Monday, June 30, 2008

First Goodbye

I'm slowly saying goodbye to my life in Cairo. Yesterday, my roommate and I left our apartment where we had been living for 10 months. 10 months, that’s longer than a pregnancy. And even if its 4,000 times less significant than the miracle of life, 10 months in an apartment is still a big deal, especially when its been at the center of your existence in the chaos of Cairo. The apartment wasn’t perfect, and its landlord was even less so, but still, it hurt just a bit to say goodbye.

We had a kitchen, where we boiled our water for mint tea, where we killed a few too many cockroaches, and where we experimented with Cairo soy milk.

There was our living room, where we would burst in from a hot day, thankful to be home. Collapsing on the couch, we would turn on the TV and watch Arabic news, Egyptian movies, or terrible American films that somehow made it over here. On that couch I watched the McCain-Romney-Huckabee-Paul debates, remember those? On that couch I took naps, entertained guests, and took refuge from the pollution, traffic and chaos outside my door.

We had a dining room, and on the massive table we feasted on pancakes and eggs to replicate American Saturday morning breakfasts. We rang in the New Years with plenty of sisters and good wine. On that table I found out about my uncle, and on that table I drank my Nescafe.

In the bathroom there was a lot of blue: blue tiles, blue bathtub, blue sink and blue tub. In the bathroom I practiced my global trivia on the shower curtain. Uzbekistan: Tashkent. Kazakhstan: Astana. My roommate used to piffle toilet paper from our gym, so we always had a good supply of the Intercontinental's finest in that bathroom.

Then my own room of course. It was a den, and I was its bear. The window by my bed was my perch for looking down at the cow and sheep, and for eavesdropping on the gossiping neighbors. Most of the time they would scream, so I didn't really have to strain to hear. The bed was rock hard, something my back loved. I also loved it because it never failed to make me laugh to see a friend jump on the bed and then immediately grab their rear in shock more than pain. My room was where I went to recharge and to relax, to focus and to zone out, and to wake up and fall asleep in Cairo.

I am still in Cairo, but I am no longer in my apartment. I am in a new apartment, with two good friends and with all the comforts I could ask for. But, my heart is still a little sore. I had to say goodbye to my apartment, which I know is the beginning of the big goodbye to the city. But not just yet.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Obama the Patriot

So I am sure that you guys have heard the ridiculous rumors about Obama, that he secretly hates America, that he didn't hold his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance because he is a Muslim Communist who cuts in line. So, to combat this hate mongering, and to spread the truth, slate.com has started some new, and more patriotic rumors. They are hilarious, and absolutely more accurate for Obama-my-baby....

Barack Obama says the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE every time he sees an American flag. He also ends every sentence by saying, "WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL." Click here for video of Obama quietly mouthing the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE in his sleep.

Barack Obama is a PATRIOTIC AMERICAN. He has one HAND over his HEART at all times. He occasionally switches when one arm gets tired, which is almost never because he is STRONG.

Barack Obama has the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE tattooed on his stomach. It's upside-down, so he can read it while doing sit-ups.

There's only one artist on Barack Obama's iPod: FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.

Barack Obama is a DEVOUT CHRISTIAN. His favorite book is the BIBLE, which he has memorized. His name means HE WHO LOVES JESUS in the ancient language of Aramaic. He is PROUD that Jesus was an American.

Barack Obama's new airplane includes a conference room, a kitchen, and a MEGACHURCH.

Barack Obama goes to church every morning. He goes to church every afternoon. He goes to church every evening. He is IN CHURCH RIGHT NOW.


If you dont think this is funny, the terrorists win.

http://www.slate.com/id/2193798/

Monday, June 23, 2008

Back Home from Abroad

In Cairo of course. I recently returned from my trip to Turkey. I participated in a conference in the Aegean coastal city Izmir, the third biggest city in the country and reputably the most Western/supportive of Turkey's staunch secularism. The conference was on Affirmative Action policies for women’s political participation and whether or not such policies are enabling or disabling. Basically, the conference looked at the question of Quotas for female political representatives, or members of parliament. We don’t have such a policy in the United States, but if we did, it would be something like “each state has to elect at least 5 female congresswomen” or something like…to ensure that women made up a certain, substantial percentage of the House of Representatives or the Senate. We don’t do this, and women only make up 13% of our Congressional Representatives. Ouch. That’s less than the global average of 15%, and way less than some of the global leaders in this area. Want to guess the country with the highest percentage of women MPs? Rwanda, coming in with around half of their MPs, shockingly close to the actual percentage of women in the population. The Scandanavian countries do damn well, and Sweeden particularly is a leader in the application of the quota system. But in general, the use of quotas to increase women’s political participation isn’t unique to any part of the world, its pretty spread out around all the continents and regions of the world. In my part of the world, that is in the Arab countries, Tunisia is far and beyond the leader in numbers. 22 percent is their proud statistic. Egypt is pathetic, at 2.4 percent. My favorite is the data for Saudi Arabia, which says 0% for women representatives, but then has an asterix to point out that men don’t have any representatives either, that’s the easy thing about straight up monarchies.


But enough of these numbers, you are probably wondering what it is that I did at this conference. Well, I am proud to say that for the first time, I presented a paper at an academic conference. I wrote my paper on the whole question of quotas in Egypt. I won’t get into all the details (that’s what the conference attendants, not my poor blog readers) but in case it comes up at your next cocktail party, Egypt in fact had a quota reserving 30 seats of the lower house of parliament for women, (that’s 10 percent, folks). But it was pretty badly put into effect, lots of people were unhappy about it, and not just chauvinists. It seemed like the women were unqualified, inexperienced, and were more appointed by Pharaoh Sadat than elected by popular vote. And as you know, Sadat was killed, and Egypt fell into a period of political instability, also not helpful for reforms which Sadat had created. Lots of other details, but in the end, quota was abolished and women now only make up 2 percent.

So what to do. Some would say, “But Pauline, Egypt has so many other problems to worry about, and women’s issues are so marginal.” Easy trap to fall into, but the answer is even easier. Women’s issues are everyone’s issues, that’s the nice thing about making up half the population. Just in the same way that men’s issues are everyone’s responsible, and if men were politically, economically, socially, and religiously marginalized throughout most of history and into current time, I would fully be supporting men’s rights. However, as it is, it is women who make up this marginalized community, but it is all of us who are responsible to correct this imbalance. The biggest problem in Egypt is currently the lack of democracy. And there can be no true democracy without the full participation and representation of women. All parties, across all political lines, should recognize the importance of their female constituency, and should work to empower the women in their own communities. A quota may not be the answer, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.

And now I am rambling, but I hope you found this slightly interesting. If so, I have a whole 20 pages and a power point that will certainly make your day.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Cairoville Photo



They let me take a photo with the gang.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Cairoville

So one of my Egyptian friends is a music producer/arranger, and he has been trying to get me to come check out the studio and see what sort of work he does. Last Tuesday I finally went, and I am kicking myself that I didn't go earlier. I stepped into the studio, and I felt like I was stepping into one of the many recording studios of my native Nashville. I was quickly introduced to a number of musicians, producers, managers, and technicians who came and went in and out of the sound proof room. My host sat me down, brought me some tea (10:00pm) went to the computer, and they all went to work as I sat mesmerized. A female vocalist was finishing her track, and then they four violinists came to do the strings. The lead male vocalist was practicing his English with me, while he taught me some Arabic musical terms. As always, they were very gracious with my Arabic abilities, flattering me so that I would open up, and we all got a long very well. The group's producer began to teach me some Arabic calligraphy and all the meanwhile, the strings kept taking take after take after take. I loved every minute of it. First of all, the song was incredibly catchy, so having to hear it over and over again was fantastic. Secondly, it was great to hear "Wait wait, lets do that again." and "I hear a mistake..I hear one of the violins going off"..."Take it from the arpeggio" and various other sentences in Arabic. At one point the police came to check out the studio, apparently a neighbor had called even though it was soundproof, and I joked how they were coming for the American spy. I got lots of laughs to my relief. The music was fabulous, and the musicians were even better. Sometimes I feel like I don't give young Egyptian men the credit they deserve. The cat calls and the stares in the streets has hardened my heart, and I have to remember that under that gelled hair and young face is probably a good heart and maybe even a hell of a violinist. All of these young men were extremely respectful and fun; music was their passion and it was fun to share it with them. All of them had other jobs, but they all secretly aspired to be successful musicians. For a moment, I forgot that I was half way around the world, miles away from my home. I may have been in Cairo, but it really felt like I was on music row. Now I just need to find the equivalent of the Pancake Pantry and I will be set.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Rachel Ray and Palestine


This is seriously the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. So, if you haven't heard, I will give you the background. Rachel Ray recently did a commercial for Dunkin' Donuts and their iced lattes, but she and her stylists decided to wear this scarf. Recognize it? If you have ever been to Palestine, Jordan or Lebanon, or even anywhere in the region, you may recognize this black and white checked scarf as the traditional head scarf for Palestinian men. If you did that, you get ten points. But you get minus 10,000 points if you said "oh thats the symbol of Islamic jihadist terrorism, right?" So thats -10,000 points for random blogger (like me except ignorant and coincidently conservative) Michelle Malkin, when she stated in her blog that "The Keffiyeh has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad." Even the man who made this scarf famous--but who did not make the scarf--Yassir Arafat, was a staunch secularists. Amazingly, the ignorant rant of this truculent blogger managed to convince Dunkin' Donuts to pull the ad. This brings me to my second point of ridiculousness, did seriously no one of the at least 50 people who viewed this ad before it aired realize that dear Rachel would come off looking like either a Palestinian sympathizer or "a murderous jihadi?" Maybe I am just trapped in my little Middle East bubble, but I find it mind-blowing that such a styling statement went unnoticed until the rants of some neo-con. Anyways, I thought I would share some hysterical comments that I found regarding this story on the BBC website...Enjoy!

"The black and white scarf is part of the traditional attire of the Palestinian, Lebanese, Jordanian Arabs. The same way the red and white scarf is for Saudi, Omani, Bahraini Arabs. This is like saying that UPS should change its brown uniform because it pleases the Hitler Youth." -Fuad Khan, Dallas USA

"Does this mean we can no longer eat falafel sandwiches & hommus?" -Mansour Ansari, USA

"Quite possibly this is the most exposure the Palestinian cause has ever received in the mainstream media in the US. Sadly, the debate has been brought forth by a fatty-food distributor and a little known conservative pundit." -Christian Di Meo, Boston, USA

"How incredibly over the top. I don't think I have ever heard something so silly. Surely the big guns they are holding in the terrorist videos are a more true representation of their intentions yet you don't see any change in gun law in the US." -Mary, Colchester