Just got home and found a rather annoying story via my Google Reader (I know it's 11:14 pm, I was only chatting this weekend with Son of a Duck about how compulsive Google Reader can become.)
Here's the headline: Egypt journalist’s 25 Israel visits stir debate
In most countries of the world, journalists stick together to battle against governments for freedom of movement and freedom of expression. In Egypt, not the case. Here, it appears, the Journalists' Syndicate blackballs anyone who tries to provide decent coverage on Israel - one of the most frequently discussed topics in the Egyptian press.
Now it appears that deeply experienced journalist and deputy editor-in-chief of October magazine (one of the few state-run mags worth reading), Hussein Serag, has fallen into the same trap as poor Hala Mustafa before him. In trying to write informed and honest pieces about Israel, he - heaven forbid - actually visited the country and - even worse - spoke to Israelis. This came out in a TV interview (Serag never tried to hide it) and he has now faced a disciplinary hearing and been banned from writing for three months on the now infamous charge of encouraging "normalization".
Now, as a bit of basic background (emphasis on basic), Egypt officially recognized the state of Israel and has been at peace with its westerly neighbour since the 1978 Camp David accords and the subsequent 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. This has, however, not meant "cultural normalization" - which is where this trouble over Mustafa and Serag comes in. The Journalists's Syndicate, along with various other institutions including the Ministry of Culture (remember Farouk Hosni's failed bid to become director-general of UNESCO?) refuses to have "normal" relations with Israel - for no doubt noble reasons.
The problem arrives when it comes to enforcing this "normalization" policy. In the furore that surrounded Mustafa's disciplinary action, the largest state-run media outfit Al Ahram instigated a boycott of Israel. According to Israeli daily Haaretz, this means:
The boycott, approved by a majority of nine board members over six following a heated debate, includes a ban on meeting with and interviewing Israelis, and a ban on participation in events (seminars, conferences, lectures) in which Israelis are taking part. According to the report, the board of directors also banned Israelis from entering the building housing the Al-Ahram offices. The ban includes Israeli diplomats stationed in Egypt.
In this vein, Serag's repeated travel to Israel (25 visits no less) is strictly prohibited, hence the ban. This begs the somewhat obvious question: How is a journalist with any integrity supposed to decently and accurately cover the hugely important issues which surround Israel, Palestine and relations between the three without meeting with or interviewing Israelis or visiting Israel? Bizarre. Ridiculous.
The total madness of the situation over "normalization" becomes painfully clear in the Al Arabiyya article:
Serag criticized what he called the manipulative stance of the Ministry of Culture when it authorized the translation of Israeli work but through an intermediate language like English and French and not directly from Hebrew.The whole situation is just nonsense and only serves to perpetuate ignorance and inaccurate information. And for what? Does Israel suffer as a result of the lack of "normalization"? Of course not. As Serag points out, Israeli intellectuals and writers are invited each year to the Cairo International Book Fair, and Daniel Barenboim only last year conducted in Cairo Opera House. Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face.
“Translation already makes the work lose a lot of its authenticity when it is translated from the native language, let alone when there is a third language in the middle.”
Mercifully, Serag is entirely unrepentant and witheringly critical of the Journalists' Syndicate (as it appears in this piece at least):
“The (journalist) union has become a safe haven for those who want to serve their personal agendas at the expense of their profession,” he told Al Arabiya. “The union should defend journalists’ freedom of movement and expression not the other way round.”Spot on.
NOTE: For excellent counter arguments to the Hala Mustafa controversy, read The Traveller Within's post.
When time is short (and often when it is not), writing is the first thing to fall off the bandwagon. This week has been fraught with deadlines and extra Meedan shifts to catch up for my "time off" with Lucy, and hence my silence on the ElBaradei return. Happily there are many other, much better qualified bloggers doing some truly sterling work.
Via The Arabist (who himself posted one of the best analyses of ElBaradei's campaign in Egypt I've read) I found this excellent post and accompanying cartoon from blogger Baheyya, of whom I used to be a regular reader until posts dried up some time ago. Here's her delightfully concise summation of the political situation post ElBaradei's return (and the marvellous cartoon included):
At this point, it’s hard to see how ElBaradei can even run in the elections, much less have a real chance at winning. But I think he’s doing more than launching a symbolic campaign. He’s raising the costs of electoral engineering for the Mubarak regime, making 2010 and 2011 the toughest polls yet in Mubarak’s tenure. What’s more, ElBaradei’s entry comes at a time when the regime is at its weakest. Mubarak is fast fading, his son is flailing, the bureaucracy is riven with unbelievable corruption and civil servant protests, and all social classes are literally fed up and can’t stand the Mubaraks anymore. None of this means that ElBaradei is going to displace the system, but it does mean that the regime will have to work harder than it ever has to weather the electoral cycle.
ElBaradei himself appears quite outspoken in a piece published today in Egyptian independent daily Al-Shorouk (my rag of choice here - I think the best of a bad bunch), warning the government that change is "inevitable" and if it doesn't come via peaceful means it will come via perhaps less savoury methods.
Watching ElBaradei''s interview with talk show host Mona El-Shazli (struggling to find an appropriate UK comparison - somewhere between Jonathan Ross and Parky, but a lady) I was struck by his sincerity - a result, perhaps, of not being a career politician. I don't think he particularly wants to be president, but he's willing to do it (or at least threaten to) in order to bring about change for his country.
It's a refreshing change to hear someone, particularly someone involving himself in politics, say "it's not about me" (quote) and feel like he means it.
Exciting news today - Meedan has taken off its beta wheels and launched an awesome new site. It really is beautiful, you simply have to check it out:
For anyone with an interest in Arabic, the Middle East, or even just current affairs, I'd thoroughly encourage you to sign up. Meedan is, and is going to become, a really great place to discuss fascinating subjects and share news stories with people who maybe don't speak our language.
For those amongst for whom Arabic is something of a passion, Meedan is an excellent place to practice and improve translation skills both ways, and at the same time be contributing to something really meaningful. Too many times in my degree I was translating tired old material just for the sake of practice. At Meedan, you can practice (aided by the Meedan pro-team) while genuinely helping bridge a language gap that has for too long separated the English and Arabic speaking worlds.
Rather than rant any more - and I could - I'll leave you with this awesome video produced by Maya Zankoul and Mohammad Saleh Kayali which explains the basic idea behind Meedan (I've selected the Arabic version here. Check out MeedanTube for an array of videos and tutorials about the site) Enjoy!
Thanks to all at Meedan for the awesome efforts put into making this happen, I'm very proud to be a part of the team.
I really wanted to post on this before the event - now it looks like it will have to wait - but Mohammed ElBaradei, Nobel laureate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is set to return to his native Egypt in the next couple of hours.
Here's my Meedan event on the latest news, I'm trying to post up to date info as I get it via Twitter, combined with background info and opinion posts. There's a strange absence of coverage of this on the local TV news channels, but I'm keeping my eyes open. I'd also really recommend the post by the Arabist - he's at the airport providing some sterling coverage and plenty of pictures of those who have gathered to welcome ElBaradei.
Meedan: ElBaradei set to return to Egypt as expectations run high
The Arabist: The Campaign for ElBaradei
For those of you who haven't already checked out my blog roll, have a look at these new additions:
Qifa Nabki
Emad Maher's Photoblog
Hummus Nation - A humourous take on Lebanese affairs
Al-Masri Al-Yum - From the creators of Boursa Exchange, a Cairo food blog with a genius title
I'm particularly impressed by Emad Maher's photos of Alexandria - they really capture the city in a way I've never seen another photo manage. Full credit to Emad, I hope on one trip to the Capital of Memory I can meet the man himself and perhaps purchase some prints
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.
Statistics statistics statistics. Here are a few for you, about the situation of women in Egypt (from Human Rights Watch):
In 2000, the last year for which statistics are available, an estimated 56 percent of adult Egyptian women were illiterate as compared to 33 percent of adult men.1 Women’s health and lives continue to be jeopardized in Egypt by harmful customary practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM), which is practiced on an estimated 97 percent of ever-married women in Egypt.2 Women constitute only 21 percent of the labor force.3 On average, women are paid only 76 percent of men’s wages in the private sector and 86 percent in the public sector.4 An estimated 19 percent of women are unemployed compared to 5 percent of men.5 The share of women members in the Egyptian parliament does not exceed 3 percent in the lower house and 6 percent in the upper house.6 Rural women in Egypt are even worse off than their urban counterparts. In rural areas, although 20 percent of agricultural workers are women, they own only 6 percent of the land. They are also often prevented from exerting meaningful control over the little land they own since they are routinely coerced into surrendering control of land to their husbands or male relatives
Statistics have some interesting characteristics: they’re eye catching, carry a certain strange sense of authority and can be used for both good and evil. In the case of women in Egypt, statistics also have another property: they allow a casual observer to glimpse the scale of a problem without ever having to consider any cause, development, continuation or possible solution. This is because statistics and figures are inherently dehumanising. They turn a collection of vast and varied narratives into one perhaps shocking, but easy-to-digest percentage. They allow us to keep our distance.
In the relatively short time I have been living in Egypt, I have met many women, but I’ve never met a single statistic. I’ve met women who are happy, women who are sad. Women who are angry, and women who are determined. I’ve met women who are kind, and women who are cruel. Women of great intelligence, and women of great ignorance. Helpful women, horrible women, hospitable women, hysterical women and honest women. Women who are funny, dry and sarcastic. Women with many children, women with non. Women of many religions and women of no religion. Women who long to leave Egypt, and women desperate to stay. Women who are proud of their country, and women who are ashamed. And more.
The beauty of Kolena Laila is that it allows a whole host relative outsiders, like you and me, to hear some of the incredibly diverse range of voices, stories and songs that are “Egyptian women”. I’m not asking you to ignore the statistics, far from it. Take note of the tragedy they portray, but I’m begging you not to allow them to satiate your interest. Browse Kolena Laila and read the overwhelmingly human stories that lie behind them. Don’t keep your distance.
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