To drive in Egypt, ‘Don’t look right or left’

 
CAIRO – I have finally solved a mystery that ranks with the greatest in Egypt: not, as you might think, how the Pyramids were built, but why is traffic in Cairo so crazy?

Haja Amina, my driving instructor, showed me the answer. After several years of taking taxis, subways and getting rides, I finally decided to enter the mayhem that passes for driving in Egypt. 

Swathed in black veil and robe, in her late fifties, and looking more ready for grocery shopping than driving, Amina pulled her dusty yellow Fiat over to the curb and frowned at me. I hopped in and we were off to a quiet residential area for my first lesson. I knew I was in the hands of a pro when she seamlessly merged into traffic and, horn blaring, crossed an intersection with complete disregard for cars screeching to a halt or swerving to avoid us.

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ElBaradei rattles official Egypt by mulling presidential run

CAIRO – Once upon a time, Mohamed ElBaradei was Egypt’s favorite son. He was extolled in the media as his achievements mounted.

The nation looked on proudly as he was elected three times to the post of director general of the powerful International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), admired his courage when he publicly disputed the U.S. rationale behind the invasion of Iraq, and applauded his success as a national victory when he and the IAEA won the Nobel Peace Prize for striving to prevent the spread of nuclear energy for military use. In recognition, he was awarded the highest accolade in Egypt, the Nile Medal.

Caren Firouz / Reuters file

Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the IAEA, speaks during an agency press conference in Tehran on Oct. 4, 2009.

But once he stepped down from the IAEA and stated publicly he would be willing to run for president in Egypt’s 2011 election, a position held by President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak for the past 28 years, his most vocal supporters began a campaign of vilification. 

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Pentagon preps for conflicts sparked by climate change

CAIRO, Egypt – Dr. Mamdouh Hamza stood on a salty, barren stretch of caked sand and pointed to a clutch of rich green date palms a few hundred yards away. “What you’re looking at over there – that gives life to people.” Then he pointed down, towards his muddied shoes. “And this is land which gives death to people. That’s the difference – life and death.”

For this 50-something environmental engineer, what is happening to his beloved Nile Delta is nothing less than lethal. The funnel-shaped ancient land of the delta, the most fertile area in the Middle East, is Hamza’s birthplace, and home to some 60 million Egyptians.

But the delta is under attack from the Mediterranean Sea, which has risen one foot in about 70 years – some scientists believe as a result of global warming. The rising water has already crept into aquifers and lapped across fields of crops, turning them into marshland.

VIDEO: Could climate change spark conflict?

“It’s terrifying,” said farmer Mohamed Helawany as he pruned his few surviving guava plants. “We’ve built barriers with wood and reeds, but the water keeps coming on the plants and kills them.”

Some scientists predict that, based on current data, the sea will rise another three feet in about 30 years. Hamza translated that projection into flesh-and-blood reality. “It will mean losing at least a quarter, perhaps 40 percent of our delta. It’s not only agriculture, it’s roads, it’s railways, hospitals, schools, banks, government buildings – it will be an economic disaster.”
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Swine flu fears for hajj pilgrims

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia – The road to Mecca for Islam’s annual hajj is littered with needles this year. Before you even leave your country of origin you have to get vaccinations for meningitis, seasonal flu, yellow fever, and for the lucky, the H1N1 vaccine. 

Our trip started in Cairo, where Egyptian authorities are keen to prevent their residents from catching the H1N1 virus during the yearly pilgrimage and bringing it back home. 

They insisted on a complete physical, including blood tests, chest x-rays and electrocardiograms to make sure we were healthy enough to travel before we were even allowed to get the H1N1 vaccine, which Egypt requires of all hajj pilgrims. China, Turkey, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and others also are mandating the H1N1 vaccine.

Why are they so afraid? For at least five days, more than three million pilgrims from 160 countries are assembling in one place at one time, worshipping, eating and sleeping next to each other. For Muslims, it is the spiritual voyage of a lifetime; but for the H1N1 virus, it is the opportunity of a lifetime to hitch a ride on hosts that will deploy to the four corners of the earth.

Saudi Press Agency via EPA

Hajj pilgrims wear protective face masks ahead of the start of the hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.

That is why the Saudi government, in conjunction with the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been hard at work for several months reviewing every possible step of the pilgrims’ journey – from pre-departure, arrival, pilgrimage, departure and post-departure – to limit the spread of the virus and its chance to mutate.
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Cash for cab clunkers in Cairo

CAIRO – While General Motors sales struggle in the United States, the American automaker can’t keep up with demand for its Chevrolet Lanos here in Egypt. The car’s popularity has skyrocketed due to a new government-sponsored incentive to encourage Cairo’s taxi drivers to trade in their decades-old beaters for brand new models. 

Although prospective buyers can select from five models – ranging from the modest Russian Lada at $6,607 to the pricey French Peugeot – the vast majority opt for a Chevy at $9,549. 

“There is a high demand for Chevrolet. It is a durable car and people love it, but the choice is left to the driver and supplier,” said Mohamed Shawky, the supervisor of the program. 

Mohamed Muslemany

One of the typical old black-and-white taxis that used to rule Cairo’s streets.

But many of Cairo’s cabbies have made their choice clear.

“Chevrolet is the most popular car because it is strong, and has spare parts readily available on the local market. Installments are cheap at only 800 Egyptian pounds a month ($143) for a five-year period,” explained Magdy Mansour, the happy new owner of a 1-month-old Chevrolet.  The only drawback: “It takes a lot of gas.” 
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Thumbs up on speech in one Cairo cafe

CAIRO – At the Wadi Nile cafe in Tahrir Square, 40 men sat watching President Barack Obama’s widely anticipated speech to the Muslim world on a television mounted high in one corner. 

The café was unusually quiet. Security concerns for the president’s one-day visit to the Egyptian capital had prompted police to restrict traffic in the area, so the familiar cacophony of snarling engines and blaring horns on the streets outside was absent. The entire speech, translated simultaneously into Arabic, could easily be heard. 

David Silverman / Getty Images

Egyptian men watch President Barack Obama’s speech on TV in a Cairo coffee shop on Thursday.

Wissam Charaf, a 30-year-old Lebanese visiting from Beirut, shared a table with Hisham Deeb, who lives immediately above the cafe. Deeb dropped by on his way home from shopping to drink a glass of tea and stayed to watch the speech.

When Obama began by addressing American-Muslim relations everyone listened intently. There were nods of approval when the president said, “I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition.”

For nearly an hour, pausing for occasional applause from his audience at Cairo University, Obama spoke to the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims. He touched on America’s historic relationship with Islam, the necessity for cooperation against terrorism, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was easy to imagine many of the world’s Muslims, like the 40 men sitting in the Wadi Nile cafe, listening to his words as a captive audience.

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Arabs look for action from Obama

CAIRO – Egyptians are immensely proud that President Barack Obama has chosen Cairo University as the site for his speech addressing the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims on Thursday. They see it as a gesture of respect, and an acknowledgement that their capital is the seat of Islamic-Arab culture.

Workmen cleaned the university’s gates this week as students hurried across the manicured campus. Final exams are only days away, yet the talk was all about the American president’s visit.

Amr Nabil / AP

A veiled Egyptian vendor sells newspapers and magazines about President Barack Obama in Cairo on Wednesday, a day before his arrival to address the Muslim world in a speech.

Ingy Attallah, a 20-year-old business major, is one of about 300 students chosen to attend the speech along with politicians, business leaders and notables from all over the country.

“When they told me I could attend, I was very excited. I was one of Obama’s biggest fans during his election campaign, and when he won I was very excited,” she said.

And what would she like to hear in the speech?

“A specific plan of action on how he will deal with the conflicts in the Middle East, especially the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And when he will get American troops out of Iraq,” she said.

Mohammed Abu Shakka, a 19-year-old engineering student, also plans to attend the speech.

“We have high hopes for Barack Obama,” he said. “But if he doesn’t do anything – just talk – it will get people really disappointed.”

Actions, not just words – that was the strongest common sentiment we encountered this week when asking people in Cairo what they would be listening for in Obama’s speech.

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Americans make difference for poor Egyptian family

CAIRO – The aisles were empty in Country Homes Furniture in Wilbraham, Mass., and owners Hazel and Nazih Zebian were sitting in their office doing what they described as the “usual whining and complaining” about how bad business had become and questioning how much longer they could last. 

“Like so many people in these economic conditions, furniture has been hit hard,” Hazel said. ”It’s the last thing people want to buy.” 

Out of boredom, she began to surf the Internet and came across a story on msnbc.com about another man half a world away facing hard times: Abu Sayed in Cairo.

Mohamed Muslemany

Abu Sayed picks up his money from a Cairo Western Union.

We reported on how Sayed had just lost his small herd of pigs, the only source of income for his extended family of 14. The Egyptian government began culling all pigs in a misguided attempt to prevent swine flu. But pig farmers, most of them living below the poverty line, lost everything when police seized their swine herds without any compensation. 

Sayed was no exception. He was beaten by police when he asked what would happen to his herd.  He had no idea how he could continue to feed his own children or help provide for his brothers and sister.  

But after reading Sayed’s story, Hazel silently calculated how much it would cost to replace the 25 pigs.

“I read it to my husband and as I started reading it, multiplied in my head and all it amounted to was $1,125.  I said, ‘I wish we could give that to him ourselves.’ And he said, ‘If that’s what you want to do, just go ahead and do it.’” 

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Egyptian police clash with protestors over pig slaughter

Egypt’s slaughter of pigs, a move described by the government as an effort to combat swine flu, is inciting riots between the farmers who raise the pigs and police. The World Health Organization and the U.N. say the cull is not necessary.

NBC’s Charlene Gubash reports from Cairo.

VIDEO: Egyptian police clash with protesters over slaughter of pigs

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Egyptian farmers forced to kill swine herds

CAIRO – Amidst overflowing bags of garbage, Abu Sayed raises pigs, chickens, ducks, pigeons and goats on a small muddy plot of land in order to feed and clothe the extended family of 14 with whom he shares a blackened makeshift shack.  

Since he doesn’t own a radio or a TV, we were the first to inform him that the Egyptian government decreed on Wednesday that his pigs, along with all 300,000 pigs in the country, had to be slaughtered as a precaution against the spread swine flu; despite the fact that no cases of the H1N1 swine flu virus have been reported here and it is spread by people, not pigs. 

Charlene Gubash/NBC News

Egyptian farmer Abu Sayed looks at his pigs before he was forced to bring them to a slaughter house.

Half of the families’ annual income comes from the sale of their small herd of 25 pigs, which usually sell for about $45 a piece.

Sayed looked away as heresponded to the unwelcome news about the mandatory slaughter and said, “The interest of the country is more important than anything.” 

But his brother Ahmed Mohammed was less magnanimous. “If they want to do this, they must find some other kind of income to replace it. All the family depends on the money we get from the sale of the pigs. My mother is sick. She needs money to get medicine for her diabetes and needs to get her eye infection treated.”  

Encouraged by his brother’s frankness, Sayed ventured an opinion. “Before they take a decision, they have to see what people can do instead to make a living.”

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