Christmas Jones

Well, if you combine the titles of my last two posts, you get a pretty cute James Bond girl. 

Quantum of the Solace (the new James Bond movie) came out on November 5th in Egypt. That's 9 days before it came out in America. Yet, while it was being shown all over Cairo, it wasn't shown in a single theater in Alexandria until the 26th.

The 3 week delay in getting the new James Bond movie into theaters in Alexandria just doesn't make sense, and neither does the theater industry in Alexandria.

1) New Releases are not released on time

This turns into a lose-lose-lose situation. The consumers (you and me) have to wait longer for the movie to come out; we can't get the satisfaction that we're on the cutting edge of action pack Hollywood. The theater loses potential profits because people will substitute away from the theaters that are slow to show new releases. The production company loses potential profits because a not as many people will show up for the movie. If it comes out 3 weeks after the initial hype of its release to theaters, than people simply won't be as interested because the hype has already passed. But most importantly, it doesn't cost the theaters or production companies anything more to release movies simultaneously throughout a country, so why not be smart about it. It's not like we need to do a pilot showing for 3 weeks to calibrate distribution in a nearby city.

2) There is no Fandango

People don't know what is playing where. If I don't know what's playing and I have no easy way of finding out, I'm not going to bother with going to the movie theater. If I have a website with the summaries of every movie in theaters and what movies are playing at each theater, I have a better chance of considering going to a movie. I actually found a blog that posts what movies play where in Cairo and Alexandria, and it's great compared to everything else in Egypt, but it's nothing compared to a site like Fandango.

3) All movies start at the same time 3, 6, and 9

This is good because the spread of information is slow in Egypt and a staggered scheme would just be too confusing because 1. no one checks the internet for stuff like show times 2. there is no place on the internet to check for show times. This almost seems like a chicken and egg problem, but once there's a good site in Arabic (English would even be fine) with movie times, people would start checking it (if they haver enough money to watch a movie in theaters, they most likely have internet access).

The theaters need a website to display the different times that the movies are playing to target specific audiences. Staggered movie times are important for optimizing resources and minimizing crowds. With staggered times, 1. more movies can be fit into the schedule 2. More combinations of movies can be fit in (4 James Bonds and 2 Madagascar 2s instead of 3 and 3) 3. Employees can be employed optimally without downtime 4. Food lines will be shorter leading to more people considering purchasing food leading to greater profits (because that's where theaters make profits on popcorn... what do you think the profit margin is on a $6 bag of popcorn?)

4) There's an intermission

I just want to see the movie without stopping. This is just really annoying to me, but I think it actually might be good business. What are you going to do during intermission? Buy another drink and refill your popcorn... $$$ for the theaters. 

Christmas

On the New York Times website on a banner on the top of the website was written "Today's Christmas remember those most in need." The last couple days everyone was running around for their last minute Christmas shopping. The last couple weeks people were buying Christmas trees and decorating their houses. And since Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), Christmas music has been playing on the radio. This is what's been going on in America. 

In Egypt, life has been continuing as usual. The same songs are playing in the taxis. There are lights up all over the place, but that's not because it's Christmas; colorful lights just tend to light up the many buildings at night. And there are no Christmas Trees. Many people don't even know that Christmas is the 25th of December (although everyone knows about Christmas). Furthermore,  the Coptic Christians -- the only sizeable Christian denomination in Egypt -- celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. 

Just like Christmas, during Ramadan, families get together, streets and homes are decorated, seasonal television shows and movies are on TV, and people are supposed to remember the needy by giving alms to the poor. 

Our holiday season is Late November to the New Year's, their's is during Ramadan (a month that changes every year because the Islamic calendar doesn't directly correspond to the Gregorian calendar).

It was weird being in Egypt with a lack of Christmas spirit, but it's really not a lack of spirit at all, just a different holiday schedule

Indiana Jones

Traveling means anything and everything can happen. Maybe the boat from Egypt to Jordan is delayed 6 hours or maybe you get food poisoning twice in a week or maybe you meet the first person in the Middle East who tells you he legitimately loves George Bush or maybe you meet some surfers from Hawaii. Anyways, the first stop after Egypt was Petra. It's basically an ancient city that was carved out of rock. The pyramids were awesome, but their wow affect went away after the first hour and 100th time you had to reject a merchant's gift, but Petra had a continual wow factor because the city's walls and monuments just kept going on and on as we walked through the ancient city for hours.

One Huge Flag

The Middle East is not all the same. Everyone knows that Israel is completely different than the rest of the Middle East, but all the Arab countries are not alike. That's such an obvious claim, but I am definitely guilty of taking my experience in Egypt and just assuming that it goes for the rest of the Middle East as well.

Here's a perfect example of two extremely different places in the Middle East. This article from Generation Faithful -- a series of New York Times articles on young Muslims in the Middle East -- reveals the huge difference between life in Dubai and Egypt. 

Jordan was an eye-opening trip because it helped me put Egypt in perspective to the Middle East and not just to America. Egypt's roads are dirty, the drivers are wild, hissing is the normal way to get a waiter's attention, and staring at foreigners is commonplace. The roads in Jordan aren't like the states and the drivers are still absurd compared to America, but compared to Egypt it feels like a huge upgrade. The absence of hissing and staring had a nice refined sense to it. The Jordanians all seemed to love their king, which was a huge contrast to the Egyptians who for the great majority privately hate Mubarak. Jordanian flags are everywhere, and the one in the picture above is really, really big.

As They Say Here, Shalom

Just got into Jerusalem yesterday. Crossing the border was pretty intense. First, I took a service taxi (shared taxi) from a bus station in Amman to the border for 5 JD and 45 minutes. At the Jordanian side of the border, I had to pay a 5 JD  exit tax and then 5 JD for the bus to cross the border. 

Here comes the actual border crossing. The border crossing is only a couple kilometers long, but it took just under an hour to get to the Israeli entry checkpoint. I had to show my passport as I got on the bus in Jordan, part way through the border crossing to Jordanian guards, part way through the border crossing to Israeli guards, and twice at the Israeli entry checkpoint. 

Just entering Israel's entry checkpoint was a huge contrast to my experience in Egypt and Jordan. It's uncommon to see women in the visible workforce in Egypt, but women made up the majority of the employees at the entrance to the Israeli border. All the guards checking passports and ushering people through the lines were women. Women were even holding automatic weapons. This is a odd sight just from an American perspective to see a person with makeup and long painted finger nails to carry a gun and wear army boots, but it was especially bizarre coming from a culture that often times just keeps women locked up indoors. But, the status of women is a long topic that I'd like to address in fuller detail at a later time because in my opinion it is the biggest humanitarian problem in Egypt.

Anyways, after I enter Israel, I still need a ride to Jerusalem. So, I took another service taxi for 8 JD. I give all these prices in case anyone else tries to do this border crossing because as in Egypt, Jordan, and even Israel, you can't just swipe your credit card and pay for stuff. You pay for absolutely everything in cash. 

The taxi dropped me off in East Jerusalem about 2 minutes walking distance from Damascus Gate (one of the entrance's into the Old City). But, I only know this after getting acquainted to the Jerusalem. In reality, I got out of the taxi without a clue of where I was (geographically speaking). 

So, I started talking to a Palestinian guy and I followed him into what looked like a huge castle. I asked him what it was, but I thought he told me that it was the way to the Old City, not the Old City itself. Eventually, the Palestinian man had to turn into his apartment, so he told me to just keep going straight. I came up to a security checkpoint, so I asked the guard what is beyond the security checkpoint and I thought he said a mall. As I was passing through the checkpoint, I realized I might have misheard him. Well, it turned out I just stumbled upon the Western (Wailing) Wall. Half an hour later, I stumbled upon the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (which was actually helpful because I could orient myself on the Old City map in my Lonely Planet Middle East guidebook and find a hostel.)