As I near the finale of my six-year quest for a Ph.D. and head off to a tenure-track job in the great Northeast next year, I think it is time to shut down Najaatee. The two years I spent in the Middle East, many experiences of which are documented on this blog, were the best of my life. Thank you for following along and sharing them with me; I can only hope that they will be surpassed by future visits as I move on to the next phase.
I will be opening a new blog at http://chance-spectator.blogspot.com within the next couple of weeks. I hope that you will follow me there!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Life in Virginia
I wanted to share some pics from the past couple of months in Charlottesville.
I live here:
There is a hookah on my front porch:
There are horses in my backyard:
There are also friends in my backyard:
N and R, friends from Cairo, came for a visit in October. Here they are on the Lawn:
N took some glamor shots:
I also ran into Roomie M in DC for the MEI conference several weeks ago:
And A, also from Cairo but now living in DC:
This is the coolest person I know:
I know, right?
We went to Florida last week:
And also found some non-beach activities:
I am not a very good shot.
I live here:
There is a hookah on my front porch:
There are horses in my backyard:
There are also friends in my backyard:
N and R, friends from Cairo, came for a visit in October. Here they are on the Lawn:
N took some glamor shots:
I also ran into Roomie M in DC for the MEI conference several weeks ago:
And A, also from Cairo but now living in DC:
This is the coolest person I know:
I know, right?
We went to Florida last week:
And also found some non-beach activities:
I am not a very good shot.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Selling Myself
Hello patient readers! I apologize for my long absence. You see, I have been pawning myself on the academic job market. It's a bit risky for me to provide too much detail on my personal situation, such as what my own preferences are and where I am interviewing, but I wanted to give you all an idea of what pure and utter hell this entire process is. Let me start by evoking Dante:
"The infernal storm, eternal in its rage, sweeps and drives the spirits with its blast; it whirls them, lashing them with punishment. When they are swept back past their place of judgment then come the shrieks, laments, and anguished cries; there they blaspheme God’s almighty power."
(The Whirlwind of the Lustful, Second Circle of Hell, The Inferno)
There is not much worse than sitting before a complete stranger who holds your job in his hand as he asks, "So just how far along are you on your dissertation?" It is difficult to be judged, and it is even more difficult when you've spent a month on your application and 2-3 days at each school in face to face interviews. If you don't get the position, you can't say, "Well, they didn't really know me or understand my work," because after all of that, they do know you quite well and they've read about 100 pages of what's you have judged to be your best quality writing.
Actually, there is something worse. There are two to four other candidates for the same position, all of whom have been flown out and received the same royal treatment to a nice hotel and nice dinners and faculty one-on-ones that you have. You don't know who they are, but they might know who you are, depending on how well plugged-in they happen to be. You typically don't know where you fall in the sequence of interviews, and you don't know much about when you will hear the hiring committee's decision. At most, it's "Sometime after Thanksgiving!"
In the meantime, you constantly check your phone and your e-mail and fester over memories of your job talk. You check the job blogs, a reliable source of spotty and unreliable information.
The whole process of being on the job market has also forced me to reflect on classifying myself as a Middle East area specialist; I've realized in the past couple of months that we have a pretty bad reputation in the profession of political science. We're pinned as historical, socio-anthro types who roam around the region learning Arabic and camping with Bedouins and/or working for the CIA on the side. At job talks and in everyday conversation we often aren't put to serious theoretical tests that non-specialists would be, but are asked to tell stories of our travels in the Middle East and to address tribalism, culture, and religion as causal variables. This stands in contrast to "political scientists" who study Western Europe or even Latin America, many of whom use advanced formal methods and build on a larger body of political science theory in their work--and whom most political scientists would no longer dream to ask, "But what about culture?"
Of course, non-ME specialists pardon the ME specialists for their alleged lack of methodological and theoretical knowledge, saying, "Well, you have to learn a difficult language and we still need to know about this region," as if learning a hard language should excuse one from meeting the standards of the profession.
This distinction between "real" political scientists and Middle East specialists is utter BS. I've taken the same methods classes as non-Middle East specialists, I use advanced qualitative methods (with the capability to use stats if I choose to do so in the future), and my work builds on broader theory. I've got an article coming out in a top journal where non-ME specialists publish all the time. I also engage in policy on the side. Lots of other young Middle East specialists are in a similar place. Yet we are lumped in with specialists of an older generation who, while still making a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the region, didn't exactly keep up with the profession of political science and often used the classroom as a pulpit to preach the ills of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
I've had to address these perceptions of my field quite a bit during the past couple of months. I'm not sure how convincing I was. But to all would-be ME specialists I say: you can do it all. Learn Arabic, learn political science, learn how to do field research and write good academic articles, and keep yourself grounded and your ideas relevant by providing policy input. It's not as difficult as other people seem to think.
"The infernal storm, eternal in its rage, sweeps and drives the spirits with its blast; it whirls them, lashing them with punishment. When they are swept back past their place of judgment then come the shrieks, laments, and anguished cries; there they blaspheme God’s almighty power."
(The Whirlwind of the Lustful, Second Circle of Hell, The Inferno)
There is not much worse than sitting before a complete stranger who holds your job in his hand as he asks, "So just how far along are you on your dissertation?" It is difficult to be judged, and it is even more difficult when you've spent a month on your application and 2-3 days at each school in face to face interviews. If you don't get the position, you can't say, "Well, they didn't really know me or understand my work," because after all of that, they do know you quite well and they've read about 100 pages of what's you have judged to be your best quality writing.
Actually, there is something worse. There are two to four other candidates for the same position, all of whom have been flown out and received the same royal treatment to a nice hotel and nice dinners and faculty one-on-ones that you have. You don't know who they are, but they might know who you are, depending on how well plugged-in they happen to be. You typically don't know where you fall in the sequence of interviews, and you don't know much about when you will hear the hiring committee's decision. At most, it's "Sometime after Thanksgiving!"
In the meantime, you constantly check your phone and your e-mail and fester over memories of your job talk. You check the job blogs, a reliable source of spotty and unreliable information.
The whole process of being on the job market has also forced me to reflect on classifying myself as a Middle East area specialist; I've realized in the past couple of months that we have a pretty bad reputation in the profession of political science. We're pinned as historical, socio-anthro types who roam around the region learning Arabic and camping with Bedouins and/or working for the CIA on the side. At job talks and in everyday conversation we often aren't put to serious theoretical tests that non-specialists would be, but are asked to tell stories of our travels in the Middle East and to address tribalism, culture, and religion as causal variables. This stands in contrast to "political scientists" who study Western Europe or even Latin America, many of whom use advanced formal methods and build on a larger body of political science theory in their work--and whom most political scientists would no longer dream to ask, "But what about culture?"
Of course, non-ME specialists pardon the ME specialists for their alleged lack of methodological and theoretical knowledge, saying, "Well, you have to learn a difficult language and we still need to know about this region," as if learning a hard language should excuse one from meeting the standards of the profession.
This distinction between "real" political scientists and Middle East specialists is utter BS. I've taken the same methods classes as non-Middle East specialists, I use advanced qualitative methods (with the capability to use stats if I choose to do so in the future), and my work builds on broader theory. I've got an article coming out in a top journal where non-ME specialists publish all the time. I also engage in policy on the side. Lots of other young Middle East specialists are in a similar place. Yet we are lumped in with specialists of an older generation who, while still making a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the region, didn't exactly keep up with the profession of political science and often used the classroom as a pulpit to preach the ills of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
I've had to address these perceptions of my field quite a bit during the past couple of months. I'm not sure how convincing I was. But to all would-be ME specialists I say: you can do it all. Learn Arabic, learn political science, learn how to do field research and write good academic articles, and keep yourself grounded and your ideas relevant by providing policy input. It's not as difficult as other people seem to think.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Postcards from J-Town
A couple of days ago I finally got to head over to Israel for a few days' vacation before I leave the Middle East. Yo was also in residence and showed me around the Albright, Jerusalem, and Haifa.
THE ALBRIGHT
For almost two years I have been hearing tales of the W.F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research from archie friends Yo, Mo, and Chris. Run by Sy Gitin, the Albright is the oldest American research center in the Middle East and, combined with ACOR in Amman (run by Barbara Porter, and my home base on and off for the past two years) and CAARI in Cyprus (run by Tom Davis), it is part of the American Schools of Oriental Research. The Albright is a bit different than ACOR because its sole focus remains on archaeology, while ACOR has moved towards contemporary anthropology, art, and political science. Its library has many of the old texts that newer libraries cannot afford, and the attic is full of old pots and animal bones from digs (in addition to a pile of gas masks from the First Gulf War and God knows what else).
The library:
The courtyard, facing the Director's wing (where the Director no longer lives but which is leased out to NGO families):
One of the many cats-in-residence:
JERUSALEM
Jerusalem is quite a small city, East and West combined, and I had the chance to see many of the tourist sites during my visit last year. This time Yo took me a little off the beaten path. Our first stop was Mamilla Cemetery, which dates to the Umayyad period. The cemetery has turned up in the news quite a bit recently because the neighboring construction for the Simon Wiesenthal "Museum of Tolerance" has uncovered more of the cemetery. While the Muslim Awqaf has largely let the cemetery fall into ruin, and Islam does not forbid the disturbance of bones as in Judaism, the Awqaf has decided to take issue with this. The protests of the Awqaf have been echoed by Israeli archaeologists, who see the site as a great project for someone who studies the period. The courts have stayed the plan for the museum several times, and it is due to be completed in 2009.
Mamilla has also been threatened by real estate development. Check out the facade of the nearby Waldorf Astoria: they gutted out everything but the facade, which has a beautiful Arabic inscription on it.
We also went to a nice park with a good view of the city. In this picture you can see a snippet of "The Wall" between Israel and the West Bank.
Here is a better view of the Old City:
On Day 3 we did some wandering around Ben Yehuda Street, one of my favorites.
Yo got a haircut following a very, very hairy Israeli man (that guy's folicular remnants are on the floor). I had to sit and watch.
Yo also showed me around Hebrew Union College, where a lot of his stuff is stored.
EIN KEREM
We drove several kilometers Southwest to the village of Ein Kerem, an old Arab village-come- Shabbat getaway for Jerusalem's dwindling secular-minded Jewish population. It's open all day and they have Leffe beer. John the Baptist is said to have been born here. It's green and full of little restaurants, as well as the "Fountain of Mary." I made some friends, named Daniel and Danielle ("We're not brother and sister, we're just friends but not THAT kind of friends, you know.") by putting my feet in the spring with them.
Only now did I read that the spring water is contaminated by water running off from the nearby Hadassah hospital. Good thing we didn't drink it!
HAIFA
On Day 2, we drove to Haifa, mostly to see the famous Baha'i Gardens. A place of pilgrimage for the Baha'is, the gardens go straight up the side of Mt. Carmel and have 1400 steps. Here is the Shrine of the Bab:
Here is a view from the middle:
A view from the bottom:
And a view from the very top:
We also tried to go to the highly recommended Museum of Clandestine Immigration but we were turned away because I had Arabic stamps in my passport and Yo said he lived on Shari'a Salah Eddin in East Jerusalem. Way to go, AMP and Yo.
We were so pissed off that we skipped town, missing the gondolas.
Overall, great trip! Thanks, Yo!
THE ALBRIGHT
For almost two years I have been hearing tales of the W.F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research from archie friends Yo, Mo, and Chris. Run by Sy Gitin, the Albright is the oldest American research center in the Middle East and, combined with ACOR in Amman (run by Barbara Porter, and my home base on and off for the past two years) and CAARI in Cyprus (run by Tom Davis), it is part of the American Schools of Oriental Research. The Albright is a bit different than ACOR because its sole focus remains on archaeology, while ACOR has moved towards contemporary anthropology, art, and political science. Its library has many of the old texts that newer libraries cannot afford, and the attic is full of old pots and animal bones from digs (in addition to a pile of gas masks from the First Gulf War and God knows what else).
The library:
The courtyard, facing the Director's wing (where the Director no longer lives but which is leased out to NGO families):
One of the many cats-in-residence:
JERUSALEM
Jerusalem is quite a small city, East and West combined, and I had the chance to see many of the tourist sites during my visit last year. This time Yo took me a little off the beaten path. Our first stop was Mamilla Cemetery, which dates to the Umayyad period. The cemetery has turned up in the news quite a bit recently because the neighboring construction for the Simon Wiesenthal "Museum of Tolerance" has uncovered more of the cemetery. While the Muslim Awqaf has largely let the cemetery fall into ruin, and Islam does not forbid the disturbance of bones as in Judaism, the Awqaf has decided to take issue with this. The protests of the Awqaf have been echoed by Israeli archaeologists, who see the site as a great project for someone who studies the period. The courts have stayed the plan for the museum several times, and it is due to be completed in 2009.
Mamilla has also been threatened by real estate development. Check out the facade of the nearby Waldorf Astoria: they gutted out everything but the facade, which has a beautiful Arabic inscription on it.
We also went to a nice park with a good view of the city. In this picture you can see a snippet of "The Wall" between Israel and the West Bank.
Here is a better view of the Old City:
On Day 3 we did some wandering around Ben Yehuda Street, one of my favorites.
Yo got a haircut following a very, very hairy Israeli man (that guy's folicular remnants are on the floor). I had to sit and watch.
Yo also showed me around Hebrew Union College, where a lot of his stuff is stored.
EIN KEREM
We drove several kilometers Southwest to the village of Ein Kerem, an old Arab village-come- Shabbat getaway for Jerusalem's dwindling secular-minded Jewish population. It's open all day and they have Leffe beer. John the Baptist is said to have been born here. It's green and full of little restaurants, as well as the "Fountain of Mary." I made some friends, named Daniel and Danielle ("We're not brother and sister, we're just friends but not THAT kind of friends, you know.") by putting my feet in the spring with them.
Only now did I read that the spring water is contaminated by water running off from the nearby Hadassah hospital. Good thing we didn't drink it!
HAIFA
On Day 2, we drove to Haifa, mostly to see the famous Baha'i Gardens. A place of pilgrimage for the Baha'is, the gardens go straight up the side of Mt. Carmel and have 1400 steps. Here is the Shrine of the Bab:
Here is a view from the middle:
A view from the bottom:
And a view from the very top:
We also tried to go to the highly recommended Museum of Clandestine Immigration but we were turned away because I had Arabic stamps in my passport and Yo said he lived on Shari'a Salah Eddin in East Jerusalem. Way to go, AMP and Yo.
We were so pissed off that we skipped town, missing the gondolas.
Overall, great trip! Thanks, Yo!
Driving in Jordan
During the past week I have hopped all around Jordan and Israel following the conclusion of the Arabic program for which I have been working this summer. Last Monday H, art historian friend from Cairo, arrived in town. We rented a car (aka the Chevy Freedom-mobile) and hit almost everything between Amman and Petra. This was my first time driving for an extended period in Jordan. I have several tips for those who might follow in my footsteps.
1. Avoid stopping in the Ghor Al-Hadith without male "guardians." H and I had spent the day at the Marriott Dead Sea, and then decided to head along the Dead Sea Highway until we hit the Ghor, from which you can pick up the King's Highway through old-guard tribal towns like Karak, Shobak (both of which have great castles), and Tafileh. Tafileh really has nothing great, and its residents are analogous to Cletus in bad Northeastern Brahmin humor (i.e. Why does the Tafilan Navy sail in glass-bottomed boats? Too see the rest of the Tafilan Navy.). Anyway, back to my original point. The Ghor Al Hadith is GHETTO. It's one of the poorest areas in Jordan. I've only been down there with Yo (a very tall man), and even then the shebab (young sex-deprived men) and the wild dogs that roam the area emerged from the woodwork to see what we were doing there. I normally would not have stopped with just one other woman in my company. But by then, H and I were running out of H2O and we needed to pick some up. I stopped at the first dukan I saw and went in to pick up some water. The galabiyya-clad shopkeeper was sitting at the counter with his wife and a baby. I busted out my Islamic greetings, a real exception to the rule, but I realized I was not in Amman anymore. All three looked at me listlessly, then the man got up to exchange the warm water bottles I had taken for two colder ones, for which I was grateful. I smiled at the baby. Then, as the man was changing my five pound note (he didn't even overcharge me for water like a lot of Jordanians do to tourists) I looked outside and saw our car, with poor little art historian H still in the passenger's seat, being rocked by 5 or 6 12-year-old boys who were yelling, "Money, money, money!" I turned to the shopkeeper and asked him with dismay, "Hathool awladukumm (Are those your children?)?" "Yes," he responded, then corrected himself, "Actually, just two of them." He did nothing to stop them. The car alarm went off. I rushed out and we beelined it down the highway, children trailing behind us, as I tried to figure out how to disarm the car alarm. A good half mile elapsed between us and the hellions, and I stopped to inspect the alarm further. No sooner did I get it turned off than they appeared again, and we sped towards Karak.
1.a. Similarly, when you reach Qadisiyya, go LEFT at the detour, not RIGHT or STRAIGHT.
Keep doors locked when you see Children of the Corn approaching.
2. Be careful on the road to Azraq. It is full of large rocks and Saudis returning home. They both drive like bats out of hell.
3. Watch out for animals on the King's Highway.
4. Count on paying an arm and a leg for gas. It's about JD 40.000 to fill the tank of a midsize car (about $60.00, way more than the last time I drove, which was in the States before oil prices skyrocketed).
Otherwise, it's pretty easy to get around and Amman, though full of windy, un-gridded streets, is pretty difficult to get lost in. We had a great time on our trip. Here are some photo highlights.
AMMAN
Jafra Cafe, across from the Post Office downtown:
Hashem:
RGB (which has a reputation as a gay club but which draws a wider crowd due to the fact that it has the best dance music in town):
Tannoureen:
Starbucks Drive-Thru:
Best peaches ever:
Near Rainbow Street:
Some very interesting graffiti:
DEAD SEA
CASTLES
Karak:
Hallabat:
Azraq:
Amra:
Harraneh:
PETRA
MADABA
It was great fun to have a friend visiting in Jordan (ahem, other friends minus H, this is supposed to make you feel guilty). All of the tourist stuff suddenly became fun again.
Hopefully this post makes up for my lack of posting all summer.
1. Avoid stopping in the Ghor Al-Hadith without male "guardians." H and I had spent the day at the Marriott Dead Sea, and then decided to head along the Dead Sea Highway until we hit the Ghor, from which you can pick up the King's Highway through old-guard tribal towns like Karak, Shobak (both of which have great castles), and Tafileh. Tafileh really has nothing great, and its residents are analogous to Cletus in bad Northeastern Brahmin humor (i.e. Why does the Tafilan Navy sail in glass-bottomed boats? Too see the rest of the Tafilan Navy.). Anyway, back to my original point. The Ghor Al Hadith is GHETTO. It's one of the poorest areas in Jordan. I've only been down there with Yo (a very tall man), and even then the shebab (young sex-deprived men) and the wild dogs that roam the area emerged from the woodwork to see what we were doing there. I normally would not have stopped with just one other woman in my company. But by then, H and I were running out of H2O and we needed to pick some up. I stopped at the first dukan I saw and went in to pick up some water. The galabiyya-clad shopkeeper was sitting at the counter with his wife and a baby. I busted out my Islamic greetings, a real exception to the rule, but I realized I was not in Amman anymore. All three looked at me listlessly, then the man got up to exchange the warm water bottles I had taken for two colder ones, for which I was grateful. I smiled at the baby. Then, as the man was changing my five pound note (he didn't even overcharge me for water like a lot of Jordanians do to tourists) I looked outside and saw our car, with poor little art historian H still in the passenger's seat, being rocked by 5 or 6 12-year-old boys who were yelling, "Money, money, money!" I turned to the shopkeeper and asked him with dismay, "Hathool awladukumm (Are those your children?)?" "Yes," he responded, then corrected himself, "Actually, just two of them." He did nothing to stop them. The car alarm went off. I rushed out and we beelined it down the highway, children trailing behind us, as I tried to figure out how to disarm the car alarm. A good half mile elapsed between us and the hellions, and I stopped to inspect the alarm further. No sooner did I get it turned off than they appeared again, and we sped towards Karak.
1.a. Similarly, when you reach Qadisiyya, go LEFT at the detour, not RIGHT or STRAIGHT.
Keep doors locked when you see Children of the Corn approaching.
2. Be careful on the road to Azraq. It is full of large rocks and Saudis returning home. They both drive like bats out of hell.
3. Watch out for animals on the King's Highway.
4. Count on paying an arm and a leg for gas. It's about JD 40.000 to fill the tank of a midsize car (about $60.00, way more than the last time I drove, which was in the States before oil prices skyrocketed).
Otherwise, it's pretty easy to get around and Amman, though full of windy, un-gridded streets, is pretty difficult to get lost in. We had a great time on our trip. Here are some photo highlights.
AMMAN
Jafra Cafe, across from the Post Office downtown:
Hashem:
RGB (which has a reputation as a gay club but which draws a wider crowd due to the fact that it has the best dance music in town):
Tannoureen:
Starbucks Drive-Thru:
Best peaches ever:
Near Rainbow Street:
Some very interesting graffiti:
DEAD SEA
CASTLES
Karak:
Hallabat:
Azraq:
Amra:
Harraneh:
PETRA
MADABA
It was great fun to have a friend visiting in Jordan (ahem, other friends minus H, this is supposed to make you feel guilty). All of the tourist stuff suddenly became fun again.
Hopefully this post makes up for my lack of posting all summer.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Diving in Aqaba
I recently returned from a six-day-long trip to the South of Jordan. As a newly certified diver, I decided that I should continue my training with a shipwreck dive in Aqaba. Unfortunately, we only made it down about 8 mteers before my diving buddy got a squeeze in his sinuses that he couldn't quite work out (never dive with a cold, folks). Instead we did a shallow dive (never deeper than 12 meters) across a site called the "Japanese Garden." It was nothing compared to Dahab. The coral bleaching is terrible, and many of the corals seems to have had chunks knocked off of them by boats. The fish population is still pretty impressive, however, and I got to see (1) a needlefish, by absolute favorite fish due to its seeming curiosity in people; (2) a school of squid.
I cannot recommend the Royal Diving Club. We had an instructor from Karak named Omar who was terrible. He was very haughty, not interested in looking at things while we were underwater (so we had to rush to catch up with him instead of enjoying ourselves--and it's not like we were running short of air or anything), and tried to sell us on stuff we didn't want. Terrible.
I cannot recommend the Royal Diving Club. We had an instructor from Karak named Omar who was terrible. He was very haughty, not interested in looking at things while we were underwater (so we had to rush to catch up with him instead of enjoying ourselves--and it's not like we were running short of air or anything), and tried to sell us on stuff we didn't want. Terrible.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Diana Krall Live in Amman!
I have been imposing a one-night-per-week-out limit upon myself since I arrived at ACOR so I can finish up my paper for APSA. Aside from a detour back to Egypt last week, where I spent two days sunning my pale, sun-starved body on the man-made shores of Al Gouna, I've been pretty good at enforcing this.
So last night when some VIP tickets were freed up by a friend of C, the two of us found ourselves in the fifth row of the Diana Krall concert at the Citadel. This concert marked the opening of the first annual Jordan Festival, which has subsumed Queen Noor's Jerash Festival of years past. While all the English-speaking Ammani elite were at Diana Krall in Amman, the northern city of Jerash hosted several Arabic artists (including the fabulous Elissa).
I took forty-seven pictures documenting the experience. I love Diana Krall, though I have only seen her live one other time (in Rome about 6 years ago). I was hoping for "Skylark" or "Besame Mucho," which she did not deliver, but I was still over the moon to hear most of her usual staples. She actually did a cover of Jewel's "A Case of You," which I hate when that ratty hippie chick sings it but which induced pure joy when sung by Diana Krall.
C and I gloat over our tickets at ACOR:
Arriving at the Citadel-- the best secured concert I've ever attended. There are advantages to a police state, you know (particularly when former state security employees open private security companies that staff concerts and VIP events).
Waiting waiting waiting (while C regales me with tales of seeing Queen perform at Live Aid in 1985):
While we were waiting, we got to see four rows of Jordanian political figures and socialites mingle in front of us. Aside from one woman who was dressed like Tammy Faye, it wasn't that interesting to watch. We saw the Minister of Social Development and the Mayor of Amman (who I admire for his Greater Amman Master Plan PowerPoint presentations that, with a click of a mouse, cause twenty towers or more to rise out of the squat, sandstone buildings of the downtown).
Overall, it would be nice to see some of these social elites "cut loose." I can't really think of any overly flamboyant or controversial characters in this country... everyone fits the mold and is very polite. It must be nice not to ever piss anyone off. On the other hand, I feel like this is the reason that there are very few unique, path-breaking Jordanian artists, writers, and politicians-- a small group of conservative, status-quo elites hold all the power, and nobody seems to really make an effort to support creative minds from a variety of backgrounds. I wondered if any of the Jordanians in the audience, as we listened to this very talented group of jazz musicians, were also wondering why so few of their own find themselves on stage.
Then the band came, and I could stop pondering Jordanian society and being disappointed that Freddie Mercury died before I could go to a Queen concert!
Here are some video clips:
I thought that Diana Krall was a very classy lady. Not many Western artists come to Amman (and vice versa), which is a pity, and I can't imagine that many of them would make an effort to respect local traditions if they did come. Krall really made an effort to connect with the audience, expressing gratitude to be in Amman, praising the site of the Citadel, and saying "Shukran" instead of "Thank you" after each piece. The most striking part of the concert, however, was when the call to prayer started. Nobody in the audience even heard it, but Krall and her trio immediately stopped playing and the lights onstage went off until the call was over. I thought it was a very nice gesture.
There was no photography, by the way.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Last Shots From Cairo
Me, H, and E at our Fulbright Farewell Reception, Zewail House
Me, H, and E enjoying more wholesome activities along with J (i.e. a sweet, sweet rendition of "Sweet Caroline" at the Bull's Eye Bar in Mohandiseen):
With H at Mena House:
Clubbin' one up for Dad at the Mena House driving range:
Adios, Cairo. It was a good run.
Me, H, and E enjoying more wholesome activities along with J (i.e. a sweet, sweet rendition of "Sweet Caroline" at the Bull's Eye Bar in Mohandiseen):
With H at Mena House:
Clubbin' one up for Dad at the Mena House driving range:
Adios, Cairo. It was a good run.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
لا آنسى آيامي بكم
I've laid off of blogging for the past several months, mostly because I have been busy with work and I figure some of you might not be able to tolerate more pictures of monks, parties, old buildings, and concerts, however much they might entertain yours truly. Still, with only slightly more than 48 hours left as an Egyptian resident, I feel compelled to reminisce not only upon my time in Egypt, but on my time in the Middle East in general. When I left for Jordan last January, I was a bit of a reluctant visitor, terrified that I would not be able to overcome the difficulty of the Arabic language and everyday living. After several months, I shed my fear of the language and developed a hard shell (and even a sense of humor) towards being treated as a second-class citizen on the street. I knew I would be living in Egypt for another year as well, and the notion that I would call this place home for awhile started to sink in. It seemed like such a terribly long time that I really did make an effort to make Egypt and Jordan feel like home, as evidenced by the heavy boxes I've just sent back to the States and the slightly lighter friends that I would rather be shipping with me instead.
The past week has been an important one for me because I have found myself finally comprehending Arabic without translating it first into English in my head, and there have been a couple days where I have spoken only Arabic. Just as my lack of French makes me feel distant and alienated in France, this new skill makes me feel much more integrated into Egypt. As I was walking around Zamalek last night taking pictures of my favorite buildings so I won't forget them, I suddenly felt very sad. Coming home from the Middle East is not like coming home from Italy or France or even somewhere in Latin America. My experiences here, which have changed me to a great degree and are some of the most important in my life, are not something that most Americans can identify with, mostly because they haven't visited the region or they have pigheaded notions about it (this is why it was so important to me when my family came to visit). In short, I am afraid of returning to my own country because I don't want to lose this very important part of my life.
I know that I will be back, and I would love to return to live here if the circumstances permit, but in the meantime I need to keep up on the Arabic news and language and with my friends here because I am afraid that I will simply forget and revert to reading the New York Times every morning and then rushing off to work. So, just as I promised myself I would get through my first stint in Jordan, I now promise myself not to neglect these activities. For those of you still here, keep me posted on everything new with your lives, with Cairo and Amman, with anything! I can't tell you how betrayed I felt last week when I visited Amman and found entirely new streets, shopping malls, and boulevards that had popped up in my absence. :-)
At the same time, I am eager to go home. This final year of dissertation work marks a new beginning for me, and a chance to push forward; I know that I have to do this in the States, at least for a couple of years. In addition, living in two developing countries (one of which displays flagrant abuses of human rights) has also precipitated a new love affair with my own country. There are lots of things that I do not like about America: a pervasive sense of superiority and entitlement; a lack of knowledge or sympathy for the condition of non-Americans; and generally poor taste in clothing. However, our relatively free and open society, administered by a strong and capable state, has produced some of the best writers, artists, musicians, scientists, politicians, and academics of the past century. Yes, we have poverty, we have corruption, we have closed-mindedness and religious zealotry-- but it isn't as bad as in some other places. If someone commits a crime, chances are they'll be captured and punished (that is, they cannot buy off the judge); if a store rips you off or a product results in injury or death, consumer protection laws assure that you will be compensated (that is, phones will be answered and you wont' have to bribe policemen or members of the judiciary to hear your case and rule in your favor); and if a religious group were to call for the death of all Jews, be assured that the group would face widespread social castigation, not to mention legal action if their words could provoke and imminent lawless action.
I am also returning to the States during a historic period, when I can cast my vote in the presidential elections for a black senator from Chicago, whose words and charisma invoke my own mother's memories of politics during the 1960s, when a broken people united to change for the better. I think it's a good time to be an American.
As for you, sisters, get ready for some Big Buck Hunter. Big Sista's back in town.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
$3 trillion shopping spree!
I bought the following gifts for you at 3trillion.org, the web site that gives you 3 trillion dollars - the money American tax-payers are spending on the Iraq war - and uses it in a virtual shopping spree for your friends and family.
You could give all of this to 1 people!
...or you can spend the money occupying Iraq and killing over a million people.
Universal Health Care for Every American (300 million of us)
1 purchased for $920,100,000,000.00 each
Give every school teacher a raise
1 purchased for $1,000,000,000,000.00 each
Harvard University
2 purchased for $35,000,000,000.00 each
New York Yankees
1 purchased for $1,027,000,000.00 each
Microsoft Corporation
3 purchased for $262,260,000,000.00 each
Buyout and Early Retirement for Alito, Rogers, Scalia, and Thomas
1 purchased for $80,000,000.00 each
Porsche Carrera GT
1 purchased for $400,000.00 each
300 Bugatti Veyron 16.4's
1 purchased for $300,000,000.00 each
Chicago Cubs
1 purchased for $8,200,000,000.00 each
Wave Pool
1 purchased for $30,000,000.00 each
Send Someone to College
1 purchased for $80,000.00 each
Trust Fund for my children
1 purchased for $21,095,000.00 each
The Hope Diamond
2 purchased for $250,000,000.00 each
Every Song in the iTunes Library
1 purchased for $7,000,000.00 each
US Constitution, Pocket-Sized Edition, in 50K lots
1 purchased for $33,250.00 each
God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (for every household on the planet)
1 purchased for $27,151,600,000.00 each
Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book)
1 purchased for $4.65 each
Nureyev: The Life
1 purchased for $23.33 each
Permanently endow every orchestra in the country
2 purchased for $50,000,000,000.00 each
The Baltimore Orioles Baseball Team
2 purchased for $359,000,000.00 each
World's Tallest Hotel
1 purchased for $650,000,000.00 each
Private concert with Bob Dylan
1 purchased for $50,000,000.00 each
Bone Suckin' BBQ Sauce Thicker Half Gallon 64oz
1 purchased for $19.00 each
1000 Pigs for Heifer International
2 purchased for $120,000.00 each
Private Jet - Challenger 605
1 purchased for $30,100,000.00 each
Electrolux 2005 Model E51NK60ESS Icon 51-Inch Stainless Steel Natural Gas Grill
1 purchased for $3,299.99 each
Help Iraq Children
1 purchased for $500,000,000.00 each
Universal Preschool
1 purchased for $35,000,000,000.00 each
A Maid for everyday for 100 years
1 purchased for $2,400,000.00 each
Hearst Castle
1 purchased for $500,000,000.00 each
Personal Helper Monkey
1 purchased for $3,789.00 each
Apple Inc.
1 purchased for $24,000,000,000.00 each
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
2 purchased for $10,000,000,000.00 each
You could give all of this to 1 people!
...or you can spend the money occupying Iraq and killing over a million people.
Universal Health Care for Every American (300 million of us)
1 purchased for $920,100,000,000.00 each
Give every school teacher a raise
1 purchased for $1,000,000,000,000.00 each
Harvard University
2 purchased for $35,000,000,000.00 each
New York Yankees
1 purchased for $1,027,000,000.00 each
Microsoft Corporation
3 purchased for $262,260,000,000.00 each
Buyout and Early Retirement for Alito, Rogers, Scalia, and Thomas
1 purchased for $80,000,000.00 each
Porsche Carrera GT
1 purchased for $400,000.00 each
300 Bugatti Veyron 16.4's
1 purchased for $300,000,000.00 each
Chicago Cubs
1 purchased for $8,200,000,000.00 each
Wave Pool
1 purchased for $30,000,000.00 each
Send Someone to College
1 purchased for $80,000.00 each
Trust Fund for my children
1 purchased for $21,095,000.00 each
The Hope Diamond
2 purchased for $250,000,000.00 each
Every Song in the iTunes Library
1 purchased for $7,000,000.00 each
US Constitution, Pocket-Sized Edition, in 50K lots
1 purchased for $33,250.00 each
God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (for every household on the planet)
1 purchased for $27,151,600,000.00 each
Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book)
1 purchased for $4.65 each
Nureyev: The Life
1 purchased for $23.33 each
Permanently endow every orchestra in the country
2 purchased for $50,000,000,000.00 each
The Baltimore Orioles Baseball Team
2 purchased for $359,000,000.00 each
World's Tallest Hotel
1 purchased for $650,000,000.00 each
Private concert with Bob Dylan
1 purchased for $50,000,000.00 each
Bone Suckin' BBQ Sauce Thicker Half Gallon 64oz
1 purchased for $19.00 each
1000 Pigs for Heifer International
2 purchased for $120,000.00 each
Private Jet - Challenger 605
1 purchased for $30,100,000.00 each
Electrolux 2005 Model E51NK60ESS Icon 51-Inch Stainless Steel Natural Gas Grill
1 purchased for $3,299.99 each
Help Iraq Children
1 purchased for $500,000,000.00 each
Universal Preschool
1 purchased for $35,000,000,000.00 each
A Maid for everyday for 100 years
1 purchased for $2,400,000.00 each
Hearst Castle
1 purchased for $500,000,000.00 each
Personal Helper Monkey
1 purchased for $3,789.00 each
Apple Inc.
1 purchased for $24,000,000,000.00 each
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
2 purchased for $10,000,000,000.00 each
Monday, June 02, 2008
Prep Work
....
Hey, don't forget to send me and dad your flight information. One week. Can't wait to see you. Know you must have mixed feelings. Overall been a good run, hasn't it?
Love you,
Mom
Hey, don't forget to send me and dad your flight information. One week. Can't wait to see you. Know you must have mixed feelings. Overall been a good run, hasn't it?
Love you,
Mom
Cairo Countdown
I have exactly one week left in Cairo before returning to the States for several days. Since I blogged last, I've been able to knock several more items off of my checklist:
1. One last visit to Alexandria. Me, T, and M made a 1 AM trip to Agamy and then spent the weekend there and in Alexandria. My favorite part of the weekend was eating ritza (sea urchins) on the beach with a spoon.
2. You are looking at a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver, which means I am certified to dive down to 30 meters. While in Dahab, I did additional courses in Deep Diving, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Night Diving, and Underwater Navigation. All were great except for navigation (I still remember failing my navigation skills course for Wolfridge in 5th grade).
The night dive was slightly terrifying because one's senses are so incredibly limited... and there were tons of lionfish (very poisonous) perched out on the seaweed looking at us as we swam towards the reef. We saw a very beautiful, shell-less mollusk called a Spanish Dancer, called such because it ungulates its red, wavy body to move throughout the water. Diving is definitely something that I'd like to keep up, and I've already found a club in Charlottesville. If I get into it, I definitely need to get my own wetsuit. I don't like this idea of renting a wetsuit; who knows what issues its prior wearers had?
Dahab was a nice place. On the quality scale, it's somewhere between Sharm (ultra-luxe) and Nuweiba/ Basata (huts), with small hotels (the exception being the gorgeous new Meridien that lies slightly south of the city and where our dive center had one of its two locations). The only creepy thing is that the damage from the Dahab bombings are still there...you can see the shrapnel marks in the ground and also big craters on either side of a pedestrian bridge where the bombers clearly detonated themselves.
There are still a couple of things that I'd like to do before I leave:
1. The Cairo Tower AKA "Roosevelt's Erection:" I tried this one this morning, but alas it is still closed. It was supposed to open up in April. Osman's Arab Contractors group is in charge of the tahseenat for the Tower, of course. This company "wins" most of the building contracts with the government, and chances are if you see a half-built structure from the 1970s, AC is the contractor that is working on it. The most depressing is the "New Egyptian Museum" down in Giza. Never heard of it? I rest my case.
2. Karaoke at the Bull's Eye in Mohandiseen.
3. Cairo Zoo: I want to pay the zookeeper to let me hold a baby lion. Yes, it can be done.
4. Driving range at the Pyramids/ Mena House Oberoi: Because I need another excuse to eat at the Moghul Room...
Friday, May 02, 2008
A Night (or Five) in Tunisia
I just returned from a five-day trip to Tunisia, and thought I would post some pictures and general impressions of Tunis. I spent the first three days in the Northeastern suburb of Sidi Bou Said attending a regional Fulbright conference, then the last two days in Tunis with two friends, J and S (and E, though she left on the first day).
Sidi Bou Said is actually an old village built into the hillside, but has turned into a posh resort for Europeans in recent years. there are some excellent restaurants, though none of them stay open very late and the little town is virtually dead by 10 pm, even on the weekends. It reminded me a bit of Taormina in its design, but without many exigencies of human life. Everything is perfectly clean and neat as a pin, and all buildings in the town are required by law to be whitewashed with blue windows and trim. President Ben Ali's house is also in this area, though it has the traditional Tunisian green accents. The US Ambassador's residence is smack in the middle of Sidi Bou Said, with a nice view of the bay.
Here are me and E at the conference, by the pool we never got to swim in:
Here is a view of the bay from a very famous cafe in Sidi Bou Said called Cafe Sidi Chaabane:
Here are me and E outside the U.S. Ambassador's residence:
And me and S on his back terrace overlooking the bay:
A street in Sidi Bou Said at night:
A cool door in Sidi Bou Said:
An interesting bar called Plaza Corniche in nearby La Marsa:
This is the local beer, called Celtia. It is the best, aside from Luxor Weizen, that I have had in the Middle East:
During the conference we were also taken to the ruins of ancient Carthage and also to the Bardo Museum, which is renowned for its collection of mosaics.
I was under-impressed by Carthage: the Romans did a thorough job of destroying everything, it appears, so we had to amuse ourselves in other ways:
The Bardo was more interesting:
The Bardo has a huge collection of tomb mosaics (people were buried under the floor of a church and the mosaic was placed on top). This is one for a four year-old girl:
Downtown Tunis is divided into two parts: the old medina in the West and the Ville Nouvelle in the East. The West has Islamic architecture for the most part, the East French colonial. Both are immaculately clean, and despite the beauty of cleanliness following a year in Cairo, there is something spooky about it all.
The main artery of the Ville Nouvelle is rue Habib Bourguiba, which is a tree and cafe-lined boulevard.
Here are two interesting sights: St. Vincent's Cathedral (2% of Tunisia's population is Jewish or Christian), and a cable car. The cable cars are dangerous since I'm not used to looking for them!
The clock tower on the easternmost side of Habib Bourguiba:
A man taking down French and Tunisian flags following the visit of President Nicholas Sarkozy:
We ate dinner and drank too much of a local liquor called Bukha at this restaurant. Called "Al-Mazar," which means "grave" in Turkish, it was full of men and paintings of naked redheads.
Some men in one of the cafes on Habib Bourguiba:
The croissants were "real," by the way. If you have eaten a croissant in Cairo, you know what I mean.
Trouble in the Ville Nouvelle:
The old British Embassy at the gate to the medina. Scenes from The English Patient were filmed here (I will marry you, Ralph Fiennes).
Here is the gate itself:
Here is the souq, most of which is covered. Some of the stores have really terrible tourist junk, but there if you are looking for leather goods, Berber rugs, or cool silver jewelry, Tunis beats Cairo and maybe even Damascus. The style of things is much more understated and the quality is much better.
Here is the Zaytouna Mosque, a center of Islamic learning:
Here is a chichi little cafe in Dar El-Medina, the nicest hotel in the city:
The' au pignon (tea with pine nuts):
I would go back to Tunisia, though you don't need more than a day or two in Tunis. There is a lot more to see that I didn't if you go into the desert or over to Djerba. It is important to get out of the city, where life feels so artificial: it's not a city like Cairo or Damascus, and I feel like it's here that the nature of Tunisia's authoritarian regime really displays itself. Like Egypt or Syria or Jordan, posters of Ben Ali are everywhere, but the press is much more censored, and certain websites are blocked (porn and opposition stuff). We had to watch BBC World with delayed audio.
Here is a view of Libya on the way home:
Sidi Bou Said is actually an old village built into the hillside, but has turned into a posh resort for Europeans in recent years. there are some excellent restaurants, though none of them stay open very late and the little town is virtually dead by 10 pm, even on the weekends. It reminded me a bit of Taormina in its design, but without many exigencies of human life. Everything is perfectly clean and neat as a pin, and all buildings in the town are required by law to be whitewashed with blue windows and trim. President Ben Ali's house is also in this area, though it has the traditional Tunisian green accents. The US Ambassador's residence is smack in the middle of Sidi Bou Said, with a nice view of the bay.
Here are me and E at the conference, by the pool we never got to swim in:
Here is a view of the bay from a very famous cafe in Sidi Bou Said called Cafe Sidi Chaabane:
Here are me and E outside the U.S. Ambassador's residence:
And me and S on his back terrace overlooking the bay:
A street in Sidi Bou Said at night:
A cool door in Sidi Bou Said:
An interesting bar called Plaza Corniche in nearby La Marsa:
This is the local beer, called Celtia. It is the best, aside from Luxor Weizen, that I have had in the Middle East:
During the conference we were also taken to the ruins of ancient Carthage and also to the Bardo Museum, which is renowned for its collection of mosaics.
I was under-impressed by Carthage: the Romans did a thorough job of destroying everything, it appears, so we had to amuse ourselves in other ways:
The Bardo was more interesting:
The Bardo has a huge collection of tomb mosaics (people were buried under the floor of a church and the mosaic was placed on top). This is one for a four year-old girl:
Downtown Tunis is divided into two parts: the old medina in the West and the Ville Nouvelle in the East. The West has Islamic architecture for the most part, the East French colonial. Both are immaculately clean, and despite the beauty of cleanliness following a year in Cairo, there is something spooky about it all.
The main artery of the Ville Nouvelle is rue Habib Bourguiba, which is a tree and cafe-lined boulevard.
Here are two interesting sights: St. Vincent's Cathedral (2% of Tunisia's population is Jewish or Christian), and a cable car. The cable cars are dangerous since I'm not used to looking for them!
The clock tower on the easternmost side of Habib Bourguiba:
A man taking down French and Tunisian flags following the visit of President Nicholas Sarkozy:
We ate dinner and drank too much of a local liquor called Bukha at this restaurant. Called "Al-Mazar," which means "grave" in Turkish, it was full of men and paintings of naked redheads.
Some men in one of the cafes on Habib Bourguiba:
The croissants were "real," by the way. If you have eaten a croissant in Cairo, you know what I mean.
Trouble in the Ville Nouvelle:
The old British Embassy at the gate to the medina. Scenes from The English Patient were filmed here (I will marry you, Ralph Fiennes).
Here is the gate itself:
Here is the souq, most of which is covered. Some of the stores have really terrible tourist junk, but there if you are looking for leather goods, Berber rugs, or cool silver jewelry, Tunis beats Cairo and maybe even Damascus. The style of things is much more understated and the quality is much better.
Here is the Zaytouna Mosque, a center of Islamic learning:
Here is a chichi little cafe in Dar El-Medina, the nicest hotel in the city:
The' au pignon (tea with pine nuts):
I would go back to Tunisia, though you don't need more than a day or two in Tunis. There is a lot more to see that I didn't if you go into the desert or over to Djerba. It is important to get out of the city, where life feels so artificial: it's not a city like Cairo or Damascus, and I feel like it's here that the nature of Tunisia's authoritarian regime really displays itself. Like Egypt or Syria or Jordan, posters of Ben Ali are everywhere, but the press is much more censored, and certain websites are blocked (porn and opposition stuff). We had to watch BBC World with delayed audio.
Here is a view of Libya on the way home:
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Egyptian Nihilism
Lately I've taken to watching a new AMC series called "Mad Men," which is about the lives of Madison Avenue advertising executives in the early 1960s. I love it. The thing I love most about it are the subtle jabs that the writers make at safety standards of the 1960s, such as:
1. A gynecologist who smokes while they give an exam.
2. A child who is admonished not for wearing a plastic bag over her head, but leaving the dry cleaning that came in it on the living room floor.
3. Pregnant women who smoke and drink, and friends who offer them ciggies and whiskey without batting an eye.
4. Unbuckled children flailing around the backseat of a car
5. A man bidding his insanely drunk colleague farewell from his front stoop, after directing him verbally to the proper car.
These are things that most people in the United States do not do anymore (and if they do, it draws condemnation) because there has been a combination of scientific study and public advocacy to stop these practices. In the 1960s, we really didn't know any better. Knowledge of the consequences, we assume, helps us advance.
Not necessarily so in Egypt. I am still surprised by:
1. The level of smoking, especially around pregnant women and children.
2. Seeing people swim laps in the Nile.
3. Drive like insane people, using only fake seat belts to avoid a ticket (if even that)
4. Crossing the street with a seeming death wish, coming within inches of cars speeding by at 50 miles and hour.
We (and surely the Egyptians) know that you can get cancer from smoking and that it can cause birth defects and asthma in children; that the Nile is highly polluted, not to mention teeming with bilharzia; that Egypt has a high rate of traffic-related deaths; and that seat belts reduce chances of death or injury.
I always ask, then: do Egyptians have some sort of death wish, or, at the very least, a nihilistic view of life (i.e., it's all going to end, so who cares?). It's not like they are too poor to be safer. Cigarettes cost more money; you don't have to swim in the Nile; and you don't have to drive like an insane person.
The awful thing is, whatever the origins of this mindset, it is rubbing off on me. I smoke shisha even when I know TB is spread through old shisha pipes. I don't use a seat belt, even if one is available. And I sit in smokey cafes every single day almost.
1. A gynecologist who smokes while they give an exam.
2. A child who is admonished not for wearing a plastic bag over her head, but leaving the dry cleaning that came in it on the living room floor.
3. Pregnant women who smoke and drink, and friends who offer them ciggies and whiskey without batting an eye.
4. Unbuckled children flailing around the backseat of a car
5. A man bidding his insanely drunk colleague farewell from his front stoop, after directing him verbally to the proper car.
These are things that most people in the United States do not do anymore (and if they do, it draws condemnation) because there has been a combination of scientific study and public advocacy to stop these practices. In the 1960s, we really didn't know any better. Knowledge of the consequences, we assume, helps us advance.
Not necessarily so in Egypt. I am still surprised by:
1. The level of smoking, especially around pregnant women and children.
2. Seeing people swim laps in the Nile.
3. Drive like insane people, using only fake seat belts to avoid a ticket (if even that)
4. Crossing the street with a seeming death wish, coming within inches of cars speeding by at 50 miles and hour.
We (and surely the Egyptians) know that you can get cancer from smoking and that it can cause birth defects and asthma in children; that the Nile is highly polluted, not to mention teeming with bilharzia; that Egypt has a high rate of traffic-related deaths; and that seat belts reduce chances of death or injury.
I always ask, then: do Egyptians have some sort of death wish, or, at the very least, a nihilistic view of life (i.e., it's all going to end, so who cares?). It's not like they are too poor to be safer. Cigarettes cost more money; you don't have to swim in the Nile; and you don't have to drive like an insane person.
The awful thing is, whatever the origins of this mindset, it is rubbing off on me. I smoke shisha even when I know TB is spread through old shisha pipes. I don't use a seat belt, even if one is available. And I sit in smokey cafes every single day almost.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Pics from Birthday Bar Crawl
Seven of us were in it for the long haul (picture taken outside Cafe Horreya on Midan Falaki)
Horreya:
Horreya:
Heading to the Stella Bar on Hoda Sharaawi (it was closed!)
So we went to the Odeon instead:
Cap d'Or
Pentagon Media Plays
“The strategic target remains our population,” General Conway said. “We can lose people day in and day out, but they’re never going to beat our military. What they can and will do if they can is strip away our support. And you guys can help us not let that happen.”
Today the NYT ran a terrific story on an organized effort by the Department of Defense to use former military officials-cum-media analysts to disseminate a positive view of the Iraq War to the American people. This was done through some combination of business incentives. brainwashing, and coercion, and extends to dozens of analysts working in a wide variety of venues, from NPR to CNN to Fox News. It's amazing. Check it out.
Even as they assured Mr. Rumsfeld that they stood ready to help in this public relations offensive, the analysts sought guidance on what they should cite as the next “milestone” that would, as one analyst put it, “keep the American people focused on the idea that we’re moving forward to a positive end.” They placed particular emphasis on the growing confrontation with Iran.
“When you said ‘long war,’ you changed the psyche of the American people to expect this to be a generational event,” an analyst said. “And again, I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job...”
“Get in line,” Mr. Rumsfeld interjected.
The story is here. The interactive is here.
Jimmy Carter at AUC
Jimmy Carter gave a little-publicized talk to a packed Ewert Hall at the American University in Cairo last Thursday. He spoke for about fifteen minutes, framing his visit to the region as a private citizen, founder of the Carter Center, and the man who successfully orchestrated the Camp David Accords.
After discussing the activities of the Carter Center (which include eliminating the "Guinea worm" from the Third World), Carter said, "This trip is a follow-up to my close friendship, almost brotherly love, with Anwar Sadat."
The highlights of Carter's talk were not the logistics of engineering an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in the near future, but little vignettes he provided on Camp David. He mentioned, for example, that negotiations had failed after Begin said he could not, having taken an oath before God not to dismantle any Israeli settlements, retract a settlement from the Sinai. As everyone was getting ready to go home, Carter delivered some photos to Begin's cabin of the three leaders standing together several days earlier. Carter has addressed them individually to Begin's eight grandchildren. Begin looked at the photos and read each child's name aloud, then began to weep, saying that his grandchildren would never see peace. Begin then decided to try again, and arranged to have the agreement, which included dismantling the settlement, approved by the Knesset so he wouldn't have to break his oath.
Carter's central point was this:
"In the last thirty years very little progress has been made...In order ot have peace in the Holy Land, you have to involve Hamas...and also Syria...but it's impossible under the circumstances for the US to talk to Hamas or Syria. They've laid down the rules, to which I consider myself immune (laughter)."
This is why Carter is here in the region, talking to parties that the US government has refused to engage in a failed strategy to make them irrelevant or to force them to change their policies. While a noble effort, several questions came to my mind:
1. I see nothing wrong with negotiating with Hamas as a democratically-elected party. However, I wonder if at this point either Hamas or Fatah is capable of negotiating a final agreement. With significant help from the US, the Palestinian state is weak and factionalized, and the people of Palestine are engaged in their own civil war. How could any leadership make the credible commitments that are necessary to uphold a peace agreement that will surely face significant opposition from some parties, let alone enforce it??
2. I think that bringing Syria into the fold is a really bad idea. It should be done in the future, but not before the Palestinian issue is settled. In the case of the Egyptian and the Jordanian peace negotiations, efforts made to include an agreement for the Palestinians were always the sticking point, and to advance the negotiations, these provisions were dropped. It's always easy to drop the Palestinians in favor of concluding an agreement with a legitimate state that actually poses a military threat.
After the talk, Carter took about 30 minutes of questions. This was wonderful, though many of the questions were not. Most of the Egyptians at the front (all the ministers, consultants, businessmen) asked really poor questions preceded by a short speech.
I found this comment that Carter made on U.S. aid to be interesting. An Egyptian AUC graduate student asked if US aid originating from Camp David was intended to be conditional. Carter danced around the question, and ultimately made it seem like a peace dividend was not really part of the discussions at Camp David. I find this hard to believe.
Here's the video:
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Happy Birthday to ME!!!
Three interesting things happened to me yesterday, my 27th birthday:
1. The New York Times ran the following story:
"A City Where You Can't Hear Yourself Scream"
Michael Slackman
2. My mother did not call me. Little Sister S did, however, both call me and send me a wonderful, wonderful e-card.
3. K humored a poor soul who misses gardens and good food, and took me to Al Azhar Park in the evening. Mwah!
1. The New York Times ran the following story:
"A City Where You Can't Hear Yourself Scream"
Michael Slackman
This is not like London or New York, or even Tehran, another car-clogged Middle Eastern capital. It is literally like living day in and day out with a lawn mower running next to your head, according to scientists with the National Research Center. They spent five years studying noise levels across the city and concluded in a report issued this year that the average noise from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. is 85 decibels, a bit louder than a freight train 15 feet away, said Mustafa el Sayyid, an engineer who helped carry out the study.
But that 85 decibels, while “clearly unacceptable,” is only the average across the day and across the city. At other locations, it is far worse, he said. In Tahrir Square, or Ramsis Square, or the road leading to the pyramids, the noise often reaches 95 decibels, he said, which is only slightly quieter than standing next to a jackhammer.
“All of greater Cairo is in the range of unacceptable noise levels from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” Mr. Sayyid said.
By comparison, normal conversation ranges from 45 to 60 decibels, a chain saw registers 100 decibels and a gunshot 140. Because the decibel scale is logarithmic, every 10 decibels equals a tenfold increase in intensity.
Just as I was about to buy a paintball gun and start taking out taxi drivers from my balcony, the National Research Center has provided the necessary research that could inform a new policy that efficiently targets urban noise pollution. Yeah, right!2. My mother did not call me. Little Sister S did, however, both call me and send me a wonderful, wonderful e-card.
3. K humored a poor soul who misses gardens and good food, and took me to Al Azhar Park in the evening. Mwah!
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