Egypt

Gaza Is 'Paying a Heavy Price' For Egypt's Political Turmoil

Mideast Posts; please read on. 

An air of uncertainty is engulfing most matters related to Egypt. Since the Egyptian revolt started over two years ago, the country remains hostage to a barefaced power struggle with many destructive implications that have polarized society in unprecedented ways, perhaps in all of Egypt’s modern history. And while in Egypt itself nothing is sacred and no one is safe from the massive campaigns of defamation, demonization and sheer lies that each political camp is launching against the other, Palestinians find themselves in a most precarious position.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in particular, are heavily dependent on their Egyptian neighbors. Six years of an Israeli siege, originally imposed to punish Palestinians for electing Hamas in an election viewed widely as transparent and fair, has culminated into a drama with international dimensions. This drama of course involved the Palestinians, but also Israel’s traditional benefactors – led, as always, by the United States – Arab countries, Iran, Turkey and more. Aside from the vicious nature of a siege imposed to punish a civilian population for making democratic choices, the siege has morphed to acquire multiple meanings.

On one hand, it further cemented the division of Palestinian political elites, as the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) invested in ensuring the isolation of its Hamas political opponents. Notably, this took place after their brief but bloody encounters in Gaza in 2007. On the other hand, the siege positioned Hamas, whose survival was at stake, forcefully in a regional camp that involved Iran, Syria and the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.

The last development in particular was exploited by Israel in every way possible and certainly without much context. It subsequently attacked Gaza at will, killing and wounding thousands in the course of few years, in the name of fighting Middle Eastern radicals hell-bent on erasing Israel off the map.

Under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt served as a buffer zone for Israel and the US to isolate Hamas from the rest of the world. The Egyptian dictator also had his own reasons for isolating Gaza. Any success in Mubarak’s neighborhood for the Islamists, Palestinians or others, would have constituted a threat and would have emboldened Egypt’s own Islamists to expect or strive for a greater role in Egypt’s undemocratic political institutions. Moreover, by tightening the noose, the Egyptian regime at the time had hoped to strengthen its role as a major player in the US Arab camp of ‘moderates’, in exchange for financial and political perks.

via mideastposts.com

Egypt fears grow as Ethiopia builds giant Nile dam

CBC; a very important article so please read on. 

Diversion of water of the Nile River began earlier this week

Ethiopia started to divert the flow of the Blue Nile river to construct a giant dam on Tuesday, according to its state media, in a move that could impact the Nile-dependent Egypt. (Elias Asmare/Associated Press)

Ethiopia's construction of Africa's largest hydroelectric dam on the world's longest river threatens to affect flows of water to Nile-dependent, water-starved Egypt, where there is growing outrage, anger and fear.

Egypt in the past has threatened to go to war over its "historic rights" to Nile River water but diplomats from both countries this week played down the potential for conflict.

"A military solution for the Nile River crisis is ruled out," Egypt's irrigation and water resources minister, Mohammed Baheddin, said Thursday amid newspaper reports recalling the threats of war from Egypt's two previous leaders, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak.

Ethiopia on Tuesday started diverting the flow of the Blue Nile for construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Eighty-five percent of Nile waters originate in Ethiopia yet the East African nation whose name has become synonymous with famine thus far utilizes very little of those waters.

Colonial-era agreements

Ethiopia's decision challenges a colonial-era agreement that had given downstream Egypt and Sudan rights to the Nile water, with Egypt taking 55.5 billion cubic metres and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic metre of 84 billion cubic metres, with 10 billion lost to evaporation. That agreement, first signed in 1929, took no account of the eight other nations along the 6,700-kilometre river and its basin, which have been agitating for a decade for a more equitable accord.

Map of the Nile Rive locating the Grand Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia. A section of the river has been diverted to complete construction of the huge dam which is worrying downstream countries dependant on the river for water. (Reuters)

And Ethiopia's unilateral action seems to ignore the 10-nation Nile Basin Initiative to promote co-operation.

 

Ethiopia is leading five nations threatening to sign a new cooperation agreement without Egypt and Sudan, effectively taking control from Egypt of the Nile, which serves some 238 million people.

Mohammed Abdel-Qader, governor of Egypt's Gharbiya province in the Nile Delta, warned the dam spells "disaster" and is a national security issue for the North African nation.

Dam spells "disaster"

"Taking Egypt's share of water is totally rejected ... The Nile means everything to Egypt," said Gov. Abdel-Qader.

Baheddin said Egypt already is suffering "water poverty" with an individual's share of 640 cubic metres well below the international average of 1,000 cubic metres.

Egypt protests that others along the Nile have alternative water sources, while the Nile is the sole water source in the mainly desert country.

Ethiopian officials say the dam is needed to provide much-needed power for development.

At a ceremony marking the diversion of the Nile, Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnin said Ethiopia could export cheap electricity from the dam to energy-short Egypt and Sudan. He insisted the dam would not affect the flow of water to Egypt.

Experts say otherwise.

 

via www.cbc.ca

Firing of head of Egypt's opera sparks cultural fight amid artists' worries over Islamists

Edmonton Journal; read on. 

Egyptian employees and students walks past posters at the Cairo Opera House in Egypt, Wednesday, May 29, 2013. The Cairo Opera House has become a new battleground between supporters and opponents of Egypt’s Islamist president, this time fighting over the direction of the Middle East’s oldest music institution. The new culture minister fired the opera’s head in what he calls a campaign to bring in new blood across the artistic scene. But her staff refuse any new boss and have closed the curtain on all performances, accusing the minister of bending to Islamist pressure. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

CAIRO - The Cairo Opera House has become a new battleground between supporters and opponents of Egypt's Islamist president, this time fighting over the direction of the Middle East's oldest music institution.

The new culture minister fired the head of the opera house, part of a shakeup he said is aimed at injecting "new blood" across art and culture programs he says were stagnant and corrupt.

But staffers are refusing any other boss to replace Enas Abdel-Dayem. Tuesday night, they protested outside her office, accusing the minister of bending to pressure from Islamists, and some held a sit in overnight to prevent any replacement from entering.

Staffers have also closed the curtain on all performances. For the first time in the opera house's history, the opera Aida — composed by Giuseppe Verdi and debuted to the world in 1871 in Cairo— was cancelled in protest. Singers instead held up posters on stage that said, "No to Brotherhoodization."

"In a stand against a detailed plan to destroy culture and fine arts in Egypt we decided as artists and management to abstain from performing tonight's Opera Aida," conductor Nayer Nagi announced from the stage Tuesday evening. He vowed the halt would go on until the culture minister, Alaa Abdel-Aziz, is removed.

The row has opened a new front in the politically divided country, with performing artists joining a chorus of others who say they are fighting attempts by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist allies of President Mohammed Morsi to impose their control.

via www.edmontonjournal.com

Egypt's Morsi presents controversial NGO law to senate

France 24 

A picture released by the Egyptian presidency shows Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi giving a speech on May 29, 2013, in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. Morsi submitted a bill regulating non-governmental organisations to the Senate on Wednesday after previous drafts drew Western criticism.

AFP - Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi submitted a bill regulating non-governmental organisations to the Senate on Wednesday after previous drafts drew Western criticism.

Human rights groups said the earlier drafts would have given the security services control over NGOs.

Morsi, elected after a popular uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, said the government no longer sought to control civil society.

"The state does not control," Morsi said in a televised speech. "It does not aspire to control civil society, nor should it."

The Senate, which acts as interim parliament, will discuss the draft law and can propose amendments.

Under Mubarak, many rights groups failed to get operating licences and their activities were monitored by the then all-powerful security services.

The interim military government which took power on his ouster ordered raids on offices of foreign NGOs in which Americans were among the staff referred to trial on charges of receiving illicit foreign funds.

The raids dealt a serious blow to relations between the military and Washington, its main foreign aid donor.

The president's office says the new law is aimed at regulating NGO activities and funding within the confines of Egyptian law, but critics say it allows a government appointed steering committee control over their funding.

"The crucial test of whether the law allows NGOs to operate independently is whether these NGOS are able to get funding to survive and whether they're allowed to operate without interference," said Human Rights Watch Egypt director, Heba Morayef.

"The law fails on both counts," she said.

The text published on Wednesday allows a steering committee headed by the social affairs minister to object to foreign funding and domestic fundraising requests.

But the committee must obtain a court ruling to back its objections.

Presidential adviser Nermeen Mohamed said the bill limits government interference in civil society groups.

"The legislation puts a limitation to government authority over the NGOs and removed any intervention power from the government authority," she said in an email to AFP.

"It also created a clear reference point with regards to denying registration or objecting to activities, ie the constitution and legal framework of Egypt," she added.

via www.france24.com

Egypt's youth: 'What has the revolution done for us?'

BBC by Shaimaa Khalil; read on. 

Egypt's young people are increasingly disillusioned with post-revolutionary life

In this sixth and final report of the series, Egypt's Challenge, Shaimaa Khalil explores the effects the revolution has had on the very people who were at its forefront - the youth. More than two years on, is this the Egypt they had hoped for?

 

El Borsa is a big pedestrian area, full of cafes, near Egypt's stock exchange and right in the middle of central Cairo. It is a two-minute walk from Tahrir Square, the heart of the 2011 revolution.

 

Shaimaa Khalil

It has become known as the activists' hang out, where many revolutionaries come to talk politics and discuss the latest events. I've come to Borsa many times since the revolution, met many young people and heard numerous heated debates.

 

The loud conversations of the cafe-goers compete with the sounds of the numerous TV screens all around, some showing football games, others talk shows on Egyptian satellite channels.

Walking from Borsa into Tahrir Square, however, you can feel the mood change.

"When I enter the square now, it does not feel the same. It's not the same vibe. You don't feel safe or secure anymore. You feel like everyone has given up on this square," Tariq Mustafa, a young human rights activist, told me.

Walking around the square with Tariq, I can see what he means.

The square is a shadow of its January 2011 self. I remember well when the square was a sea of humanity. Thousands of people were drawn to it, making it hard to move around, find a place to sit or even stand, especially on Fridays.

For the first few months after the revolution, Tahrir felt like the safest place in Egypt.

Not any more.

Now, the square is virtually empty. Small groups of people gather here and there, and everywhere there is evidence of violence and destruction.

Depression and disappointment

One stark change, for me, is the graffiti on the wall of the American University just off the square.

The wall once carried motivational slogans, nationalistic song lyrics and poems.

Now, all I can see there are the faces of dead people, of those killed during the two years of the revolution.

Some of them are quite disturbing. The faces have been deformed, apparently beaten up. Police brutality is alleged.

Most of the faces on the wall are those of young people.

Women can be a rare sight in Tahrir Square nowadays

I am surprised to see a young woman leaving the American University building.

Women have stopped coming to Tahrir now, especially after so many incidents of sexual harassment in the square.

But Manal is here for a language course and tells me she walks with male colleagues for protection, especially at night.

 

via www.bbc.co.uk

The Arab World's lost generation

CNN.com

 

Amman, Jordan (CNN) -- The Arab Spring toppled regimes in power for decades within only months of each other.

The region's youth were hoping that the adage "out with the old and in with the new" would translate into more opportunity. But on the streets of the region's most populous city Cairo you hear despair.

Here's the view of a young, female college graduate who's been stymied in her search for work and asked to remain anonymous.

"I was not thinking at all about leaving Egypt before the revolution. It is my country and I have to stay here. But now I cannot see anything that is good."

There has been a chronic unemployment issue in our part of the world because of late reforms. It is a time bomb if you like.
Iyad Malas

She is not alone. The International Labor Organization(ILO) put youth unemployment at 28.3% in 2012 and says it will not reverse course for the next 5 years. Despite a global economic recovery the ILO projects a rise to 30% by 2018.

The Middle East and North Africa region is the unfortunate title holder of having the worst youth unemployment in the world.

Deadly protests at the presidential palace in Cairo to finish out 2012, the seizing of the foreign ministry in Tripoli by those who wanted to ban members of the Gaddafi regime to work in government and a murder of an opposition leader in Tunis illustrate that this post Arab Spring journey is fraught with deep potholes.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Egyptian Opposition Leader and Nobel Laureate said the unsettled nature in this post-Arab Spring environment is scaring off investment.

"We need to restore law and order and we need to jump-start the economy and we need to make sure that people are part of cohesive society and all this not there right now."

Despite prolonged negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on a near $5 billion loan, one of the largest mall developers in the region, Dubai based Majid Al Futtaim has stepped back into the country, with its sprawling development, the Mall of Egypt. It also has a deal pending for an Egyptian supermarket chain.

But Chief Executive of the group, Iyad Malas, says the youth of the region are paying a heavy price for a lack of action for decades.

"There has been a chronic unemployment issue in our part of the world because of late reforms. But what has happened because of these delayed reforms there is more and more people coming into the labor market, therefore you see higher rates of youth unemployment. It is a time bomb if you like."

We need to restore law and order and we need to jump-start the economy.
Mohamed ElBaradei

At the World Economic Forum in the Dead Sea last week, it was evident that momentum is building, albeit very late, on public private partnerships, micro financing for small businesses and calls for an Arab Stabilization Plan to fund major infrastructure projects. The panel I chaired "A New Vision for Arab Employment" presented all those concrete ideas and fielded tough questions from the audience and youth outside the forum who were watching online. They were the most skeptical.

In Saudi Arabia, holder of the world's largest proven oil reserves, the youth jobless rate is right near the regional average, despite a half trillion dollar diversification package from King Abdullah.

One of his corporate champions picked to drive change is Mohammed Al Mady, Chief Executive of SABIC, the petrochemical and steel manufacturer with $27 billion in annual revenues.

"The intention is very good," admits Al Mady, "The problem is execution."

Al Mady faced some heat when he admitted that he employs only 50 women in his Saudi operations of more than 20,000 workers. Equal rights remain not only a problem for those unemployed, but it also undermines productivity.

Then there is the giant problem at the heart of the region that no one seems capable of solving. Syria. Its civil war has led to a flood of refugees -- over a half million in Jordan. This places additional strains on an economy with the youth unemployment just below 30%.

There remains an economically divided Middle East. On one side, the oil rich Gulf states like Saudi Arabia pump billions of dollars into diversification; on the other are the oil importers which includes Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan.

In his opening remarks this weekend, King Abdullah of Jordan said that "double action" was needed to deal with the disgruntled youth and a potential doubling of refugees in his country.

The IMF released a report calling the situation complex, with downside risks.

"The risks come from further prolonged political transition which could still hold back that investment, hold back that recovery because the private sector is waiting to see how things settle down," said Masood Ahmed, Director of the Middle East & South Asia for the Fund.

The IMF is projecting regional growth of just over 3%, which looks decent by global standards but experts say it is about half of what is required to generate enough opportunity for those who are part of this unprecedented youth bulge.

via www.cnn.com

Court gives Egyptian interior minister 2 year jail sentence - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online

Ahram Online, by El-Sayyed Gamal El-Din

Egypt's interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim (Photo: Al-Ahram)

A Cairo criminal court sentenced Egypt's Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim to two years in prison on Monday on charges of refusing to implement a court ruling.

The court also ruled that the minister should be removed from his post.

A ministry source however revealed in a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) later that both rulings were ordered in absentia and an appeal is planned to be filed against them.

The statement further added that all of the court’s rulings that has ordered financial compensations prior to the January 25 revolution are all being implemented.

Egypt's Administrative Court had ruled previously that the interior ministry should pay LE 25,000 worth of compensation each to two political prisoners who had been released.

However, both men, Abd El-Aleim Fahim and Ali Mohamed, filed a case against Ibrahim for not paying the compensation.

Ibrahim can appeal the Monday ruling against him.

 

via english.ahram.org.eg

Netizen outrage after Chinese tourist defaces Egyptian temple

CNN, By Hiufu Wong

The graffiti was etched across the torso of the figure in the sculpture.

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Parents of a 15-year-old Chinese tourist have apologized after the teenager defaced a stone sculpture in an ancient Egyptian temple with graffiti.

 

The act drew ire in both Egypt and China -- generating a massive online backlash amongst China's unforgiving netizens.

The vandal carved 'Ding Jinhao was here' in Chinese in the 3,500 year old Luxor Temple.

This was photographed by an embarrassed Chinese traveler and shared on weibo, China's micro-blogging site on May 24.

"The saddest moment in Egypt. I'm so embarrassed that I want to hide myself. I said to the Egyptian tour guide,'I'm really sorry,'" that traveler wrote on the original weibo post.

"We want to wipe off the marking with a towel. But we can't use water since it is a 3,500 relic."

It didn't take long -- actually, just a day -- before outraged netizens tracked down Ding in Nanjing.

Slammed online and exposed further in the mainstream, Ding's parents quickly contacted media outlets.

"We want to apologize to the Egyptian people and to people who have paid attention to this case across China," Ding's mother said in a China Daily report.

Ding's parents said they shouldered the responsibility of what their son did, adding he had learned his lesson.

World's unfriendliest nations for tourists

The original weibo post was re-tweeted almost 90,000 times, received over 18,000 comments and was widely distributed across local media.

"Reading this disastrous news this morning is heartbreaking. I despise this behavior, especially in Egypt -- the place I love. Now, I just want to say 'Sorry' to Egypt," commented weibo user "Net bug jing jing."

"It's a disgrace to our entire race!" said another angry micro-blogger.

Tourism in Egypt: Hope amid slow recovery

In a state-run Xinhua media report, one of the agency's photographers said local Egyptian staff had worked to try and clean the sculpture. While there was some improvement, the graffiti could not be totally removed.

Outbound Chinese tourism has expanded rapidly in recent years. In 2012, Chinese overtook Americans and Germans as the world's top international tourism spenders, with 83 million people spending a record US$102 billion on international tourism.

That growth has brought with it a backlash in some industry sectors. (See our report on Chinese tourism: The good, the bad and the backlash)

Earlier this month, Beijing called on its nation's tourists to improve their behavior, with Vice Premier Wang Yang stating it was important to project a good image of Chinese tourists.

 

via www.cnn.com

How SpongeBob SquarePants became massive in Egypt

The Guardian, by Patrick Kingsley

The cartoon marine sponge is soaking up his newfound fame in Egypt – appearing on everything from hijabs to boxer shorts

A vendor sells SpongeBob merchandise in Tahrir Square. Photograph: Patrick Kingsley

Stroll the streets of central Cairo today, and two faces stand out. The first is a symbol of resistance; Jika, a teenage protester shot dead late last year, whose likeness has been repeatedly stencilled across the walls of the city centre.

The second is rather less revolutionary. It belongs to SpongeBob SquarePants. The fictional marine sponge, historically found on kids' cartoon channel Nickelodeon, is now the ubiquitous face of Egyptian tat – printed on everything from hijabs to boxer shorts, complete with spelling mistakes. (In Egypt, where western Bs are often confused with Ps, SpongeBob sometimes becomes a variant of SpongePop.) Name something cheap and tacky, and chances are that someone in Egypt can sell you a Spongified version.

His appearances have become so frequent that a blog – SpongeBob on the Nile – now documents his Egyptian adventures. Vice magazine was even forced to ponder: "Is SpongeBob SquarePants the New Che Guevara?".

The explosion started about a year ago, SpongeBob on the Nile's co-founder reckons. "I remember coming back in June 2012," says Elisabeth Jaquette, a longtime Cairo resident who had returned from a year in America, "and walking through Tahrir Square, where you used to see T-shirts that said 'Egypt' and 'Revolution'. But that June, half the T-shirts were just SpongeBob."

Soon the craze spread to other wardrobe items. "Men would ask me for SpongeBob boxer shorts," says stallholder Yasser Abdel Moneim. To meet demand, Abdel Moneim now sells three different SpongeBob pant designs – sourced from China – including one that overlays the sponge with the unlikely logo of Calvin Klein. "It's still the thing that sells out first."

Egypt is not the only country to have taken to SpongeBob. Jaquette's blog memorably shows someone celebrating the Libyan revolution dressed as SpongeBob. But Jaquette argues: "People are reproducing it in ways that are very distinctly Egyptian; there are traditional hand puppets that have SpongeBob on them, tissue-box covers –– a very Egyptian thing – with SpongeBob designs."

How this all started, no one really knows. SpongeBob is shown on a private Egyptian channel, but most won't have watched much of it. Whatever Vice's headline implied, SpongeBob doesn't have any political resonance. One theory is that SpongeBob's success is symptomatic of the way that urban space has changed in Egypt since the 2011 uprising. After the revolution, a breakdown in law and order made it easier for street traders to set up shop in city centres – a phenomenon that may have led to higher sales of Spongebob tat.

Jaquette, however, isn't convinced. There may have been fewer vendors before the revolution, she says, "but there has always been one shirt or other that has been popular". For now, SpongeBob's presence is everywhere – but it may not be for ever. At the height of his popularity, Tahrir vendor Mostafa Hamed sold 30 SpongeBobs a week. But this week? Just Athree. 

via www.guardian.co.uk

Egypt court decision striking down ban on police and army vote stirs worries among some

Global News, by Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press; read on. 

In this Thursday, June 14, 2012 file photo, Egyptian soldiers stand guard during a protest in front the Supreme Constitutional Court, Egypt's highest court, background, in Cairo, Egypt. AP Photo/Nasser Nasser

CAIRO, Egypt – Egyptian Islamists and former members of the nation’s military voiced concern Sunday about the potential pitfalls stemming from a decision by the country’s top constitutional court that would allow members of the armed forces and police to vote in the nation’s elections.

For decades, a long-running legal tradition in Egypt’s army and police barred soldiers, conscripts and members of the security from voting while in the service. The ban, which was written into law in 1976, was widely seen as a move designed to keep both the military and the security agencies out of politics – despite the fact that the country was run by former generals.

The Supreme constitutional Court said Saturday the ban violated the country’s new constitution, which stipulates that all citizens have the right to vote. The court also shot down 12 other articles of the election laws drafted by Egypt’s Islamist-led legislature, saying they too went against the charter.

Human rights groups and some in Egypt’s secular opposition welcomed the decision, saying that in Egypt’s nascent democracy the right to vote should be extended to all Egyptians. Islamists and former members of the military, however, expressed fears that the decision risks forcing the nation’s highly polarized politics into the armed forces.

“This is a threat to national security. Divisions in the streets will be reflected in the military – the sectarianism, the partisanship,” said Hossam Sweilam, a retired general who served in the military for more than 30 years. “We are different from other countries. We have political problems. … This (ruling) would be in the interest of the Muslim Brotherhood and could be a problem for the cohesion of the military.”

The Brotherhood, winner of both the parliamentary and presidential elections that followed the country’s 2011 uprising, and its fellow Islamist groups also pushed back against the decision, which would add more than 1 million votes to Egypt’s already 50 million registered voters.

Mourad Aly, a senior advisor for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, said the court’s ruling raises questions about attempts to bring the military into politics through the back door.

“Is the point transferring the political polarization into military units? Would any reasonable person agree to have politics and election campaigns in the barracks?” he asked on his Facebook page. “Keep your hands off Egypt’s army and don’t force it into the parlours of politics. It has a sacred mission from which it shouldn’t be distracted.”

Sobhi Saleh, a lawmaker with the Brotherhood’s party, told Al-Jazeera Live Egypt that the legislature would take the court’s decision into consideration when rewriting the law. But he questioned how such a vote could be organized unless the military and security agencies were all on board.

Some in Egypt’s secular opposition praised the ruling, while cautioning that safeguards need to be put in place to ensure the police and military are not abused by political powers in the election process.

Story continues below

via globalnews.ca