Close the SOA... in Arabic!

Since someone said that my last three entries have been sort of childish, I'll write a more serious entry. This is a really bad upload (from a mobile phone... not mine, ok!) of my first presentation in Arabic... about the SOA! yeah!! The audience (5 people) was really interested and wanted to know more... maybe it's time to start translating the SOAW website into Arabic! ;)

Try to listen for the words "imperialism" (لأمبريالية) and "dictatorships" (الدكتاتوريات). hehe.

Earth First, Uranus Second

At the risk of sounding like an immature middle-schooler, I just wanted to copy the sign that is in the bathroom here at the Arabic Center. It's a sign about tips to protect the environment. Unfortunately, it has a picture of a roll of toilet paper and on the roll is written, "Keep the Earth Clean! It's Not Uranus!"

Haha. That's funny. I wonder if they know the meaning. Some cheeky student here must have made it.

It's also in the men's bathroom, which I was told to use from now on after I accidentally used the women's bathroom.

My Name!!!

Wow. I have just had the laugh of my life. I always wondered why no one would either say my name "Nico" or find it difficult to pronounce it. People always said "Nicol" or even try "Nuukulus" (as my teacher says). And I always enunciate "N-I-C-O". Even "Niku" people didn't say.

So the other day I was getting a drink of cane juice when I started up a conversation with the sugar-cane man (a close cousin of Willy Wonka). He asked me what my name was and I told him "Nico". He stared at me a little oddly and asked again. I repeated and he laughed out loud. Confused, I resumed my drinking. He leaned over and asked me if I knew what "nico" meant in Egypt. I said no, and and winked at me and did a sort of vulgar thrusting motion with his pelvis from behind the counter. I wasn't sure what he meant or what he wanted, so I laughed, quickly finished my drink, and left, leaving him still laughing from inside the store.

Just now, a male teacher walked in and started talking to me. I wrote my name on the board, in English, and he added "las" to the end and said I shouldn't call myself Nico. Why? Because apparently in Egypt, he whispered, "Nico is a vulgar word for coupling between a man and a woman."

Ha!! And they thought only Arabic names have meaning! Fantastic.

Egypt's Pig Broblem

The title of this entry has a three-fold purpose: 1) to make fun of Arab-speakers who can't say "P", 2) to call attention to the international "pig flu" epidemic and 3) also make fun of this South Asian kid who I went to university with who turned red when I caught him chatting on AOL under the screen name "Pig Benis". Ha ha, dumbass. (Okay, that South Asian kid WASN'T me, though I DID think it was a great pseudonym.)

So, really, I just wanted to talk about #2. And not a lot really, because I haven't had time to research anything or do much reading for that matter, as I am up to my nose in Arabic children's book ("Sindibad, Sindibad!"). Egypt is trying to slaughter all these poor piggies that hang out in the Cairo landfills under the excuse that they might infect humans. Of course, if they had any brains, they would know that apparently the so-called "Mexican swine flue" doesn't mean that pigs necessarily transmit the disease. (I'm also waiting for one day a bad disease or scourge to be called "American" or "European"). But the Egyptian authorities are slaughtering all these animals that mainly belong to Christian Copts (because Muslims don't like pigs. They HATE it when I talk about delicious Spanish jamón serrano).

Well, the people are rioting in Cairo (yeah for riots!) because they aren't being paid enough for their animals being killed. And I don't think they are killing the animals because they belong to a religious minority, such as the Copts. I am trying to invoke the spirit of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine here... Egypt is saying that allowing the pigs to hang out in the landfills is a problem and they need to be put in better, more modern farms. Sound like Sri Lanka's post-tsunami land grab? Or all those other I-did-it-for-such-and-such-reason-but-I-really-want-this type scenarios?

Hmm, I guess we will have to stay tuned. Maybe somewhere in Cairo, some rich Copt has the plan to monopolize pig farming and is already building some industrial pig farm. Which, by the way (and I refer to industrialization of animal farming), is possibly a reason that this outbreak started in the first place (talking NAFTA v. Mexican small farmers).

Ok, what a tangent. Need to get back to my books. Lots of love, PB.

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. ;)