Monica in.... Morocco?

I don't know if you've heard the news or not yet, but the Flagship Program has decided that it is no longer safe for our program to be located in Egypt and has decided to move us to Ifrane, a little town in the Atlas Mountains. While I am less than thrilled about this decision and I want more than anything else to return to Egypt, finish what I started, and accomplish the goals that I have set out, I am trying to think positively and get myself psyched about learning dirija, the Moroccan dialect of Arabic.

So... mutsharefeen ya maghreb (nice to meet you, Morocco), safi (ok), inshallah this experience will be muzain (God willing, this experience will be fantastic!).

I guess I'll have to change the title of my blog. 

The Exodus

Firstly, I want to start off this blogpost thanking all of you for your outpour of love and support. I have been overwhelmed by emails, phone calls, and facebook messages (and an open invitation to stay with my friends in Tel Aviv for as long as I need)  from all of my friends and family, and have been truly touched by all of your concern. Now, as my friend, Katelyn, said, let's just keep that sentiment going for the people of Egypt right now. For my teacher, Radwa, who has been on the front lines protesting since last Tuesday. For my friend, Mohamed, who has been out in the streets protecting his neighborhood from looters. For my teacher, Ustath Nour, who just had a baby girl last month. For my teacher, Ustath Imaad, who has been out protecting his church. For all of my friends and teachers and all of those who took care of me when I was in a foreign place. And for all the Egyptian people who are putting their lives on hold and risking their safety in pursuit of freedom.

For the past week, I have been on a really strange journey. The irony is not lost on me that on the day of the revolution, I took a bus out of Egypt through Sinai and crossed the border into Israel, and that Israel has been in some way my safe haven from the revolution in Egypt. All of my stuff is in my apartment in Alexandria, including my computer and American cell phone (let's hope it hasn't been looted), and my brother joked saying that I just had to leave before the bread could finish rising. In Israel, my Hebrew and Arabic have morphed together to form an incomprehensible monster of a really gutteral language that no one understands, I feel comforted when my taxi driver turns out to be Arab, and I have felt overwhelmingly lost and sad. All I want is Egypt. I have been glued to my friends' blackberries and iphones, checking for news, and scanning pictures of Alexandria so that I can assess the damage of the spots that I frequent often, and the uncertainty of the future of Egypt is really weighing on me.

There's been a lot of talk, especially in Israel, about why these protests have broken out, whether they should be supporting by the American government or the Israeli government, and whether this revolution actually represents a positive change for the Arab world. It seems to me that the fear that many people feel about this revolution is justified. You may be shocked to hear me say this, but the way I see it, this revolution may not just be about a change in leadership, but about a change in precedent.

From my time spent in Egypt, (and by no means am I trying to convey that this is the feeling of all of the Egyptian people or that this is in any way an accurate depiction of the Egyptian way of thinking. What is to follow are my thoughts and my observations, so please, don't think that this is absolutey Egypt) I have tried to peice together where anti-Zionism and anti-western sentiments have come from and why. This has been one of my biggest personal struggles being in Egypt, and next semester, I was hoping (and am still hoping) to do a research project on the role of Zionism in Egypt. From my point of view, Egyptians see that for the past 30 plus years, their government has been supported by the American government in order to protect Israeli interests. They have endured a crippling economic crisis, the slow deterioration of their most basic human rights and civil liberties by the hand of Hosni Mubarek, and when they look at the news, they see this man who has come to represent their oppression shaking hands with Barack Obama, George Bush, Bill Clinton. American president after American president has supported their poverty, their hunger, their deteriorating credibility within the Arab world, the rigging of their elections, the support of torture among Egyptian police forces by continually funneling aid Mubarek and supporting him, no matter what. And while they have heard countless commitments by these American presidents saying that they will pressure the Egyptian for more democratic reforms, for the loosening of the reigns, as of the November 2010 elections, the Americans had not followed through with a single one their promises. Hilary Clinton expressed "her disappointment" in response to one of the most corrupt elections in history, and the $1.3 billion dollars in aid kept funneling in to the corrupt pockets of the Egyptian government.

And while all of this was happening, the west was shocked to see a growing afinity towards religion and Islam, the growth of the support for the Muslim Brotherhood, and they were not able to peice together why. But I have to ask, why wouldn't poor Egyptians, undereducated and dissatisfied with their political representation, flock towards the Brotherhood? Why wouldn't they try to understand their poverty by turning towards the Koran and hoping that this is part of God's plan? Why wouldn't they see the American and Israeli government in some way supporting and encouraging their suffering? As Egypt grew poorer and poorer and saw more services cut, more rights taken a way, no end to the regime of the Mubareks as Gamal Mubarek campaign posters started to clutter the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez, why wouldn't they cry, "Enough!!"

The way I see it, these protests, while largely they are a call for freedom, democracy, basic dignity and human rights, they are a call for a restructuring of the political order. The Arab world, which has been dominated by Turkish policies, then British and French, and now American and Israeli, is calling for governments that are not so easily swayed by the dominant world superpower but actually care about promoting the interests of their people. They do not want a government that can so easily take advantage of their people, that can continue to allow settlements to grow in the West Bank and can continue to support and defend the seige on Gaza. They want a say in their lives and in their futures and the way that they conduct their international relations as well as their domestic policies.

In light of this, as we look ahead, what can we expect for the future? For Israel? Everyone is scared of the Muslim Brotherhood. Israeli is shaking, wondering if they can trust the peace treaty or whether they should start calling out their reserves. Firstly, the way I see it, there will be no war with Israeli any time soon. These countries are scrambling to piece a government together and piece any form of order together, how could they possibly have time to declare a war on Israel? Or how could they possibly risk that giant aid package from the states as they are desperately trying to reopen their banks and encourage investment? What I can predict is a future change of tone towards the Israelis and Americans. I doubt the Egyptian people will continue to tolerate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict much longer, and I feel that it is in Israel's best interest to extend a hand of support for the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian people as they form their new governments, and also to solve the conflict as quickly as possible. As we know, the Arab world's number one problem with the west is support for Israeli policies. If this conflict is solved, the risk facing Israel from the Arab world is greatly diminished.

Similarly, I do not fear the Muslim Brotherhood. I think they now fear the Egyptian people. This revolution has changed history. For the first time, Egyptians have banded together to topple their own government. I hope, and I believe, like other grassroots democratic revolutions, this one will be successful. This revolution has sparked massive interest and investment in politics in the Egyptian people, and I do not think that they will allow themselves to be continually taken advantage of. They will get free and fair elections. And they will participate. And their government will be forced to respond to their will.

As painful as it is not to be in Egypt right now, I support the Egyptians 100%. Every one of them deserves freedom and democracy. They deserve food, fair wages, and self determination. I believe in democracy and its merits. And maybe I am being foolish and naive, and just like I have been slapped in the face this week with the reality of the world and politics, I will be slapped again in a few weeks or years. But I cannot allow myself not to hope and not to believe.

Eish. Horiya. Kirama insaniya- Bread. Freedom. Human Dignity.

Do You Hear the People Sing?

On January 25, 1952, the Egyptian police force located in the city of Ismailiya resisted British calls to evacuate the Suez Canal Zone. As a result, 41 officers were killed, and the next day, to honor the courage of these officers, Egyptians took to the streets in Cairo, protesting their monarchy. Later that year, Egypt toppled the king and became a democracy.

Since that day, January 25th has been a national holiday in Egypt called "Police Day," honoring the sacrifice of police officers in the protection of their freedom and country.

However, in the past 59 years, the Egyptian police force has come to symbolize the deterioration of the rule of law in Egypt. A police force that used to represent the people's interests began to honor only the will of the tyrant. And during the 30 year rule of President Hosni Mubarek, the police force has ruthlessly arrested opposition members, beaten and killed activists, and disregarded basic human rights.

So on January 25, 2011, the Egyptian people decided that they had enough. On a holiday meant to honor the police, 80,000 plus Egyptians stood in the face of police and authoritarian tyranny, endured rubber bullets, water hoses, tear gas, and beatings and demanded what is rightfully theirs.

عيش! حرية! كرامة انسانية!

Bread! Freedom! Human Dignity!

Following the Tunisian Revolution, social networks and twitter buzzed with news of a planned revolution on January 25. A facebook group called, "يوم ثورة على التعذيب والفقر والفساد والبطالة" (yom thoura ala al taatheeb wa alfakr wa alfisad wa al bitala- A day of revolution against torture, poverty, corruption, and unemployment) boasted 97,621 members, saying "no to violence, yes to peaceful protest and demanding our rights."

"If you are scared for Egypt, if you want your rights, join us."

The day started eerily quiet. On my drive to school, the streets and university were completely empty. The day continued like this and even by 4 oclock, I had not heard of anything happening in Alexandria, only about protests in Cairo.

However, by 5:30, I got a phone call from Katelyn. "Monica- there are protests coming down Port Said (a street that I live off of that runs throughout the city). Should I go down? Should I check it out?"

5:45 pm

Mae and I go down to Port Said to meet Katelyn. My street had been cordoned off by a police barricade, so Mae and I stood back behind them and watch as hundreds and hundreds of people marched down Port Said. They were carrying Egyptian flags, chanting "حرية! حرية! حرية!" Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
"ya Mubarek ya Gaban!" "Hey Mubarek, hey you coward!" "inzel! inzel! inzel!" "Step down! Step down!" Men, women, children, old people, young people, Christians, Muslims, veiled women, unveiled women. It was a march of the Egyptian people. A march of a people who were finally saying no to tyranny and demanding the right to live.

So we locked arms and started walking along the sidewalk, following them and eagerly trying to hear their chants. We started to walk up a hill and began to see the crowd that had amassed behind us. Hundreds of people, it seemed never ending. A man in front of us turned around and smiled at us and offered us a potato chip. People were hanging out of their balconies, taking pictures, video taping something that they had never seen before- Egyptians organizing and finally saying no!

After about 10 minutes of walking, we saw a group of people in front of us turn around suddenly and start running. "The police are beating them!" So in a flash, the 3 of us were out of there, running at first but then walking back to my apartment. As we walked down the street, we saw the aman (security) come charging down the street to try and meet up with the protesters. Following them were 15 police vehicles, ready for arrests.

When we got back to my street, the crowd and police were gone. Just a few stragglers discussing what had happened. So we went up to our roof to see if we could see any more, but all we could hear were a few chants. "واحد، اثنين، الشعب المصري فين؟" (wahed, ithnayn, al sh3ab al masri feyn) "One, two, where are the Egyptian people?" (The rhyming is much better in Arabic).

As the night went on, we heard more and more reports of protests throughout the country. One teacher who had been participating in protests all day said that the police started beating them pretty badly and spraying them with tear gas, but the men around her protected her. We heard of one man being beaten to death in Sidi Gaber. 2 friends of mine had been at another protest in Kofr Abdu and reported thousands there as well. In Cairo, we saw pictures Midan Tahrir in the center of town- a reported 50,000 showing up to protest and threatening to stay the night and well into the morning. Mohatet al Raml, Alexandria's down town, had also been flooded with thousands of protesters, tearing down posters of Gamal and Hosni Mubarek.

Their official demands: departure of Hosni Mubarek from office, fixing the deteriorating economic situation that results in poverty, high rates of unemployment, and rising prices, elimination of corruption, political reform, modifying the constitution, and fixing the parliament. In short, they want Mubarek gone, an end to the emergency law, and a serious addressing of the economic crisis.

This morning, rumors are spreading that Gamal and Susan Mubarek had fled the country to London, although the American embassy has denied these claims. The front page of Al Masri Al Yom just reads "انذار" "warning." Underneath is a picture of protesters in Cairo. More rumors that twitter, internet, and facebook have been shut off in certain parts of the country (although not where I am). But as I went to Mohatet al Raml to buy my bus ticket to Israel, it looked as if nothing had happened there the night before. People were going to work, unloading fruit for their fruit stands, getting haircuts, driving taxis. The only remains of the night before were a few ripped posters of Gamal Mubarek.

My friend, Matt, ended his blog post with an appropriate quote.

It's the moment of truth and the moment to lie
The moment to live and the moment to die
The moment to fight, the moment to fight, to fight, to fight, to fight
It's a Brave New World.

Nadi Sporting

The Flagship program is awesome. I say this for a lot of reasons, but one major reason is the internship program. Unlike any other program in Alexandria currently, our program mandates that we chose any organization in the city of Alexandria and offer our services for 10 hours a week. The goal: language practice. 10 hours a week in a field of our choosing learning relevant words, phrases, meeting people, in some cases helping humanity, and in other cases, just chilling with Egyptians and experiencing the culture.

We had literally no boundaries. We could chose anything. Get a map, point anywhere and show up for 10 hours a week. So, people took this to mean different things. People worked at non-profits working with women, children and development, others worked with musicians, journalists, writers, in cafes, ahwas, diving for archeological remains, working at a center for the blind, at a bar, at an American center conduction dialogues between American and Egyptian students, planning peace conferences. You name it, we did.

In general, internships don't really exist in Egypt, so the concept was quite difficult at times to explain.

"No, maam, I don't want to get paid... No, sir, we aren't slaves, we can't recruit other slaves to work at the bakery across the street..."

But, despite cultural and linguistic barriers, we all seemed to make it out alive and we definitely tried to make the most of the often times difficult experiences.

So... what did I do?

In the beginning of the year, while I was struggling to find an internship, my friend, Kamelya, told me about an opportunity to play sports with kids with special needs at Nadi Sporting, the country club-esque facility down the block from me. So I hopped on board.

It turned out to be fantastic.

It wasn't exactly playing sports with kids like I had anticipated, but I more became an observer/ mascot for the Nadi Sporting Special Olympics Team. Participants are all young adults/ adults (men and women), many of them older than me, and every day, they show up to train for a different sport. They play basketball, ping pong, track and field, swimming, polo, and gymnastics, and those are the sports that I know of. They have both an inter-Egyptian league and every few months, they compete in matches between different clubs from all over the country. And every four years, the Egyptian Special Olympics team recruits from these clubs to chose their participants. This year, I found out that out of 8 swimmers going to Athens in June for the international competition, 4 of them are from my club. Every other club in representation had only 1 or 2 players chosen. So my guys are legit. I'll even admit, I played them in basketball one week and I got crushed. We even had a team of Japanese volunteers (without special needs) to play them in a scrimmage yesterday and they got crushed as well.

Here are some pics!

me and the bball team (top (left to right)- monduh, yusef, mohammed, mohammed, omar, bottom (left to right) waleed, nour, rami, mostafa)

rami

before a swimming championship

Fish Dinner

 Let's take a break from the serious subject matter of this blog the past few posts and discuss something a little more lighthearted... like fish.

Yum! Fish!

Fresh from the Mediterranean, these little suckers are caught every morning by fishermen in delightful fishing outfits and long fishing poles, sitting on the rocks right next to the beach or out in their teeny canoe sized boats in the middle of the raging sea. A few days ago, while I was crossing underneath the Corniche, the tallest, skinniest fisherman I had ever seen was walking in front of me. He was wearing tight, black wet-suit bottoms, flip flops with black socks, and a striped grey and green hoodie (he was wearing the hood as well) and of course, the obligatory cigarette in his left hand, and despite his height, he seemed to be waddling like a penguin under the tunnel until he grabbed his bag of fishing supplies and was off to battle with the morning's catch.

Alex is known for its fresh seafood, and although I am usually a fish-free vegetarian in my real life, I realized quickly here that if I were to survive without dying of malnutrition, I was going to have to start eating fish.

So with my guest, Talia, I decided it was time to really partake in what this city has to offer.

Nada (my roommate) told us of this really sha3bi (popular Egyptian) fish place called Hoda el Gondol, right near the university in the neighborhood of Azarita. Described in Lonely Planet as a place offering "fresh and ridiculously cheap seafood... no menu and little English is spoken... just turn up, point to the trays of fresh fish lining the downstairs display and find yourself a seat. It's located down an unmarked alley; ask for directions as everyone knows it by name." Sure enough, when we hopped in a cab and said "Hoda el Gondol," the driver knew exactly where to take us.



As described in Lonely Planet, we walked down an unmarked alley and found ourselves facing massive trays of fish. On our right, the fried ones, right in front of us, the grilled filets and whole fishes, and to our left, the shrimp and clams. Immediately, the men working there offered us samplings of the shrimp, clams, and fried calamari (my first time trying clams and calamari) and wow! It's delicious. Mae said it tasted like KFC- fried goodness.








So we ask them to assemble us two mix trays and then head upstairs. Each plate (costing 35 pounds and coming with a soda, rice, bread, tehina and salad) contained a grilled whole fish, a fried filet, shrimp, fried calamari, and clams. They also brought us some spicey fish soup, but I didn't like that at all.

Favorites (in order):
Fried filet and calamari (but I think I just like fried foods)
Shrimp
Grilled fish
Clams

The rice and salads were also quite good.

All in all, I would rate this restaurant pretty highly, but recommend going for lunch when the fish is a little fresher.

VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

What a year 2011 has been already!

In the past 15 days, the world has exploded. Violence everywhere- from Alexandria to Tuscon to Prince George's County, Maryland where in the first 11 days of 2011, there were 11 homicides. In Pakistan, a man killed because he wanted to revoke the blasphemy law which assigns capital punishment to those who speak against religion. Hizbollah withdrew from the Lebanese Unity government causing its collapse. Has the world gone crazy or is it just me?

Despite the violence, in the first 15 days of 2011, the world has also witnessed the unimaginable: the capacity for change.

In the past week, in places that have never before seen freedom, the masses have assembled and made their voices heard. In Southern Sudan, the people exercised their right to vote and are now in the process of seceding from the north and gaining independence. To ensure that all the ballots would be accessible to even the illiterate, the referendum commission designed logos- hands locked in a handshake symbolizing a vote for unity, and a hand waving goodbye to the north to represent a vote for secession. Now after 2 bloody civil wars, the South has become its own country and hopefully will no longer be subject to religious and political oppression.

And yesterday, the world truly witnessed history: The Jasmine Revolution. After 23 years of a long, brutal dictatorship in one of the most tightly run police states in the Arab world, Tunisian citizens took to the streets. Protesting years of abuse, unemployment, and corruption, the Tunisian people endured 29 days of police brutality and imposed curfews that left 70 people dead. But their efforts paid off. Yesterday, Tunisian president, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, fled the country and officially announced the end of his reign, becoming the first Arab dictator to step down due to popular protest.

The people have spoken! As one young Egyptian woman tweeted, "The power of the masses is capable of toppling any dictatorship. Today was Tunisia. Tomorrow is Egypt, Jordan. LONG LIVE REVOLUTION!" Arab leaders watch in fear as Tunisia hopefully begins to set a precedent for the Arab world. Revolution is possible! Your voice can be heard! Change is possible!

Even more astonishing, this was an entirely secular revolution, with little to no participation by known Islamic groups. Although there are many reasons for this, it is clear that Tunisia will not become an Islamic state but rather maintain its secular identity.

This has been one of the most historic days for the Arab world. Whether the fever of revolution will spread to other autocracies around the region remains to be seen; whether countries like Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, and Yemen will follow suit is still up for debate. But for now, I extend my sincerest congratulations to the people of Tunisia for doing what I would hope that I would have the courage to do, for giving hope to oppressed peoples in the rest of the world that change is possible, even in the most bitter of circumstances, and for motivating others to stand up for their rights. I hope that the coming months bring them the freedom that they deserve.

For more on the Tunisian Revolution, I recommend reading:
Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution by Mona Eltahwy
Foreign Policy's January 15th issue: The Last King of Tunisia: The Strange Rise and Fall of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali including articles by Nathan Brown, "Ben Ali is gone but his constitution is not yet forgotten," and Christopher Alexander, "Anatomy of an autocracy."

A somber New Year but a much anticipated visit

Hello all!

I have returned from my trip to America and it was a mighty fine trip indeed. I stuffed my belly with cookies, Chinese, Thai food and other American goodies, got some much needed snuggle time in with my family and friends (and puppy) and came back feeling rejuvenated, remotivated, and ready to go!

Unfortunately, my city of Alexandria did not experience the same New Years as I did. As you all probably know, a few minutes after midnight on New Years, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Coptic Two Saints Church in the neighborhood of Sidi Bisher, just about a half hour west of my apartment, tragically murdering 24 people, wounding 100, and shattering any illusion of total religious freedom, equity, or tolerance in Egypt. A week later, in a train in the south of Egypt, a police officer shot 6 people, killing 1, apparently making sure that his victims had the coptic cross tattooed on their arms before pulling the trigger.

The news was shocking, horrifying, and scary. I had not fully realized the extent of my relationship to this city and this country until I found myself crying for the victims and for the state of the country as a whole. I found it difficult being at home, reading article after article on the bombing and feeling like I needed to talk to people here and gauge the situation for myself, completely estranged and helpless while the city that I care so deeply about went into mourning.

I came back on Coptic Christmas Eve (Jan. 6). Driving by churches in my taxi, I noticed a severe increase in security. But besides from that, there is really no visible difference in the life of the city right now. Many Egyptians have started solidarity campaigns both on facebook and throughout the city, with billboards carrying a picture of the cross and crescent bound together and underneath written, "Ana Masri dud al-irhab," "I am Egyptian against terrorism." There were several solidarity prayer services scheduled for Coptic Christmas, but many were canceled due to security concerns. Many citizens of this country, both Christian and Muslim, feel unified and intent on addressing its sectarian issues, and I hope that these acts have opened up the doors for honest dialogue. I also sincerely hope that these feelings of solidarity and unity are not just an initial reaction from shock but can continue in the coming months and years and can be directed towards actually passing legislation that ensure the safety of Copts and religious tolerance, helping to establish a national identity based on citizenship and not religious identification as per the Egyptian constitution.

However, the past few weeks give me little hope. During investigations of this crime, policemen tortured a Muslim man to death, claiming him to be a suspect in the bombing just on the basis that he had a long beard, a crime just a vicious and motivated by religious intolerance as the acts that proceeded it. It seems like no progress has been made during investigations and that the real culprits will not be brought to justice, and just like the shootings of Copts that left 7 dead last New Years, these crimes will go unpunished and ultimately forgotten, filed away among the other atrocities committed on the basis of religious intolerance towards the country's Muslims, Jews, and Christians.

But despite this crime, life must go on! And it has indeed! Classes have begun and stories swapped from all of our winter break adventures and misadventures!

This week also brought me my first visitor, Talia Orencel, a friend from Maryland who is taking a tour of the Middle East on her winter break! So we've gone eating and wandering, and this morning, visited a sight I've been trying to get into since last summer, the synagogue.



Every time I had tried to visit the synagogue, it had been closed. They told me to come back Thursday at 2, Friday at 9, Monday at 10, Tuesday at 4:30, and every time there was a new excuse. But this time, I did it and it was amazing.

After going through security we were let in the Eliyahu ha- navi synagogue on Nabi Daniel Street. Once one of the biggest congregations in the Middle East, the shul held up to 1000 congregants, 700 men and 300 women. There used to be 12 synagogues in Alexandria, one actually in Sporting, the neighborhood I currently live in, and 2 in Moharem Bey, my old neighborhood. Now, we were told, there are 20 Jews left in Alexandria, 3 men and 17 women, not enough to make a minyan and that all of the other synagogues have been sold. Most of the Jews left between 1948 and 1956 because of the various wars and also the 1952 Egyptian Revolution that saw the exodus of most of the country's foreigners. However, we were told that on the high holidays, on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, they fly some Jews in from Tunisia so that they can make a minyan and hold services, but for the rest of the year, the synagogue is basically closed except for tourists.





It happened that Talia's great grandparents were from Alexandria and all we knew was that their last name was "Mizrahi." As we wandered through the seats, looking at the name plates drilled into the pews, we found a whole row of Mizrahi's. Although she is not sure which Mizrahi is her ancestor, she is going to find out from her parents and find out if any of those nameplates belonged to her great grandparents. She also found out that they used to live in a neighborhood called, "Heliopolis" in Alex and that they lived right near a racetrack. Although that neighborhood no longer exists, we did some prying and found out that Heliopolis is now most likely Sporting and Ibrahimiya and that the racetrack is now, most likely, the Sporting Club in which I have my internship. What a small and crazy world we live in!

I got the number of the man in charge of the workers at the synagogue and was told that through him, I can make an appointment with the president of the community. So hopefully, I will be able to set up a meeting with him, do a little poking and prying and find out a little more about the Jews here, and maybe find a seat at a Passover sader!