Egypt

El Nokta: How Egyptians Use Jokes To Vent

Egyptian Streets, by MONA ABDOU (Excerpt El Nokta: How Egyptians Use Jokes to Vent) 

Luxor men share a laugh; Luxor, Egypt | c. El-Branden Brazil

Standing at a kiosk in the bustling neighborhood Mohandessin, a clerk offers someone a lukewarm soda, loose change, and a nokta: a brief joke punctuated with a smile and a snappy punchline. Little do either of them know that this nokta has a long road ahead of it – soon, it’ll be a dinner party talking point, and a workplace icebreaker.

Nokat – or jokes – are the bread and butter of the Egyptian personality; from long, mastic-stretched riddles to quick jabs, locals have transformed humor into a cultural hallmark. Egyptians are not the first to use humor to “rebuil[d] the [understanding] of relationships” or manage stress levels, but they’ve certainly earned the title of Sha’b Ebn Nokta: a population raised on feel-good, quick comedy.

Smiling Egyptian children | c. Gary Saffitz, Photoshare

“It’s a nokta!” Ahmed El Abd (57, engineer) laughed. Being Egyptian, El Abd grew up with this humor. “If it’s not short and biting, then who cares? Sometimes it’s elet adab (in poor taste), but that’s part of the fun.”

The Journal of Cultural-Historical Psychology explains that jokes are vehicles of emotion, indicative of cultural narratives and biases; humor exposes the honest truth about the person using it. El Shorouk News dresses up the idea, remarking that a joke in Egypt is not just a simple gesture, but a “weapon” of sociocultural and political critique.

A man holding up a sign during 2011 protests saying “Come on, resign [Mubarak], my arms are starting to hurt.” | c. Ahram Online

Deutsche Welle documents the evolution of the Egyptian nokta; from foolhardy, impudent mocking of Upper Egypt, to the narratives of revolution in 2011; the former trend lasted throughout the nineties and well into the early 2000s, with punchlines carrying sinister and classist undertones. Soon after political upheaval, however, Egyptians began recognizing the power of “trivializing what matters most” rather than punching down on the south.

El Abd was asked about the difference between political nokat and cultural ones, and his answer began with a joke. “I feel like I’m at a qesm (police holding) and what happens to me depends on my answer.”

“We’re more entitled to political jokes, because we’re sha’b ghalban (a poor population), but at least we’re not dealing with the racist ones anymore. It wasn’t just the Sai’di’s, you know. It was a lot worse, there were Sudanese jokes, too,” he continued.

Read on here. 

كنوز مصر المفقودة

الاهرام ٢٧ نوفمبر ٢٠٢١

بقلم عزة رضوان صدقي

 

في زياراتي للمتاحف العالمية، أمثال المتحف البريطاني في لندن واللوفر في باريس والمتروبوليتان في نيويورك، كان دائما الفخر هو انطباعي الأول، لأن الكنوز المصرية التي كانت تعُرض بهذه المؤسسات كانت أبرز وأجمل المعروضات. للأسف كان لا يستغرقني وقتًا طويلاً حتى يحل الغضب محل الفخر. كيف جاءت هذه المتاحف بهذه الكنوز؟ كيف يتسنى لزوّار من جميع أنحاء العالم مشاهدة هذه الكنوز في دول غير مصر؟ هل أهداها المصريون لأصحابها الجدد مقابل جهود عينية، أم نُهبت ثم هُرِّبت خارج مصر؟ والأهم من ذلك هل بالإمكان استعادة مصر لكنوزها؟ 

المتاحف المليئة بالآثار المصرية ليست هى الوحيدة التى تتمتع بالآثار المصرية. تُزين ساحات روما ولندن وباريس ونيويورك مسلات تقف شامخة الارتفاع لتخبر العالم عن حضارة لا مثيل لها. تم إهداء مسلة ساحة الكونكورد في باريس إلى فرنسا عام ١٨٢٩، كما أهدى الخديوي إسماعيل باشا مسلة سنترال بارك بنيويورك للولايات المتحدة في ثمانينيات القرن التاسع عشر, أما روما فلديها عدد من المسلات المصرية أكثر من تلك التي في حوزة مصر، وقد تم تهريبها خارج مصر خلال الاحتلال الروماني 

دعنا نعود إلى المتاحف، حيث توجد الآثار المصرية في أكثر من ٣٩ متحفًا في جميع أنحاء العالم. المتحف الوطني الهولندي للآثار يضم أكثر من ٢٤٠٠٠ قطعة. متحف إيجيزيو في تورينو بإيطاليا مخصص بالكامل للقطع الأثرية المصرية، ومتحف أونتاريو الملكي بكندا يضم ما يقرب من ٢٥٠٠٠ قطعة أثرية مصرية. هناك أيضا القطع الاستثنائية التي تنفرد بها المتاحف المميزة. يضم متحف برلين حوالي ٨٠ ألف قطعة أثرية بما فيها تمثال نفرتيتي الشهير. هذا بينما يعرض المتحف البريطاني في لندن، الذي يستقبل ما يقرب من ستة ملايين زائر سنويًا، حجر رشيد باعتباره أهم قطعة بالمتحف. فبينما كان المتحف يستعد لإعادة فتح أبوابه للزوار بعد إغلاق الوباء، وضع قائمة تضم ١٤ عنصرًا لا ينبغي تفويتها وتستحق المشاهدة، مع الإشارة إلى حجر رشيد باعتباره رقم واحد مسميا إياه بالمفتاح الذي كشف لغز الكتابة الهيروغليفية القديمة. أما بالنسبة لمتحف اللوفر في باريس فهو يضم حوالي ٥٥٠٠٠ قطعة أثرية المصرية، ولا سيما "الكاتب الجالس" وواحد أهم المومياوات المحتفظة بهيئتها الأصلية، كما يشيد الهرم الذي بُني حديثا عند مدخل اللوفر بالحضارة المصرية المتواجدة بداخله

دعنا نعترف أن هذه الكنوز تُحتفظ بعناية وتُصان على أكمل وجه، ويتم عرضها بشكل رائع، وتسمح للزوار بتقدير الثقافة المصرية القديمة. تم إهداء الكثير من القطع الأثرية المصرية المعروضة في الخارج لأصحابها الحاليين بما في ذلك معبد دندور في متحف المتروبوليتان في نيويورك. أهدت مصر المعبد إلى الولايات المتحدة عام ١٩٦٥ تقديراً لدورها في الحملة التي نقلت وأعادت تثبيت ٢٢ معبدًا آخر بعد بناء السد العالي، حيث كان سيؤدي إلى غمر هذه المعابد بالمياه. لا يمكن إنكار أن معبد دندور في مكانه الحالي يكتسب العظمة التي يستحقها. إن المعبد سفير مصري يقدم لمحة رائعة عما يستمتع بمشاهدته الزوار أثناء زيارتهم لمصر 

لكن في نفس الوقت هناك العديد من المنقِّبين الذين افترضوا حقهم في الاستحواذ على ما نجحوا في التنقيب عنه. آنذاك تم تهريب القطع الاستثنائية التي يعود تاريخها إلى آلاف السنين بطريقة أو بأخرى من مصر، وانتهت في برلين أو لندن أو باريس. ومن المخيِّب للآمال أنه من غير المحتمل أن تعترف المتاحف المقتنية لهذه الآثار بأحقية مصر وبالأخص المميز منها مثل حجر رشيد وتمثال نفرتيتي. ومع ذلك يجب على مصر أن تواصل السعي لاستعادة الآثار التي لا يمكن تعويضها

عندما دعت مصر متحف برلين لإعادة تمثال نفرتيتي، كان الرد أن التمثال يستحق البقاء في ألمانيا، على الأرجح بالافتراض أن التمثال أفضل حالًا هناك. كما يشير أحد المواقع إلى أن المتاحف المصرية، على الرغم من وجود العديد منها، غالبًا ما تكون أصغر من الكثير من المتاحف الأخرى الموجودة في إنجلترا وفرنسا وألمانيا والولايات المتحدة الأمريكية وإيطاليا. لكن الآن بعد أن قامت مصر ببناء المتحف المصري الكبير الذي يعتبر هو الأكبر في مصر وفي العالم فمن المناسب أن تعود هذه القطع الأيقونية إلى الوطن. كذلك في أبريل ٢٠٢١ افتُتح المتحف الوطني للحضارة المصرية لإيواء ٢٢ مومياء ملكية، بما في ذلك مومياء الملك رمسيس الثاني والملكة حتشبسوت. كلا المتحفين جديران بإيواء القطع النادرة والهامة المعروضة في البلدان الأخرى

يجب تسليط الضوء دائما وأبدا على حتمية إعادة الكنوز المصرية المفقودة. على الأقل حتى يتبين لزوار هذه المتاحف الملكية الحقيقية لهذه المقتنيات

Presenting the Winners of the 2021 DIVE Travel Awards

DIVE (Excerpt Presenting the Winners of the 2021 DIVE Travel Awards)

108 different destinations, 245 liveaboards and more than 750 different dive centres and resorts. In total almost 17,000 individual nominations! DIVE readers have voted on the most popular diving destinations, resort/scentres and liveaboards

Our annual dive travel awards have gone from strength to strength and in their fifth year have attracted a record number of voters. From all over the world divers have picked their favourites - and their choices reveal the depth and spread of excellence in the dive travel industry.

Our poll shows the loyalty many divers have for their favourite operators both on land and in liveaboards. It also shows the sheer scale of the dive industry in Indonesia; with so much excellent diving it is only to be expected that there are so many excellent operators spread across the vast archipelago.

Check out the Top 10 winners in each category. There are plenty of previous winners and some interesting newcomers. We would like to thank all our voters for supporting the dive travel industry, particularly in these difficult Covid-19 times. And we all look forward to returning to our favourite destinations and operators next year!

Indonesia takes the top spot for the fifth consecutive year. While we can't say that this was entirely unexpected, we also can't say that it is entirely undeserved. Indonesia is the world's largest island nation, and it it is the beating heart of the Coral Triangle with a wealth of biodiversity.  

During the DIVE Travel Awards, many people nominate individual locations as their favourite destinations, rather than the nation as a whole. We have to round these up under the umbrella of the country to prevent Indonesian regions from taking up all the top spots on the table, but this year we have been able to look at the regional breakdown more closely.

Raja Ampat was, by far and away, the most popular region in Indonesia, followed by Komodo, Bali (including the Nusa Islands) and North Sulawesi (including Lembeh and Bunaken National Park), with the Gili Islands in fifth place. Each has its own individual character (and, indeed, could be broken down even further), but with so much to see and do across all of them, it's no surprise that Indonesia takes its much-deserved crown once more.

Egypt retains the second place it has held each year since 2019, and while that may not, on the surface, indicate much progress, it has taken the position with a significantly larger percentage of the vote than at any other time in the past. From a total of 108 different destinations - after being collated into countries, that is - Egypt took just under 17 per cent of the overall vote, more than half of Indonesia's 30 per cent. 

Egypt's success is all the more remarkable given that prior to the pandemic, the nation was still recovering from a massive drop in tourism over the preceding four years. The country's success in recent years is partly due to the outstanding loyalty of its visitors who, year after year, return to diving hotspots in Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Dahab and Marsa Alam - plus a wide range of excellent liveaboard itineraries - to dive in the deep blue Red Sea.

Egypt is the birthplace of many a love affair with scuba diving. It has a mixture of everything from entry-level easy to advanced and challenging, slack currents to high-energy drifts, macro critters to pelagic visitors, all just a short hop from most of mainland Europe. Part of Egypt's attraction is undoubtedly its convenient location - but only a part, the rest belongs to the environment and the well-oiled machine of its scuba diving business.

Nahdet Masr: A sculpture that embodies Egypt at a glance

Egyptian Streets, by Mona Abdou (Link: Nahdet Masr: A sculpture that embodies Egypt at a glance) 

My take: brilliant!

Cover for “Return of the Spirit” by Twafik el-Hakim, AUC Press 2012.

Granite catches the light and a felaha looks across the Cairo University Bridge. She is one of two figures immortalized in sculpture, known as Nahdet Misr, or Egypt’s Renaissance: woman and sphinx, a pair who summarize the essence of Egypt at a glance.

The statue was initially inaugurated in Ramses Square in 1928, later moved to where it is now – the Nahdet Misr Street, which borrowed its name from the sculpture. It has become a Giza monument, and a site that has witnessed both protest and victory over the years.

Mahmoud Mukhtar (1891 – 1934) brought Nahdet Misr to life, sculpting the monument “[o]n the heels of World War I and the wake of Egypt’s 1919 Revolution.”  Mukhtar had a vision of Egypt that stretched past the British occupation, and Nahdet Misr was meant to embody that struggle for independence. In essence, it personified the modern, national aspirations many Egyptians had at the time.

Frontal view of Nahdet Misr | c. Ramsis 1968, Creative Commons

Nahdet Misr became a vehicle for responding to sociopolitical change. Mukhtar believed that by personifying Egypt, the emotional link between a nation’s overdue awakening and national identity could be bridged. Bringing together two emblems of the Egyptian experience – a modest faleha who shoulders households, and the ever-daunting sphinx – Mukhtar succeeded.

With her left, the felaha pulls aside her veil, symbolizing a yet-unseen vision of Egypt – a revival, or many. Her right arm drapes over the sphinx, a nod to a history spanning seven millennia. Risen to a high seat, the sphinx was sculpted to intimidate, a powerful vision denoting pride. Nahdet Misr is a marriage of the humble and grand, the past and present. Its pyramidal shape is one of resolve and calculation, a strong front put up against an unknown future.

Nahdet Misr may have been born in the early 20th century, but it symbolizes a greater cornerstone ideology: Egyptians believe in hard work, and better days to come.

 

In Welcoming Prince Charles, Egypt’s Leader Sends a Message

The New York Times, by Vivien Yee (In Welcoming Prince Charles, Egypt's leader Sends a Message) 
My two cents: As far as Egypt is concerned, it is never good enough for The New York Times

 

The tour was Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall’s first visit to Egypt since 2006 and the royals’ first trip outside Britain since the coronavirus pandemic began.CreditCredit...Peter Nicholls/Reuters

The prince and his wife, Camilla, made Egypt their first foreign destination since the pandemic. Vestiges of British colonialism aside, they saw something new.

GIZA, Egypt — The royal visit was tightly choreographed. The Egyptian authorities closed the roads, cleared the trash and banished the camel drivers, hawkers and tourists, keen to showcase the pyramids to Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. But nobody accounted for the stray dog.

Conspicuously dingy, it ambled across the road, tail wagging, just as the royal black BMW pulled up to the Great Pyramid. Frantic shooing ensued. The dog trotted off, the men in suits exhaled. Their Royal Highnesses posed, smiled, and set off on a guided tour, Charles holding Camilla’s arm to steady her over the rocks.

The tour on Thursday afternoon was the royals’ first visit to Egypt since 2006 and their first travel outside Britain since the coronavirus pandemic began, a trip royals watchers found all the more watchable given the fragile health of Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who has ceded travel duties to her son.

But the Egypt Charles saw was not the same Egypt he had seen 15 years ago, nor, for that matter, the Egypt a previous Prince of Wales had visited on camelback in 1889, seven years after Britain conquered Egypt and began its six-decade-long occupation.

Stray dog notwithstanding, this Egypt is nobody’s colony.

The royals’ next stop after the pyramids on Thursday said much about where Egypt, under the rule of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, sees itself going: a sleek new restaurant overlooking the pyramids that is one of the jewels of the government’s drive to spruce up its star attraction, where tumbling trash and overeager touts have tended to blur its majesty.

In fact, Mr. el-Sisi has a makeover planned for practically all of Egypt. In his rush to modernize the Arab world’s most populous country, he is building a sprawling new capital city, constructing new roads and bridges through central Cairo, razing poor informal neighborhoods and even eliminating tuk-tuks, the three-wheeled taxis used in many poor countries.

After years of political turmoil and violence that followed Egypt’s 2011 revolution, Mr. el-Sisi, a former general who took power after a military coup toppled the elected president in 2013, has also repositioned the country as a regional heavyweight: the host of the next United Nations climate summit, a rising competitor in the natural gas industry, a business destination for European energy and defense giants, and a valued partner for the United States on the Israel-Palestine question.

All this, despite the ever-escalating repression and human rights abuses that have shaped Mr. el-Sisi’s rule. The day before Charles and Camilla arrived, an Egyptian court sentenced three prominent opposition figures to extended prison terms.

For two countries with such fraught history — Britain ruled Egypt as a colony in all but name until the 1950s, conscripting peasant labor, violently putting down the opposition and controlling Egypt’s finances — there was little tension surrounding the royals’ arrival. (The main objections on the Egyptian side came from Princess Diana partisans, who greeted the visit with gripes about Charles’s treatment of his ex-wife.)

Vestiges of British rule remain in Cairo, from the former British officers’ club where upper-class Egyptians can still play croquet, to the downtown square named for Egypt’s liberation. But Britons in Egypt are more likely to hear Egyptians lighting up over Manchester United and Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian soccer star who plays for Liverpool, than complaining about Britain’s longtime control of the Suez Canal. Some Egyptians even praise the British for building trains and other infrastructure, though these were originally constructed to serve British economic interests.

Nowadays, the relationship is cheery, with Egypt welcoming substantial British investment and trade. Charles’s longtime climate advocacy made the visit a handover of sorts of hosting duties for the global climate conference, which was held in Glasgow this year and will come to Egypt next year. The couple continued to Alexandria on Friday before returning to Britain.

In a nod to Charles’s interest in religious diversity, the royals went from meeting with Mr. el-Sisi on Thursday to Al-Azhar, the most influential center of Muslim learning in Sunni Islam.

Read on here. 

Luxor: The great procession

Al Ahram Weekly, by Nevine El-Aref (Link: Luxor: The great Procession)

Plans are afoot for Luxor to bathe in the international spotlight, and hopefully attract large numbers of tourists, as the city prepares to recreate an ancient festival with a modern twist.

Luxor is receiving a massive facelift in preparation for the launch of a major campaign promoting the city as the world’s greatest open-air museum. It is hoped that the celebrations marking the launch of the campaign will focus the world’s attention on Luxor’s awe-inspiring Theban monuments, the dazzling Nile, the charming traditional market and horse-drawn carriages, and host of other tourist attractions.

The centrepiece of the launch will be a re-enactment of the ancient Egyptian Opet festival, which is being resurrected with a contemporary twist.

The serenity of Karnak and Luxor temples has been disturbed by workers installing lights, extending cables, erecting wooden stages and fixing backdrops for the festivities. Conservators and archaeologists, armed with brushes, sticks, trowels, sieves, hand-held blowers and buckets, stand on scaffolding brushing accumulated debris from the temples’ columns and walls, revealing long concealed colours. Or else they sift the sands along the Avenue of Sphinxes where huge banners are being installed, ready to host an exhibition of archive photographs, the majority taken in the 19th century, documenting the history of the excavation of Luxor and Karnak temples and the major discoveries that occurred during the process, and illustrating finds connected to the royal kings and queens who participated in the construction of the avenue and the ancient festival.

“Excavation work on the Great Processional Path, known as the Avenue of Sphinxes, began seriously in 1949 when Egyptian archaeologist Zakaria Ghoneim unearthed the first eight ram-headed statues,” explained Mahmoud Mabrouk, advisor to the minister of tourism and antiquities. Ghoneim’s pioneering work was then taken up by other archaeologists who plotted the course of the ceremonial way.

Beyond the archaeological sites, workers are busy in streets and squares upgrading Luxor’s infrastructure. New street lighting is being installed, squares are being tidied up, shop fronts polished and streets repaved. The whole city has become a hive of activity. A promenade along the Nile has been constructed, major streets and squares are being newly landscaped, and information boards erected to inform pedestrians of the ancient sites past which they are walking.

While the date of the launch is shrouded in secrecy, a source at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the upcoming celebrations will include a modern riff on the Opet festival and showcase all of Luxor’s attractions, from traditional felucca rides and luxury cruises on the Nile to hot air balloons over the Valleys of the Kings and Nobles, and performances of traditional music.

Zahi Hawass, former minister of antiquities, said that during the annual Opet festival ancient Egyptian priests would process from Karnak to Luxor along the Avenue of Sphinxes carrying a wooden barque holding the shrine of the Theban triad of deities, Amun-Re, Mut and Khonsu, in a celebration intended to recreate their marriage. The ritual was held annually from the New Kingdom onwards.

The rituals associated with the Opet festival, pointed out Hawass, are detailed in Luxor Temple where “inscriptions reveal many features of the feast, including music, dance, military marches, the presentation of offerings, and horse shows.”

Hangovers from the ancient festival can still be witnessed in Luxor, not least in the celebration of Moulid Sidi Abul-Haggag. Abul-Haggag was a 13th-century Sufi sheikh whose mosque was built next to a Coptic church, both of which lie within the confines of Luxor Temple.

The magnificent Avenue of Sphinxes, along which priests and Pharaohs once walked in procession, connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak. Many of the 1,350 sphinxes, human heads with the bodies of lions, that once lined the avenue have been restored.

The 2,700-metre-long avenue was built during the reign of the 13th-Dynasty Pharaoh Nectanebo I. It replaced an earlier processional way, as queen Hatshepsut recorded on the walls of her red chapel in Karnak Temple. Hatshepsut built six chapels dedicated to the god Amun-Re on the route of the avenue during her reign.

The avenue was originally lined with sphinxes with ram rather than human heads, sitting on sandstone plinths opposite one another along the course of the ceremonial route. Over the centuries the avenue was lost. Some of the sphinxes were destroyed, and the road eventually obliterated beneath sand on which, in may areas, random housing was built.

Within the framework of plans to restore the city’s ancient Egyptian monuments and develop the entire Luxor governorate into an open-air museum, work began on uncovering the lost sections of the avenue. The sphinxes were restored, and while the attempt to restore the ceremonial way was very much a stop-start affair, contingent on the political upheavals of recent years, work is now complete and visitors to Luxor can explore most of the sacred route.

Mustafa Al-Saghir, director general of Karnak Temple, revealed that excavations carried out along the avenue had unearthed not only fragments of the sphinxes but many other objects. A wall dating to the Roman Period was found, together with the foundations of Roman buildings and workshops for the manufacture of clay pots, amulets and statues. A number of bas reliefs were uncovered, as were pots for plants which, in the New Kingdom, were placed between the statues. Wine presses from Roman times were also discovered, and the excavations, said Al-Saghir, had revealed much about “the economic and social life of the residents of Thebes”.

Restoration work at Karnak’s Great Hypostyle Hall is now complete, with many of the intricate bas reliefs showing traces of their original painting. The open court of Karnak has been developed and visitor facilities upgraded with new sunshades, seats and signage. Both Karnak and Luxor temples also boast new lighting systems.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

 

Egyptian water expert reveals important developments about GERD operations

Egypt Independent, (link: Egyptian water expert reveals important developments about GERD operations)

Egyptian water expert Abbas Sharaky revealed important developments regarding the filling and operations of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) after Ethiopia conducted the first and second fillings.

“Ethiopia made the first storage last year with about 5 billion m3, and the second storage, which was not completed till last July, with about 3 billion m3, at a total of 8 billion m3.

As a result of the flooding exceeding the capacity of the middle corridor, 2 billion m3 were temporarily stored. This could have been used to generate electricity, but after the end of the flooding season at the end of October, the temporary 2 billion m3 crossed without benefit,” Sharaky said in a post on his official Facebook page.

“All the gates are still closed, as is evident from the satellite (Sentinel 2) images, which show the retreat of the edges of the lake,” he added.

Ethiopia was unable to operate the first two turbines scheduled to set off in October 2021, as the Ethiopian Minister of State for Communications, Information Technology and Digital Economy, Houria Ali Mahdi, announced that electricity production will be next year.

Sharaky stressed that thus the first and second storages are useless.

If Ethiopia wants to complete the engineering work in preparation for the third filling, it will open the two drainage gates that were opened in April 2021 until mid-August to drain the middle corridor, then start placing concrete to raise the height of the middle corridor in February.

These preparations are for storing about 10.5 billion m3 at a level of 595 m, to store a total of 18.5 billion m3, which was intended for the 2020 season.

Ethiopia may have to keep the current situation unchanged in the event that the civil war continues between the federal government and the Tigray Region.

 

قمة المناخ ٢٧... فرصة ومسئولية مجتمعية

الاهرام ١٣ نوفمبر ٢٠٢١
بقلم عزة رضوان صدقي

اختيرت مصر لتكون الدولة المضيفة لقمة تغيير المناخ والمعروفة أيضا بـ"كوب ٢٧" لتقام في شرم الشيخ في ٢٠٢٢. قمة تغيير المناخ هي الهيئة المسئولة عن مراقبة وتنفيذ إطار عمل الأمم المتحدة بشأن تغيُّر المناخ. أعضاؤها الـ١٩٧ يجتمعون لتقييم التقدم الذي طرأ في مقدار خفض الانبعاثات الذي التزم به الأعضاء على أمل الحد من انبعاثات غازات الاحتباس الحراري نحو الهدف الطموح ليصبح صفرًا بحلول عام ٢٠٥٠

وُقِّعت أول اتفاقية دولية للمناخ في قمة باريس في ٢٠١٥ حيث التزمت الدول وحكوماتها على العمل للحفاظ على متوسط ​​درجة حرارة أقل من "ارتفاع إلى ٢ درجة مئوية". أقيمت "كوب ٢٦" في جلاسجو بإنجلترا في نوفمبر ٢٠٢١ بعد صيف اشتدت به الحرارة وأعقبتها فيضانات كارثية وحرائق غابات مدمرة. من أهم قرارات "كوب ٢٦" تعهُّد رؤساء الدول بإنهاء إزالة الغابات بحلول ٢٠٣٠، وهو قرار قوي لأن الغابات تمتص ٣٠ في المائة من انبعاثات غاز ثاني أوكسيد الكربون بما يحول دون زيادة درجة حرارة الأرض

تأتي قمة المناخ ٢٧ في مصر السنة القادمة، وهي بلا شك فرصة ومسئولية مجتمعية. المسئوليات كثيره بالطبع. على مصر، البلد المضيف للقمة، اتباع البروتوكول الذي وضعته الأمم المتحدة. يشير كتيب الأمم المتحدة "دليل لاستضافة مؤتمرات الأمم المتحدة لتغيُّر المناخ" إلى جميع الخطوات التي يجب على الدولة المضيفة اتباعها، مستهلًّا بالقول "يجب على البلد المضيف تقدير حجم المسئولية: النجاح يدعو إلى جهد تعاوني منسق على نطاق وطني". يؤكد الكتيب أيضًا على أهمية التخطيط المبكر والعمل بشكل وثيق مع أمانة الأمم المتحدة المعنية بتغيُّر المناخ طوال عملية التخطيط

من المتطلبات المهمة الأخرى في البلد المضيف أن يتم تصنيفه على أنه "دولة آمنة" وأن لديه شبكة متطوِّرة من النقل والطيران والاتصالات وغرف الفنادق على مستويات مختلفة لاستيعاب المشاركين. علاوة على ذلك فإن المرافق الحيوية مثل الأمن والمستشفيات ومراكز التطعيم وما إلى ذلك لابد أن تكون متاحة، وبالطبع جميع هذه المعطيات سيتبعها قادة المؤتمر المصريون بدقة

خلال المؤتمر ستتحدث مصر باسم المنطقة بأكملها على الأخص نيابة عن أفريقيا، ويجب أن تقدم للعالم مدى قيادتها للدول الأفريقية نحو بيئة أفضل. على الرغم من انتهاء رئاسة مصر للاتحاد الأفريقي في عام ٢٠١٩ إلا أنها تواصل التركيز على أفريقيا ومتطلباتها من خلال العديد من المشاريع التنموية من توليد الطاقة الشمسية وإنشاء مزارع نموذجية ومشاريع درء الفيضانات. كما أعلنت مصر عن عزمها تصنيع مليار جرعة سنويًا من لقاح الكورونا "سينوفاك" وإمكانية تزويد أفريقيا بكميات كبيرة من إمدادات اللقاح التي تحتاجها

 المسئولية مؤكدة بالطبع لكنها أيضًا فرصة نادرة. إنها فرصة لتنمية مفاهيم تغيُّر المناخ لدى المصريين وتأثيره على مصر وبالتالي على أنفسهم. مع قدوم تغيير المناخ لن يستمر الصيف حارا وجافا والشتاء ممطرا معتدلا، بل سيكون الصيف شديد الحرارة والشتاء متقلبا من شديد البرودة لشديد الحرارة. كما أن موقع مصر الجغرافي يعرِّضها بشدة لخطر تغيُّر المناخ بما في ذلك احتمال ارتفاع منسوب المياه على طول الساحل الشمالي مسببا أضرارا بالغة واحتمال حدوث حالات جفاف مع نقص في الموارد المائية بسبب قلة الأمطار والطقس الحار. كما أنها فرصة حتى يدرك المصريون قيمة المياه وخطورة التعدي على النيل وإلقاء النفايات به، وما يتحمله الجميع من حرق قش الأرز، كذلك يتفهّم كل فرد منا مسئوليته تجاه البيئة، وبالطبع تجاه الأرض والهواء والبحار

 كما يقع العبء الجماعي على جميع المصريين لإيضاح سبل تعامل مصر مع تغيُّر المناخ. يجب على مصر أن تظهر للعالم كيف طوَّرت وعزَّزت حملتها وسياساتها المتعلِّقة بتغيُّر المناخ. مشاريع ضخمة جارية لتوليد الطاقة الشمسية وطاقة الرياح وحماية البحار من التآكل. كما يجري العمل على حملات توعية لترشيد استهلاك المياه وتبطين الترع حتى لا تُهدر المياه واستخدام أنظمة الري الحديثة لتوفير المياه المهدرة. كما يتم بناء مئات الحافلات التي تعمل بالطاقة الكهربائية على أمل تحسين جودة الهواء، وقريبًا ستنتج مصر السيارات الكهربائية (نصر٧٠)، ومن المتوقع أن يصل الإنتاج إلى ٥٠٠٠٠ سيارة سنويًا. وفي أكتوبر ٢٠٢٠ وافق البنك الدولي على مشروع بقيمة ٢٠٠ مليون دولار لمصر لتحسين جودة الهواء ومكافحة تغيُّر المناخ وتقليل انبعاث ملوثات الهواء والاحتباس الحراري. وجميع المدن الجديدة تعتبر مدنًا ذكية صديقة للبيئة وأكثر خضرة

قد حان الوقت لتتألق مصر بصفتها الدولة المضيفة للدورة السابعة والعشرين لقمة تغيُّر المناخ. في عام ٢٠٢٢ سيراقب العالم مصر مطالبا إياها بالارتقاء إلى هذه المهمة الجليلة

Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh To Host COP27 International Climate Summit In 2022

RepublicWorld.com (Link: Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh to host COP27 International Climate Summit in 2022)

Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh was selected to host the 27th session of the UN climate change summit in 2022, said Egyptian Minister of Environment Dr. Yasmine Fouad. 

IMAGE: EEAA.GOV.EG/COP26_Twitter

Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh was selected to host the 27th session of the UN climate change summit in 2022, Egyptian minister of Environment Dr. Yasmine Fouad announced on Thursday. The announcement came against the backdrop of world leaders continuing to present crucial systems and mechanisms to combat climate change at the 26th session of the Conference of Parties (COP26). Following the disclosure, Dr. Yasmine Fouad thanked the internal and African delegates for endorsing Egypt's offer to hold COP27, Egyptian Streets reported.

Referring to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's message on climate change in African regions, Dr. Fouad asserted that COP27 will be a true African-centered conference to drive progress on key priorities concerning climate finance, adaptation and mitigation. Besides, it will also focus on carbon neutrality and follow up on the commitments made in the current summit. Dr. Fouad also congratulated the successful efforts of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson for the significant progress made in the COP26 with announcements of new initiatives and renewing commitments towards climate action. This added an impetus for the effective response to impacts of global climate change, she said.

"We will spare no efforts to make COP27 hospitable for all," Dr. Fouad said in Glasgow.

Emphasising Egypt's commitment to work on building a hospitable environment for the attendees, Dr. Fouad asserted that Cairo will work to build bridges of cooperation and find common ground to forge agreements on critical issues. It will also help African nations to beef up measures to combat climate change. Notably, Egypt has announced its official National Climate Change Strategy at the ongoing COP26 Glasgow Summit. The approaches are aimed at lowering carbon emissions, increasing reliance on clean energy, and building resilience through protecting citizens. It also focuses on protecting the health of citizens and confronting biodiversity loss. Besides, there are also provisions for climate finance and scientific research, Egyptian Streets reported.

Egypt’s treasures abroad

Al Ahram Weekly, by Azza Radwan Sedky 

As preparations continue for the opening of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, Egypt should continue to press for the return of irreplaceable artefacts from museums abroad, writes Azza Radwan Sedky.

During visits to distinguished museums such as the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, my impression has always been one of pride that Egyptian treasures rank among the most prominent exhibits on show in these institutions. 

However, it usually does not take long for pride to be eclipsed by anger and dismay. How come Egyptian treasures are housed abroad in museums where visitors from all over the world come to view them in awe and admiration? How did these museums come by these treasures? Did Egyptian officials donate them to their new proprietors for in-kind efforts, or were they looted and then illegally smuggled out of Egypt? Will Egypt ever regain its treasures? 

Museums, jam-packed with Egyptian artefacts, are not the only exhibitors of Egyptian monuments. Squares in cities worldwide, from Rome to London and from Paris to New York, are adorned by obelisks that stand tall to tell the world of a civilisation like no other. The obelisk in the Place de la Concorde in Paris was gifted to France in 1829, for example, and that in Central Park in New York, known as Cleopatra’s Needle, was gifted to the US by the Khedive Ismail in the 1880s. Rome has the most Egyptian obelisks in the world, more than the ones in Egypt by far, and these were smuggled out of Egypt during the Roman occupation of Egypt.  

Let’s return to what today’s museums hold. According to the Cairo magazine Egypt Today, Egyptian artefacts can be found in over 39 museums across the world. The Dutch National Museum of Antiquities holds over 24,000 pieces, and Egyptian treasures are ranked as among its primary attractions. The Museo Egizio in Turin in Italy is devoted entirely to Egyptian artefacts. At the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, the Egyptian collection comprises approximately 25,000 artefacts, with close to 2,000 of these on display.  

Then there are exceptional pieces at special museums. The Egyptian Museum in Berlin houses about 80,000 artefacts and is one of the world’s most important collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including the iconic bust of the ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti. The British Museum in London, which welcomes approximately six million visitors a year, proudly exhibits the Rosetta Stone. As the museum prepared to reopen its doors after the Covid-19 pandemic, it put together a list of 14 items not to miss, citing the Rosetta Stone as number one and classifying it as “the most famous object on display” and “the key that unlocked ancient hieroglyphs.” 

The Louvre in Paris houses one of the world’s major collections of Egyptian artefacts, approximately 55,000 pieces, in particular the statues of the Seated Scribe and the Great Sphinx of Tanis and one of the best-preserved mummies in the world. Today, the iconic pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre pays tribute to the artefacts from Egyptian civilisation that are housed inside and that have become landmarks of the museum. 

In all fairness, these treasures are well preserved, carefully maintained and exquisitely exhibited at renowned museums, where millions are able to see them. They allow visitors to understand the Egyptian culture and its significance. Many of the Egyptian artefacts displayed abroad were donated to their current proprietors, including the Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Egypt gifted this temple to the US in 1965 in recognition of the role it played in the campaign to move the Nubian Temples from the rising waters of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s. 

Undeniably, the Temple of Dendur in its current home has the grandeur and honour it deserves. Visitors can view it from every angle and experience it to the fullest. It is an ambassador of Egypt and provides a glimpse of what visitors can expect to enjoy during a visit to Egypt. 

But by the same token, many non-Egyptian excavators in the past assumed that they were entitled to the treasures they had excavated. These exceptional pieces, thousands of years old, were then smuggled out of Egypt and ended up in Berlin, London or Paris. It is unlikely that these museums will ever part with prized exhibits such as the Rosetta Stone and the Nefertiti bust. Whatever is repatriated to Egypt is unlikely to include such iconic pieces. But Egypt should continue to seek the repatriation of its irreplaceable artefacts.

When Egypt called on the Berlin Museum to return the Nefertiti bust, the response was that it should remain in Germany, most probably on the assumption that it is somehow better off there. One Internet site suggests that Egyptian museums, though many, are often smaller than others located in the UK, France, Germany, the US and Italy.

However, now that Egypt is completing the Grand Egypt Museum (GEM) on the Giza Plateau, the largest archaeological museum in the world, it is befitting that these iconic pieces should come back home. In April 2021, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) in Fustat in Cairo also opened its doors to 22 royal mummies including those of Ramses II and queen Hatshepsut. 

Both museums are more than worthy of housing rare and significant pieces currently exhibited elsewhere.

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* The writer is the author of Cairo Rewind on the First Two Years of Egypt’s Revolution, 2011-2013.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 11 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly