highly anticipated the leader of my country was in a place where, prior to November, invoking the name of the previous leader (Bush) led only to snide remarks and sneers of disapproval. (And yes, I am guilty of both snide remarks and sneers of disapproval when it comes to discussing Bush and his policies.)

Then there was the day of the speech itself. All schools were given the day off to curtail traffic and people in the streets, and many of my friends were given the day off from work. My gym was closed ("in honor of Obama's visit to Cairo" according to a sign), as were many other businesses. Mostly this was because everyone wanted to watch the speech (live at 1:15 pm), and also an attempt by the government to keep car and foot traffic to a minimum on the day of the speech. Cairo University, in Giza, was completely blocked off for blocks in all directions, making it completely impossible to come anywhere near the school. I had thought about going to see if there would be protesters or something, but it was pretty clear from photos I saw that there were nothing but hundreds of extra armed soldiers and a surprising dearth of cars.

Cairo has a huge traffic problem, going through all hours of the day and spread through most of the city (residential area at 11 pm? Traffic still sucks...), so there was something almost spooky about the quiet streets everywhere, kind of like that scene in Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise runs through a completely empty Times Square. No honking, no exhaust, no traffic jams -- sorry, Obama, but that's not the real Cairo experience. Anyway, it turns out that this car-free effect was achieved by closing down entire roads for hours at a time, resulting in horrible traffic in other parts of the city. Most people stayed home or worked from home if possible (luckily, I was able to do that) to avoid the traffic and the excessive police (because really, why deal with that if you don't have to). But following the reactions people had to the speech, in person and online (I think I finally found the point of Twitter, people!) was very enjoyable and educational.

If you missed it, you can find the whole text of the speech here.

just like raiders of the lost ark

In part of my quest to go explore something new in Cairo each weekend, I have recently become very closely acquainted with my Lonely Planet Egypt. In perusing, N and I discovered that in addition to Cairo, there are things we both want to see in Alexandria as well. We have both been to Alex before (N multiple time, me just in September ), but had not seen the catacombs of Kom al-Shuqqafa, which we both wanted to see. So on Saturday, the two of us caught the 9 am train from Cairo to Alex, and our Egyptian friend S3 (who is also N's roommate) picked us up at the train station. She is from Alex and goes home some weekends, so it's always nice to have a knowledgable friend on hand to show you around. After a quick lunch, we went to the catacombs (no cameras inside so I only have pictures of the outside, check below!), which were really cool. Apparently they were discovered by accident in 1900 when a donkey feel through the ceiling, and our tour guide then proceeded to give us a full history of "things discovered in Egypt when a horse or donkey fell through a ceiling." FYI, this happens more than you think. I guess if you really want to find some ancient Pharonic treasures, bring along a horse and hope they take care of the hard part for you.

Inside the catacombs, there was this huge hole through the center of the ceiling that they used to lower the bodies through, plus all these side passageways with tons of tombs. There was also this area that apparently used to be the tomb for a private (and wealthy) Roman family, and it included this stone archway and entrance. The whole thing looked like a booby-trapped scene from Indiana Jones, so you kind of got the impression that when you tried to enter you might be bowled over by a large stone ball, or that some wooden spears would suddenly come flying out of the sides. We decided to brave it anyway, and it was fine. Which was both a relief and slightly disappointing at the same time.

Also, the last time we went we saw the outside of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, but it was already closed (because it was Ramadan), so this time we were able to go inside. They had a really cool exhibit called "Impressions of Alexandria" that featured maps, drawings and photos of Alexandria going back hundreds of years, and N and I also took the time to select a book and sit down and read for 15 minutes, so we could say we read books at the library of Alexandria (OK, it's not the fabled great library anymore, but it's still pretty cool). I read from Macbeth (I've always loved that play, at least partially due to the witches), and the complete works of T.S. Eliot (not for Cats! It's because his poem "The Hollow Men" is one my favorites), and N read from a collection of English literature from Ceylon (this is the old name for Sri Lanka, where N's family is from).

After all that, we went back to S3's house for lunch/dinner, which included some deliciously prepared seafood, which we don't get all that often in Cairo. In Alexandrian fashion, the fish were served whole on the bone, and N and I didn't really have any idea how to go about eating it. But S3 and her mom helped us, and I think we were at least pretty entertaining trying to figure it out -- so at least the ridiculous foreigners can be the dinner theater. Her family is great, and I enjoy spending time there when in Alex. We also went for a sunset stroll by the sea -- S3's family lives about a block away from the beach, and I think if I lived that close I would never get any work done at all.

N, me and S3 outside the tombs of Kom al-Shuqqafa

My arm being devoured by the stone lion, S3 freaking out in the background

Not inside one of the catacombs, but a separate tomb. Still, a cool drawing I think.

Inside the library...look at all those books! It goes so far down. A reader's paradise...

Me, jumping for joy to be near a beach

adventures in baking

This weekend is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and one of the traditions of this particular holiday is the eating of dairy foods, especially cheese blintzes and cheesecake. Another Jewish friend of mine, SK (I can't even remember how many S friends I have written about on the blog or which numbers are which ones, so I am just going with initials at this point), is a good baker and asked if I wanted to help make a cheesecake for Shavuot, which I absolutely did.

Now, I will just say that with proper planning and foresight, we probably could have obtained most of the items we needed to make a proper cheesecake. But we did not do this. Instead, we decided at 3 pm yesterday (Wednesday) to make a cheesecake, both worked late, and finally met up around 10 pm in Maadi to start cooking. A supermarket chain called Alfa Market usually has imported foods, like cream cheese (the main ingredient in most cheesecakes, by the way), but there are none by SK's house and I didn't think to check the one by me on my way to Maadi. So instead we went to a local market by her house, where they had several varieties of Egyptian "cream" cheeses, none of which were actual cream cheese. Let's just say we improvised on many ingredients.

Soon enough we were in the kitchen of SK's neighbor -- which was, by the way, the nicest kitchen I have seen yet in Egypt. He had a microwave! It was so nice and shiny... But I digress. Anyway, we opted for an Oreo cheesecake, though we had to go with Egyptian generic brand Borio (once we mashed them up you couldn't even tell the difference), which we put in the crust and also crumbled into the filling. No graham crackers, so we made a crust out of crumbled Borios and McVities Hob-Nob biscuits, plus flour/eggs/sugar/butter/baking powder, etc. While that was baking, we improvised a filling out of...many things. Our independent taste-tests confirmed that it tastes mostly like cheesecake (and vaguely looks like it too) and smells really good, but the consistency is not quite right. It is sitting in my fridge right now, doing some thinking (and some hardening, inshallah), and we will eat it tonight.

To my friends in Egypt: come have some! To friends and family reading at home: chag sameach!

life on hold

Last week, Mohamed Alaa, the 12-year-old grandson of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, passed away. While the death of a child is undoubtedly tragic, I have to see that I have never seen anything like the mandatory nation-wide mourning that ensued. Popular radio station Nile FM banished its stacks of pop tracks and played only Islamic tracts or somber music for about 24 hours. On Thursday night I showed up at Harry's Pub with a group of friends, only to be told that all karaoke had been suspended "out of respect" for the Mubarak family. It seemed excessive to me, but apparently it's a national tradition here for life to literally be put on hold.

This month I've been enjoying the EU Film Club, which has been screening movies from different countries at European cultural centers around the city since the beginning of May. They screen a different movie from a different country each night, with that host country providing some (free, occasionally alcoholic) refreshments before the (free) film, which is why I believe they are so popular. So far I have seen movies from Ireland (Once -- I love that movie!) and Austria, with plans to see Italy's entry today and Greece's later this week.

Anyway, as I guess you can tell, there aren't a lot of particularly exciting things happening around here. I mean, life continues as usual: work is going well, I feel like I am making good progress with my Arabic classes (my tutor says my reading is improving, which I believe is thanks to those children's books I bought), and friends are also good. As for the apartment, well...the Internet we finally arranged for never quite worked the way it was supposed to, and after three months of fighting with Mobinil, our provider, we are finally calling it a day and returning the modem. I am able to access other apartments' networks just fine, and though the connection isn't stellar it's better than no Internet at all. I can't believe what a struggle it has been to find reliable and consistent Internet in such a major city -- seriously, this is Cairo, not the middle of nowhere. Actually...

obama is coming to egypt!

Obama has said he would deliver a speech from a Muslim capital in his first 100 days in office. It's a little after that by now, but I am extremely excited about his planned June 4 speech in Egypt. No confirmation on whether it will be in Cairo, but really -- where else would it be?

Anyway, I'm excited because I think having such a major speech in Egypt sends a positive message. Egypt is a moderate country in the Middle East (for whatever that's worth) and plays an important role in the region as a moderator (i.e. between Israel and the Palestinians). So I say well chosen, and not just because I live here. Now, how to get tickets?

UPDATE May 12: More thoughts on what Obama should speak on when he comes to Cairo.

the problems with pigs

This weekend I went to an Egyptian hospital for the first time. Don't worry, nothing happened to me, but my friend H got sick so I went to visit him with some friends. As someone who has been fortunate enough to grow up with first-rate doctors and medical care, getting sick while abroad was definitely something I worried about. I got traveler's health insurance from STA travel before I left, but my line of thinking went something along the lines of...I hope I never EVER have to use this, because health care in the developing world is scary.

Turns out, not so much. Al-Salam Hospital in Mohandiseen is a very nice facility; obviously it's no Columbia-Presbyterian (where I spent some time both pre- and post-back surgery back in 2005) or anything, but it's clean and the rooms are pretty spacious. I have legitimate health care courtesy of my job (EgyCare, and it comes with a photo ID card and everything!), and although I still hope to never need to use it, the idea of being sick in Egypt is no longer as horrifying as it once was. I think a lot of people used to doctors and medicine in the US (or the West in general) worry about the standard of care in other countries, but I think that in such a major city like Cairo, there isn't really anything to worry about.

And on the topic of falling ill, swine flu panic has come to Egypt. The government is responding by deciding to slaughter all the pigs in Egypt -- about 350,000 of them. This is problematic for several reasons. The first is that it is now pretty well acknowledged that swine flu is spread by people, not actual swine, so killing them won't really accomplish anything. Of course, it's not like anyone here has actually caught swine flu (nor will they, because the percentage of the population who have enough money to travel somewhere they might catch it, like Mexico, is so miniscule), so it's not like there's even anything to spread. But no, the real problem is that the group most likely to be raising pigs is Egypt's Coptic Christian minority (about 8-10 percent of Egypt's total population of 80 million, depending on which statistics you're using), an already marginalized group who are the targets of a lot of hatred and discrimination.

A lot of people are saying that the decision to kill the pigs is not because the government is worried about the spread of swine flu, but because they want to make things even more difficult for the Copts. It's almost like the government is saying, this flu is a sign from god that eating pigs is wrong, and having them in our country is wrong, so we will get rid of them all. Farmers rely on the sale of those pigs for a big portion of their income, which now they won't get. Obviously there was already only a small market for pork products here (Muslims don't eat pork, same as Jews), and with the swine flu panic no one is really eating it at all now. There is already something of a Christian-Muslim divide in this country, and I would hate to see this make the whole situation worse.

a modern muslim country?

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."

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.

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 dunes