After a Methods class focused on a few of the controversies regarding people trafficking and how to define it and legally address it, I hopped a cab to the fringes of Ma'adi to get some shopping done at Carrefour with Erin. We lingered for quite some time, overwhelmed with the fluorescent-lit consumerist fairy tale.  Each of us picked up some household goods and some edibles by the end of our shopping excursion.  Believe it or not, it was an exhausting experience.

  I'm back at home finishing off a bottle of ISIS brand doum juice.  ISIS optimistically describes its flavor as gingery, but I myself think that Egypt's gastronomic strengths lie elsewhere.

  Now that the EU has issued travel warnings for the US, I'm thinking I've picked quite the fine time to return home.  Egypt is apparently moving all of its pigs (admittedly, not very many) to a 238-acre plot in 15th of May City far away from residential areas.

Other news:

The Muslim Brotherhood is distancing itself from a debate over Shia and Sunni Islam.  Egypt is a majority Sunni country that has recently experienced tension with Shia countries and groups like Iran and Hizbullah.  The two sects differ over the legitimacy of certain of Muhammad's successors, but the rift often goes far beyond theology.

An ancient necropolis discovered at Fayoum oasis yields dozens of artifacts.

An Egyptian delegation in DC paints a picture of Egypt that Egyptian-American students and others aren't quite prepared to accept.

  I polished off my Migration and Development reaction paper today, only to move on to the final draft of my thesis proposal.  The latter is actually quite enjoyable since a thesis is so much more a personal thing.  

  All over the news are reports of the swine flu and its pandemic potential.  Some nations are even issuing travel warnings to not only Mexico, but the States as well.  It's strange to feel so unaffected by virtue of being in Egypt.  Usually it's the other way around: "Oh good, another case of bird flu?  Parasites in the water?  Bilharzia in the Nile? Pollution so thick you can taste? Wish I were in America."  For now, I'm glad the pigs are so far away.

News:

  An entry in a Discover Magazine blog discusses bird flu in Egypt and swine flu in the Americas and peoples' reactions to them.

  Factional violence continues to threaten unity in Palestine (video) :  Muslim Brotherhood distances itself from Hizbullah terror cell

  I know I have before apologized for including too much detail of my culinary adventures when more important things are afoot here in Egypt, but I must share that this evening, my friends and I went to the Thai restaurant at the Four Seasons in Giza.  Lai Thai has the best service I've experienced in Cairo, even better than that which is proffered by the attentive folks at Crave in Zamalek.  The food was delicious and not outrageously priced (by American standards).  I had the som tum I'd been craving for a while, a vegetarian entree, and coconut sticky rice with litchis for dessert.  Perfect!  And the company wasn't half bad either.  Afterward, four of the six of us diners continued on to Mohandaseen where we hung out at a café for a couple of hours.  It was great people watching made better because I was the only blue-eyed Westerner in the joint.  Alas, now I'm very tired from early morning chats with Egyptian and American friends and need to wrap up the entry before it's really begun.

News:

13 foreign tourists injured in hot air balloon crash in southern Egypt

Egypt sees third bird flu death in a week

American journalist imprisoned in Iran goes on hunger strike (video):

  I trekked to and from Zamalek today to have some lunch and run errands.  At Café Arabica, my French friend Antoine was introduce to the joys of oatmeal.  I myself had my old favorite, fiteer with roasted bell peppers and haloumi cheese.

  Other than that, I've gotten another quarter of my Migration and Development about gender and people-trafficking and its relation to economic development.

News:

Members of an alleged Hizbullah cell may face life imprisonment or death.  A lawyer for the suspects says that reports denying they have been tortured may not be true.

Egypt's religious endowments minister encourages all able Muslims to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem (Al-Quds in Arabic) to "show the whole world" that the city is "something that concerns all Muslims".  Jerusalem is considered by many Muslims to be the third holiest city in Islam.

France's international news network, France 24, is launching its expanded Arabic-language news service in Cairo on Monday.

Individuals detained and jailed in Egypt Twittered their experiences from their cells.  Twitter, a micro-blogging service, was instrumental in the release of a UC Berkeley grad student from an Egyptian jail last year.

  Voilà, another entry where the news will be meatier than the description of my day.  Cynthia came home after being released from the hospital.  She's been taking it easy on the living room couch and I've been trying to be as helpful as I know how.  Other than that, I got through a quarter of a paper for Migration and Development, tweaked my thesis proposal, and corresponded with some sources for my thesis research in the States.

News:

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt supports Hizbullah in row with Cairo.  While the Egyptian government is pointing fingers abroad at the likes of Iran, Qatar, etc., the largest (and officially illegal) opposition party is embroiling itself in the tension by expressing its disagreement with the administration.  With the president vowing that Egypt will "hit with an iron fist anyone who messes with its national security", it is unclear whether the government will ramp up pressure on the Brotherhood as well.

Coptic Church provides conversion certificate to Muslim-born Christian.  This is unprecedented in a country where conversion is no easy process if not formally banned.  The convert is trying to get his identity documents changed to reflect his new beliefs.

American president Barack Obama's envoy says that the two-state solution is the only solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Meanwhile, word is spreading that Egypt is threatening to abandon its role as mediator between Hamas and Fatah. American Secretary of State Clinton is not optimistic that the two factions will reach a unity deal in the near future.

Today was a productive day, but one whose details are so entirely quotidian, they probably don't merit my foisting them upon a readership interested in big news and cultural phenomena. This evening, I went to the ahwa (café) where I learned to play towla and had sahlab with my French friend. We chatted about our recent travels and summer plans. Cynthia was supposed to come home (to our place) from the hospital, but just when the doctor was supposed to come up and discharge her, they told her she needed to stay yet another night. Hopefully she'll be out tomorrow.

News:

Omar Suleiman, Egypt's "spy chief", has traveled to Israel to meet with Israeli government officials including defence minister Ehud Barak. I included an article from the Telegraph about Mr Suleiman in an earlier entry. He's not someone one hears an awful lot about, though he wields a great deal of power. It will be interesting to see where his career leads. His visit was also notable for the fact that he met with Israeli FM Avigdor Lieberman who's loose tongue has offended many in the Arab world and beyond. Apparently, despite Egypt's FM's strong words that Lieberman wouldn't be allowed to set foot on Egyptian soil, Suleiman extended just such an invititation. Among the issues discussed were relations with Iran.

An Egyptian woman died today from bird flu, the twenty-fifth fatality from the illness.

The emergence of an "Islamic MTV" raises fears that the Muslim world is growing ever more conservative. I have to wonder how analogous these efforts are to the contemporary Christian music phenomenon in the States. Certainly both are vehicles for values and a particular message, but do they have different goals? Some hope the satellite channel will reach Muslims in the West who aren't "coming to the message" of Islam because of they are, apparently reprehensibly, "fully assimilated".

An article on Muslim migration to Europe appeared in the Wall Street Journal today. I cannot say that I agree with it entirely, but it makes interesting contentions about the relationship between migration and politics.

  Preferring to webchat with my mother, brother, and grandfather who I'd not spoken with in ages, I haven't reserved much energy to type out anything extensive and inspiring today.  I will say, however, that some sort of sublime Zen calmness and pleasantness has followed me back from Tunisia.  The break was even more recuperative than I'd anticipated.  I'm ready to get back to work and end the semester strong.

  This was undergirded by the discovery of the finest grocery store I've yet encountered in Cairo.  It may sound silly, but grocery stores are something of a sanctuary for me–my "happy place".  Ok, I sound like a nut.  Anyway, the Alfa Market in Doqqi is much better-organized and better-stocked than the other branch in Zamalek.  The employees are courteous and attentive and even generous-they let me try physalis fruit when I asked how it was meant to be eaten.  Something I first saw in France, the fruit grows inside a flower that vaguely resembles a little birdcage and tastes a bit like a tart cherry tomato.  I dropped over 200 LE in hopes that the groceries will last me for a while.  

  Prior to this excursion, I grabbed sushi with a contingent of my classmates after visiting my friend Cynthia in the hospital.  While I was away, she fell ill and ended up extremely dehydrated.  She's been in since yesterday and will be there at least through tomorrow.  They haven't clearly diagnosed her yet, but they think it may be parasites.  She looked good today and sounded better than she did last night, so hopefully the myriad IVs they've got her hooked up to are of benefit.  The hospital, though appearing a bit like something out of a movie from the 50s, was much cleaner and better-run than I anticipated.  Cynthia's a trooper, trying her best to parlay her limited Sudanese Arabic into some kind of lingua franca to help her half-communicate with the nurses and doctors.  I'll probably head over to see her again tomorrow if she hasn't been released by the time I'm done with class.  She'll be staying with us most likely when she's free.

  On the topic of health, I'll segue into the news:

Strange patterns in avian flu cases in Egypt cause alarm, but most experts find fears exaggerated

  Even as experts explain their belief that H5N1 has not undergone any significant mutations in Egypt that would suggest adaptation to humans, an Egyptian boy has died after contracting the virus.

Egypt summons Iranian diplomat over Hizbullah tension

  Egypt is pointing fingers at states it believes are directly linked to supporting Hizbullah whom it accuses of plotting attacks on Egyptian soil.  Iran, for its part, claims that Egypt's recent arrests are an attempt to influence upcoming elections in Lebanon.  Egypt's state-owned newspaper, Al-Ahram, has also suggested that Qatar is intent on bringing Egypt to the point of a coup.

Egypt breaks up child-trafficking, organ-stealing operation

  In an ever-more macabre twist on the problem of organ-selling and organ-stealing in Egypt, an operation in which Yemeni children were trafficked to Egypt in order to have their organs harvested and sold was uncovered by Egyptian authorities who have since returned the children to their country of origin and arrested five suspected human traffickers who will face trial soon.  The ring, whose leader was a Jordanian, included Palestinians and Yemenis.