Egypt

Obama Removes Weapons Freeze Against Egypt

NY Times, by Peter Baker (David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Cairo.)

President Obama has assured Egypt that he will support the $1.3 billion in annual military assistance the country usually receives. Credit Zach Gibson/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Seeking to repair relations with a longtime ally at a time of spreading war in the Middle East, President Obama on Tuesday lifted an arms freeze against Egypt that he first imposed after the military overthrow of the country’s democratically elected government nearly two years ago.

Mr. Obama cleared the way for the delivery of F-16 aircraft, Harpoon missiles and M1A1 Abrams tanks, weapons prized by Egyptian leaders, who have smoldered at the suspension. In a telephone call, Mr. Obama assured President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt that he would support the full $1.3 billion in annual military assistance the Cairo government traditionally receives, even as others seek to cut it, the White House said.

The decision signaled a trade-off for a president who has spoken in support of democracy and human rights, and yet finds himself in need of friends at a volatile time in a bloody part of the world. The White House made no effort to assert that Egypt had made the “credible progress” toward democracy that Mr. Obama initially demanded when he halted the arms deliveries in October 2013. Instead, the decision was justified as being “in the interest of U.S. national security,” as the White House put it in a statement.

Administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations, said the timing of the move was not directly related to the swirling crosscurrents now roiling the Middle East, including the widening conflict in Yemen, the rise of extremism in Libya, the battle with the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq or the possible nuclear deal with Iran.

But they said the broader perils of the region, particularly militant attacks in the Sinai Peninsula, played an indirect role. “Given that higher level of threat, we felt it particularly important to make sure Egypt had all of the equipment it could possibly need to defend itself from these threats,” said one of the officials.

Beyond Sinai, Egypt finds itself facing multiple security issues. In February, Egypt conducted an airstrike against Islamic militants in Libya in retaliation for the beheadings of a group of Egyptian Christians. Egypt has also said it would send ground troops into Yemen if necessary to support the Saudi-led operation against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. And Egyptian leaders agreed in concept to create a combined military force with other Arab states.

Mr. Obama’s move will release 12 F-16 fighter jets, 20 Harpoon missiles and up to 125 M1A1 Abrams tanks that Egypt had previously paid for but have been held up since 2013. The F-16s are especially important to Egyptian leaders, who have bitterly raised the issue with American counterparts at nearly every opportunity.

Intended or not, experts said Mr. Obama’s decision would be interpreted as an effort by Washington to bolster a fragile position in the region. “The U.S. is facing quite a few challenges and it needs to shore up relations with allies,” said Steven Simon, a former Middle East adviser to Mr. Obama. “The assistance to Egypt was always predicated on its foreign policy, not its domestic policy. That was certainly the Egyptian understanding of it."

Other experts and human rights advocates, however, said Mr. Obama had effectively capitulated to Mr. Sisi, a former general who helped lead the military overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and then won the presidency in an election tainted by wide-scale arrests of opposition figures. They compared Mr. Obama’s decision to lift the arms freeze to past instances when he did not live up to his own words, citing the “red line” he drew against Syrian use of chemical weapons in its civil war.

“Unsurprisingly, in this case you see that national security priorities, broadly defined, trump virtually everything else,” said Sarah Margon, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch. “And that’s a very myopic, short-term approach to fighting terrorism. Human rights abuses are actually a very bad counterterrorism strategy.”

According to Human Rights Watch and an Egyptian group called the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, the Egyptian authorities arrested more than 40,000 people after Mr. Sisi’s removal of Mr. Morsi and have never provided a full accounting of the detentions.

Mr. Sisi’s government has cracked down on nongovernmental organizations that take foreign money and authorized military courts to hold mass trials in terrorism cases that the rights groups call a way of suppressing protesters.

Amy Hawthorne, a senior fellow at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said the decision would be seen as a victory by Egyptians who wore down American resistance.

“This isn’t their intention, but it will be read by Sisi as acceptance of his legitimacy and a desire to satisfy his demands in their relationship,” she said. “I’m still trying to understand how do our concerns factor in.

Mr. Obama’s decision does include elements that may irritate Mr. Sisi, however. Until now, Egypt and Israel were the only countries permitted to buy American arms by drawing credit from future foreign aid. Mr. Obama said he would halt that for Egypt, barring it from drawing in advance money expected in the 2018 fiscal year and beyond. He will also channel future military aid to four categories — counterterrorism, border security, maritime security and Sinai security — rather than give Egypt broad latitude to decide how to use it.

The change in policy is intended to wean Egypt away from large, expensive weapons systems that signal national prestige but are not suited to fighting the sort of insurgent and terrorist threats it now confronts, American officials said.

Without its aid already spoken for years in advance, Egypt will have more flexibility to make arms purchases to deal with immediate challenges. The United States will also have more flexibility to cut it off if future actions warrant, officials said.

Indeed, some scholars said the end of cash-flow financing, as it is called, was the most significant element of Mr. Obama’s announcement because the resumption of aid was expected eventually.

“Now the military aid could be much more easily discontinued in the future,” said Michael Wahid Hanna, a researcher at the Century Foundation in New York. “This is a very far-reaching step.”

Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said the release of the weapons did not mean that the United States would stop pressing Egypt to ease its domestic repression of dissent.

“We will continue to engage with Egypt frankly and directly on its political trajectory and to raise human rights and political reform issues at the highest levels,” she said.

via www.nytimes.com

Here we go again, another Yemen War

In the early sixties Egyptians watched their loved ones head off to fight a war in Yemen. Enshrined in what seemed an ideological fallacy of Nasser’s making—to unite the Arab World—the reasons behind the war were elusive to Egyptians. They had no idea why or whom they were fighting for or against. Neither did it mean much to those partaking in the fighting itself: going off to Yemen meant a lucrative stipend and an opportunity to buy appliances and goods non existent in Nasser’s Egypt.

Egypt’s involvement in the Yemen Civil War lasted until 1967 when it had to divert its combating attention to another war: the ’67 War. Named Egypt’s Vietnam, the Yemen War remained one of the thorns in Nasser’s egotistic repertoire of failures until his death in 1970. 

That was then, and this is now.  

Today, Saudia Arabia launches airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in North Yemen. According to Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Iran is unequivocally backing the Houthis [3% of the population] with money, weapons and advisers.  So it seems that Iran is expanding its dominance from Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq to Yemen further south.  Though the onset of this conflict lies in Sunni and Shia allegiance, it is mainly a power game.

When asked to join the team of nations fighting the Houthis in Yemen, Egypt didn’t think twice. Saudi Arabia went all out in its support for Egypt after June 30th. That while President El Sisi promised to be there for any Arab country that needed Egypt’s assistance. It would have been highly unlikely for Egypt to turn its back on the friends who stood beside it.

So now, over 50 years later, Egypt finds itself, again, at war in Yemen, and as it did the first time round, the current Yemen war is weighing heavily on Egyptians. They had thought that the 1973 War was their last war—didn’t Sadat accomplish the unachievable by signing the Peace Treaty with Israel, which they considered their primary enemy? No, more enemies are emerging from the woodwork and from amongst the Arabs themselves: Hamas from across the north eastern border, the Islamic State in Libya, terrorists in Sinai and all across Egypt, and now the Houthis in Yemen. 

Egyptians by nature are not a war-loving, bloodthirsty group. Actually Egyptians hate wars, so this one is no different. But are Egyptians more informed this time round? Do they know whom they are fighting against and what they are fighting for? Well, it’s complicated. 

As usual Egyptians are divided. First, there are those who are against wars—period. They are well aware of the repercussions of any war: destruction and misery, and they are certain that all wars can be averted. Then there are those who are hailing the idea of going to war as though it is a leisurely felucca trip along the Nile, which it isn’t. Media morons egg officials on totally oblivious of the cost in terms of loss of lives and damage to property.

But others know that there was no way out of this war: a necessity.  They would ward off a war at any cost and do understand the consequences, but they also realize the grave burden that has been placed on Egypt’s shoulders, so to speak.

In addition to Egypt’s necessary but absolute support of the Saudi stance, Yemen’s strategic location is another reason why Egypt must worry about where Yemen’s allegiances are. Bab El Mandab, a 70 km strait at the southern tip of the Red Sea, is in Yemeni and Djiboutian, on the African side, waters. Any political shift could affect the navigation in the Suez Canal.

Prior to all this, in February 2015, Sisi had asked the Arab World to unite against its enemies by creating a rapid deployment-type force. “A pan-Arab military force should be created to combat terrorist groups, insisting the threat of Islamist militancy requires a ‘unified’ response from countries in the region.” The Yemen War, though not against Islamist militancy, is lending Sisi’s idea some needed ground.

At the same time, Arab World leaders may have finally realized the need to reconsider their stances. They’ve watched the Arab World disintegrate, and they remained engrossed solely in their own countries’ prosperity paying little attention to those who share their borders and fates. Working on erasing the disparity between the rich and the poor and the strong and the weak may be the only way out of the crises the Arab World is facing.  Fates collide.  

The theory that all the Arab countries are in this together and that a unified front is what makes the Arab World a force to be reckoned with would make Nasser turn in his grave. Nasser, the father of the so-called Arab Nation and despite his power, couldn’t convince the Arab World of this need, and yet today it is about to happen. 

It is a shame that the Arab countries need to resort to war when all it would have taken was to be concerned with and aware of the needs of those around them. It’s a shame that the Saudis need to fight the Iranians on the land of one the poorest countries in the region: Yemen. If the Saudis had chosen to help the Yemenis overcome their demise, the Yemenis may not have been dazzled by Iran’s lending but scheming hand. 

Ironically though, today’s Yemen is no better than yesterday’s Yemen, the one Nasser fought; if anything, it is worse:

This is no country for old men, or of old men: 40% of Yemen's 24.4 million people are under age 15, and only 5% are over 60. The median age is 19. (Canada's median age is 40.6)

It's no country for young women either: the total fertility rate per woman is 4.1. Four hundred and sixty women per 100,000 die giving birth, and 125 babies out of every 1,000 are dead before age five, 18% of them from acute respiratory infections and 14% from birth asphyia. Given the health conditions of their mothers, it should be no surprise that 16% die from simply being born premature. One in four Yemeni boys will die before reaching his fifteenth birthday, and one in five Yemeni girls.

Even if those children do survive, WHO tells us, well over 40% of them are stunted by age five.  http://bit.ly/1Et93jr

The hope is for this war to be swift and not long lasting. Then negotiations can begin, but more importantly, support to neglected Yemen can begin, too. 

The Yemen War is not a war Egypt asked for and would rather not partake in, but “the winds do not blow as ships desire them to.”

Ambassador of Egypt’s response to the New York Times’ editorial

Well done, Mr. Ambassador—taking the bull by the horn. 

Ambassador Mohamed Tawfik, Embassy of Egypt, Washington DC

The following is a letter to the editor submitted by the Embassy to the New York Times regarding their editorial board’s recent commentary.

To the Editor, 

Abetting Economic and Political Reform in Egypt

The New York Times’ March 19 editorial, “Abetting Egypt’s Dictatorship,” is a factually misleading attempt to disrupt the U.S.-Egypt partnership. Rather than applaud the tremendous success of Egypt’s Economic Development Conference and the robust American participation therein (the Secretary of state, a congressional delegation, a business delegation), your publication took aim at Egypt’s economic development efforts in a misguided attempt to punish ordinary Egyptians for their overwhelming support to their president and government.

While Egypt and the U.S. are cooperating to confront and defeat extremist groups such as ISIS, the Times declared our partnership a “dangerous policy.” The Times expects Egypt to stand silent in face of violent extremism and demands America to abandon its longstanding core regional ally, which has served as the cornerstone of regional peace and stability. Such a policy would again be devastating to the security of ordinary Egyptians and run counter to U.S. strategic interests, ultimately costing American lives.

In accusing Egypt of a “crackdown on Islamist movements…who denounce the use of violence,” the Times chose to ignore the fact that these same Islamists have been openly calling for jihad against Egyptians and foreigners alike. Their blatant calls to violence have been followed by terrorists killing dozens in northern Sinai, and tens of bombs exploding around the country, in a desperate attempt to disrupt Egypt’s economic recovery.

In this piece, as in your overall reporting, the Times goes out of its way to absolve the Moslem Brotherhood of their crimes. Your publication joins a deluded chorus propagating the illusion that the Moslem Brotherhood is “peaceful,” that it has “renounced violence,” and that it represents “moderate Islam,” rather than recognize the historically uncontested fact that it is the mother organization from which modern day violent jihad has sprung and that its main theorist Sayyid Kutb remains to this day a source of inspiration for terrorists around the world. You should make an effort to become better informed of the Moslem Brotherhood’s public messages to their supporters in Arabic, rather than parrot their PR representatives’ deceitful English rhetoric.

The Times called Egypt a “dictatorship,” yet the Egyptian people have chosen their president in free and fair polls. Indeed, this is the most popular government Egypt has had in decades. Egyptians are more politically involved than ever and will soon vote to elect a new parliament, despite the Times’ false claim that elections have been “indefinitely postponed.” Egypt is revising the parliamentary election law in response to an independent court ruling, demonstrating democracy in action. The Egyptian government is neither able nor willing to interfere in the work of the judiciary.

The Times’ biased inaccurate reporting on Egypt has not only shocked Egyptians but also continues to face denunciation by independent media watchdogs inside the US.  I could not help but notice that the timing of this editorial, like its predecessors, was chosen to coincide with major decisions regarding the release of U.S assistance to Egypt. Such a lobbying agenda can only lead to a further decline in the quality of your reporting.

Egypt is on an undeniable path to representative, accountable government and economic growth. We are the bulwark of regional stability. Driving a wedge between our two nations serves no one’s interests.

Sincerely,

 

Mohamed Tawfik, Egyptian Ambassador to the United States

3521 International Court, NW.

Washington, DC 20008.

202-895-5400.

via www.egyptembassy.net

I used to dislike the niqab. Harper showed me how wrong I was

The Globe and Mail 

Gerald Caplan is an African scholar, former NDP national director and a regular panelist on CBC’s Power and Politics.

The first time I saw a woman wear a niqab was many years ago when I was driving through rural northern Nigeria. She was completely enveloped from head to toe in heavy black clothing. Only a thin slit for her eyes were visible. This was, I learned, a burka, an extreme form of the niqab, and I still recall all these years later how revolted I was by the sight of a woman who, it seemed to me, was wearing her own solitary confinement. Until now, no one had ever persuaded me that any woman would freely chose to disappear into that suffocating prisoner’s uniform.

Whether burka or niqab, I’ve never failed since to recoil when I’ve seen a woman wearing either. In Canada, to be sure, it’s an extremely rare sighting, but I’ve continued to believe that no woman would ever shroud herself like that by her own volition.

Thanks to the singular cruelty and political opportunism of our prime minister, I’ve just learned that I was spectacularly wrong.

Out of 35 million people in Canada, Stephen Harper has chosen to single out for verbal abuse one lone, niqab-wearing Mississauga woman, Zunera Ishaq. Her only offence is choosing to wear her niqab at her Canadian citizenship swearing-in ceremony, as is her legal right. The Prime Minister has spoken of her often, but never to her.

What he has done – this great authority on the Muslim religion – is to slander an entire “culture” as “anti-woman.” What he’s done is to unleash his caucus to join the piling-on of this one woman – “stay the hell where you came from” – even if they then pretend to apologize. She is defenseless; he bullies her from his privileged place in the House of Commons while his mindless minions stand and cheer. The court ruling that there’s no law prohibiting her from wearing her niqab at a the citizenship ceremony is unambiguous; Mr. Harper is challenging it. Jason Kenney has been exposed for peddling misleading photos of women in niqabs; he has not apologized. And all of this scapegoating, this character assassination of one woman, is being done for the crassest of political purposes.

Here’s the silver lining, though. Some media have finally decided to introduce real, live niqabis to their audiences. And what a remarkable group they’ve proved to be.

In the past few days I’ve met through media five Muslim women, four of whom are veiled. Anna Maria Tremonti, host of CBC’s The Current, interviewed two women who wear the niqab and one who no longer does. The Toronto Star carried an article by Zunera Ishaq herself. And The Tyee posted an open letter to Mr. Harper by another woman wearing a niqab, Aysha Luqman-Pandor from Pickering, Ont.

These glimpses are revelatory. They destroy every single assumption I made, in my ignorance, about niqabis. I strongly urge everyone to check out these sources for themselves. Given the government’s hysterical fear-mongering, we all owe it to ourselves to know these women better. We can safely assume that no member of the government ever has done so, or how could Jason Kenney, another renowned authority on Islam, dare say that face coverings are a “pre-medieval” tradition “that has been imposed on some women.”

In real life, you’ll find here no sign of a woman who’s being submissive or who has been oppressed. On the contrary, you’ll find five women all of whom are thoughtful, independent and articulate to the point of eloquence.

Here’s what else they have in common.

• They all are or intend to be Canadians – proud Canadians.
• They all take their religion very seriously.
• They all chose by themselves to wear the niqab, even when a husband or father tried to dissuade them.
• Those who wear it say the niqab brings them closer to their religion and their god.
• All readily remove their niqab when required for practical or official purposes.
• Every one of them insists she never encountered any trouble when wearing their niqab–until the prime minister of Canada chose, out of the blue, to make trouble for them all.

Read on here. 

 

via www.theglobeandmail.com

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan Sign Accord Over Nile Waters

Via ABC News,aby MOHAMED OSMAN and BRIAN ROHAN, Associated Press

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on Monday signed an initial agreement on sharing water from the Nile River that runs through the three countries, as Addis Ababa presses ahead with its construction of a massive new dam it hopes will help alleviate the country's power shortages.

The dam had been an issue of contention among the three countries, with Egypt concerned it would reduce its share of the Nile established under a colonial-era agreement that gave Egypt and Sudan the main rights to exploit the river's water.

But on Monday, leaders of the three nations — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Sudanese President Omar Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn — welcomed the agreement in speeches in Khartoum's Republican Palace, linking hands and smiling at a signing ceremony.

"While you are working for the development of your people, keep in mind the Egyptian people, for whom the Nile is not only a source of water, but a source of life," el-Sissi said, addressing his Ethiopian counterpart after the three watched a short film about the Grand Renaissance Dam highlighting how it could benefit the region.

Cairo previously had voiced fears that Ethiopia's $4.2 billion hydro-electric project, announced in 2011, would diminish its share of the Nile, which provides almost all of the desert nation's water needs, especially under previous governments.

The agreement, hashed out by officials from the three countries weeks beforehand in Khartoum, outlines principles by which they will cooperate to use the water fairly and resolve any potential disputes peacefully, leaving details on specific procedures to be determined later after the release of joint, expert studies.

"The Egyptians don't really have any other options," said Ethiopian water researcher Seifulaziz Milas, adding that once the dam had been built and the land behind it flooded, the amount of water flowing down the Nile would return to normal. "It's just a question of filling up the reservoir, after that there's nowhere else for the water to go besides downstream."

Until recently, Ethiopia had abided by the colonial-era agreement that gives downstream Egypt and Sudan rights to the Nile water, with Egypt taking 55.5 billion cubic meters and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic meters of the total of 84 billion cubic meters, with 10 billion lost to evaporation.

That agreement, first signed in 1929, took no account of the eight other nations along the 6,700-kilometer (4,160-mile) river and its basin, which have been agitating for a decade for a more equitable accord.

But in 2013, Ethiopia's parliament unanimously ratified a new accord that replaced previous deals that awarded Egypt veto powers over Nile projects. They said at the time that work on the dam, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Sudan's eastern border, will continue during consultations with Cairo, and that experts had already agreed that the dam would not significantly affect water flow to both Egypt and Sudan.

In his speech in Khartoum, el-Sissi said that Egypt was a dry country that used its 55.5 billion cubic meter-share of the water, whereas other countries through which it flowed received much more rainfall.

Experts have estimated that Egypt could lose as much as 20 percent of its Nile water in the three to five years needed for Ethiopia to fill the dam's massive reservoir.

 

via abcnews.go.com

Egyptian woman who has lived as man for 40 years voted ‘best mum’

The Guardian, by Patrick Kingsley

Sisa Abu Daooh took on male identity after her husband’s death in order to find employment to support her daughter

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, hands Sisa Abu Daooh the motherhood award.

Sisa Abu Daooh is Egypt’s matriarch of the moment, after being named by officials in her home town of Luxor as the city’s most supportive mother. Which may come as a surprise: for she is Luxor’s “best mum” by virtue of having worked and dressed for more than 40 years as a man.

Abu Daooh, 65, met Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, on Sunday to receive an award. She said she was not going to stop living as a man.

“I have decided to die in these clothes. I’ve got used to it. It’s my whole life and I can’t leave it now.”

It was a life she began in the 1970s when her husband died. She was six months pregnant with their first child. These days, at least one in seven Egyptian breadwinners is a woman, but 40 years ago, her conservative family did not consider it appropriate for her to work.

“My brothers wanted me to get married again,” she says. “All the time they kept bringing new grooms to me.”

The suitors weren’t for her. But according to her siblings, neither was a working life: labouring jobs were closed to women, and she lacked the education for an office job. So to the fury of her family, Abu Daooh chose another way of finding employment: she took on a male identity.

She shaved her head, wore loose-fitting male robes and made bricks and harvested wheat. Initially as “strong as 10 men”, by her account, she later took to shoe-shining once her strength began to fade.

“When a woman lets go of her femininity, it’s hard,” she said. “But I would do anything for my daughter. It was the only way to make money. What else could I do? I can’t read or write, my family didn’t send me to school, so this was the only way.”

She grew to enjoy working as a man, she said. It allowed her to go about her business without threat of rampant sexual harassment, and to perform roles that were previously off limits. “I was happy,” she said. “I was able to work men’s work, and all the people around me were happy with it. When men looked at me they looked at me as a man.”

All this meant she could also socialise as man, noted Mena Melad, the editor-owner of the Luxor Times. “She’d sit in the coffee shop with the men, and passers-by wouldn’t notice. She was one of them.”

Many people realised she was female, calling her Umm Hoda, or Hoda’s mum – a common form of address in the Middle East. “I never hid it,” she remembers. “I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret.” Gradually her renown grew, to the extent that she now claims “the whole city of Luxor knows I’m a woman, from the smallest kid to the biggest man”.

Eventually, this fame paid dividends. This year, the local government in Luxor named her the city’s most devoted mum – documented on a certificate she cannot read – and gave her a kiosk to help support her income.

Even now she has a family to support; her daughter’s husband cannot work through illness, so she helps put food on the table for the grandchildren. As gruelling as this makes her life, she would not want to see Hoda make the same sacrifice she did more than four decades ago.

“Of course not,” says Abu Daooh. “She has a husband and kids.”

via www.theguardian.com

Egypt revs-up to race in the fast lane

Al Arabiya News, by Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor

As someone who is seriously looking at investment possibilities in Egypt, I took a close interest in the country’s three-day-long Economic Development Conference, recently held in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Such events tend to be dull, dry, and flavourless, but this one was anything but on so many different levels. In fact, it kept me riveted to the edge of my seat.

“With 22 heads of state and 3,500 delegates, it’s the largest summit of CEOs and world leaders I’ve ever seen, said the summit’s organizer, Richard Attias, whose company has organized tens of major conferences worldwide. I’ve never come across anything like it before, either; it was more results-oriented than most United Nations or G8 summits, which are all-talk and little action – and vastly more good-natured.

Permeated with positivity, often from unexpected quarters, and punctuated with genuine emotion, standing ovations and hearty laughter, it was a phenomenal triumph, resulting in US$ 32.6 billion contracts signed, US$ 90 billion in MOUs as well as US$ 12.5 billion in grants and investments from Gulf States.

I’m so proud that our leaders have once again joined hands to support the Arab World’s backbone, Egypt, now under the leadership of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi - a true Arab patriot who has not only gained the respect of his people during some of the most challenging times the nation has ever endured, but also their love. The young ushers, he invited to join him on stage at the start of his inspirational closing speech, could hardly contain their exuberance at being up-close and personal with their hero, a spontaneous and somewhat boisterous display of affection for the president, delighting all in attendance.

Just as iconic was an emotive address delivered by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, who was so overflowing with happiness and gratitude, particularly towards the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman, that he fought back tears throughout and was later mobbed with hugs from his own cabinet ministers. Both he and President El-Sisi expressed their gratitude to the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for coming-up with the idea of a summit in the first place.

Another factor that made the conference exceptional in our part of the world was that there was no attempt on the part of the organisers to kowtow to western powers. Indeed, the order of speakers exemplified the Egyptian government’s independent outlook with priority given to heads of state and representatives of countries that Cairo considers to be true friends and partners in the Middle East and Africa.

And nobody was left in any doubt as to the strength of not only their economic support but also their political backing, beginning with Saudi’s Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, who called upon the world to recognise Egypt’s historical and cultural importance, while urging the international community to abandon its double standards vis-à-vis the Egyptian government.

Likewise, the speech of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, emphasised the ironclad relationship between the Emirates and Egypt. “Egypt is the home of peace, the heart of Arabism,” adding that the UAE’s stand with Egypt “is simply out of our affection towards the people of Egypt…Our stand is not a favour to anyone but a duty in its own right and not for a quick return, it is an investment in the future of our nation. What we are doing in Egypt today is an investment towards stability of the region that we shall see in the near future, God willing.”

Kuwait’s Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah praised Egypt’s new economic reforms and investment legislation as being positive. Passed just one day before the start of the conference on the President’s executive authority, the overhauled investment laws cut burdensome red tape, grants rights to non-Egyptians to own land 

and buildings, allows for foreign labour, offers taxation incentives – and most of all provides security to foreign investors. The cutting of fuel subsidies and increased taxation was applauded by the IMF and galvanised ratings agencies to upgrade their outlooks for Egypt to stable.

 Read on here. 

via english.alarabiya.net

They say Egyptians are an unhappy bunch

According to a Gallop Poll on happiness and positive emotions, released on Friday, March 20th, Egypt came close to the bottom of the list—out of the 143 countries surveyed, Egypt came in at 123. Results are based on telephone and face-to-face interviews with approximately 1,000 adults in each country, aged 15 and older, conducted in 2014 in 143 countries and areas.

The questions were as follows: Did you feel well-rested yesterday? Were you treated with respect all day yesterday? Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday? Did you learn or do something interesting yesterday? 

The poll does not attribute any specific reasons for the negative emotions in any country, so the onus is on us to investigate this further.  

What causes negative emotions? Is it resounding poverty? Insecurity and danger? Injustice? Lack of opportunities? Or maybe even harsh weather?

According to United Nations figures, 20 to 30 percent of the Egyptian population lives below the poverty line. But the poll negates that poverty is the main reason behind negative emotions “Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 118th in terms of GDP (nominal) per capita, yet when it comes to positive emotions, it ties for second.” 

Latin American countries in general are quite poor, but poverty did not hinder happiness. Indeed, Latin Americans scored the highest in terms of positive emotions. “In fact, … all of the top 10 countries with the highest Positive Experience Index scores are in Latin America.”

Is it insecurity—the anxiety resulting from ongoing terrorism? This may be true in Syria as it fell last on the list last year, but it isn’t valid in war torn Afghanistan where the poll found Afghanis smiling and laughing a lot. 

While injustice may cause citizens to experience negative emotions, Tunisia, the country perceived by the world as the one which handled the Arab Spring the best scored “52, almost a full 20 points lower than the global mean.” 

Could it be the harsh summer heat waves then? Egypt’s summer heat can be excruciatingly harsh, but the majority of Latin American countries that scored highly on the positive emotions scale enjoy similar climates to Egypt.

The end result is that the poll results lack much. Though they reflect factual information, as assimilators of knowledge, we need clearer results. Facts are facts, but logic is another matter altogether. 

One reason why results may be flawed is the cultural parameters under which the questions were asked: How, When, and Where the questions were asked are terribly important. If you ask an Egyptian woman on the street if she laughed the day before, chances are she would giggle and keep walking. If you ask a professional the same question, he may brush you aside with a no to get to his destination. 

In general Egyptians don’t like being asked questions by intrusive persons, be they foreigners or Egyptians. And chances are they would not want to have someone exploit their inner feelings. Egyptians are also not used to telephone surveying; they find the callers pushy and the style interruptive and meddlesome. 

Second, Egyptians believe envy is an evil-spirited characteristic. Once, when I tried explaining the term “green with envy” to an Egyptian woman, she shuddered in horror. As a result, some may say they are unhappy simply to steer clear from the envious eye. Many carry around blue beads to repel envy and evilness or an open hand to back off the evil spirits.

Having arrived in Egypt after a long trip, I asked my neighbour if our neighbourhood suffers from power outages, a common occurrence in Cairo. His response was surprising, “Not at all, but I tell others that we do get outages. so that we are not envied.”

The same goes with a question such as “Were you happy yesterday?” Some would prefer not to say the truth so as not to be envied. Their happiness may be jinxed after all. 

From what I know about Egyptians, they are the funniest people on earth. A vivacious, gregarious group, they laugh and smile extensively and joke to their hearts' content and to transcend their sorrows.

The truth of the matter is that polls can never give us the accurate results we assume they do. Let’s take them with a grain of salt. 

 

The world’s best falafel recipe comes from Egypt

From The Guardian—of course, Egyptian falafel is the best; did they not know that this is where it comes from? 

A trip to Alexandria confirmed the best way of making falafel is not the most common. Try replacing chickpeas with superior fava beans, just like the Egyptians

With a little practice you’ll be making tasty falafel like an old hand. Photograph: Jill Mead for the Guardian

A few years ago, I set out to discover who made the world’s best falafel. The dish had been a staple on the Leon menu in one form or another since we opened, but I felt we had yet to perfect the recipe.

I started my quest by calling the great culinary anthropologist Claudia Roden, who declared with refreshing certainty that the best falafel was to be found in Egypt. They made it with fava beans (a kind of broad bean which is also grown in Britain), she explained, which made it lighter and moister than the falafel made from chickpeas elsewhere in the Middle East. In Egypt, she said, the best falafel were widely acknowledged to be found in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria. So that is where I went.

Once a cosmopolitan city filled with louche Europeans, Alexandria is no longer a place of beauty. Its neo-classical and art deco villas, in melancholy decay since the Westerners fled during the Suez crisis in 1956, are now squeezed between the square shoulders of concrete high-rises. But man, can the Alexandrians cook.

From the chargrilled corn-on-the-cob sold by street vendors on the Corniche to the delicate broth of crab and clams I slurped at an upmarket restaurant behind the boatyards, everything was cooked with a rare love and attention to detail. And everyone I spoke to agreed: the best place for falafel was the bustling fast-food institution Mohamed Ahmed.

Here, for under a pound, I ate until my innards begged for mercy: great pyramids of piping hot falafel – light and crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, flecked green with fresh coriander and spring onion.

I asked to speak to the chef, and they led me into the street and round the corner to an imposing wooden door. It opened on to a dark, high-ceilinged room, lit only by the flame from a gas burner under a huge vat of oil. Sitting beside the vat was the chef, repetitively forming falafel in the bowl of his hand and tossing them with a flick of his thumb into the oil at a rate of about 30 a minute. Every now and then he would scoop them out with a huge slotted spoon and pass them to a runner, who would sprint back to the restaurant to place these perfect golden nuggets on to the Formica tables.

I got the feeling he had been there, flicking perfect falafel into a vat, for at least 100 years. You and I will never match his expertise, but it’s worth a try. This recipe will take you as close to falafel perfection as you can get without a plane ticket.

Falafel Heaven

Preparation time: 15 minutes, plus overnight soaking

Cooking time: 5-8 minutes (Serves 4-6)

250g dried split fava beans, covered in cold water and soaked overnight
3 garlic cloves, crushed
½ leek, finely chopped
5 spring onions, finely chopped
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp gram flour
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp ground cumin
A pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt and black pepper
Sesame seeds
Oil, for frying (rapeseed, rice bran or sunflower)

 Serve with a simple minty yoghurt sauce and some flatbread. Photograph: Jill Mead for the Guardian

1 Drain the split fava beans well in a sieve or colander. Tip them into a food processor, along with the rest of the ingredients, except for the sesame seeds. Blitz the ingredients to a rough paste and tip it out on to a clean surface.

2 Divide the mixture into 12-16 pieces, each about the size of a small golf ball. Press them down with your fingers to make small patties.

3 Sprinkle around 3 tbsp sesame seeds on to a plate and coat each side of the falafels roughly with the seeds. Transfer them to the fridge for at least 10 minutes.

4 To cook the falafel, fill a small pan with oil to a depth of about 3cm. Heat the oil – it will be ready when a piece of bread dropped in sizzles and turns brown quickly. Turn the heat down and start to cook the falafel in batches. I cooked mine 4 at a time and kept them warm on a baking tray in a low oven. Cook each side for 2-3 minutes, or until it is golden brown then flip them over and fry the other side.

5 Serve with a minty yoghurt sauce (see below), flatbreads and spiced aubergine (recipes below).

 Read on here. 

via www.theguardian.com

Egypt’s economic revolution draws investors

I'm seeing many ministers and ambassadors voice their opinion in western media. If you can't beat them, join them. Global Times, by Naglaa Al Halawani

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Egypt is most often associated with turmoil and political upheaval, but investors are flooding back to the Arab world's most populous country drawn by the country's quiet revolution of economic, legislative and regulatory reform.

The development of national mega infrastructure projects, supported by investment, tax, and subsidy reform, and creating an environment for the growth of small and medium enterprises, has been instrumental in the ratings uptick and in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).

In the last quarter alone, major multi-nationals have poured investment into Egypt. Food giant Kellogg's acquired a majority stake in Cairo-based Bisco Misr, a leading packaged biscuits company in Egypt, while leading tech firm IBM announced a multi-million dollar investment in building one of its innovative global sales centers in Cairo.

By encouraging broad-based development, supported by strong foreign investment, Egypt can stand out and avoid some of the development traps that have held back the region. Properly fostered, this new economic revival can both help improve standards of living and provide a model for inclusive sustainable growth within the region.

The Egyptian government is aiming to tread a middle path, encouraging broad-based growth which exploits Egypt's natural resources and encourages export industries, but at the same time retains and builds on an already strong internal consumer market. Foreign investors are beginning to recognize this diversity and place their money behind this broad-based multi-sector model.

It is little surprise that international companies are returning to the Egyptian market. All the basics for sound economic development are in place, starting with a population of almost 90 million people, 50 percent of whom are between 15 and 44. This is combined with a unique strategic location linking Africa to Asia and, with the Suez Canal, within easy reach of world markets in Europe and the Far East. This geographical dividend has been boosted by multiple free trade agreements with the EU, the Gulf Cooperation Council and African nations. Egypt superbly balances a growing and significant domestic market, with a perfect platform for global exporters.

Much of this infrastructure has been in place for decades, but Egypt suffered severely from the double blow of the world economic downturn and the instability of revolution. From a high of $13 billion in fiscal year 2007-08, FDI in Egypt plummeted to a mere $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2010-11. In fiscal year 2013-14, FDI bounced back to over $4 billion, with an additional $1.8 billion in first quarter of fiscal year 2014-15, possibly surpassing pre-crisis levels by 2016.

Part of this recovery is clearly the restoration of political stability, and the transition to a new constitutional settlement as marked by the parliamentary elections to be held in March and April this year. However, political stability alone is not enough to explain the resurgence of confidence; stability without growth hamstrung the Arab world for much of the postwar period.

The new surge in FDI represents something more - an international appreciation, expressed in upgrades from the international ratings agencies and recently through the IMF's Article IV report, of the fact that this government is genuinely committed to making Egypt a business friendly environment.

The Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC), which was held in Sharm El Sheikh on March 13 to 15 and attended by thousands of delegates and speakers from across the world, shed light on this new impressive economic momentum to attract foreign investment.

Egypt still has many economic challenges to overcome, but backed by an inflow of foreign capital, momentum is beginning to build.

The broad-based multi-sector investment approach is designed to overcome the historic challenge facing the region of over-reliance on a single sector. With persistence and investor friendly reforms, we are confident that Egypt can resume its place as one of the key economies in the Middle East and an example to the region.

The author is Minister of Investment of Egypt. [email protected]

via www.globaltimes.cn