Egypt

Egypt: Why the surge in women covering their faces?

Arab News, by Mohamed Nosseir

Observing women who are covered completely in black eat in public places makes me wonder what motives could have driven them to conceal themselves in garments that cover them from head to toe. Are these women truly enjoying their meals when they can only eat by raising a tiny corner of their face veils to place some food into their mouths before immediately covering up again? If (as many falsely claim) God requires women to be completely covered in black for the duration of their lives, why did the Almighty create them in human form — only to demand that they cover up?

The Qur’an makes no mention of “women in black,” yet traditionally we Egyptians have adopted this habit, made it a custom and imposed it as part of our religion. This style of dress had never been an Egyptian custom until a few decades ago, but we have happily integrated it into our society. Although veiled women are a widespread phenomenon in many Arab Islamic nations, they hardly exist in non-Arab Islamic countries, whose societies have made better progress.

Sequestering Muslim women dressed in black and discouraging them from mingling with men in the workplace is a phenomenon designed by their respective male relatives with the aim of manipulating them. It is a purely cultural matter; a behavior that men have adopted to control their female relatives. It begins with a father or brother flexing his muscles to demonstrate power over his womenfolk before eventually handing over his “female entourage” to a husband, who usually adopts the same practices.  

Some argue that the complete black veil was invented in other Islamic nations and adopted by Egyptians. If this is true, why do Egyptians only embrace this custom and neglect to imitate countless other cultural habits? Others argue that it is God’s wish that women become “blind followers.” If so, why did God create women with the same brains and functioning minds as men, only to demand that they follow their spouses blindly? Creating “simple-minded” women would have made it easier for men to control their female relatives.

This style of dress had never been an Egyptian custom until a few decades ago, but we have happily integrated it into our society.

Mohammed Nosseir

A woman’s dress is a matter of personal choice, but her face is an essential component of universal human interaction. Facial expressions are a necessary tool to establish a clear understanding among humans; we need to recognize one another’s expressions in order to communicate. When people leave their homes, it is understood that they are willing to integrate into the community; thus, a hidden face should not be an option.

Having the majority of Egyptian women veiled implies that we live in a solidly religious society, which almost all Egyptians agree is not the case. We Egyptians tend to be more concerned with others’ behavior than with exerting efforts to advance our own personal lives. The substantial moral deterioration that we have been living with for decades is a development brought about by our “society of male leadership” — and that female followers are paying for.

Egypt (and arguably the entire Arab world) is a male-dominated society in which women are not only required to play the role of followers, but also to assume the errors made by males whenever they occur. Egyptian women burden themselves by dressing in black to avoid men’s penetrating looks or any kind of male sexual misconduct. Meanwhile, men behave hypocritically by requesting that their female relatives be completely veiled while giving themselves the right to misbehave with other women.

Egyptian men, and probably many other Arab men, want to manipulate their women. Being covered completely in black undermines women’s status and helps men realize their aim of controlling them. Women should not accept being victimized by their male relatives. Raising these kinds

via www.arabnews.com

Egypt is expected to keep booming as dust settles on its presidential election

To be fair to the writer, I did not remove the first paragraph, though it has absolutely nothing to do with the argument presented. It is also faulty, but, nevertheless, here goes. 

CNBC, by Dawn Kissi

Philippe Wojazer | Reuters Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Egypt's presidential election has been faulted for having placed a rubber stamp on a new term for Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who won in a landslide with little opposition. Nevertheless, investors are still enthusiastic buyers of the country's recovery story.

With a new infusion of IMF funding in Egypt's coffers, and another $3 billion being lined up by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), analysts say that the country's economy is showing real signs of stability — shrugging off the effects of civil strife that frequently rears its head, and previously runaway inflation.

Investors are giving the country a second look, Egypt is primed to offer solid returns, and see an uptick in foreign direct investment despite fears of surging global interest rates.

"The IMF program has helped restore investor confidence and has allowed Egypt to make major adjustments to its economic imbalance," Denise Simon, co-head of emerging market debt with Lazard Asset Management, told CNBC recently.

In spite of lingering problems, Egypt "is beginning to reap the rewards of a painful currency devaluation and tighter fiscal policy."

A gambit made by the central bank in 2016 to lift currency controls appears to have paid off. Price pressures, while still high, have come down from a stratospheric 33 percent last July to under 12 percent, its lowest in two years.

"The risk is that policy missteps could trigger capital flight, lead to a depreciation of the Egyptian pound and a corresponding increase in import inflation, but in our view, this risk remains limited at the moment," said Ed al-Hussainy, senior interest rate and currency analyst at Columbia Threadneedle.

Cris Bouroncle | AFP | Getty Images

Cargo ships navigate in the Suez Canal between Port Said and Ismailia, about 100 kms northeast of Cairo.

FX boom

Foreign investment has been steadily showing signs of picking up, primarily due to the decline of the Egyptian pound and al-Sisi's government working to improve the country's business climate.

As of February of this year, Egypt's foreign currency reserves topped a record $42.5 billion. In February, Egypt also issued $4 billion of dollar-denominated international bonds, with was heavily oversubscribed.

The spillover effects of slicing the value of the pound in 2016 was enough of an economic shot to spur the economy without sending inflation on a new leg higher. Some analysts think prices peaked last year, and could fall to single digits by 2019.

Currently, two of the three major credit rating agencies have Egypt ranked lower than some emerging market peers, yet the cost of insuring its debt (against default) is significantly lower.

So what's driving investor confidence in a country that is prone to not only domestic, but also regional unrest? Analysts point to the steadily improving macro environment, coupled with the real potential for much-needed mega-projects such as infrastructure.

"We have a positive view on Egypt given improved geopolitical support, its healthy macroeconomic backdrop, and positive investor sentiment," Asha Mehta, lead portfolio manager for Acadian Asset Management's Frontier Emerging Markets arm.

Amid improved political stability, a recovery in income after inflation and falling price pressures, Acadian is "finding opportunity in the consumer sectors." Additionally, significant FDI into capital intensive projects create opportunity in the transportation and real estate sectors, Mehta told CNBC.

Finally, as interest rates fall and policy stability takes hold, the banking sector also looks appealing to investment, the analyst said.

Meanwhile, the IDB's $3 billion investment in the country is a proposed three-year deal that will bring multiple projects around the country to fruition, and there is an initiative underway of a $500 million-dollar fund to support small and medium-sized projects as well.

From electric trains to a proposed high-speed railway linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, capital is being directed at improving the country's domestic circumstances.

Market participants seem willing to worry less and take risks, which have appeared to ease a bit so far in 2018. Going forward, Lazard's Simon explained a key task for policy makers will be to execute policies that support sustainable economic growth and investment.

"I continue to see opportunities in both dollar-denominated sovereign bonds and local T-bills," Simon explained. " Yields on sovereign bonds are in the 6-8 percent range, and I see room for significant spread tightening as Egypt benefits from IMF support," and an ambitious reform agenda.

Egypt is a consensus favorite relative to its peers, given the stabilizing political and economic environment. "Middle Eastern markets have limited upside given current valuations and limited upcoming catalysts, aside from Saudi Arabia," said Acadian's Mehta.

Article appeared in CNBC Egypt is expected to keep booming as dust settles on its presidential election 

Hacked messages show Qatar appearing to pay hundreds of millions to free hostages

Washington Post, By Joby Warrick

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, second left in front row, escorts released kidnapped members of Qatar’s ruling family at the Doha airport in Doha, Qatar, on April 21, 2017. (Qatar News Agency/AP)

One morning last April, in the 16th month of a grueling hostage negotiation, a top Qatari diplomat sent a text message to his boss to complain about a brazen robbery being perpetrated against his own country.

Qatar had entered secret talks to free 25 of its citizens from kidnappers in Iraq, yet the bargaining had turned into a kind of group shakedown, the official said, with a half-dozen militias and foreign governments jostling to squeeze cash from the wealthy Persian Gulf state.

“The Syrians, Hezbollah-Lebanon, Kata’ib Hezbollah, Iraq — all want money, and this is their chance,” Zayed bin Saeed al-Khayareen, Qatar’s ambassador to Iraq and chief negotiator in the hostage affair, wrote in the message. “All of them are thieves.”

And yet, the Qataris were willing to pay, and pay they did, confidential documents confirm.

In the April text message and in scores of other private exchanges spanning 1 ¹ /₂ years, Qatari officials fret and grouse, but then they appear to consent to payments totaling at least $275 million to free nine members of the royal family and 16 other Qatari nationals kidnapped during a hunting trip in southern Iraq, according to copies of the intercepted communications obtained by The Washington Post.

The secret records reveal for the first time that the payment plan allocated an additional $150 million in cash for individuals and groups acting as intermediaries, although they have long been regarded by U.S. officials as sponsors of international terrorism. These include Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi paramilitary group linked to numerous lethal attacks on American troops during the Iraq War, the records show.

[Read the documents: Hacked phone messages shed light on massive payoff that ended Iraqi hostage affair]

The payments were part of a larger deal that would involve the Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish governments as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and at least two Syrian opposition groups, including al-Nusra Front, the notorious Sunni rebel faction linked to al-Qaeda. The total sum demanded for the return of the hostages at times climbed as high as $1 billion, although it is not clear from the documents exactly how much money ultimately changed hands.

Qatar, which acknowledged receiving help from multiple countries in securing the hostages’ release last year, has consistently denied reports that it paid terrorist organizations as part of the deal. In a letter last month denouncing a published account of the events in the New York Times, Qatar’s ambassador to the United States asserted flatly that “Qatar did not pay a ransom.”

“The idea that Qatar would undertake activities that support terrorism is false,” the ambassador, Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad al-Thani, wrote. The letter does not deny that Qatar paid money to end the crisis, but suggests that the recipients were government officials, citing vaguely a Qatari initiative with Iraq to “strengthen bilateral relations and ensure the safe release of the abductees.”

Excerpt: read on here. 

Why is Egypt’s government promoting quinoa cultivation?

Egypt Today, by Jehad El-Sayed

CAIRO – 28 April 2018: Having the potential to aid food security in the 21st century in the context of climate change, a national campaign to expand the cultivation of quinoa, a natural food resource of high nutritive value, has been launched by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The quinoa grain can be roasted and then made to flour in order to make different types of breads and pastas. It also can be added to soups or used as a cereal.

The underutilized grain is found to be high in protein, zinc and calcium, and thus can be used in the baby food industries.

Quinoa reduces dependence on other staples like wheat and rice

The quinoa seed is one of the alternatives that the Ministry of Agriculture has set to reduce dependence on other staples like wheat and rice.

Quinoa is a water-conscious crop, as it needs much less water to cultivate than rice and wheat. While rice, on average, requires 6,000 cubic meters of water per feddan (1 feddan = 1.038 acres), quinoa only needs less than 500 cubic meters.

Lately, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Ati decided to reduce the agriculture area of rice in Egypt from 1.7 million feddans to 724,200 feddans. According to the ministry, this decline will save three billion cubic meters of water.

Moreover, quinoa is incredibly resilient and can grow in poor or salty soils, and it also has the ability to be grown well in very harsh circumstances, unlike most grains.

Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer; the country imports half of the wheat consumed annually. Quinoa would serve to reduce the country’s wheat imports.

Quinoa health benefits

Quinoa is highly nutritious, gluten-free and packed with essential amino acids, fiber, vitamins and minerals.

For celiac patients, quinoa also stands as an alternative to wheat, as it is proven to be gluten-free.

It also scores lower than other crops on the glycemic index, a measure of how quickly foods raise blood sugar levels, and thus it can be used for diabetics.



Quinoa cultivation, high economic return

Minister of Agriculture Abd El-Moneim El Banna asserted that expanding the cultivation of quinoa will provide job opportunities for youth, especially in new industrial-agricultural areas and new reclamation zones.

According to the Agricultural Research Center (ARC), the average yield of quinoa grown in salty soil is reported to be 1 ton per feddan. The studies also revealed that quinoa is a cost-efficient and promising crop for the domestic grain market’s demands. It is also expected to be a valued crop for export, providing the state another means to bring more hard currency into the country.

Quinoa cultivation areas

Quinoa was first introduced in Egypt in 2005, being first cultivated in Nubie’ City, South Sinai to test its response to the harsh weather conditions; the crop showed exceptional adaptability to the well-drained soils.

Mahmoud Madani, head of the Agricultural Research Center, has said that the cultivated area of quinoa has reached more than 80 feddans in the period since 2010, being grown in 20 governorates, including South Sinai and Alexandria.

Data mining simplified

After the Cambridge Analytica scandal befell the world, we were inundated with techno lingo: data mining, informed consent, whistleblowing, internet browsing histories, disinformation, privacy breach, psychological profiling, psychographics, trolling, micro targeting and many others. Collectively the terms, and the story, left us baffled.

Today we aim to simplify some of the jargon as we come to terms with the story.

Cambridge Analytica, AggregateIQ, Eunoia Technologies, and Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), are data mining companies. Utilizing powerful software programs, they collect data by examining large databases, such as Facebook, in order to generate new information. That is data mining.

Whistleblower Chris Wylie, who cofounded or worked for these companies has come out against them. “We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of profiles. And built models to exploit that and target their inner demons,” and that’s trolling.

Data mining in itself is not illicit, but when the data gathered non consensually influence choices at the ballot box during high-profile election campaigns, then it is fraught with illegality.

Breaching the trust of 87 million Facebook users by using psychographics, or users’ psychological profiles, to capture user behaviour patterns, data mining companies manipulated Facebook users to make choices they would have otherwise not made.

“This is what modern-day colonialism looks like,” Wylie also says. I tend to agree with the statement since the influence of such companies extended across the globe. Cambridge Analytica’s website boasts “supporting more than 100 campaigns across five continents.”

Hypothetically, since confirmed info is yet to emerge, voters during the 2016 US presidential election may have been swayed to vote one way or another. The outcome of the Brexit vote may have been compromised since AggregateIQ, hired by VoteLeave and BeLeave, was paid “four million dollars to help them ‘cheat’,” according to Wylie.

Also Ted Cruz, the 2016 Republic candidate for US president hired Cambridge Analytica paying it almost $6 million. It was to assist in “data analysis and online advertising.” Today, while weighing in on the scandal, Ted Cruz said that Cambridge Analytica assured his campaign that its voter data methods were legit.

Once Cruz lost, Cambridge Analytica went on to work on the Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Data gathering companies influence people’s choices in elections worldwide. AggregateIQ, “is a company that has gone around the world and undermined democratic institutions in all kinds of countries. They could care less as to whether or not their work is compliant,” Wylie says.

SCL boasts its success in manipulating the Nigerian 2007 election. The Guardian quoted an ex-employee of SCL to have said, “It was the kind of campaign that was our bread and butter. We were employed by a billionaire who’s panicking at the idea of a change of government and who wants to spend big to make sure that doesn’t happen.” In addition, Cambridge Analytica was hired to hack into the incoming president’s personal data to find relevant information to blackmail him and intimidate his followers.

In the Caribbean country, Trinidad and Tobago, psychological profiling—voters’ choices, preferences, likes, and dislikes—was conducted to improve the chances of one political party. Today, the government is questioning the role that Cambridge Analytica played in the election and will administer a full review.

The 2017 Kenyan elections was compromised by data mining, too. Cambridge Analytica mined Kenyan voters’ data to help the President Uhuru Kenyatta win. It ran Kenyan's re-election campaign in 2017. "We have rebranded the entire party twice, written the manifesto, done research, analysis, messaging. I think we wrote all the speeches and we staged the whole thing — so just about every element of this candidate," Mark Turnbull, managing director for Cambridge Analytica told an undercover reporting team from the British Channel 4.

Voters in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, and Brazil have all been targeted and swayed one way or another due to the interference of data mining companies. Today AggregateIQ is working on the 2019 Ukrainian election campaign.

Data mining on social media is very common. If you look up an item on Google, advertisement of similar items will haunt you for a set period until Google realizes that you are not interested anymore. Why? Because Google uses your information to target you. Say you want to order a pair of sunglasses online, you will be inundated with ads for sunglasses; if you want to go on a Nile cruise, for weeks on end, your pages will include Nile cruise ads.

We realize this catch and live with it since the promotions don’t influence our life-changing decisions such as whom to vote for. Besides, we don’t pay to access information off Google, so this is how Google rewards itself, by targeting our choices and preferences.

But once data mining is utilized to affect fundamental choices, those life or death decisions, it becomes a vile strategy that ordinary folks must heed and beware.

What we include or pass on social media may come back and terrorize us later. Photos, anecdotes, political biases may be used against us. It is also important to realize that not all that we read or see on social media is there freely, but it may be there to target us personally, based on information we generously gave, so we shouldn’t be fooled.

Egypt passed through a presidential election recently, and I’m proud to say that Egyptians did not fall prey to Cambridge Analytica or other data mining companies. Despite the tarnishing accusations that western media indulged in, the elections were free and consensual. Egyptians chose whom they wanted to lead the country.

I would also suggest to western media to focus on Cambridge Analytica and its likes, which are major destructive tools, and leave Egypt to utilize its simple and easy to recognize electoral devices void of manipulative techniques and swaying tactics.

No attack, no victims, no chemical weapons: Douma witnesses speak at OPCW briefing at The Hague (VIDEO)

I couldn't download the video, but it is very valuable footage, so do go to the site to watch. 

Witnesses of the alleged chemical attack in Douma, including 11-year-old Hassan Diab and hospital staff, told reporters at The Hague that the White Helmets video used as a pretext for a US-led strike on Syria was, in fact, staged.

“We were at the basement and we heard people shouting that we needed to go to a hospital. We went through a tunnel. At the hospital they started pouring cold water on me,” the boy told the press conference, gathered by Russia’s mission at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague.

Hassan was among the “victims” seen being washed by water hoses in a video released by the controversial White Helmets group on April 7. The boy and his family later spoke to the media and revealed that Hassan was hurried to the scene by men who claimed that a chemical attack had taken place. They started pouring cold water on the boy and others, filming the frightened children.

“There were people unknown to us who were filming the emergency care, they were filming the chaos taking place inside, and were filming people being doused with water. The instruments they used to douse them with water were originally used to clean the floors actually,” Ahmad Kashoi, an administrator of the emergency ward, recalled. “That happened for about an hour, we provided help to them and sent them home. No one has died. No one suffered from chemical exposure.”

Read more

RT visits hospital seen in Douma ‘chemical attack’ video, talks to boy from footage (VIDEO)

Halil al-Jaish, a resuscitator who tended to people at the Douma hospital that day, told the press conference that some of the patients had indeed experienced respiratory problems. The symptoms, however, were caused by heavy dust, which engulfed the area due to recent airstrikes, and no one showed any signs of chemical warfare poisoning, al-Jaish said.

The hospital received people who suffered from smoke and dust asphyxiation on the day of the alleged attack, Muwaffak Nasrim, a paramedic who was working in emergency care, said. The panic seen in footage provided by the White Helmets was caused mainly by people shouting about the alleged use of chemical weapons, Nasrim, who witnessed the chaotic scenes, added. No patients, however, displayed symptoms of chemical weapons exposure, he said.

Ahmad Saur, an emergency paramedic with the Syrian Red Crescent, said that the ward he was working at did not receive any patients exposed to chemical weapons on the day of the alleged incident or after it. All the patients needed either general medical care or help with injuries, he said. Saur told journalists he came to speak at The Hague independently of the Red Crescent, and that he was testifying freely and without any pressure.

One reporter asked what would happen to the eyewitnesses and whether they would “stay in Europe to testify.”

“We’re going back home, and see no problem with that. The situation is a lot better now. We’re Douma residents, like many others,” Hassan Ayoun, a doctor with the emergency department, said.

Read more

‘

Whole story was staged’: Germany's ZDF reporter says Douma incident was false flag attack

Six of the Douma witnesses brought to The Hague have already been interviewed by the OPCW technical experts, Russia’s permanent representative to the OPCW, Aleksandr Shulgin, said.

“The others were ready too, but the experts are sticking to their own guidelines. They’ve picked six people, talked to them, and said they were 'completely satisfied' with their account and did not have any further questions,” Shulgin revealed. He added that the allegations by “certain Western countries” ahead of the briefing that Moscow and Damascus were seeking to “hide” the witnesses from the OPCW experts did not hold water.

The alleged chemical incident was only supported by the White Helmets’ video and social media reports from militant-linked groups, but the US, the UK and France judged they had enough evidence that it actually took place and launched a series of punitive strikes against Syria on April 14. The US and its allies accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of carrying out the “attack,”without providing any proof of their claim. Notably, the strike came hours before the OPCW fact-finding team was set to arrive in Douma to determine whether chemical weapons had been used there.

In the right direction

Al Ahram Weekly, by Nesma Nawar 

Egypt’s economic reform programme is heading in the right direction, according to the IMF, with the economy making leaps and bounds over the last year and a half, reports Nesma Nowar

The IMF expects Egypt’s economic growth rate to hit 5.2 per cent in the current fiscal year

Egypt’s economic reform programme received much praise during this year’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group held last week in Washington.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said that floating the currency, rebuilding the foreign reserves, and reducing the fiscal deficit were all actions the government had taken that showed it was heading in the right direction. 

“We are clearly seeing a rebound in foreign direct investment and in investment in Egypt in general. [There] is a clear rebound of growth as well, and hopefully the Egyptian economy is back on a productive, positive path that will be beneficial for all,” Lagarde said in a press briefing on the sidelines of the meetings.

Egypt’s foreign reserves reached $42.611 billion at the end of March, a rise of nearly $87 million from $42.52 billion at the end of February, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said earlier this month.

Jihad Azour, director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the IMF, said that Egypt’s economic reform programme had taken large strides and procedures put in place to ensure stability had been successful.

He said that after a year and a half of launching the programme, the Egyptian economy had made large improvements, with the financial situation improving and the reserves at the CBE rising. He added that inflation had seen a reduction and that sectors such as tourism and exports had flourished.

The IMF expects Egypt’s economic growth rate to hit 5.2 per cent in the current fiscal year, registering up to 5.8 per cent in the 2018/2019 fiscal year, Minister of Finance Amr Al-Garhi noted in a statement made in Washington.

He highlighted the decrease in the unemployment rate from 13.5 per cent in December 2017 to 11.3 per cent in March 2018, expecting the rate to drop to 9.7 per cent by the end of fiscal year 2018/2019.

Azour said that Egypt’s economic reform programme was still at the halfway point, adding that the first phase had been achieved. “Now the second phase in which the government is focusing on structural reforms and whose main aim is to enhance economic activity and to improve growth in order to provide the work opportunities that Egyptian young people deserve can begin,” Azour said during a press briefing.
He added that about 700,000 young people enter the labour market in Egypt every year.

Concerning expected fuel subsidy cuts, Azour said the amount and timing of the cuts was something for the Egyptian government. But he said the objective was to slash fuel subsides by the end of 2019.

Cutting fuel subsides had contributed to redirecting resources to supporting social programmes, he said. He expected the negative impacts of the subsidy cuts to be limited compared to last year, as the economy had been buoyed by the reduction in inflation.

Egypt’s annual headline inflation has declined from a peak high of 33 per cent in July 2017 to 13.1 in March 2018.

Meanwhile, Azour said that the reform programme and the measures that had been taken in order to achieve stability had seen costs for the country’s middle classes, but that many positive effects had been achieved. “The middle class is better off when it has more job opportunities,” he said.

Al-Garhi said a delegation from the IMF would visit Egypt in May for a third review of the country’s economy, in preparation for Cairo to receive the fourth tranche of an IMF loan of $2 billion.

Azour said that Egypt would receive the tranche 

after the assessment, expecting it to come around the middle of the year. In December 2017, Cairo received the third tranche of the loan, worth $2 billion. The fourth disbursement will bring the total Egypt has received so far to $8 billion.

During the spring meetings, it was also announced that the IMF, the CBE, and the Egyptian government will co-host a high-level conference in Cairo in May on promoting economic growth and job creation in Egypt.
 
The aim of the event is to recognise the successes in macroeconomic stabilisation that Egypt has achieved thus far, helping to build consensus among stakeholders around the reforms that are needed to attain higher and more inclusive growth and create jobs to meet the needs of Egypt’s young and growing population.
 
The conference will aim to shed light on global best practices and successful experiences elsewhere that can help enhance Egypt’s structural reform agenda and address medium-term challenges.

via weekly.ahram.org.eg

Mohamed Salah named PFA Player of the Year ahead of Kevin De Bruyne as Liverpool star beats Man City rival to prize

The Sun

MO MAIN MAN

Gary Lineker broke the news on social media - Egyptian ace has scored 31 Premier League goals this season and was crowned the league's best player by fellow professionals.

DELIGHTED Liverpool star Mohamed Salah has been crowned PFA Player of the Year.

The Egyptian fought off competition from Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne to scoop the prestigious individual prize on Sunday night.

Salah has scored an incredible 31 Premier League goals during his first season at Anfield, and has also helped himself to nine assists.

 

The former Chelsea man has been instrumental in Liverpool’s top four push under Jurgen Klopp.

Salah joined the Reds from Roma last summer for £37million and has quickly established himself as a club icon.

4

Gary Lineker broke the news on social media

In lieu of US troops in Syria

After a US-led-coalition strike on three suspected chemical facilities in Syria, President Trump announced that he would call on Arabs to take over the protection of Syria, after he recalls the 2000 US army troops on the ground there. Several Arab countries were to be asked to team up and form an Arab Coalition Army to "keep ISIS at bay in Syria."

According to CNN, “The US is pursuing contributions from Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to help counter Iran in Syria by filling the void should the US significantly reduce its footprint in the country.” 

This idea was suggested in 2013 and then again in 2015, but it didn’t come through. President Trump had also considered something similar in Afghanistan: replacing the American troops with “private contractors.”

At best, these are bizarre, wishful contemplations on President Trump’s part; at worst, replacing the US ground troops in Syria with Arab forces is a dangerous, menacing suggestion. It actually proves that President Trump is unaware of the dynamics in the region.

For starters, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt will not join forces with Qatar in the near future. Even more so, Qatar is pro Iran and will not participate in an endeavour that will make it stand against Iran.

This while the Iranian forces have warned Saudi Arabia against such a move saying that it will not withstand 48 hours against Iran. An escalation is already brewing even before one Arab soldier sets foot on Syrian soil.

Even if Saudi Arabia may be drawn towards such an idea, it, along with the UAE, is fighting a war in Yemen, with the Houthis breaching the Saudi border regularly. This makes it unlikely for the Saudis to intervene with troops in Syria.

The Guardian goes as far as to extrapolate that Saudi Arabia may outsource recruitment for such a task to Pakistan and Sudan—Saudi Arabia replaces the US, one proxy, but sends the Sudanese instead, yet another proxy.

Indeed such a move will exacerbate the Syrian war further. As it stands, too many powers have come uninvited to Syria only to meddle in its affairs. Syria does not need further trespassers and encroachers.

But the worse part of all this is that Arabs will end up standing against each other, a notion that has always been considered shameful. Yes, Arab countries may think differently and choose different alliances, but they have rarely fought one another.

It is clear that President Trump, as he often does, did not think this one through.

Soon after President Trump came up with this idea, the Wall Street Journal reported that John Bolton, the new national security advisor to President Trump, called Abbas Kamel, Egypt’s Intelligence Chief, to pursue it further. He directly asked if Egypt would contribute troops and money to the US-led efforts in Syria so as to defeat the Islamic State (IS) in Syria’s Northwest.

President Trump and his advisors have a highly visionary mind if they believe Egypt would fight the US’s war in Syria in lieu of the US.

Egypt has refused to get involved in the Syrian crisis all along. Egypt had made it clear from the earliest moments of this war that it will take a neutral stance on the Syrian crisis even if it sides primarily with the national army and the legitimate government in Syria and even if it means going against several powerful Arab nations and the US.

Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shukry, announced that Egypt will not send any troops to Syria. Simultaneously, Mohamed Rashad, the former head of Egyptian General Intelligence, told news website Egypt Independent that Cairo's forces were not “mercenaries, [to be] leased or ordered by foreign states to deploy forces in a certain area.“

I doubt President Trump had considered Egyptians mercenaries since his farfetched idea entails financing the take over, too, but, undoubtedly, there is more to it than that.

Egypt must remain focused on its interior battle with extremists in Sinai and those arriving from the western borders, its troops and its finances directed towards its biggest challenge. It cannot spread its manpower and resources thin by fighting other wars, too.

And Egypt, realizing the outcome of international interference, has fought its war alone and will continue to fight it alone. It is enough that Egypt is losing its men while protecting its soil; it shouldn’t be expected to commit even more precious souls towards the fight in Syria at the whim of the US. And as for keeping ISIS at bay, the facade for this suggestion, ISIS is near defeat in Syria. 

More importantly, the Egyptian goals in Syria do not match those of the US, which aims to remove President Asaad and restrict the Iranian role while it supports the opposition forces.

President Trump’s original instinct told him not to go into Syria further; he had better return to that notion. In fact, he wanted to leave Syria altogether. However, the establishment, the media, and those who want the MiddleEast to remain entangled and drawn into one war after another told him not to. However, if the US troops withdraw from Syria, it should not rest on someone else's, the Arabs', shoulder. 

I can understand the Arabs getting involved in rebuilding Syria, bringing the Syrians together, and bringing Syria back into the Arab World, but to replace the US is a precarious escalation.

What the US needs to do is to stop digging deeper in Syria, and ultimately leaving Syria to fend for itself. A proxy army, in particular an Arab one, will not cut it.

 

Lebanon deports Ibn Khaldun Centre's Saad El-Din Ibrahim to Egypt over Tel Aviv lecture

Ahram Online

File Photo: Saad El-Din Ibrahim speaks on a panel during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, September 21, 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

A controversial Egyptian sociologist, Saad El-Din Ibrahim, was deported back to Egypt from Lebanon on Friday over giving a lecture in Tel Aviv last January.

A security source said that police at Cairo International Airport had been informed of Ibrahim’s arrival as a deportee from Beirut before he arrived.

Ibrahim answered police inquiries, the source said, elaborating that he had travelled from Egypt to Beirut  on Thursday to deliver a lecture at the American University in Beirut (AUB) under the title of “The Future of the Arab Spring’s Revolutions.” 

However, upon arriving in Beirut he was refused entry by the Lebanese authorities per Lebanon's law due to a visit to Israel in January, where he gave a lecture at Tel Aviv University, Ibrahim told authorities.

Under Lebanon’s Israel Boycott Law, "agreements made either directly or through any intermediary party with institutions or persons having residence in Israel, or with persons or entities acting on behalf of Israel or its interests, are forbidden."

A violation of the law, promulgated in 1955, may result in the imposition of criminal penalties, which could include imprisonment and fines.

The security source added that that the authorities informed Ibrahim that he has been accused of squandering funds in five cases, and instructed him to undertake necessary appeal measures, before dismissing him.

In January 2018, Ibrahim came under fire for delivering the lecture in Tel Aviv; Arab Palestinian students staged a protest against Ibrahim, accusing him of “treason", according to Al-Ahram Arabic news website. 

Founded in 1988, the Ibn Khaldun Centre for Development Studies says it specialises in advocating for democracy and civil freedoms in Egypt and the Arab World.

via english.ahram.org.eg