'Just World News' with Helena Cobban: A few random notes from Cairo

'Just World News' with Helena Cobban Info, analysis, discussion-- to build a more just world
« Ramazani: "Wider Conflict Threatens" \| JWN front page \| CNN's General cheerleader squad: Marx, Shepard, & Grange » A few random notes from Cairo Posted by Helena Cobban February 11, 2007 3:53 PM EST \| Link Filed in Quaker stuff , Travels-general 1. We're staying in "Garden City", a portion of the near-downtown that used to be filled with very gracious 1930s-style Art Deco homes. Now, few of those remain, and they're dwarfed by massive and nearly all very ugly concrete tower blocks. The ugliest by far is the ghastly, 15-story block-house of the (new-ish) US Embassy, whose builders apparently made no attempt whatsoever to take into account any esthetic considerations. Luckily, we can't see it from the window. When I do my morning yoga workout I look out of our 10th-floor window and can see some little peeks of the Nile, some fascinating scenes in the shanties built atop some of the lower buildings around, a few Art Deco gems, and some really precarious high-rise construction underway. 2. From here, I can walk almost anywhere I want. Yesterday, Bill and I walked to the mosque of Sayeda Zeinab. She was a grand-daughter of the Prophet and is supposedly entombed there. The two youngish (male) guardians of the women's side of the mosque tried to rip me off so I didn't hang around. Instead, Bill and I walked through the amazing street market down the side of the mosque. Note to self: next time try to get some audio of the incredible street-barkers there. 3. Today I walked along to the Egyptian Medical Union and interviewed the former Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson-- and current "Guidance Committee" member-- Dr. Issam al-Arian. (More, later.) 4. Friday, I got my best-ever score at One-Minute Perquackey. It was 4,350. On to 5,000... 5. Last night we watched the amazing Indian movie "Earth", by Deepa Mehta. It was about the Partition of India in 1947 and was (very loosely) based on a book called "Cracking India" that I read several years ago. It's a gut-wrenching look at what happens inside a mixed, Muslim-Hindu-Sikh-Parsee, group of friends in Lahore as Partition approaches. Some aspects of it I think Mehta didn't get quite believably-- mainly, the fact that all the members of this group of friends seemed to participate in it only as monads, and didn't have much discernible life at all outside it... they just sat around talking all day. But some aspects I think s/he got brilliantly; mainly, the way friends can turn on each other "on a dime" once the cancer of divisiveness and sectarianism takes root. Of course, watching it at the same time that we know a very similar form of ethnic cleansing is underway in Iraq made it even more horrific. 6. Earlier this evening we had a Quaker meeting for worship here, with just two of us taking part. Bill isn't a Quaker so it was me and one other person, the guy who lives here and whose name is listed as the "contact person" for Quakers in Cairo in all relevant directories. We sat together for just about an hour and then joined Bill for dinner. It felt good to re-center as a Quaker. As I sat I thought a bit about how much I love my home Quaker Meeting (congregation) and all the people in it; how much I've learned from them and how much they sustain me. I thought about the Quakers I've worshiped with in South Africa and Rwanda, and about all the many Quaker Churches there are in East and Central Africa, and how they're doing so much good by holding up our peace testimony in often very, very conflicted times... So being here and having a (small) Meeting for Worship right at the north of this great continent felt good. It's going to be a busy next couple of weeks. 7. By the way, watch for an important announcement here on JWN sometime Monday. « Ramazani: "Wider Conflict Threatens" \| JWN front page \| CNN's General cheerleader squad: Marx, Shepard, & Grange » Comments Comment from... Frank al Irlandi, at February 11, 2007 04:12 PM: Helena Please tell me you are not going to move to somewhere that has poor Internet communication and restricted bandwidth. Comment from... frank al irlandi, at February 11, 2007 04:43 PM: juan cole has a link to a translation in english of Putins speech. i think the russian text is available on Isvestia. Comment from... Salah, at February 11, 2007 05:55 PM: Helena, Its worth if you have spare time to visit Library of Alexandria whish you a very enjoyable time in advance The unique role of the Library of Alexandria, as that of a great Egyptian Library with international dimensions, will focus on four main aspects, that seek to recapture the spirit of the originial ancient Library of Alexandria. It aspires to be: * The world’s window on Egypt; * Egypt’s window on the world; * A leading institution of the digital age; and, above all, * A center for learning, tolerance, dialogue and understanding. Comment from... m. hasan, at February 11, 2007 10:13 PM: Hope you a happy stay in Egypt. Egypt has always been a safe and welcoming place for its visitors and guests. - I am living in Cairo and I did not know that doctor Al- Arian was released from jail. Good news and I'm waiting to read the interview with him . I never favoured the Muslim Brotherhood but it is now a matter of political fact that they are the only visible organised political power on stage in Egypt now. They are well known for their very bad political calculations. That was true in the past and I believe is true at the present time. One good thing I admired strongly was their strong and illuminated position towards the Shia. Unfortunately hidden hands are playing foul and wicked plays in this regard and I have no confidence in the official administration. Efforts of Hasan Nasralla are very commendable in this regard and I hope it can help stop what is being prepared for the region. Enjoy your stay and my best wishes. Comment from... m. hasan, at February 12, 2007 12:37 AM: Garden city of the 1950s,1960s, and even 1970s has almost disappeared. What remains scattered here and there of the old Garden city serves to remind us that this was once a very luxurious quite district. As a visitor ,you noted the ugly 15-story building of the US Embassy and I liked your sense of humour- or what I perceived it to be- by mentioning the aesthetic considerations. Aesthetic considerations? When the official US takes the feelings and aspirations of the people in the ME into consideration and respect them, we can complain about aesthetic considerations in the architecture and height of the buildings. Honestly, I can live with the violation if it was restricted to the aesthetic(Egyptians are the first to violate laws controlling buildings), but the violation of my right and freedom to walk freely in a vast area surrounding the embassy is what I find infuriating as a Cairene and in this matter probably as representing a great majority of Egyptians. Many streets leading to the embassy are closed from a far distance after sunset. I do not know how the green zone in Iraq looks like, but I have a feeling feeling that it is not an exaggeration that a mini green zone has been made in the heart of Cairo. The well known and noted old Egyptian journalist Mohammad Heikal once recounted on TV how he accepted an invitation, from the previous Americam Ambassador in Cairo (Welch), for dinner in the ambassador's residence inside the embassy. Acceptance of the invitation was on the condition that the ambassador give his orders that the car of Heikal will not be stopped at the many checkpoints on his way to the embassy. The area at night looks like an occupied land inside the heart of Cairo. I think this was the reason for the condition of Heikal.He felt that he is walking in enemy land and not the heart of his capital. Anyway and to be fair, I do not blame the Americans for this as much as I blame my government and the ruling elite. At the end how can we blame the Americans when they order and instead of receiving a no, they get an immediate acceptance and obedience not only for their orders but also to the whimsical wishes even if these obviously contradict our own interests!! Comment from... Helena, at February 14, 2007 01:28 AM: MH, I heard a n interesting little story from a good (Egyptian) friend here last night. She inherited an apartment located right acorss from the US Embassy. But it needs some work doing to it, and she'd agreed to meet an architect on the steps of a nearby bank building in order to go in with him (walking!) to the "Garden City Green Zone." So she was sitting there at the bank, talking with the architect on her cellphone as he tried to locate the bank... and the (Egyptian) guards all came up and surrounded her and said, "You can't sit there with a cellphone!" So she said (shouted?) back: "I'm in my own country here; how can you tell me I can or cannot use a cellpohone here!" She said it got quite confrontational until a low-ranking, fairly humble-looking policeman came up behind her and said softly, "Madame, you should understand we really aren't in our country here." She said the guy completely disarmed her, so she laughed and put away her cellphone...	Recent Posts on JWN • Realism, war, and pacifism (3) • Palin's performance: Insulting and very scary (28) • September 11 and the war in Afghanistan (6) • US's global dominance 'Reduced': It's nearly official! (1) • JWN redesign update #1 (2) • Oliver North??? (5) • J. Diehl criticizing Saakashvili (3) • Peres warns against attacking Iran (0) • Georgia-Hizbullah: Dept. of Delicious Ironies (2) • US probing Russian Red Lines in Georgia (0) • Women discuss Sarah Palin (26) • New vistas-- personal, and blog-related (12) • The longterm status of Georgia: Challenges ahead (20) • Text of the draft Iraq-US SOFA (10) • HRW revising its Russian cluster bomb accusations (11) • International tensions and the US election (9) • Iraq: Another Quaker in the 'Red Zone' (3) • HRW's flawed 'Research' on Georgian cluster bombs (20) • More on China in Iraq (12) • Post on China in US occupied zones-- at Japan Focus (0) • Palin and the 3 a.m. phone call (39) • China and Iraq (4) • Egyptian delegation to break Gaza siege (2) • Waiting for Gustav (5) • Italy gives Libya $$ compensation for colonial rule (17) • China buys in to Iraqi, Afghan end-games (15) • "Resolution": Palin's goal in Iraq (8) • China's way of 'Emerging' (6) • A note on US politics (6) • Conway does a Dannatt (sort of) (7) • China gets Iraq oil deal (6) • Rest-of-world saving US from recession? (5) • Russia and the world (12) • Milanovic: From Global Trade to Global War (5) • The return of geography (3) • Still no US-Iraq security agreement (yawn) (2) • Iraq-US: More disagreement than 'Agreement' (23) • NATO's supply lines in Afghanistan (27) • My CSM piece on the big-picture implications of Georgia (21) • Mahbubani on western hypocrisy, etc. (5) • Condi in Baghdad: YES on a timetable (aspirational) (8) • More on NATO, etc. (14) • NATO's crisis (8) • And another thing about Finland (23) • Where in the world is... Ban Ki-Moon? (22) • Russian military assessment: New arms race? (26) • And now for a little audio (0) • Yglesias nails McCain (4) • Sarkozy's ceasefire, Georgia's future (22) • Georgia crisis and the shifting global balance (0)

A few random notes from Cairo

Posted by Helena Cobban
February 11, 2007 3:53 PM EST | Link
Filed in Quaker stuff , Travels-general

1. We're staying in "Garden City", a portion of the near-downtown that used to be filled with very gracious 1930s-style Art Deco homes. Now, few of those remain, and they're dwarfed by massive and nearly all very ugly concrete tower blocks. The ugliest by far is the ghastly, 15-story block-house of the (new-ish) US Embassy, whose builders apparently made no attempt whatsoever to take into account any esthetic considerations. Luckily, we can't see it from the window. When I do my morning yoga workout I look out of our 10th-floor window and can see some little peeks of the Nile, some fascinating scenes in the shanties built atop some of the lower buildings around, a few Art Deco gems, and some really precarious high-rise construction underway.

2. From here, I can walk almost anywhere I want. Yesterday, Bill and I walked to the mosque of Sayeda Zeinab. She was a grand-daughter of the Prophet and is supposedly entombed there. The two youngish (male) guardians of the women's side of the mosque tried to rip me off so I didn't hang around. Instead, Bill and I walked through the amazing street market down the side of the mosque. Note to self: next time try to get some audio of the incredible street-barkers there.

3. Today I walked along to the Egyptian Medical Union and interviewed the former Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson-- and current "Guidance Committee" member-- Dr. Issam al-Arian. (More, later.)

4. Friday, I got my best-ever score at One-Minute Perquackey. It was 4,350. On to 5,000...

5. Last night we watched the amazing Indian movie "Earth", by Deepa Mehta. It was about the Partition of India in 1947 and was (very loosely) based on a book called "Cracking India" that I read several years ago. It's a gut-wrenching look at what happens inside a mixed, Muslim-Hindu-Sikh-Parsee, group of friends in Lahore as Partition approaches. Some aspects of it I think Mehta didn't get quite believably-- mainly, the fact that all the members of this group of friends seemed to participate in it only as monads, and didn't have much discernible life at all outside it... they just sat around talking all day. But some aspects I think s/he got brilliantly; mainly, the way friends can turn on each other "on a dime" once the cancer of divisiveness and sectarianism takes root. Of course, watching it at the same time that we know a very similar form of ethnic cleansing is underway in Iraq made it even more horrific.

6. Earlier this evening we had a Quaker meeting for worship here, with just two of us taking part. Bill isn't a Quaker so it was me and one other person, the guy who lives here and whose name is listed as the "contact person" for Quakers in Cairo in all relevant directories. We sat together for just about an hour and then joined Bill for dinner. It felt good to re-center as a Quaker. As I sat I thought a bit about how much I love my home Quaker Meeting (congregation) and all the people in it; how much I've learned from them and how much they sustain me. I thought about the Quakers I've worshiped with in South Africa and Rwanda, and about all the many Quaker Churches there are in East and Central Africa, and how they're doing so much good by holding up our peace testimony in often very, very conflicted times... So being here and having a (small) Meeting for Worship right at the north of this great continent felt good. It's going to be a busy next couple of weeks.

7. By the way, watch for an important announcement here on JWN sometime Monday.

Comments

Comment from... Frank al Irlandi, at February 11, 2007 04:12 PM:

Helena

Please tell me you are not going to move to somewhere that has poor Internet communication and restricted bandwidth.

Comment from... frank al irlandi, at February 11, 2007 04:43 PM:

juan cole has a link to a translation in english of Putins speech. i think the russian text is available on Isvestia.

Comment from... Salah, at February 11, 2007 05:55 PM:

Helena,

Its worth if you have spare time to visit Library of Alexandria whish you a very enjoyable time in advance

The unique role of the Library of Alexandria, as that of a great Egyptian Library with international dimensions, will focus on four main aspects, that seek to recapture the spirit of the originial ancient Library of Alexandria. It aspires to be:

* The world’s window on Egypt;
* Egypt’s window on the world;
* A leading institution of the digital age; and, above all,
* A center for learning, tolerance, dialogue and understanding.

Comment from... m. hasan, at February 11, 2007 10:13 PM:

Hope you a happy stay in Egypt. Egypt has always been a safe and welcoming place for its visitors and guests.

- I am living in Cairo and I did not know that doctor Al- Arian was released from jail. Good news and I'm waiting to read the interview with him . I never favoured the Muslim Brotherhood but it is now a matter of political fact that they are the only visible organised political power on stage in Egypt now. They are well known for their very bad political calculations. That was true in the past and I believe is true at the present time. One good thing I admired strongly was their strong and illuminated position towards the Shia. Unfortunately hidden hands are playing foul and wicked plays in this regard and I have no confidence in the official administration. Efforts of Hasan Nasralla are very commendable in this regard and I hope it can help stop what is being prepared for the region.

Enjoy your stay and my best wishes.

Comment from... m. hasan, at February 12, 2007 12:37 AM:

Garden city of the 1950s,1960s, and even 1970s has almost disappeared. What remains scattered here and there of the old Garden city serves to remind us that this was once a very luxurious quite district.

As a visitor ,you noted the ugly 15-story building of the US Embassy and I liked your sense of humour- or what I perceived it to be- by mentioning the aesthetic considerations. Aesthetic considerations? When the official US takes the feelings and aspirations of the people in the ME into consideration and respect them, we can complain about aesthetic considerations in the architecture and height of the buildings. Honestly, I can live with the violation if it was restricted to the aesthetic(Egyptians are the first to violate laws controlling buildings), but the violation of my right and freedom to walk freely in a vast area surrounding the embassy is what I find infuriating as a Cairene and in this matter probably as representing a great majority of Egyptians. Many streets leading to the embassy are closed from a far distance after sunset. I do not know how the green zone in Iraq looks like, but I have a feeling feeling that it is not an exaggeration that a mini green zone has been made in the heart of Cairo.

The well known and noted old Egyptian journalist Mohammad Heikal once recounted on TV how he accepted an invitation, from the previous Americam Ambassador in Cairo (Welch), for dinner in the ambassador's residence inside the embassy. Acceptance of the invitation was on the condition that the ambassador give his orders that the car of Heikal will not be stopped at the many checkpoints on his way to the embassy. The area at night looks like an occupied land inside the heart of Cairo. I think this was the reason for the condition of Heikal.He felt that he is walking in enemy land and not the heart of his capital.

Anyway and to be fair, I do not blame the Americans for this as much as I blame my government and the ruling elite. At the end how can we blame the Americans when they order and instead of receiving a no, they get an immediate acceptance and obedience not only for their orders but also to the whimsical wishes even if these obviously contradict our own interests!!

Comment from... Helena, at February 14, 2007 01:28 AM:

MH, I heard a n interesting little story from a good (Egyptian) friend here last night. She inherited an apartment located right acorss from the US Embassy. But it needs some work doing to it, and she'd agreed to meet an architect on the steps of a nearby bank building in order to go in with him (walking!) to the "Garden City Green Zone." So she was sitting there at the bank, talking with the architect on her cellphone as he tried to locate the bank... and the (Egyptian) guards all came up and surrounded her and said, "You can't sit there with a cellphone!" So she said (shouted?) back: "I'm in my own country here; how can you tell me I can or cannot use a cellpohone here!" She said it got quite confrontational until a low-ranking, fairly humble-looking policeman came up behind her and said softly, "Madame, you should understand we really aren't in our country here."

She said the guy completely disarmed her, so she laughed and put away her cellphone...