“When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” - William Least Heat Moon
I called FIFA this morning and they gave this address to email: contact@fifa.org They wouldn't give me Blatter's email and phone number, for some reason. :)
Below is the letter I emailed them. Feel free to use it if you wish. You can also use this online form, or mail or fax them:
FIFA Attn. Mr. Joseph S. Blatter, President FIFA-Strasse 20, P.O. Box 8044 Zurich, Switzerland Tel : +41-(0)43 222 7777, Fax : +41-(0)43 222 7878.
To Mr. Joseph S. Blatter, President, FIFA.
The behaviour of Algeria's fans, encouraged and sponsored by their governnent cannot, and must not, be tolerated.
While Egypt was preparing for its final World Cup qualifying game in the Sudan on Wednesday, Algeria's fans has other plans altogether. An anti-Egyptian massacre. A pogrom, no less.
Algeria's fans have attacked Egyptians in Sudan with knives and swords they purchased days earlier - establishing beyond the shadow of a doubt the premeditated aspect of the attacks, an aspect further confirmed if put in the context of the Algerian victory in that game. A massacre was in the plans, irrespective of the game's result.
The blood of dozens of Egyptians children, women and men in Sudan has been shed at the hands of Algerian gangs which flew to Khartoum, subsidised by the Algerian government, for the sole purpose of affecting maximum damage on the property, safety and lives of Egyptians, chasing them down the streets of Sudan. Severe injuries are reported and many have been hospitalised, with injuries going from superficial wounds to life-threatening injuries. To this very moment, Egyptians are taking refuge in the houses and stores of the Sudanese population, terrified of the mobs surrounded them, and unable to reach the airport.
Furthermore, the government and private sponsorship of the attacks, which allowed for airplane ticket prices to be slashed from 90,000 Algerian dinars to as low as 5,000 dinars establishes the responsibility and collusion of the Algerian State in those massacres.
In parallel, the Egyptian diaspora in Algeria has been forced to take refuge in their homes since Thursday November 12th. Their houses have been attacked, their offices ransacked. The Algiers office of EgyptAir was set ablaze. Egyptian companies are pulling out their staff from Algeria's provinces. Baghdad, it would seem, is safer for Egyptians than Algiers.
Anything short of the most severe punitive actions will be a grave affront to FIFA and the values of sportsmanship it upholds and defends, and a surrender to the logic of thuggery and terrorism that Algeria has displayed for the past week.
I strongly urge you to cancel the result of Wednesday the 18th, to suspend Algeria's participation in the 2010 World Cup and future competitions until proper compensation, settlement and apology is agreed upon.
Different media readings of the same story provide us with an uncensored insight into the perception of Egyptians and Israelis of one another
The eyebrow-raising story of Egyptian-Israeli 12-year old Yasmine Nessim-Leibovitch has been the topic of long feature in liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz, whose reporter attended the child’s Bat Mitsvah, her Jewish ‘coming of age’ ceremony that was held in her Egyptian’s father’s Sinai resort. Two days later Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, gave a relatively accurate, but shortened rendering of the original Hebrew article, augmented by a short interview with an Egyptian coworker of the father.
It’s a rare occurrence for a human interest story, due to their inherently local nature, to be of interest to people on both sides of the border. It is rarer for it to be presented in such similar terms. For all that, this article, and the readers’ reactions to it, offers a unique, uncensored, and unusually interesting platform for comparison and analysis.
Take the article headline, for instance.
The Israeli version was titled “Yasmine, Jewish-Muslim, celebrates her Bat Mitsvah in the Sinai”. The primary emphasis is on the religious aspect of the young girl’s identity was what struck the writer first.
Interestingly, the Egyptian article put the dual citizenship element before the religion one – twice: the front page summary was given the title "Yasmine: I am half-Egyptian and half-Israeli... Jewish and Muslim... I speak Arabic with father and Hebrew with my mother”. Inside, the main article headlines “Yasmine, product of the marriage of an Egyptian and an Israeli, officially embraces Judaism on the land of the Sinai”.
It is no coincidence.
Israel is primarily thought of in geopolitical terms; memories of wars with Israel remain very vivid in the Egyptian collective memory, by nature or by design – commemorations of the 6th of October 1973 Arab-Israeli war never fail to dwarf those of the national holiday on July 23rd, in no small part because president Mubarak took part in the former. Israel’s war on Arab populations, with the IDF amounting to its main international spokesperson, is a continuous reminder.
Egypt has traditionally viewed Jews as a religious community as opposed to a national one – unsurprising given the centuries of religious peaceful cohabitation in Cairo, Alexandria and its other major urban centres. Interreligious marriages were never a rare occurrence, and I have recently had the opportunity to meet Egyptian women and men, offspring of such relations, who are practicing Muslims but partaking in cultural Jewish holiday celebrations in Egypt.
All that fuss for that little girl's 12th birthday?
On the other hand, the Israeli self-definition in terms of Jews as opposed to Arabs or Muslims greatly influences the choice of words in the article, and indeed the interaction of Israelis with their neighbours. To step for an instant into politics, the official insistence of the Israeli administration to be recognized by Palestine as a “Jewish” state is symptomatic of this reduced self-image; more critically, Israel’s ironclad differentiation of its own population as Jews and Arabs permeates its perception of itself vis-à-vis its own national communities, and projects its own perception of international relations into an ethnic dimension in which Arab countries, Egypt included, cannot or will not step into.
The tone of the article is also overall noticeably different. Gideon Levy, for Haaretz, is near caricaturally gushing as he tells his story, noting the pretty “melting pot” that is the family photo and seeing the presence of former soldiers on both sides as a man-sized metaphor for peace. Mohammad Abboud for Al-Masry Al-Youm, appears somewhat incredulous and judgmental – mainly of Egyptian dad Hisham Nessim. He describes the mixed attendance as ‘surprising’, and while Levy describes with effusion the ex-military men on both sides who have come to celebrate a child’s life, Abboud marks this occurrence with an exclamation mark.
The family is obviously secular – Yasmine attends a secular Waldorfschool – and so was the celebration.
But the concept of “secular Judaism” however remains naturally foreign to the Arab readership –Judaism being primarily defined to them as a religious identity, and secular Judaism a recent and mainly Ashkenazi phenomenon. Although it describes what a secular Bat Mitsvah is like, I believe it is without malice that the Egyptian article referred to the ceremony as “her christening to the Jewish faith”. This important differentiation has however set the tone for a large number of the readers’ comments.
Some comments were neutral, some congratulatory. Past those however, we can identify general trends highlighting the points of discord of both readerships.
Al-Masry Al-Youm readers pointed, in severe terms, to the question of Egyptian-Israeli marriages. With several thousands Egyptians residing in Israel and marrying locals – Arabs and Jewish – the Egyptian public opinion has taken habit in regularly imputing them with treason charges; something readers have not omitted doing, by referring to Yasmine and her father as a “national security threat” or a "fifth column".
The other question regarded Yasmine’s religious identity. Religion being patrilineal in the Muslim faith, commentators deplored or condemned Yasmine’s confirmation as Jew – but more importantly, her father’s participation in a ceremony many readers viewed as a moral and religious outrage.
Many Israeli readers were indignant vis-à-vis the mother, Vered Leibovitch’s “assimilation” – codeword for “marrying a non-Jew”, which has recently been the subject of recent media campaigns and deemed a threat to Jewish continuity. A treason.
Young Yasmine has not been spared the vitriol either, with Hebrew-written accusations of being a ‘self-hater’ and a ‘Jewish girl in captivity’, primarily because the girl declared her wish to live in Egypt when she grows up. This did little to gain her favour in the eyes of the Egyptian readers, who, sadly enough, lamented the thought that she would one day integrate in the Egyptian society and 'marry a local, or become a first lady'.
Readers on both sides have primarily been critical of their own fellow-country(wo)man, displaying a nationalistic reflex vis-à-vis what they considered a treason of allegiance. That the spouse was generally spared is no reason to rejoice, for the “other” remains by default untrustworthy.
The dissimilate identification, on citizenship vs. ethnicity, highlights where the different fault lines are. In a sense, angry commentators have done this debate, indirect as it may be, a good favour.
Egyptian police, Taba-Cairo road: our minibus driver told the police we had ‘two Israelis’ on board; the police assigned us protection. The thing is, they were Israelis citizens... Khaled and Ahmed. But we were nevertheless flanked by a number of consecutive police cars, waiting endlessly at the end of each station's jurisdiction while the following station sent their escort.
Palestinian police, Al-Khalil (Hebron), Palestine: Presidential Guard, s’il vous plait, escorted the group of US university students touring the West Bank, last year.
Israeli army, northern West Bank, Palestine: the Palestine Investment Conference had presidential-level coordination, and we benefited from Israeli army 'protection' – and their help to cut through the insanely long checkpoints... that they themselves set up. Ironic, huh?
My article describing how I bought an artificial hymen (a photo of which I've posted in the previous post below) and my commentary on the subject has been published by the Guardian:
"As a member of the XY tribe, evolution has spared me of one anatomically useless little membrane; and of course, my virginity, as a male, is of little interest to society. For women, however, it is frequently a very different matter.
Recently, news of a $15 Chinese-made artificial hymen sent ripples across the Egyptian media and blogosphere. China has been manufacturing this very same product for years, but it was an advertisement for a Chinese company offering shipping into the Middle East that started the discussion here in Cairo. ............................"
Friends who have, or are actively trying to have children will have to forgive me. I'm sure you're doing it for the right reasons. Most people, however, aren't.
We are supposed to be highly evolved creatures. We can envision the future. We know we're not doing it for the survival of the race. And it isn't a sexual impulse being fulfilled, we know how to control this - this, and birth control. Could it be because our species still abides by a maternal/paternal (to a lesser extent) impulse?
Not all. It makes no logical sense.
The fact that it's a (near-)religious edict, to marry and make children and so on - سنة الحياة and the like - is only proof that there's something inherently illogical in the act of generating offspring: humanity needs all the encouragement - including the heavenly kind - to take the leap.
Why do people make children?
Picturing the happy months of pregnancy, and the adorable little thing subsequently produced can only be a partial explanation. Yes, you will have a beautiful baby that you will love unconditionally and that will drive you crazy but you'll still be looking forward to it. Yes, it will be absolutely amazing the first time your baby holds your finger.
But picturing the lifelong emotional roller-coaster, thinking forward to when your child is 15, full of pimples, dyes her hair in blue and declares she hates you every other hour - should be a good enough antidote to the mental image of rosy cheeks.
There must be more complex explanations. I can think of two. And neither, I'm afraid, is flattering.
We all seek to live fulfilling lives. Most try to do so through their careers. In reality, few succeed. A complementary source of gratification therefore comes from having children: after all, it's easy to do and is celebrated as a grand achievement!
Otherwise, why would the line "I knew my life had a purpose the minute I first held you in my hands" be such a recurrent one in father-and-son television scenes?
Precisely because the average person's life is unfulfilling, purposeless. The need to find a 'purpose' seemingly compels them to, well, generate little versions of themselves. Having children, in itself, gives them a sense of purpose, because you realise that society gives you the challenge of doing a good job raising this child which you engendered. It's your retribution to society. You brought it here, you bring it up.
The following reason is related to the first: The need to feel useful. Again, we love being depended upon. The go-to guy. Of course most people do it by achieving a certain level of professional expertise.
Failing this, some people will, once again, make a child. A tiny human being, so fully dependent on them for every little thing should be sufficient to provide a feeling self-worth, of usefulness.
Both reasons are not a good enough justification of having a child. Unfortunately, they probably account for more than a few
Who knows: I might have some of my own one of these days. Perhaps I'll be doing it for the right reasons, and perhaps I won't. I'll let you know.
Barack Obama does not deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. and I believe the Prize committee, deep down, would agree. Then why did they award it him?
Before I address why I believe they chose BO, let me get this out of the way: Obama's record in "world peace" is not shallow - it's abysmal.
Guantanamo is not closed. Iraq is still a mess. More troops are being sent to Afghanistan, not less. US soldiers involved in torture are not being tried. And don't get me started on his ridiculous, ridiculous attempt at half-assedly addressing the Middle East quagmire, which ended in the Israelis absolutely riding his ass.
Only last week, Saturday Night Live - which cannot be accused of being pro-Republican! - ran an opening skit on Obama's (lack of) achievement, concluding that he did have two accomplishments; they named, Jack, and Squat.
Of course, he's been getting the right amount of criticism and mockery. But never mind all that.
I'm ashamed for the Nobel Peace prize committee.
The small, 5-member committee of Norwegians has been obsessed with publicity, and since few around the world know of the leading figures in the medical or economic realms, and few care about breakthroughs in physics and chemistry - the Peace prize is where they can make headlines.
In the past 10 years, save for Wangari Maathai, their laureates have been high profile, famous personnalities and organisations. Yet they were generally worthy, though. After the utterly ridiculous choice of Al Gore in 07, last year's prize, which went to Martti Ahtisaari, seemed to reflect a return of the Nobel committee to their right mind: the man's work for peace, over four continents and for three decades, was rightfully rewarded.
In a NYTimes interview,the committee's chairman is quoted saying the following: “It’s important for the committee to recognize people who are struggling and idealistic, but we cannot do that every year."
Yes, we can. (hihihihi). A major virtue of the Prize is that it rewards those who selflessly serve mankind, sometimes putting their own lives on the line.
Because if we're going to "go into the realm of realpolitik", by which he means 'select the rich and famous', then we should award the Nobel prize in Medicine to the hunky doctor on Oprah, and the Litterature prize for Dan Brown.
And if, as another member of the committee said, the "prize could be seen as an early vote of confidence", then I believe that a Nobel price in Economics for a PhD student who's blogging instead of researching. (hint, hint?)
Here's how the story goes: Hala Mustafa, long time journalist and editor-in-chief of the 'Democracy' review issued by Al-Ahram - the chief government mouthpiece - meets with the Israeli ambassador, Shalom Cohen (can his name be any more caricaturally Israeli?:) for a routine discussion - about organising a panel discussion with Egyptian and Israeli academics, on the peace process or what have you. A routine, organisational meeting.
Later that day, a newspaper from the same publishing house publishes with sensationalist tones that this meeting took place - great reporting really, their reporter probably just bumped into the man in the restroom - presenting it as a treason of sort. 'Normalization', of course, is the big stinky accusation.
Since then - that was a couple of weeks ago - the question has galvanised the media and angered the public, offering Hala Mustafa as the scapegoat for popular anger. She's been defending herself quite valiantly, though, to the grief of many of her detractors who were expecting an apology/resignation/etc.
There have been calls to suspend her, and expel her from the powerful Egyptian Journalists Syndicate; the Syndicate is actually referring her to its ethics committee. Her hearing is today, Tuesday the 29th.
My analysis of the situation goes through putting together those few facts. Walk with me, if you will:
- It is not the first such meeting. As a matter of fact, even the hypocrite-in-chief editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram, Abdel-Menem Said, has met the same ambassador, as well as his predecessor, several times in his Al-Ahram office.
- It was anything but a secret meeting: planned several days in advance, building secured as is the case with high-profile visits, etc. There was really no whistle to blow.
- The meeting was actually organised via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Which means that, if some are claiming that Al-Ahram is an independent organisation - which it is anything but - the State is very much involved in the meeting.
- Hala Mustafa has been at odds with other journalists before. Vehemently. See the final few lines of this article from Al-Masry El Youm, 26 December 2008: "Hala strongly criticized the Egyptian mass-media, as she underlined the need for a revision after the establishment of numerous private newspapers and channels, which have gone far beyond reasonable limits of ethics and morals in many practices, political or otherwise".
- Confirming the above impression, notice that the report was first filed in Al-Ahram al Masa2y (Al Ahram Evening edition). As Hala Mustafa said in a television interview a few days ago, "there's a bit of professional courtesy, at least within the same organisation" that ought to prevent such a backstab. The Masa2y person must have been holding quite a grudge.
- Despite being an active member of the National Democratic Party - and being a member of the 'Policies committee', inner-sanctum of the party, under Gamal Mubarak's direct supervision - She's also had issues with the NDP, quitting a some point, before making amends and joining again. Amends or not, there's always remaining bad blood.
- Her boss, Abdel Menem Said, who is supposed be a member of various peace and coexistence organisations - Copenhagen group, etc. - has refused to meet her for the past year. Talk about a great work environment.
- With Farouk Hosni's dismal's failure at the UNESCO elections, the 'Jewish cabal' is being blamed for lobbying against him (it's obviously anyone's fault but his own). Anything or anyone that is remotely connected to them will therefore be used a catharsis for official, media, and influencable popular rage.
My conclusion? It's a massive exercice in score settling, of scapegoating, where an intelligent, professional woman is lynched to settle personal scores, and where disingenuous journalists can push up the bid of nationalism and anti-Israelism, individually or collectively. It doesn't cost much to kick someone who's already floored.
More importantly, the journalistic mob did not measure the extent of the popular outrage they could generate. Fascinating story, both for what it uncovers about the journalistic profession in Egypt, but for the reactions it generated. Definitely worth a closer look.
I plan to follow up with a second post on thoughts regarding 'normalisation' in Egypt. Until then, check out this post I wrote a few months ago, at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Egypt-Israel peace agreement.
I stand unequivocally with Dr. Hala Mustafa, both because she's a victim of a dishonest campaign, but more importantly because she has opinions of her own - and does not bend under pressure.
Time: Wednesday September 30th, 8 pm. (and that doesn't mean "come fashionably late at 10 pm". If you do come at 10 pm we'll still be there but you'd have missed 2 awesome hours. Tab 3ala eih? :)
Locationhas changed!: Le Grillon. Why? Because it's so downtown-kitschy, it had to be there. Used to be a hangout for famous Egyptian leftists and intellectuals. We'll be at the 'garden'.
☛ 8 Qasr El Nil St., off Talaat Harb Square, right next to the Qasr El Nil theatre. There's a big sign on the street (a large red one, I believe), so you Downtown, Cairo.
(we had to change from Cafe Riche - sorry 'bout that - because apparently an entire aisle of the place is out of service, so a large group at the bar would've been too much for them to handle.)
What to expect: Friendly people who are as keen as you on meeting the interesting folks behind the 140-characters-or-less. And Cairo being a village, you'll probably recognise a few faces too.
Suggested topics of discussion may include current events, the new season of Gossip Girl, and the Americano-Zionisto-Bloggero-conspiracy on Farouk Hosni. Obviously. Talking about the weather and mosalsalat Ramadan is discouraged. El ra7ma 7elwa.
How many people we are expecting: Given that it's the first even of its kind, and knowing that many people have already confirmed they're coming, we estimate the attendance to... hmm... we don't have the slightest freaking idea.
Yep, sounds about right.
And that's part of the fun! This said, you are STRONGLY encouraged to let us know whether you're (probably) coming (by leaving a comment, email, or on twitter), just so we can get a rough estimate of whether Cafe Riche will be adequate (or whether we need to relocate to the Cairo stadium or something.)
What to bring: Yourself, other Twitterers who are ambivalent about coming :) and money for your drinks. We love you and all but no open bar this time.
Not only has he been forbidden from erecting his tent in New York - twice, first because of stupid locals then because of petty officials looking for their minute of fame - but apparently not everyone liked his speech to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.
Why wouldn't they really? He only exceeded the 15-minute limit on speeches by a mere... oh, 81 minutes?
Having been introduced by his Minister of Foreign Affairs who happens to chair UNGA this month, he must've thought he was addressing his own docile population, which is rather coerced to listen and clap to anything he says...
Qaddhafi spoke for a full ninety-six minutes, during which he asked for inquiry in the Kennedy assassination, called for the establishment of Isratine, and asked for 7.77 trillion dollars in compensations for the colonisation of Africa.
But I don't what was it that ticked an anonymous user to edit his Wikipedia page, changing the Libyan leader's name in Arabic from "Muammar Al-Qaddhafi معمر القذافـي" to "DOG كلب". Petty, but oh so ridiculous!
Someone corrected it promptly of course, but your favourite blog has a screen shot of the before and after the edit:
He did say ONE interesting thing. His (very clumsily formulated) remarks on the relationship between the GA and the SC. I also happen to agree this relationship to be totally dysfunctional - in a word, the UNGA, with its one-country one-vote system, is as close to a global democracy as we're going to get; UNSC, with its restricted membership and veto powers, is its antithesis. As such, a necessary item in the reform of the UN will be to redefine this institutional relationship.
But when he called to rename the Security Council as "Terror Council", Qaddhafi didn't help much.
Update 2: We have a date and location! It's tentative though, so your thoughts and feedback are very much welcome!
--> Wednesday 30 September, around 7 or 8 pm, at Cafe Riche, downtown Cairo. We love this location - so historic, so complex, so... Cairo! - and, if you don't know it already, we hope you will too.
Update 1: Apparently some people are attempting to put together a parallel event and don't seem willing to discuss a merger of both events - eh. C'est la vie. :) We're still trying though. We'll keep you posted as to how things work out.
---------------
Cairo-based twitterers -
You follow their tweets, you have long (well, 140-characters-based) conversations about politics, arts, or bashing Ahmed El Fishawi.
They're your favourite commentators, journalists, or opinionated buttheads.
Actually, they're the friends you've never met.
How about actually meeting them?
In comes the Cairo Tweetup! Come over, and meet other Cairo-based twitterers over a drink somewhere. How does that sound?
Where: I'm thinking in a laid-back coffee shop somewhere. Or perhaps at a park - say, Azhar park? - if we decide on a day tweetup.
When: Sometime in the next couple of weeks.
What do you think? Let me know!! Leave a comment, email me, or obviously, Tweet me @TravellerW!
I often joke that Egypt is one of the very few countries where you may see, at a busy traffic light, a Porsche Cayenne angrily honking at a donkey cart that stubbornly won’t budge. Yet my story isn’t about the driver of the Porsche, nor of the donkey cart: it’s about all those in between.
Much ink has been spilt depicting the erosion of Egypt’s middle class. While the poverty statistics are indeed increasing, with recent numbers putting 40% of the Egyptian society below the poverty line, this ‘erosion’ is impossible by construct – there will always be, by design, a “middle class”.
Egypt doesn’t have one – it has two. I postulate that there are two parallel ‘middle classes’, that meet at times, with unclear boundaries and a reasonably crowded seam, but overall maintain distinct lives, activities, jobs, social lives and street hangouts.
The middle class is usually considered to be the productive motor of growth in a society. In Egypt however, only half of that middle class is productive, integrated in the world economy, a necessary step in the transformation of the economy.
The socio-economic continuum is broken. To be more precise, the economic continuum is broken on social distinctions.
In case I didn't make sense in text, perhaps the graph makes it a little clearer?
Class, family background and prestige, social demeanor, socio-professional categories (that is, jobs), and even foreign languages; all contribute to drawing the social chasm.
Individual, but also cross-generational inertia, is a large part of it. Despite the convergence of incomes, inherited social order remains strong. In what I believe to be typical Arab fashion, who you are – to others, especially – is in no negligible part defined by what your parents do and are. ‘Ebn nas’ (‘son of good people’, roughly) is a simple but potent popular euphemism for what we will call “Sub-class A”. The other group will be “Sub-class B”.
You know which group we both belong to, right?
Interestingly, their perception of each other is primarily, and erroneously viewed through an economic lens: those are considered poorer, those are viewed as richer, and that’s enough to explain the differences. That incomes are roughly similar, that they both complain equally of inflation, that they are, too, a middle class - is a scenario neither group has considered, and they choose to generally ignore each other’s existence.
Let me put it up-front: perhaps one sub-class may indeed be marginally wealthier than the other. Don't take that for granted: after all, as I argued in a older post, that a large part of the money on the Egyptian market today came from the 'blue collar' underclass.
Either way, the difference cannot be fully explained by finances. The behavioural leap and lifestyle difference cannot be explained by a raise – proof is, most people from either class who experience and income shock (upwards or downwards) will maintain most of their lifestyle determinants, following a ‘more (or less) of the same’ rather than ‘as much of something else’.
How different are they?
They will meet sometimes. Because they both take public transportation. Because they both vacation inside Egypt rather than abroad, they both go to the same cinemas.
But they won’t watch the same films. Those will watch the Dustin Hoffman film, these the latest Heneidy flick. Some will vacation in Alexandria, Hurghada or perhaps even Aswan – the others will consider the Sinai, the Oases, and of course Sharm. And they won't be buying in the same North coast villages either.
Their jobs, too, are often different.
Sub-category B will include blue collar professions. I know for a fact that my plumber or mechanic make more money than I do; but as an marketing exec for a frozen meats company told me, ‘in Cairo, the job category often takes precedence over income category’ – as such, I would be targeted by his advertisement campaign, but my plumber wouldn’t. Middle and upper government officials, as well as the military and police higher ranks, could be in this category, despite their relatively good salaries.
Sub-category A will include most freelance and independent professionals – engineers, doctors, etc – as well as professors, journalists, etc. Few public sector workers overall here.
They send their children to different schools; one sub-class – let’s call it sub-class A - heavily favours private, though not too onerous schools with a partial or full curriculum in a foreign language, generally English and sometimes French or German. For the second group, different schools, probably still private, may be favoured.
Those kids will go to different places to play. Though driving the same cars, Group A will probably drop their kids in the social clubs they have inherited membership in (but couldn’t afford it on their own today) – Heliopolis, Gezeera, etc; while Group B might drop their children at the neighbourhood club, the mosque/church club, or to a cheaper private club they bought membership in – says, El-Shams.
They will probably both go to state university – but again, Group A is more likely to join the English department (if there is one), a little more expensive and guaranteeing a notch of selectivity.
They might both hold their weddings in the same hotels, or perhaps in the same Airforce club ballroom; the continuum break will only be more visible, as Extended Family A will include some elements of the higher classes, while Extended Family B of the lower ones.
While looking to invest in real estate, Group A’s kids will opt for a flat in El-Rehab, Madinati, and such other new sanitized neighbourhoods; Group B’s might tend to buy in a place like the 6th of October or in El-Obour – or buy the apartment their parents have rented for the past 30 years.
And so on.
Future prospects
Adherence to either of those sub-classes greatly determines the chances of social mobility. If you belong to class A, your chances or moving upwards are greater than if you belonged to class B; and you’d be less likely to fall in poverty than the latter.
More importantly, if starting from class B, an income increase won’t take you to class A – since you started being roughly their equal – and it won’t take you to the upper class, which is not on your segment of the continuum. Rather, you’ll still be in class B – only with a higher income. You may be an economic class above, but not a social one.
Not convinced yet? Here’s an extra exercise for you.
As you watch television, notice the advertisements (and with the Ramadan scheduling, you get on average 20 minutes per hour of ads – time it!) you’ll realise that a large part, if not most of those ads cater exclusively to one of the middle classes.
‘Madinati’ selling its 150,000 USD condos. A new private college in the suburbs of Cairo. Goldi's new 32'' flat screen. And so on.
Financial differentiation, you say? I beg to differ. Let’s look at cheap consumer goods too: even those adverts are geared towards the same sub-class. Coca-Cola ads I watched this week (the ones featuring Karim Abdel-Aziz) take place in a magnificent beachfront villa garden which is largely above the means of most Egyptians (and everyone they know). The ultra-slick lobby of the bank advertising its credit cards isn’t the bank Group B gets its salary transferred to (assuming their workplace actually offers bank transfers).
And those two fancily dressed kids playing football mess up an ultra-modern kitchen which is then cleaned by their slim and fair-skinned mother, in an advert for a detergent.
All this is a far cry from the life of most Egyptians. To be more precise, it neither represents what group B lives, nor aspires to; for group A, it probably looks vaguely like the house of their rich uncle (but one they’ll probably never own themselves).
As long as we keep ignoring group B, as an important and potentially productive segment of society, we’re marginalizing a huge societal asset, for no good reason.
What we need is a national, inter-class reconciliation process, where both segments acknowledge each other and maybe, just maybe, start considering one-another for their individual worth rather than through a strict social order.
The Angel had a fight with her boyfriend, apparently regarding the baby in the stroller. It sounded like Czech. Do they speak Czech in heaven?
The argument ended with the boyfriend taking the baby and leaving the stroller.
An Angel with an empty stroller.
She sighed, and sat down to finish putting on her make-up. She does most of it at home, saving only the final touches for when she comes to work.
‘Work’ is that same place, night after night, on the sidewalk of a street choke-full of tourists in Barcelona. 'Work' begins around 10 pm or so, and ends when her feet beg for a break.
As she notices me, she winks with her long, golden eyelashes. I smile back.
Like a majestic butterfly in the making - a butterfly in a white-and-gold dress, she dons her wings.
No easy task, either. The straps are a little too tight.
But she does not fly. Instead, she takes off her green flip-flops, and stands on her pedestal that once was a fruit crate.
Her transformation is now complete. She smiles warmly at a little girl that stops in admiration.
I leave a euro in her plastic bucket, to thank her for indulging with my observation. She smiles and waves for me to come closer.
She offers me a piece of crystal, which turns into a vulgar piece of plastic as soon as it lands in my hand.
Apologies for the low-quality photos.. I need a new camera!
I bought his book on the sixth anniversary of his death, a couple of weeks ago. I read it last night, sipping a cappuccino at the Madrid airport. Quite a suhur (breakfast), I tell you.
It’s simple, naively written, and probably heavily edited. A couple of hours is all it takes to get through it.
And I probably wouldn’t have read it if it weren’t for its unique context. To me, at least, it is unique.
See the author is Egyptian-French, went to a French grande école, then to Harvard. Oh, and he worked for the UN. He speaks a bunch of languages and has lived all over the globe.
I know.
Jean-Sélim Kanaan was killed, among many others, on August 19th 2003, when a terrorist drove a truck-bomb into the United Nations building in Baghdad, in what was known as the Canal hotel bombing. He was 33, and he hadn’t met his three weeks-old son yet.
His book, “ma guerre à l’indifférence” he wrote in 2002 during his brief time in New York, working for UNOPS at headquarters (as a P-4 at age 31, by the way. Damn). A tale of his decade on the field and a critique of humanitarian work as it currently occurs. He was obviously itching to head back to the field. The rest of the story we know.
I knew of him because of the bombing, but was captivated by his life after watching Génération ONU, a documentary on young UN officials in the field which featured Jean-Sélim.
Heavily committed to the mission of the UN, good looking, witty and with a good sense of humour, a bit of a poster boy for UN humanitarian missions. With a career on the rise, he seemed to be what many of us aspire to achieve.
And now, he’s dead. Absurd, isn’t it.
Yet despite his life being cut short, I will always remember that he had achieved what few ever succeed in reaching: to be remembered, for what he had done, not for what happened to him.
Dear readers, put on your thinking caps, we need your inventiveness and intelligence!
The problem with "Islamophobia" as a term is that it refers to the 'fear of Islam' - which has been spun by various racist groups who declare themselves to be 'proud' Islamophobes, on the assumption that there is indeed reason to be afraid of the Big Bad Muslims and that they're merely reacting.
As such, we need to find a stronger term, one that refers to 'hatred' rather than 'fear', one that would be strong, insulting, unequivocally shaming, and absolutely inexcusable.
Think "anti-semitism": There is no acceptable way in which one can be 'proud' of being an anti-semite, which is an inexcusable offense.
So far, discussions with friends over at Facebook have given those proposition:
Anti-Islamism: Most obvious, but too much in the realm of the political. Anti-Muslimism: too "cutesy", says Dani. Misislamy: Dani's uber-erudite construct, built like 'misogyny' (hatred of women) but, let's face it, no one will get it. Islamamentia, suggests Semil, because he views it as 'confusion, not hatred'.
Muslim-hatred? Yeah, that's the meaning, but it isn't agile enough as a catchword.
What do you think, dear reader? Any suggestions? Which one would you select, what do you suggest?
Two new instances in which we are seemingly 'insulted' and we should get offended, huff and puff, and boycott someone.
In the first instance, a B-class US cinema production titled "I love you, man" -- I can already picture the semi-illiterate audience that will watch that -- pictures a dog named "Anwar El Sadat" because, as the dog's owner explains, they look "exactly" like one another.
In the second - which is just starting to bubble, you read it here first! - it's a German football song of the FC Schalke 04 club that includes the lines -
Muhammad was a prophet who understood nothing about football But of all the lovely colours he chose [Schalke's] blue and white.
Now what I think, very quickly:
a) For the "Anwar El Sadat" case, it's just a bad joke. Given how badly the name was mangled anyway, that the vast majority of the film's audience will likely be unaware of the existence of a man named Sadat - let alone who he was, no one will remember that this joke was made by the times the credits roll.
Plus, the number of jokes that involve various world leaders is innumerable. The number of times Hollywood picture their own president(s) as a complete hillbilly of is innumerable. (I mean, people, Hot Shots? Harold and Kumar? Everything with Leslie Nielsen?). Kim-Jong Il as a puppet in Team America, GW Bush as a monkey (in every possible occasion)?
And I don't see Obama suing for the recent 'Joker' photos either.
Obama's wife, daughters, mother-in-law, and welad el giraan w ahl el 7etta will be suing someone. Oh wait..
Plus I cannot begin to count the number of the 'presidents/kings = animals' jokes circulating around Cairo. (Most popular quadruped comparisons involve donkeys and cows, as you may have guessed).
Many people have put forward other arguments why there's no conspiracy behind the Sadat dog joke, at least because he was - and somehow still is - the quintessential Middle Eastern leader in the eyes of the Western political analysis establishment. (see Kabobfest, or the comments on Zenobia's post).
It's not that big a deal. Really. And Sadat is not above mockery or sarcasm.
Live with it. Personally, the lawsuit the Sadat family wants to bring before court is more embarrassing to me than the film. Stop making us look like such an intolerant, humourless bunch already!
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b) The second one is more interesting, primarily because it's about the Prophet, pbuh, not a politician.
Now mind you, like your 'average Mo', I have the same gut reaction to religious insults (Aaaah, the danish cartoons...:) as I would to family insults. And I have a very low tolerance to people harbouring ill-will towards me or my community. The cartoons, since we mentioned that, were meant to insult (and hence confirm the 'right to offend', as was put forth at the time).
Yet herein lies the entire the decision factor: intent. I sincerely doubt there's any in this case. I'm not the least bit insulted - puzzled, sure, but not insulted.
First, the song dates from the 1920's - at a time when probably Muslims and all that were far more 'exotic' than they are now.
Second, I can totally see them using 'Abraham' or 'Jesus' instead of 'Muhammad' in that song: I don't think it'd be out of ill-will or hatred.
Third, I really don't see any insult in what was said per se. People didn't know much about football 1400 years ago, did they? :)
Plus, there is something to be said in favour of Islamic symbols being integrated in pop-culture. The use of the word 'mecca' for 'convergence point' (as in, "MIT is the mecca of tech nerds") is a very positive example of that.
For Muhammad, Islam, prayer, fasting, hijab, etc to be normalised, banalised, and commonly referred to in conversation or in jokes - and you know how powerful a medium jokes can be - is the best thing that can happen to Muslims living in the West, and to Muslims at large.
And, more than the Talibans, it's random explosions of anger on the part of our irritable masses that scares non-Muslims, and further isolate us as 'problematic' populations (or minorities).
We need to grow up and learn to stomach a little bit of harmless humour at our own expense. It will be better for everyone. And who knows, we might get a laugh or two out of it, too.
(Three Quick notes: - Part One of this article presented a background to the Egypt-Israel gas export deal and what was ‘renegotiated’ last week, and can be found here.
- The research here was all made from public sources. Some sources required a sign-up for a trial version. References from newspapers, business reviews and databases, and industry analysis consultancies are mentioned as often as humanly possible. Information from unreliable online sources, or quoting an inaccessible print source was discarded.
- That article took me quite some time to write. So If you liked the article – or, hell, if you didn’t – go ahead and leave a comment!)
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EMG signed the gas export deal on the Egyptian side. But what hides behind this acronym? And why are they mandated with selling the country’s natural resources?
EMG is short for 'East Mediterranean Gas' - an Egyptian-Israeli consortium. Which, despite managing multi-billion dollars projects, has no online presence or website.
We do know however that it was originally a joint venture between the Egyptian Gas Petroleum Consortium (EGPC), a government joint venture operating under the ministry of Petroleum, and Israeli corporation Merhav, after a deal between Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy and then minister of infrastructure Binyamin Ben Eliezer in 2005.
The company has been quite keen on keeping a low profile – hell, I can understand them – but it has gone a bit too far: it is actually spreading false information about itself!
But take a look at this page: this is a typical company-generated public profile – the only one I could find on the internet.
It is so full of misinformation I am still laughing. For instance:
- The website address is fictitious. That’s right: there is no www.emg.com. As a matter of fact, the domain name is registered for an education company in New Jersey.
- Check out the listed shareholders (graph):
Right. Only there is no “MIDGAS” that I can find, there is no Fordas Pernamanian, there is no Middle East Pipeline NV in the Netherlands, and there is no Coltex in Britain. There’s a Coltex in Austin, Texas, which generates annual sales of $170,000 so I’ll make the assumption that they’re not shareholders in a transnational pipeline.
The profile makes no mention of business with Israel anywhere. It just says (hihihihihi) “... to Turkey, to other countries situated along the Eastern Coast of the Mediterranean”.
Now to some more reliable information on the company.
Currently, the owners of EMG appear to be as follows:
4.4% for Israeli institutional investors. (Source)
The main remark to make here is that -- the Egyptian shareholders in the company that signed on behalf of the Egyptian partner own, that is commonly referred to as “Egypt’s EMG” hmmmm, a mere 38% of the capital.
Let's be very clear here: the Egyptian signatory to the deal is, ehhhh, not Egyptian. Beautiful, right?
A little digging into the main partners in this venture is in order, surely.
1. EGAS:
The State, of course. The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding company (EGAS) was established in August 2001 by Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy (whose name pops up time and again in the EMG story). It "supervises the natural gas industry in Egypt, manages the foreign investments in exploration, production, and the usage of Liquefied Natural Gas tankers".
In 2000, the Egyptian government decided to allocate one third of the then proven reserves for domestic market requirements for 25 years, the second third for strategic purposes, and the remaining third, plus most gas discoveries from 2001 onward, for export." Seems that EMG got some of those concessions..
Notice that when we read (like here or there) that “EMG reached an agreement with the Egyptian Government” - EGAS is the mandated government counterpart here.
So EGAS reaches an agreement with a company it is itself a shareholder of. Does that sound like a conflict of interest to you?
I guess we shouldn't be surprised but can't help to be a little bit - the 10 % share in EMG appears nowhere on the list of EGAS affiliate companies.
The Egyptian government is a silent partner. Hilarious. Though not unforeseen, given the expected unpopularity of the deal.
2. HKS-GROUP
The HKS-Group is named after the initials of its founder's, Hussein Kamal-el-Din Salem (usually just referred to Hussein Salem).
A real-estate development company, it owns a number of hotels, most notably the Jolie Ville hotels franchise it took over in 1997.
HKS defines itself as a "a Private Sector Egyptian investment Group whom (sic) has been active during the last Twenty-Five years in international business linking Egypt to the rest of the world in addition to managing a strong investment portfolio abroad."
Hotels aside, HKS is no stranger to energy mega-projects.
In 1993, it established the 'Middle East Oil refinery' (MIDOR – Remember that name!) but declared it pulled out of project (apparently in 1999?) to, I quote, "concentrate in (sic) other new ventures and projects... on the core business of Hospitality and tourism".
Yet it still owns the Midor Electricity Company (MIDELEC), which provides electricity to 3 oil refineries in the Alexandria region, chiefly to... MIDOR. (Which HKS says it pulled out from).
Interestingly enough, MIDELEC is no longer mentioned on the company's main website - but it seems they may forgotten to remove it from the company profile page on the Jolie Ville website.
This said, MIDELEC has its offices (as does EMG) within the HKS building in Cairo - at 26 Roshdy Street, Cairo. So much for distancing oneself...
MIDOR itself is a fascinating story. And it was most probably the meeting point for many partners of the EMG adventure.
For instance, guess who was made CEO and Vice-chairman of MIDOR in 1997? Sameh Fahmy, who 2 years later became minister of Petroleum, apparently supported by a recommendation of Mr. Hussein Salem to the President.
And guess what Israeli company was part of the MIDOR joint venture?Merhav. They eventually withdrew - APS Review suggested that Gulf countries wouldn't supply the refinery, forcing it to buy on the spot market; the Ahram Weekly put forth similar justifications at the time. Other explanations include the more general deteriorating Egypt-Israeli relations with Likud's accession to power in 2001 - but I'm not too inclined to buy this justification.
Today, MIDOR makes a point of mentioning that 100% of its capital is Egyptian. Not Isra... shhhh!! :) Its Chairman and CEO is a gentleman named Medhat Youssef Mahmoud; until 2006 though it was still reported that Hussein Salem, who held on to 2% of the shares, held the post.
HKS seems to have botched attempts to distance itself from the MIDOR sour memory, and to pass EMG for something it is not. At some level, their behaviour seems so nonchalant I wonder if they really meant to try to put this distance.
3. And the main Israeli partner, Yosef (Joseph / Josef / Yossi) Maiman?
He’s not this the guy on classmates.com :). German-born, Peru-raised Maiman is a wealthy and influential Israeli businessman who owns Merhav (since 1972), is President and CEO of business conglomerate Ampal, and is on the board of Israel’s Channel 10. (see here, or here if you like US Government archive documents!). and, random fact of the day, his 2007 compensation was $2,154,563. Not bad!
With business interests around the globe, including several very large energy projects in the Middle East and Central Asia - with so much political influence there it reportedly worries Iran. He was also involved in a messy gas concession debacle off the Gaza coast with British Gas and the Quartet Representative a couple of years ago.
(Yes. The Israel office of "Egypt's" EMG is headed by the former Director of the Mossad. Tadaaa!).
Oh, and apparently Maiman is such good buddies with President Shimon Peres, he reportedly hosted his 80th birthday party in uber-posh neighbourhood Herzliya Pituah. Selfless friendship, clearly.
His Egypt connections go via HKS (MIDOR, of course) but also apparently via a longer chain of Maiman -->Shavit --> Omar Suleiman --> Every Egyptian Government big head. This relationship, Haaretz suggests, helped him get the EMG deal.
So there you have it.
The concession to EMG apparently followed no rules of tendering what so ever. The State is in bed with private interests, in blatant conflict of interest.
The entire Egypt-Israel gas deal, it turns out, is a barely concealed cesspool of clientelism, personal relationships and private interests, breaches of government procedure, of transparency rules, and of corporate governance.
And we're wondering why the deal was originally underpriced? I'm surprised we knew anything about it in the first place.
A 3.3 billion USD gas deal was signed a couple of days ago between Egypt and Israel, under which Egypt will supply its neighbour with between 12.5 to 16 billion cubic meters of gas over the next 17 to 22 years. (longer report in Arabic here.)
As you may know, this is the outcome of the renegotiation of the terms of the agreement signed in December 2007; the sale price was egregiously below world market prices, causing the ire of an irritable Egyptian public, already uneasy because of the identity of the buyers - it's no secret most Egyptians do not favour deeper economic ties with Israel, even if they're beneficial.
Yet more than a vocal public opinion, it was a lawsuit that nearly got the deal overturned that scared the parties into renegotiation. (the flow of gas, however, was never suspended.)
As one of 80 million owners of the resource in question, I am quite bothered by the opacity of the deal - it is after all a multi-billion dollars deal, and I am somewhat uneasy that the Egyptian press would have to quote its Israeli counterpart for information.
As a concerned citizen I am fully entitled to know:
a) whether this new deal makes economic sense, and b) who on earth is behind the deal?
From what we can gather, events apparently unfolded as follows:
"EMG", we are told, signed an agreement in early June with the Egyptian government, amending the original December 2007 deal "on repricing at a higher price, as well as periodic price adjustments, and new gas delivery targets". By the following week, gas flow into Israel had increased to 1.5-1.6 BCM per year.
The Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) however announced, mid-July, that it will "probably not increase the amount of gas it buys from Egypt's EMG".
Despite IEC's declarations, it appears that we're looking at new targets in terms of quantity and duration: according to Business Week, "the Amendment determines that the duration of the gas supply will be for 17 years with an option to Dorad to extend the period for 5 more years. The total contracted gas supply will be between 12.5 BCM to 16 BCM and the total annual amount of income will be between $125 million to $150 million."
Seemingly, we're looking at an increase between 10 and 35% increase of the sale price: the wide margin is due to the fluctuation of prices between peak and off-peak consumption hours. Frankly I'm surprised they factored it in, but I know little about gas contracts...
My understanding is that the price remains well below spot market prices but that's the cost of hedging the fluctuations - having a guaranteed contract at a fixed price. I think I'm relatively satisfied on that side.
An advert for a Gabonese political candidate popped up on my Facebook homepage, and got me asking – are developing countries politicians using Web 2.0? If so, who?
Ever since US politicians discovered Web 2.0 and started blogging, posting and tweeting (and one John Kerry thought it was a good idea to physically go to the Facebook HQ, for some reason), Politicians around the world have been catching up fast. And developing countries, unsurprisingly, are following suit – with a twist.
Besides the obvious goals of engaging with a young and often apolitical demographic, and putting a ‘human face’ on a cold public persona, social media also offers a platform for smaller candidates on a shoestring budget – with sometimes remarkable results (if not always successful).
In developing countries, where the Government often hogs the airwaves and curtails opposing and dissenting opinions, the internet serves at bypassing government control.
As such, social media has been used as a platform for expressing preferences or disagreements vis-a-vis politicians and policies they normally wouldn’t have been aired given a climate of opinion censorship, and more interestingly as a means of organising among opposition and demonstrators.
Developing country politicians took their time but are now getting on board, too.
I browsed through the first 1000+ “Politicians” fan pages on Facebook, looking for the developing country politicos trying to communicate via social media. That goes all the way down to Fan pages with roughly 2500 followers, which is a reasonable cutting point – below that, it’s hard to consider a group really influential.
So who are those e-politicians??
- They mainly come from middle-income countries. Unsurprising, given the necessity of a critical mass of a computer-literate audience, along with a reasonable internet penetration.
- The vast majority come from countries using a Latin-based alphabet. That I found pretty interesting, but logical: Facebook and others were only in English for the longest time. Most social media users also use English, even non-Engish-natives. Furthermore, many web clients only support the Latin alphabet.
- Some major developing countries seem to be completely absent, potentially because Facebook penetration remains limited. China, for instance, has its local and more popular equivalent website, called Xiaonei (校內). India also is a notable absence, which I fail to explain. Perhaps it’s because of the popularity of other social networking websites (notably Orkut, Hi5, and India’s own Bigadda).
- Autocracies don’t breed politicians. There are therefore no political campaigns in China or in Saudi Arabia; and since politicians in office are not accountable to their electorate, they feel no necessity to communicate with them either.
This is part of the reason why only Lebanon stands out from the Arab world with a strong online political presence (though mainly fan groups; very few politicians actually online).
Quick methodology note:
I only included pages endorsed or maintained by the politicians themselves. As such, unofficial fan or support groups were omitted. Also, all those supporting dead people, even if their supporters would vote them in from the grave, were also omitted.
I suspect many politicians have failed to reconvert into ‘Fan pages’ and still use basic profiles or groups. Those are unfortunately outside of my search area – because it would take me forever to track them down.
So without further ado..
Those are your politicians, divided by continent.
Is yours in the list??
I surely missed some – feel free to add them in the comments section.
Latin Americaseems to be ahead of the curve in this respect.
Sebastian Pinera('s PR team), running for Chile’s 2010, regularly posts declarations, videos and links on his page. Some people are no fans of him, for that matter.
Also in the same country, known eccentric millionaire Leonardo Farkas, sports a haircut from the eighties but calls himself the “2.0 candidate for new politics in Chile” and boasts over 300,000 supporters.
Another candidate, youthful Marco Enrique-Ominami – running on a ‘Los Jóvenes al Poder’ platform, somehow – shares personal and work updates with his supporters.
Colombia’s Segio Fajardo only puts links on his official facebook account but I’m including him because I like the guy. Smart cookie he is. He tweets, though. (and follows me, so he has to be in here).
Also in Colombia, the website of Presidential hopeful Gustavo Petro has 4 Warhol-esque pictures of himself as a banner. His facebook photo looks more like a stand-up comedian.
Still in Colombia, MP David Luna posts photos and links – my guess is he's going for an Anderson Cooper look. He ends up looking like the guy trying to sell you a set of knives for $99.99 at a 3 AM television informercial.
Mexico’s governor of the state Nayarit, Ney González Sánchez also has a page where he posts photos from his phone, uploads pretty videos of the region, and shares photos of the newborns in his family.
In Argentina, politician Gabriela Michetti just loves to upload videos of herself.
Juan Cabandié’s status was “Pensando”. Yeah, that will get you elected as Buenos Aires’ mayor alright.
In Asia:
Iran’s Mir Hossein Mousavi’s endorsed Facebook profile (and Twitter account) has been immensely active since before the elections.
Also in Iran, Reza Pahlavi – yes, that Pahlavi – has found a new breath of interest in him since the June 12 elections, and has been blogging and posting away from, ehemm, Maryland.
Malaysiahas a surprisingly large number of active politicians. (Sheema, thank you!!)
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s facebook fan page gives a few smiling photos of him, and an RSS feed from his blog.
MP Nurul Izzah Anwar - his daughter - who blogs, facebooks (not very often though) and tweets frequently, about arbitrary executions – and finding a name for her newborn.
Malaysia’s “Sassy MP” (self-attributed title, I’m afraid) Teresa Kok informs us that her favourite quote is "If you want breakfast in bed, then go sleep in the kitchen."
This douche is actually an elected politician. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
MP and former minister Azalina Othman posts comments, photos, and uses a funny mix of Malay and English to communicate with readers.
Indonesiaalso has a decent online political presence, aside from the numerous support groups for SBY.
Indonesian politician Prabowo Subianto also has a pretty snappy facebook page which he also updates regularly with his ‘Good morning Indonesia’ notes. Megawati Soekarno’s website also endorses the same facebook page.
Rest of Asia:
Syed Mustafa Kamal (sorry, ‘Mayor Syed’) changed his fan page after elections to include his title as Mayor of Karachi. He updates his status daily, if not more often. When does he work as mayor then??
Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejajiva has an official page which he updated twice – one of them to say that “Abhisit is working hard”. Apparently, 1,506 people found it worthy of thumbs up.
Philippines’ Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero has a page (or three) on every website that will let him have one. Facebook included, naturally.
Azerbaijani MP Ganire Pasayeva (or, in Azerbaijani, Gənirə Paşayeva) posts the occasional link on her page.
Failed Dhakamayoral candidate Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky is still posting as often as a bored 14 year old girl.
Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed is probably the highest ranking official on this list to have an officially endorsed Facebook page (at least it seems to be).
The updates of Andra Pradesh politician Jayaprakash Narayan mainly concern his amazement at the growing number of fans. (yawn).
Sub-Saharan Africa:
Nigeria’s Lagos Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola has a facebook page where he addresses readers as ‘dear citizens of Nigeria’, though his page has been idle for several months.
Nigerian presidential candidate Pat Utomi has a very noisy website, and prefaces his videos with a green ‘Utomi TV’ banner that reminds me of the X-files. And of course a facebook page to compile all this.
Zimbabwe’s prime minister Morgan Tsavangirai’s page owes its followership, most probably, to the internationalization of the last Zimbabwean elections. Occasional messages are posted.
Bruno Ben-Moubamba, candidate for the next Gabonese presidential elections (after, it is worth remembering, Omar Bongo Ondimba’s 42-year reign) went a step further and actually bought advertising space on Facebook: his smart smiling face hence appears on the screen of some facebook users who have not expressed any particular interest for Gabonese politics.
Ledama Olekina, who hopes to win Kenya’s presidential elections in 2012, has a strangely Obamesque feel to his blog - when you see his facebook photo, you’ll know it wasn’t fortuitous.
Kenyan Minister of Tourism Najib Balala also posts and links often on his page.
She’s not a politician but I bet she will be: Kenyan businesswoman Esther Passaris posts regularly about local political issues. All she needs to do now is get rid of the photos on her blog where she looks like a renegade from Kaoma.
Ghana president John Atta Mills endorsed, during the presidential campaign, a facebook page as well. It's been idle since.
Europe:
Kosova's Albin Kurti, of the anti-UN group “Vetevendosje!” maintains an online presence. No one told him that Kosovo is already independent, perhaps. Notes are updates regularly.
Turkeyhas numerous support groups for all sorts of national, regional and local politicians – dead or alive. And Ataturk probably has a dozen just for himself. However, these profiles seem to never be endorsed by the politicians, who do not communicate through them with their followership. I’m surprised.
Turkey also has a noticeable number of ‘in memoriam’ fan sites, such as this one.
I'm an economic consultant, perpetual expat, often lost, curious, religious, secular, illogical and hesitant.
This blog is somewhat of a travelogue, a political and economic commentary board, and overall a place where my own pretentious self takes over... for better or worse!
Your comments and emails are both welcome and encouraged; this blog is meant to be read and it's nice to know that it is! Agree, disagree, object, discuss...
Thank you for wasting your working hours here.
