I've had my own mini-plagues of Egypt experiences recently--after managing to avoid stomach troubles for months, I've been afflicted for a week, my throat mysteriously also has begun hurting (coinciding with a delightful post-nasal drip), and some mysterious creatures (not mosquitoes this time) have been nibbling away at me during my sleep. Pharaoh, let my people go. And write the rest of my thesis for me while you're at it.
After a night of stomach problem-generated sleeplessness, I walked to the shuttle, zombified. Everything seemed particularly surreal along my route because of the sleepiness, but a taxidermied fox, frozen forever mid-growl suddenly appeared on one of the streetcorners I pass. Suddenly in the sense that it wasn't there before, not in the sense that I was hallucinating stuffed creatures promenading around Cairo.
New campus had its share of interesting sights too--a Model United Nations poster with George W. Bush flanked by Hitler and Stalin. The text asked what they had in common. The answer? That none of them had Model UN in school. Never mind that Bush went to Harvard in the 1970s, a school whose MUN program began in the 1950s. To be fair, I don't suppose it's something an MBA student would've taken an interest in.
There's also a big poster depicting a friendly, fluffy sheep asking something like "Can you imagine an Eid without meat?" Given the cuddliness of the spokesheep, I had thought it was some kind of social awareness campaign about the social and environmental impacts of meat consumption (or perhaps even a PETA-style appeal). Nope. The cuddly sheep wants you to donate money to supply animals for poor people to slaughter during 'Aid al-Adha. Oh well.

News & Issues

• Tensions still running high over football, Egyptian office-building stormed in Algeria, employees evacuated by police
• Amnesty calls on Egyptian government to act to prevent further rockslides in poor communities
• Marriage offices increasingly popular with mate-seeking Egyptians
• Reporters Without Borders criticizes proposal to hold internet governance forum in Egypt
• Fishing in the desert: out of the slums and into unemployment

Forgive my e-slacking, but I've nothing much new to say. Thesis, thesis, thesis. Both of my classes this week involved coming up with contingency plans for the inevitable extension of the 'Aid al-Adha recess. Some are even suggesting classes might be canceled altogether for the rest of the semester. We came up with some suitable solutions tonight after discussing Cosmopolitanism, but insha'Allah, we won't miss too many sessions. After class, I had a fantastic dinner with a CMRS colleague and our professor. Yes, we spent part of our Thursday evening (the equivalent of Friday evening's here in the Muslim world) discussing critical theory and academia and that is what I love about grad. school. Don't worry, Annie and I went to Horaya later on too and chatted and played games like normal people too.
Aside from that, I read Derrida for class and got a hold of AirFrance iron out my tickets to Madagascar. Seems that everything's booked. Without further ado, let's move on from my unremarkable prose to some...

News & Issues:
Indiana Jones thinks Beyoncé is stupid
Tomorrow's Algeria-Egypt football (soccer) match already causing violence
Clashes between security forces and smugglers on Egyptian border with Palestine
Egyptian teens in court to try and have religious beliefs recognized in official documents
Egyptian Christian banned by Egypt from seeking asylum abroad

Thesis progress has come at the expense of regular blogging, but I though I'd check in. A new print edition of AUC's Caravan is out, slightly better than the last. Their feature is an attempt at investigative journalism that reveals that several of the donors who have departments and rooms named in their honor may not be the most ethically upstanding. They took issue with a room being dedicated to the memory of Dr Mine Ener.
Ener was a professor at Villanova University and author of Managing Egypt's Poor and the Politics of Benevolence, 1890-1952. In 2003, Ener gave birth to a baby girl with Down's syndrome a fact that appeared to have caused Ener to sink further into postpartum depression. Tragedy struck when, gripped by mental illness, Ener killed her child and later, after being incarcerated, committed suicide. Villanova took down a plaque erected to her memory and instead held a symposium on postpartum depression and psychosis to memorialize her. The Caravan's choice of title for the story, "This Room is Dedicated to a Murderer. Who Else Has AUC Accepted Money From?" is sensational and doesn't take it account the role mental illness played. I won't add further commentary to the sanity and misdeeds of others whom the named spaces honor, but you can checked them out and draw your own conclusions.
Other topics covered in the Caravan included an article and a cartoon about the challenges faced by female students interested in student body politics. Charming quotes like "girls are unable to handle the kind of commitment and campaigning it takes to win a competitive election" and alleged threats to the reputations of women who decide to run for office come from male students, showing that for all it's progressive shine, the situation at AUC smacks of the rest of Egypt's pervasive sexism. The Muslim Brotherhood offer us another example, promising to suspend members who requested positions for women in the party's guidance bureau. "Not all jobs are appropriate for women," wisely asserts a member. This of course is not to suggest that the rough gender equality in the US is anything close to perfect.
The online version of the student paper euphemistically refers to the strongly possible canceling of post-'Aid classes as another "H1N1 Break". According to NPR, Egypt's PM has already declared that the four-day 'Aid al-Adha vacation will be extended a further six days for all government-run schools and universities. It's only a matter of time before they demand AUC shutter for this second "swine flu" vacay. The logic for such a class suspension escapes me, yet again.

Other News & Issues

• Abuse of domestic workers in Lebanon leads to mysterious deaths
• Egyptians circumvent rigid relationship proscriptions by seeking love online
• Growing Evangelical popularity puts Coptic Orthodox Church on defensive

This morning, I rode the bus with a fellow blogger. As we passed the Ministry for Social Solidarity, the Ministry for Tunnels, the Potato Grower's Cooperative, and the sea of McMansions, we chatted about Egypt (what else?). We bonded over our predilection for sarcasm, a feature that permeated our conversation all the way to campus where I saw, behind the monstrous tentlike structure that's blocking out the sun from the main quadrangle, two Egyptians dressed like Fonzie from happy days.
The Writing Center was busy and full of interesting characters and even more interesting papers. One of them extolled the virtues of Michael Jackson, endearingly referring to him as "Mike" throughout. Another complained that the garbage problem in Cairo was an affront to his "social status". My favorite moment came when a young woman burst in and loudly interrupted two tutoring sessions to announce herself. I motioned her to sit down at which point she told me I looked really young. I suggested it might be because I am, in fact, young. She then added that I "looked too young to be a professor". I informed her that I was not a professor. After being handed an essay dripping with sarcasm, ellipses, and exclamation points that read like an instant message, I explained the need for formality in academic writing. After half-listening to my comments, she asked if she too could "get a job" at the Writing Center. Unfortunately for her and for everyone else, she can't. Ma3lesh, ma3lesh.
The growing urgency to take more notice of my surroundings as I realize how short my time left in Egypt is has pressed me to have my camera on hand more often. When I wasn't sleeping in the bus stuck in traffic, I was doing my best to be surreptitiously snap photos of "the street". Maybe I'll upload some when I get time (next century, after my thesis is finished).

News & Issues

• Cairo "almost ready" to begin unified call to prayer...almost
• Egyptian opposition leader barred from traveling to US
• Mubarak lauds party for "reform" success
• US backpedals on Israeli settlement concessions
• Egypt's crumbling infrastructure not just annoying, deadly
  

I've been spending more time in the CMRS office lately. In addition to the congenial atmosphere, the downtown department digs have professors of whom I can ask questions while I'm working on my thesis or work for their classes and faster internet. But also, it's a great forum for some really interesting discussions.
The class I raved about, Migration and Refugees in International Relations, used to meet on the main downtown campus in a room with awful fluorescent lighting and even worse acoustics. We ended up migrating to the library at the CMRS office one week when that classroom was unavailable for a make-up class and have met there ever since. The readings are the sort that you'd want to undertake even if they weren't assigned for a course. They've certainly stretched my understandings and assumptions about concepts like the nation-state, ethnicity, and culture. as well as about international relations both theoretically and practically. The professor's lectures, which are incorporated into rich discussion of the topics, are the kind that illuminate the readings, rather than summarize.
Yesterday, for instance, we talked about in-groups and out-groups and the idea of a culture as fixed. We interrogated the justness of assimilation and assumptions about the fixity and monolithism of culture. We briefly also considered the idea of dying for one's country, asking ourselves whether we had that kind of commitment to an idea of Canada or the US or Uganda or Egypt or Norway (our countries of citizenship). Instead of sharing my answer, I encourage you to really think about it, about what connects you to the nation and also about your connections and obligations to people outside of the boundaries of whatever country you live in.
Even outside of classtime, the CMRS library is fertile ground for dialog and the tweaking of ideas. Before class, Annie and I had an interesting discussion about sexuality and gender norms in Uganda with our Ugandan classmate after I explained to her my thesis topic. And, while I'd like to think I'm open-minded, I'll admit I have a certain amount of prejudice in terms of my assumptions about the rigidity of post-colonial African societies' ideas about sexuality. (Especially given the story about recently-proposed Ugandan legislation I linked to in the new & issues section before.) And yet, Amoding spoke frankly about the Western gender binaries and how they just didn't fit in Ugandan society. It was these expectations about masculinity and femininity and their relation to sexuality that she found too rigid. The conversation would continue and broaden over Yemeni food after class. (Which in turn was followed by a visit to a party shop selling Halloween costumes, a hysterical place to visit in Egypt.)
Annie and I also got to chat with our professor about class discussion, expectations, and academia. We talked to her about graduate school and writing theses and dissertation and the anxiety over providing an original contribution. There were so many good chats yesterday! It makes me rather keen on the idea of getting another degree sometime in the future. I love the stretching and growing that I've experience both as a result of living in Egypt and attending grad school.

News & Issues

Egypt

• NPR reports on succession speculation and the current crackdown on opposition
• Muslim Brotherhood's direction depends on outcome of leadership struggle
• Defense lawyers in Hezbollah spy trial quit, alleging court not impartial

Middle East meets Midwest

• Peoria's "terrorist" sentenced to eight years

• Speaking earlier of sacrificing for one's country and including a category about the intersections between the Middle East and the Midwest, it's only fitting to inform you that Peoria's Lebanese American community is hosting its annual Itoo supper at the Itoo Hall on 1 November from 11 AM to 7 PM. They're offering 300 free meals to vets and reduced prices for active military personnel.

After my little identity-inspired writing outburst of yesterday, I was more conscious of the different types of people milling around the campus this morning. I saw a real live Egyptian "goth" girl, an Egyptian "thug" sporting a 59Fifty hat and baggy pants, another Egyptian wearing a bright fuchsia polo, and so on. And then...I saw some Americans tossing around a football. I don't even know where you find an American football in Egypt. Good on them, I guess.
Anyway, being the good American I am, I met up with some friends for Lebanese food and then we headed to watch a documentary on Napoleon in Egypt at the French cultural center in Mounira. I can't say it was particularly well-made, but it was cause for me to meet up with a French acquaintance. She and I ended up at Horaya. Phil joined us and a whole little group coalesced since as people we know kept showing up. We talked about colonialism and racism, about whether Napoleon's brief incursion into Egypt brought about modernism in the country, about the creepy men that linger outside of Horaya looking in, and so forth; the usual.
And here're all the more interesting things that were going on in the world today:
News & Issues

Egypt

• Complaints of torture resurface as Hezbollah trial continues
• German concert in Cairo canceled for fear of violence over murder of Egyptian women in Dreseden
• Opinion: "Niqab and the Boundaries of Debate"
• President of the General Authority for Standards and Safety says cars in Egypt are unsafe, standards are low
• Mubarak Jr. being promoted on Facebook even though he's not thrown his hat in the ring for the 2011 elections

Migration & Refugees

• NYTimes: Sexual orientation-based asylum claims on the rise in US. My thesis topic (and an attorney whom I interviewed in my research who's doing great work) are in the limelight.
• Police fire shots to disperse refugees protesting meager rations in Uganda
• Iranian refugees released from illegal detention in Turkey

Because I have nothing more culturally enlightening to share than the fact that Cynthia and I discovered tonight that the Yemeni restaurant in Doqqi delivers to our downtown doorstep, I am going to regale you with some of the latest AUC news as covered by the student-produced campus newspaper, the Caravan.
First we have this choice comic strip wherein Americans are portrayed as green-eyed frat boys in pink polos ("dude bros", if you will), busty blonde valley girls, and hip hop-garbed black kids who speak only monosyllabically. These three archetypal Americans are shaming an Egyptian for being able to speak Arabic and enjoying Egyptian cinema. While there's a whole lot wrong with the comic, the irony is that most AUC students don't know Americans like this. The Americans that study abroad or come here for grad school exemplify a whole set of stereotypes on our own. You have the noble types who are seeking to better understand the Arab world or Islam, the know-it-alls who are here to study Arabic and treat you with the utmost scorn if you're not smoking shisha with old men in an ahwa and deploying your best colloquial Egyptian Arabic phrases by your second week here, the wanderers who are "finding" themselves in a foreign land, the go-getters who're adding studying in Egypt to résumés already replete with internships at various government agencies—they inevitably all want to work for the CIA or the FBI, the bleeding hearts who have come here to volunteer among the poor and refugees, the embittered ones that hate it here and become alcoholics, etc. etc. Most of us are some mix of most of those categories (though I assure you, I'm not an alcoholic and my Egyptian Arabic is nothing to hold over the heads of others). Only among the undergraduate study-abroaders do you find anyone approaching the stereotypes in the comic and even then, they're a rarity. The people on campus who most closely fit those caricatures? Egyptians! Upper class, popped-collared, designer brand-donning, gigantic sunglasses-sporting Egyptian kids. I swear, AUC's undergrads are more "American" than me, at least superficially. They haven't quite caught on to the idea that you're not entitled to throw trash on the ground just because some man* in a uniform following you around with a broom and cleaning your every mess. (*Or child—AUC's food contractors hired children in an move embarrassing for a university that has published research on the phenomenon.) Anyway, I'd wager their Western ways and styles come more from movies and other media than from real live Americans and other Westerners. The comic strip appearing in the latest print version of the Caravan was even worse, depicting a terribly inappropriate rendering of a Chinese man that looked like something out of a racist propaganda leaflet from a mercifully bygone era.
The actual articles in the student paper range from the informative (like the one about AUC's new connections with Columbia and Sciences Po) to the ridiculous: AUC, despite being an American liberal arts university, is too prudish to allow nude figure drawing. I guess that's par for the course, though, when there are worries about Beyoncé's scandalousness is apparently a threat to the Muslim Brotherhood. Another article, was accompanied by a photo of a bunch of bored looking AUC students protesting Israeli actions in East Jerusalem (Al-Quds), one of whom had a creative little sign with a blurry, crossed-out Israeli flag. She was, no doubt, showing her commitment to a commitment for a two-state solution. The protest, according to the article, featured a Jewish kid from New York who "surprised the crowd with his condemnation of Israel’s actions". I can hear the gasps now and the excited whispers, "Ya salaam, he doesn't even have horns!" Meanwhile, their more spirited compatriots at other universities were busy burning Israeli flags.
Anyway, that's about enough fun for today, onto (more) news.

News & Issues

Egypt

• Transport minister steps down in wake of deadly train accident
• Ministry of Endowments rents mausolea to the living
• Another story about the 'Black Cloud' for good measure
• France seeks to keep Sudanese president away from Egypt during February Africa-France summit in Sharm
• 'Egypt needs more women in power' from The Guardian
• With as much as I get frustrated with racism and intolerance in Egypt, I feel like maybe this Egyptian blogger's thoughts on racism in the US deserves to be linked to. Some points she's gets wrong, to be sure, but it's interesting to get an Egyptian take on us that's a little more serious than the comic strip I rambled on about above.

Migration and Refugees

• UN to text message food vouchers to refugees
• Fear and uncertainty for internally displaced in Pakistan

In between writing center conferences, I'm catching up on the news and trying to find the energy to read the articles I need to cite in my thesis. Though I had trouble falling asleep again, I don't feel as much like a zombie today.
Wednesday mornings are fun because I've got my fellow grad. fellow Katie to chat with. We have a lot in common in terms of our academic interests (and misgivings), some of our thoughts on Egypt, and on the future. As I already mentioned, everybody I've encounter here has been high quality–interesting, engaging, insightful.
The supervisor there is all these and responsive to boot. It's a refreshing thing to find someone at AUC who takes people's concerns serious. After I mentioned in passing the problems I had in straightening out my stipend (I'd heard other students had had more consequential problems with the man who had blustered and raised his voice and claimed not to have said the things he assured me of last week), the Writing Center supervisor took up the cause with the man's supervisor. Feeling supported in the face of the failings of the AUC bureaucracy, what a novel feeling! (Though to be fair, there were certainly a few understanding administrators that responded to our complaints about the graduation nonsense.)
Anyway, enough gushing. I need to get to back to reading thesis articles until the next student arrives.

News & Issues
Egypt

• Government spent hundreds of millions on advertising last year
• Hajj pilgrims to be vaccinated against H1N1
• Arab League leader may throw his hat into the ring for 2011 elections
• Reporters Without Borders say media freedom still under attack

Migration & Refugees

• Pakistani military offensive displaces over 100,000
• Uganda to host African Union summit on refugees and displaced persons

Despite popping a pill and getting to bed before midnight, I was completely unable to sleep before four in the morning. And so, dear readers, I come to you with half a tank, as it were. I woke up at 8 and miraculously made it to the 8:25 bus. I drifted in and out of half-sleep along the way, opening my eyes only twice. The first time I saw palm trees and what looked to my like cypress trees and the second time sand dunes. I somehow managed to avoid all of the unfinished, mismatched crumbling apartment buildings that later give way to commercial developments and McMansions.
Once on campus, bright and early, I went to check on my fellowship stipend that a man I met with in the administration labyrinth assured me would be available this week. It, of course, was not. When I returned to the man's office, he unabashedly told me he'd never made any such claim about the availability of the funds, got visibly flustered, raised his voice, and told me I could complain to the president. Nonplussed by the near-hysterics nor excited about his solution, I convinced him to call one of the secretaries in my department who was responsible for submitting some form or another. The ever effervescent Hend chuckled to me about the man's dramatics and assured me not only had she seen to everything, but that they'd arranged for me to pick up my stipend downtown. Delightful. I still didn't appreciate being yelled at in the basement of the admin. building because of a series of unsent forms and miscommunications that had nothing to do with me.
Anyway, when I wasn't tutoring or reading for my thesis, etc., I picked up a copy of the ever-inspiring AUC Caravan. The beacon of student journalism led with the story of the Japanese woman who fed the cats on the Greek Campus and found inner fulfillment. Now the cats are homeless and, on another page of the paper, you can see photos of each of them with descriptions and information on how to adopt. I will confess that with the time we spent in the courtyard of the Greek Campus, my classmates and I developed quite the mythology around the cats–some of us, me excluded, even became rather fond of them. However, it was the story of American AUC students protesting against the "posturing" that goes on at "Gucci Corner" that piqued my interest for its ridiculousness. This area is where upper class Egyptian AUCians go to seen and be seen, apparently. Apparently there was a Facebook group or an event or both. I haven't found either to link you to for your edification, but will keep you updated.
In more serious and more troubling news, I found out yesterday that my paternal grandfather has been in the hospital since Friday with blood clots that initially landed him in the ICU. I don't care to dwell on it here, but it's another of those times where I feel very far away. Prayers for my grandfather (and my cousin, who's also still in the hospital) are appreciated.

News & Issues

• NPR story illuminates the niqab ban debate
• Egyptian Attorney General tackles marriages of underaged girls to older men
• Redevelopment plans may pedestrianize parts of downtown Cairo
• newmajority.com: Hala Mustafa a "brave voice for tolerance in Egypt"
• Egypt, US, and others cooperate in joints while Obama approves sale of fighter jet to Egypt
  

I'm sure it's in terrible form, but I'm writing this from the Writing Center. The mind boggles at my having been so ambitious as to ask to be scheduled from 10 AM until 3 in the afternoon. 10 AM is an hour of the day I am otherwise generally unacquainted with and today it occurred to me that my practice of catching the 9:25 bus which has arrived later and later (once it was 10:10) is not practical. This means I am now, barring the discovery of a magical shuttle service on the half-hour, going to have to rise at 7:30 AM to get ready and get to the 8:25 bus, arrive at 9:15-20ish, and wait forty minutes for the Writing Center to open. Yes, I realize there are children starving and wars waging. I don't feel particularly sorry for myself, but I do pity both the those that come in for tutoring when my brain is still not functioning and for my flatmates who have to put up with me when I take sleeping pills that make me loopier than a bucket of eels on a Farris wheel. Why it is that AUC planned the bus to arrive ten minutes after the hour, I'll never know. I presume it's the same logic that leads the buses to depart concurrently with the end of my Tuesday night class rather than after it.
In any event, I enjoyed my bumpy ride to the new campus this morning. After giving up trying to sleep, I paid more attention than usual to my surroundings. I even snapped some photos of the Christian and Muslim cemeteries we pass that have always fascinated me. The mausolea of the city's cemeteries make them look like small towns (and in many cases, they actually are). Past them are awful monstrosities of new construction, cheap glass and metal affairs pretending to look futuristic but succeeding only in looking prefab. AUC, incongruous with its environs for a lack of garishness, is an oasis (literally, really).
Last night's bus ride was less pleasant: I found myself relegated to a fold-down aisle seat that would be illegal in the States, no doubt. However, I eavesdropped on an interesting conversation between a French student and an Egyptian student. They talked about Islam and, while agreeing with her religion's restrictions on marrying non-Muslims, the Egyptian student expressed skepticism at the fact that in Islam men can marry non-Muslims, but women cannot. They talked about antiquities and the situation with the Louvre, and the Egyptian student spoke about her visit to the British museum where she took in the Egyptian exhibits. She concluded that the artifacts were better off there because of the ability of the British Museum to preserve and maintain them. I'm sure Zahi Hawass would be chagrined to know the feeling existed in one of his countrymen.

News & Issues

• Fatah agrees Egypt's Palestinian unity deal
• AUC awards 57 scholarships to students from across Egypt
• NPR: "Artifical Virginity Device Sparks Backlash" (listen to the story here)
• Government-sponsored poll reveals Egyptians think corruption problem is going from bad to worst

Apparently even the quietest, darkest conditions, a half a sleeping pill, and concentrating on my breathing just aren't sufficient to allow me to pass out for the night. Since I've been going to bed later and later, trying to go to bed before midnight last night was, in retrospect, a doomed endeavor to begin with. I lay awake for over three hours before finally drifting off. And then, at 8:33, I was up and off. I made the proper bus to New Campus and everything.
I could swear that something in the air out there makes me just a little more positive. With the help of the head of the writing center, I printed out my application for graduation and transliterated my name into Arabic (I decided on مايكل كارل بود). I then took that and my passport to the administration building. By the time I left, I was 622 LE poorer, registered to graduate in February, had handed my passport into to have my student visa processed, and checked on my stipend. I probably visited five or six different offices. But because the new campus air is chock full of positivity, I barely noticed the effort and, in fact, decided that dealing with bureaucracy makes you feel productive. Ahem. I also ran into the IRB chair and Ray, my advisor. I had brief, welcome chats with both. I'm feeling pretty good about my thesis and getting it done before February.
Recently, I've been reading this downright goofy refugee case and the associated transcripts from the High Court of Australia review of its findings.
Well, the prospect of food and sleep are compelling me to leave today's blurb brief.

News & Issues

• Hamas spokesman's brother alleged to have died after being tortured in an Egyptian prison
• Despite being removed from the UN Security Council's terrorist list, Nada not able to return to Egypt
• Egyptian, Libyan arrested in connection to Italy bomb attack
• Egypt not the only Arab country abuzz with questions over succession
• Women protest niqab ban My favorite quote from the article: "The niqab should be worn under two circumstances," a cleaning lady who works at Al-Azhar, told CNN recently. "A very beautiful woman should wear it to prevent men from fighting over her, and an ugly woman should wear it to hide her face."

After encountering the frustrating email on graduation procedures and fees, I emailed a couple of AUC administrators. I have to say, I am impressed with their professionalism and competence. I received a response right away and follow-up emails today. I only wish that this level of responsiveness and efficiency existed throughout AUC's bureaucracy. Maybe one day.
The mysterious graduation fees were explained to me:

Graduation fees: cover to defray the cost of processing candidates for graduation, printing and conducting the commencement ceremonies. It also covers the cost of the diploma and its cover.

Participation in the commencement Ceremony is optional, but students must pay the graduation fee regardless of their attendance or absence.

The Alumni fees: covers services by Alumni such as the directory, career exploration and job posting information. It Also covers Alumni Communication via magazines and other printouts.

So, just as I'd feared, they're charging students for the commencement ceremony regardless of whether they show up. Ridiculous.

Other than this observation, I don't have much to share. I went to Marise's with Phil so we could all hang out and work on our theses. Otherwise, I've been rather pensive about the future as this chapter of my life is drawing to a close. I won't burden the reader with my existential musings, but I will say I'm a little surprised that I realize I'm going to miss Egypt more than I would've thought a couple of scant months ago.

News & Issues:

• 126 suspected H1N1 cases crop up in schools across Egypt
• Egypt's Minister for Family and Population frame niqab as a national security issue
• Journalists' Syndicate to investigate Hala Mustafa's "Israeli ties"
• Preparations for upcoming elections in Sudan may rekindle Egypt-Sudan border dispute

I woke up to an email from the CMRS senior secretary informing those of us that intend to graduate in February must perform a number of tasks involving AUC's Kafkaesque bureaucracy (ok, so perhaps it's not has bad as the Egyptian government, but efficiency and logic are often jettisoned). Furthermore, we have to do this by Thursday or risk having our "names deleted from the Fall 2009 Graduation List." They really have a way with words. So, being notified a week before the deadline on our AUC mail accounts (which few of us use) and four days before the deadline through our department, we're expected to cough up 560 LE to be able to graduate, zip to the new campus and visit at least three different offices between the hours of 10 AM and 2 PM pronto or risk being unable to graduate on time. This fee is not for a cap and gown mind you, but what it actually covers, God only knows. 75 LE of it is for mandatory "Alumni subscription dues". This cost is listed nowhere on the Tuition and Fees webpage, though the remaining 485 LE is if you look hard enough. For graduate students, God knows where the 75 LE is going because you don't even have the option of filling out a graduate student form (despite being asked to in the instructions). You are instead linked to the graduating seniors page where you're asked what kind of bachelor's degree you'll be receiving from AUC. Great. Thanks, AUC! When I'm not attending my swine flu cancellation make-up classes, working, or commuting, I'll be sure to make your four hour window by this Thursday even though you only notified of the elaborate process a few days ago. Don't bother explaining what my 485 LE for "graduation fees" covers or why you think it is you can come up with mandatory alumni subscription fees without announcing them beforehand. Nah. That would be honest and responsible.
An excerpt from another interesting email I was sent this morning reads as follows:

AUC has been notified that a student in the university's continuing education program has tested positive for the H1N1 flu. The student attends an English language class in Heliopolis and is being treated at Abbaysia Hospital. AUC's medical clinic director, Dr. Mohamed Amin, has been in contact with the student and the student is responding well to treatment.

In this case, I actually think the university is being quite responsible and neither overreacting nor unnecessarily placing students at risk. Bravo, AUC.

News & Issues:

• US special envoy George Mitchell meets with Egyptian FM Abul Gheit as Abul Gheit announces Palestinian unity deal could be delayed again
• Cairo's black cloud has returned making breathing a rather more unpleasant affair than usual.
• Evangelicals now make up about a quarter of Egypt's Christian population.
• Muslim Brotherhood MPs to sue Al-Azhar over niqab ban
  

Despite my best efforts yesterday, I was unable to write an entry because the perfect weather and cool breezes at the new campus overcame me. That and the fact that half the wireless access points in my vicinity weren't allowing me onto the internet. It's always a give-and-take with AUC. But really, when said cool breezes are being enjoyed from a desert development rather than blowing bits of rubbish and waves of pollution into your face, you really realize that October in Egypt is sublime. It's more than just clean air though that makes the AUC campus different. Being surrounded by even pavement, skinny jeans, AUC English, and being able to have an arugula and mushroom salad with Roquefort (though I was shocked when my supposed Roquefort was served shredded, alas) make me feel like I should be carrying a passport when I leave downtown for new campus. Meanwhile, back in reality, Egypt has slipped 11 spots in the Human Development Index. The measurement takes into account not only GDP, but factors like life expectancy and education. Find a breakdown of how Egypt measures up here.
I started at the Writing Center yesterday, albeit nearly an hour late as apparently the downtown-to-desert buses come and go as they please. I had to run after the one I did manage to get, or rather speedwalk given that the state of traffic at the time kept the coach stationary for sometime. The atmosphere at the Writing Center is terribly congenial. Katie, an acquaintance from last year, showed me the ropes after Tim, the director, filled me in on the basics. Katie and I are one of a handful of graduate fellows who staff the Center. Professors fill the rest of the time slots. Though I didn't have the chance to meet with any students (half of the few appointments we had were not attended), I sat in on a session Katie did. Because it would be in bad form to speak in any specifics about students who come to the Center, I'll only mentioned that I found it interesting that one of the topics he brought up in his paper was religion and how shocking it was when he first met an atheist. I've heard this more generally in Egypt, that it doesn't occur to people that broads swaths of the world's population may not believe in God. In the end, the student became friends with the atheist and all was well, but I wonder how an Egyptian atheist would fare. Maybe like this.
I look forward to things picking up as the semester goes on and getting to know the other tutors better. I'm sure that sounds schmaltzy, but I mean it. And hopefully in the downtime, I'll be able to continue making progress on my thesis. Though I don't plan on attending graduation in February (presuming I'm allowed to graduate after this semester), I'll have my own celebration in honor of vanquishing this many-pagèd beast. Funnily enough, as I was listening to Katie's simple suggestions and re-reading the manual, I thought to myself "Wow, brainstorming? outlines? thesis statements and topic sentences? How novel! I probably could've planned out my entire thesis before plunging headfirst into the writing process". Ma3lesh. I work better when I write an amorphous nonsensical mass that is later tamed and transformed into something half-way presentable.
Oh, the 6th of October finished up well too. Last semester when walking to Doqqi, I met an Egyptian student who was hellbent on befriending me despite my best attempts at pretending I couldn't hear anything or anyone over my iPod. We ended up talking, he helped me find where I was going. He asked if we could hang out sometime, explaining his love of Americans and the wide variety of nationalities that filled his coterie. Skeptical about joining his menagerie, I feigned ignorance of my own cellphone number and, instead, gave him my full name to allow him to find me on Facebook. He was tenacious and we Gchated occasionally and kept in touch through the summer and the first month of this semester. I finally relented to his indefatigable niceness and we met up for ful and ta3meya sandwiches. I made Marise come along which put the kabosh on Sayed's desire to stroll Qasr al-Nil Bridge. For some reason, he couldn't be convinced of the severity of the harassment young women meet with walking in Cairo, but we managed to convince him to settle for the next bridge up which was emptier and where we could park the car right next to our windy perch overlooking the Nile. We talked about Sayed's dreams to visit America, the French lessons he was taking at the CFCC, about his family, and about Marise's. In passing, the displacement of Marise's paternal family from near the Suez led to an entirely coincidental discussion of the October War with the subsequent realization that we were on the 6th of October Bridge. How perfectly patriotic of us. Or something.
Today, my classes recommence. I have Migration and Refugees in International Relations later this afternoon. Gone are the days of swine-flu vacations and undisturbed days confined to the apartment working on my thesis (and/or Facebook skills).
And now, the news:

• Egypt has severed ties with the Louvre, over what Indiana Jones, er, Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Council of Antiquities says are stolen artifacts. (ici en français)
• The trial of the alleged murderer of a veiled Egyptian woman is set to begin in Germany this month.
• Back in session, Egypt's public universities are coping with flu fears.
• A Muslim Brotherhood MP demands the head of Al-Azhar University step down over niqab remarks. See the clip below for more:
  

I'm back with my nose to the thesis grindstone after a splendid impromptu jaunt to Turkey. While my trip was mostly for pleasure, I also managed to meet with Rachel Levitan of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly - Turkey for a thesis interview. Ms Levitan with two others recently published an article called "Unsafe Haven: Security Challenges Facing LGBT Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Turkey" in PRAXIS: The Fletcher Journal of Human Security. The report that led to the article can be found here.
Istanbul reminded me more of Seattle than of anything in the Middle East. The clean air, the calm, the uncongested streets, and the courtesy of vendors, restaurateurs, hostel proprietors and the general public were a welcome departure from the noise, chaos, and stress of Cairo. (Just as I typed this, the lovely trash collector who rang our bell yesterday over forty times while my flatmate Cynthia was sick in bed returned. He's been ripping Cynthia off all summer. When he returned today to ask for the money, I told him in my awful pidgin Arabic that I'd already paid him for the month (and then some) last time he came and that I wouldn't pay him again now. He seems to have relented, thankfully.)
Anyway, classes are supposed to resume soon across Egypt, but I've heard rumblings of further delays and class suspensions, so we'll see. I don't have any great plans for the rest of my time off beyond buckling down and working on the ol' thesis.

News & Issues

• Swedish journalist, blogger set to be deported: Per Bjorklund's blog frequently covered labor issues which may've made him a target for deportation, but he also participated in the To Gaza March that led to the February detention of Philip Rizk and the recent deportation of Travis Randall. Per's friend and fellow blogger writes about it here.
  
• Farouk Hosni fails in bid to become UNESCO president: While many in the Arab world (and Hosni himself) allege a Jewish conspiracy, Egyptian daily Al-Masry al-Youm attempts to sort through the claims more evenhandedly.
• Equal access for women to divorce increasingly a possibility; also, Egyptian divorcées have recently an online radio station to support each other
  
• Slate.com explores the effects of Egypt's pig slaughter
• AUC's move to the desert a blow to downtown economy; Greek Campus sale expected to be final within a month

Clearly, living along a river that snakes its way through a vast desert, Egyptians have a certain appreciation for water. Ancient Egyptian culture was deeply informed by a dependence on the River Nile. This is something I'd learned in history class long ago. In college, however, the research one of my professors conducted in water policy led me to understand what a vital role water plays today in international relations and conflict. It was therefore with great interest that I read about Israeli FM Lieberman's visits to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda, home to the two most important sources of the Nile. This while Egypt and the other Nile Basin states are attempting to resolve their differences over water use issues. Though I'll refrain from Biblical allusions, it looks very much like Israel is trying to use water as a means of leverage over the Egyptians.
What made me think so much about water today wasn't anything on quite so grand a scale: My flatmate Phil purchased a couple of bottles of Hayat brand water for me before my return to Egypt. He prefers it, apparently, for its taste. I am a Nestlé Pure Life man myself it having been recommended as a reliable clean and neutral-tasting choice. I'd always been a little leary of Hayat. Phil and I debated the finer points of the Egyptian bottled water industry (while we weren't in our rooms, noses to the grindstone, working on our theses) agreeing that Baraka tastes the least pleasant of the major brands. With all of the discussion and my admittedly unsupported claims that my brand was healthier than his, I decided to check into the matter further. Such a riveting topic apparently hasn't warranted much journalist attention or blogging lately, at least not in English, but I found an article from early last year referring to Ministry of Trade and Industry tests. The results (probably interesting only to potential consumers of bottled water in Egypt) were that only seven brands were both fit for consumption and accurately labeled for mineral content, etc.: Aqua, Aqua Siwa, Aquafina, Dasani, Mineral, Nestlé, and Siwa. Schweppes, notably, was considered unsafe. Unsafer still are other sources of water in Egypt. Some 40% of Egyptians drink contaminated water that leads to typhoid outbreaks, kidney failure, and thousands of deaths a year. Recent water shortages across the river in Giza have forced local residents to pump their own water only to discover that it is contaminated with sewage. If anyone finds more recent material on bottled water in Egypt, do let me know.

News & Issues

–Egypt

• The South Cairo Criminal Court has sentenced two US couples to jail in a high-profile illegal adoption case and is expected to hand down a ruling in another major case centered on defective blood products.
• AFP reports on the closure of AUC and other foreign universities and schools suggesting that the measures being taken by the Egyptian government may be in line with WHO recommendations.
• The government has taken an important step in tackling the un-Islamic practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). Authorities arrested a 69-year-old man after his circumcision of an 11-year-old girl left her hospitalized.
• A US NGO, Freedom House, is accusing Egypt and others of using their positions in the UN's Human Rights Council to limit the protection of human rights. Find Freedom House's "The UN Human Rights Council Report Card: 2007-2009" here in .pdf format.
• Resurgent 80s fashion trends apparently don't jive with Grand Mufti Gomaa's sensibilities; stretch pants are a no-no, but loose-fitting trousers have been deemed ok in a recent statement following the controversy over trouser-wearing Sudanese women.

–Islam

• Will the real Islam please stand up? Daily News Egypt reprints an article that first appeared in Arab News tracking the multiple forms that Islam has taken in practice in the past century and its possible trajectories.
• Sana from KABOBfest also recently examined the complex relationship between Islam and modernity in her blog noting that the two are far from antithetical.

( Fear of ) Swine Flu Strikes Again

This morning, I received the following email from AUC's VP of Planning and Administration:

AUC will be suspending classes beginning Thursday, September 17 until Saturday, October 3. The decision follows a request by the Egyptian government that the university suspend its classes in line with government universities, which have suspended classes due to concerns relating to the H1N1 flu.

There have been no positive cases of the flu reported on the AUC campuses or by any member of the AUC community.

The university’s administrative offices, the library, sports complex and food outlets will be fully operational during the suspension; however, the day care center will be closed. Staff who rely on the day care center will be provided leave during the suspension, if necessary.

Faculty and students are encouraged to utilize all available electronic resources to continue classroom activity. The Office of the Provost will provide guidance and direction on a revised class schedule to ensure all academic requirements are fulfilled.

As already announced, the university will be closed for the Eid September 19 to September 22. We will continue to provide updates to the AUC community immediately following the Eid.

Splendid. First all the pigs are slaughtered, now education is disrupted for every student in the country. For me, this means missing four class sessions (especially problematic given that each of my classes meets only once a week) and not starting my Writing Center position for another three weeks. American colleges haven't gone to such drastic measures, but they are bracing for a significant outbreak of the strain that has already killed students, so maybe my cynicism is a little unjustified. And, on the bright side, clearing my calendar until the 3 of October will permit me to hole up in my H1N1-free bedroom and churn out more thesis copy.

In other, slightly frustrating news, the garbage man and the man who washes the floors in our building's common areas once a week have been taking my flatmates for a ride all summer. charging them as much as eight times more than they were supposed to be paying. And, in my absence, my landlord absconded with our hard-won vacuum cleaner. The little un-joys of Cairo. By and large though, despite my natural tendency to come unhinged as little stressors accumulate, my re-adjustment to Cairo as been quite easy. I am less bothered than ever by comments on the street, terrible if well-intentioned customer service, and things never happening as they're intended.

News & Issues

Egypt

• According to Daily News Egypt (in an article with an unfortunate title) the Anti-Defamation League has accused the weekly Al-Youm al-Sabei (site in Arabic) of antisemitism for its publication of a cartoon caricaturing Israel as a greedy Jewish man milking water from the udders of what is meant to symbolize the Nile Basin. Humorously in the Daily News article, the head of Al-Youm's international news section is quoted as saying, "This accusation is baseless because there is something called freedom of expression." Oh really? In what country? Perhaps he's forgotten the international outcry over certain Danish cartoons or even the reactions to an American movie in which a dog was named for a former Egyptian president.
• Somali pirates who held Egyptian fisherman were returned to Somalia facing trial in Puntland, the stable(r) section of the failed state. After being held hostage for months, Egyptian fisherman had managed to overcome the pirates and were hailed for their bravery by fellow citizens.

Middle East

• UN Accuses both Israel and Palestinians of war crimes
• Iraqi man who threw shoes at former US President Bush freed from jail, alleges torture

And last but not least, check out KABOBfest, an amalgamation of blogs written primarily by Arab-Americans about a variety of topics impacting the Arab world.

Just beyond a strip of palm trees, the desert spreads out before me. The sight is much more in keeping with what most people think of Egypt than what I see most days. Between me and the little palmeraie, are the large panes of glass that let ample natural light into AUC's new campus library. I know I mentioned it last time, but this place really is gorgeous.
I hopped the Route #12 bus to the new campus this morning just in time to get here and get lost. The Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS) building is not clearly marked on any of the maps around campus which in turn are unhelpful in that they don't have any sort of "You Are Here" indicator. Embarrassed, I resorted to calling the head of the Writing Center a total of three times to orient myself. Once I reached the actual building, I found that the numbering system made little sense. Ma3lesh. I found the professor I was looking for, he gave me the rundown on the Writing Center, and I was off to complete my next errand. Procuring a bus sticker was utterly painless and getting the process started for my student visa application was nearly as easy. The anticipatory knot in my stomach that manifests when I know I have to go to an office in Egypt gave way to a tentative satisfaction. AUC? Not so bad, right?
I ran into my Egyptian friend Reham on the way out of the administration building and strolled along with her, taking in the warm sun, the cool breeze, and the impressive architecture while catching up. When she headed to a bus to take her back to reality, I met up with an Iraqi-American friend who was involved with the International Affairs Organization and Model UN with me back at Bradley. She's studying here for the semester, taking classes on the history of the Middle East, Sufism, and Arabic. Over koshary—which after all of the horror stories of overpriced new campus food was comparable in price to what you'd pay downtown—I listened to Helen explain the novel sensation of being in a new place where she had such an affinity with the majority of people around her. She's eating up the mannerisms, the warmth, and the flowery phrases.
At one point, we popped into the library (whither we have returned) to grab a book for my thesis. I was overly impressed by the 3-M check-out machines. Now, I realize that all the cool kids have probably used these at their public and university libraries, but scanning my ID card and then laying my barcode-less unopened book on the apparatus to check it out seemed pretty space age. And at AUC no less. The self check-out machines and the ID-scanning posts at the one of the gates and at the library give a veneer of modern efficiency. So did the copy center that Helen had to stop by to get her course packets. That is, until she returned to pick them up and her order had mysteriously disappeared from the system. You can't win 'em all, I guess.
After today, I can't say I'm dreading coming to the new campus twice a week. Clean air and the lack of clutter are a welcome change from downtown. The construction in the library itself during regular hours today, however, keeps a little of that rustic, never-finished atmosphere. Feeling guilty about enjoying the place, remembering the misgivings friends who study urban planning and sociology and sustainability shared with me, I was relieved at the very least to find that the campus was designed to be low-impact and energy-efficient. This isolated desert community model, though, does seem as though it's draining the energy from the very heart of Cairo. Another blogger has this interesting entry that speaks about the trend and specifically about a community called Dreamland, coincidentally the first place I stayed in Egypt back in 2005.

News & Issues

Egypt
· Online radio station to be launched by activists affiliated with the party of opposition leader, Ayman Nour
· MPs debate definition of death in Shoura Council
· Foreign Ministry defends murder of African migrants (see also Bikya Masr article)

· In a country where a majority of women don headscarves, women who do so and seek access the haunts of the small upper class sometimes find themselves discriminated against. Increasing conservatism has made the practice more popular, but many in the élite reject it. When I returned to Egypt this last time, I noticed that EgyptAir's flight attendants were unveiled just as many many television personalities on state-owned channels are (though there's been a row over this). It's interesting that the government would seemingly be interested in showing a "modern" image of Egypt to the world while this image doesn't reflect the practices of the majority of Egyptians.

Molasses Laps

It occurs to me anew that getting things accomplished in Egypt is like trying to swim laps in molasses. Not only in the resistance that you mean in accomplished even the most mundane of tasks, but in the mindset you inevitably fall into. Knowing that everything will be an undertaking, you're disinclined to take initiative. I say this, I'll remind you, having only been back a day and a half.
I awoke this morning (with a sore throat-hopefully just Cairo pollution and my AC which, al-hamdulilleh, is functioning again) to breakfast while watching Al-Jazeera and then to set about trying to look into visa requirements and to respond to emails. Lo and behold, once is marked "URGENT" and comes to me from AUC. Once of my two classes for the semester, the European System of the Protection of Human Rights, has been canceled due to low enrollment. That's some excellent planning on the part of the university, especially when they've known for months how many students registered for the class. Now I have to find another class from the sparse list of those that count as CMRS credit.
My other class, the one focused on Palestinian Refugees, despite being held out in the desert and requiring a total of nearly two hours commuting round trip, promises to be interesting. As I was walking to the Mustafa Core Center in the darkness, I looked around the courtyard in front of the library and was reminded that, despite the bureaucratic nightmares and the poor planning, AUC built a gorgeous campus in New Cairo. I mean it really is stunning. Less stunning was the busride back. The creative driving approach the driver took and his liberal use of both the gas pedal and the brakes, sometimes nearly simultaneously, left me feeling thoroughly nauseous by the time (after 11 PM) I staggered out at the gates of the old main campus.
Despite the relatively short duration of my honeymoon, I am determined to keeping doing things–anything that seems even mildly productive, rather than zoning out and peering deep into the glow of Facebook blue that all-too often emanates from my laptop. Reading for my thesis seems sensible and I think I'll put off going to the visa office until after Ramadan when the hours have returned to regular. After dinner, I'll probably go get groceries in Doqqi or Zamalek.
Speaking of Ramadan, here's a clip of CNN's Zain Verjee reporting on Ramadan in Cairo a little over a week ago:



News:
Israeli PM Netanyahu to visit Cairo next Sunday
Egyptian government threatens to take action against private telecom companies for low prices
Egyptian police kill yet more African migrants trying to reach Israel
Al-Jazeera Clip: Israel settlers push further into Palestinian lands

Egyptian Fishermen 1 - Somali Pirates 0

News:

In a daring move, Egyptian fisherman liberated themselves from Somali pirate captors yesterday. Earlier in the year, even the US Navy got involved in the pesky Somali piracy problem, extricating the captain of a ship who was taken hostage when his crew escaped into a lifeboat after battling back.

An AUC student was detained in Israel and order deported after protesting the eviction of Palestinians from their home in East Jerusalem (Al-Quds). She has been given leave to stay while contesting the legality of her initial arrest in court.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to visit the US on Tuesday. The Boston Globe asks the question about the leader that's on everyone's mind. Last week, John McLaughlin of "The McLaughlin Group" made his prediction that a transition in Egypt could happen as soon as next year.

Fugitive Nazi's connection to Cairo confirmed.

Egypt opens border with Palestine to allow pilgrims passage.

Vehicles in honking, high-speed wedding procession collide near Assiut, killing the groom and three wedding guests. Says the article, "In Egypt, it is traditional for the wedding party and guests prior to the reception or afterwards to drive through the streets, weaving in and out of traffice and honking their horns." What a ridiculous reason to die.