Story published July 16, 2010 by GlobalPost:

HURGHADA, Egypt – When Hamdy Shahat and his four-man crew first set sail from this resort town last month, he expected to return with a boatload full of red snapper to sell at the market later that night.

Instead, the 33-year-old skipper came back empty-handed, except for several streaks of thick, brown oil gummed along the hull of his wooden boat.

Thousands of miles from the Gulf of Mexico, the site of BP’s massive oil leak, Shahat had inadvertently discovered Egypt’s own oil spill. Now, just like most Americans, Egyptians are asking what went wrong in the Red Sea.

For fishermen like Shahat, navigating around small patches of oil floating in the otherwise turquoise-colored Rea Sea is not all that new. Egypt’s portion of the waterway is, after all, home to about 180 oil platforms and heavily trafficked by massive tankers heading north from the Middle East to Europe through the Suez Canal. In an environment like this one, small-scale oil leaks are almost the norm.

But this time, the oil was nearly impossible to avoid.

“I remember the slick looking like a lot more oil than usual,” said Shahat. “The way the sunlight hit the surface of the water the patch looked so big that we thought it was actually underwater coral.”

Last month, Shahat was among the first in Hurghada to discover, like other fishermen who inadvertently sailed through it, what some experts are already calling one of Egypt’s worst oil spills in recent years.

Many details regarding the source of Egypt’s latest spill, which washed up on the shores of an area rich in biodiversity and popular with foreign tourists, are still unknown. Read the rest of this entry »

Hussein Soliman Farag built homemade solar panel collectors on his roof to save money on gas and to help the environment in Cairo.

Story published June 19, 2010 by Daily News Egypt

Mohamed ElBaradei went on a walking tour of Coptic Cairo today. Supporters said ElBaradei’s visit was meant to bring awareness for his movement of change in Egypt.

A waiter dishes up "tarb" at El Rifai

Story published May 24, 2010 by GlobalPost:

CAIRO, Egypt — At El Rifai, tucked away in a narrow corner of one of Cairo’s poorest neighborhoods, the only thing on the menu is meat.

For more than 40 years, this alleyway restaurant has been a carnivore’s dream, dishing up nightly over 200 pounds of fire-grilled kabob, seasoned lamb chops and tarb, a sausage-like stick of minced beef wrapped inside a layer of moist fat.

El Rifai is a local success story, having evolved from a metal street-cart near the Sayeda Zeinab mosque into a renowned, albeit shabby, eatery popular with movie directors, politicians and other celebrities.

But tough times have fallen on El Rifai. Soaring meat prices in Egypt have kept customers away, cutting business by one-third over the past few weeks. Waiters are receiving fewer tips, a vital chunk of their monthly incomes, and are suddenly worried for the future.

And so, last month, owner Mohamed El Rifai did what many Egyptians have done recently to voice their anger: he joined an organized protest, shutting the doors to his restaurant for a day.

“Meat in Egypt is just too expensive now,” said El Rifai, 66, owner and namesake of the restaurant. “By closing down, I lost some business, but it was nothing compared to what’s been going on recently.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The Fishy Fatwa: a top cleric nixes an Egyptian culinary tradition.

Story published March 26, 2010 by GlobalPost:

CAIRO, Egypt — Stocks in Egypt tumbled when anxiety-ridden investors heard the news. President Hosni Mubarak had checked into a hospital in Germany for a minor surgery, but on the streets of Cairo, there was speculation he was seriously ill, maybe even dead.

It wasn’t Mubarak’s first health scare, but with no successor named for their aging president, Egyptians begged the question: Who will take over if he dies?

To dispel the rumors, the president scheduled an appearance on Egyptian state television. And so, from his hospital room, a coherent, but pale Mubarak finally spoke as the video camera rolled: “I do thank my fellow citizens who care for my health. …” said Mubarak. “After finishing treatment, I will be back home to assume my responsibilities, God willing.”

That was in 2004, during a two-week stay in Munich to treat a slipped disk.

Now, the 81-year-old — Egypt’s longest serving leader, having assumed the presidency of the Arab world’s most-populous country in 1981 — is recovering in a different German hospital after surgery on his gallbladder nearly three weeks ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Story published March 18, 2010 by GlobalPost:

BAWATI, Egypt — The windswept peak of Black Mountain could be the perfect place to watch a sunset. Normally quiet and isolated from the rest of the world, the narrow ridge overlooks Bahariya Oasis, a lush depression of palm trees in the middle of Egypt’s remote Western Desert.

But everyday, minutes before the sun dips below the horizon, buses and SUVs packed with foreign tourists climb the barren rocks of the mountain. The tranquility is disrupted into a loud jumble of languages, as tourists snap photos and toss rocks off the cliff, before hurtling off to the next stop on their guided oasis tour.

Ecotourism is taking off throughout Egypt, boosting an economy already heavily dependent on tourism revenue. Bahariya is among those destinations increasingly popular for their pristine natural environment.

However, Egypt is quickly learning the need for balance between environment and  development, amid concerns that tourism is stressing the country’s fragile ecosystems to the point of collapse.

And the debate on ecotourism is even being had here, on the dusty streets of Bahariya’s largest village.

Ali Abdel Salem, 58, has lived in Bawati all his life. He has fond memories of the days before an asphalt highway was built linking the oasis to Cairo. Read the rest of this entry »

Can a new impotence warning dent the manhood of Egypt’s smokers?

Story (and video) published February 17, 2010 by GlobalPost:

CAIRO, Egypt — A picture may be worth a thousand words, but many Egyptians are speechless over an image that recently hit the streets in this bustling capital city.

Last month, Egypt’s Ministry of Health unveiled their latest weapon in the war on smoking: a graphic warning label of a drooping cigarette, symbolizing the potential for tobacco-induced impotence, plastered on every pack sold throughout the country.

Next to the picture of the limp butt, a statement in Arabic warns, “long-term smoking will affect marital relations.”

It wasn’t the first such graphic message to illustrate the dangers of smoking, but for many Egyptian men, it was the first they had heard of a connection between impotence and tobacco.

And among some of the heaviest smokers, confusion gave way to bravado.

Read the rest of this entry »

In December 2009, a flash of light appeared over a church in Cairo. Was it the Virgin Mary or just a hoax?