Dr. Farouk El-Baz 18 November, 2008
Posted by nousha in Egypt, People, Quotes, Thoughts.1 comment so far
http://www.bu.edu/remotesensing/graphics/el-baz1.jpg
Today I attended a lecture by Dr. Farouk El-Baz about his project: ممر التعمير في الصحراء الغربية. It was a very interesting lecture talking about his vision of making a parallel passageway to the Nile, joined with the main populated areas with roads and railways. He started campaigning for this project in 1985, and after many articles, seminars, interviews,,, the government decided to hear from him and he met the prime minister in 2005 and in 2008, and the concerned ministers are supposed to be currently studying the idea before giving a final judgment to Dr. Nazif, to see whether or not an extensive feasability study should be or not.
For more information about the project, read the executive summary from this link: http://www.bu.edu/remotesensing/sources/mamar-text.doc .
He also tackled some interesting points, but I’ll talk about it separately.
I also advise you to read another article he posted on this website: http://www.bu.edu/remotesensing/sources/article.doc , titled: جيل الفشل, I’m copying its conclusion for those interested:
إذا كان جيلي قد فشل في تحقيق الأمال المذكورة، فلا مكان له في قيادة الأمة العربية ويجب أن يتنحى. يلزمنا جيل أكثر حيوية ونشاطاً، أقل سناً يتصف بالشجاعة والقدرة على الريادة لينتشل العالم العربي من الوضع المأسوي الحالي. شق طريق جديد يستلزم رؤية جديدة لجيل شاب. لذلك يلزمنا أولاً أن يعترف جيلي بالفشل ويحدد الأخطاء التي أدت إليه لكي يستطيع جيل جديد نشيط من المضي في طريق آخر.
بدلاً من الاعتماد على المؤسسات كما هي في بلدنا يلزمنا بناء الفرد العربي الذي يستطيع أن يطور المؤسسات ويقودها خروجاً عن مسارها الحالي. يجب أن نضع ثقتنا في الانسان، نُعِدُه للعمل لصالح الأمة ونثق بالفكر والابتكار والتجديد. لا يتم ذلك إلا في وجود الاحترام الكامل للانسان رجلاً كان أو امرأة، ليضيف الفرد ما هو أحسن في جو يسوده تبجيل الفكر والمعرفة وتشجيع المبادرة وتقدير الامتياز في واقع تسود فيه الشفافية واحترام المبدعين في كل أرجاء العالم العربي.
ولن أكون مبالغاً إذا ما ذكرت أن العرب في كل مكان ينتظرون رفعة مصر لأن في ذلك رفعتهم جميعاً. ولم يكن للعرب مكانة في أي وقت من الزمان إلا في وجود مصر القوية كالعمود الفقري الذي تلتف حوله البلدان العربية كلها. لذلك يلزم أن يبدأ الاصلاح والتجديد في مصر على أسس علمية صحيحة.
هذا يَعنِي أننا نحتاج إلى جيل يتصف بالثقة بالنفس والشجاعة الأدبية. أي تقدم في أي مجال يستلزم الثقة بالنفس، وهذه لا تأتي إلا من خلال العلم والمعرفة والتدريب الدائم. من يثق بنفسه يحترمه الآخرون وهذا الاحترام يحث على المزيد من المعرفة وهكذا ترقى المجتمعات المتحضرة.
إقتناء العلم والمعرفة لا يتم بسهولة، فهو يستلزم احترام الوقت والتفاني في العمل. يجب أن يعتبر العمل المضني شرفاً كبيراً وليس حملاً ثقيلاً. لابد أيضاً من تغيير فكر من يلهث للوصول إلى الثروة المالية في أسرع وقت وأسهل وسيلة. الجيل الذي نحتاجه جيل يحترم العمل للصالح العام ولا يسيطر عليه فكر جمع المال وكثرة المقتنيات. معنى هذا أننا نحتاج إلى تجميل النفس البشرية في بلادنا لكي ينهض الجيل الصاعد ويحيي أمة العرب من جديد لتحتل مكانة لائقة بين الأمم كما فعل أجدادنا.
Books by Ambassador Dr. Ihab El Sherif 19 September, 2008
Posted by nousha in Books, Egypt, History, People, Photography, Travel.add a comment
I’ve heard so much about the late Ambassador Dr. Ihab El Sherif, who was kidnapped and murdered in Iraq in July 2005, about him personally and professionally with those who have known him and worked with him. Very recently I got to know that he was also a writer, and a very good one I must say, and that he was interested in travel literature, taking advantage of the opportunites the long stay that his career demanded.
Few days ago, I was lucky enough to skim through one of his books: India, Secrets and Keys. I was astounished with the richness of the book. This is not an ordinary travel book with some photos and tips. It is a complete work of art, FULL of pictures (on every page there was on average from 3 to 7 photos, multiplied by around 250 pages, equals more than 1000 photo!), poetry, quotes, maps, descriptions, impressions,,,,
I also found out that he wrote other books about his travels in arabic. So these days I’m on the hunt for these books: الهند , أسرار و مفاتيح (نشره المجلس الهندي للعلاقات الثقافية) – بلاد الجن و الملائكة( نشره دار المستقبل العربي) – أوروبا , الحلم و الحقيقة ( نشرته المفوضية الأوروبية) – ألمانيا اليوم (نشرته دائرة الصحافة و الإعلام التابعة لحكومة جمهورية ألمانيا الاتحادية).ء
This is what I found with some googling:
كُتُب السفير -وهو بالمناسبة حفيد الأديب محمد المويلحي- التي يمكن تصنيفها ضمن أدب الرحلات، عكست رؤيته المؤمنة بالحوار مع الثقافات وأنه لم يكن يكتفي فيها بالسطح وإنما كان يبحث بحثا عميقا فيما خلف الصور اللامعة، ويجمع التاريخ بالحاضر، ويراقب عادات الناس ويحلل أفكارهم ليصل إلى روح البلد.
وقد قال الأديب “جمال الغيطاني” عن كتابات “الشريف”: “يمكن للإنسان في أسفاره أن يرى أماكن جميلة، وعمارة رائعة، لكن الأمر سيكون أجمل لو أن المرء عرف البعد الزمني للمكان، ماذا جرى فيه، ومن أقام به؟ ومن حل ومن عبر؟ وهذا بالتحديد ما وجدته في كتب إيهاب الشريف..”
وعن كتابه “بلاد الجن والملائكة” الذي كتبه عن فرنسا أضاف الغيطاني: “إن هذا الكتاب يمكن اعتباره نوعا فريدا في أدب الرحلات، فهو لا يعتمد فقط على النص المكتوب شأن كل أدب الرحلات العربي، لكنه يضع الصورة على مستوى النص، والصورة هنا ليست لقطة كارت سياحية، لكنها صورة فنية من خلال رؤية ونظرة فنان مرهف، حساس، يجيد التقاط اللحظة الفريدة بما تحويه من موقف وضوء وحضور إنساني”.
وولد الشريف في عام 1954، ودرس الأدب الفرنسي في مصر، قبل أن يحصل على دكتوراه في العلوم السياسية من جامعة السوربون في باريس حول الإسلام السياسي، وله عدة مؤلفات في أدب الرحلات حول الهند وفرنسا وألمانيا.
Links:
The Last “Samurai” of Egypt 19 February, 2008
Posted by nousha in Egypt, History.add a comment
An ex-office from the American civil war, going to a developing country in order to help the ruler to build the army. Sounds familiar??
Check out the NY Times dated August 11th, 1878:
Our countrymen in Egypt: American officers out of work. The Khedive’s army disbanded
To know more about this, check out this website: Americans in the Egyptian Army.
When I asked my father about this, he told me that my grandfather (when he was young) met one of them, and that he lived in Maadi. Unfortunately my father doesn’t remember what his father told him about this visit… ma3aleina. I just thought it’s interesting.
On a different note, it shows how the Egyptian Army never depended on Egyptians! First they used Circassians, then Europeans (remember Soleiman Pasha el Faransawi?) and even Americans!
Education 21 November, 2007
Posted by nousha in Education, Egypt, Knowledge, Thoughts.add a comment
For the past few months education is haunting my mind. Most of the problems I witness are originated -in my opinion- from the ‘decaying’ educational system. the sexual harassment in the streets, the ignorance, the lack of creativity, the helplessness, the laziness,,,,, I can go on and on and on. And the worst thing is that even supposedly “good” schools are not good anymore. And if I were a parent I would need thousands of pounds just to offer my kids a decent learning experience. I can’t beleive the amount of money people pay for their kids in their primary education! It’s absurd!!
El mohem
Trying to look for the solution, and not just stare at the problem, let’s try to analyze the situation, at least for the sake of the argument.
1) there is a very high illiteracy rate in Egypt (especially among women). And even those who know how to read and write can not claim that they had a pleasant educational experience (even for the upper middle class who are considered to have the means to send their kids to considerably good schools).
2) the educational system is very complicated. It constitutes of: the student, the teacher, the curriculum, the management (the director of the school, the administration, the ministry). Each one of those has his own problems that may collide with the other.
3) the overpopulation makes any effort to revolutionize seems to be insignificant
…..
that’s just the beginning
…..
Halayeb w Shalatin 19 November, 2007
Posted by nousha in Books, Egypt.add a comment
Even though 2007 is almost finishing and I didn’t go to most of the places I mentioned in my previous note. But at least I tried to learn more about it, so perhaps I will be able to go there one day 
Why do I want to go there? It’s just sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo BEAUTIFUL!!! (here is the link on keyhole, I’ll try to find more pics soon)
First thing, u need to have a special permission because of the tension between Egypt & Sudan over this land, I don’t know how feasible this permission is (most probably a bit hard, but not impossible).
El mohem,,, I was a bit curious about this issue, so here is what I found:
”The Egyptian Sudanese Borders throughout history / الحدود المصرية السودانية عبر التاريخ “, it’s the outcome of a conference held on December 1997, many important scholars participated in it (including Dr. Yonan Labib, Dr. El Sayed Folaifel, Dr. Zahi Hawass,,,,). The book discusses this issue starting from the time of Ancient Egypt, the Romans time, the Islamic era, and the modern times.
There are two important documents related to the Egyptian Borders.
One of the them is a ”faraman” issued by the Ottman Sultan (El bab el aali) on 13 February 1841 (after an international conference in London in 1940). In brief he said that Mohamed Aly can rule Egypt by hereditary ascension, but the outter parts of Egypt (el Nuba, Darfur, Senar) will br ruled according to the righteous governance principles. The faraman included a map that pointed out the borders of “Egypt proper”. But that’s another story. (Dr. Yonan discussed this issue quite extensively in his article)
In 19 January 1899, there was another important (and very famous) treaty between the Egyptians and the British occupation. In this one, the borders were designated on the 22 degree line. This was the dividing line when Sudan announced its independence in 1956.
The Halayeb Triangle issue started in 4/11/1902, when the Egyptian ministry of interior announced that the Sudanese authorities will have administrative rights on this part in order not to deivide the Besharei tribes across borders.
From this time, some Sudanese governments raised the issue and tried to impose its political sovereignty in addition to the administrative rights. But Egypt replied back with the historical and political evidences and enforced its military presence in this area in the 90’s.
I hope that this info was of help.
P.S. The book is part of a very interesting series called “Tarikh El Masreyeen / The Egyptians’ History”. It’s printed by El Hay`a el Masreya lel ketab / The General Egyptian Book Organiztion. http://www.egyptianbook.org.eg/En/
500 + pages
5,25 LE
Childhood Treasures :) 9 November, 2007
Posted by nousha in Egypt, History, Thoughts.3 comments
Thank God I found these on YouTube! I was desperate to listen to these songs !
It’s weird that for these songs I don’t feel the urge to look for and download the mp3, I feel that whenever I want to listen to them, I will just have to come here
El Sennor 4 October, 2007
Posted by nousha in Egypt, Travel.add a comment
That’s a place I want to visit: Cave el Sennor كهف السنور.
تحتوى المحمية على تراكيب جيولوجية معروفه باسم الصواعد والهوابط فى صورة مثالية جميلة تكونت عبر ملايين السنين، حيث يرجع تكوينه إلى عصر الأيوسين الأوسط حوالى 60 مليون سنة نتيجة تسرب المحاليل المائية المشبعة بأملاح كربونات الكالسيوم خلال سقف الكهف ثم تبخرت تاركة هذه الأملاح المعدنية التى تراكمت على هيئة رواسب من الصواعد والهوابط ، يمتد الكهف مسافة حوالى 700 م واتساعه حوالى15 م وعمقه حوالى15 م
When I used to study Geology in sanaweya amma, the Stalactite and stalagmite lesson was my favorite! It always fascinated me this weird formation of the earth.
A stalagmite (from the Greek stalagma (“Σταλαγμίτης”), “drop” or “drip”) is a type of speleothem that rises from the floor of a limestone cave due to the dripping of mineralized solutions and the deposition of calcium carbonate.
A stalactite (Greek stalaktites, (Σταλακτίτης), from the word for “drip” and meaning “that which drips”) is a type of speleothem (secondary mineral) that hangs from the ceiling or wall of limestone caves. It is sometimes referred to as dripstone.
I saw these amazing formations only once in my life. It was at Jeita cave in Lebanon. Recently I got to learn about Djarra cave, tab3an it is one of the places I want to visit in Egypt, but it’s a bit far. Only few weeks ago I heard about EL Sennor cave, it’s considerably close to Cairo (200 km), I can go there and return on the same day. Ya rab!
El Hamra 4 October, 2007
Posted by nousha in Egypt.2 comments
Last Saturday I went with some friends to have Iftar is a special place. It’s called “El Hamra Ecolodge” located in wadi el Natroun, off Cairo - Alex desert road. It’s 100 km from midan Lebanon, so the journet takes around one hour (the same distance approx to El Ein El Sokhna).
It’s a bit far for Iftar, but it was worth it. After all, it was on my list of places I wanted to visit in 2007.
The lodge has few huts, and a swimming pool. It is very close to the lake. However, I didn’t have the time to walk around the place much, that’s why I didn’t take lots of photos…
While parking the car, I saw a herd of camels by the lake! It was an amazing view! Too bad I was too late to arrive there 
So what’s with the strange name “El hamra” / The Red ?
“The deep red colour of the highly saline water is the result of its distinctive mineral component, a pink coloured natural mineral that is categorised as a type of salt called natron. Natron is found in abundance throughout the area, which is how Wadi Al-Natrun (Natron Valley) acquired its name. During summer, and due to high temperatures, the water of the spring starts to evaporate, unveiling piles and piles of the precious mineral.” Mohamed El Hebeishy (Ahram Weekly)
Another review for the French readers: “Deux grappes de bâtiments blanchis à la chaux et surmontés de dômes à la Hassan Fathi se font face à travers le lac. Ce sont deux petits hôtels, Fisherman’s Village et El-Hammra Eco-Lodge (qui tire son nom el-hamra: la rouge, de la couleur du lac) qui se décrivent comme des «logements écologiques», l’appellation à la mode qui permet de faire payer cher le manque quasi total de confort. Pas de climatisation, une électricité capricieuse, des repas sommaires et des douches au gré de la pression d’eau. Mais quelle retraite splendide pour les amoureux, les ornithologues amateurs ou les écrivains en quête d’inspiration!” Fayza Hassan (La revue d’Egypt)
Overall, it’s a nice place to visit
Memories of Egyptians Born in the 70’s 27 September, 2007
Posted by nousha in Egypt, Fun.8 comments
Thanks to Facebook group: Memories of Egyptians Born in the 70’s
Here are some of the stuff that i remember and you should remember if you were born in the 70’s:
1- TV, means only Egyptian Channel 1 and 2
2- You really loved programs like (taksi el sahra, ekhtarna lak, fakar thawany tesab da2aye2, mawakef wa tara2ef, nadi el cinema, aalam el 7ayawan and el 3elm wel eman)
3- You still laugh your a** off, at the same tom and jerry episode that you have seen when you were 5
4- You woke up early on Friday, just to watch the duck tales on mama nagwa’s show.
5- The radio was really interesting, we heard programs like kal al faylasoof and e3terafat laylyeah, and we still shiver if we hear the morning eza3et el shark el awsat music at 7:00 am
6- European program 95.5 fm was the only source for the latest English music, Hala hashish was the master DJ of that era.
7- Having a taxi was a miracle, and sometimes you had to share it with other people going different places.
8- Some of the older people have witnessed the assassination of their president on live TV
9- You have actually witnessed the mobile invention being introduced to Egypt when it was for 5000 EGP
10- Ramadan meant great fun on TV, bo2loz, fawazeer nelly we sherihane, alf leela we leela yehia el fakharany
11- You actually heard amr diab, mostafa 2amar, alaa abdel khalek, hamid el sha3ery and mohamed fouad sing for the first time.
12- You enjoyed hearing medhat saleh, aly el hagaar and the real deal was eman el bahr darwish.
13- Snacks were basically consisting of Bimbo, rocket and karatee, along with one Pepsi in a small glass bottle.
14- Cinema el tahrir in dokki was state of the art technology and it took a fight to be able to get a ticket there before Jurassic park I.
15- You wore a baggy green jeans and a Texas shoe at a stage of your life, then you got stylish and wore the vanilla ice outfit (black shoe with metal plate, and black cap with metal plate and a black hi cole t-shirt !!!)
16- Smokers still suffer so far from the first breath of Gentians cigarettes
17- People traveling to Port Said at that came back with tons of goodies that you can never get from Dubai now.
18- Getting online was a disaster, you have to steal a password from someone, call magles el wozara or AUC 1000 times before the line is free, all that so in the end you can chat with an American girl on MIRC.
19- You still have this paper that gives you the details of your pen pal in the states (can anyone remember the name of the company, they gave us this little yellow paper with all the countries flags are on)
20- You have witnessed the legends of Egyptian football play in the field (hassan shehata, el khateeb, taher abo zaid, alaa mayhoob …etc) and you cried your eye out when they quit.
21- News papers were Al-Ahram, Akhbar and Gomhoryeah, nothing else.
22- You think Adham Sabry can liberate palatine alone.
23- You still read Mickey
24- You sincerely looked for fodoly in Maged magazine and was really proud finding him.
25- You have actually seen Egypt scoring a goal in the World Football Cup
26- You think Captin Maged is the best football player ever.
27- You have memorized movies like el rosasa mazalat fe gayeby, wa eslamah, rab3a el 3adawyeah.
28- El Keef movie is the best comedy ever.
29- Raafat El Haggan was your hero and you really loved him from your heart.
30- You wished if you can own a 128 one day.
31- English TV shows were great, Nots Landing, the bold and the beautiful, MacGyver, mission impossible, and Ochean
32- You suffered big time trying to figure out where and how to place the straw (el shafata) fel zeft elly esmo 3aseer Best !
(Additions by member: Sam K)
33- You remember when the Cairo subway was still new, clean and smelled good.
34 -You scored 75-80 % in Thanaweya Amma and you joined the university of your dreams.
35-You had 2 boxes in your fridge, one of Bimbo biscuits and the other of Corona wafers.
36-You use to eat at Mc Burger and it was the latest and greatest in fast food chains.
37-You used to beleive that when year 2000 comes cars will look so wierd, bulidings will be smart and everything will be computerized.
38-You kept longing for so long for the Egyptian TV to stop writing the results in Football matches by hand and was so overwhelmed by the technology in the World Cup or Olympic Games.
39-Public transportation busses were all red, Mercedes Benz or Nasr.
40-Summer vacation simply meant Alexandria. Sharm, Marina, and Hurgada were not invented yet. And you called someone who went to Hurgada a wierdo!
41-You had to move up to the TV to flip channels.
42-You used to feel inferior because you did not own a VCR (video)
43-You kept your breakfast everyday to eat it with mosalsal borg el 7az (Sharara) or Meezo.
44-You spent your break time at school exchanging pictures of football players.
45-Talking to a girl was a huge adventure that only few guys could claim. You heard others talking about it but you never thought of doing it because you were “mo2adab”
46-Nancy agram was not born yet and the term “Lebanese girls” never came up in any conversation. You never compared Egyptian girls to any other nationality.
47-Songs were heard not watched and you evaluated a singer based on her voice not her body.
48-You only watched Channel 1 when there is a football match, but most of the time you were watching channel 2 to see the American movies.
49-You went to a family visit with your parents and they offered you bonbon Sima.
50-You used to call your friends at home and say “Masa2 El Kheir folan mawgood?”. You spent weeks trying to reach him at home but he is always away.
51-You waited for so long to have a phone installed at your home and till that happened you made your calls from the nearest pharmacy or grocery store.
52-You always wanted to upgrade your bicycle to one with 7 speeds.
53-You used to fight with your friends whether Sakhr was better or Sinclair.
54-You used 5.25” Floppy disks and when the new 3.25” ones appeared you thought they will never catchup.
55-Cassette tapes used to get stuck in the player and when you tried to fix them they got worse and you spent the rest of the day trying to get the tape in the correct position.
56-There was an old play in TV on Thursday and night. You started to watch and fell asleep in the middle.
57-You spent summer in the outdoors, you turned on the fan when it was hot and owning an A/C was not an option.
58-You thought that when you grow up you will be rich and have a phone in the car.
59-”Khaly Balak Men Zozo” was the hottest movie you can ever see.
60-Before bying a PC you checked to see if it was 100% IBM compatible.
61-You used to guess and try website names because nobody told you about Yahoo.
62-You paid 2.5 Pounds for KFC Snack Box.
63-You upgraded your memory to 4 MB.
64-Your uncle had a Ramses car and sold it to buy Seat 133.
65-You bragged about having a milkshake in Wimpy.
66-You copied software packages on 35 floppies.
(Additions by member Hossam Farag)
67-Masr kollaha ra7et McDonalds fe share3 gam3et el dwal 3ashan kano 7ayeddo 3arabeya l awel wa7ed yedkhol.
68-Kol bani 2dam kan lazem ye7awel y3zef Ra2fat El Haggan 3ala ay org aw piano yeshoofo 2odamo (seems to me that it was the only instrumental played on these days).
69-Law dakhalat share3 Makram 3ebaid f madeenet nasr kont betla2y nafsak f west el sa7ara.
70-Yassmeen Abdel Aziz was singing mamty w tanty w khalti 7arfeet leban (a real complicated know how).
71-A7das el 2mn el markzy lamma kol el welad 3ayetto 3ashan yenzelo yel3abo kora fel share3 sa3et 7azr el tagawoul.
72-Temsal Ramsis kan 23ed fel medan merta7 w 7awaleh taraawa (badal el bahdala elly bahdeloahlo delwa2ty.
73-Masr kollaha kanet betetkalem 3an azmet el o3’neya el shababeya w ta2serha 2ala el mogtama3 el masry although they were just 10 singers 7eela (See now!!).
74-Lwlaaky for 3ali 7emaida was a phenomenal song (you can hear it if you open your shower!
(Addition by member Sherine Meshad)
75- School trips were to places like genenet el 7ayawan or el karia el for3oneya .. and most of your life that was in school uniform!
76- You can still hum the tune to smurfs, woody wood pecker, sesame street.
77- the normal present from abroad would be a gigantic tubleron bar of chocolate!
78- Fantastickers was the most amazing fad ever.
79- Lycra tights on oversized phosphoric t-shirts worn with ankle sneakers we el lesan bara el gazma!! the hottest fad! (not even mentioning the hair!)
80- Top English music included Wham, Madonna, Modern Talking, Glen Maderious (nothing’s gonna change my love for you), and lets not forget Sandra!! New Kids on the Block – NKOTBs were the first ever boy band and everyone loved Gordan!
(Addition by member Joe Atta)
81-u brag for 2 weeks cause u ate at {Pizza Hut} even if u just got Pepsi….
82- U wait for thursdays as it is 1/2 a day in the school & there is the open day (elyoum elmaftou7) in TV were there is a comic old arabic movie at noon & elbarlaman elsa3′eer before the 6 o’clock news, then u end the night with a play (masra7eya).
83- u must have a pair of shoes men elly beytalla3o noor, or those ones with the word (Air) written on their sides…
84- Brands like adidas or nike were magical & luxurious… All there is were Bata, Cootchi shoes, Amigo elturkey & the famous Arc shoes…
85- Elkabab elkabab lankhali 3eyshetko hbab… was the most catchy slogan u’ve ever heard .
Gamed Gedan
Dorito 26 September, 2007
Posted by nousha in Culture, Egypt, Spanish.add a comment
Dorito in the Bejawy language means “The Beautiful Girl” (from Sahara Safaris), and in Spanish it means “Little bits of gold“. Do u think this has a correlation?? 
