Tuesday Night Studying

I am studying Arabic outside a coffee shop when all of a sudden the song Dancing Queen by Abba starts blasting from a cell phone on a table next to me. A 50 year old man answers it with the typical greeting: Salamalekum.

1 hour later: it goes off again!

And later on, one of the waiters looks at me and says اوجع. I look it up 30 seconds later and I learn that he feels my pain.

That's a typical weekday night in Egypt.

The Great Library of Alexandria

It hasn't been around for over a thousand years. But, there's a new library in Alexandria called Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

In all fairness, the new library is awesome. Just check out the pictures, the architecture is awesome. One might say, it's a modern marvel.

But, it's a joke. The library wasn't built as a center for learning and studying. It's a tourist trap. It even has a planetarium connected to it. You can't even bring books into the library. It's not even open past 8 p.m (it closed at 2 p.m during Ramadan). And, anyone who has seriously studied anything knows that the best learning goes on past 2 a.m (But, I'm just asking for a library open until at least 10 p.m).

Huge tour buses are always parked in front of the library and tours go on all day long. There's even a concert hall right next to the library (referred to in my Franki Valli and the ... post). It even has the fastest book publishing machine in the world -- they needed some superlative. 

The new library was a great investment for the Egypt. Not only does it increase tourism, but it also gives pride to the Alexandrian people. Not only is it a tribute to when Egypt was on the top of the world, but it also shows that Egypt can still build wonders.

As a college student, my problem is that this place is not a real library. Sure, it has 3-4 million books, it's very quiet, and there's internet access. But, you can't bring in books, check out books, stay past 8 p.m, or find books critical of the Egyptian government. I've talked with taxi drivers, library employees and a manager about the rule against bringing in books; they all say that there's plenty of books inside the library and I can just read one of those. 

If you're into architecture, come check this library out. Other than that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is just a sub-par library.

I hate to rail on something that people put so much hard work into, but truthfully, all I want to do is go in the library and study.

A Peculiar Foundation

Here's an article from the Cairo bureau of The New York Times that brings up an archaic, yet oddly contemporaneous subject: the foundations of modern Egypt on a long gone civilization. 

Definitely read the previous post first to get a sense of tourism in Egypt before reading this.

Egypt has a long history, so they make do with what they got; they export it. Tourism makes up 6-7% of Egyptian GDP (according to a World Bank report and an Egyptian government website). A high percent of tourism is totally understandable when the place is a luxurious, beautiful island like Hawaii or a romantic city like Paris, but when all you got to offer is something that has nothing to do with your culture, then something, somewhere went wrong. 

Egyptian towns are even sacrificed for this economic focus on ancient Egypt. Here's a story from the Egyptologist tour guide in Luxor (this guy was actually very intelligent, spoke english perfectly, but I could never tell if he was genuinely in love with Egyptology or his exuberance was more a product of his paycheck). He told us that there was another town very close to Luxor that was filled with ruins and likely had monuments underneath the town. And with the biggest smile on his face, he told us that the government is paying for the cost of relocating every citizen of that town to make it available for tourists to see the ancient stuff. Even if the government successfully "relocated" these people (which I doubt would happen), the idea that they are kicking people out of the land that most likely their great great grandfathers lived in is slightly repulsive in exchange for a little bit for tourism cash.

Here's one opinion from Slackman's article that I hyperlinked, "We feel the might of this history when we get paid ... but if we don't get paid, we feel nothing." 

So, a question that arises seems to be: Do the Egyptians derive identity from ancient times or is just for the money?

The answer: From what I've seen, the answer, for the most part, is it's about the money. Ancient Egypt is used as a tool to develop modern Egypt. And, truthfully it works. The most western places are the hotels situated in Luxor and Aswan or right across from the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo. 

And clearly, there are no more animal sacrifices or polytheistic practices or women walking around topless (let alone showing their elbows or knees). So, of course, it's not like any hieroglyphic from the ancient Egyptian culture.

But from what I have seen, there's still ancient Egyptian culture floating around. Something like the Library of Alexandria might've only been built for money (a topic that I will revisit in a future post), but there is a sense of pride that the Egyptians have in ancient Egypt. They were one of the first great civilizations. Egypt is something to be proud of. The pyramids and all the ancient things are truly amazing (just check out the picture of Abu Simbel below). 

When Egypt is compared to countries I have heard the long history of Egyptian culture invoked more than once to argue for Egypt's superiority. For example, in a conversation about Saudi Arabia and Egypt, a point was made that Saudi Arabia is simply a product of oil because it was just a big place with a lot of tribes in earlier history; on the other hand, Egypt is a product of history and culture and it produces something more than just raw materials.

Just some thoughts on a country trying to stay balanced on top of a pyramid.

Luxor Today

Luxor is considered the hassling capital of Egypt. Every single person on the street made a comment to me as I walked by. Most of the comments were sale pitches in British accents.

The regular ones:

"Hi, how are you. Take a look at my store"

"Sir, where are you from"

"Come in, you can look for free"

When I didn't respond:

"Why don't you respond to me sir. Was breakfast bad?"

"Sir, please. I just want to talk."

When they just wanted to play with me:

"You lost something... my heart"

"Your water is spilling. Look. Look. Look. Made you look."

Walking with girls:

"You are a very lucky man"

"You are a lucky man to have three wives. Would you consider selling one for some camels?"

85% of Luxor's economy comes from tourism, according to word on the street (and confirmed with my own eyes). These people's well being is entirely based on money coming from foreigners, and my guess is these people are tired of the foreigners ignorance of the modern culture. People come to Luxor to see "ancient Egypt" and "the exotic Middle East" but that's not a reality. It's awesome to see the Valley of the Kings, the Tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, the Temple of Luxor and Carnak and many others, but most of the tourists don't really care about the people in the town. Furthermore, the tourists look for belly dancing shows or participate in orientalist parties where the men where jalabeas and the women whatever stereotypical outfits that you might expect Jasmine from Aladdin to wear. There is no reason for these tourists to care about the people of Luxor any more than any other random city or town in the world, but the fact that tourists come to Luxor without a sensitivity for the culture and people (this is my opinion on the subject) aggravates the locals and leads them into this backlash of hassling -- especially because it sometimes works to get them to buy stuff. 

There was this one great restaurant that is making a killing off the hassling. At Oasis, all the waiters speak perfect english, there's burgers on the menu,  and outside their door they have a sign that says, "Feeling homicidal, come in and enjoy a hassle free meal."

And without further ado, the good old days when this place was called Thebes...

In order of appearance: Temple of Carnak, Valley of the Kings, Close up in the Valley of the Kings before entering a tomb, Tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, Temple of Luxor

One Love, One Heart

I'm in the middle of the Nile in a city called Aswan in southern Egypt with a friend and two Nubian guys on a Felouka -- a small sailboat -- and we're all singing All in One together.

There's a couple artists who are really popular in Egypt like Enrique Iglesias and Celine Dion, but Bob Marley hadn't come up on my Egyptian music radar until I met the Nubian people. On my first day in Aswan, my friends and I saw a house with a Bob Marley flag waving in the wind. We looked at each other somewhat puzzled and dazed (I think the daze was just because we hadn't gotten any sleep the night before because we spent it in a train). Anyways, there was a guy standing outside the house, and we just started talking with him -- it's really normal to just start a conversation with anyone and anywhere in Egypt. We asked him about Bob Marley and he told us that all Nubian people love Bob Marley. 

We talked to him for a while and some of his friends came over and talked with us. After a while, one of his friends asks us if he can ask one question: what are tears? Because he wanted to understand the song No Woman, No Cry.

The next day, I happened to be on a Felouka with a friend and two Nubians. These guys were really outgoing and very talented with languages. One spoke French, English and Arabic fluently and he was only 25 years old (he also had a decent vocabulary of what some might consider inappropriate phrases in Italian and German). A little while into the Felouka ride, I asked them if they liked Bob Marley. They love Bob Marley too. One of them got out his cell phone and started playing All in One, and we all sang along. They knew almost every song, and told me that Bob Marley is extremely popular amongst the Nubian people because 1. he's laid back 2. most of them speak english and can understand the meaning of the song (you have to is you want to work in tourism and tourism is the supermajority of the commerce in Aswan)

As I was quizzing them on what Bob Marley songs they knew, I asked do you know No Woman, No Cry. The response: "Every man knows that song. But, we don't have that problem here. Come out with us on the boat tomorrow, and we'll sail with four women." 

الحمد الله

Here's an important word for anyone interested in learning some Arabic: Alhamdulillah -- thank God or praise be to God. You're supposed to say it when something good happens.

Just Live Your Life

T.I.'s new album is pretty sweet, especially this song.  I haven't had time to post any new stories; life's been busy. These pictures are from the Black and White Deserts.

And, Happy Election Day!