A Different Drummer

"Contents of my lunch: Mini bell pepper stuffed with a garlic and herb cheese triangle, salami slices folded into quarters, white peaches, and yakisoba fried Japanese noodles with Chinese sausage (Hsin Tung Yang brand)...

Packing: To prevent the fruit from browning, I dipped the peach slices in lemon juice mixed with cherry grape juice to cut the sourness. Instead of a plastic food divider, I used mint to separate the peaches from the salami. So it was edible and complemented the delicate flavor of the peach when eaten together. I thought about eating it at the end of the meal as a breath freshener, but decided the freshness of the mint would be nice with the peaches instead. Packed in a 580ml two-tier Urara Dragonfly box."

Lunch in a Box is a fantastic blog all about making asskicking Japanese Bento-style boxed lunches. It hits that only-on-the-internet, incredible actualization of a niche obsession mark perfectly - I'm craving the funky lunchbox gadgets and tools as much as the inspired food selection. Check it out, and consider marrying me if you are the kind of girl who is into this kind of thing...

The Economist on Sudanese refugees in Israel / Egypt. Their Jerusalem correspondent has a great post about this on his personal blog, which is also well worth checking out.

This situation is fucked.

Shame on Egypt for being such poor hosts — hospitality being something I can testify is an incredible Arab skill — to Darfur refugees that they end up wanting to flee across the border to a supposedly "apartheid" state in the eyes of most Egyptians. Obviously apartheid is better than the compassion you are offering these (mainly Muslim) refugees here, Egypt.

And shame on Israel for 1) closing its doors to real, actual refugees of a genocide and 2) Closing its doors to genocide victims because they are not the right religion. If those Sudanese were among the chosen people, Israel would be flying them in by the planefull:

"Operation Moses, named after the biblical figure Moses, was the covert removal of Ethiopian Jews (known as the "Beta Israel" community) from Sudan during a famine in 1984....Begun November 21, 1984, it involved the air transport of some 8,000 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan directly to Israel..."

A pox on both their houses...

"Why a society with such a tremendous reservoir of human talent, historical legitimacy, state credibility and modern political leadership in the Arab world would need to use authoritarian police state tactics against its own citizens who engage in peaceful politics is one of the great, painful tragedies of the Arab world. Egypt is one of the few Arab countries that can influence the rest of the region, given the power, legitimacy, and respect of its unique legacy of Arab statehood, nationhood, citizenship rights, constitutionalism and pluralism. To lose Egypt to the emotional and intellectual dungeons of authoritarianism is to lose immense Arab treasure and potential."

The Egyptian government gets taken to school in today's Daily Star Lebanon...

UPDATE: Speaking of vigorous schoolings, the heroic Egyptian reformist academic Saad Eddin Ibrahim had an Op-Ed in the Washington Post this week, which was also potent stuff:

"Sadly, this regime has strayed so far from the rule of law that, for my own safety, I have been warned not to return to Egypt. Regime insiders and those in Cairo's diplomatic circles have said that I will be arrested or worse. My family is worried, knowing that Egypt's jails contain some 80,000 political prisoners and that disappearances are routinely ignored or chalked up to accidents. My fear is that these abuses will spread if Egypt's allies and friends continue to stand by silently while this regime suppresses the country's democratic reformers."

The Washington Post seems to be especially good with regards to publishing the words of Egyptian reformers and activists - they ran an Op-Ed by Wael Abbas a few months ago, and have published Ibrahim a few times before as well. They have also covered the ongoing Ayman Nour scandal pretty thoroughly. Someone in their newsroom obviously has pretty solid Egypt clues.

Sweet Friday hip-hop of the month is a piece of spoken-word poetry by the one and only Talib Kweli, from the ass-kicking Def Poetry Jam. Its a beautiful reflection on religion and spirituality, and for people who cant stand hip-hop, hearing it said spoken-word will probably be an easier entry point.

Growing up in probably the world's most secular country, in a family of proud atheists, my only contact with religion was in high school, when these weird freaks would come every couple of months to put on these "performances" for us. They would always have an ambiguous, secular sounding name like "Teen Energy" or "Love for Life" or something (probably because openly Christian groups wouldn't be allowed to visit a public high school), and they would always be trying a little too hard to come across as cool and energetic and edgy.

They would play the guitar and do some magic tricks or something equally attention-getting, all the while infusing their talk with abstract references to living a "positive" life and how things like faith and belief can make us stronger. We all thought it was lame, but it was a few hours out of the classroom for 16 year olds, so hey, it was worth it. It only reinforced my belief that Christians were weird, uptight nerds desperate to find relevance in a society that no longer believed in their stories.

If my introduction to religion came from guys like Talib Kweli and Mos Def, I'd probably be much more religious today.

Yikes. Tied with Rwanda...

Egypt is high on the list thanks to its high 9/10 score in the "Delegitimization of the State" criterion, among other things. The researchers define it as as:

7: Criminalization and/or Delegitimization of the State

• Massive and endemic corruption or profiteering by ruling elites
• Resistance of ruling elites to transparency, accountability and political representation
• Widespread loss of popular confidence in state institutions and processes, e.g., widely boycotted or contested elections, mass public demonstrations, sustained civil disobedience, inability of the state to collect taxes, resistance to military conscription, rise of armed insurgencies
• Growth of crime syndicates linked to ruling elites

Seems about on the mark to me....

It's OK Roast Beef, we all go through it at one stage in our lives...

Sweet Friday hip-hop of the week for this week is "She Keeps on Passing Me By" by the Pharcyde.

Apart from the massively sweet beat and bassline, the real highlight of this track is hearing a bunch of full grown hip-hoppers talking about their failures with women, and more specifically, hearing Fatlip say "Damn I wish I wasnt such a wimp" in his epic last verse...

Lyrics here, for those who wanna hear the phatness and understand what the hell they are saying at the same time...

Ricky Gervais goes to Africa - watch it all the way through...

This article about a Norwegian electric car company has many of the things I love all wrapped up in one piece: inspiring subject choice, the coolness and out-there futurism of technology entrepreneurs, my favorite kind of sustainability (ie. making efficiency and cleanness sexy), passing involvement of the Google guys, and a first rate piece of wordplay in the headline. Highly recommended.

Hatshepsut is the newest blog in the excellent Arabist.net family of Egyptian blogs. It describes itself as being focussed on "Women, feminism and society in the Arab world" is looking good already.

The status and treatment of women, and issues surrounding sexuality, are (in my opinion) far more serious corrosive forces on Egyptian society than US foreign policy or police brutality. It will be interesting to see if Hatshepsut manages to bring across exactly how serious the situation is, and its massive knock-on effects on society and culture.

How My Uncomfortable Lunch With Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan and Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistani Army, Didn't Work Out So Well
By Tom Gara

He sits across from me, the General,
Uniform a catalogue of honors and merits and shiny badges of military achievement
Eyes staring away into the lobby,
Exhibiting his boredom, and a mild frustration that his flunkies
Booked him for lunch with a random straggler like me

"So," I say,
Feeling pretty awkward, but trying not to let it show
"Do you, like, ummmm, enjoy reading the wonderful bounties of the internet?
Do you sup at the fountain of Wikipedian knowledge,
Or follow crowd wisdom at Digg.com?"

But then I realise,
Pervez Musharraf has no such time for mere surfing,
He rarely makes it home by 9pm,
And when he does, it is not his laptop that he gravitates toward,
It is to a large, flat television,
Where programs from Pakistan's Golden Era are being played on endless repeat,
And the canned laughter from his childhood lives on,
Forever.

Realising
That I had made a brutal faux pas,
I quickly tried to follow up with something a bit more
Appropriate
For the general tenor
Of the moment

"I live with a Pakistani,"
I mumble, gazing anywhere but into those strong, powerful eyes
"And he is a really nice guy...
... says nice things about your food,
and seems very focussed on family...
...which....
Is not the same as in Australia"

But again, I make a crucial mistake,
In an excitably uncoordinated hand gesture,
I spill forth my glass of orange juice,
"I always spill things,"
I think to myself
As the damage becomes obvious, a soaked, weakly orange-colored tablecloth,
And a disgusted, dignified General Musharraf standing to asses the damage

"Those were important documents,"
Says the President, detached, agitated,
Referring to some papers
That have juice all around the edges
"I'll have to have them printed again"
"Do you know where an internet cafe is around here?"

"No," I say,
Realizing the extent of my impotence in the situation
"But I'm sure that guy over there in the hat would,"
And with that, the General strides away, nonchalantly, but with purpose
Leaving me to wonder what to do about all the juice on the table,
And whether he has a whole cupboard full of those badass uniforms,
Superman-style,
In his house,
Or whatever the building is that General Pervez Musharraf,
President of Pakistan,
Gets dressed in on the average morning.

This New York Times article about the resurgence of Timbuktu is great, and finishes with an epic ending line that I hope will one day be written at the end of one of my own articles:

"Timbuktu is coming back," he said. "It will rise again."

I want to go there so badly, with the right company of course...

This month's Business Today Egypt magazine has my first ever cover story, which I am way happy with - it talks shit about new age garbage, namechecks Machiavelli and Sun Tzu, quotes Taoist poetry and mentions hash smoking in its second sentence. Plus, it has as sexy a cover as any business magazine you will see this month. Check it out...

I also have a long piece in the magazine about the Arabic internet. You know, the internet! But in Arabic...

UPDATE: And I forgot to mention, I also have a review of the new BMW 5 Series in Egypt Today, the sister magazine of Business Today.

This one is for the Misr crew, although I am sure nomads everywhere can identify with many of the sentiments...Inspired by the "You know you have spent too long in X" lists, here is my own little production:

You Have Passed Your Egypt Initiation When:

- Ice, spring mattresses, toast and red wine are exotic commodities that you associate with hotels.
- Going out for a fruit juice at 1am seems like a pretty cool thing to do on a Friday night.
- You never walk on the footpath/sidewalk.
- You can tell the different between six different kinds of insane cab driver just by the way they say hello to you.
- When you want a Coke, you ask for a Bebs.
- Going-away parties are more common than birthdays, housewarmings and welcome parties combined.
- You have lost all instincts to queue in an orderly line.
- You never, ever go to Nasr City unless you live in Nasr City.
- A man in a uniform standing on every street corner holding an AK-47 is perfectly normal. Don't they do that everywhere?
- Your initial fear of death upon crossing the road has been replaced by a rational understanding that you are immortal when crossing the road.

Any other Cairenes or people who are now happily at home in the craziest corners of the world, feel free to share any additions in comments...

There'll be hogs on the fire and virgins in the cage tonight in the News Corp castle atop Mount Doom - The Murdoq has captured a fresh, supple young wife.

The Wall Street Journal, one of the world's best newspapers (with one of the world's craziest editorial pages) has been snapped up by The Murdoq. His track record suggests that this is the beginning of the end for the Journal - News Corp know how to make money and they know how to entertain, but their ability to publish a decent newspaper is still pretty questionable. They have the dubious honor of publishing possibly the worst English-language newspaper in the world, my hometown Adelaide Advertiser.

As a testament to how good the WSJ is, and how much Murdoq has available to fuck up right in front of him, check out how good their own coverage of the buyout has been.

This article in The New Yorker covers the story in typical New Yorker depth - plenty of juicyness in there...

"Whatever his commercial successes, he has never produced a great newspaper, and he seems to value even a trophy property like the Times of London less for its prestige than for its influence—its power to help sway elections, to promote his political ideas, and to protect his corporate interests. “I wonder how many even of his admirers would argue that Mr. Murdoch, for all his successes, has created even one serious, authoritative and truly independent newspaper,” the columnist Martin Wolf wrote recently in the Financial Times, alluding to Murdoch’s ownership of four national newspapers. “Mr. Murdoch can take substantial credit for the tide of vulgarity that now floods the U.K.”

Will there finally be Tits on page three of the Wall Street Journal? We can only wait, and hope...