الإسكندية

Not much happening out here. Studying Arabic. Feeling frustrated. Fighting amoebas, but at least no flu yet. Eating fuul (beans) sandwiches and falafel. Walking along the beach. Has been an intense first week in Alexandria, trying to settle in...

Cairo graffitti

I'll add to this picture a little part of text - by MLK Jr. - which we read from last night's seder meal (my first!).

"We have moved into the era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life's highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished."

April 6th Movement in Egypt

Yesterday, as we were coming back from seeing the Pyramids of Giza, something opened my sleepy eyes as we passed the University of Cairo. Literally hundreds of police in riot gear guarded the entrance to the University and the main plaza in front of it. I told Natty to get up and we pushed our way out the crowded bus, the bus driver being so kind as to let us off in the middle of traffic (thanks, jackass).

I asked around in my English and broken Arabic (I can now count to 10 and read the letters!) about what was going on. Something about a protest for higher wages... alright!! But we waited around for about an hour, nothing happened, and Natty was complaining that she was bored. So we left...

But I was snooping around the internet this morning (hurriedly, as we are bouncing to Alexandria now) and found out that it was a huge movement called the April 6th movement. It takes this name from the pro-democracy, anti-corruption and higher wage protests held last year on the same date, which led to riots in some parts of Egypt. So yesterday was supposed to be a national strike. But because of the heavy police presence and "preventive" arrests made a few days earlier, only a few hundred people turned out around the country.

It seems like a lot of opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, backed the protests, so perhaps it may lead to a stronger unified movement in the future. It seems that they are also trying to prevent Mubarak's son, Gamal (which I swore meant "camel" in Arabic), from taking over power. I hope to find out more. I talked to one young furniture salesman on the street who summed up everything in a few words: "In Egypt, you don't say anything."

Also, in sad sexual liberation news, a swinger couple was arrested and sentenced to 5-7 years for their "indecent" acts. I should watch out. ;)

Pa'que Gocen

Ayer regresamos de Siwa, un oasis a 12 horas en carro desde El Cairo, en medio del Gran Mar de Arena (nada que ver con el partido político de El Salvador). Las dunas eran como en las películas, imensas y arenosas. Aquí pongo un video de mi intento de hacer "sandboarding". Masalemah (chao!).

How to Be (A Thinking Person and Keep Creative in the Recession Era)

In the spirit of culture and art as resistance, my very radical and awesome friend, Mia Kang - writing from the cockroach-infested depths of Kosciusko Street in Bushwick - allowed me to share this with all of you.

"How to Be (A Thinking Person and Keep Creative in the Recession Era)"
by Mia Kang


1.

The layered city peels back your skin,
peers behind your eyeballs and sticks
a finger into the gray matter. There’s no need
to hallucinate, not in this circus scene.

Even though the storefronts
are little bubbling amoebas, pulling themselves
along the ground by extension and contraction,
I can tell about the things that came before.

We stand around a simmering cauldron, black iron belly,
dipping our spoons in and out to give it a stir. They fear me
because of what I won’t explain. When I ask you a question,
you answer because you ask questions.


2.

Michael cut off his hair on his fifty-second birthday.
The talk of the town,
panic.

Drama begets drama:
Obama, etc.
Diversion.

Wall, wall, wall.
Chasm, chasm,
cliff.


3.

A group of us are meeting weekly
in a chatroom marked Welcome!


4.

Like I said, all I have to do is snap
my fingers and it appears. You say other
but I know mother. The so-called alternative,
seeing things only in comparison.

Instead, the colors are a constant. The melody
is rooted by a rhythm, the dancer
is suspended in her own height.
In her own right.

Our myths mottle the air, tentatively visible in the subtle
sunlight on the cusp of a new season.

"Let Me Chew My Coca Leaves"

Following up on the Global Forum of Producers of Crops Declared Illicit (a mouthful) held in January in Barcelona, I wanted to give you all some info about the recent UNGASS' (UN General Assembly Special Session) meeting on Narcotics, which happens roughly every 10 years (this year, March 11-14). The last time in 1999, we were at the beginning of Plan Colombia, and now in 2009, we are at the beginning of Plan Mexico. The first one failed, and the new one will, too, at the cost of thousands more lives (interestingly, both President Uribe y Calderón have used the campaign slogan "Mano Dura" - Firm Hand). Here's a good blog about Mexico.

President Morales of Bolivia, an Aymara indigenous and long-time defender of coca leaf producers, made a great speech to the UN on March 15th, where he talked about the need to reverse the 1961 decision made by the UN's Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to place the coca leaf in the same category as cocaine. He talked about the medicinal, cultural and alimentary uses of the coca leaf. (I don't know... the first time I tried coca was from a smart-ass Kankuamo indigenous in Colombia, who laughed when I got dizzy and threw up all the buffalo meat I had eaten that morning. He said it was because I had bad thoughts. Haha! Actually, I think I threw up not because of the coca leaf, but because I ingested the bitter ambira, a tobacco tar-like substance that the Sierra Nevada indigenous use with their coca.)

Read Morales' NYTimes Op-Ed here. Información en español aquí.

Also, from Transnational Institute (TNI), you can get some more detailed analysis. TNI had a representative at the Barcelona Producers' Forum, and along with two farmer representatives, gave a statement at the UNGASS meeting.

Also, Andrew Willis Garcés has posted some on-the-ground documentation of Plan Colombia on his blog. Good stuff.

I'll keep you updated on things in Egypt and things out here when I get past saying "thank you" and "dog" in Arabic.

Welcome to the Police State

Well, I made it into Egypt! New lands, new hands.

So I'll just write a few impressions of my first day, of which I spent nearly 7 hours just walking around downtown. Visited the museum, nice hieroglyphs, impressive mummies, ornate gilded jewelry... all very interesting.

But the most interesting of all is the 28-year old state of martial law that has been in existence here in Egypt. After Anwar Sadat was assassinated presumably for his acceptance of Israel's right to exist, Hosni Mubarak took control and imposed martial law, which has conveniently been renewed every 5 years or so (the last time being last year, renewed for a period of 2 years). With almost US$1.3 billion in military aid and over $400 million in "economic assistance", the United States is the principal backer of the Mubarak regime. So when US taxpayers aren't paying for million-dollar corporate-exec bonuses, we are funding a measly salary to the thousands of police minions that roam the streets (at least in Cairo). I think on every block I have seen at least one policeman standing behind a palm tree or catching an afternoon nap in their blue police vans. And occassionally, you get the pleasure of sighting some of those mean-looking guys, in their uncomfortably hot leather jackets (haha!) and Latin-American-death-squad-style sunglasses.

I am staying with a friend in the upper-class el Maadi district of Cairo. Almost everyone in the building works for USAID or directly with the Embassy. I noticed this morning three guys in suits just hanging out in the middle of the street, and they all stared at me as I left. Apparently, they are out here frequently, making sure the USAID people aren't double agents. Sketchy...

For normal Egyptians, the repression is a little more tangible. The Egyptian police are known for their tortures and jailings without charges; many victims have remained in prision for over a decade without being charged. There are still people in prision who bravely protested the Egyptian government's brazenly pro-Israeli stance during the 2008-09 invasion of Gaza. Read HRW's 2008 report here. I remember when Mubarak visited GW and was given an honorary degree in something by our union-busting university president, Stephen Tractenberg. It was all pomp and circumstance. It's always interesting to see who is given the title "dictator", and who isn't.

Anyways, on the right side of this blog, you'll see a link to a blog called "Tabula Gaza". I linked to that because it had good info during the recent Israeli invasion of the Strip. Well, the writer is a German-Egyptian activist who led one of the protests in Egypt against the invasion. A few days after the protest, he was bundled into a van of the secret police and held in an unknown place for 4 days. So, maybe I shouldn't wear my kuffiya just yet...

In some nice news, I met an Egyptian man with his US-born infant and his Mexican-American Islamic-convert wife from Brownsville, Texas, in the street today. Que interesante. It was nice to talk Spanish in Cairo.

Analysis of current Egypt-Palestine-Israel situation: here.