tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65567559958655864612024-03-14T00:06:21.076+02:00Ira D in Cairoiradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.comBlogger207125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-86377432800700875982012-03-23T23:46:00.003+02:002012-03-23T23:52:15.318+02:00A footnote on Sanford, Florida<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>713</o:Words> <o:characters>4067</o:Characters> <o:company>City University of New York</o:Company> <o:lines>33</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>9</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>4771</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> 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Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:JA;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">I have been, like so many others, mourning the death of Trayvon Martin and feeling outrage at the failure of authorities to bring charges against his confessed killer George Zimmerman. Martin's murder have brought new attention to the southern town of Sanford, Florida. Many have written of the recent history of racial injustice in the town. Sports columnist Dave Zirin has reached back to the first-half of the twentieth century to tell the story of <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/166992/jackie-robinson-trayvon-martin-and-sad-history-sanford-florida">the town’s harassment of baseball player Jackie Robinson</a>. The town of Sanford has another less well-known history worth recovering as its founder and namesake, Henry Shelton Sanford, collaborated with King Leopold II of Belgium in his successful efforts to establish his brutal personal dominion over the Congo. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Abraham Lincoln appointed Sanford as a minister to Belgium during the Civil War. Sanford purchased thousands of acres of cheap land following the war and was one of the pioneers of the Florida citrus industry. He developed his businesses there erratically during the next two decades, while he pursued other imperial ambitions in central Africa.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Sanford tried to get another diplomatic post. After having his appointment as Ambassador to Belgium rejected by the Senate in 1877, Sanford took advantage of his political connections to get himself appointed as a lobbyist on behalf of Leopold’s International African Association, imagining a unique American relationship to the enterprise:<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;line-height:200%">Near 5,000,000 of our people are of African race, descendants of slaves [....] The idea of this people, by the aid of the descendants of those who held them as slaves, returning to colonize and regenerate their parent country to extirpate the slave trade and introduce in that fertile region the cultures which they were told from their home to toil at across the ocean, is utterly attractive and one worthy of earnest promotion in the United States.<a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: JA;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%">One year later, in 1878, in a letter probably to U.S. Secretary of State William Evarts, Sanford was even more candid, “I think we more than any other country, will profit of it and an outlet will be found for the enterprise and ambition of our colored people in more congenial fields than politics.”<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn2" href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: JA;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Following the end of the post-Civil War period of Radical Reconstruction, Sanford saw the Congo as an opportunity to redirect African American attention away from domestic political participation. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Sanford’s racist colonization plans were the linchpin for the involvement of his most important American ally, Senator John Tyler Morgan of Alabama.<a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3" href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;mso-bidi-language:EN-US"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: Times;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:JA;mso-bidi-language:EN-US">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a> Morgan, who advocated the removal of African Americans to Africa, also put forth a Senate resolution to task the Committee on Foreign Relations, on which he served, to investigate the potential for American commerce “in the Valley of the Congo River in Africa.”<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn4" href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: JA;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The resolution passed unanimously in January 1884, and Morgan served on the two-member subcommittee charged with the assignment.<a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5" href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: JA;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> With Sanford and Morgan leading the way, the U.S. campaign on behalf of the Congo began a year before the Berlin Conference gave European sanction to Leopold’s supposedly philanthropic dominion over the Congo. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Remarkably, these extensive deliberations all took place before the formal establishment of <u>l’État Indépendant du Congo</u> at the Berlin Conference (where there were no Africans present).</span><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn6" href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:Times; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:JA;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> Early recognition of Leopold’s dominion gave the United States a special relationship with and, activists would later argue, responsibility to, the Congo. Explorer Henry Morton </span>Stanley, who Sanford recruited in 1878 on behalf of Leopold to undertake an expedition to the Congo and who quickly became the king’s most famous and important ally, was duly appreciative of U.S. support in the face of domestic and international opposition<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn7" href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: JA;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>: “The recognition of the United States was the birth unto new life of the Association, seriously menaced as its existence was by opposing interests and ambitions; and the following of this example by the European Powers has affirmed and secured its place among Sovereign States.”<a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8" href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: JA;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> President Arthur appointed Leopold’s lobbyist Sanford to lead the U.S. delegation, with the assistance of Stanley. Not surprisingly, under their leadership, the delegation approved the General Act at the Berlin Conference in February 1885.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">In 1886, Sanford was granted a concession by a grateful Leopold to establish the Sanford Exploring Expedition in 1886 in the Congo, which was a failure and in 1888 it was taken over by Albert Thys’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Société Anonyme Belge pour l’Industrie et Commerce du Haut Congo</i>, which became one of the great profiteers of the brutal rubber collection practices which took off in the 1890s.<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn9" href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: JA;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Sanford died in 1891, but his legacy in the Congo and elsewhere remains.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><o:p> </o:p></p> <div style="mso-element:footnote-list"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br /> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"> <!--[endif]--> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn1"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height:normal"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"> Qtd. in Francois Bontinck, <u>Aux Origines de l’État Indépendant du Congo: Documents tirés d”Archives Américaines</u> (Louvain, Belgium: Éditions Nauwelaerts, 1966), 16.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn2"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height:normal"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"> Qtd. in Bontinck, <u>Aux Origines de l’État Indépendant du Congo</u>, 28-29. Though the letter is addressed to an unnamed recipient, Bontinck believes it to be Evarts. According to Sanford’s biographer, Joseph A. Fry, Evarts was a guest at Sanford’s Washington dinner parties in 1877.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>See Joseph A. Fry, <u>Henry S. Sanford: Diplomacy and Business in Nineteenth-Century America</u> (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1982), 134.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn3"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height:normal"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3" href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"> Adam Hochschild, <u>King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa</u> (New York:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Houghton Mifflin, 1999), 79-80; Joseph O. Baylen. “Senator John Tyler Morgan, E. D. Morel, and the Congo Reform Association.” <u>Alabama Review</u> 15 (1962): 118-120. See John Tyler Morgan, “The Future of the American Negro,” <u>North American Review</u> 139 (July 1884): 81-84.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn4"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height:normal"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4" href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"> Qtd. in Bontinck,<u> Aux Origines de l’État Indépendant du Congo</u>, 162.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn5"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height:normal"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5" href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"> Bontinck, <u>Aux Origines de l’État Indépendant du Congo</u>, 162-63.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn6"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height:normal"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6" href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"> As a result of Berlin, European governments recognized either the International African Association or the International Association of the Congo, which Leopold unilaterally renamed <u>l’État Indépendant du Congo</u> in May 1885. See Hochschild, <u>King Leopold’s Ghost</u>, 87.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn7"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height:normal"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7" href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"> Hochschild, <u>King Leopold’s Ghost</u>, 59-60.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn8"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height:normal"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8" href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"> Henry M. Stanley, <u>The Congo and the Founding of its Free State: A Story of Work and Exploration</u> (1885; Detroit, MI:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Negro History P, [1971]), 2:383.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn9"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn9" href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Fry, <u>Henry S. Sanford</u>, 157; 163.<o:p></o:p></p> </div> </div> <!--EndFragment-->iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-53640904705972715212012-03-01T01:16:00.002+02:002012-03-01T01:20:32.184+02:00On Falaki Street<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l6RLV5AWa9g/T06ySt5QiGI/AAAAAAAAAgk/rOmARlxuuu4/s1600/100_5439.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l6RLV5AWa9g/T06ySt5QiGI/AAAAAAAAAgk/rOmARlxuuu4/s400/100_5439.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714701011806881890" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l3SocgvotP4/T06yS-yln6I/AAAAAAAAAgw/mI-vYLG_QvA/s1600/100_5440.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l3SocgvotP4/T06yS-yln6I/AAAAAAAAAgw/mI-vYLG_QvA/s400/100_5440.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714701016342306722" border="0" /></a>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-71295399624564418962012-03-01T01:09:00.002+02:002012-03-01T01:16:53.661+02:00Greek Campus Mural<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gMSx1vKCxXw/T06xktXpkmI/AAAAAAAAAgM/FzXDwXTitqE/s1600/100_5437.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gMSx1vKCxXw/T06xktXpkmI/AAAAAAAAAgM/FzXDwXTitqE/s400/100_5437.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714700221391934050" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gXg5Yf8XXU4/T06xk2kJsPI/AAAAAAAAAgU/9ctAiV3uvUI/s1600/100_5438.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gXg5Yf8XXU4/T06xk2kJsPI/AAAAAAAAAgU/9ctAiV3uvUI/s400/100_5438.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714700223860289778" border="0" /></a>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-69064117201851444322012-02-28T06:48:00.003+02:002012-02-28T07:09:35.739+02:00On Mohamed Mahmoud Street<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YzcuUhpGY9c/T0xf5SWnmQI/AAAAAAAAAf8/mx7WhwXPlUc/s1600/100_5422.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YzcuUhpGY9c/T0xf5SWnmQI/AAAAAAAAAf8/mx7WhwXPlUc/s400/100_5422.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714047465010206978" border="0" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nv1eTbqANFY/T0xf5JZxNrI/AAAAAAAAAfw/YvGuMTQ-qb8/s1600/100_5423.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nv1eTbqANFY/T0xf5JZxNrI/AAAAAAAAAfw/YvGuMTQ-qb8/s400/100_5423.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714047462607500978" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MZRlEJVX-dQ/T0xf4t-gctI/AAAAAAAAAfo/StRceYCxdXU/s1600/100_5424.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MZRlEJVX-dQ/T0xf4t-gctI/AAAAAAAAAfo/StRceYCxdXU/s400/100_5424.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714047455245398738" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tj28h-cSOLw/T0xf4CvW6ZI/AAAAAAAAAfY/pHLGuSJUqQQ/s1600/100_5426.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tj28h-cSOLw/T0xf4CvW6ZI/AAAAAAAAAfY/pHLGuSJUqQQ/s400/100_5426.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714047443639134610" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EOPXaNct70M/T0xf385A_UI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/Z5wnrcktvtM/s1600/100_5427.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EOPXaNct70M/T0xf385A_UI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/Z5wnrcktvtM/s400/100_5427.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714047442069028162" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YzcuUhpGY9c/T0xf5SWnmQI/AAAAAAAAAf8/mx7WhwXPlUc/s1600/100_5422.JPG"></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EvEe1_BlwJU/T0xdn0yTS3I/AAAAAAAAAe0/b_RiYbgTN64/s1600/100_5429.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EvEe1_BlwJU/T0xdn0yTS3I/AAAAAAAAAe0/b_RiYbgTN64/s400/100_5429.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714044965992221554" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DIncIgzrFPg/T0xdnf-4eBI/AAAAAAAAAes/GLzlt89AM5c/s1600/100_5430.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DIncIgzrFPg/T0xdnf-4eBI/AAAAAAAAAes/GLzlt89AM5c/s400/100_5430.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714044960407844882" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKmqhmHulR0/T0xdnC2ekqI/AAAAAAAAAec/qL5lSFekwJc/s1600/100_5431.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKmqhmHulR0/T0xdnC2ekqI/AAAAAAAAAec/qL5lSFekwJc/s400/100_5431.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714044952587965090" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NBtdgCoqPqY/T0xdm-r67RI/AAAAAAAAAeU/qUCgK9ey1w0/s1600/100_5432.JPG"></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AfKMIz2a9q0/T0xdoXntSWI/AAAAAAAAAfA/PxuUEHpI0HI/s1600/100_5428.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AfKMIz2a9q0/T0xdoXntSWI/AAAAAAAAAfA/PxuUEHpI0HI/s400/100_5428.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714044975343028578" border="0" /></a>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-15897211056185444322012-02-20T00:48:00.001+02:002012-02-25T01:07:36.221+02:00More pictures<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrQrpS97sv4/T0gUji55rII/AAAAAAAAAc0/fu9yDqji59o/s1600/100_5414.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrQrpS97sv4/T0gUji55rII/AAAAAAAAAc0/fu9yDqji59o/s400/100_5414.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712838728217111682" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7pCR1ouUbDI/T0gXj3Hr9EI/AAAAAAAAAd8/L77tIao06wY/s1600/100_5415.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7pCR1ouUbDI/T0gXj3Hr9EI/AAAAAAAAAd8/L77tIao06wY/s400/100_5415.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712842032178525250" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GB9IBRTeJFs/T0gXkXj07LI/AAAAAAAAAeI/ivjbptl7eu8/s1600/100_5419.JPG"></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrQrpS97sv4/T0gUji55rII/AAAAAAAAAc0/fu9yDqji59o/s1600/100_5414.JPG"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U1cfXIGpick/T0gUkv4a2vI/AAAAAAAAAdI/bQ_rNslgkYQ/s1600/100_5416.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U1cfXIGpick/T0gUkv4a2vI/AAAAAAAAAdI/bQ_rNslgkYQ/s400/100_5416.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712838748880427762" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1tHToi3sFfc/T0gVgYZufQI/AAAAAAAAAdk/qPFQsQabZg8/s1600/100_5418.JPG"></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E6Bhik_cmNk/T0gVg7OaRBI/AAAAAAAAAds/beydUVrw4g8/s1600/100_5419.JPG"></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U1cfXIGpick/T0gUkv4a2vI/AAAAAAAAAdI/bQ_rNslgkYQ/s1600/100_5416.JPG"></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YQhem8iBqQc/T0gUkWYK9gI/AAAAAAAAAc8/q4wEun91wOk/s1600/100_5415.JPG"></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrQrpS97sv4/T0gUji55rII/AAAAAAAAAc0/fu9yDqji59o/s1600/100_5414.JPG"></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7iW0S3U0eQE/T0gUjWATxYI/AAAAAAAAAco/QDPJHXNWTf0/s1600/100_5413.JPG"></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gc8Qq5_V47o/T0gUlHVs_tI/AAAAAAAAAdY/bUqLdqfhmrE/s1600/100_5417.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gc8Qq5_V47o/T0gUlHVs_tI/AAAAAAAAAdY/bUqLdqfhmrE/s400/100_5417.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712838755177266898" border="0" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1tHToi3sFfc/T0gVgYZufQI/AAAAAAAAAdk/qPFQsQabZg8/s1600/100_5418.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1tHToi3sFfc/T0gVgYZufQI/AAAAAAAAAdk/qPFQsQabZg8/s400/100_5418.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712839773369826562" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GB9IBRTeJFs/T0gXkXj07LI/AAAAAAAAAeI/ivjbptl7eu8/s1600/100_5419.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GB9IBRTeJFs/T0gXkXj07LI/AAAAAAAAAeI/ivjbptl7eu8/s400/100_5419.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712842040886488242" border="0" /></a>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-77155274218448931102012-02-11T00:00:00.000+02:002012-02-11T00:00:05.867+02:00Memorial for a Student<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TuljA_GYT8c" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe><br /><br />Two highlights:<br /><ul><li>@13min: Waleed from the Independent Syndicate (union) on campus speaks movingly of Omar's activism on behalf of a living wage for the workers.</li><li>@20min: Following an emotional speech from one of Omar's friends, the mourners began a chant to bring down the military regime.</li></ul>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-65976707766066225712012-02-10T15:57:00.002+02:002012-02-10T16:02:07.700+02:00"And, if i know anything at all..."<a href="http://p.twimg.com/AkuWH9XCIAEVru8.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 600px; height: 452px;" src="http://p.twimg.com/AkuWH9XCIAEVru8.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>And, if i know anything at all,<br />it's that a wall is just a wall<br />and nothing more at all.<br />It can be broken down.<br />-<a href="http://www.assatashakur.org/poem2.htm">Assata Shakur</a><br /><br />(From Feb. 3. Not my photo. <a href="http://pic.twitter.com/e9o8OnB2">Source here</a>.)iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-80601701754146914942011-11-30T22:22:00.005+02:002012-02-09T22:37:29.612+02:00Pictures from the RevolutionThese are some pictures I took at the end of November when there were protests in the week before scheduled parliamentary elections (and dozens of revolutionaries were killed and maimed). In the background you can see the wall that was constructed to keep demonstrators away from the Ministry of the Interior.<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RTi2i94WgCI/TzQsd2FgqtI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/J2sACOZ67Lk/s1600/100_5409.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RTi2i94WgCI/TzQsd2FgqtI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/J2sACOZ67Lk/s400/100_5409.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707235519031716562" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LFoVJPPJ5Lk/TzQsbCOt_7I/AAAAAAAAAcE/hOIVCJBWOxI/s1600/100_5410.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LFoVJPPJ5Lk/TzQsbCOt_7I/AAAAAAAAAcE/hOIVCJBWOxI/s400/100_5410.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707235470751956914" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OKJe_3RNMkM/TzQsawsAybI/AAAAAAAAAb4/9czY6gm3JdA/s1600/100_5411.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OKJe_3RNMkM/TzQsawsAybI/AAAAAAAAAb4/9czY6gm3JdA/s400/100_5411.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707235466042984882" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9u7-11TjVo/TzQseKHrI6I/AAAAAAAAAcg/1_duTilwwCo/s1600/100_5412.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9u7-11TjVo/TzQseKHrI6I/AAAAAAAAAcg/1_duTilwwCo/s400/100_5412.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707235524409500578" border="0" /></a>You can see the tanks and barbed wire that blocked the building where I had my Arabic lessons.iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-4092712891068682122011-07-21T01:06:00.004+02:002011-07-21T01:32:11.821+02:00Tents in Tahrir<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UsKIIHck6KY/TidhD69xoUI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/A8BMWmbHRSs/s1600/100_5355.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UsKIIHck6KY/TidhD69xoUI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/A8BMWmbHRSs/s400/100_5355.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631576579045957954" border="0" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bc9qjDVule0/TidhDiVjUxI/AAAAAAAAAbI/OKHEBQaMWis/s1600/100_5354.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bc9qjDVule0/TidhDiVjUxI/AAAAAAAAAbI/OKHEBQaMWis/s400/100_5354.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631576572434797330" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wDdZQ-MVCgo/TidkXcZDaKI/AAAAAAAAAbw/ZrtX5BGY17o/s1600/100_5359.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wDdZQ-MVCgo/TidkXcZDaKI/AAAAAAAAAbw/ZrtX5BGY17o/s400/100_5359.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631580212971137186" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iTCDMO0BS2U/TidhEr9iQCI/AAAAAAAAAbo/ifYjF0Nn07E/s1600/100_5358.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iTCDMO0BS2U/TidhEr9iQCI/AAAAAAAAAbo/ifYjF0Nn07E/s400/100_5358.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631576592198287394" border="0" /></a>Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 4:30pm<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3F57JbwvC4Q/TidhEDzJvKI/AAAAAAAAAbg/DctYHxDu0_8/s1600/100_5357.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3F57JbwvC4Q/TidhEDzJvKI/AAAAAAAAAbg/DctYHxDu0_8/s400/100_5357.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631576581417319586" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Za429Tzn_i0/TidhD9-MaNI/AAAAAAAAAbY/5xxZdTfvzbU/s1600/100_5356.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Za429Tzn_i0/TidhD9-MaNI/AAAAAAAAAbY/5xxZdTfvzbU/s400/100_5356.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631576579853019346" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bc9qjDVule0/TidhDiVjUxI/AAAAAAAAAbI/OKHEBQaMWis/s1600/100_5354.JPG"><br /></a>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-16848833007826392922011-07-14T10:37:00.002+02:002011-07-14T11:09:42.226+02:00Interpellated Subjects in Tahrir Square<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">All of this week, Tahrir Square has been under civilian control and revolutionaries have shut down the streets around the square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Over the past few weeks, there have been camps set up, and there were attacks on protestors last week, but people came back stronger and more determined than ever, which has been very impressive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>People are extremely angry at the failure of the government (the PM’s office and the military) to enact the promised and demanded changes, and by all accounts things have a much different, and more tense feel than they have for some time.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I want to explain, briefly, what civilian control of Tahrir Square means from my point of view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This week, when I arrived downtown (for my Arabic lesson) by Metro, as always, I exited onto the Square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is a huge Metro station, probably the largest in the system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It includes a maze of undergrounds tunnels and, I am guessing, between 10 and 12 street exits. So, as I approach the street exit, there is a group of young revolutionaries who are checking ids and bags and patting people down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Men and women. Often I am struck by their youth—many teenagers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Always, I have been struck by their professionalism and politeness.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">At the start of the week, I only had my university id, which I showed them. They preferred a passport, but were fine with what I had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They seriously searched my bag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And offered an extremely friendly, “Welcome.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then I came up to the street where you can see hundreds of tents and thousands of people gathered around and a couple of stages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Last week, when there were tents and demonstrators in the Square, but the streets were still open, there were civilians directing traffic and providing security inside the Square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There are also checkpoints at all of the streets that lead to the square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is, as I said, tense in many ways, but I am impressed by the efficiency and sophistication of such an extensive operation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their goal is to keep out thugs and police (sometimes one and the same) to prevent attacks on protestors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There have been a few, but they have done their job and held the square.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It is not clear what the police will do, which is, I believe, a cause of the tension.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Throughout this week, I was also struck by a relative normalcy on many of the streets around the Square.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Many businesses were open and people were doing their thing. (KFC and Arby’s were closed; McDonald’s looked open; there was a cadre of street vendors there to fill the void.) The revolutionaries had blocked the Mugamma government building for several days, but I was really struck, in a good way, with the ability of the revolution to coexist with a certain normalcy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am not sure if this makes sense, or if it somehow represents a failure in that the goal may be to create a certain abnormalcy. Certainly the activists have effectively disrupted things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The area of the city they control is really the epicenter of the city (and I think few cities have a single epicenter that would be the equivalent to Tahrir). </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So why are people carrying on with their lives and business? Perhaps it is because a certain fear is gone. Perhaps it is replaced by a newfound fearlessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Does this coexistence constitute a sort of tacit or passive support for the revolution, and if so is this a good thing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I like the way that it draws everyone in, whether willing, as in my case, or not, as in the case of my Arabic teacher for example.. (I am much more trusting than I am when uniformed people check me elsewhere.) Everyone needs to show id and have their bags checked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Or follow civilians directing traffic. In doing so, unavoidable though it may be, we are accepting the revolution. It may be Althusser’s idea of interpellated subjects (I should probably be reading his essays on ideology now!)...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The conditions produce the subjects.</p> <!--EndFragment-->iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-66230806193907414602011-07-03T16:20:00.001+02:002011-07-03T16:21:21.112+02:00Football and revolution<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">As folks may have heard, there were major demonstrations last week after police attacked a gathering of families of the martyrs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tahrir Square was retaken by demonstrators on Tuesday night into Wednesday. Since it received a good bit of media coverage (and I was not there), I won’t go into the details of what happened, but I am intrigued by a sidebar related to a big football scheduled for Wednesday.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">On Wednesday night, there was slated a big football match between arch-rivals Ahly and Zamalek, with the season nearing the end. I can’t think of an appropriate comparison for folks in the US, but this is a huge rivalry and this was the first match between the two sides since the end of the revolution. Ahly was up a few points up in the standings with the season nearing the end, so Zamalek was in a tough position to catch up. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Relatively early in the day on Wednesday, it was announced on Reuters and elsewhere that the match was postponed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I understood why the authorities wished to cancel an event that had the potential to destabilize things further.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But they changed course and it was announced that the match would be held Wednesday evening.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I was confused at first, but came to understand it through some conversations with friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>First, the background is that the ultras, militant groups of football fans, had organized in January and February to defend the revolution and, along with younger members of the Brotherhood, were on the frontlines. By all accounts, their role was heroic (and partly inspired by their own experiences of police brutality). There was some coverage of the ultras on <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/football/06/29/football.ultras.zamalek.ahly/">CNN</a> recently, so you can get some background. Frankly I myself had not fully appreciated their role though it has received some <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/9591/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-ultras-go-from-football-to-politics.aspx http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/9591/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-ultras-go-from-football-to-politics.aspx">coverage</a>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">On Wednesday morning, it looked like demonstrators, with the support of the football ultras, had control of Tahrir Square. If the match were cancelled, demonstrators would have probably stayed in the square on Wednesday and Thursday, and probably been joined by others on Friday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But with the match on, the ultras left the square (disappointing some activists).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This morning (Sunday), when I came downtown, there is a small encampment in Tahrir, but traffic looks to be flowing freely. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The match was a 2-2 tie (which amounts to a victory for league leaders Ahly).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-41884992090099372382011-06-18T22:34:00.009+02:002011-06-22T22:36:44.886+02:00Reverse osmosis water filter<style>@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The water in Cairo is very heavily treated and chlorinated. There does not seem to be a problem of parasites and bacteria in the city water supply, but the result is not so tasty.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It is probably not immediately dangerous to drink the water, but the consensus is that over time it may be unhealthy due to the high chlorination levels. (If the fading colors of our clothing are any indication of what our insides would look like, I would be concerned.)</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">So since we moved here, we have been drinking mineral water.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">First, we bought cases of large 1.5 liter bottles.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Then, frustrated with all of the plastic we were consuming (even though disposed bottles are often reused by someone in the city), we upgraded to refillable 19 liter jugs which were less expensive and better for the environment.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qWHmRcIEYJ0/TgJP1_NKgYI/AAAAAAAAAa4/hwKenERNtLU/s1600/100_5331.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qWHmRcIEYJ0/TgJP1_NKgYI/AAAAAAAAAa4/hwKenERNtLU/s320/100_5331.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621143073830109570" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">We paid a little bit more than $2 for a bottle.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">At first, we operated it with a basic hand pump which never worked especially well.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7HSUmOpEnwA/TgJP1OXdtZI/AAAAAAAAAao/489OCrsrREY/s1600/100_5326.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7HSUmOpEnwA/TgJP1OXdtZI/AAAAAAAAAao/489OCrsrREY/s320/100_5326.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621143060719973778" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >Then we hit the jackpot.</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >A friend who was leaving sold us a water cooler—office style—shown here.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4ylxJzIXL3I/TgJP0yk7VHI/AAAAAAAAAag/STo81a4F9sI/s1600/100_5200.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4ylxJzIXL3I/TgJP0yk7VHI/AAAAAAAAAag/STo81a4F9sI/s320/100_5200.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621143053260248178" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="arial"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="arial"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="arial"><span style="font-size:100%;">This worked great—it was hot and cold</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Over time, however, there is also concern about the mineral content in drinking water, also with regard to long-term cumulative effect.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">A few friends had installed filtration systems. We have a small shower-head filter that we to soften the water for bathing. When the plumber was here installing it, we talked about it, particularly with regard to an infant.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The conversation shifted to drinking water, and he pointed out the mineral content, which was labeled on the water we were drinking.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Many of the minerals are very hard for a baby to process (and possibly for an adult as well.)</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">So our latest, and perhaps final, move is a reverse osmosis five-stage water filtration system, connected to the faucet, which you can see here.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It is quite impressive.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">And the water tastes great.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">One of the filters is visible, and you can see the color of it after a little bit more than two months of use. We are due for our first filter change in a couple weeks, so I will be interested to see what everything else looks like.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RT6Cd3D90e0/Tf0MUertbEI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/HMalJ3uP0Os/s1600/100_5166.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RT6Cd3D90e0/Tf0MUertbEI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/HMalJ3uP0Os/s320/100_5166.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619661456001559618" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p><span style="font-size:100%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Czfr2sTmSb0/Tf0MUkiuR7I/AAAAAAAAAaY/CfXOKOn-f1k/s1600/100_5322.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 322px; height: 242px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Czfr2sTmSb0/Tf0MUkiuR7I/AAAAAAAAAaY/CfXOKOn-f1k/s320/100_5322.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619661457574479794" border="0" /></a></span>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-63522553133609045472011-06-18T22:17:00.000+02:002011-06-18T22:21:21.655+02:00On police and security<p class="MsoNormal">Over the past few months, there has been a lot written about security and safety in Cairo after the revolution, mostly as a result of the disappearance of the police (or their reduced numbers or their decreased effectiveness for a range of complicated reasons).<span style=""> </span>Even the <i>New York Times</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> got into it about a month or two ago, and people feel insecure, mostly with good reason.<span style=""> </span>In these situations, it is hard to distinguish fact from impression (people’s fear of crime, and the state’s response often has very little direct relationship to the actual crime rate), but things have changed here in a way that legitimately make many people feel unsafe.<span style=""> </span>In our well-to-do neighborhood, the concerns are different than those in other, often more vulnerable, areas, but there are extremely legitimate concerns.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Very basically, under Mubarak, there was a corrupt and brutal police force.<span style=""> </span>During the revolution, the police disappeared completely (and in many cases instigated violence and looting and other destabilizing things) and then gradually returned, in fits and starts. During the revolution, neighborhoods took it upon themselves to set up patrols and provide security, essentially civilians providing a necessary service that the state neglected to provide. This was all remarkably well organized, especially considering how rapidly communities were forced to organize (literally over the course of couple hours). Often civilians also took up traffic posts during rush hour.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Today, the police are not present at their previous level, and, for those who are on the streets, the kind of attitude that dominates many police departments is gone.<span style=""> </span>It is no longer clear that they can behave with impunity, or are even the ones in control.<span style=""> </span>For me, all of this came to the forefront in something that happened in New Maadi, near where we live, about two weeks after the end of the revolution, as police were slowly beginning to return to the streets. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">In Algiers Square, a microbus driver was stopped by a police officer who was known in that area for harassing drivers. (At this point, I should add that my understanding of what happened is not very authoritative—it is compiled from what I remember reading in several newspapers at the time and online since, and from talking to people, so my understanding of the facts is limited.) One driver stood up to him, in a way that seems like it would not have happened before the revolution, and in an ensuing scuffle the cop shot the driver.<span style=""> </span>Then, the crowd came to the driver’s aid and attacked the cop, beating him up pretty badly.<span style=""> </span>The initial reports were that both were killed, though I don’t think that either one was.<span style=""> </span>The crowd, led by other microbus drivers, burnt a few police vehicles in the area and even ran up on the cop’s home though they did not do anything (which I initially took as evidence of how this cop was familiar to people though I think they may have found his id card). This cop, it was also either known or learned, was the son of a well-known high-ranking officer.<span style=""> </span>Eventually the military came into to rescue the police, who stayed away from all of Maadi for at least a week afterwards as I recall, which resulted in the cancellation of the rest of the public school week (or delayed its resumption at least). With the police gone, the youth directed traffic. Lots of ramifications in the short term.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">In the long term, this seems to be one incident among many, but it looks like part of a very messy, and occasionally violent, transition from a system where the police act with impunity to a system where they are held accountable. Part of what is described throughout the city are examples of police becoming increasingly passive, unwilling to get involved as they do not know if they will have appropriate support, or if the people will turn against them.<span style=""> </span>So they are much less effective. Yet, despite the chaos of what happened in New Maadi, it does seem to suggest the possibility of an alternate order that does have accountability built into it.<span style=""> </span>And ultimately I think that is what people want and what people deserve—security with accountability. My sense is that the overwhelming majority of Cairenes want an increased effective police presence, without a return to the old regime. Accountability has to involve meaningful legal and other processes. (What about democratic elections of police officers by the communities they serve?) I also think the combination that emerged—citizen security, other private measures, a moderated police force—can achieve a certain kind of effective balance. Something that allows us to imagine a system other than one where all security is handled by the government. I certainly hope so.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">In events like this one, a new dynamic is being formulated.<span style=""> </span>The re-formation of security apparatus can result in its reformation, as everyone learns and understands the new roles that are expected of them. While I am not sure my optimism is warranted, I do believe that an effective system of accountable policing is being formulated (inevitably perhaps, through events like Algiers Square) and hopefully will take hold.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-63183963005612656202011-06-17T13:23:00.002+02:002011-06-17T14:02:26.438+02:00Street Lights<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rzyKilA8Gws/Tfs8FwOSseI/AAAAAAAAAaI/TnRzxrVLQu0/s1600/100_5320.JPG"><br /></a><br />Since we have lived here (three years now), the street lights have not worked.<span style=""> </span>Some of the individual buildings have lights and there are some stores at one end, but the lights on the lamp posts have not worked.<span style=""> </span>Some of these lamp posts were taken down during the revolution for use as road blocks by people in the neighborhood to block cars from driving down our street.<span style=""> </span>Since then, they have laid by the side of the road.<span style=""> </span> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Now, people in the community have apparently gotten together and fixed them— rewired and remounted them without the government.<span style=""> </span>And just a couple of days ago, they were working again* (presuming that they did work at some point in the past) for the first time in at least three years.<span style=""> </span>Here is the view from our balcony.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rzyKilA8Gws/Tfs8FwOSseI/AAAAAAAAAaI/TnRzxrVLQu0/s1600/100_5320.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rzyKilA8Gws/Tfs8FwOSseI/AAAAAAAAAaI/TnRzxrVLQu0/s400/100_5320.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619151029616685538" border="0" /></a></p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-6598878847561346502011-06-13T12:51:00.003+02:002011-06-13T12:53:57.972+02:00More on election resultsYou can read about the election and its results on <a href="http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/467258"><span style="font-style: italic;">Al-Masry Al-Youm</span></a> (including 88% turnout).iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-37870111039939162762011-06-12T11:10:00.000+02:002011-06-12T11:12:31.312+02:00University Dean Elections<p class="MsoNormal">I have recently heard a bit of good news from colleagues at Cairo University, which is the largest in the country with 250,000 students (as I recall).<span style=""> </span>This weekend, they just had their first democratic election of a Dean of the Faculty of Arts, with seven candidates running and extremely high turnout among the faculty and staff electorate.<span style=""> </span>The new Dean is also the first woman to hold the position. Part of what intrigues and inspires me about this process is the way that, amid so much remaining tense in the streets and so many serious questions about the military rulers of the country and the future, that the “revolution” has taken greater hold throughout many spheres.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">My initial inclination was to describe this as the way that democratic practices have transformed “civil society,” but I think that presumes the existence of “civil society” as such.<span style=""> </span>The universities were administered by the government, operated through political pressures, and, perhaps most damagingly, surveyed and patrolled by state security.<span style=""> </span>So what has happened is in many ways a two-step process (a ridiculous over simplification for sure). First, the university had to be civilianized (a process which began in some sense before the revolution with a court ruling evicting state security from campuses, though it has taken the revolution to see even a modicum of enforcement). And then, secondly, processes like this weekend’s elections are able to take place, thanks to the impressive and longstanding activism of so many faculty and students on the campuses.<span style=""> </span>I think the results are both transformative and sustainable.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">And I guess I think in some ways this may be what the revolution looks like—at least in part—the transformation of civil institutions in such ways.<span style=""> </span>A similar electoral process took place at Ain Shams University earlier in the year, so there is reason to be encouraged.<span style=""> </span>Such changes do not carry much weight in the international media, unfortunately, and things elsewhere in the city remain as unsettled as ever, but I do think this reminds us that, if we looks in the right place, there are reasons to be hopeful.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-33963932017285424852011-06-01T23:00:00.000+02:002011-06-01T23:28:19.725+02:00Donkey CartI love the fact that I live in a place where, on the three-block walk home from where I get off the bus, I pass a guy selling watermelons off of a donkey-drawn wooden hitch.<span style=""> </span>If we were not going out of town, I surely would have bought one.iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-58712068148373969802011-05-31T13:34:00.002+02:002011-05-31T13:34:39.619+02:00Teaching after January 25<p class="MsoNormal">Blogging has slowed down, for all sorts of reasons.<span style=""> </span>There is still a lot happening here, most of which I am not especially qualified to comment on beyond the kind of off-the-cuff observations that I often bristle at from others.<span style=""> </span>I do have some pictures that I hope to post—of murals and things from the neighborhood—but that feels a bit pollyannaish right now. Soon, I promise.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">A few weeks ago, I attended a conference in Alexandria with colleagues from other universities here about teaching language and literature after January 25.<span style=""> </span>My topic was on “Teaching American Literature and Human Rights” which was nicely complemented by some colleagues who talked about their new translation of Thomas Jefferson’s writings, as something, like much of the American example, to be considered a valuable case study, rather than a model to be emulated.<span style=""> </span>Jefferson demands critical engagement as he embodies so many contradictions as a literary and prophetic figure, representing the best and worst of the US tradition. I like the temperament of this approach to the US at this moment.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">For my talk, I used Malcolm X’s insistence (repeated throughout the last years of his life as Manning Marable documents in his biography, which I just finished last week) on seeing the African American struggle as demanding the attention of the United Nations.<span style=""> </span>Part of Malcolm’s argument was that this movement facilitates transnational dialogue and solidarity.<span style=""> </span>What a wonderful way for me to think about teaching American literature in Egypt—what if we think about it as part of a “world” tradition, rather than a national one?<span style=""> </span>What are the possibilities? Specifically, I talked about texts of slavery, incarceration (also always texts of freedom, as Toni Cade Bambara frequently reminded us), and internationalism.<span style=""> </span>For me it is an exciting time to be teaching here since every text, even those I have taught a half-dozen times before is “new.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The rest of the program was quite exciting because it dealt with everything from the institutional (a campaign by colleagues at another university for direct election of the Dean and other administrators) to the curricular (“The Revolutionary Texts Initiative” and a rhetorical analysis of Mubarak’s final speech) to the pedagogical (how do we implement democratic reforms in the classroom, and the importance of new forms of student-centered learning, which is still a radical idea here).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">And perhaps the most encouraging thing for me was to hear the voices of students from several universities.<span style=""> </span>This, for me, was such a thrill because it is a rarity for students to be afforded a voice in this forum.<span style=""> </span>And their professors are listening to them with a new seriousness and attentiveness.<span style=""> </span>The movement of the youth in Egypt during the past several months forces us, as professors, that not only takes into account the material changes that have taken place around us (and which we do, by consensus, support), but to fundamentally restructure academic meeting such as this.<span style=""> </span>It is no longer the teachers talking and students listening.<span style=""> </span>It is, instead, a more democratic process emerging.<span style=""> </span>And I believe we are only scratching the surface of what is possible in this regards.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The specific presentations included analyses of January 25<sup>th</sup> slogans by linguistics students. Their work was impressively interdisciplinary in that it looked at the interactions of text and image on many of the posters that were seen in Tahrir Square. A colleague also shared a video of a “Democracy Graffiti Art Project” that she has undertaken with her students (who are featured in the video though they could not travel from Cairo to Alexandria for the conference).<span style=""> </span>The restrictions of public expression, public space, and free speech at universities here has been so engrained that this project is really revolutionary in its own way.<span style=""> </span>Large white pieces of paper are hung on the walls for students to write their thoughts.<span style=""> </span>It is not policed or monitored, and has by all accounts been quite successful with students finding the smallest bit of free space to use, with more and more sheets of paper being added to the walls.</p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-33637066145326305152011-05-26T15:52:00.000+02:002011-05-26T15:53:27.977+02:00Metro Station Art GalleryYesterday in the Tahrir Metro Station (known as Sadat), there was a public art exhibit with hundreds of drawings, painting, and photographs hanging throughout.<span style=""> </span>(I did not have my camera—argh!)<span style=""> </span>And there were some poster tributes to the martyrs included as well.<span style=""> </span>Some of it was revolution-inspired, but not all of it.<span style=""> </span>And people were stopping and looking; it was another impressive scene that seemed to be very thoughtfully organized. I found myself inspired by the diversity and breadth of the initiative in its reclamation of public space.iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-24870096997510903042011-05-20T00:24:00.001+02:002011-05-20T00:26:09.585+02:00Kindness of Strangers<p class="MsoNormal">Sorry for sleeping on the blog. I do have some stories to tell, including one about an energizing conference I attended in Alexandria on the subject of teaching literature after January 25.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">This evening, we were heading out during rush hour and waiting for a taxi.<span style=""> </span>A car with a young couple, early twenties, pulled up beside us.<span style=""> </span>I though they were<span style=""> </span>asking for directions.<span style=""> </span>No, they were offering us a ride.<span style=""> </span>“Let us take you.” No, thank you, I replied. “Please,” they responded earnestly. I hope I was able to communicate the sincerity of my appreciation. (There was a taxi right behind them, and it looked like they were probably going in a different direction than we were.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Something similar happened to me some 10+ years ago when I was in New Orleans.<span style=""> </span>I was with two other people, waiting for a street car and a guy pulled up and offered us a ride downtown. I hesitated, and probably, left to my own devices, would have said no.<span style=""> </span>But my friend eagerly and boldly accepted, and I followed him into the car and got a ride to the French Quarter.</p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-71455482689851410782011-05-01T10:43:00.002+02:002011-05-01T10:45:18.810+02:00On the road to the beach<p class="MsoNormal">We went to the beach over Easter break, which was a lot of fun.<span style=""> </span>It was a lovely and welcome vacation, and not much of a metaphor for what is happening in Egypt. One recent reminder of what is happening here does seem to involve <a href="http://thedailynewsegypt.com/human-a-civil-rights/auc-law-professor-to-be-tried-before-a-military-court-dp1.html">a university professor’s trip to the beach</a>. The arrest of a law professor for insulting a military officer itself is disturbing, the apparent decision to try him before a military tribunal makes it much more so.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">His detention happened around a beach area, though a different one than where we were. On the road to the beach, I noticed the construction of a series of statues of military officers.<span style=""> </span>They seemed very basic, and apparently were still under construction of some sort.<span style=""> </span>It was clear that they were propped on bases that were in the process of being painted the colors of the flag.<span style=""> </span>There were at least two variations of the statue—one a military soldier saluting and another holding a pair of binoculars, that appeared every few miles though seemingly not at regular intervals.<span style=""> </span>(Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos.)<span style=""> </span>They seem to me to represent the idea of the citizen-soldier (although if they were icons of particular officials I am clearly mistaken).<span style=""> </span>There was a lovely and elaborate mosaic mural I also saw that told this story.<span style=""> </span>It featured a soldier climbing out of a tank and being greeted by a mass of civilians waving Egyptian flags.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I have only been on this road a couple of times so I don’t have a clear sense of what preceded these statues, though there certainly were frequent icons of Mubarak (billboards and murals) that are all gone, and replaced by this new national narrative.</p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-9468290420485342402011-04-22T12:06:00.002+02:002011-04-22T12:18:06.992+02:00More on De-mubrakization<p class="MsoNormal">I have <a href="http://cairad.blogspot.com/2011/03/station-formerly-known-as-mubarak.html">blogged</a> a few times about the changes of names that have taken place throughout Egypt during the past few months. They have occurred on the Metro and at the university (though I recently learned that the name change to Suzanne Mubarak Hall just became “official” last week even though the sign itself had been removed a month ago). Well, the name Mubarak is now to be removed from all public places, due to a court decree that was handed down on Thursday, and is reported <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/2011421101433418320.html">here in Al Jazeera</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This applies to Mubarak’s pictures which the attorney proposes replacing with the Egyptian flag.<span style=""> </span>I like that the idea. Not only should Mubarak’s picture be taken down, but perhaps the idea of the Presidency in Egypt has been so transformed that, perhaps he or she (and Egypt has its first female candidate), should no longer lord over the state, symbolically or actually. Another lesson Egypt can teach the world.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Aesthetically at least, I appreciate the spirit and image of the name scratched out on subway maps, reflecting the democratic spirit of the revolution, much more so than a court order. Still I think this decision is pretty cool especially, when Jazeera reports:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"></p><blockquote>The case had been filed by Samir Sabry, a lawyer, who had requested the court to have Mubarak's name replaced with the names of protesters who died during Egypt's popular uprising.</blockquote><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It is estimated that some 500 places in Egypt (mostly schools, but also parks and a public library near our home) bear, or bore, the Mubarak name. On the day before the court order was issued, a new count of those civilians killed during the revolution was released: 846. While it may be tempting to look at this number and compare it to the death toll of other revolutions (and there is a time and place for that sort of analysis) but 846 is 846 is 846. It gives me chills just typing.<span style=""> </span>That is a lot of people.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">And this, finally, leads to the math. Egypt can begin the process of renaming places for the martyrs of the revolution and, at the end of the day, will not have enough institutions for all 846.</p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-54929115995063538032011-04-21T20:21:00.003+02:002011-04-21T20:26:15.566+02:00Revolution in the Factories of Menoufiya<p class="MsoNormal">Last year, I gave a talk at a university in Shebin El Kom, Menoufiya, in the Delta, and <a href="http://cairad.blogspot.com/2010/04/black-arts-movement-in-nile-delta.html">blogged</a> about the experience.<span style=""> </span>During the revolution, I was especially excited by the stories I heard coming out of this area, where it was clear that there were mass mobilizations on a scale equivalent to what the world saw in Cairo and in Alexandria, just without the international media attention.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I was pleased, then, to read <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/04/20/135542498/in-egypt-revolution-moves-into-the-factories">a report on NPR</a> from Menoufiya, particularly around labor organizing that has been taking place against a system of privatization that has been occurring throughout the country for the past several years. Privatization has been a national crisis, and is certainly one major cause of the degradation of working people, which, of course, led to the revolution.<span style=""> </span>After the revolution, it is encouraging to see workers continuing the movement in the factories. Movements like these represent the places where the work of the revolution will continue.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">In this context it is worth mentioning that privatization campaigns occur with the full-fledged support of the US and many international NGOs, and this factory in Shebin El-Kom manufactures products for the US market.</p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-86169809060368261812011-04-18T21:36:00.002+02:002011-04-18T21:47:00.514+02:00Welcome back to the neighborhood, Malawi!<p class="MsoNormal">There is a lot of good information about what is happening in Egypt right now and some really insightful political analysis from people far more knowledgeable than me. And I hope that friends and family reading my blog are also reading widely about Egypt. Now I am reflecting on the value of my blog, which is primarily a forum for friends and family abroad to know what I see and what is going on in my world here.<span style=""> </span>And it is a place for me to post photographs of that world.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">So I think it makes sense for me to describe what is happening on the street where I live in Maadi.<span style=""> </span>I used to live next door to the Macedonia Embassy, which I wrote about some time ago <a href="http://cairad.blogspot.com/2009/03/at-airport.html">here</a> on the blog.<span style=""> </span>I have not moved, but they have, so we are no longer neighbors.<span style=""> </span>Or, at least, their flag was taken down from the building next door.<span style=""> </span>Plus I saw some big moving trucks a few weeks back.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">This neighborhood does have a lot of embassies, though only a couple on the streets right around me.<span style=""> </span>Other than Macedonia, the Malawi Embassy is also on our street.<span style=""> </span>And their flag was also taken down at the time of the revolution, but this week I noticed that it was back up.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8iU5-nw6O8E/TayS6QuggJI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/mRfnNP_nhqI/s1600/100_5175.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8iU5-nw6O8E/TayS6QuggJI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/mRfnNP_nhqI/s400/100_5175.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597009966534787218" border="0" /></a><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">By the way, this is a great flag that I am happy to see it every morning when I walk to the gym or the bus. Malawi went back to the classic Pan-African red, black, and green last year (after having a variation of it since independence).<span style=""> </span>Welcome back.</p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556755995865586461.post-56325090554834088012011-04-16T13:25:00.001+02:002011-04-16T13:25:59.704+02:00On the BusOn the bus that I take to campus several times a week, there have been a few changes.<span style=""> </span>There is a security guard on each bus, because there has been some concern regarding security on the roads, with so much uncertainty throughout the city.<span style=""> </span>Originally it seemed like it was something like an air marshal, someone unidentified.<span style=""> </span>But you typically know who the person is, and usually it seems like they are wearing AUC jackets (either by design or default).<span style=""> </span>The buses intentionally do not indicate that they are for AUC, a practice that predates the revolution.<span style=""> </span>They used to be “Family Transport” buses, but our route is now managed by a different carrier, who uses an assortment of buses, most bearing the names of some tour company or other. <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">This week, there was a new change.<span style=""> </span>The security officer on the bus checks identification before allowing you to board the bus. This is an entirely new practice.<span style=""> </span>Then, as it was before, when you get off the bus at campus, your id gets checked to make sure you have a bus pass (students) or are otherwise authorized to ride (staff or faculty).<span style=""> </span>Then there is another id check for getting onto campus, which includes putting your bag through an airport-style x-ray machine and walking through a metal detector (which I don’t think is too sensitive or serious as I have never emptied my pockets).</p>iradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14694037575230523474noreply@blogger.com0