WWII mines Egypt

I have this article on qantara.de on the WWII mines and other ammunition left behind on Egypt’s North coast. The Egyptian government wants to re-launch its efforts to clear the zones that are affected, but wants to have it all paid for by its international donors.

As Egypt has brought to perfection the art of donor-shopping probably more then any other nation, I guess in the end they’ll find someone stupid enough to pay the bills submitted by the Egyptian army.

In contrast to what appears to be common in other countries, the Egyptian army maintains its monopoly over mine-clearing. Which is why not much has happened until today and which is why most donors rightfully so are reluctant to contribute.

Excerpt from the English translation:

It was not until 1982 that the Egyptian government acknowledged the problem. “It was a question of costs and priorities,” Fathy El Shazly, director of the national northwest coast development program, frankly admits.

He refers to the history of his country, which after the Second World War was first busy gaining independence and then tied up in four wars against Israel. A bit more haste would have been advisable, though.

According to the NGO “Landmine Monitor,” there have been 8,313 mine-related casualties in this region since 1982, including 619 deaths. As can be observed again and again whenever natural disasters or accidents occur, however, the Egyptian government evidently does not place much importance on its own citizens. It has done little to help the victims to date.

The Egyptian army did clear some 3.5 million pieces of ammunition out of the desert between 1982 and 1999, but since then a lack of funds has slowed down their efforts – at least that’s the official line.

Since things are moving much too slowly for the private sector, which has great plans for the region, some hotels and oil companies have begun to remove buried ammunition at their own expense in order to build access roads to their projects.

Alain Roussillon died yesterday

The French scholar Alain Roussillon, an expert on Egypt and the director of the CEDEJ in Cairo, passed away yesterday from a after suffering from a brain hemorrhage. He will be buried in Egypt, where his mother came from.

I last saw Roussillon on March 5, when we had a long chat about the constitutional amendments and current political situation in Egypt. I remember him being concerned about the rising social tensions in Egypt, seeing in them both an opportunity for the expression of genuine grievances and the return of la question sociale in Egyptian politics and a potential danger. He compared the present situation to the atmosphere of the year preceding the July 1952 coup — the Cairo fire and ensuing riot, the political intrigue, the massive social disaffection and rejection of the government. Some of the large-scale strikes we had seen at the time made him suspect that the legendary patience of long-suffering Egyptians was wearing thin.

“Street protests in Egypt are dangerous – you will have thousands of deaths in case of a riot. Neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor the regime really control the street,” he said. “The January 1952 model is reproducible.” We differed somewhat on that point, but agreed on one thing: the greatest threat to the regime is not the Muslim Brotherhood or some other political group, but popular attitudes towards it, and there are few countries where the state lacks as much legitimacy as Egypt.

He was very well versed in the debates in the Egyptian press and intellectual circles — the way positions are taken and framed, the coded references and intellectual antecedents of the idées reçues of Egyptian discourse. He was also alarmed, as someone who has spent most of his adult life chronicling Egyptian society, of the ascendancy of shallow conservative and materialistic ideas in Egyptian life — the entire ecosystem of ideas and practices that has largely taken over this country in the past 20-30 years, ideas he explored by examining the new Islamic writings that were came out of the globalization of Islam.

He was a fascinating conversation partner, I regret that we will not meet again.

The announcement of his death, information on the church service, and a note from the CEDEJ staff follows after the jump in French and Arabic.
Continue reading Alain Roussillon died yesterday

UNSC says maalesh, no WMDs in Iraq

Monumental balls:

UNITED NATIONS, June 29 — The U.N. Security Council voted 14 to 0 Friday to immediately shut down the U.N. weapons-inspection unit for Iraq, drawing to a close 16 years of international scrutiny of Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs.

The action ended more than four years of political deadlock between the United States and Russia over the fate of the inspection effort. Russia abstained, citing U.S. and British refusal to permit the inspectors to provide a final report confirming Iraq’s disarmament.

The resolution — sponsored by the United States and Britain — offers no formal judgment on the status of Iraq’s weapons program. Instead, it refers to the findings of a CIA inspection team that concluded in 2004 that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

“These efforts have demonstrated that the current government of Iraq does not possess weapons of mass destruction or delivery systems,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said after the vote. Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, had made a personal pledge to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki before leaving Baghdad to shutter the U.N. weapons programs.

Iraq’s U.N. ambassador, Hamid al-Bayati, hailed the decision, saying an “appalling chapter in Iraq’s modern history” has been closed. He said he welcomed the council’s decision to return about $63 million in Iraqi oil proceeds — which have been used to fund the inspections program — to Iraq.

It’s not like I’m advocating Chapter VII action against the United States for invading Iraq on false pretexts, but how about at least letting the UN admit there were no WMDs in Iraq?

‘The Source’ found dead

Ashraf Marwan, maybe the most colorful person of London’s Arab community, has died under unclear circumstances. Some believe him to be ‘The Source’ which tipped off Mossad prior to the 1973 war – others say he acted as a double agent misleading the Israelis.

From The Times:

Mr Marwan’s death will send shockwaves across the Middle East and among some of Britain’s wealthiest people. His associates included Adnan Khashoggi, the arms dealer, Ken Bates, the football club chairman, the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the late Tiny Rowland.

If found to be murder, his death will carry echoes of last year’s assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB agent.

In any case, he was close to Nasser and Sadat and must have made his fortune thanks to the connections he developed during that time, in particular when he overlooked the businesses of the Egyptian military in the 1970.

Plug: “With/Without”

Withwithout Cover 2

A little over a month ago, With/Without: Spatial products, Practices and Politics in the Middle East, a collection of essays about contemporary Arab urban issues, was released at the Dubai International Design Forum. Published by Middle Eastern cultural magazine Bidoun and the Forum’s organizer, Moutamarat, it has contributions from writers across the Arab world, including two writers who contribute to Arabist.net: Issandr El Amrani on Cairo’s al-Azhar Park and Ursula Lindsey on The Yacoubian Building.

And tons of other fine people too, such as the great Moroccan photographer Yto Barrada, Director of the Iraqi National Archive Saad Bashir Eskander, renowned Dutch po-mo architect Rem Koolhaas and Lebanese historian Fawwaz Trabulsi to list only a few of the contributors who wrote the 14 essays on themes such as suburbia, shopping malls, public parks, street life, universities, or skycrapers.

I’ve just received my copy (which had been intercepted by the Egyptian Postal Service and inspected at length for subversive material, apparently) and it’s a handsomely designed volume, printed on archival paper with lovely photography.

Where can I acquire this gem of a book, I hear you say? Well, although distribution deals are still underway, you can start by visiting the Bidoun site for ordering info or read the press release after the jump.

Continue reading Plug: “With/Without”

Bush Plans Envoy To Islamic Nations

Bush Plans Envoy To Islamic Nations:

President Bush announced plans yesterday to appoint an envoy to an organization of Islamic nations with the intention of improving the battered image of the United States in the Muslim world.

Speaking at the rededication of the half-century-old Islamic Center in Washington, Bush said the new U.S. representative to the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference “will listen to and learn from the representatives from Muslim states and will share with them America’s views and values.”

“This is an opportunity for Americans to demonstrate to Muslim communities our interest in respectful dialogue and continued friendship,” said Bush, who has not yet named anyone to the job.

Appoint Irshad Manji. I doubledare you.

A request

If any reader would have the time and kindness to scan and send me (issandr -AT – arabist.net) Christopher Hitchens’ essay on Tunisia in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, I would be eternally grateful. The column was discussed briefly here:

Hitchens makes a case for the Tunisian dictatorship. The country is, after all, a relatively healthy place for women and an inhospitable place for Islamists. On a weak base, it features a relatively thriving economy. It has the great merit, Hitchens points out, of not being Algeria, let alone Libya. Points taken, if not being the rest of Africa is a compliment.

I’m not competent to know all of what Hitchens fails to observe, but the following lines of his caught me up short: “you can say for Tunisia that people do not lower their voices or look over their shoulders (another thing that has made me nervous in my timne) before discussing” the dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

It sounds outrageous, but I would like to see it before commenting myself.

Guardian, others: Blair to be UN envoy to ME

It’s nearly confirmed:

Tony Blair has landed a major diplomatic job as the international Middle East peace envoy, responsible for preparing the Palestinians for negotiations with Israel. His role, to be announced today, will be largely to work with the Palestinians over security, economy and governance.

Working from an office in Jerusalem, and possibly another in the West Bank, Mr Blair will become the special representative for the Middle East quartet of UN, EU, US and Russia. The announcement comes on the eve of his departure from Downing Street tomorrow and is privately welcomed by Gordon Brown.

The arrangement, which has been under preparation for weeks, is due to be agreed at a meeting of the quartet today.

His job is to “prepare” the Palestinians? Further details:

It was being stressed last night that Mr Blair’s role – in the short term at least – would not be to act as a mediator between the Palestinians and the Israelis, or to become a negotiator for the road map to peace. He might, however, be responsible for trying to persuade the Palestinians to accept the conditions for ending the international boycott of Hamas.

I like this conceit in the piece that he would have more success and be in a less antagonistic position with the Bush administration than previous envoys — such as James Wolfensohn or Alvaro de Soto. Because it would be an illusion that Blair or anyone else would be able to go against the White House, and what it really means is that he sees more eye-to-eye with the Bushies than his predecessors. Which is not A Good Thing.

Algeria attacks Mother of the World

How dare they?

Amine Azaoui outrages Egypt
on Monday, June 25 @ 13:40:53 CDT

The head of the National library , M Amine Zaoui sparked a wave of controversy after his statement to one the Egyptian daily newspapers “Al Watani al yaoum” in which he reconsidered the idea of “Egypt, mother of the world” and the wagon of the Arab world.

M Zaoui went on, in his critics by declaring that the Egyptian cultural week in the event “Algiers , capital of Arab cultures” was the worst one so far. He added that “Egypt was no longer the hub of the Arab culture and that the Egyptian men of culture have no cause to defend, besides, the Arab language in Egypt is clumsy”.

These declarations, outraged many Egyptian literary men , among them the poet, Mohamed Ibrahim Aboussena , who replied to Amine Azaoui in these words” Egypt is still the mainstream , and Amine Azaoui has just to look at the reality”.

As to the Egyptian philosopher, Mahmoud Amine Al Alam, this one declared in response to Azaoui’s statement” Egypt is leading the Arab world in terms of plurality, and the fact of belittling this reality is a lie.”

So troublesome, these Algerians… when they’re not complaining about Egypt’s stranglehold over the Arab League (they are the only other country that seems to take the Arab League seriously) they try to belittle it. La h’shouma.