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Issue no.3220 December 2012

LE5

2 News Briefs

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20 December 2012

Prosecutor gone, again

The innocent Gulf

Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah has submitted his resignation to the State Judicial Council, which is to an-

nounce on Sunday whether the resignation is accepted. President Mohamed Morsy has called for the council not to accept it. Calls for Abdallah’s resignation were made by judges and prosecutors following allegations that the public prosecutor attempted to intervene in the investigations of the Ettehadiya Palace clashes that occurred between Morsy’s supporters and opposition forces in front of the presidential palace earlier in December. Abdallah

enraged the judiciary when he relocated prosecutor Mostafa Khater who had been working on the case to Beni Suef, before he rescinded his decision. Abdallah said he would address their call following the ref-erendum, but increasing protests has led to a faster decision. Abdallah was appointed by Morsy in November to succeed the Mubarak-era Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, whose sacking by the president raised concerns about executive interven-tion in judges’ affairs.■

The United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan rejected claims by the Muslim Brother-hood that his country is plotting for the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsy. In a meeting with the Egyptian ambassador, Zayed raised concerns about “fabricated re-marks broadcast recently by some media in Egypt involving

accusations against the UAE, including the allegation that it was engaged in plots against the Egyptian leadership,” the Emirati news agency WAM reported. Freedom and Justice Party member Mohamed Mossad Yaqout had recently alleged that Egyptian opposition forces were trying to overthrow Morsy with help from a "Gulf cell." His com-ments echo recent allegations by Brotherhood members that the UAE’s ambassador to Egypt was

involved in an assassination plot targeting Morsy. Relations have been strained between the Brotherhood and the UAE, where the group is outlawed. The wealthy Gulf country maintains a strong grip on internal political opposition and there are fears among the country’s leadership that the re-cent wave of popular uprisings in the region could challenge its rule. Sixty Emiratis were arrested in July on suspicion of belonging to the Brotherhood and Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan recently slammed the group, saying in a statement to the media that the group behaved like a "mafia."■

Talaat Abdallah

Life by the border

The court and the president

Friends again?

President Mohamed Morsy’s office issued a statement on Tuesday in response to the Supreme Constitutional Court’s (SCC)declaration which was itself a response to accusations that it was intending to dissolve the Constituent Assembly. The statement assured the pres-ident’s respect for the judiciary and other state institu-tions. The accusations were made more than once by Morsy, but most recently were included in an English statement sent by Essam al-Haddad, the assistant to the president for foreign relations, on Friday. Haddad also claimed that the Islamist-dominated People’s Assembly was dissolved under suspicious circumstances by the court. The SCC had criticized Haddad’s statement, saying he “slandered” the court. The Tuesday state-ment claimed that the initial one did not mean that the judges themselves wanted to dissolve the assembly, but rather that other circles of influence did.■

The Constituent Assembly has invited four leading opposition figures to discuss the controversial draft constitution in an open session on Friday, hours before the second round of voting begins in the constitutional referendum on Saturday. Constitution Party head Mohamed ElBaradei, Popular Current leader Hamdeen Sabbahi, Wafd Party leader Al-Sayed al-Badawy and Conference Party head Amr Moussa were each invited to voice their opinions on the draft. “As the Constituent Assembly is keen on relaying to the Egyptian people all different views and perspec-tives in complete transparency for them to decide what they deem best for the country, it invites you and the leaders of the national forces to present the objections to the draft constitution in a public dia-logue,” the invitation said.■

Border guards exchanged fire with arms smugglers on the Egyptian-Libyan border, a few kilometers south of the Salloum land port, the state news agency MENA reported. The smugglers were attempting to enter the Western Egyptian border when they were inter-

cepted by Egyptian security forces and apprehended. They eventually returned to Libya, leaving behind four medium-sized cases filled with cannabis, seven different types of missiles, four auto-matic guns, 14 containers of bullets and a large quantity of ammunition.■

Smugglers attempted to enter the Western Egyptian border.

Islamists continue their sit-in outside the Constitutional Court.

Judges say noThe board of the State Council Judges Club board has moved to boycott the second round of vot-ing in the constitutional referen-dum, said club head Hamdi Yassin on Monday. The decision came in response to the authorities’ failure to meet the conditions they had set to supervise the first round of voting on 15 December. “The Supreme Constitutional Court is still besieged and the security services do not interfere,” Yassin said. “Also, judges supervising the referendum did not get the life insurance that the president promised.” The judiciary has been divided over participation in the referendum. The State Litigation Authority agreed to supervise vot-ing, while the Judges Club refused as a protest against President Mohamed Morsy’s 22 November constitutional declaration that granted him judicial immunity until there is a new constitution.■

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The king is murderedThe death of the last New Kingdom ruler, Ramses III, 3,300 years ago remained unexplained until a group of Egyptian and international researchers concluded this week that the 65-year-old king was murdered. The killers are believed to have been sent by one of Ramses’ junior wives Tiy and her son Prince Pentawere who wanted to suc-ceed him as Egypt’s king. Computed tomography imaging of the king’s mummy has shown that his windpipe and major arteries were slashed, in-flicting a wound 70 millimeters wide, the researchers said, adding that the wound on his neck had been hidden by mummified bandages. It is possible that Ramses’ throat was cut after death, the researchers explain, but this is highly unlikely as such a practice was never recorded as an ancient Egyptian preservation technique. The plotters seem to have failed, however, to derail the line of succession as Ramses was succeeded by his chosen heir, his son Amonhirkhopshef.■

3News20 December 2012

The vote to nowhereThe outcome of the referendum promises less, rather than more, stability

By Heba Afify

ollowing the first round of the referendum on the con-stitution, which many hoped would be the first step on the

road to stability, close results and fears about violations indicate the political upheaval will continue, and perhaps even intensify.

Ten governorates voted on Sat-urday on a draft constitution which emerged out of a tumultuous pro-cess characterized by divisions and controversy within and around the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting the document.

The preliminary results show that 57 percent of those who participated approved of the draft while 43 per-cent rejected it. The participation rate is estimated to be a little less than 31 percent.

The Islamist forces, including the ruling Muslim Brotherhood and var-ious Salafi fronts, promoted the draft while the non-Islamist opposition forces mobilized for a “no” vote. The results are thus seen as a reflection of the electoral prowess of the political forces entangled in the current bat-tle, and a potential continuation and deepening of this rift.

Game changer“[The results] represent the fall of all the lies the Brotherhood propa-gate, that they represent the Egyp-tian people while the opposition is just an elite group. This shows that the people have not given them an unconditional monopoly on legiti-macy,” says Hussein Abdel Ghany, spokesperson for the National Salva-tion Front, a coalition of opposition forces and leaders.

Compared with other polls since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the results of the referendum reflect a decline in the popularity of Islamist forces.

Last year, a referendum on con-stitutional amendments supported by Islamist forces passed with a 73 percent majority. Islamist forces con-tinued their domination of the elec-toral game sweeping a majority of 70 percent in the parliament, which al-lowed them a controlling majority in the Constituent Assembly drafting the constitution.

“The results mean two things, that the political powers are now almost equal and that there is public anger festering against the Islamist hijack-ing of the state and the treatment of Egyptians as children who need to be disciplined,” says Abdel Ghany.

Mohamed Naeem, political analyst and member of the Social Democrat-ic Party, says the results offer early indications of a smaller presence for Islamist forces in the next parliamen-tary elections. He says it is a sign of the gradual, continuous strengthen-ing of the opposition, which entered the scene less than two years ago.

“Islamists will have the major-ity but not an absolute majority that allows them to do whatever they want,” he speculates on the results of the upcoming parliamentary elec-tions.

However, Taher Abdel Mohsen, a member of the Freedom and Justice Party and Constituent Assembly, says the referendum is not an accu-rate measure of the Brotherhood’s popularity.

“You can’t measure popularity through a referendum where there are many other factors involved. In the next parliamentary elections where there will be direct competi-tion, this is when popularity can be determined,” he says.

Additionally, he says that the pop-ularity of the opposition remains concentrated in the cities. In the first round of the referendum, the “no” vote won in Cairo and the Delta gov-ernorate of Gharbiya, while the “yes” vote triumphed in the rest of the eight governorates that voted in the first round, with growing margins in the remote governorates of Sinai and Upper Egypt.

“Nobody wins elections with the capital. Cairo is not a measure, in villages and rural areas you will only find the big parties that truly blend with the public,” says Abdel Mohsen, claiming the opposition’s appeal re-mains limited to the elite.

It’s not over yetThe constitution drafting process marked the reenactment of a deep Islamist-secular rift in the Egyptian polity. Weeks before the Constituent Assembly finalized its work, almost all non-Islamist members withdrew in objection over the draft.

The state of polarization deepened when President Mohamed Morsy is-sued a constitutional declaration in November giving himself overreach-

ing powers and making his decisions immune from judicial oversight.

The decree resulted in a division that materialized in bloody clashes earlier this month in front of the presidential palace. The opposition had called for the cancellation of the referendum arguing that the draft does not reflect the necessary con-sensus.

Although Morsy rescinded several articles of the controversial declara-tion, an ongoing societal rift is only expected to grow following the ref-erendum.

“The constitution cannot func-tion with such a low percentage of approval. Amendments have to be adopted,” says Naeem.

Allowing for fraud, which Naeem speculates affects 5-10 percent of the results, he says the outcome so far reflects a popular rejection of the draft. Additionally, he says the low turnout takes away from the already contested legitimacy of the process.

Abdel Mohsen disagrees. “The

constitution will pass with a 62 to 63 percent approval rate. What more do they want?” he asks rhetorically.

Questioning the legitimacy of the entire process of the referendum, the opposition is gearing up for another attempt to amend the draft if it pass-es the referendum, saying the low rates of approval justifies their move.

The mechanisms for such amend-ments are unknown, however. In a pledge to solve the problem, Morsy said in a statement last Friday that changes to the current draft, if it passes, can be made through the Shura Council, which will then have legislative powers. However, the council in its current formation is overwhelmingly Islamist, which does not help resolve the rift.

But, while the opposition sees the low approval rate as a justification for its demand for amendments in the draft, Abdel Mohsen says this is out of the question.

“The instatement of the constitu-tion is a purely legal process. Once it is passed, no-one, not even the presi-dent, has the power to amend it,” he says, adding that the only mecha-nism to amend the constitution will be through an elected parliament, as stated in the draft.

The Constituent Assembly has in-vited the opposition to a dialogue on Monday. However, Abdel Mohsen clarifies that the assembly aims to debate and defend the constitution, rather than make any changes.

“We want to defend the constitu-tion that we put to the people. The opposition appears on television and we don’t get invited,” he says. “They are brainwashing people. Some say no without even reading the consti-tution.”

The next round of the referendum already faces hurdles that promise to cause even more questioning

and perhaps rejection of the results. Following the first round, the op-position complained about several violations, mainly relating to the lack of judicial oversight in some polling stations as a result of a partial judicial boycott of the referendum.

On Monday, the State Council Judges Club, with its 3,000 mem-bers, announced it would boycott the next round of the referendum, saying the presidency failed to real-ize the promises it made to the judg-es prior to the referendum which included ending the siege of the Su-preme Constitutional Court (SCC) by the president’s supporters and se-curing the judges while they oversee the referendum. Islamist supporters of Morsy have been camping outside the court’s building in response to presidential reports that the court intended to dissolve the Constituent Assembly, another episode in an on-going stand-off between the presi-dent and the SCC.

“This means that the second round will be even worse than the flawed first round,” says Naeem.

The National Salvation Front, which was formed in November uniting opposition figures and par-ties, issued a statement on Monday urging the Higher Judicial Elections Commission to review its reports of violations in the first round and postpone the second round until complete judicial oversight can be guaranteed.

Abdel Ghani says the front will de-cide on its course of action depend-ing on the HJEC’s response.

No stability in sightWith a continued political crisis and a referendum that shows public opinion is almost split in half, both sides expect the political unrest to continue, with each blaming the oth-er for the lack of stability.

Looming economic problems are expected to further exacerbate the issues, especially for those in power, with many contending that genuine dialogue is the only instrument left for the Brotherhood.

“We are not in a situation condu-cive to stability because of the crisis that the Brotherhood has put us in,” says Naeem. He adds that by put-ting a contested draft up for refer-endum, the Brotherhood has started a legitimacy crisis that will only be deepened by the low turnout and ap-proval rate.

Additionally, he says the confron-tation between state institutions that the constitutional decree triggered will also come in the way of achiev-ing stability.

While he agrees that stability is far-fetched at this point, Abdel Mohsen blames it on the opposition.

He says the opposition is rejecting the constitution as a tool against the Brotherhood while their arguments against the draft itself are weak. He claims that some took a stance against the constitution simply to garner attention and popularity ahead of the upcoming parliamen-tary elections.

“We are now in a crisis. Whose in-terest are they promoting chaos for?” Abdel Mohsen says. “Things have to calm down and we all have to start the challenge of building the nation as fast as possible.”■

With a continued political crisis and a referendum that shows public opinion is almost split in half, both sides expect the political unrest to continue, with each blaming the other for the lack of stability

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Preliminary results show a 57 percent “yes” vote for the draft constitution.

4 News20 December 2012

Referendum woes Opposition and monitoring groups report critical violations

By Mohamad Adam On Tuesday, many took to the streets of Cairo and elsewhere, after a call from the National Salvation Front and other political powers to protest the violations committed in the first phase of the referendum on the constitution draft.

Many monitoring groups and opposition forces slammed the process for wide-scale violations, which they say are enough to delegitimize the whole process, and are as serious as poll violations that took place un-der the old regime. The allegations come in the midst of a growing polarization between Islamist forces campaigning for a “yes” vote on the draft, and their opponents who slam the constitution for its non-representative nature.

More than 9 million Egyptians cast their votes in the referendum’s first phase on Sat-urday. According to preliminary results, 56.5 percent of the voters cast their ballots in fa-vor of the constitution while 43.5 percent rejected it, with a voter turnout of approxi-mately 31 percent.

Several operation rooms have monitored the process. Opposition parties, political movements and NGOs say they detected violations that undermine the integrity of the vote. Among the most important opera-tion rooms were those set up by the National Salvation Front and eight other parties and movements, as well as the Egyptian Alli-ance for Monitoring the Referendum which is composed of 126 associations, rights and developmental organizations and, finally, the Judges Club. Each of these monitoring enti-ties issued a report, listing the infractions detected.

Breaches reported by these different sourc-es have been recurring. Monitoring reports spoke of several ballot papers that were not stamped, while supervising judges declined to register this violation.

Moreover, several journalists and NGO representatives were denied access to poll-ing stations. Egypt Independent reporters were among those denied access to several polling stations around the country. Reports added that some reporters and activists were assaulted, while members of the Brother-hood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi Nour Party were allowed access.

Nasser Amin, head of the Center for the Independence of the Judicial Profession, said that the National Council for Human Rights, which issued monitoring permits, granted 30,000 blank observer cards as one stack to members of the FJP.

Moreover, in certain areas, the Brother-hood mobilized “yes” voters, and voted on behalf of some citizens using their IDs. Voter lists were taken outside polling stations and some ballot papers were pre-marked, accord-ing to the report of the National Salvation Front’s operations room.

Polling stations were also closed for lengthy periods during voting hours. For example, in Qraqera village in Minya al-Qamh, in the Delta governorate of Sharqiya, the main poll-ing station was shut down for more than an hour. Voters told Egypt Independent that the supervising judges and executives were hav-ing lunch and then performing prayer. “They shut down the station under the pretext of prayer,” said Tarek Farouq. The lengthy shut down was confirmed by a “yes” voter in the village, Ayman Matouq.

Some polling stations had large numbers of voters, which considerably slowed down the movement of voters’ queues. In some cases, this led to voters’ refraining from cast-ing their ballots and, in others, the polling stations’ doors were closed before queuing voters were able to vote.

Ragya Omran, a member of Shayfenkom group, which monitors elections, and took

part in the National Salvation Front’s op-eration room, said voting at polling stations where a large “no” vote was expected was in-tentionally slowed down.

“The long lines discouraged people from voting. In addition, there were large crowds, suspected of belonging to the Brotherhood, occupying the polling stations and trying to keep the lines from moving,” she added.

Mohamed Sayed, who voted “no,” said he spent over an hour casting his vote, while many left the queue and went back to their delayed businesses without voting due to the long lines. However, he doubted it was a deliberate move to block the voting process in the Sharqiya village, in which the major-ity voted against President Mohamed Morsy in the presidential election run-offs. Former presidential candidate Ahmad Shafiq re-ceived 2,700 votes here while 1,250 voted for Morsy.

Omran added that, in certain polling sta-tions, where voters were projected to vote against the constitution, only one judge was designated to supervise the vote even though the electorate totaled up to 6,000 voters. Farouq corroborated the account explaining that in the last presidential election, voters in the district were distributed over four poll-ing stations, but there was only one for the referendum.

Egypt Independent reporters touring poll-

ing stations in Cairo during the presidential elections found some of them closed, espe-cially in the downtown area.

Meanwhile, monitoring reports docu-mented cases where those supervising the polling were suspected of not being judges. Similarly, the Judges Club’s operation room said it received complaints that some of the supervisors of the vote were not judges and called on the High Judicial Elections Com-mittee (HJEC) to publish the names of judges to disperse accusations in this regard. The HJEC, meanwhile, had published on its website a list of judges who would take part in the referendum oversight before polling kicked off, although it is unclear whether the thousands of names published did in fact su-pervise the voting.

The controversy follows a number of judi-cial authorities announcing their boycott of the poll in rejection of Morsy’s decrees and moves, which they deem as detrimental to the independence of the judiciary.

Toqadom al-Khateeb, in charge of politi-cal communication at the National Asso-ciation for Change, also part of the National Salvation Front, gave the example of the head of a polling station in Sembellawein, in the Delta governorate of Daqahliya, who was a court secretary, not a judge. He added that other similar cases had been reported.

The allegation that some of the supervi-

sors were not, in fact, judges could overturn the whole process, argued some experts. Sherif Azer, assistant secretary general at the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, a member of the Egyptian Alliance for Monitoring the Referendum, said that proving that some polling stations were not supervised by judges was sufficient to in-validate the entire referendum.

“The current political situation and the fact that many judges boycotted the polling raises the question of whether the HJEC had to resort to employees in the Ministry of Justice to fill the gap,” Azer said, adding that the fact that the regime insisted on holding the poll despite the judges’ boycott was enough to cast doubt over the extent to which it was a clean process.

Amin likened the lack of judicial over-sight to former President Hosni Mubarak’s 2010 parliamentary elections where a lack of supervising judges was key to a number of violations securing the formerly ruling National Democratic Party’s victory of 90 percent.

Ashraf Zahran, a member of the Justice Ministry’s operation room, criticized the statements issued by the Judges Club and told Al-Ahram that all the heads of polling stations were judges. The HJEC also con-demned claims that the heads of polling stations were not judges, though it added that it would still investigate complaints in that regard.

Lawyer and former presidential candidate Khaled Ali raised a case at the Administra-tive Court calling for a halt on the second phase of the referendum and a repeat of the whole process, with the ballots including all the articles of the constitution draft.

One structural violation pertains to the opacity around the draft constitution prop-er. Meanwhile, a statement issued by the National Salvation Front said the final draft of the constitution was not published in the official Egyptian Gazette, meaning that many voters were probably unaware of the articles of the constitution.

The Constituent Assembly, which drafted the constitution, organized a press confer-ence one day before the vote in which it said there were several incorrect copies of the fi-nal draft circulating among Egyptians. The concern was also raised by the Freedom and Justice Party daily, the mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm. As a result, the paper published thousands of copies of the constitution and distributed it alongside the daily newspaper.

Meanwhile, some observers raised con-cerns about the politicization of the docu-mentation and reporting process on the violations.

“It will be difficult to ascertain the precise depth of the violations: the government’s estimations will be regarded as compro-mised by the opposition, and the opposi-tion’s will be regarded as exaggerations by the government,” said Hisham Hellyer, a nonresident fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institute. “As decentralized as the ‘no’ vote campaign was, it did not co-ordinate complaints to the state, meaning that no one can independently verify even the number of complaints,” he added.

“Regardless of that, however, two things are very clear. The first is that this consti-tution does not enjoy the support of more than a minority of the entire country — it is not a consensus document for the nation. Secondly, neither of the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote campaigns were able to encourage a major-ity of voters to even vote. The vast major-ity of Egyptian voters did not vote yes or no. That’s a sign to the leadership, or lack thereof, of the political arena, for both the Brotherhood and the opposition,” Hellyer added.■

The vast majority of Egyptian voters did not vote yes or no. That’s a sign to the leadership, or lack thereof, of the political arena, for both the Brotherhood and the opposition

Monitoring groups reported different violations.

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5News20 December 2012

We haven’t determined if Hazemoun is directly related to the Brotherhood on an organizational level but it is very clear the Brotherhood is benefiting from their militant nature

An evolving saga

By Mai Shams El-Din

upporters of Hazem Abu Ismail, a prominent Salafi cleric and disqualified presidential can-didate, have re-emerged in the past weeks and are popping up everywhere, making a ruckus

with increasingly confrontational and unpredictable street actions.

In the midst of a flurry of accusations and denials from all parties involved, the lack of action from the Interior Ministry is most obvious, alongside Presi-dent Mohamed Morsy’s silence about the intensi-fying muscle-flexing of Hazemoun — the term by which Abu Ismail’s supporters are known.

Until, that is, said action was about to target the Dokki Police Station. On Sunday, in the most recent development in this dynamic saga, the streets sur-rounding the police station were on total lockdown as hundreds of Central Security Forces formed a mas-sive phalanx in anticipation of a Hazemoun march.

The Interior Ministry had said earlier on Sunday that it was pursuing those behind the attack on Wafd Party headquarters, which took place Saturday in Dokki. In a statement, the ministry said it tracked down the attackers and found them near Abu Ismail’s office, also in Dokki, but denied suggestions it was targeting him personally.

Abu Ismail, however, saw this as a possible ambush. In a Facebook post, he wrote: “Today [Sunday] at 7 pm, we’ll head to the Dokki police station to find out what happened,” referring to his belief that the Inte-rior Ministry had identified him and his supporters as the perpetrators behind the attacks.

The march never happened, however. By evening, Abu Ismail had told supporters to call it off, in an ap-parent attempt to defuse a confrontation between his supporters and police, who were left standing on guard for hours.

Some say the group is on a mission to create well-timed chaos on the streets, that would eventually benefit the Muslim Brotherhood and the president’s political maneuvers. Hazemoun, however, deny in-volvement in any attacks, and distance themselves from the Brotherhood. Some experts see the nascent group’s unstructured operations as dangerous, and difficult to control, predict or confront. Mostly, ob-servers are left bemused.

After suspending a two-week sit-in around Media Production City on 14 December, Hazemoun made their way back from the outskirts of the capital. The next night, amid the first round of referendum vot-ing, they allegedly headed to Dokki and attacked the headquarters of the liberal Wafd Party and its news-paper, which has been running fiery, anti-Islamist headlines.

It was more than an hour before security forces arrived on the scene, after fireworks were thrown at the premises, cars smashed and the area’s residents left terrified as tear gas and birdshots flew. That same night, several independent newspapers reported receiving threats from Hazemoun that their offices would be attacked and ramped up security, bracing for what seemed like the inevitable. The rest of the night passed smoothly, however.

Threats to the media have been ongoing since the start of the Media Production City sit-in on 7 De-cember, which the group staged in protest of what it describes as the privately-owned media’s flagrantly biased coverage of the Islamist current. Prominent television personalities faced trouble entering their studios and were forced by sit-in participants to show their IDs and operate under a palpable sense of in-timidation.

On the flipside, Hazemoun members say their sit-in was peaceful and have denied any involvement in the ensuing attacks or threats. They also believe po-lice forces are complicit in the recent attacks against the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood’s politi-cal arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, for failing to protect them.

Since Morsy issued a constitutional declaration giving him sweeping powers, and then calling for a snap referendum on a rushed constitution drafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly, protests by civil groups and political forces have taken place nation-wide. In some cities, angry protesters attacked FJP offices.

As for the attack on Wafd, the party’s chief al-Sayed

al-Badawy blames Hazemoun. But the group categor-ically denies any involvement in the attack on the his-torical building. Abu Ismail even accused the party’s members of attacking their own headquarters.

“We never attacked any headquarters, and the Wafd political leaders are exaggerating,” says Tamer al-Masry, a member of Hazemoun who marched in Mohandiseen’s Lebanon Square on Saturday.

Hussein Mansour, a member of Wafd’s general committee, tells Egypt Independent they have filed a complaint to the prosecutor general, documenting the damage caused to the building with videos show-ing the perpetrators. “It is clear from the way they look that they are Abu Ismail supporters,” he says.

“We are very worried about the rule of law in Egypt and we hope that justice will be served because we were warned by security forces in Giza that Haze-moun may be heading to our headquarters, and their warnings were right,” he adds. There was no protec-tion on hand when the attack came, however.

Media reports claim that Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal Eddin held closed meetings with high-rank-ing ministry officials to investigate the rising power of Abu Ismail and his supporters. There were reports that the minister is “fed up” with the group’s actions. The paper claims that Morsy has ordered the minis-ter not to arrest Abu Ismail nor confront any of the Islamist leaders.

But, as suspicion mounts over tension between the presidency and the Interior Ministry regarding Haze-moun, ministry sources who spoke to Egypt Inde-pendent also denied any troubled relationship with the presidency on this front. Former State Security General Fouad Allam said the security forces’ reluc-tance to face the rising powers of Hazemoun stems from their fear of being held accountable for more violence.

“There is the media city sit-in, the Supreme Con-stitutional Court protest, as well as the protest in Tahrir Square and the ongoing political conflict. It is very difficult for the Interior Ministry to confront all of this,” he argues, adding that the ministry “suffers from severe impotence.”

Islam Nour, a Salafi activist in Alexandria, accuses the apparatus of anti-Islamist bias reminiscent of the old regime and describes the ministry as “traitorous and complicit.” On 14 December, clashes broke out

after Friday prayers in Alexandria’s Al-Qaed Ibrahim Mosque when Sheikh Ahmed al-Mahalawy called on attendees to vote “yes” in the constitutional ref-erendum. The sheikh was trapped there for 15 hours before security forces managed to release him, along with some 100 others, through a back gate.

Nour says the ministry “remained irrelevant” as events unfolded. “Thugs were besieging the mosque. When Salafi youth mobilized to save the sheikh, they were attacked by protesters and then arrested,” he says. He says police targeted bearded young men, and 25 Salafis were unlawfully detained under fabricated charges of weapons possession. Some were released while others are still under investigation. But protest-ers allege that Salafis had escaped into the mosque after firing at protesters during earlier clashes.

Hazemoun’s Masry agrees with Nour. “Security was fortified in front of Dokki police station just be-cause they expected us to protest there. What about the headquarters of the FJP? What about the Ette-hadiya [presidential palace] clashes? What about the besieging of Sheikh Mahalawy? Why are they silent on these violations?”

Meanwhile, opposition figures have repeatedly ex-pressed concern over the rise of Hazemoun, accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of using the group to take their revenge on the opposition and independent media. Some have gone as far as describing Haze-moun as the militant arm of the Brotherhood.

“We haven’t determined if Hazemoun is directly related to the Brotherhood on an organizational level, but it is very clear the Brotherhood is at least benefiting from their militant nature,” Professor of Islamist movements at the American University in Cairo, Ashraf al-Sherif tells Egypt Independent. He describes Hazemoun as an “undisciplined political group” that should be dealt with separately from the tightly structured Muslim Brotherhood. Still, the Brotherhood stands to benefit on two levels.

“I think Hazemoun actions create a level of calcu-lated chaos that will be in favor of the Brotherhood’s ‘stability’ propaganda machine, to encourage people to vote ‘yes’ in the referendum,” says Sherif. Juxtapos-ing Hazemoun’s behavior with the Brotherhood also means the Brotherhood comes off in a good light.

Masry refutes any ties between his group and Morsy, adding that Hazemoun have their own res-ervations regarding the president. “Personally, I will vote ‘no’ in the referendum because I believe it is not Sharia-compliant. We also disagree with the Broth-erhood because we believe their utmost loyalty is to the Supreme Guide, not to the Prophet [Mohamed],” Masry says. “I regretted voting for Morsy, but I had no other choice back then.”

Sherif believes the price the Brotherhood will have to pay in the future for its silence over Hazemoun is this kind of political bidding over the Brotherhood’s commitment to Sharia. “Hazemoun will remain a major source of instability for a long time in the po-litical scene,” he argues.■

Hazemoun, the Brotherhood, and the Interior Ministry

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Wafd Party headquarters in Dokki, allegedly attacked by Hazemoun members on Saturday.

Hazem Abu Ismail

Ahmed Gamal Eddin

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6 News20 December 2012

Clashes between Islamists and opposition activists have drawn a lukewarm response �om the rest of the world.

Barack Obama

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A silent audienceTesting international responses to the Muslim Brotherhood

By Stephen Kalinhe past month in Egypt has been a critical period in terms of testing the interna-tional community’s appetite

for the domestic political agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In the run-up to the ongoing ref-erendum on the constitution, Presi-dent Mohamed Morsy took several steps that riled large swaths of the population and might reasonably have elicited condemnations and reprimands from Western allies con-cerned with stability, democracy and human rights in the region. Respons-es, however, have been described as “mild” by observers, bu�ressing a widely-held premise that Western policy toward Egypt is centered around preserving regional security.

On 22 November, the presidential spokesperson announced Morsy’s constitutional declaration which, among other things, suspended all court cases against the Islamist-dom-inated Constituent Assembly and gave the president sweeping emer-gency powers. Opponents accused him of turning himself into a mod-ern pharaoh, comparing his decision to Hitler’s Enabling Act of 1933 and coining the nickname “Morsilini” in reference to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Less than two weeks later, on 5 De-cember, Morsy supporters a�acked peaceful demonstrators outside the presidential palace and reportedly tortured dozens of them in makeshi� cells to elicit false confessions.

CamaraderieWith the Islamist-friendly constitu-tion poised to pass with a narrow majority, the United States, Egypt’s biggest �nancial backer and stron-gest military ally, continues to take a wait-and-see approach. In general, European governments have been more direct in criticizing Morsy’s actions but equally hesitant to take meaningful action.

�e Obama administration issued a tepid response to Morsy’s power grab and the ensuing protests. “We call for calm and encourage all par-ties to work together and call for all Egyptians to resolve their di�erences over these important issues peaceful-ly and through democratic dialogue,” said State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland.

Nearly two weeks later, a�er clash-es between the president’s support-ers and his opponents le� several Egyptians dead, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a sharper com-ment at a NATO ministerial mean-ing in Brussels on 6 December.

It is “not the Americans, not any-one else but the Egyptian people [who] deserve a constitution that protects the rights of all Egyptians, men and women, Muslim and Christian, and ensures that Egypt will uphold all of its international obligations,” Clinton said.

“Ultimately, it is up to the Egyp-tian people to chart their way for-ward,” she continued. “But we want to see a process that is inclusive and a dialogue that is truly open to a free exchange of ideas that will further the democratic process in Egypt.”

Obama echoed that tone in a state-ment released by the White House on 8 December a�er a telephone call to Morsy. “�e president under-scored that it is essential for Egyptian leaders across the political spectrum to put aside their di�erences and

the Egypt Independent. “It is espe-cially large in this case, because the US has a high pro�le in Egypt and US-Egypt relations are so complex.”

Yet the US has demonstrated le-niency toward the Muslim Brother-hood since the group’s political wing ascended to the heights of the Egyp-tian government earlier this year. �is has led many to question how an Islamist organization formerly designated as a terrorist group by the US government became a close ally, seemingly overnight.

Yielding to the realpolitik de-mands of international relations a�er Mubarak’s fall, the Obama adminis-tration sought a reliable partner in Egypt to secure its strategic interests including counterterrorism, Israel and the Suez Canal.

A working relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood began in the summer of 2011 when a credible alternative failed to emerge, and the US made what the Washington Post’s David Ignatius called the “cos-mic wager.”

�e result of over a year of com-munication and cooperation, Brown said, is that “US o�cials can see things through the Brotherhood’s eyes, and they don’t have the same visceral fear of the Brotherhood that earlier o�cials used to.”

Echoing that sentiment, Eric Trag-er, Next Generation fellow at the Washington Institute, told Egypt In-dependent that “the administration

believes it can work with Morsy.”�e weakness of Egypt’s opposi-

tion groups only strengthens the alli-ance between Morsy and the Obama administration. �e administration “doesn’t see his opposition as a vi-able alternative,” Trager continued, “because it’s not cohesive against anything other than Morsy and be-cause it has a radical outlook that an elected president should be stepping down.”

More than anything else, though, Brown suggested that the US seeks to avoid taking sides. “�e funda-mental threat is that the US does not want to be seen as an actor in this cri-sis,” he said. “It’s also well aware that anything that it does will be seized upon. It’s already in a position where the opposition sees it as supporting the Brotherhood, and the Brother-hood comes back with ‘the US is al-ways suspicious of Islamists.’”

Brown noted that the experiences of Hamas in Gaza and the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria form the backdrop for US policy toward Egypt. Islamists in those countries were democratically elected and sub-sequently delegitimized, a situation which the US seeks to avoid repeat-ing in Egypt.

As the ba�leground of a week-long con�ict with Israel in mid-Novem-ber, Gaza played a more direct part in the current US-Egypt relationship. Morsy’s principal role in negotiating a truce won him international appre-ciation, especially from the Obama administration.

“�e administration thinks that, based on how the Gaza cease�re was handled, Morsy can be a partner on foreign policy,” said Trager.

Morsy worked closely with Clin-ton and Obama during the negotia-tions and received praise from Wash-ington when the deal was concluded.

“Morsy was clearly acting with

come together to agree on a path that will move Egypt forward,” it said.

�e New York Times subsequently reported on 14 December that advis-ers to both presidents said Obama “did not reprimand” Morsy in this call, but rather “sought to build on a growing rapport with his Egyptian counterpart.”

�ese comments recall former policies towards the Mubarak re-gime — tolerating domestic trans-gressions for the sake of stability and cooperation on strategic initiatives. Nonetheless, the day a�er this phone call between Obama and Morsy, the Egyptian president partially an-nulled his previous constitutional declaration.

“�ere is always a gap between pol-icy and public statements,” Nathan Brown, political science professor at George Washington University, told

some sense of timing: a critical stage in domestic Egyptian politics but also a sense of international oppor-tunity that had to do with Gaza,” said Brown.

Keen on preserving this evolving camaraderie despite domestic tur-bulence, Morsy issued a statement in English on 14 December, directed at the Western press, defending his re-cent controversial decree and moves on the basis that the country is under counter-revolutionary threat, and re-newing his commitment to dialogue with his opposition.

Meanwhile, one of the strongmen of the Brotherhood, Essam al-Had-dad, became further empowered at the presidency, handling the for-eign a�airs portfolio, sometimes at the expense of involving the foreign ministry. A recent delegation sent by Morsy to Washington and headed by Haddad earlier in December was described by Washington Post editor Jackson Diehl as “fascinating.”

�e neighborsIn contrast, European governments, by and large, have not built the same sort of relationships with the new Egyptian president. As disparate ac-tors seeking to coordinate foreign policy through the European Union institutions, they o�en possess dis-similar interests and di�ering views of the region.

Michael Mann, the spokesperson for EU foreign a�airs chief Catherine Ashton, echoed the Obama admin-istration by calling for political dia-logue and restraint on 3 December. Likewise, British Foreign Secretary William Hague released a statement on 6 December that advocated re-straint on all sides and dialogue.

However, one day a�er Morsy’s constitutional declaration was an-nounced, Marietje Schaak, a Dutch member of the European Parlia-ment, warned: “�e danger of a presidential tyranny looms.” She ad-vocated an immediate freezing of EU �nancial assistance to Egypt until the decree was reversed.

�e following week, Martin Schulz, a German politician and president of the European Parliament, described Morsy’s power grab as “a coup” in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He added the EU “must make it absolutely clear that without pluralistic democracy in Egypt there can be neither economic nor political cooperation.”

Meanwhile, with smaller invest-ments and fewer strategic interests in Egypt compared to the US, Europe-ans can arguably remain more faith-ful to their stated principles.

�e European Bank for Re-construction and Development (EBRD), for example, has a democ-racy mandate which conditions in-vestment on tangible movement to-wards democracy. “What’s happened in the past few weeks could make it more di�cult to make investments,” said Erik Berglof, chief economist at the EBRD, commenting on the pro-tests and street ba�les that followed the constitutional declaration.

However, according to Boehnke, Morsy’s retraction of the constitu-tional declaration on 9 December dialed back the opposition from Europe. “All options are on the table for the government in Cairo to get the EU’s full support,” he said. “�e German government has an inter-est in the transformation process,” Boehnke said, “but we won’t do it at any price.”■

T

The US has demonstrated leniency toward the Muslim Brotherhood ... This has led many to question how an Islamist organization formerly designated as a terrorist group became a close ally, seemingly overnight

�e Obama administration issued a tepid response to Morsy’s power grab and the ensuing protests. “We call for calm and encourage all par-ties to work together and call for all Egyptians to resolve their di�erences over these important issues peaceful-ly and through democratic dialogue,” said State Department spokesperson

Nearly two weeks later, a�er clash-es between the president’s support-ers and his opponents le� several Egyptians dead, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a sharper com-ment at a NATO ministerial mean-

It is “not the Americans, not any-one else but the Egyptian people [who] deserve a constitution that one else but the Egyptian people [who] deserve a constitution that one else but the Egyptian people

protects the rights of all Egyptians, men and women, Muslim and Christian, and ensures that Egypt will uphold all of its international

“Ultimately, it is up to the Egyp-tian people to chart their way for-ward,” she continued. “But we want to see a process that is inclusive and a dialogue that is truly open to a free exchange of ideas that will further

Obama echoed that tone in a state-ment released by the White House on 8 December a�er a telephone call to Morsy. “�e president under-scored that it is essential for Egyptian leaders across the political spectrum to put aside their di�erences and

the Egypt Independent. “It is espe-cially large in this case, because the US has a high pro�le in Egypt and US-Egypt relations are so complex.”

Yet the US has demonstrated le-niency toward the Muslim Brother-hood since the group’s political wing ascended to the heights of the Egyp-tian government earlier this year. �is has led many to question how an Islamist organization formerly designated as a terrorist group by the US government became a close ally, seemingly overnight.

Yielding to the realpolitik de-mands of international relations a�er Mubarak’s fall, the Obama adminis-tration sought a reliable partner in Egypt to secure its strategic interests including counterterrorism, Israel and the Suez Canal.

A working relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood began in the summer of 2011 when a credible alternative failed to emerge, and the US made what the Washington Post’s David Ignatius called the “cos-mic wager.”

�e result of over a year of com-munication and cooperation, Brown said, is that “US o�cials can see things through the Brotherhood’s eyes, and they don’t have the same visceral fear of the Brotherhood that earlier o�cials used to.”

Echoing that sentiment, Eric Trag-er, Next Generation fellow at the Washington Institute, told Egypt In-dependent that “the administration

George Washington University, told

MohamedMorsy

20 December 2012

7News

Learning through the stick

By Heba A�fy

In the video, terri�ed schoolchildren line up at their teacher’s desk in a Delta kindergar-ten to have their homework corrected. What comes next was a rude awakening for Egyp-tian society. �e teacher strikes each sobbing student with a stick, dragging them by their hair.

“Will you do be�er next time?” he asks. �e person behind the camera laughs.

Despite the outrage the video stirred, the teacher was released and punished with a �ne. Parents of the victims protested his in-carceration, saying they had asked him to beat their children.

�is particular video was circulated last year, but incidents of teacher-on-student violence in Egypt’s schools have escalated since the revolution, as shown in periodic reports by human rights’ watchdogs. �e problem, educators say, is embedded in the educational system and its incumbent de�-ciencies. However, it is further exacerbated by a society that largely condones corporal punishment.

According to the Egyptian Center for Hu-man Rights, the past two months have seen 18 incidents of violence against students. One victim was whipped, while another was locked in a bathroom. Students also sus-tained broken legs, �ngers, a broken pelvis, concussion and an eye injury.

Only one incident, when a teacher in Luxor forcibly cut a student’s hair for not wearing a headscarf, caused widespread alarm. �e case came amid widespread concern that the political rise of Islamists was encourag-ing vigilantes to take the implementation of Islamic law into their own hands.

An enabling systemClasses in public schools across the na-tion are overcrowded and understa�ed, and teachers, for the most part, are underpaid and unsupervised, observers note. �is, they say, is an important factor in the general cul-ture of violence.

Abdel Hafeez Tayel, the head of the Egyptian Center for the Right to Education, says that poor infrastructure promotes violence. Amid dire conditions and with li�le accountability, teachers o�en resort to vio-lence.

With 90 students per teacher, more than double the interna-tional standard, e�ective in-struction becomes impossible, and the teacher is le� strug-gling to maintain order, Tayel said.

Earlier this year, teachers demanding be�er wages and permanent contracts went on strike and threatened to halt the start of classes.

Watchdogs such as Tayel’s say raising teachers’ wages, decreasing class density, and �xing curricula to promote an education based on indepen-dent thinking are crucial to im-proving the situation.

Meanwhile, neither the 1971 constitution, nor the new dra� set for referendum next week address the quality of education in the country.

With the existing cracks in the system, the issue of impunity further exacerbates the problem. According to law, physical violence is only punishable by administrative penal-ties decided on a case-by-case basis.

In cases where parents press criminal charges, the teachers usually get o� lightly. Af-ter beating an 11-year-old to death in 2008, a teacher in Alexandria received a six-year sen-

tence for manslaughter.�roughout the increasing incidents of

corporal punishment by teachers recently, no teacher received any punishment that amounted to more than a slap on the wrist, says Tayel.

Meanwhile, Mohamed al-Sorougy, a spokesperson for the Education Ministry, said the ministry has launched a campaign to promote a “humane relations pact,” which consists of sessions with parents, teachers and others involved in the educational pro-cess to draw new guidelines for the relation-ships between them.

But Sorougy’s pact did not mask what was, in many instances, state-sanctioned corporal punishment.

In 2010, former Education Minister Ahmed Zaki Badr shocked the public with a statement saying that preventing a teacher from using corporal punishment against the students wasted the teacher’s prestige.

�at sentiment did not change with the revolution. In October, current minister, Ibrahim Ghoneim, said corporal punishment should be allowed as long as it was not severe. Following a wave of criticism, Ghoneim re-tracted his statement, saying that using a stick in schools is uncivilized.

“Even teachers rejected the minister’s state-ment allowing corporal punishment and said their prestige would be restored with be�er wages and not by allowing them to beat chil-dren,” said Safwat Gerges, the head of the

Egyptian Center for Human Rights.

In November, Dar al-I�a, a body a�liated with Al Azhar University tasked with is-suing religious opinions, condemned only “severe beatings” of students, an im-plicit approval for other kinds of physical punishments that may not be categorized as se-vere.

A forgiving society�e issue is exacerbated by parents’ consent.

Mohamed al-Sayed, a door-man in Cairo whose two children go to public school in Sharqiya �nds that using corporal punishment is es-sential for the teacher to keep his “prestige” among students and to get them to learn.

“�ose students have to be beaten up in order to under-stand and bene�t from school

and respect the teacher,” he said. “Not con-stant beating, and not to the point of injury, but just once or twice, a pinch maybe.”

For Sayed, the teacher is a father �gure and has to scare the children to earn their respect and obedience.

“When I was in primary school I used to hide from the teacher when I saw him in the street. He had prestige, we feared him more than we feared our parents,” he added.

Many �nd the use of violence justi�able be-cause of the di�cult conditions that prevail in schools.

Hussein Hassan, also a doorman, initially said that all violence should be rejected. However, a�er listening to a passer-by who jumped into the discussion saying that vio-lence against children was wrong and ine�ec-tive, he quickly said what he really thought.

“Do you want an honest answer? �ese kids have to be beaten up. In this generation, nothing will work but beating. Students now go to schools with knives in their pockets,” he said. “�e teacher is not responsible for one or two students, he has to control a class of 50. �e teacher that beats students has prestige.”

As with the collective beating case in 2011, the parents of the girl whose hair was cut by a teacher in Luxor did not want to press charg-es, Tayel said. When his fact-�nding team ar-rived in the town, they were a�acked by par-ents who did not want the teacher punished.

Tayel said most parents send their children to public schools for social conditioning and a moral upbringing. �ey see the teacher as a third parent, and give him the leeway to take

disciplinary action, o�en physical, against their children.

“�ey know that the educational aspect of the schools won’t bene�t them so they seek the disciplinary aspect,” Tayel said.

Additionally, in many cases, the school pressures the parents to drop charges. Par-ents also fear the school could fail their child if they press charges, and most give in with promises from the administration that the incident won’t be repeated, Tayel said.

“�ere is a sort of an unwri�en social contract that the state will allow the kids to achieve a certi�cate, and in return the par-ents will pay bribes to teachers in the form of private lessons and will endure their abuse,” Tayel said.

“Society teaches them that all we care about is that you pass from one grade to the other and get a certi�cate. �e parents want their kids to pass, not to learn,” he added.

Physical violence does not only �ow one way. Many teachers also endure physical at-tacks by students and parents.■

Corporal punishment is on the rise, and society acquiesces

These kids have to be beaten up. In this generation, nothing will work but beating. Sudents now go to school with knives in their pockets ... The teacher that beats students has prestige

8 Economy Briefs 20 December 2012

Arc

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hmed

Elm

asry

Suez revenue down,railroad revenue up

Suez Canal revenues fell by 1.1 percent during October to US$443 million, while railway revenues increased between January and October by 14.8 percent to LE849.8 million, according to numbers from the monthly Economic Indicators Bulletin, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported. �e bul-letin, issued by the Cabinet’s Information Center on �ursday, also noted that total deposits in the banking system increased by 6.5 percent in August to LE1 trillion. �e

number of employees appointed in both the private and investment sectors dropped by 72 percent in October compared to the same month last year, according to the bulletin, while employment opportunities provided by the Local Development Fund went down by 29.5 percent. �e decline in jobs was not limited to the local market but extended to jobs overseas, including those advertised in national newspapers, with a decline of 29.9 percent.■

World Bank still coming

Back to the state

Spain puts Mubarak riches on ice

The World Bank plans to support Egypt’s economic reform plan with a US$1 billion loan to create new programs to reduce poverty, a bank delegation said at a meeting with Prime Minister Hesham Qandil, state-run MENA reported on Thursday. During the meeting, Qandil briefed the delegation on developments in his 22 month-long reform plan.The delegation also said the World Bank would be willing to support the develop-ment of government institutions and

strengthen the social security system. They added that Egypt’s potential to fight poverty is greater than in many other countries, given Egypt’s existing infra-structure that would help implement such programs. Egypt also seeks to obtain a loan of $4.8 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to offset its budget deficit of $27.5 billion, and another $14.5 billion from other international donors. A delay on the IMF loan was requested earlier last week.■

�e High Administrative Court issued a �nal ruling this week, nullifying the privatization of Nasr Steam Boilers Company and ordering the state to retrieve all of its assets since it was sold in 1994. �e ruling stipulates the return of all labor to what it was before privatization, and invalidates all ensuing transactions and changes in company activity. �e court rejected all appeals �led by the state and the company which bought Nasr. Workers present at the hearing hap-pily erupted in chants of “Egyptian, Egyptian,” with their lawyer, Khaled Ali, of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR). In June 2012, the commissioners to the State Council Administra-tive Court had rejected a government appeal against an earlier administrative court ruling to renationalize the company. In a statement, the ECESR said this was the

�rst time a prior ruling on a privatization case by the lower administrative court was upheld by the higher court, making it a signi�cant step toward “the possibil-ity to uphold all the previous rulings in similar cases.” When it was privatized, the company was initially bought by businessmen Abdel Mohsen Sheta, who later resold it to another businessman, Nassef Sawiris. �e commissioner’s report highlighted violations in the sale of the company by Sheta and the assessment of company assets. It also added that the privatization process had ignored a report by the Central Auditing Organization, which had objected to the sale. �e re-port states that the company was sold for nearly LE43 million, despite independent assessment which set its value at approximately LE400 million.■

Spanish police have found 28 million euros (US$36.5 million) in assets owned by ousted President Hosni Mubarak and people close to him, including Marbella beach properties and luxury cars, the Span-ish government told Reuters last �ursday. Egypt had asked Spain to track down as-sets in the country belonging to the former president and more than 100 people with ties to him, including family members, people who held high-level posts in his government and business leaders. Spain’s

interior ministry said it had frozen 18.4 million euros worth of the assets, but did not say whether it would also freeze the remainder. �e properties include two houses in La Moraleja, a wealthy neighbor-hood of Madrid, seven properties in the Mediterranean beach resort of Marbella, �nancial products in three banks and also luxury vehicles, the ministry said in a state-ment. “�e assets could come from crimes such as embezzlement or corruption,” the government statement said.■

Hosni Mubarak

Sukari minedispute solved

Resignationrumors

Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Deputy Governor Nedal al-Asar has denied reports that CBE Gover-nor Farouk al-Oqda submi�ed his resignation to President Mohamed Morsy. Turkish news agency An-adolu earlier reported that Oqda informed Morsy of his intention to leave his post by the end of Decem-ber, insisting that his original resig-nation, which he submi�ed in June, be accepted. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources told Anadolu that Oqda nominated three poten-tial successors for Morsy to choose from: Federation of Egyptian Banks head and National Bank of Egypt Chairman Tareq Amer, Banque Misr head Mohamed Barakat and Commercial International Bank Managing Director Hisham Ramez. Sources added that Morsy met with Oqda and Prime Minister Hesham Qandil Sunday and convinced the governor to stay in his post until the end of his term in November 2015. Oqda had originally submi�ed his resignation in June for what he de-scribed as “health-related” reasons.■

Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal said the dispute between the Petro-leum Authority and Centamin, the company which holds the conces-sion to work the Sukari gold mine near Marsa Alam, has been resolved. “We agreed on the diesel cost,” Kamal told Al-Masry Al-Youm last �ursday, stressing the government’s desire to encourage private invest-ment in petroleum and mining. �e Petroleum Authority had demanded the company pay some LE403 mil-lion in price di�erences for quanti-ties of subsidized diesel supplied to it from December 2009 until January 2012. �e company insisted it should not be charged retroac-tively and suspended its operations last Wednesday. Centamin has been struggling to keep operations run-ning since October, when the shares of the London-listed mining giant tumbled. Shares lost some 40 per-cent o� their prices, a�er an Egyp-tian court ruled the company’s rights to operate the lucrative mine were void. �e court advised to amend rather than revoke the contract, and the appeal will be heard in 2013.■

Farouk al-Oqda

Osama Kamal Khaled Ali

Prime Minister Hesham Qandil has an-nounced that the government-promised program of societal dialogue on the country’s economic reform program will take place a�er the second round of voting in the constitutional referendum on Sat-urday. O�cials have been saying a societal dialogue will take place on the country’s economic program for nearly a year, but the issue was raised again last week a�er o�cials implemented and, shortly-a�erward, revoked a tax plan that would

have raised prices on various goods and services, cigare�es and electricity among them. A�er the tax program was postponed due to public and political disapproval, o�cials promised no new tax changes would be made unless agreed

through a social dialogue program. In an announcement on his o�cial Facebook page on Sunday, Qandil said the societal dialogue would take into account sugges-tions from various sectors of society. He said the dialogue would help the country decide how to face the government budget de�cit, without compromising low-in-come citizens or programs of social justice. He added that the dialogue program would also put forward ideas and initia-tives to a�ract domestic and foreign invest-ment, boost production, and upgrade services, in order to meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people and the objectives of the January 25 revolution.■

German leaders announced on Monday that they would postpone a 240 million euro partial debt relief plan for Egypt, expressing concerns over Egypt’s po-litical future, according to the German news service DPA. German Develop-ment Minister Dirk Niebel told the daily Berliner Zeitung on Monday: “�ere’s the danger that the dictatorial system of the deposed President [Hosni] Mubarak is simply resurrected with other people.” Niebel added that instability in Egypt, as well as the deteriorating political situations in neighboring countries like Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, endanger the whole region, adding that his govern-ment had reduced its contacts with the Egyptian government inde�nitely. However, he expressed his country’s readiness to support democracy and law in Egypt, saying, “It’s in the hands of the Egyptian government.”■

Hesham Qandil

A chat withthe cabinet

Germany doesn’t forgive

9Economy20 December 2012

Draft constitution fails to protect economic rights, experts say

Constitutions are still tailored to suit the people in power. The economic and social rights approved by the committee are not different from those of the old 1971 Constitution

During the hasty process in which the constitution was approved, he says committee members changed the language and added expressions that impaired the meaning of whole articles

Searching for social justice

By Noha MoustafaIn voting for or against the draft constitution this week, Egyptians are determining what principles will guide their leaders in govern-ing the country’s already ailing economy in the coming period, and beyond.

The draft, since it was finalized in late November, has been the subject of intense controversy. Protests over the draft and President Mohamed Morsy’s expansion of powers, which allowed him to expedite the referendum, drew hundreds of thousands of Egyptians to the street, with ensuing vio-lence resulting in the deaths of at least eight.

In addition to doubts concerning the draft’s referendum and formation, during which 22 of the 100-member committee withdrew due to the document’s lack of complete rep-resentation, economists say the document contains some serious holes when it comes to laying the ground for Egypt’s economic prosperity.

In the first part of the draft released by the Constituent Assembly, titled “State and So-ciety,” Chapter 3, Clauses 14 through to 30 relate to the economic principles and struc-ture of the country.

The aim of the national economy, accord-ing to Article 14 of the draft, is to achieve balanced sustainable development, protect production, increase income and guarantee social justice, solidarity and welfare.

The article also addresses the protection of consumer and laborer rights, the promotion of a fair distribution of wealth, and the elimi-nation of poverty and unemployment.

The draft pledges state protection of ag-riculture, natural resources, the Nile River, water resources, water surfaces and beaches. Like the previous constitution, it gives own-ership of all mineral and natural resources to the people of Egypt.

It also requires that both the state and soci-ety protect public funds and private proper-ty, confirming that confiscation is prohibited unless it serves “national interests.”

The main issue with these clauses and the constitution’s treatment of the economy, critics say, is its lack of specifics, and failure to acknowledge the bad policies of the past.

“This constitution is not in favor of the poor,” said Reda Issa, an independent eco-nomic analyst and member of the Egyptian Association of Citizens against Rising Prices. “The direction of the current regime is clear: It is in favor of the rich.”

Another danger with the current draft, ac-cording to critics, is that it fails to spell out the economic and social rights that Egyp-tians called for during the 25 January upris-ing.

Issa pointed to the hastily implemented tax laws raising the prices of cigarettes, soft drinks and electricity that were issued last week and then suspended just days later by Morsy, due to popular opposition and dis-agreement from within the Freedom and Justice Party.

Critics also say the draft constitution ig-nores the tourism sector and overlooks the rights of tourists, in addition to failing to ad-dress the issues of modern communication and information technology.

Adel Ezabi, vice president of the general division of investors at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, said the constitutional articles should be rewritten in more precise legal language. The clauses, as they currently stand, he said, are open to a vast number of interpretations.

Article 14, for example, says Egypt has a “national economy” which is aimed at achieving sustainable development and production. The clause does not specify the type of economic system, whether it is a free market economy, an economy governed by Islamic principles or a mixed economy.

“It is also better to use the expression ‘economic system’ instead of the ‘national economy,’” Ezabi said during a debate on the economic articles in the draft constitution held at the Center for International Private Enterprise last month.

Some also say the draft enshrines some of the detrimental economic policies of former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

Amr Adly, director of the economic and social justice unit at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the treatment of the economy in the draft constitution is a prod-uct of the document’s hurried formation and approval, expedited by Morsy’s 22 Novem-ber constitutional declaration.

After months of stagnation, the remaining members of the Constituent Assembly ap-proved the current draft in a 16-hour mara-thon session.

He said the draft very much resembles the previous constitution in reference to the economy and does not address Egypt’s cur-rent financial challenges.

“Constitutions are still tailored to suit the people in power,” he said at the 28 Novem-ber debate. “The economic and social rights approved by the committee are not different from those of the old 1971 Constitution.”

One would expect a post-revolution con-stitution to differ greatly from its predeces-sor on the issues of the economy and social justice, Adly said.

Another issue with the current draft, econ-omists say, is that it fails to provide a mecha-nism to promote the elusive values of social justice.

According to Issa, one way through which social justice can be achieved is through fair trade, and the rightful distribution of wages and taxation.

Fair trade laws, he said, do not harm the consumer or the producer and should be ad-opted in any country seeking to implement a

free market economy. The few words in Article 14, Issa said,

are not enough to achieve social justice for Egypt’s citizens. He said the draft does not propose any action plan that could achieve the demands of the 25 January uprising: “Bread, freedom, and social justice.”

Khaled Zakareya Amin, professor of public policy at the American University of Cairo, said that some of the articles presented in earlier drafts were far superior to those that appear in the final draft.

During the hasty process in which the con-stitution was approved, he says committee members changed the language and added expressions that ruined or impaired the meaning of whole articles.

For example, Amin pointed to what could have been a promising suggestion in the current draft of the constitution, which es-tablished a specialized social and economic council to act as a legislative and technical advisor to both the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council in issuing or amending any social and economic laws.

The clause, in Part 5, Chapter 3, Article 207, spelt out how the council would be composed. “The Council shall consist of at least 150 members, selected by their elected organizations of trade unions, syndicates, associations of farmers, workers and profes-sionals, and other social groups, provided the representation of workers and farmers makes up for at least 50 percent of the Coun-cil members.”

Amin said that in the previous law, there had been no specifications on how many workers or farmers would be in the assembly.

“But with the final alteration that took place with the voting of the Constituent Assembly on the draft, they stated that the council formation would be 50 percent workers and farmers, which is very strange considering the nature of this specialized

council,” Amin said. He said the change was made to make up

for another clause, which was dropped, that would have made more farmer and worker participation in both houses compulsory. To try and appease farmers and workers for the omission, Amin said, it decided to mandate that they make up half of special council, which he worries might weaken the institu-tion.

“There will be a caliber problem inside a council that is supposed to be a think tank for the People’s and Shura assemblies,” he said.

This and other last-minute alterations add-ed to the draft constitution disfigured many of the articles and created plenty of prob-lems, he said. By attempting to play politics and satisfy all parties, the assembly ruined the draft constitution, according to Amin.

Experts are also are still struggling to make sense of many of the articles.

In Article 14, the current draft states that the country’s “development plan shall estab-lish social justice and solidarity, ensure equi-table distribution, protect consumer rights, and safeguard the rights of workers, dividing development costs between capital and la-bor and sharing the revenues justly.”

The last part of the article has left some scratching their heads. It essentially means that the assembly — whether intentionally or by mistake — did not make the state re-sponsible for paying for the cost of the devel-opment plan.

As it stands, experts say that in this clause, the government, despite collecting taxes from citizens, will no longer be subsidizing plans for national economic development, which would be a huge departure from the government’s past and current policies.

Morsy and his remaining Cabinet have paid little attention to critiques of the docu-ment so far, which experts say is a bad sign for any future cooperation over amending the document after its ratification. Instead, the president and his supporters have brushed off commentary, imploring for the country’s need of political and economic stability.

He has said the draft constitution should be passed by this week’s popular referendum to help the country stabilize and allow for a return in investment and economic growth.

Meanwhile his vice president, Mahmoud Mekky, has attempted to reassure the op-position and protestors that the president’s enhanced powers are only temporary, and that the constitution can be easily amended in the future.■

A group of African market leaders and Egyptian officials meet to discuss economic cooperation.

AFP

10 Economy20 December 2012

The battle for the academyCritical advance for the rebels of Aleppo reveals their tactics

By Virginie Nguyen

LEPPO — At one of the gates of a major infantry academy at the northern entrance of Aleppo — also known as Sheikh Suleiman

Base — a tank stands, covered by leaves and grass. The tank was taken by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) early in the morn-ing of 12 December during an ongoing battle by Syrian rebels for the strategic location.

Some of the fighters posed in front of the tank and took pictures with their mo-bile phones to celebrate and document their victory. A few meters away, at the FSA operations headquarters, command-er Abu Fourat from the Tawheed Brigade, drank tea as he chatted with his officers.

He told Egypt Independent they had been fighting in the area of the base — some eight kilometers square — for the last month. It began as a snipers’ battle, but, last week, the rebels began to attack the base on the ground.

Due to its size and location, the FSA considers the base an important target. Taking it means full control from the bor-der with Turkey to Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city and its economic hub. The base also connects Aleppo to the coun-tryside, with most artillery attacks on vil-lages coming from the base.

Victory on the base could possibly con-clude the months-long fighting in the northern part of Syria. This control had so far been prevented by President Bashar al-Assad’s snipers, who had taken advan-tage of the city’s open spaces to identify and strike targets.

On the morning of 10 December, the Islamist Nusra Brigade ended one of the main operations at the frontline inside the school after other FSA brigades, most notably the Tawheed Brigade, paved the way for fighting around the facility.

The brigades set up check points around the military base once they managed to liberate most of the areas surround-ing Aleppo and besiege Assad’s soldiers, who were only receiving supplies via he-licopter. As FSA soldiers closed in on the base, they set up an operations center and asked civilians to move away, positioning snipers at strategic points. Only after they managed to secure weapons and more soldiers, did the fighters step in on the ground to conclude the battle.

With the help of the Nusra soldiers on 10 December, they could have taken over the whole school, says Abu Fourat.

“But we were waiting for some soldiers who want to defect,” he says. “We know that the situation on the other side is very bad. They are not well treated and don’t want to fight anymore.” Abu Fourat and his fighters say they did not want to kill the possible defectors during the fighting.

Then, on 12 December, 19 soldiers did defect with the help of the FSA.

“We had this group today and we are waiting for 28 more soldiers to defect. Once they come to us, they are free to re-turn to their families or to join the FSA,” Abu Fourat says.

Thirty meters from headquarters, a sin-gle room shelters the 19 defected soldiers. who slowly explain how the situation has become dire on the other side. One of them says they were fighting with just one meal of soup a day.

“We were getting very cold and, if some-one was sick, we didn’t get the proper medicine. The morale of the troops is

down. Once the FSA got close to us in the field, they were able to suggest to us to defect,” said one soldier, who preferred to remain anonymous.

The FSA arranged their escape from the school by attacking one of the areas through which they snuck out. Once they met with the FSA, they put their arms down and asked to defect, they tell Egypt Independent.

All of them were completing their man-datory military service when the revolu-tion started. “We didn’t have any other choice than to fight. We have been un-der death threats in case we considered defecting. Anti-FSA propaganda in the army is present as well. They tell us that the FSA is a bunch of terrorists,” adds the soldier.

“We are under pressure from the Ala-

wis,” he added, referring to the religious minority to which Assad and other regime figures belong. “But we don’t want to stay on the side of Bashar. Too many people died in the last 18 months and there is no support. If one of us is injured, we don’t even get first aid. If a soldier dies, we have to burn his body. It won’t get back to the family. Why should we die for a man who just sits on his chair all day?”

The defectors come from different dominations, including Christians. After fighting with Assad’s army for more than a year and a half, most have been cut off from the situation in Syria at large. “We need information from the FSA before going back to our town. If it’s not liber-ated, we can’t go back as defectors. We’ll immediately be arrested,” said another soldier. “We know that if we join the FSA, we will die for something. We believe in God, not in Bashar,” he adds.

The day after, one of the main com-manders from the regime forces in the school defected and was joined by 28 other soldiers.

On Sunday 16 December, as the battle was raging at the base, an FSA command-er in the village of Marea alleged that be-fore running away, Alawi soldiers killed 20 fellow soldiers from the regime’s army, who happened to be Sunnis. The account could not be corroborated.

Today, the military school is under con-trol of the FSA. Beside defecting soldiers, the FSA has seized arms and ammuni-tions that travelled to the countryside of Aleppo to be used in the battle to seize Azaz Airport.

But the battle for the military school did not come without a cost for the FSA fighters.

Two days after Egypt Independent sat with defecting soldiers, Abu Fourat died following an attack that ended the fight-ing in the school and produced 50 more defectors. At the moment, there are dif-ferent versions of his death. The main ac-count is that a hidden tank attacked his team by surprise while they were check-ing the ammunitions gained at the base. This information could not be verified by Egypt Independent.■

Vir

gini

e N

guye

n

Vir

gini

e N

guye

n

Fighters pose in front of a tank after their victory in the battle for a major infantry academy in Aleppo.

We didn’t have any other choice than to fight. We have been under death threats in case we considered defecting ... They tell us the FSA is a bunch of terrorists

A

Defected soldiers explain how the situation has become dire on the other side.

11World Briefs20 December 2012

Talabani in the hospital

Syria’s vice president said that a se�lement between the Syrian rebels and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is the only way out of the con�ict, in an interview with a pro-regime Lebanese paper published on Monday. Farouk al-Sharaa said that neither side could win the war. “�e opposition forces combined cannot decide the ba�le militarily. Meanwhile, what the security forces and the army units are doing will not reach a conclusive end,” he said, according to the English web-site of the le�-wing Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar. Speaking from Damascus, the “solution has to be Syrian, but through a historic se�lement, which would include the main regional countries, and the members of the UN Secu-rity Council.” Sharaa is the most prominent regime �gure to say that military units and militias loyal to Assad will not win. In an editorial, Al-Akhbar’s Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim al-Amin writes that Sharaa is not in decision-making circles, but speaks to Assad “from time to time.”■

�e president of Iraq was hospi-talized on Tuesday a�er su�ering a stroke, leaving him in “critical but stable condition,” Reuters reported. Jalal Talabani, who belongs to the Kurdish minority, had mediated between Iraq’s Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties, leav-ing the country at risk of losing a mediator between the restive sects. He recently cooled a stand-o� between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Masoud Barzani, the autonomous president of Kurdistan, over oil-rights. He has been in poor health this year and sought medical treatment over-seas twice. Maliki visited him in the hospital following the stroke.■

Farouk al-SharaaBenjamin Netanyahu

Jalal Talabani

Jacob Zuma

Barack Obama

�e head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Jacob Zuma, was reelected on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Zuma easily defeated Deputy Presi-dent Kgalema Motlanthe to be head of the party at a meeting of the century-old movement in the central city of Bloemfontein. �e ANC has dominated South African politics since the end of apartheid, making Zuma likely to be reelected to president for a second �ve-year term in 2014. Zuma, 70, �rst came to power in 2009 in Africa’s �rst reces-sion in years, prompting labor unrest that sometimes turned violent as well as credit downgrades. South Africa has the largest economy on the continent. Cyril Ramaphosa was chosen to replace Motlanthe as deputy president.■

Five more years!

Assad’s vice president speaks

Thanks for nothingTunisians threw stones and tomatoes at their president as he visited Sidi Bouzid, once the home of Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on �re two years ago this week, triggering mass popular uprisings in the region. Moncef Marzouki and parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar were evacuated by security o�cers, cu�ing short a rally to commemorate the fruit vendor’s death. Accord-ing to Reuters, Marzouki had told those gathered that he promised economic progress within six months to the town, while protesters shouted “the people want to bring down the regime,” the rallying cry of the protesters that brought down former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Although the Tunisian interior was the birthplace of the Tunisian uprising and the ensuing Arab Spring, it has continued to be marginalized. On the same day, radical Islamists gathered outside the prefecture in the town, AFP reported. Hardline groups, once suppressed by the ousted Ben Ali have a�acked Su� shrines, hotels and, most recently, a labor protest.■

Do not enterLibya closed the border with its southern neighbors on Sunday, declaring the southern desert a closed military zone, AFP reported. Land borders between Libya and Chad, Niger, Sudan and Algeria were closed, the National Assembly Announced on the o�cial LANA news agency. �e borders would reopen “pending new regulations” the decree said. “�e provinces of Ghadames, Ghat, Obari, Al-Shati, Sebha, Murzuq and Kufra are considered as closed military zones

to be ruled under emergency law,” the decree stipulated. In Sebha, the main town of the south, an assembly representative said the closure would only last until security has been restored. She said illegal immigration had picked up ahead of a planned military intervention in northern Mali, where Islamist rebels have seized signi�cant portions of the North, that drug tra�cking and violence had increased, and that armed groups there could

“act with complete impunity.”■

Moncef Marzouki

Israel has at least one major settle-ment project ready for final approv-al, consisting of 5,000 new settler homes, in neighborhoods of an-nexed east Jerusalem this week, AFP reported. The projects are up for discussion after Israel gave the green light on Monday for the construc-tion of 1,500 homes in an east Jeru-salem neighborhood. The move has already drawn sharp US criticism, and Germany and the three other West European members of the UN Security Council are preparing a statement condemning the plans, diplomats told AP. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Isra-el’s right to increase Jewish presence, as permanent council members Brit-ain and France plus Germany and Portugal are concerned that such settlements could threaten a possible two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. The statement being prepared by key European countries on the Security Council would be a symbolic, but nonethe-less high-profile, show of displeasure with the Israelis. However, Israel has regularly ignored such criticism and moved forward with settlement plans regardless.■

(Hardly) groundbreaking

Funerals began in Connecticut on Monday after a mass shooting in New England on Friday claimed the lives of 28 people, including 20 children, at an elementary school. President Barack Obama spoke to the families of the vic-tims, killed when Adam Lanza, 20, en-tered the school with an assault weapon.

“Since I’ve been president, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by a mass shooting,” Obama told those gathered in Newtown, Connecti-

cut. Lanza killed himself and his mother in the rampage. “In the coming weeks, I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens […]in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this.” Obama closed his speech by speaking the names of the children that died. After the shooting, White House Press Secretary Jay Car-ney avoided questions on gun control, saying, “today is not the day” to discuss the administration’s stance on federal gun legislation.■

Small coffins

Refugee-free zones�e Kenyan government ordered all refugees and asylum seekers into two camps, forbidding them from living in towns, in its latest response to a string of violent a�acks. According to Reuters, Badu Katelo, the acting commissioner for refugee a�airs, said the government issued the order a�er the a�acks, pur-portedly perpetrated by Somalis. Bomb-ings, grenade a�acks and shootings have mostly occurred in Nairobi, the capital, and near the Somali border. Kenya had

intervened in Somalia to �ght Islamists rebels. A grenade a�ack injured one on Sunday, a�er two a�acks in Eastleigh, an area of Nairobi also known as “Li�le Mogadishu.” Some 100,000 refugees from several countries live in urban areas of Kenya. A spokesperson from the UN’s refugee agency, Emmanuel Nyabera, said

“We are trying to come up with a position so that the rights of refugees are respect-ed and the concerns of the government addressed.”■

12 Focus File20 December 2012

21%

27%

79%

73%

52%

21%48%

79%

34%

13%

66%87%

44%33%

56%

67%

Words into numbersEgyptians voted without knowing how they would add up

Alexandria

Sharqiya

Gharbiya

Assiut

Nor

th S

inai

March “Yes”

December “Yes”

March “No”

December “No”

22%

14%

78%

86%

531221497607

380502

1054749

665985

162604

73699

1015945

509972

196085

468243

108040

210781

402911

583304

14111

8714

50924

54604

729920

Fah

d Ab

u M

arzo

uqa

said

al-

thou

gh h

e ha

d re

serv

atio

ns

over

the

draf

t, he

vot

ed y

es

beca

use

the

cont

rove

rsia

l ar

ticle

s co

uld

be a

men

d-ed

late

r on.

Mar

zouq

a ad

ded

he p

refe

red

to

have

a c

onst

itutio

n w

ith s

ome

defe

cts

than

to h

ave

a co

nstit

utio

nal

vacu

um.

“

"Yes

to s

tabi

lity

and

right

s

for e

very

one.

All

we

care

abou

t is

stab

ility

and

secu

rity

so th

at

we

can

live,"

say

s

Othm

an M

oham

ed, a

fishe

rman

from

Assa

ra v

illag

e.

"I voted no because

the

draft consti

tution allo

ws for

presidentia

l interfe

rence

in judicia

l affa

irs. I’m

also

against the artic

le that ti

es

wages to producti

on –

they should be tie

d to

inflatio

n...otherw

ise w

e

won’t be able to

make

ends meet.”

Mohamed Abdel Galil

Samia Kamel hadn’t planned

on voting until she heard a

televison

commentator explaining

that not voting would help

boost the share of "yes"

votes. "I will vote ‘no’

because I am not

convinced by the hasty

[passage] of the draft

constitution,"

she says.

Mohmed Hussein, a Salafi,

says he voted ‘yes’ so the

constitution could be the

first step for an

Islamic state. Although

he believes the Sharia

will not be

implemented

properly through

Article 2 and 219, it

could be a milestone

for the future.

Amira Girguis, housewife: "I voted no because there was no general consensus. As a Copt, I don’t feel the withdrawal of the Church was threatening - it was represented and withdrew very late. My major problem is that Egyptians are not represented in this assembly."

57% 73%

By Jahd Khalil

Even though the dra� constitution passed the �rst round, when compared to the March referendum it’s clear that many voters were less con�dent.

More stayed home, and even more came out to vote “no.” Cairo and Gharbi-ya were the only two to vote against the dra�, but some of the most dramatic and interesting swings were seen in the Delta, while the Upper Egyptian govenorates largely voted the same, although in fewer numbers.

12.8M

11.7M

12.8M

9.5M

Presidency Run-o�

Presidency

March Referendum

People's Assembly

Opposition parties and movements called sup-porters to go to the polls to cast their votes against the referendum, but turnout was still lower than any of the past major polls. More voters decided it was important to choose legislators and the president, especially in the Delta and Cairo, despite this vote having arguably the most lasting e�ect.

8.1M December Referendum

13Focus File20 December 2012

45%20%

55%

80%

Words into numbersEgyptians voted without knowing how they would add up

Cairo

Daqahlia

South Sinai

Aswan

Sohag

March “Yes”

December “Yes”

March “No”

December “No”

63%

37%33%

63%67%

24%

17%76%

83%

21%

21%

79%

79%

43%37%

57%

12788

11679

25882

46099

42030

149512

203449

126836

158967

469493

585514

528678

649319

874384

222521

1811559

6743

1068690952350

1257470

Mohmed Hussein, a Salafi,

says he voted ‘yes’ so the

constitution could be the

first step for an

Islamic state. Although

he believes the Sharia

will not be

implemented

properly through

Article 2 and 219, it

could be a milestone

for the future.

Amira Girguis, housewife: "I voted no because there was no general consensus. As a Copt, I don’t feel the withdrawal of the Church was threatening - it was represented and withdrew very late. My major problem is that Egyptians are not represented in this assembly."

“"Even if it’s not the best

constitution, it will restore

some of the stability we

lost during the last few

months and the

controversial articles

can beadjusted in a few

years." Ahmad Ibrahim,

Mansoura.

Mohamed Abodeif, voted

because his son,

Husseiny Abou Deif,

a journalist who

died in the Ettehadiya

clashes, had always

urged the family to

participate in

elections. "‘No’ to the

invalid, illegitimate

constitution," he

says.

"I voted no because

I believe the

drafting process was void.

Egyptians are not fully

represented. The

constitution only serves

the capitalist interests

and the narrow

religious understanding

of the Islamist current."

- Moham

ed Shams

El-Din Mahm

oud

Ismail. M

ahmoud Abu Shosha, a

mem

ber of the comm

ission

supervising the referendum,

said an unclear and illogical

state during monitoring

election violations was

present in the

constitutional voting

process in the first

round of the

referendum.

51%

27% 43%

49%

66%

34%69% 31%

57%43%

Those who voted made up just a fraction of

Egyptians

�ere are nearly 80 million Egyptians. Forty-nine per-cent live in districts able to

vote in the �rst round of the referendum

Of these, 66 percent were elibible to

head to the polls Only 31 percent did indeed vote, while

the other 17 million of the electorate

stayed home

Four and a half million Egyptians, or 5.7 percent of the population, voted “yes" and

inked their �ngers in support of the

dra�

14 Opinion20 December 2012

,

Riding the wave: Political parties and workers’ rights By Nicholas Oxenhorn

eading up to the January 2011 revolution, labor played a major role in the organization and expression of dissent. �e movement has continued to grow since, spilling into the

private sector, while the number and size of labor ac-tions have increased.

At the same time, electoral politics have changed the nature of how and why political hopefuls claim representation of di�erent sections of society. �e nexus between these two developments — poli-ticians claiming representation and the workers’ movement — has taken an interesting shape.

Emergent political forces have sought to position themselves favorably with respect to labor, though it is unclear what their actual connection is to workers on the ground.

�ere have been two major methods by which par-ties and political actors a�empt to insert themselves into the labor issue. �e �rst is on the national policy level, exhibited by the Muslim Brotherhood through Presidential Decree No 97, which allows for some changes in the boards of directors of the o�cial trade unions. According to the Brotherhood, this decree would lead to increased investment and ultimately bene�t both workers and management.

�e second technique takes place on the ground through involvement by party o�cials in strikes, ne-gotiations and arbitration.

�e desire of political parties to participate in the labor movement is no surprise given the rise of the movement. Its decentralization, spread to the private sector, and consistent success at achieving salary and bene�t increases has been impressive.

Where labor organization has been successful, it has begun to ingrain the demands of workers into in-vestors’ calculus. On the other hand, the movement is still fairly non-threatening. Despite its successes,

the labor movement has not spread throughout the country, meaning that a politician can successfully court management and ownership without taking a concrete position.

According to researcher and human rights activ-ist, Amr Adly, party involvement in labor action is not connected to concern for the rights of labor-ers: “�ere’s this opportunistic use of labor issues for very short-term gains by political parties. I don’t believe there is any organic relationship between the independent labor unions and the political parties as they’re formed now.”

According to Adly, Decree No 97 is a good ex-ample of this. �e Muslim Brotherhood is seeking a power-sharing alliance with members of the old regime. �is decree, designed to install Brotherhood members in Egypt’s state-aligned trade union federa-tion, is actually a way for the Brotherhood to court the “labor aristocracy” without connecting with the rank-and-�le workers.

At the same time, parties have been positioning themselves at the sites of labor disputes in e�orts to secure political presence and legitimacy. Of eight private sector �rms I spoke to, each of them had ex-perienced a similar pa�ern.

Strikes have increased since the revolution. Self-identi�ed party members have been increasingly present and their actions can be described as tan-gential when it comes to negotiation and arbitration, and non-existent when it comes to actually inciting strikes.

One example of this type of tangential action fol-lows a recent strike at Wadi Foods’ feedlot in Nubar-ia which ended with a declaration by the Nour Party that the local party o�cial had “convinced the CEO to accept the workers’ demands.”

According to a Wadi manager, Essam Behery, the

negotiation process actually included a number of parties — management, factory labor leaders, the Ministry of Labor and local political parties.

Nader Adly Hamed from Saif Group, a Pakistani textile �rm with operations in Egypt, noted there has been local party involvement in negotiations, but that it doesn’t seem to be solely for workers’ bene�t. A be�er solution, according to Hamed, would be to “enhance [the law] for both employees and employ-ers.”

It is not that party involvement has been wholly negative from the perspective of workers or manage-ment, or that meaningful representation would not help workers universalize some of the gains they’ve made. However, these parties seem to be operating alongside, rather than as a part of, the independent labor movement. Perhaps there is a lack of �t be-tween the material concerns of workers and the ideo-logical and representational concerns of politicians. Or maybe there is a limit to the risk that politicians are willing to take on by �ghting for material gains.

According to a source from one of the nation’s largest agricultural �rms, who preferred to remain anonymous, even when parties provoke strikes, their tactic is to “motivate or be a catalyst to strike”, rather than taking direct responsibility or leadership for la-bor action.

�e �ght for representation has remained largely ideological. As this con�ict spills onto the streets of Cairo, the disconnect between party platforms and action can only alienate the average Egyptian citizen, which will make it di�cult to achieve the consensus necessary for meaningful change.■

Nicholas Oxenhorn is a researcher focusing on thepolitical economy of agriculture in Egypt and

a coordinator at Wadi Environmental Science Centre.

There’s this opportunistic usage of labor issues for very short term gains by political parties. There is no organic relationship between the independent labor unions and the political parties as they’re formed now

A new judicial moment in Egypt By Atef Said he paradox is stark. Vice President Mah-

moud Mekki, Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki and Constituent Assembly Chief Hossam al-Gheriany — three icons of

the Independence Current in the judiciary — are in the executive authority’s camp in the cur-rent constitutional crisis. Meanwhile, others who are considered part of the former regime, such as Judges Club head Ahmed al-Zend, are now de-fending the independence of the judiciary.

�e Egyptian judiciary is going on strike for the �rst time in its history, a move which the Independence Current did not dare undertake. Most judges decided not to supervise the con-stitutional referendum. But the dilemma is that many of the leaders of the Independence Cur-rent reject such a move.

�is is a watershed moment in the history of the current. It signi�es its clear historic collapse.

�e Independence Current’s legitimacy grew out of its call for total independence of the ju-diciary from the ruling authority during the Mubarak-era. Now its main icons are in power, but so far they have failed to present a compre-hensive vision or launch genuine initiatives to implement what they have been defending for many years. Worse than that, they joined the president in his ploys to get rid of the prosecu-tor general, while practically approving his 22 November constitutional declaration designed to curtail the judiciary’s powers.

�is turnaround needs an explanation.At least part of the explanation lies in the judi-

ciary’s structural position in society. Above any-thing else, judges are part of society’s “elite.” �e way they are chosen, the bene�ts they secure, their prestige and authority — all these factors testify to the fact that in their eyes, and in the eyes of lay people, they belong to “al-hukkam” (the ruling strata).

�is re�ects itself in a conservative reformist mindset which prefers top-down reform. Not surprisingly, this is also the preferred method of change of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Judges prefer peaceful, rather than radical change. Before rising to power, the Indepen-dence Current icons rarely led a confrontational

the moment has come to introduce reform from inside the regime. And the fact that these icons have joined the political authority camp has dealt a severe blow to the current and its longstanding struggle.

I am not saying that the young members of the current will no longer be active or that there will be no movements calling for the independence of the judiciary. Indeed, taking into consideration the current polarization and struggles, there will most certainly be a movement. However, this will be a completely di�erent movement, divorced to a large extent from the historical struggles of the Independence Current.

One of the young members of the Indepen-dence Current told me that Zend was the wrong person leading the right movement. �is is the dilemma that a new Independence Current will have to deal with.

�at said, I expect the Judges Club to remain active. �e club is unique in the fact that it is nei-ther a civil society organization nor a social club, but rather a syndicate that brings together mem-bers of one of the state’s authorities, which makes it necessarily politicized. And that is why control of the Judges Club has been an important ba�le between pro-and anti-regime judges, ever since the time of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

But the club’s politics re�ect wider pressures. And the fact that the icons of the Independence Current have become pro-regime, and conser-vative judges have become the de facto defend-ers of the independence of the judiciary will have a deep impact on the orientation of the club and its internal balance of forces for a long time to come.

If the constitution is scrapped in the referen-dum, the polarization among judges might ease a li�le. But that will be short-term. For the real problem will persist: a conservative and non-confrontational stratum — the judges — are the manpower of an institution where wider political and social con�icts are resolved.■

Atef Said is a human rights researcherand Ph.D. candidate at the University

of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

The fact that the icons of the Independence Current have become pro-regime, and conservative judges have become thede facto defenders of the independence of the judiciary, will have a deep impact on its orientation for a long time to come

L

T escalation. Perhaps the only moment of con-frontation in the history of the current’s old gen-eration was the Justice Conference which was headed by Yahia al-Refai in 1986. And this may be a�ributed to Refai’s courage.

Under the presidency of Zakaria Abdel Aziz, who led the club in the late 1990s and 2000s, the club became more vocal in context of the rising democratic opposition to the Mubarak regime. However, several members of the Independence Current’s younger generation told me that “the mentors of the current” disliked the confronta-tional methods he championed, above all the sit-in in the club’s headquarters in 2006.

Abdel Aziz may have been courageous. But he respected the prominent �gures within the cur-rent. In general, patriarchalism and seniority are highly-valued among judges. Indeed, this is part of a mechanism which curbs any radical moves by dissenting voices.

�e young independent judges consider Me-kki and Gheriany their mentors. Loyal to their conservative reformism, these two now believe

15Opinion20 December 2012

During the referendum campaign, the parables of Egyptian national unity were well and truly cast aside by Egypt’s rulers infavor of the most crude, offensive, and frankly ridiculousallegations ofsectarian conspiracy

By Aldo SaudaA mass movement that deeply shook a military dictatorship; years of radicalized strikes that eventually overthrew a regime; contradictory forces disputing the drafting of a constitution in the midst of a highly tumul-tuous process — we are speaking not about to-day’s Egypt, but Brazil during the 1980s.

Brazil is regarded by many in Cairo and be-yond as a paradigmatic role-model of demo-cratic transition. Its Magna Carta, also known as the “citizens’ constitution,” arouses both interest and inspiration across the region and beyond.

While it is true that Brazil’s constitution frames quite progressive social and economic rights, idealizing it in the context of a bleak po-litical scenario in Egypt can have detrimental ef-fects on revolutionary consciousness.

After 25 years of a US-backed military dicta-torship, the Brazilian generals were removed from power in a somewhat similar way to their Egyptian counterparts. Following a period of social unrest, a spontaneous massive strike movement shook the very tenets of the dicta-torship’s political economy, leading to its over-throw and the drafting of a new constitution.

From 1978 to 1986 — a period known as Bra-zil’s political opening — strikes in Brazil grew from 118 to 1,004 a year. And in 1989, when the constitution was finally re-drafted, 3,943 strikes were recorded, in which more than 18 million work-ers took part. All in all, from 1978 to 1989, 12,673 strikes occurred, mobilizing over 53 million Bra-zilians.

With the support of the strike movement, different forms of radical social struggle started to emerge. Landless peasants, fighting for agrarian reform, oc-cupied huge patches of land. The homeless in the cities took over empty buildings used for retail speculation. Women organized against gender oppression and students strug-gled for free high-quality education. The black

made social change in the region, even during a radical revolutionary process, qualitatively in-ferior to social transformations in countries like Brazil.

However, a deeper look at Brazil’s constitution opens quite a few spaces for criticism. For in-stance, for the leaderships of the different social movements, the designation of private property in relation to the means of production as a “hu-man right” by traditional right-wing politicians made the constitution useless.

Many had already noted the impossibility of guaranteeing social rights while at the same time protecting capitalist social relations. And while most social and popular movements dis-tanced themselves from the document once it was finally completed, the intense process of drafting huge parts of it had contributed to erecting illusions amongst diverse sectors of the masses about the importance of institutional, state-centered political disputes.

Furthermore, writing all these rights into the Brazilian constitution meant very little in practice. Urban reform regulation in Brazil, for instance, was approved only 10 years after the constitution codified the right to the city as a human right. During this period, the focus on legislative battles inevitably led to the move-ments’ abandoning direct action for occupying and reinventing the urban.

So while Brazil now has extremely progressive urban legislation, the lack of social movements to defend these rights on the streets has turned them into little more than nice words on paper.

Brazil’s constitution, without any doubt, is far more progressive than the drafts discussed in Egypt over the past few months. But its limits, both in content and in the final product of its

process, must be taken seriously.It is in the mass character of

the movement that took part in discussing Brazil’s constitution, and ultimately, rejecting it, that the true inspiring experience lies.■

Aldo Sauda is a Brazilianjournalist and activist.

Constitutions and social struggles: The lessons from Brazil

The Brotherhood’s politics of fear and divisionll Egyptians have heard variations of the tale throughout their lives. As far back as the time of Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Bishop of Monufiya,

Serapamon, was said to have cured the Pasha’s daughter of illness by making the sign of the cross over a glass of water, sprinkling her face, and then giving her a drink.

More recently, Pope Kirollos VI was said to have restored the health of President Gamal Ab-del Nasser’s son, Abdel Hakim, through prayer.

In the midst of the October War in 1973, Christian soldiers were said to have observed the Ramadan fast out of respect for their Mus-lim peers, while commanders were said to have quoted both the Quran and Bible as they direct-ed their forces.

The late Grand Mufti of Egypt and head of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Tantawi, was known to have grown up with Copts as neighbors, one of whom his father had as a partner in farming.

These were the parables of Egyptian national-ism — fables which, whatever their basis in fact, were considered important enough as exemplars of behavior that they were routinely trotted out by the country’s leaders at times of crisis. And since the revolution, this reservoir of images of national unity has remained in active use, with crescent and cross, Quran and Bible, Christian and Muslim often pictured together, and rapidly disseminated by Facebook and Twitter.

I once thought these images and tales less than helpful in confronting the problem of sec-tarianism in Egypt. Indeed, they seemed simply an attempt to paper over the fact of a widening Coptic-Muslim divide — a fact that had to be confronted head on. This was, however, before

By Paul Sedra

While it is true thatBrazil’s constitution frames quite progressive social and economic rights, idealizing it in the context of a bleak political scenario in Egypt can have detrimental effects

the referendum campaign, in which the parables of Egyptian national unity were well and truly cast aside by Egypt’s rulers in favor of the most crude, offensive, and frankly ridiculous allega-tions of sectarian conspiracy that I have wit-nessed in an entire career of watching and study-ing Coptic-Muslim relations in Egypt.

There was, for instance, the news item pub-lished in Al-Mesryoon newspaper on 5 De-cember, which alleged a secret plan on the part of the Coptic Orthodox Church to overthrow President Mohamed Morsy. This plan, which the newspaper apparently learned from “Church sources,” was purportedly undertaken by Coptic youth, who were crafty enough to conceal cross-es and other signs of their identity before they made their way to the Ettehadiya Palace.

Then there were the allegations made by the Muslim Brotherhood website on the day of the ref-erendum’s first round, 15 December, to the effect that Copts in Sohag Governorate were distributing text messages campaigning for a “no” vote.

Perhaps most disturbing, however, were the repeated appearances by Brotherhood officials Mohamed al-Beltagy and Safwat Hegazy on the pro-Brotherhood channel Misr 25 television network and in rallies, insinuating that Chris-tians constituted a fifth column in Egypt and that the Church was engaged in a conspiracy to destabilize the government.

One could scarcely escape the irony, after wit-nessing the venom with which these men had attacked Christians, that the Shura Council had appointed both of them to the state-run Nation-al Council for Human Rights. Indeed, if these men are the arbiters of human rights in today’s Egypt, one can have but little faith that the very

concept of human rights retains meaning under Morsy’s rule.

One of the leading arguments for a “yes” vote in the referendum is that approving the draft constitution will return Egypt to a much-needed state of stability. Indeed, I have listened with great interest to the arguments of academic colleagues that what Egypt needs most, at this moment, is to leave its current “state of excep-tion” — a state in which governments can ex-pand their powers in disregard for the concepts of citizenship and the rule of law, by virtue of a purported crisis situation.

In light of the fear and division sown by the president’s colleagues, as described above, not to mention the apparent disinclination of the government to condemn, let alone halt, the recent rampages in the streets mounted by the Salafi followers of Hazem Abu Ismail, I am left to wonder whether the president actually wants an end to Egypt’s state of exception. Indeed, the politics of fear and division seem to have served the president well as he seeks to consolidate his grip on power.

In this, the only difference between Morsy and his predecessor seems to be that, where Presi-dent Hosni Mubarak and his regime kept up the appearance of Egyptian national unity through the usual parables and images, Morsy cares little about such appearances.

Only time will tell how much this calculated disregard for tolerance and civility will cost Egypt.■

Paul Sedra is an associate professorof history at Simon Fraser University

in British Columbia, Canada.

and indigenous communities fought for histori-cal reparation and against structural racism.

Constitutions, inevitably, are a written expres-sion of the correlation of political forces in a historically specific moment. It is only logical that during such a period of mass mobilizations, Brazil’s new constitution would essentially be progressive.

And so it was. The so-called “citizens’ consti-tution” defends the rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands and it demands unpro-ductive farms be used for agrarian reform. It prohibits the neglect of private property such that it serves no social function. The constitu-tion ensures the right to a dignified life, gender equality, religious tolerance, universal health-care and social housing for all. It emphasizes the right to leisure and work, along with a pleasant retirement.

Compared to disputes surrounding the con-stitution today in Egypt, where profoundly re-actionary forces are at play, it is no wonder that Brazil’s constitution has the status of a paradig-matic role model.

But, while Brazilians could count on a strong working-class party and a powerful union move-ment to express their will, the lack of such in-struments in Egypt seems to be what deter-mines the differences between both countries.

The process of mass mobilizations in the Mid-dle East and North Africa — while numerically superior to anything that has ever happened in South America — continues to lack channels through which to direct the progressive de-mands of the masses. The lack of strong and in-

dependent working-class organizations has

A

16 Environment20 December 2012

In brief

By Rana Khaled

iza is getting a bit more green as part of the “A million roses and 10,000 trees initiative.” Al-Amal association for development launched the project several months ago and has so far planted 7,000

trees in squares and on streets around Giza, in coopera-tion with governorate officials. The green initiative is also targeting Cairo, Alexandria and Matrouh governorates.

The association’s goal is to encourage citizens to make a positive change by beautifying their environment and planting trees in public, says Al-Amal Chairman Samy al-Qurainy.

Increasing green spaces may also help reduce the accu-mulation of litter and waste if residents become more in-vested in caring for their neighborhoods.

“We don’t have enough green areas in governorates and cities, especially in the highly populated ones and those with high pollution rates such as Cairo and Alexandria,” says Ahmed Younis, the national coordinator of the Arab Youth Climate Movement, an international environmen-tal group of young activists. “Planting trees can help elimi-nate the increasing carbon dioxide emissions which, in turn, help mitigate the effects of climate change.”

Giza Governor Ali Abdel Rahman says that popular public places, tourist and archaeological sites and impov-

erished neighborhoods were earmarked for the tree plant-ings. The General Authority for Cleanliness and Beauti-fication in Giza also assigned groups of workers to plant the trees on main streets and in front of the governmental buildings, and to care for them.

Younis says the governorate must connect appropriate irrigation systems to the planted trees to avoid wasting water. He suggested using treated wastewater rather than fresh water.

“This can be effective in a country like Egypt where many places suffer from water scarcity,” he says. “As a cli-mate change movement, we are ready to support any refor-estation project.”■

7,000 trees

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Development association takes green initiative to the streets

Activists cite a lack of green space, especially in populated areas. By the end of the initiative, organizers hope that three governorates will be less polluted.

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he Egyptian Environmental Af-fairs Agency is proceeding with the second phase of the “Clean Homeland” campaign previously

launched by President Mohamed Morsy. It is allocating LE32 million for cleaning gov-ernorates across Egypt, with the exception of Cairo and Giza.

Huda Mahmoud, the acting representative of the agency in Alexandria announced that

the campaign came after coordination with the Ministry of State for Military Production to improve the efficiency of cleaning equip-ment. Mahmoud said the Environment Min-ister has assigned committees to inspect and examine all equipment at the agency and a report detailing the efficiency of equipment and the required funds for implementation. Inspectors are required to submit the report by the end of the year.■

Cleaner streets

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iming at increasing awareness about saving energy and expand-ing the use of renewable and alter-native energy resources in Egypt,

the Ministry of Environment and the Fed-eration of Egyptian Industries discussed a memorandum between the General Administration for Resources Conserva-

tion and the Environment Protection and Sustainable Development Division. Ac-cording to Dr. Fatma Abu Shouk, the chief cxecutive officer of the Egyptian Environ-mental Affairs Agency, the discussion also included establishing a fund to support the new investment projects in renewable en-ergy fields.■

More powerA

Participants in the first campaign tidy as Morsy looks on.

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nder the title of “Scientific Research and Development in Arab world and Facing Challenges,” the first inter-

national conference of Arab ecologists was held from 15 to 19 of December in Marsa Alam.

During the conference, Dr. Mus-tafa Hussein Kamel, the minister of environment, explained that paying attention to scientific and applicable research has become a necessity for all Arab countries, stressing that priority should be given to the programs which target environmental protection, pol-

lution mitigation and the conservation of natural resources.

Representatives of research centers and universities from over 16 Arab countries participated in the confer-ence in addition to a number of Egyp-tian ministries including Environ-ment, High Education and Scientific Research ministries. The conference discussed important environmental issues such as the development of ecotourism in the region, liquid and solid waste recycling technologies, ar-chitecture and green cities as well as climate change.■

And less pollutionU

Industry practices in the region poses a threat to enivornmental integrity.

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17Environment20 December 2012

ing to Markus Kohler from BirdLife Inter-national, a small number of misplaced wind turbines have caused most of the deaths.

Up to 10,000 electrocutions and as many as 100,000 collisions are estimated to occur per country in the African-Eurasian region each year. In 2010, a study conducted in Su-dan recorded 17 electrocuted carcasses of the Egyptian vulture, a globally threatened species, over a two-month period.

“Data suggest that some species are more vulnerable than others to collisions,” says Kohler, taking the example of vultures who have a low reproduction rate and don’t look in front of them but down to the ground.

“Vultures are such an important species: they eat waste and carcasses and clean up the ground,” Kohler says.

Bjarke Lubeck is the manager of the Envi-ronmental and Biological Consultant Firm Enbicon. He says that in mountainous areas, birds use updrafts to soar, the wind forced up by mountains. “So if you have a project de-velopment in an area with different altitudes you are more likely to have lower flying birds and more casualties,” he explains.

Wind turbines are 100 meter high poles, and although birds usually fly at a higher al-titude, a weather change coupled with poor visibility can lead flocks of birds to collide with turbines. Birds also tend to fly closer to the ground in bottleneck areas.

The electricity shortages of the past two summers have demonstrated that Egypt is still not capable of coping with rising de-mand. “Since 2001, Egypt has 550 MW of in-stalled wind power capacity,” explains Ehab Ismail, the general manager of the planning department at NREA.

“The 31,000 MW of combined energy sources we garnered by the end of 2011-2012 proved insufficient to meet the peak demand of the summer,” he says, adding that over 7,600 square kilometers of land have been allocated for the development of future projects.

In order for these future wind farms to be

as sustainable as possible, with the minimum negative impact on birds and biodiversity, a memorandum of understanding was signed on Monday between the EEAA and the NREA, under the supervision of the UNDP.

Amany Nakhla, director of environment and energy at the UNDP, explains that through this memorandum, the EEAA will provide capacity-building for future projects on matters of conservation, biodiversity and migratory birds, while the NREA will keep the renewable energy agency informed of any new projects.

To mitigate the wind farms’ threats to birds, the Migratory Birds Project also has come up with a set of guidelines. Wind farms and transmission lines have to be kept at least 5 kilometers away from the coastlines, and the turbines should be spaced out to make corridors for the birds.

EIAs have to be conducted to identify risks in any new location, and conservationists should be able to monitor the area for up to three years after the construction of the farm. The guidelines also encourage the construc-tion of power lines and turbines in parallel to land features in order to be less of a barrier for birds.

Daniel Shambracks is a senior environ-mental and social advisor for the German development bank KFW, which finances renewable energy projects, including wind farms, in Egypt.

He says one of the systems that can greatly reduce the birds’ mortality rates is the use of a “radar supported shutdown on demand. The radar detects birds as far as 30 km away, and alerts a group of observers equipped with binoculars who can identify which tur-bines to temporarily shut down according to the flock’s direction,” he says, adding that Portugal is successfully using this system.

“The main problem we are facing,” ex-plains Mindy Baha el-Din, an ornithologist and member of NCE, “is that the locations with best wind speed are always the ones that are bottlenecks and favored by migra-tory birds, as well as wind farms developers. So we need to find a compromise, a middle point between conservationists and the en-ergy agency to mitigate the negative impact on biodiversity while developing alternative sources of the energy that Egypt so direly needs.”■

By Louise Sarant

gypt is a windy country, with wind speeds that can reach over 10 me-ters per second in certain strategic areas: along the Red Sea coast, in

Suez and at the southern tip of Sinai in Ras Mohamed.

No wonder then that foreign investors, manufacturers and the National Renewable Energy Agency (NREA) are keen to exploit the country’s wind potential.

But in some cases, wind farms, turbines and the associated power lines which carry the generated energy to the end users can pose threats to migratory soaring birds.

In order to discuss and agree on mitigat-ing measures to reduce these threats, the re-gional workshop “Mainstreaming Migratory Soaring Birds Considerations in the Energy Sector” took place on 16-17 December in Cairo.

Egypt’s strategic location as a land bridge between Africa and Eurasia makes it a major host along the Rift Valley-Red Sea flyway, which is the seasonal route followed by birds migrating to and from their breeding areas.

It is estimated that no less than 1.5 mil-lion birds migrate twice a year through this flyway, the second most important in the world, between their breeding grounds in Europe and wintering areas in Africa. There are 37 species of soaring birds that accom-plish this epic journey in which some will cover a distance of 10,000 kilometers.

But rampant development along the Red Sea coast and the associated destruction of the habitat, the poorly managed water treat-ment plant facilities and use of pesticides, wind farms, transmission lines and hunting activities all pose threats to the birds’ long journey across continents.

Sponsored by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency and the NREA, the Decem-ber workshop invited several organizations to participate including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the International Finance Cor-poration, in addition to national regulatory bodies and BirdLife partners from Egypt (Nature Conservation Egypt, NCE) and from each participating country.

Representatives from 11 countries along the flyway participated in the workshop: Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pal-estine and Sudan.

BirdLife International, which convened the two-day workshop, is a global partner-ship of conservation organizations that focus on birds, their habitats and global biodiver-sity.

NREA Chairperson Leila Georgy Yussef reminded the audience that Egypt aims by 2020 to generate 20 percent of its energy through renewable sources (12 percent wind, 6 percent hydro and 2 percent solar energy.)

“We need to make sure that wind turbines and transmission lines are designed to miti-gate risks to birds,” she said, while stressing the importance of conducting Environmen-tal Impact Assessment studies (EIA) “to avoid a detrimental impact on biodiversity and nature.”

This is quite a strong statement coming from the NREA, which had to abandon 60 percent of the 650 square meter slot al-located to them by the Tourism Develop-ment Agency in 2006 in Gebel Zeit, north of Hurghada, to install wind turbines, after a feasibility study found it could cause threats to migratory birds. Only 25 percent of the plot of undeveloped land received the green light from authorities.

Figures of bird fatalities have been recorded and reported all over the world, and accord-

E

Wind turbines are 100 meter high poles, and although birds usually fly at a higher altitude, a weather change coupled with poor visibility can lead flocks of birds to collide with turbines

Watt

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ry

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When bird and turbine collideMitigating the threats caused by wind farms and turbines to migrating birds

Egypt’s vultures, an endangered species, are particularly vulnerable to the threats.

Thousands of birds are killed every year by misplaced wind turbines and transmission lines.

18 Culture20 December 2012

Art that triggers our curiosityFresh voices emerge in the fifth edition of Photo Cairo

Photo Cairo 5 has garnered mixed reviews from the large crowds that gathered at the Townhouse Gallery’s factory space and the Contemporary Image Collective over the past month. Curated through a loose process of selecting artwork that person-ally appealed to the CIC’s Artistic Director Mia Jankowicz under the subtitle “More out of curiosity than conviction,” the much anticipated exhibition was at times stim-ulating, at others somewhat underwhelming.

“Bahari,” a short film in which Ahmed al-Ghoneimy reenacts his encounter with the keeper of a children’s fairground in the Alexandrian neighborhood of Bahari, for instance, was highly engaging. As viewers, we watched a filmmaker absurdly being detained and questioned by the playground keeper for filming the children and were

offered a sneak peak into rarely highlighted power struggles in Egypt.Like Ghoneimy’s “Bahari,” artwork by those whose faces are new to the conven-

tional visual arts scene, such as architect Samir el Kordy who presents an artistic take on the idea of revolutionary monuments, were among the most striking in the show. Noura Seif and Sama Waly, who both enrolled in Photo Cairo 5’s special men-torship program, had previously exhibited their work in Cairo, but might be less known to the larger public that Photo Cairo attracts. And 25-year old Hanaa Safwat is publicly showing her work for the first time.

In the following, we have chosen to highlight some of these fresh voices that have previously been little heard around the city.

Entering a Grimm-like tale By Mai Elwakil

hildish fear was the emotion that art-ist Noura Seif sought to evoke with “Boody,” a collection of drawings and sculptures installed in the back room

of the Contemporary Image Collective’s exhi-bition space as part of Photo Cairo 5.

The feeling crumbles up the spine as we move closer to the detailed hand drawings of boogeymen and plants morphing into black monstrous creatures. Whether the frames — similar to the illustrations in a youngsters’ comic book or an animated horror film — are close-ups of a scene or show open landscapes, feelings of psychological entrapment remain. But the experience is still fun, like going into one of the Brothers Grimm’s horror fairytales many of us grew up reading.

At the center of the exhibition room stand two miniature sculptures of Boody on a wood-en pedestal. Boody, after whom the installation is titled, was a shaggy, scary-looking street dog that Seif ’s grandmother took in many years ago to save from bullying school children. Modeled with spines similar to a cactus, the two wolf-like beasts cast their shadows on the room’s walls.

Visitors, however, have to walk through the installation like scavengers, closely looking for the little details scattered in the vast room to really see the work. Next to a small plant in one corner is a clay sculpture of a pseudo-mon-strous tree. On an adjacent wall, hangs a pho-tograph of the tree after which it was modeled,

which is also echoed in other sketchbook-like drawings on walls.

The room allocated to exhibit Seif ’s work is ultimately too vast for the intimate emotional experience she sought to create, but the work is too interesting to overlook as she introduces more and more fictional characters with each drawing and sculpture, helping viewers make

up their own stories.Seif was one of four early-career artists who

enrolled in an intensive mentorship program led by visual artist Doa Aly to create works for Photo Cairo 5. Through one-on-one meetings, Aly worked with the artists to dig deeply into their memories and sources of inspiration. The technique was a success for the four artists, as

they said at a symposium organized by Photo Cairo 5 last month. The process was fluid and spontaneous although the production time allowed in the end was somewhat tight and rushed, according to Seif.

“Boody” was inspired by games that Aly ini-tiated in her meetings with Seif to “trace her memory.” Over the course of the weekly meet-ings, Seif realized that most of her recollec-tions were related to childhood associations with plants and trees in her grandparents’ garden. There was one tree for instance that took the shape of a wolf — the same tree of which there is a sculpture and photograph in the exhibition. As a child, Seif used to ask for this tree’s permission every morning before she went out to play in the garden. Boody, the family’s dog was another recurring element in her memories.

Those conversations and memories were what triggered Seif ’s drawings; then came the sculptures, which were another manifes-tation of the creatures, and they, in turn, in-spired more details in the drawings. The path Seif intuitively undertook to make the work is simlar to that of a filmmaker, creating a mood through character-building, and constructing an image by assembling the various elements.

The personal stories are not so important however, she argues. It is the feeling that the vi-suals evoke to viewers that define “Boody.” And on that level, the artwork is successful — and possibly would have been even more so had more thought been given to its installation.■

The frames Seif exhibits are similar to illustrations in a youngsters’ comic book or an animated horror film.

Mai

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The video is minimal and deceivingly soothing until viewers get to follow more closely what it is the artist is doing.

Mai

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Art for the psyche By Mai Elwakil

adly, Sama Waly’s video installation in Photo Cairo 5 was removed before the show came to an end due to technical problems, but the eeriness it left those

who got to see it persisted long after it had gone. A looped video of Waly sitting with a friend

in the hallway of her flat scratching one anoth-er’s thumb webs while having an informal chat, “Somewhere between 1998 and 2001” is both discomforting and mind boggling.

The two young women appear dressed in white on the screen installed between two walls to create the illusion of the hallway in the video. Their background both in the video and the created hallway at the exhibition space is also white. Everything is minimal and deceivingly soothing in the beginning, until the viewer gets to follow more closely what it is the two women are doing.

In the video, Waly speaks of a game she played in school with her friends where each would slowly scratch the skin of the other’s hand until it bruised. But, along with her friend, she does it peacefully — as if the process in-volves no pain — which is partly what makes it so discomforting. As we follow their conversa-tion, we notice the unease Waly’s friend feels in the process. Nevertheless, she follows through as if hypnotized.

To the viewer, the experience is also hypno-tizing. The scratching seems endless. One has to make a conscious decision to get up and

leave after the video loops a few times.Twenty-two year old Waly is among the fresh

voices that have emerged on the local art scene over the past year. Her body of work is varied in form. But it always appeals to viewers’ psyche, often taking them into a hypnotic experience, and so is difficult to dismiss.

I first experienced her work as part of “The Parallel Visions” group exhibit held at Darb 1718 in March. Showcasing the work of dozens of fresh graduates from the American Univer-sity in Cairo’s art program, Waly’s work was among those that stood out.

A screen affixed to the top corner of a room showed a video of Waly as she psychedelically dunks her head into a bucket of water. Viewers end up being almost out of breath themselves just watching “Sur,” and inner feelings of dis-tress become overwhelming.

A few months down the line, Waly took part in “The Pick 5” exhibition at the Townhouse Gallery. Again, her contribution to the show “Nia kam” or “Ma kain,” as the label read in Ara-bic lured in those who saw and experienced it.

An all-encompassing white architectural structure, acting like an enclosure with its walls and edges changing at angles, “Nia kam” almost glowed as light from a projector in the ceiling reflected upon it, and triggered overwhelming emotions amongst viewers of being in a surreal space. The artwork reshaped a room on the gal-lery’s first floor, redefining the space so strongly that it left no traces of previous memories or associations to interfere with the experience.

Waly meant to express the continuous change that she has undergone over the past year or so, but also wanted gallery visitors to have their own experience. That’s why she chose such an obscure title for the work.

Around the same time, she took part in “The Supermarket” exhibition at the Gezira Art Center. The looped video titled “A Jar of Jam” was very different from “Nia kam,” yet almost as stimulating. Against a white backdrop and a soundtrack developed by fellow artist Nada el Shazly, children’s feet and fists try to escape the surface, almost leaving the screen in a hallucina-tory fashion. The work was inspired by a story by French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre about children being turned into profit-able monsters by their torturers.

Throughout the past year, Waly has been constantly experimenting with her work, try-ing to learn from every opportunity that has come her way. She is interested in creative productions spanning film, performance and visual arts and has taken up different tem-porary jobs and internships in those fields. Enrolling in the Photo Cairo 5 mentorship program led by Aly was yet another learning experiment for Waly. For her, her it contested much of what she was exposed to through her university education.

For now she wants to slow down a bit, reflect some more on the many experiences she has undergone over the past year, work on her own — not with an exhibition in mind, and then re-turn stronger than ever to the scene.■

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19Culture20 December 2012

A thousand buzzwords By Laura Cugusi

or his contribution to Photo Cairo 5, architect Samir el-Kordy imagined a revolutionary monument: a wall 20 meters high and 20 kilometers long

marking the paths of revolutionary marches around key sites of state power in downtown Cairo. The monument, shown through a series of digitally constructed images and a somewhat literary narrative, has been com-missioned, according to the narration, by the very “regime” protesters sought to topple.

“I put myself in the head of the SCAF (Supreme Councl of the Armed Forces),” says Kordy, citing the former ruling military council’s decision to erect the world’s highest flagpole in the name of the revolution, and their attempt to design a commemorative monument through a public competition. The competition never materialized for sev-eral reasons. And as tensions continued to escalate, numerous walls were set up around downtown Cairo and, currently, the presi-dential palace in Heliopolis.

“[Their] goal while erecting walls around the city was to stop the flow of movement,” he explains. “I realized that the best way to exert control over that flow is by allowing it: giving the illusion of freedom.” That was Kordy’s starting point for the project.

“Monument of the Buzzwords,” as the ar-chitect named the work, is meant to crystal-lize and appropriate singular interpretations of revolutionary keywords like “change,” “people,” “nationhood” and “democracy” in a massive concrete structure. Unlike oth-er walls and monuments, the meaning of “Monument of the Buzzwords” won’t be ne-gotiated on its surface, as an anti-graffiti coat-ing will be applied to preserve its “neutrality.”

With its disarming conceptual simplic-ity and technical perfection, the convincing aesthetic of “Monument of the Buzzwords” speaks for itself. Maps and panoramic images of downtown sites alternate with framed

texts providing sets of pragmatic instruc-tions that complement the work by guiding the narration in a nonlinear way.

“I decided to reject the design element and opt for a very symbolic choice,” says Kordy. “There is no moral purpose in this idea. It is the development of a coherent plan [on the part of the regime].”

The plan implies a brutal invasion of pub-lic space. But the construction of the monu-ment is justified as a reflection of the people’s will. The means justify the ends: elevating all citizens to the same level above the skyline, allowing them to enjoy a “positively demo-cratic (if totalitarian) spatial experience,” the narration goes on, and whereby “all social distinctions between citizens are erased.”

Nevertheless, only those who conform to a certain standard defined by qualified security personnel will be allowed to enter the monu-ment.

Kordy’s monument is incorporated into the urban fabric and paradoxically becomes part of the daily flow of people and vehicles in the city. “All old images of the city have been modified as to include the monument as if it had always been there,” the narration continues, echoing the epic “1984” in which George Orwell wrote: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” And the viewer thus becomes suddenly aware of the possibil-ity of such a nightmare materializing.

The work presented in Photo Cairo 5 is one part of a much wider collection of images and texts that Kordy produced in collaboration with a team of artists, photographers and designers. “Monument of the Buzzwords” was presented as a looped video of still im-ages and texts on the occasion of “Right of Refusal,” a show that took place in the sum-mer in Austria. “The process was more inter-

esting than the end result. The potential of the idea itself generates multiple expressions and ramifications for the project, and we al-lowed ourselves to experiment and produce a great amount of material from which we then chose a selection,” Kordy explains.

But to him, the framed images currently on display show an authority, and reinforce the idea in a way that the video may not have.

One of the images, for instance, features a grid-like map of downtown Cairo’s streets, devoid of buildings and green areas. It in-cludes pre-existing monuments as if they were the only elements the regime saw worth representing on a map.

Kordy argues that one is aware of the pres-ence of those monuments without ever con-sciously noticing them. “They are present as a ghost image in the background, but they do not convey a shared meaning.” When he de-signed “Monument of the Buzzwords” how-ever, its massive presence on the streets and clear promotion of a specific narrative makes it impossible to ignore and maybe even dif-ficult to dispute the way different visions of what the revolution “should” mean have been contested over the past two years.

The sense of unity and shared values that characterized the utopian 18 days in Tah-rir Square have been overshadowed by the complexity of Egypt’s transitional period and conflicting visions for the future. Those divisions emerged visibly with the walls and barriers that have reshaped the city, acting as a constant reminder of the battles that are taking place on both sides of the walls. Only a few weeks ago, a new one appeared right in front of the statue of Simon Bolivar, hero of the Venezuelan and Latin American struggle for independence. The homony-mous square has been added to the list of symbolic sites where the real battle contin-ues. Perhaps many ignore what Bolivar once said, “Those who have served the Revolution have plowed the sea” — they have achieved the impossible and fulfilled their dream.■

The imaginary monument symbolizes interpretations of revolutionary keywords like change and democracy.

Safwat’s pencil drawings of her father combine objectivity and tenderness.

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The changing face of a father By Jenifer Evans

mong the photographs, videos and text pieces that made up the bulk of work in Photo Cairo 5 are six

small pencil drawings hanging in a row. Each is a depiction of the same man’s face. Looking straight on, he gazes levelly at the viewer. His eyes, drawn in detail beneath equally elaborate eyebrows, are the constant, while the rest of his face, vaguer, shifts from drawing to draw-ing. He’s clearly undergoing a long-term program of facial surgery.

The label explains that this is art-ist Hanaa Safwat’s father, and that, together, she and he photographi-cally documented his face during a long illness.

Looking at the drawings, which are not in chronological order, you can’t reconstruct what happened, nor can you tell how much hope or tragedy there is in them. There is no specific mood.

Safwat was asked if she would like to add a picture of her father as he originally looked but she thought better of it. “If there was a picture of him you would focus on the injury,” she says. “There’s no denying that it’s a personal project, but adding a self-portrait would have been push-ing it too far.”

Once she delivered the drawings, she was offered a choice of frames and chose a simple black one. Apart from that, all she did was request that they not be hung in order — so

“you can’t go forward and you can’t rewind” — then she didn’t see them again until the exhibition’s opening.

It is the first time that Safwat, 25, has exhibited her work. She studied set design for six years at Helwan University’s Faculty of Fine Arts,

doing only college projects, which she thinks are the same projects that have been assigned in that depart-ment for 50 years. Everything she made there was forced, she says — with each project, the subject was dictated and numerous “research”

sketches had to be produced. This taught her the value of spontaneity. Her work wasn’t well received, but she’s glad she didn’t study painting, because “I would have been turned off painting, instead of set design.”

She had one inspirational but el-derly teacher — Nagy Shakir, who is represented in Photo Cairo 5 by an experimental film he made in 1972, “Summer 70,” in a film pro-gram selected by Tamer el Said (which has been postponed to March 2013). Safwat thinks he was able to see students’ work in a dif-ferent way because he started at the faculty before the curricula became formulaic.

So, as a painter, she’s self-taught. But she recently remembered being good at drawing as a child, having found a school report in which a teacher gave her an “O” for out-standing.

She started making her own work again during the final months of college, when she was meant to be working on her graduation project. She painted a self-portrait as an ex-ercise, then felt ready to tackle the paintings of her father, beginning with the six sketches. Due to the revolution, which began in the mid-dle of the series, it took her about a year to complete them.

Early on, she approached Mia Jankowicz, director of the Con-temporary Image Collective and curator of Photo Cairo 5, because she wanted someone to look at the paintings objectively and give

her feedback. “I really loved what she said,” Safwat says, explaining that Jankowicz pointed out things that she had thought about but not verbalized when making them. “It made me think, this painting thing really works!”

Some months later, Jankowicz asked to do a studio visit, and this led to the drawings being part of Photo Cairo.

Concerned somehow with the revolutionary moment, Photo Cairo 5 explores shifts, transforma-tions and the reshaping of reality. In Safwat’s six drawings the revo-lution echoes on a small scale. The invasive surgery brings to mind, unlike anything else in the show, the repressive regime’s deliberately invasive impact on dissenters’ bod-ies, yet isn’t connected to that at all. The adjustments that the patient and his friends and family have to make during his illness, which one may wonder about when looking at the drawings, are not dissimilar to the whole damaged country itself having to adjust its outlook and its relationship with itself — to come to terms with its vulnerability and yet continue to fight.

The pencil marks are alternately softly tentative and firmly confi-dent, and overall they combine objectivity and tenderness. They are not exactly defiant, but nor do they ask for pity. They are drawn in a straightforward way, and this sim-plicity and humanness makes them stand out in the show.■

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20 Life & Society20 December 2012

The promise of a voteOnce more, Egyptians take to the polls with the hope to return to normality

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21Life & Society20 December 2012

The future face of fashionA new fashion academy launches to develop promising talent

The program is a learning journey that allows each student to create a unique sense of style based on stretching their imaginations

one that best suits their needs. Both courses include hands-on experience and theoretical study, and target children and young people aged from 9 to 17 years old.

The one-month short course usually revolves around a specif-ic theme, like beach customs or fall/winter trends, depending on when the course is held.

The long course lasts for up to two years. Students acquire in-depth design knowledge address-ing the many diverse areas in the fashion industry, introduced in simplified teaching methods to suit the young participants.

The academy puts a special em-phasis on the basics of design, including sketching, rendering and illustrating, as well as pattern-making and sewing.

“During the first phase of the program, students get a back-

ground on the different kinds of fabrics, how to incorporate them into their designs and a step-by-step patternmaking process,” Riz-kallah says.

The program gives students a window into the world of global trends and high street fashion, as well as honing their research skills

and helping them find inspiration for their own pieces.

“The sky is the limit when it comes to the design they want to work on, whether it’s a dress they saw in a magazine, a country costume or a favorite Halloween costume,” says Rizkallah. “The program is a learning journey that allows each student to create a unique sense of style based on stretching their imaginations and exploring fashion variations.”

Doaa Arafa, whose daughter, Noor, participated in the YFA pro-gram, believes her mastering the basics of fashion design at the age of 10 was quite an achievement.

“She not only had fun, but was also able to express herself freely by demonstrating her artistic skills through designing simple accessories such as a bag,” Arafa says, adding that children feel confident and proud when mak-

ing a masterpiece with their own hands.

The program is particularly geared toward providing real work experience with each student hav-ing to produce their own piece at the end of the course. Students whose designs are particularly attractive will have their work showcased next summer at a fash-ion show held by the academy.

Abeer al-Gamal, mother of 16-year-old Nora, thinks the academy’s program fostered her daughter’s skills and desire to be-come a professional fashion de-signer in the future.

“My daughter has been fond of sketching since childhood, but the hands-on experience has en-couraged her to seriously consider pursuing a professional career in the fashion industry, especially after being recognized for her tal-ent,” Gamal says.■

Students learn pattern making in the first phase of their program.

By Heba Helmyaunched to fill the fash-ion education void in Egypt, the Young Fash-ion Academy (YFA) is a

comprehensive program aiming to introduce talented children to the fascinating world of fashion — and also teach them profes-sional skills.

“Girls usually start to show an interest in fashion trends at a young age. But there is a lack of professional courses in the coun-try that can teach them a basic understanding of the nature of fashion and put them on the path toward a creative career,” explains Tamr Adly Rizkallah, fashion de-signer and founder of YFA.

The academy held its first class-es in June, offering both a short and long course to give students the opportunity to choose the

LStudents learn to conceptualize through fashion sketching.

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By Amany Aly Shawkyor a delicious new Indian cuisine option, head to Begum in New Maadi. The restaurant, opened by the owners of Nawab in Zamalek, is sparsely deco-rated and oddly laid out but the food, in its reason-

ably sized portions, is both flavorful and diverse. Don’t be fooled by the restaurant’s reflective doors, which make it difficult to tell whether Begum is open.

Dinner began with the slightly spicy chicken lentil muligatwany soup (LE24). The lentils were blended to a smooth consistency with generous portions of chicken — a perfect cold weather starter. Begum’s vegetable sa-mosas (two for LE12) were very large and packed with veggies. A serving of poppadom (LE10) comes with deli-cious mint- and tomato-based dips.

The sailing was not quite as smooth when it came to the main course. The butter chicken masala (LE42) was a little strong on the tomato and not enough on the butter. The sauce was also a bit spicy, unusual for this dish, which is typi-cally reserved for those who cannot stomach the heat of In-dian spices. Another standard that missed the mark was the dahl makhani (LE32), which had a slightly grainy consis-tency for a lentil dish that is supposed to be rich and buttery.

The palak paneer (LE32) was average and its thick spinach sauce did not stand out as a specialty of the res-taurant.

But not all the main dishes were a disappointment; Be-gum’s bhuna gosht (LE65), a rich lamb dish with brown sauce and the mild chicken shahi korma (LE43) with cashews and yoghurt were table favorites. The shahi ko-rma sauce practically got licked off the plate. Almost all the main dishes (except the dahl) are full of the delicious but heavily clarified butter, ghee, that is a staple of indian cuisine.

The naan (LE9) is fluffy, fresh and delicious — one bread per order means you’ll definitely need more than one.

In general, Begum’s food is better than its ambiance. Unfortunately, the bathroom was on the dirty side and a few things got forgotten from the order. But the food compensates for what the place lacks in atmosphere, though you may also want to think about ordering de-livery.■

Begum34 Road 276, New Maadi

Tel: 010-1310-0185/ 010-0001-6706Open from 12 pm –11 pm

Queen of spiceNawab’s owners bring their Indian flavors to Maadi

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22 Travel20 December 2012

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By Ali Abdel MohsenWe met the maestro at the bus stop. I hadn’t known what to expect; face-paint, maybe, or a necklace made of body parts. It was an ignorant assumption to make, influenced as much by my inexperience with shamans as it was by the surreal trip we had taken to meet this one. After a seven-hour spiraling ascent through the Andes, above the clouds and along winding, mist-shrouded mountain-side paths slightly narrower than our bus, to the sounds of a Spanish-dubbed double bill featuring La Roca AKA The Rock, I disem-barked at Huancabamba expecting to meet a man who was, at the very least, surrounded by flames. Instead, my wife, our translator, and I found ourselves shaking hands with a friendly grandfather in a brown leather jack-et, khaki bell-bottoms and dress shoes.

“What do I call you?” I asked him.“El maestro,” he replied.“No,” I said. “I meant, what’s your name?”“El maestro,” he smiled.The maestro lived in what can be best de-

scribed as a bare-cement optical illusion. Tucked away behind a t-shirt stand, the ground-level house included a basement and more door-less frames and twisting staircases than necessary, made all the more disorienting by how sparsely and randomly furnished it all was.

Dinner was awkward. The maestro was in high-spirits, booming on in Spanish about how much he was going to mess me up, while our guide Oscar translated excitedly between mouthfuls. “He says he’s going to take you to see the planets,” Oscar chewed.

“Which ones?” I asked.“All of them.”“He’s going to make you take the Devil’s

pants off,” Oscar said, still chewing.“Wait, who?”“The Devil. You will see the Devil naked.

And you will dance with him.”I turned to the maestro, who was leaning

towards me, smiling and slowly nodding.“I don’t know how to dance,” I said to him,

somewhat stupidly, and he threw his head back and howled. Oscar shrugged. “I don’t know about any of this,” he said. “I’m just translating.”

The maestro gave us the only tiled room in the house to sleep in. It was as sparsely fur-nished as all the other rooms, containing a bed, a one-sheet calendar with a picture of a flower-swarmed little girl and a partition

with a pattern of what my wife and I couldn’t decide were flowers or skulls. I sat at the win-dow for a while overlooking someone else’s outhouse and thought about what was to come, mainly what state of undress the Devil would be in when we’d meet, and what his crotch would look like. Probably a nest of snakes, I imagined, and, worried, I asked my wife about this, to which she replied, “I can’t believe this is how we’re spending our honeymoon.” She was joking though. She’s a good sport.

At 3 am, we bundled up and left the house, staggering blindly into a pickup at the end of the street. We got to the end of the dirt road as the sun was rising, bringing with it no ex-tra warmth. The wind was ferocious, align-ing the surrounding trees with the horizon, knocking our mules into each other as they were brought to us, and then, as we tried to mount them. We stumbled around for 45 minutes, once again traveling along a narrow path with a sea of clouds churning under us, waves rolling over the occasional mountain peak. And then, in a sudden clearing, there was the lake: a black hole between the moun-tains, wide and dark and superimposed over the jagged rocks. The wind clawed at its sur-face, slicing it into countless streaks of air and water that swept in all directions. I stared for some time at all that wet static, trying to ig-nore everyone else staring at me. “Time to swim,” the maestro cackled.

He paced around me, taking swigs from various perfume bottles and spitting at me, chugging tobacco extract through his nos-trils from a conch, and shouting to the apus — mountain gods. He placed a sword in my trembling hand, screamed my name, and ground a tangerine against my bare chest. I thought to myself that somewhere, some form of god was laughing at me while anoth-er one just shook its head. The maestro told me to get in the lake. I tried to balance myself

against the wind as I took off my remaining layers, catching in the corner of my eye sym-pathetic looks from Oscar and the maestro’s twin assistants. My wife started sobbing; I’m still not entirely sure why.

When I stepped into the lake it was, for the briefest of moments, very cold. Then my nerve-endings exploded, and I lost all feeling. It suddenly became easier to sink to my knees, to submerge my arms and fall into it, face first. Nothing else existed; maybe because it was a spiritual experience, maybe because my mind was focusing all its dwin-dling energy on fighting off external ele-ments, maybe there’s not much difference between the two. The howling piercing my ears thinned out into a deafening hum, and then silence. My eyes were still open, but the information was all scrambled, glimpses of sky and rock and moving lips and dark water.

The maestro helped lift me from the water when I failed to hear him shouting for me to get out. He hugged me tight, grabbed and thrust my shivering fists into the air, and bel-lowed out my name at such length and vol-ume, it’s probably still echoing around some-where between those mountains.

When, an hour later, we got off our shiver-ing mules and back into the pickup, the mae-stro beamed at me, and spent a long time say-ing all sorts of nice things, before ordering the driver to stop in the middle of the road and turn the radio all the way up. “Get out,” the maestro said to me. “It’s time to dance.”

So we danced, for a while it seemed, on a dirt path high up in the clouds. I still couldn’t feel my body and my limbs were shaking enough without any music to move them, but I held on to my pants and danced, prob-ably terribly. The maestro danced too, skip-ping around me and yelling at everything, then hooking his arm in mine and spinning us both. We lost it for a while, and by the time the catlady was done and we were stumbling

around, panting, a family had disembarked from their own pickup and stretched out by the side of the road, waiting for us to let them through. I got back into the truck and collapsed in my wife’s arms, she told me she loved me and I passed out, happy and shiver-ing.

That night, after another sparse meal, we were called down to the basement where the maestro had laid out a carpet and placed upon it all sorts of stone figurines and uten-sils. Behind them stood the sword, propped up against the wall, and in the foreground, a pot in which floated several star-shaped slices of San Pedro. The maestro appeared, dressed in several elaborately patterned robes, and told Oscar and my wife to sit in the corner and be silent, while directing me to a chair under the room’s single window. The lights were switched off and I found myself sit-ting in a column of moonlight, watching as solemn-faced and chanting now, the maestro slowly approached me. He poured himself a glass from the San Pedro pot and chugged it, poured one for me and I did the same, and then took my seat in the corner while he chanted and stomped around the room.

Somewhere in there, I began hallucinat-ing. Between the shapes darting all around me in the dark — tall, spindly-limbed silhou-ettes creeping across open doorways, and bulkier, four-legged ones leaning out from the shadows — I was determined to see how far I could take things while still maintaining some degree of awareness.

Even now it’s hard to tell how long the rit-ual lasted. Words like ‘minutes’, ‘hours’, even ‘months’ seem non-applicable at best. By the time I was coming out of it, though, the mae-stro was making strange, guttural sounds, and Oscar was leaning over to whisper, “I think he’s had too much to drink,” and then, “I think he’s crazy.” The maestro then told me to approach him and when I did he picked me up and told me to kick the air. I saw no reason not to.

The sun was rising again when we got into bed, but it all felt unprecedented, every-thing was new. I didn’t think it would last, and it didn’t (personally, I blame the presi-dent). But, for a while afterwards, I did feel different. Re-energized, reconstituted. But then again, I’ve never gotten a proper mas-sage, nor do I go to a gym, and I’ve heard people talk about both those things that way. This just makes for a slightly more in-teresting story.■

Dancing with the Devil

Spirituality in the Peruvian Andes

He placed a sword in my trembling hand, screamed my name, and ground a tangerine against my bare chest. I thought to myself that somewhere, some form of god was laughing at me while another one just shook its head

23Listings20 December 2012

Film

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Justice and art

Acclaimed Egyptian writer and critic Youssef Rakha will be discussing his 2011 novel “The Crocodiles,” which delves through the complex transformation of the 1990s’ generation of writers — those who founded The Crocodiles Society for Secret Egyptian Poetry.

20 December, 7 pmDiwan Bookstore159, 26th of July St., Zamalek02-2735-3460/80/08/10www.diwanegypt.com

Ahmed Saad Allah is launching his novel “Justice is the Basis of Art,” which takes place in early 20th century Egypt. Set in the 1930s, the plot and characters reflect much of what Egypt continues to experience.

21 December, 7 pmAlef Bookstores2 Taha Hussein St., Zamalek, Cairo02-2736-5180www.alefbookstores.com

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Private collectionDarb 1718 is exhibiting works donated by the many Egyptian and international artists it has hosted over the past four years.

Until 5 January Darb 1718Kasr al-Shamaa St., Al-Fakha-reen, Old Cairo, Cairo022-361-0511www.darb1718.com

Long live free art

Five avant-garde Egyptian writers and painters founded the Art and Freedom Group in 1939, a movement that linked politics to art in modern Egypt for the first time. George He-nein, Ramses Younan, Fouad and Anwar Kamel, and Kamel el Telmessani presented art as the means to liberate Egypt.

Artist Hisham al-Zeiny presents images from an imaginary sce-nario he developed where Egypt Air announces an unscheduled emergency Flight No. Jan 25, which heroically attempts to head for democracy.

Until 17 JanuaryMashrabia Gallery8 Champollion St., Downtown, Cairo010-0170-4554www.mashrabiagallery.com

Future shorts EgyptShowcasing in over 285 cities, “Future Shorts” returns with an exciting selection of short films including Ritesh Batra’s “Cafe Regular,” which received the Special Jury Mention at the Tribeca Film Festival; “A Brief History of John Baldessari” by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, in which narrator Tom Waits along with the filmmakers cram the epic career of American conceptual artist Baldessari into five and a half frenzied minutes; and “The Black Balloon” where Ben and Joshua Safdie’s film, intended for children, morphs into a sci-fi urban fable.

21, 22 December, 7:30-11 pmBikya Book Cafe40 al-Hadaek St., off Road 9, Cairo02-2358-5822

Who are you?

Noon Creative Enterprise returns with a performance about the rights of people with special needs. “Who are you?” was developed through a series of storytelling and improvisation workshops, facilitated by Noon Creative Director Nada Sabet. Audiences will get to discuss the performance with actors after the show.

20-21 December, 7 pmFrench Cultural Center in Alexandria30 Nabi Daniel St., Misr Train Station, Alexandria03-4391-8952/4392-0804/ 4392-5580www.cfcc-eg.org

Syrian singer, songwriter and composer Sameeh Shokeir, known for his support for the Syrian revolution with songs like “The Brother Returned,” will perform on the closing night of Syrian Cultural Nights week.

23 December, 6:30 pmBalloon TheaterNile Corniche, Agouza, Giza012-2278-1434

For this exhibit, the work of nine Egyptian contemporary artists who echo the legacy of the Art and Freedom Group as agents for social change are being shown.

Until 15 January ArtTalksEgypt8 al-Kamel Mohamed St., Zamalek, Cairo010-0397-0141 / 02-2736-3948www.arttalks.org

Syriancultural nights

Participants of the Cairo Dub-plate workshop, which started 5 December and is taught by Hari Shankar Kishore (aka DJ HVAD/Kid Kishore/Syg nok), will play some of their work at a final workshop performance. The workshop inaugurates 100Copies’ new dubplate vinyl recording facility. DJ HVAD will then be returning to the venue with sounds of avant-garde ghetto dance from Denmark and India, following the performance.

22 December, 8 pm100Copies Music Space22 Talaat Harb St., Downtown, Cairo010-0059-2998/ 02-773-8760www.100copies.com

DJ HVAD andparticipants

No Time for Art/3In its third edition, this perfor-mance is based on a dialogue between two young men locked within a system that dangerously overshadows their future. One is doing his mandatory military service, the other is locked away in an Egyptian prison cell on false charges and still awaiting retrial.

21, 22 December, 8 pmRawabet Theater2 Hussein al-Me’mar St., Off Mahmoud Basiony St., Downtown, Cairo012-7507-0727

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Independentissue here

Issue no.3220 December 2012

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