With February rushing headlong into March, it's about time to return to Tom in Egypt once again.
I've been back for close to six weeks now, and it's been a happily busy and chaotic spell in a colder-than-usual Cairo. As soon as I arrived back from Luxor and managed to squeeze the money I was owed out of the various delightful publishing houses I used to work for, I began work in earnest at the Center for Intercultural Dialogue. Now, I'm only just managing to navigate the web of NGOs, non-profit civil businesses and foundations that make up my current emplyers, but all that needs to be known is that I am a Senior Editor (of sorts) of the Arab-West Report. This involves editing and compiling the reports and translations that make up our weekly online publication, writing weekly editorials for the edition, working with interns and trainees on academic writing skills and projects, and testing the new online system that will hopefully, hopefully take off this week. Hopefully. Anyway, it's been a great experience, I've certainly learned a lot and am looking forward to making some serious progress on the new system and on clearing the editing/translation backlog I inherited on arrival. Some of the most interesting experience has come from the annual reporting I've been asked to do - it's great to get an insider's view on how the NGO/non-profit world functions (although drafting narrative reports is less fun).
Over at Meedan I've been plugging away seeding content on a whole range of topics, and occasionally building events and writing Meedan blog posts for our friends over at the Huffington Post. Here's some of my work thus far:
Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa calls time on Qur'an-based ringtones in new fatwa
Face Veil Debate Resurfaces in Egypt as Court Upholds University Exam Niqab Ban
Switzerland's minaret ban receives tough reception in the Middle East
More to come soon on this, it's quite a lot of fun rounding up Meedan events for a different audience over at HuffPo.
This week and last week have also been somewhat full as a double whammy of guests rolled into town. First up, on the starting leg of what is a somewhat decadent world tour, was Mr Adam Geleff Esq.- a former co-resident of Mighty 59 Brighton Grove and economist extraordinare. We made a whistle-stop tour of all Cairo's finest sights (with the much-needed help of my capable and glamorous assistant) in four mad days, culminating in a cultured evening of taking in some of downtown's classiest nightspots.
Adam was closely followed by my darling sister Lucy, and her "BFF" (I don't know if I'm using the term in an appropriate context or if it's even true) Sophie. They have the benefit of eight days as opposed to Adam's four, and are taking advantage of the break from college to lounge around whilst gracing such tourist hotspots as the Egyptian museum and Khan al-Khalili with their elegant presence. They may be more interested in Cilantro than the Citadel, but I think they're having a good time.
Just a quick post today, in honour of Egypt's masterful mauling of Italy last night. Watched the game with the CASA kids in Gad (budget kebab and kofta chain) Maadi, the place went crazy at the final whistle after an outrageously tense final 15 mins, where Hadari kept Egypt's hopes alive. With performances like that against Brazil and Italy, should have no problem brushing aside the US and qualify from the group on their march to the final! Yallah Misr! I can't think of anywhere else I've been that a group stage victory in the Confederations CUp would have been celebrated with dancing on the street, it all brought back wonderful memories of the African Cup of Nations victory 18 months ago.
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