al-Nour delegation meets with Morsi - Daily News Egypt

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013

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Worldwide rally against sexual harassment planned in support of Egypt’s women

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Issue No. 2129

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Ziad Akl writes:If the state does not offer tangible political compromises, it will run out of safe options. The current in-stability is a prelude to future bat-tles, and the state does not realise that talk of stability is an illusion

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By Basil el-dabh

A delegation from the Salafi Al-Nour Party met with President Mo-hamed Morsi on Saturday evening to discuss a number of the party’s demands.

The group, which included party president Younes Makhyoun, Vice President Al-Saeed Mostafa, and Secretary-General Jalal Mara, met with Morsi at the presidential pal-ace to discuss the party’s initia-tive to form a national salvation government, timing for upcoming parliamentary elections, and is-sues with Egypt’s newly-passed constitution.

The second most prominent Is-lamist group in Egypt’s first post-revolutionary parliamentary elec-tions proposed a reconciliation initiative last month, and then met with members of the National Sal-vation Front (NSF) on 30 January to discuss the initiative.

The two sides reached a consen-sus that called for the formation of a national salvation government, the appointment of a new prosecu-

tor general, and the creation of a constitutional amendments com-mittee.

The Al-Nour Party opposed the state of emergency Morsi imple-mented in three canal governor-

ates following violence that struck the region.

Amid a polarised political climate, Al-Nour has managed to enter into discussions with the NSF, various Is-lamist groups, and the presidency

regarding various disputed issues be-tween Egypt’s Islamist and civil factions.

As mandated by the constitution, the timing of upcoming elections for the People’s Assembly will be determined this month.

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iMF loan will not be included in next year’s budget

Clashes mark Friday demonstrationsViolence between protesters and police erupts in Cairo, Delta cities and Alexandria in Friday protests

al-Nour delegation meets with MorsiMeMbers of the salafi al-Nour Party held talks today with Morsi

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president Mohamed Morsi meeting with the al-nour party delegation

By Mohamed salaheldin

In two weeks, the Ministry of Finance will present a budget plan for the next fiscal year that will not include the $4.8bn loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said Ayman Gohar, chief of the finance minister’s technical office.

Gohar said the budget will not take into account the loan or other inter-national aid that depends on it, since the deal has yet to be ratified.

The government must refer the budget to parliament three months prior to the beginning of the next fis-cal year, or no later than March.

“No deals with financial institu-

tions should be included in the budget before being signed,” Gohar added.

Minister of Planning and Internation-al Cooperation Ashraf El-Araby said in a press release on Wednesday that ne-gotiations with the IMF are still ongo-ing. He asserted that a technical team will visit Egypt in the coming weeks to continue dialogue on a programme sug-gested by the Egyptian government.

“Egypt is taking the loan to make an economic plan that is convincing for the IMF, which decides whether the new programme will lead to reforms or not,” said Hazem Al-Beblawy, for-mer minister of finance.”The fund has no interest in imposing conditions,” he continued.

“What matters is that the situation improves so the country can repay the loan. If the programme doesn’t lead to improvements, the situation will re-main as it is and the country won’t be able to meet its commitments.”

Beblawy added that as a result of negative experiences in the last few years, the IMF wants to make sure that the programme is socially acceptable so that the reforms do not trigger public anger, emphasising the impor-tance of building social consent.

The former finance minister said he does not know whether the gov-ernment can create an economic plan with enough public support to implement it.

Fridays continue to mark days of violence amidst peaceful protesting in a number of governorates across the country.

Some demonstrations held on Friday turned into violent con-frontations with Central Security Forces (CSF) in cities like Cairo, Alexandria, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Kafr Al-Zayat, Mahalla, and Tanta.

The Ministry of Interior claimed demonstrations in Alexandria and Gharbeya turned confrontational later on in the day, while police sta-tions in Sidi Gaber in Alexandria and Gharbeya became epicentres of rock-throwing by protesters and the use of tear gas by security forces.

“We planned two marches for the martyr Mohamed El-Gendy,” said Islam Molda, a political activist referring to the 28 year-old Popular Current member who was found dead last week with signs of having been tortured.

Molda claimed that security forc-es provoked what were peaceful marches and that police used tear gas and rubber bullets on protest-ers. A total of 22 protesters were arrested, according to the activist, as clashes took place in areas sur-rounding the Governorate Building in Tanta.

The Ministry of Health an-nounced 65 injuries in Tanta, all of which were taken to Tanta Univer-sity Hospital. Most of the 211 total injuries took place in the Gharbeya

governorate, home to Tanta, Mahal-la, and Kafr Al-Zayat. Mahalla saw 35 injuries, while 65 were injured in Kafr El-Zayat.

Opposition groups also conducted

marches that converged on the presi-dential palace in Cairo, where clashes ensued around the gates.

continued on page 2

By rana Muhammad taha

A request filed by a group of human rights organisations to allow a medical delegation to visit Port Said prisons was turned down by the Ministry of Interior.

The organisations had filed a request on 30 January to the ministry demand-ing permission to visit the prison, fol-lowing an outbreak of violence in Port Said. The organisations included the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), The El Nadeem Centre for Re-habilitation of Victims of Violence and the Doctors’ Youth Coalition.

In a statement released by EIPR on Friday, the organisations ex-pressed their disappointment in the ministry’s decision. “The pris-on is going through exceptional circumstances,” the organisations said in the statement, adding that such circumstances justify the im-portance of the visit.

The request included a list of pris-oners whose families approached the organisations complaining about poor prison conditions.

continued on page 3

By Joel gulhane

The Administrative Court ruled in fa-vour of banning access to YouTube in an attempt to force the popular web-site to remove a film that insults the Prophet Muhammad. The Arab Net-work for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has requested the court reconsider its verdict.

Judge Hassouna Tawfiq ruled on Satur-day to ban YouTube in Egypt for a month, along with any website that was involved in the spread of the film on the internet, according to state-run Al-Ahram.

YouTube said in a short state-ment: “We have received nothing from the judge or government re-lated to this matter.”

The film, Innocence of Muslims, sparked mass protest around the Islamic world in September 2012, directed at the makers of the film and the United States. In Cairo the US embassy was under siege by pro-testers who blamed the country for allowing the film to remain on the internet.

The ANHRI released a statement following Saturday’s ruling and con-demned the decision on the grounds that it restricts personal freedoms. The group also said parents should take responsibility for what their children see on the internet and the state should not interfere.

continued on page 2

prime Minister hesham Qandil and international Monetary fund chief christine lagarde hold a press conference on 22august 2012, when a deal appeared likely on the terms of a loan to egypt

anti-regime protesters set fire to the gate of the presidential palace during a demonstration in cairo on 8 february 2013.

demonstrators in port said

NGO prison visit rejectedThe Ministry of Interior refuses to grant human rights organisations permission to visit Port Said prisons

administrative Court rules to ban youTube for 30 daysRights group demand court reconsider decision saying ban limits personal freedoms


2 Daily news egypt SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013

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Chief Prosecutor of Heliopolis Ibra-him Saleh arrived at the palace on Saturday, according to state-owned Al-Ahram, where he inspected the damage done to the perimeter of the palace complex. Eight demonstrators arrested during the clashes in Cairo were referred to investigations for destroying property using Molotov cocktails, while 12 more were ar-rested on Saturday.

Thirty-one detainees were re-ferred to investigation in Sidi Gaber for destruction of property and dis-

ruption of transportation. Ahmed Shawky, spokesperson for

the 6 April Youth Movement in Kafr Al-Sheikh, said two peaceful march-es converged on the governorate’s headquarters. However, according to Shawky, tensions escalated be-tween demonstrators and the police at around 3pm as protesters began throwing rocks to which CSF re-sponded with tear gas.

Shawky said a child was hit in the head with a tear gas canister and was taken to the hospital before being let out later on Friday. Another protester, beaten by police, was admitted to Kafr

Al-Sheikh General Hospital and was released following treatment.

Some opposition groups had dubbed the day of protests as the “Friday of Dignity or Departure”, as part of continued efforts to carry out peaceful demonstrations to gain certain demands from the government.

All political groups have denounced the violence that took place during the most recent wave of protests, and opposition groups have denied any re-sponsibility or effort to mobilise their members to instigate violence against security forces.

By Joel Gulhane

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned Israel for a campaign of arrests carried out last week in the West Bank in which three members of the Palestinian parliament were ar-rested.

In a statement, Nazir El Naggary, deputy spokesperson for the minis-try, called on Israel “to immediately release the detained parliamen-tarians”. He also “condemned the policy of administrative detention practised by Israel against the Pal-estinian people”.

El Naggary rejected what he called “a series of arbitrary measures” Israel has used against the Palestinian peo-ple. He pointed to the building of new Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the blocking of tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority, and “the ar-rest of elected representatives”.

On 4 February the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr Aziz Duwaik, also condemned Israel for ar-resting “dozens of parliamentarians and leaders” of Hamas. The three parliamen-tarians are Ahmed Attoun , Hatem Qa-fisha, and Mohamed Ismail. These three join nine other Hamas parliamentarians being held by Israel, according to AFP.

Duweik believes that the arrests campaign “aims to disrupt the inter-nal Palestinian reconciliation efforts”.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) confirmed that “25 Palestinians were arrested all over the West Bank”, ac-cording to AFP.

The arrests come days after the IDF announced that it had “uncov-ered Hamas terror assets”, which included “20 terrorists affiliated with Hamas”. The IDF claimed that the group was planning to secure the re-lease of Hamas prisoners by taking a soldier hostage.

By Basil El-Dabh

The South Cairo Criminal Court postponed the trial of Alaa Mubarak, Gamal Mubarak, and seven other de-fendants to 10 March.

The postponement was made to prepare for testimonies scheduled to be made by Farouk Al-Oqda, former head of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), and Hazem Hassan, a member of the CBE and an auditor for the Na-tional Bank of Egypt (NBE), according to state-owned news agency MENA.

The court also asked experts to put together a report containing the prosecution’s findings to be ready for the next hearing.

The defendants are accused of making illicit gains from the sale of Al Watany Bank (AWB). They also face charges of conducting insider trading in the Egyptian stock market.

During Saturday’s hearing, the prosecu-tion accused the Mubarak brothers and the seven other defendants of manipulat-ing shares on the Egyptian stock exchange by trading under fictitious names.

By Nouran El-Behairy

Prosecutor General Tala’at Abdal-lah referred 26 defendants, including one Tunisian, to the Criminal Court for “attempting to overthrow the re-gime”.

The case, commonly known as the Nasr City Cell case, started in Oc-tober when security forces arrested members of the cell.

The defendants face charges of es-tablishing a terrorist cell, attempting to overthrow the regime, and plan-ning to carry out several bombings

across Egypt.The charges also include resisting

arrest, possession of weapons, receiv-ing foreign funds, and inciting riots and vandalism.

Seventeen of the referred defen-dants were detained while nine have been released; investigations were carried out by Counsellor Hesham Al-Qarmoty, first attorney of the Na-tional Security Prosecution.

The cell had ties to Al-Qaeda and was in contact with the head of the group Ayman Al-Zawahiri, reported state-run Al-Ahram.

Protesters sit waving their national flag outside the Egyptian presidential palace in Cairo during an anti-government demonstration on 8 February 2013

Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil met with representatives of the World Bank on Saturday. (From left to right: Qandil, Merza Hassan, Hartwig Schafer and Ahmed Hegazy)

Alaa Mubarak awaiting trial behind bars

Clashes mark Friday demonstrations

egypt condemns israel for arresting palestinian parliamentariansMinistry spokesperson condemns “a series of arbitrary measures” employed by Israel

Mubarak sons trial postponedThe trial of Alaa Mubarak, Gamal Mubarak, and seven other defendants is postponed to 10 March

nasr City terrorist cell referred to Criminal CourtThe 26 defendants attempted to ‘overthrow the regime’

By Fady Salah

Several Islamist and political figures have announced the establishment of a “Conscience Front”, a new co-alition aiming to defend the Revolu-tion and stop violence, according to its founders.

The front held a press confer-ence at Sawy Culture Wheel on Saturday, where it announced its aims and founding members. The front spokesperson denied that the front is opposing any other political group, claiming that they only work for the good of the Egyptian people.

The front includes prominent Islamist figures such as Muslim Brotherhood members Mohamed Al-Beltagy and Helmy El-Gazzar, Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) member Essam Sultan, Al-Wasat Party member Mohamed Mahsoub, Building and Development Party

member Safwat Abdel Ghany, and former presidential candidate Mo-hamed Selim El-Awwa.

Several non-Islamist political figures also joined the new front, including founder of the Ghad El-Thawra Party and the Kefaya move-ment Ayman Nour, professor of po-litical science Moataz Billah Abdel Fatah, and a sole Copt figure, Father Rafeeq Gaweesh.

The new front issued a founding statement outlining its main aims on Friday, before announcing dur-ing Saturday’s conference that the statement sent on Friday was only a draft.

The draft statement stated that the aims of the front are putting an end to the bloodshed currently gripping the nation, refraining from violent acts, and helping Egypt to develop, prosper and achieve the goals of its revolution.

The statement said the coalition aims to represent all ideologies, explaining that the revolution was driven by the will and sacrifices of all Egyptians.

The statement claimed that Seif El Deen Abdel Fatah, resigned presi-dential advisor and professor of po-litical science, is part of the coali-tion. However, Abdel Fatah denied on his official Facebook page that he had joined the coalition.

The statement said that the co-alition demands managing political and ideological struggles through negotiations rather than violence, affirming that any political faction has the right to seek to lead the country but only through non-vio-lent means.

The statement said the coalition is ready to oppose the ruling au-thority if it deviated from the goals of the revolution and the demands

of the people.“The front opens its doors to ev-

ery Egyptian seeking the develop-ment of Egypt and not its destruc-tion, seeking its strength and not its division,” the statement said.

Ahmed El-Enany, head of the youth committee at the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and mem-ber of the National Salvation Front (NSF) youth, said the Conscience Front could be an attempt to imi-tate the NSF. “If the founders of the front really want to stop violence, they should ask their Islamist gov-ernment and president to stop at-tacking, arresting and humiliating protesters instead of issuing some statements that would lead no-where. The solution for this crisis lies in the government’s hands.”

The FJP could not be reached for comments on the newly-estab-lished front.

By Joel Gulhane

Prime Minister Hesham Qandil met with representatives of the World Bank on Saturday to discuss ways in which the bank can help support Egypt. Qandil also requested assis-tance to develop the country’s rail-way system.

Qandil met with Merza Hassan, World Bank executive director for the Middle East, and Hartwig Scha-fer, World Bank country director for Egypt.

In a post on his official Facebook page, Qandil said that he brought up the issue of Egypt’s railways during the meeting, emphasising the need to meet requirements of “safety, security, and to develop the capabilities of its employees”. Ac-cording to state-run news agency MENA, Qandil also requested the World Bank provide technical ex-perts to help develop the railway system.

Qandil also said the meeting “re-viewed the efforts exerted by the Egyptian government to provide ba-sic needs to citizens and raise the ef-

ficiency of services”. He called on the bank to provide “financial support for the public budget”. He also requested support for development projects in

poorer areas, highlighting the need to provide clean water.

According to Qandil, Hassan stressed the importance of supporting Egypt dur-ing the current situation because “Egypt’s stability is central to the stability of the entire Middle East region”.

Qandil also emphasised Egypt’s de-sire to “benefit from the World Bank’s experience and efforts to recover Egyptian funds smuggled abroad”.

Egypt’s railway system has come under criticism following a series of incidents dating back to a crash in Fayoum which killed three people in November 2012. Since then, other fatal crashes raised the death toll up to nearly 80 people, including over 50 children who died when their school-bus collided with a train in Assiut.

The Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA) announced in January that it would be investing $600m in the rail-way system, which would include a $330m loan from the World Bank yet to be finalised.

islamist, political figures announce formation of ‘Conscience Front’The FJP, Al-Wasat and other political figures initiate a new coalition which aims to stop violence and defend the revolution

Qandil asks world Bank to help with railway systemWorld Bank stresses importance of supporting Egypt, Qandil pushes for railway funding


The ANHRI also stated that the ruling did not take into account that YouTube contains millions of other videos which range from “creative works… [to] docu-mentaries and educational clips”. It asserted that blocking the site “prohibits users in Egypt the right to access the information available through it, and thus lead to dam-ages that will exceed the intended benefits from it”.

The group also pointed out that the ruling “ignores previous resolutions and provisions of the Administrative Court which re-jected similar claims”. The ANHRI demanded the court reconsider its decision and called for “closing le-gal loopholes that allow this type of litigation”.

The lawsuit was filed in September 2012 during the protests against the film. Around the same time Bangla-desh blocked access to YouTube over the film.

In November 2012 the prosecu-tor general ordered a ban on porno-graphic websites in Egypt. However, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology released a statement saying that the ban was unfeasible.

The ministry was not available for comment on this latest ruling.

administrative Court rules to ban youtube for 30 days


SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013 Daily news egypt 3


In the written rejection letter, the organ-isations cited the ministry stating that the law governing prisons and its bylaws ex-clusively outlined the “categories” which warranted prison-visits. It added that the law governing prisons doesn’t grant civil society organisations the right to visit prisons; that right is given to commit-tees formed by the prosecutor general.

The request made by the organisa-tions was based on Article 40 of the

law governing prisons, according to the statement. The article states that “the prosecutor general, the attorney general, the prisons’ general director or his deputy, are entitled to allow vis-its to prisoners outside visiting hours in pressing times”.

The organisations stated that the security tensions which engulfed Port Said acted as “pressing times”, espe-cially since they prevented access of supplies to the prison.

The organisations said in their

statement that another request was sent to the prosecutor general, who, in turn, “incomprehensibly” referred it to Ismailia’s Appeals Prosecution. The organisations have yet to receive a response to their request.

Clashes in Port Said erupted be-tween residents and security forces soon after a judge announced the ver-dicts sending 21 Port Said residents to execution on 26 January. Families surrounded the prison which housed the convicted to protest the verdicts.

By Fady Salah

The National Salvation Front (NSF) youth issued a statement condemning violence against protesters on Friday, officially holding the government re-sponsible for the violence.

The statement, issued on Friday night after the Marches of Dignity and Departure, accused security forces of being “unjustifiably violent” in dealing with protesters making legitimate de-mands and expressing their opposi-tion to the ruling authority.

The statement called for the imme-diate cessation of violence conducted by the security forces.

The NSF youth claimed many pro-testers were randomly detained, tak-en to unknown places and tortured. It called for protesters to be acquitted immediately.

The statement asserted that the violence conducted by security forces would eventually fail to prevent pro-testers from expressing their opin-ions and calling for their rights.

Ahmed El-Enany, youth committee head at the Egyptian Social Demo-cratic arty and member of the NSF youth, accused the Ministry of Inte-rior of attacking protesters brutally, holding President Mohamed Morsi responsible for their actions.

El-Enany said the statement is directed to the protesters as well, explaining that sometimes protesters conduct violent acts in reaction to security forces’ vio-lence. “Our statement calls on protesters to refrain from violence, even if it is con-ducted as a reaction to police violence.”

The NSF youth member said pro-tests would not end until protesters’ legitimate demands are met.

By Nouran El-Behairy

Anti-Harassment groups in Egypt called for a worldwide rally against sexual harassment.

The call for international protests came after the increasing reports of sexual assaults on female protesters.

On 25 January 2013, 19 sexual ha-rassment cases were reported to the Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment (OpAntiSH), an Egyptian initiative to fight harassment against female pro-testers.

The groups called for protests next Tuesday at 6pm local time in front of Egyptian embassies across the globe.

The event was organised by The Uprising of Women in The Arab World Facebook page, with the par-ticipation of 22 countries and 17 anti-harassment groups worldwide.

“It is indeed the first time ever that a synchronised global action is hap-pening around women of the Arab World,” said Yalda Younes, one of the co-founders of the Uprising of Wom-en in the Arab World.

“The reason for this global sen-sitivity is not only compassion with Egyptians, but also because all around the Arab world and beyond, women’s bodies are still subjected to sexual violence in all its forms,” Younes ex-plained. “In many countries there are no laws to protect us against it.”

The anti-harassment groups blamed the ruling party, the police and the Egyptian government for the lack of anti-harassment laws and for turning a blind eye to sexual harass-ment incidents.

They also claimed the media’s focus on victims’ personal lives led to blam-ing the victim and even sympathising with the harasser.

“We are organising a march in Tahrir [Square] or in front of the presidential palace on 12 February,” said Fathy Farid, youth initiatives coordinator at the Cen-tre for Appropriate Communication Techniques and Development (CACT).

He added that there was another international anti-sexual harassment campaign on 14 February called One Billion Rising.

“The idea is to dance on Valentine’s Day as a peaceful way of protesting against sexual harassment, but due to the circumstances in Egypt we will participate only by singing,” Farid said.

The 14 February singing protest will be held at the Swiss Club in Im-baba at 10am with participation from Egyptian female singers and activists.

The countries participating in the protests include Palestine, Syria, Morocco, Lebanon, Tunisia, Belgium, Denmark, France, the United States, England, Italy and Australia.

Participating NGOs include Harass-map Egypt, OpAntiSH, Fouada Watch, Women’s Health and Equal Rights Initiative from Nigeria, Sawt Al Niswa and Nasawiya from Lebanon, and Stop Street Harassment from the US.

Tunis (AFP) - Thousands of backers of Tunisia’s ruling Islamists rallied in the capital, Saturday, to denounce Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali’s plan to form a new government of technocrats amid deepening political uncertainty.

Jebali, who is seen as a moderate, said he would step down if he failed to form a new government within days as more than 3,000 supporters of his Ennahda party took to the streets to oppose his plans.

The prime minister stated his determination to replace the exist-ing cabinet, including the three key ministries held by the Islamist party, in a television interview late Saturday that threw down the gauntlet to op-ponents within his own party.

“All the ministries will be indepen-dent, including the interior, justice and foreign affairs ministries,” Jebali told France 24, when asked by the satellite news channel about the plan.

Ennahda supporters rallied in Tunis to press their demands that the Is-lamist-dominated cabinet remain un-touched, deepening a pervasive sense of crisis after days of street clashes between opposition supporters and police following the murder of leading government critic Chokri Belaid.

“The people want to protect the legitimacy of the ballot,” they shouted as they gathered on the Habib Bour-guiba Avenue, the epicentre of the 2011 revolution that toppled former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Belaid, who accused the Islamist par-ty of stealing the revolution, was gunned down outside his home on Wednesday morning, sparking days of unrest as his supporters and family openly blamed Ennahda for eliminating him.

Saturday’s protest was on a far smaller scale than anti-government rallies held in the wake of Belaid’s murder.

Ennahda supporters also chanted anti-French slogans in response to Paris’ Interior Minister Manuel Valls’s condem-nation of “Islamist fascism” in Tunisia.

Tensions between liberals and Is-lamists have been simmering for months over the future direction of the once-proudly secular Muslim nation.

Their divisions within the national assembly have blocked progress on the drafting of a new constitution.

But the crisis has also laid bare divisions within the party itself, and inflamed anti-Islamist sentiment.

Jebali first announced his plans to form a non-political government of technocrats in the immediate after-math of Belaid’s murder.

“I will present the team no later than the middle of next week,” he told Tunisian media on Saturday.

“If it is accepted... I will continue to carry out my duties as head of the government. Otherwise, I will ask the president of the republic to find another candidate to form a new government.”

Saturday’s protest was called to “defend the legitimacy of the national constituent assembly”, in which the Ennahda-dominated coalition holds a majority, but whose support Jebali said he did not need to form a new cabinet.

His own parliamentary bloc have rejected the plan, with Sahbi Atig, En-nahda’s leader in the national assem-bly, criticising Jebali for not consulting his party.

Fugitive Salafi leader Abu Iyadh, who heads the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, and is accused of or-ganising a deadly attack on the US em-bassy last year, warned Ennahda that compromising with secular parties amounted to “political suicide”.

The Tunisian League for Defence of Human Rights said threats and intimida-tion of the kind that Belaid’s family had long complained were continuing un-der the Ennahda-led government, and called for politicians to be protected.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Friday for Be-laid’s funeral, which turned into a mas-sive anti-Islamist rally, while clashes between police and protesters led to 132 arrests, the interior ministry said.

On Friday night, protesters torched Ennahda’s headquarters in Sidi Bou-zid, birthplace of the uprising just over two years ago, as well as the office of an Islamist NGO in Souk Jedid, 17 kilometres away.

The left-wing leader’s funeral coincided with a widely-observed general strike called by the power-ful 500,000-strong General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT). The strike was believed to be the biggest since 14 January 2011, the day Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia, where he remains in exile.

ngO prison visit rejected

nsF youth condemns security forces violence

international marches to support egyptian women on 12 February Activists in 22 countries will protest against sexual harassment of female protesters

islamists rally in tunis as pM Jebali threatens to resign

By Salma Hegab

Several protesters were detained in front of the presidential palace on Fri-day amidst clashes between protest-ers and security forces.

Political activist Nermeen Hussein and seven others were arrested on Friday in front of the palace, according to lawyer Ragia Omran. Hussein was held for four days under provisional detention.

“Nermeen and the other detainees will be presented to the Heliopolis Prosecution on Monday, while there are another nine detainees being presented to the prosecution in the meantime,” Omran added at the time of print.

In a written statement, Ministry of Interior spokesperson Hany Ab-del Latif said the protests that took place in several governorates includ-ing Gharbeya, Alexandria, and Kafr Al-Sheikh were manipulated by some “outlaws” who used Molotov cock-tails and birdshot to attack some police stations and steal weapons, in addition to smuggling detainees.

Abdel Latif mentioned that the security forces have faced these at-tempts “in cooperation with citizens” and were able to foil them.

“More than 102 policemen were

injured,” Abdel Latif added. “Sixteen of them were shot with both rubber and live bullets.”

The statement also mentioned the clashes in front of the presidential palace that caused minor damages to its gates.

Several opposition groups called for mass protests on Friday against President Mohamed Morsi’s regime. Hundreds of protesters marched from the Al-Nour mosque in Ab-baseya to the presidential palace in Heliopolis. Demonstrators chanted

against the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi, in addition to chanting against police brutality.

Widely-spread reports of human rights violations against anti-govern-ment protesters sparked the calls for the demonstrations.

By Salma Hegab

Minister of Justice Ahmed Mekki told state-owned Al-Ahram that the fo-rensic report confirmed Mohamed El-Gendy died in a car accident.

El-Gendy was a member of the Popular Current and a founding mem-ber of the Al-Dostour party. On its official Facebook page, Al-Dostour claimed that El-Gendy’s medical re-port included evidence of a wire around his neck, electrical burns on his tongue, three broken ribs, burns from a hot iron on his back and abdo-men, and evidence of cuts from sharp tools on his face, head, abdomen, back, and legs.

Mohamed Abdel Aziz, a human rights lawyer involved in El-Gendy’s case, said that the forensic report has not been delivered yet to the general investigator’s office.

He accused Mekki of “inflaming the public opinion”.

“The minister’s statement is re-garded as a violation of the prosecu-tion investigations. He made claims based on knowing evidence that has not been presented to the general in-vestigator or to lawyers,” Abdel Aziz added.

Abdel Aziz reported previously that El-Gendy disappeared on the evening of 27 January. He said that eyewitnesses told him El-Gendy was being held at Gabal Al Ahmar, a Cen-tral Security Forces camp. When the camp was contacted it denied that El-Gendy was there.

El-Gendy was found at Al-Helal Hospital in Downtown Cairo on Thursday. The hospital said that El-Gendy arrived on Thursday, but Abdel Aziz claimed that there was no report filed by the hospital.

In an interview with the Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr TV channel, Mekki added that the current government will continue till the next parliamen-tary elections. He confirmed that the ministry will take all necessary procedures to guarantee the trans-parency and integrity of the process. Mekki denied allegations of transfer-ring the prosecutor responsible for the Hamada Saber case.

protesters arrested following presidential palace clashesActivist Nermeen Hussein among those detained for four days pending investigation

Minister of justice said el-gendy died in “a car accident” El-Gendy’s lawyer says he was held by CSF and possibly tortured

Activist Nermeen Hussein was among those who were arrested Friday, 8 February

Poster on the Nasawiya official Facebook page calling for worldwide anti-sexual harassment protests in support of Egyptian women

Thousands of supporters of Tunisia’s ruling Ennahda party shout pro-Islamist and anti-French slogans during a demonstration in Tunis on 9 February

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4 Daily news egypt SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013 in-Focus

Calls by opposition groups on Friday 8 February to protest the rule of President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood turned violent in some of the governorates.

Thousands marched to the main squares of each government demanding the “downfall of the regime.” Violent confrontations

with Central Security Forces (CSF) in cities such as Cairo, Alex-andria, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Kafr Al-Zayat, Mahalla, and Tanta erupted leaving several injured.

The day was dubbed as “Friday of Dignity or Departure” by some opposition movements.

A man cries out during anti-Morsi protests on Tahrir Square A child holds up a piece of bread during protests on Tahrir Square

Men pray in Tahrir Square

A lady holds up an anti-Morsi poster while marching from Moustafa Mahmoud mosque to Tahrir Square

Protesters march from Moustafa Mahmoud mosque to Tahrir Square Protesters link arms while marching from Shubra to Tahrir SquareAnti-government protestors take cover behind burning dust bins during clashes with riot police in Alexandria

In the city center of the Cairo anti-government protesters wave a giant flag featuring a protester who died during last week’s demonstrations

A boy walks past graffiti on Mohamed Mahmoud Street depicting protesters killed in clashes with security forces

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013 Daily news egypt 5

Politics Editor Sara Abou BakrArts & Culture Editor Adel Heine

Published by Business News for Press, and Distribution under License from the Supreme

Council of Journalism12 Haroon St., Dokki, Cairo, Egypt

Tel: +202 37486853 | Fax: +202 37486936 [email protected]

Art DirectorAbdel-Azim Saafan

Sales and Marketing DirectorRamy Kamal

Circulation ManagerSally Kandil

Daily newsegypt

Editor Maher Hamoud

Rana Allam

Chief Editor Saad Zaghloul

Chairman Mostafa Sakr

Deputy Editor Laurence Underhill

commentaryDisclaimer: Commentaries published by Daily News Egypt do not reflect the position of the paper, but the independent opinions of their authors.

“Iftah ya simsim,” Ali Baba says, and the mouth of the cave concealing the 40 thieves’ treasure opens wide. The poor woodcutter becomes an-tiquity’s biggest Lotto winner.

We grow up on myths, glorious fiction, and eternity’s morality story of hope’s triumph over melancholy. The best tales have a beautiful lead-ing lady, a handsome prince, hapless hangers-on, a rags-to-riches plot, and treasure, of course.

Mine, too. Take this true-life expe-rience in Cairo a few days ago.

The stars are The Unflappables - the graceful Sara Khalil, on the corporate side at the HSBC branch round the corner and Mahmoud Gomaa, the prince of customer service.

Looking at the date, I see the rent is due.

Checking my HSBC account on-line I find the backup dollars and sterling for travelling intact. But the Egyptian pounds for house and horseplay are a tad lower than ex-pected.

No problem.Plan A. Three clicks on the com-

puter and dollars and sterling magi-cally transform into EGP. Hold the horses, there’s a message: “Currency conversion services are temporar-ily unavailable on Internet banking whether for overseas transfers in/out of Egypt or internal transfers between accounts...”

Plan B. There’s a cheque in the drawer. I toss it into HSBC on my way to the grocery store.

Plan C. Send a gentle reminder to a client: the fee is past due.

A couple of days later, neither the cheque nor the fee has shown up on the computer.

Plan D. Drop by HSBC. The handsome prince Mahmoud

Gomaa is as efficient as ever, checks the accounts and explains that un-der the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) new regulations we can fill in some paperwork and British quid and American bucks morph into Egyptian pounds in a few days.

Sara weighs in. There is a quicker way. You can have the cash in a few minutes.

Why don’t we find the cheque you deposited and you can cash it at a branch of the payer’s bank? There’s one a step away.

Thank you, Sara. I head out with the gem. In my briefcase I happened to

have the gubbins you need to run a legitimate company in Egypt: Pass-port for ID, red book, eight-page card for memorialising corporate activities, and the all-important reg-istration documents including the commercial registration number.

Unlike the HSBC’s Unflappables, welcoming at their desks, the other bank seems to house The Unreach-ables, protected from the riffraff by plate glass.

Sourpuss scrutinises the paper-work, the red book and the eight-page card, stamped to jiggery, like my passport, which he studies with more industry than immigration at

the airport.Time whiles away. These won’t do,

he says. He needs the originals.So into the zahma (snarl-up), bag

a cab and head to Dokki.The accountant retrieves the

originals, takes photocopies, and I head back to Sourpuss, the lobby forebodingly fainéant when you’re clutching No. 18 and the teller’s dishing with No. 11.

Disconsolate I won’t be able to make the rent on time, I look at the clock. Crikey, must dash. There’s paid work to do.

Returning next day as the doors open, Sourpuss awaits glowering be-hind the screen. I thread the pass-port, the cheque, the company card, the red book and the original com-pany registration papers through a slit in the glass.

They’re re-scrutinised. On his computer, Sourpuss checks the cheque’s validity, repeating what he’d done the day before.

OK?No reaction.He reads the company registra-

tion papers.OK?Not a blink.He goes off to the photocopier.OK?Silence.Sourpuss gets another rubber

stamp out and manages to find space to squeeze a murky impression on the back of the cheque among the four other stamps and 11 official scribbles by clerks.

Sign here, Sourpuss says, pointing to the new stamp.

You’d need a magnifying glass with a three-dioptre lens to read it. Peer-ing, I hold it to the light: Name, Ad-dress, Nationality, Date Passport Is-sued, Date Passport Expires, Phone, Cash (sig).

I begin the test.Just sign it, he says.Not on your life, buddy.I carefully fill in the information

line-by-lineSourpuss calls his boss. Together

they verify the information.I leave EGP 2,449 pounds richer.Not enough for the rent. But the client’s direct transfer ar-

rives in the nick of time.Ali Baba’s fable from The One

Thousand and One Nights teaches that good trumps indolence and maidens and handsome princes live happily ever after.

My story is much the same.Sara and Mahmoud are the face

of the Egypt we pray for: crisp, ef-ficient and savvy, observant of HSBC procedures.

Sourpuss is a dour holdover of yesteryear.

Whom do you applaud? Iftah ya simsim - open Egypt to

the treasure trove of Sara Khalils, Mahmoud Gomaas and the millions of young people with the knowledge and talent to restore Egypt’s dignity.

Whom will you boo? Iqfil ya simsim - close the door on

the Luddites trapped in caves, veiled in nescient inadequacy.

Philip Whitfield is a Cairo commentator.

PhiliP Whitfield

open sesame

iftah ya simsim

- open egypt to

the treasure trove

of Sara Khalils,

Mahmoud Gomaas

and the millions of

young people with

the knowledge

and talent to

restore egypt’s

dignity.

Since Mohamed Morsi took office, the map of political actors that existed under SCAF has been reconfigured. During the eight months of Morsi’s presidency, shifting political alliances and power relations have made for a complex political landscape.

While such changes are expected in any political system undergoing a pro-cess of transformation, in Egypt they were significant for two reasons. First, the Egyptian state has no clear separa-tion of powers and so the extent of the executive’s powers makes change in the executive authority far more significant than in other systems. Second, Morsi’s use of this power was problematic and shortsighted. The result of this combi-nation was a powerful executive lacking any vision for administration. The exec-utive made one mistake after another in an ongoing abuse of its power. The recurrent mistakes have in turn recon-figured the political forces that make up the opposition.

The first phase of Morsi’s eight months in office began with his acces-sion and ends with November’s consti-tutional declaration. During this phase, two factors had a positive impact on public perception of Morsi’s presidency: the anti-SCAF discourse, and the fact that his presidency represented a tri-umph for the Revolution over the old regime and for civil rule over military force. Without these two factors, Mor-si’s chances of winning a presidential election or retaining his platform would have been very slim.

The opposition was divided between skeptical observation and support of the new president based on limited op-tions. During this phase, Morsi’s vision of his administration began to unfold

and despite some bizarre choices and several blunders, Morsi was able to rule without acute opposition. With the Muslim Brotherhood and the remaining Islamic forces, he was able to demobilise the street through co-opting some so-cial movements, infiltrating others, and using false stability rhetoric. Meanwhile, institutional political forces were con-sumed with finding their place within the new network of power.

This first phase could have been used to consolidate Morsi’s power. In the absence of fierce opposition, with a relatively calm street, and by address-ing basic grievances and opening up an inclusive platform, Morsi could have gained the support of diverse political factions. Instead, Morsi consolidated his power from above. Morsi embarked on his second phase in office with the con-stitutional declaration of November: a phase of open abuse of power and dictatorial practices.

The second phase influenced the configuration of political actors in Egypt. Perhaps its most important aspect was the army’s withdrawal from the domes-tic political conflict. The army’s official statements so far all point to the same message: the army is not taking political sides, although it supports legitimacy. In other words, the army will not be di-rectly involved but will support the ex-ecutive. Securing the referendum and giving army officers the right to arrest civilians is an example of this support.

Meanwhile, institutional forces were united under the banner of the Na-tional Salvation Front (NSF). The NSF has applied pressure through collective action, political organisation and elec-tion preparation, and interaction with different political forces.

But with the second anniversary of the Revolution a third political actor announced its presence: the street, clusters of semi-organised protesters ready to be involved in violent confron-tations. Both the street and the NSF are against Morsi and the Brotherhood, but they have different goals. While the NSF wants a transparent political pro-cess, the street is after the collapse of this process and the institutions it rep-resents.

Therefore, the situation is now divid-ed between these three political actors: the state, the opposition, and the street. While there appears to be agreement between the opposition and the street over opposing Morsi’s administra-tion, ironically, there is more common ground between the opposition and the state than between the opposition and the street. The Front will no longer be able to speak in the name of the street or endorse its tactics in fear of losing the moderate and non-politicised voters. The state knows that it has no chance of negotating with the street, because the street has no leadership and no in-tention to have dialogue with the other two actors.

The current dynamic could lead to three scenarios.

First, the state could cave in to pres-sure from the Front and the street and agree to some political compromises. In which case, political pressure from the NSF will be reduced and the street will be less congested as a result of the opening in the system. Second, the state could maintain the status quo hoping that tension in the street will die out and political pressure will be diffused with the parliamentary elections. In this case, the street is expected to radicalise

further since no real solution will be offered and the Front might fragment over whether it should run for elec-tions. Finally, if state-sponsored violence escalates and the administration allows the security institutions further room to use force, the street is expected to radicalise, putting the Front in a difficult choice between collective protest and political process.

This contentious, polarised, and absurd political reality is the result of Morsi’s presidency so far. If the state does not offer tangible political com-promises, it will run out of safe options. The current instability is a prelude to future battles, and the state does not realise that without an inclusive, trans-parent and accessible political process, talk of stability is an illusion.

Egypt’s political forces have been reconfigured, but the state remains as rigid, inefficient, and shortsighted as it has always been.

Ziad Akl is a political sociologist and a Middle East specialist at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. He is a senior researcher at the Egyptian Studies Unit and managing editor of the periodical “Egyptian Affairs.”[email protected]

By Sara Abou Bakr

“Suddenly I found my pants down, a hand between my legs. I did not know how he unbuckled my belt without me feeling him…”

This is a typical statement beginning Egyptian women’s tales of sexual ha-rassment. They almost always focus on “the belt” the first time they tell their stories as if the belt was the last pro-tector to fail them.

Sexual harassment has become an epidemic in the last 15 years. In a so-ciety where rape victims are routinely blamed for their experiences, Egyptian women were too ashamed to speak out because they felt the harassment was their fault; as if the way they spoke, walked, or dressed was to blame. The niqab, or full face-veil, spread—helped by Wahabi thinking portraying sexual assault as a woman’s fault—as well as the Isdal which covers a woman’s body in a balloon-like jumper-skirt, satirically referred to as “the tent”.

Women covered up, hoping to keep at bay the hands and other body parts that violated them. It only got worse. Clothes did not offer protection and with this realisation came a revelation; harassers are not deterred by clothes, but rather by women or other stand-ing up to them—and from this revela-tion emerged “the case of the shouting woman”.

By the end of the 90s, a new so-cial phenomenon was seen on the streets. Suddenly a woman would start screaming and calling a man all pos-sible names. The man would run away and pedestrians would give the angry woman exasperated looks. In a society where movies and traditions honour the image of the delicate defenseless woman as the ideal model of feminin-ity, this was ground-breaking. Women were fed up and discovered that most of their regular harassers were cowards. Girls started to encourage each other to stand up to harassment against the advice of their parents, who

would tell them to ignore the beasts lest they cause a scene or get stabbed. Young women discovered that walking in groups also helped, adopting a herd mentality inspired by living in a human jungle where animalistic behaviour was the norm.

The media began to pick up on harassment. People started talking about the issue, dissecting it and the psychological reasons for such behav-iour. Some blamed poverty or illiteracy while some religious figures blamed women, the way they dressed or the way that they “mingled” with men. Fights ensued on TV talk shows over who to blame, ignoring the women’s plight and the one solution to harass-ment: retribution.

Justice for violated women was not on the agenda.

I remember covering a case in 2006 where two men confessed to raping and beating a young woman to death. The judge sentenced one to three years in jail and the other to three months. It was an eye-opening reminder that retribution for sexual assault barely exists in Egypt.

The Mubarak regime used sexual assault against women to extract in-formation or as leverage against male members of the same family, with the Ministry of Interior as the regime’s main accomplice.

Then, in 2011, the Revolution be-gan: the 18-day sit-in of thousands of men and women in Tahrir Square. No sexual harassment was reported during that period. It was strange. In marches I’d get squished together with hundreds of men of varying socioeco-nomic classes and they would clear a path for me to walk. No one grazed his body against an unsuspecting woman; no hands grabbed at women’s shirts. It was exhilarating. The square had rules and one them was if you harass a woman, you get beaten and thrown out. People abided by the rules be-cause they wanted to belong to a bet-ter world.

Tahrir Square found the solution to harassment: punishment and exile.

Six months after Egypt’s first civilian president was elected amid hopes of a better life, women are beaten, raped and sexually assaulted with knives as they protest against Morsi’s rule in the same square. Harassment has up-graded from being an individual to a group activity.

Videos of organised gangs of young harassers isolating a woman in Tahrir, surrounding her like a pack of hyenas and tearing her clothes off as other protesters, male and female, try to save her, filled social networks. Footage so horrible it stunned a society that still regards itself as “religious”.

Brave young women spoke out on TV in front of millions on the horror of organised rape used to scare off female activists and protestors.

Accusations against the Muslim Brotherhood of organising gang rapes to terrorise women surfaced in in-ternational media reports. The same technique used by the Mubarak regime is being reused by the new dictator and his posse. Activists demanded to know why, if the Brotherhood was innocent, had they not filed lawsuits against the international papers accusing them of such horrendous acts. Why remain silent?

A valid question that remains un-answered.

The more pressing question is what have the current government and president done about it? Nothing but a “proposed” law against harassment.

A self-proclaimed Islamist presi-dent, who, according to the Shari’a, is responsible for not only the people but also the animals of the country he rules, has abandoned his female citi-zens to rape and sexual assault. A presi-dent who claims to abide by the Shari’a that punishes sexual assault with death has done nothing but condemn the act. He has not even regaled us with a passionate speech after a woman was violated with a knife in Tahrir as he

did during the Gaza-Israel mini-war a couple of months ago. Morsi and the Brotherhood have proven once more that Egyptian women are not on their “important issues radar”, particularly when these women are not members of their Brotherhood.

Those who thought that Egyptian women would cower under threats of rape and assault got a surprise last Wednesday. Women of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds were invited by different anti-harassment groups, mainly Operation Anti Sexual Harassment and Tahrir Bodyguards, to march against sexual threats. Over 2,000 women—and hundreds of men—joined the march, bringing with them a utensil they know how to use well: kitchen knives. Young ladies held their knives high, promising any harass-er an unpleasant meeting with a sharp kitchen knife. The message was clear: “I will castrate whoever dares lay a hand on me.” Men on the street were dumb-founded to see women half their size waving knives and chanting against ha-rassment, Morsi, and the Brotherhood.

This is what women in Egypt have been driven to in order to protect themselves: acts of extreme physical violence.

Some NGOs are now offering free self-defence classes to women, teach-ing them to be in control and help-ing to boost their confidence with the awareness that they can protect themselves.

Next Tuesday, many countries will join Egyptian women in demonstra-tions against sexual harassment. The different capitals of the world will join Egyptians in their fight against this epi-demic, promising that women will no longer be threatened.

Women of Egypt will continue to march, protest, and speak out against injustice. They will not be terrorised into silence.

And if harassment continues, Egypt will have another new phenomenon: eunuchs.

ZiAd AKl

analysing morsi’s presidency

sexual harassment, the ikhwan and castration


6 Daily news egypt SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013 Business

The Giza Cleansing and Beautification Authority (GCBA) has recently hired 33 contractors in the Amrania district in Giza to move and collect trash in ex-change for EGP 1 per apartment visited, to be paid at the end of each month.

Ali Abd al-Rahman, the Giza gov-ernor, said the move came as part of a series of measures looking to help

stabilise the district, preserve its so-cial order, and help protect the source of income for many of its residents.

The district would be broken up into 33 regions, with each contractor assigned a region and charged with collecting garbage there.

He added that the new measure would not increase the burden on

citizens or require that they change their daily lives.

Abd al-Rahman added that con-tractors would be allowed to sift through, use and/or recycle any gar-bage collected.

The GCBA will be tasked with transporting all trash acquired through the contractors to a new

handling station constructed under-neath the Marioutia Bridge. It will then transport all the garbage to one of Egypt’s numerous primary landfills.

He went on to say that a taskforce will be created to monitor and review the work of contractors, in order to make sure that services were im-proved for citizens.

thirty-three contractors hired to move and collect trash in giza Contractors will receive EGP 1 for every apartment visited

Amr Moussa, Chairman of Egypt’s Conference Party, stated that recent decreases in Egypt’s foreign currency reserves, in addition to the stalling of negotiations with the IMF, is evidence of the bad economic and financial state that the country finds itself in. This, he said, will surely have a dev-astating impact on the life of average Egyptians over the coming months.

This scenario, he said, required that both the government and the opposi-tion work to re-assess their priorities and resort to any means necessary to address the crisis. Moussa stated: “Before I enter into the crux of the issue and present ideas as to how best to address this crisis, I will say that considering the dire straits in which we find ourselves, it is necessary to consider postponing the upcoming scheduled parliamentary elections by at least six months.”

He added that it was necessary for the government to re-assess its political

stance as it may have a negative effect on the economy, particularly sectors related to tourism. A revival in tourism would increase the country’s national wage by 12% and would do much to address youth unemployment.

In terms of how to address the eco-nomic crisis Moussa said that it was necessary, in addition to accepting the pending IMF loan, to pursue other loans and grants that would help revive Egypt’s economy in the short term. He called Egypt to host an international conference to be attended by the Unit-ed States, the European Union and the Gulf Co-operation Council to address these issues. He suggested proposing a cash recycling package in which all na-tions and bodies that have an interest in Egypt’s economy should take part, particularly the United States, the Eu-ropean Union, the Gulf Co-operation Council, Russia, Japan, China, South Ko-rea, Singapore, Turkey, Malaysia and In-

donesia. He also called on the IMF and World Bank to create a $12bn credit line for Egypt as soon as possible.

He stated that such a credit line should include Egypt’s proposed $4.8bn loan from the IMF, in addition to an additional $1bn from the World Bank, the unfreezing of an estimated $480m currently in the coffers of the United States Congress, and similar funds from the European Union.

In order to complete the proposed $12bn credit line, he suggested bor-rowing another $5bn from China, Ja-pan, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, Malay-sia, Indonesia and Singapore. All these measures, he said, could be discussed at the international conference.

Moussa suggested addressing the country’s finance deficit, the result of debt to foreign oil and gas companies, by calling for these companies to grant Egypt a grace period and spacing out its debt. This would allow Egypt to in-

crease its production of oil and natural gas, cut down on its imports, and si-multaneously address its energy needs.

He called on China, Japan, and other Asian countries as well as the Gulf countries, Russia and the West to resume sending tourists to Egypt and investing in the country at a pace that allows for catching up with the up-coming tourism season next summer.

These initiatives need to take the social aspect into account, ensuring that the burdens on impoverished classes do not increase during the economic rehabilitation process.

This all serves as an introduction to a broader plan to salvage the Egyptian economy. Egypt will not be able to es-cape its economic predicament with-out initiatives such as this one, where the international community helps a pivotal country in a sensitive region undergoing great change. If Egypt falls, goes bankrupt, or becomes a failed state it could potentially threaten re-gional stability; if the state recovers, it could pull the region back to stability.

All these provisions will, of course, come with conditions of adhering to proper governance and sound eco-nomic and social policies. Such policies are crucial to prepare the country to meet the responsibilities resulting from the salvation process, as well as its re-sponsibility to restore security to the streets and subsequently the feeling of security to its citizens. This will also re-quire a national reconciliation process, in addition to a political truce whereby there is a commitment to rejecting poli-cies and practices that potentially allow for the return of authoritarianism or put the interests of one party or group above those of the entire country.

This requires a new government committed to national unity, in which all political forces are represented.

By Hend El-Behary

The Canadian Chamber of Com-merce in Cairo (CanCham) has signed a cooperation agreement with Qatari Chamber of Commerce to promote and develop Qatari in-vestments in Egypt and its exports to Canada.

The agreement also intends to strengthen the economic relations between the three countries and to facilitate communication to of-ficial authorities in order to create a cooperative atmosphere and to overcome obstacles.

According to the agreement, this will be accomplished by exchanging economic and commercial informa-tion and by granting access to eco-nomic laws, regulations and new amendments through bulletins.

The agreement also aims to or-ganise commercial delegations be-tween the countries in order to conduct symposiums and meetings to strengthen business and com-mercial ties.

“The agreement is expected to encourage establishing joint projects in various economic sections and to provide information and services for businessmen who are interested in launching such projects in Egypt and the Middle East,” said the head of CanCham, Fayz Ezz El-Din.

Ezz El-Din added the agreement will also offer experienced Canadi-an professionals to provide training, commerce, and international trade, as well as management for private and governmental sectors.

The agreement will also help Qatari professional rehabilitation through specialised training periods in the Canadian Institute for Man-agement and Training in Cairo and other concerned international sides for training, said Ezz El-Din.

“The agreement aims to create a triplex cooperation atmosphere between the three countries, Egypt, Canada and Qatar,” he said.

The Canadian Chamber of Com-merce in Cairo was officially inau-gurated in 2006 as a non-profit and nongovernmental organisation. It is an official member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Canada.

amr Moussa launches a new initiative to save the economy

Canadian-Qatari business cooperation in egypt The agreement seeks to strengthen the economic ties between the three countries

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Company Turn Over Market Cap.Name 1-Week YTD 12-Mths. Max. Price Min. Price (EGP Mill.) (EGP Mill.)

Commercial Bank COMI Banks 35.6 35.64 0.62% 3.10% 57.84% 35.79 34.90 23.86 669,514 21,111.99NSGB NSGB Banks 37.49 37.15 1.81% 5.51% 34.85% 37.60 36.21 7.224 194,475 16,082.61Ezz Steel ESRS Basic Resources 10.54 10.57 5.91% 6.45% 79.46% 10.71 10.00 29.91 2,828,236 5,677.12ELSWEDY ELECTRIC SWDY Industrial Goods and Services and Automobiles 22.52 22.52 0.13% -1.70% -9.96% 22.56 22.25 0.319 14,145 5,049.25MRRIDIVE MOIL Industrial Goods and Services and Automobiles 1.13 1.13 3.67% -2.59% -22.90% 1.13 1.10 1.39 184,113 401.41AIC Contracting AIND Financial Services excluding Banks 0.48 0.49 6.52% 4.26% -15.52% 0.50 0.46 2.536 5,174,074 256.62Amer Group Holding AMER Financial Services excluding Banks 0.63 0.63 1.61% -1.56% 0.00% 0.64 0.62 0.60 948,745 1,915.01EK Holding EKHO Financial Services excluding Banks 1.28 1.28 1.59% 0.00% 13.27% 1.30 1.26 2.756 320,031 1,091.08EFG-Hermes HRHO Financial Services excluding Banks 11.82 11.84 9.53% 7.54% 5.24% 11.90 10.91 58.36 4,930,990 5,543.44Pioneers Holding PIOH Financial Services excluding Banks 4.73 4.74 6.76% -2.47% 25.40% 4.80 4.49 8.568 1,808,376 2,345.00Citadel Capital CCAP Financial Services excluding Banks 3.95 3.98 1.53% 5.29% 33.11% 4.02 3.90 13.55 3,405,943 2,614.88Raya Holding RAYA Technology 5.55 5.61 2.75% -0.88% 33.57% 5.69 5.43 0.623 111,060 360.94Telecom Egypt ETEL Telecommunications 14.61 14.66 1.10% 3.60% -1.48% 14.80 14.39 3.42 232,992 24,906.17Orascom Telecom Media And Technology OTMT Telecommunications 0.62 0.61 7.02% 10.91% 68.80% 0.62 0.56 11.259 18,357,593 3,252.33Orascom Telecom ORTE Telecommunications 4.48 4.53 2.49% 14.11% 16.15% 4.57 4.42 13.63 3,007,020 23,710.52Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals SKPC Chemicals 13.06 13.03 -0.84% -1.66% -6.53% 13.11 12.97 1.054 80,904 6,835.50Egyptian Financial and Industrial EFIC Chemicals 9.84 9.85 4.90% -0.71% 2.28% 9.98 9.50 1.59 161,102 687.47AMOC AMOC Oil and Gas 70.00 70.00 1.92% -4.36% -12.13% 70.46 69.01 0.479 6,844 6,023.56Juhayna Food Industries JUFO Food and Beverage 8.74 8.67 -0.23% 12.74% 85.65% 8.75 8.44 2.67 307,672 6,156.79Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) OCIC Construction and Materials 259.90 258.46 -0.16% 2.42% 3.06% 260.85 257.50 13.773 53,288 54,232.06Delta Construction & Rebuilding DCRC Construction and Materials 6.87 6.96 12.80% 11.54% -6.58% 7.09 6.32 2.17 312,388 161.51Modern Co. For Water Proofing WATP Construction and Materials 2.16 2.17 13.61% 21.23% -29.32% 2.20 1.93 6.172 2,847,642 216.24Palm Hills PHDC Real Estate 2.5 2.49 4.62% 2.05% 67.11% 2.52 2.43 27.74 11,124,454 2,599.83TMG Holding TMGH Real Estate 4.28 4.28 1.18% -3.39% 6.47% 4.32 4.21 8.646 2,021,466 8,852.68National Real Estate Bank NRPD Real Estate 19.38 19.52 6.20% -2.11% -12.27% 19.73 18.88 0.94 48,292 75.55Six of October OCDI Real Estate 21.22 21.13 2.77% 3.94% 103.56% 21.35 20.66 1.894 89,613 1,898.76El Kahera Housing & Development ELKA Real Estate 6.35 6.38 1.75% -2.89% 39.30% 6.45 6.30 0.77 120,031 600.00Arab Cotton Ginning ACGC Personal and Household Products 4.24 4.22 4.71% -4.09% 64.20% 4.26 4.09 6.714 1,590,404 1,120.17Oriental Weavers ORWE Personal and Household Products 22.7 22.97 0.17% -1.42% -17.14% 23.00 22.50 0.27 11,958 2,070.00Egyptian Tourism Resorts EGTS Travel & Leisure 1.10 1.10 4.76% 4.76% 6.80% 1.11 1.05 2.329 2,119,683 1,155.00

Week Performance Volume Trade

Reuters Code

Last Price

SectorClose Price

Returns

Individuals 53.06%

Institutions 46.94%

Trading Value Trading Volume

(EGP Mill.) (EGP Mill.)

Main Market 3,123.206 839.004 121,557

Bonds 852.93 0.777 ـــــNilex 7.284 2.128 1,174

OTC 108.37 3.246 412

Total 4,091.785 845.155 123,143

Index Value 1-Week Ch. YTD Ch.EGX 30 5,702.93 1.72% 4.40%

EGX 70 482.82 3.71% 1.20%

EGX 100 811.12 2.65% 1.35%

EGX 20 Capped 6,647.15 2.78% 4.81%

Markets Close Open ChangeTotal Listed Stocks 383.206 376.900 1.67%

EGX 30 203.015 199.810 1.60%

EGX 70 79.057 76.641 3.15%

EGX 100 282.071 276.451 2.03%

NILEX 1.046 1.036 0.97%

Markets # of Trades



Main Market 3,123.206 839.004 121,557


OTC 108.37 3.246 412

Total 4,091.785 845.155 123,143


EGX 70 482.82 3.71% 1.20%

EGX 100 811.12 2.65% 1.35%

EGX 20 Capped 6,647.15 2.78% 4.81%


EGX 30 203.015 199.810 1.60%

EGX 70 79.057 76.641 3.15%

EGX 100 282.071 276.451 2.03%

NILEX 1.046 1.036 0.97%

Markets # of Trades



Main Market 3,123.206 839.004 121,557


OTC 108.37 3.246 412

Total 4,091.785 845.155 123,143


EGX 70 482.82 3.71% 1.20%

EGX 100 811.12 2.65% 1.35%

EGX 20 Capped 6,647.15 2.78% 4.81%


EGX 30 203.015 199.810 1.60%

EGX 70 79.057 76.641 3.15%

EGX 100 282.071 276.451 2.03%

NILEX 1.046 1.036 0.97%

Markets # of Trades

Egyptians 78.37%

Arabs 9.77%

Non Arabs 11.85%

Trading value and volume during the week

Last week's EGX30 index performance

Market indices performance

Market capitalization in LE Billion

Investor's activity

Egyptians vs. Foreigners Individuals vs. Instiutions

Head of Qatar Chamber of Commerce Khalifa Bin Gasen, right, and head of the Canadian Chamber of Commmerce Fayz Ezz El-Din, centre, meet to discuss economic ties between the two countries

The agreement aims to create a triplex cooperation atmosphere between the three countries, Egypt, Canada and Qatar

Amr Moussa, centre, pictured during a protest march in November 2012, warned of the social consequences of a further deterioration in Egypt’s finances in the near future

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013 Daily news egypt 7BusinessBy Lamia Nabil

The Egyptian market has performed positively during 2012, backed mostly by retail trading. The market’s bench-mark index, the EGX 30, was the best performer in the MENA region dur-ing 2012, surging by over 45% over the year. Egypt was also the best per-former compared to emerging mar-kets during 2012.

Stock market expert Sameh Abu Rayes expectes to see a positive per-formance in 2013 to follow the same positive performance seen in 2012. That would lead the EGX30 to 7,200 points, surpassing, during 2013, previous tar-gets of 5,800 points and 6,600 points. Abu Rayes believes that all political and economic concerns are already reflect-ed in stock prices. “Moreover, the Egyp-tian pound’s low exchange rate against the dollar and other foreign currencies has made Egyptian stocks cheaper and more attractive for investment,” Abu Rayes added

SODICSODIC’s current stock price stands

at EGP 21.13, with average daily reve-nue of EGP 6.2m, or roughly $1m, and with market capital of EGP 1.7bn, or roughly $0.3bn, and with 90,676,348 in outstanding shares. The company’s net income in 2012 totalled EGP 173m, and it is targeting EGP 347m by 2013. The company experienced rev-enue growth of 119.4% during 2012, with 70.8% expected in 2013.

SODIC’s plan focuses on commer-cial and retail properties, given the under-supplied market. Around 60% of SODIC’s total planed BUA will be dedi-cated to commercial and retail space, and when projects come on-stream the company plans to generate a significant portion of its revenue from recurring income of EGP 30m by 2015.

Beltone Financial released a re-port on 19 December 2012, which commented positively on SODIC’s post-Revolution strategy of launch-ing small and medium sized and lower–priced market–tailored proj-ects, which have proven successful, with almost its all projects launched post-Revolution (the five phases of the West Town residential) entirely sold out. Similar success is expected for the company’s most recent proj-ect, Phase 6 of West Town.

Beltone do have concerns about SO-DIC’s limited residual land bank, which currently stands at 1.8 million square metres (excluding East Town’s 0.9 mil-lion square metres). SODIC now faces a new challenge in urgently securing new land, pending the resolution of the East Town conflict, in order to maintain its backlog and sales momentum at healthy levels beyond 2013/2014.

Commercial International Bank (CIB)Commercial International Bank’s

(CIB) share price currently stands at EGP 35.64, with market capital of EGP 19.691m, or roughly $3.221m, and with 597,227,541 in outstand-ing shares, and net income growth of 50.3% in 2012, compared to 15.4% projected for 2013.

In addition to being the largest corporate bank in Egypt, CIB had the largest loan market share among private sector banks in the country during August 2012 (8.4%), and the second-largest branch network, with 155 branches nationwide.

Furthermore, CIB is one of the most profitable and efficient banks within Egypt. During the first nine months of 2012, its Return on Aver-age Equity (ROAE) was 22.8%, while its Return on Average Assets (ROAA) was 2.4%. The bank’s Net Interest Margin (NIM) reached 4.7%. The bank also has a strong capital profile with the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) at 16.5% in September 2012.

The bank’s intact asset quality Non-performing Loan (NPL) ratio stood at 3.4% and provision coverage at 114.4% in September 2012, despite the recent macro instability and the

bank’s relatively high exposure to the hospitality sector (5%-6%).

The bank’s high NIM put its focus on the retail segment, which stood at 14% in 2012 compared to 10.1% in 2010, and the heavy investment in longer-term treasury bonds, which reached 60% of the government’s se-curity portfolio with an average dura-tion close to 4 years.

Beltone’s report saw CIB’s risk as key as it has a relatively high exposure to the tourism sector, which puts the bank at the risk of further asset quality deterioration. Renegotiated loans were at 7.3% of gross loans in September 2012, versus 0.7% and 0.9% for National Societe Generale Bank (NSGB) and CAE respectively.

The second highest risk key, CIB depends on interest income from treasury securities totaling 51% of in-terest income in 2012.Despite the in-vestment in longer-term government securities, further delay in the pickup of corporate lending could pressure the bank’s growth and profitability.

JuhaynaJuhayna‘s current share price

stands at EGP 8.67, with market capi-tal of EGP 4.349 million, or roughly $713m, with 726.416.332 in outstand-ing shares, its average daily turnover was EGP 3.36m, or roughly $0.55m, and revenue growth was 26% in 2012, compared to 22.1% estimated in 2013.

Juhayna had an exceptional first nine months during 2012, mainly due to investment in logistics and strong marketing efforts witnessed during the year. Juhayna secured raw material

needs until August 2013, which par-tially subdues the pressure on mar-gins caused by soaring grain prices.

Juhayna’s forecasting revenue and net profit are expected to grow at respective CAGRs of 22% and 32.6% between 2012 and 2016, reaching EGP 6.056m and EGP 761m.

The Beltone financial report be-lieves in Juhayna’s long-term pros-pects as it is currently building a strong platform through finalising the launch of its dairy farms and other vertical integration plans, and deepening and widening its reach within Egypt by adding more sales depots and increas-ing its disruption fleet. Meanwhile, its risk key is vulnerability to movement in raw material costs.

Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH)Orascom Telecom Holding

(OTH)’s current share price stands at EGP 4.53, GDR current price of roughly $3.27, and with market capi-tal of about EGP 18.409m, or GDR $3.012m, with shares outstanding at 5.246 million, or GDR 1.049 million, the average daily turnover local EGP 29.88 million, GDR 4.64 USD million

OTH is a largest telecom operator in the term of number of subscribers, which stood at 85.2 million at the end of the first nine months in 2012.

In early December OTH’s manage-ment confirmed that a new company was formed under the name Optimum Telecom Algerie, according to the for-eign owner ship law in Algeria, to mange Djezzy and to facilitate the acquisition by the government. Although nothing was announced on the price of the deal but the negotiations are ongoing.

During quarter 4 in 2012, OTH signed an agreement with China’s Huawai Tecnology and France’s Al-catel-Lucent to upgrade its mobile network in Pakistan.

Belton mentioned in its report the main key risks as the operational un-certainty in Algeria due to Orascom Telecom Algeria’s inability to perform maintenance, and expansion work on the network or to secure the needed spare parts.

Concerns over the Algerian gov-ernment’s disappointing offer for Djezzy and the regulatory risks in Pakistan, Bangladesh and further de-lays in offering 3G licenses could also be problematic.

Ezz SteelEzz steel current price 10.77 EGP

and market capital EGP 4.480 million about USD 733 million. Shares out-standing 543 million and average daily turnover EGP 15.6 million about USD 2.6 million.

The strength of the local market, primarily the retail segment, to which Ezz Steel mainly caters. In spite of the revolution, 2011 reber volumes sold to the local construction sector in-creased by 7% year over year.

More over a possible strategic sale by Ahmed Ezz who owns 66% of the company, triggering a mandatory ten-der offer to minorities at a premium.

Belton showed pessimism about legal issues regarding Ezz Steel’s ex-chairman continue to cloud stock performance. Some cases are about the acquisitions of his stake in EZDK, while others address the squandering of public fund.

Optimistic year 2013 to egX although the challenges

By Mohamed SalahEldin

A bid offered by Egyptian El-Arabia Investment & Development (Ara-biyya Lel Isttithmaraat) arrived in the nick of time to save the sinking French oil refinery “Petit Couronne”, owned by the Swiss “Petro Plus”. French authorities apparently sup-port the Egyptian offer.

Arnaud Montebourg, the French Minister of Industrial Renewal, has judged the Egyptian offer to be “of good quality”, confirming that the of-fer “has the government’s support” as he spoke to the French channel Sénat. “We had the chance to receive an of-fer which was a little bit surprising, but for us, it is of good quality,” said the minister.

The Egyptian bid materialised on 5 February, the last day for receiving offers. “The offer was very late as it was officially submitted yesterday,” stated Michel Baillard de la Motte, the company’s French representative, on Wednesday.

The submission of the bid coincid-ed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Cairo, where he was received by his Egyptian coun-terpart President Mohamed Morsi.

Among the bidders to buy the troubled oil refinery was the Iranian Tadbir Energy, which was a problem-atic case according to Le Monde, be-cause despite having the oil and the money, Iran is subject to an embargo prohibiting oil imports. The offer was eventually declined.

“To take over a refinery of this size one needs two things, lots of money and lots of oil,” Montebourg said on Tuesday on RTL radio.

The Petro Plus “Petit Couronne” facility, located in the Normandy re-gion in northern France, encountered problems after its Swiss owner filed for insolvency in January 2012, with French labour unions fighting to keep the plant running to employ its 470 workers.

“It’s a refinery that is losing money, so the investor would have to deal with the state because we are avail-able,” added Montebourg.

The Egyptian offer will compete with that of Switzerland’s investor group Terrae.

El-Arabia Investment & Develop-

ment (Arabiyya Lel Istithmaraat) is a publicly traded company founded by Mohamed Ali Kamel Metwalli who holds 37.8% of its shares, according to the company’s website.

Metwalli is an Egyptian businessman who is reported to have strong ties with the Muslim Brotherhood; he is married to the daughter of Abdel Azim Lokma, former Muslim Brotherhood leader and his father is reportedly also a member of the Brotherhood.

The businessman has formerly sought to buy Egyptian newspapers such as ElDostour, ElFagr and ElBadil, but the deals were not concluded.

The company has several invest-ments in the power, automotive, and oil and gas sectors. It holds 75% of Nahda Oil & Gas and 68%of CDCM “Peugeot”.

EGP 5bn worth of investments will be used to construct the terminal

Walid Abd al-Ghaqar, general coordinator for the Suez Canal Development Project, said that a second container terminal will be constructed in the fifth basin of the Ain Sokhna Port by the end of the month.

The project will be funded by EGP 5bn worth of international investment.

And al-Ghaqar stated that he was reviewing the final draft of the project’s terms and conditions. He said the project would help jump-start Egypt’s economy, and help strengthen the role to be played by public sector institutions in de-velopment.

By Hend El-Behary

The diesel shortage crisis has worsened to effect Egypt’s three cel-lular carriers, Vodafone, Etislat and Mobinil, which rushed to illegal black markets to fulfil their diesel needs.

Egypt has been suffering from a diesel shortage across its governorates. On the Cairo-Alexandria Road, cars have been queuing outside petrol stations.

“Etisalat is suffering a diesel short-age that has pushed it to black market supplies in order to meet the needs of company network stations,” an of-ficial source from Etisalat Egypt who wished to remain anonymous told Daily News Egypt.

The source said that the price of diesel on the black market differs ac-cording to the purchaser, but usually they are around 30% higher than nor-mal diesel prices.

Dealing with black markets in-creases the company’s operational

expenses, particularly at a time when the US dollar is strong against the Egyptian pound, an Etisalat source told Anadul News Agency.

Khaled Hegazy, deputy head of Vo-dafone, told Anadul News Agency that Vodafone is trying to operate nearly 80% of company stations during the diesel crisis, particularly stations in remote governorates.

“The diesel shortages may threat-en the operation of mobile network stations, which may lead to mobile service cuts in various vital sectors like hospitals, ambulances, and secu-rity offices,” said Hegazy.

Diesel shortages may affect the function of network in some gover-norates, particularly in areas most severely affected by the crisis.

According to Mobinil, the com-pany has called on the general pe-troleum authority to complain about the diesel shortage hindering their network provision.

Cairo stock market

A shortage of diesel is causing problems for the mobile phone operators as engineering teams struggle to reach communication masts for servicing

The second container terminal at Ain Sokhna port is reported to be near completion

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a surprising egyptian offer has French official support

second container terminal in ain sokhna port ready by end of month

Fuel shortage hits mobile phone companies

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Egypt’s Central Bank (CBE) has an-nounced excluding imports of some strategic commodities from the mini-mum cash insurance ratio of 50%.

Egypt is known as a significant im-porter of commodities, which has resulted in large trade deficits asso-ciated with the country’s trade ac-tivities. The Egyptian economy largely depends on oil exports which are considered a major source of foreign income, along with tourism receipts and financial military aid from the United States.

The CBE’s decision determines that banks should give priority to ar-ranging the foreign currency to im-port and supply commodities such as raw materials, petroleum products, medicines, fertilizers, pesticides, and oils. Banks will also determine the proportion of liability coverage with-out any required minimum.

Bankers have described the new system as a move toward establishing a free-market value for the Egyptian pound, which has been tightly con-trolled since a managed devaluation that ended in 2004.

Financial expert Osama Mourad expressed optimism for the long-term, saying it would help key traders and the government to raise the bur-den of providing proper cash covers for various imported commodities.

“The decision was taken after the hike in US dollar exchange rates, which made top importers raise pric-es which directly affected the con-sumer,” Osama added. It’s expected that the CBE’s decision will speed up the import process, especially in re-gards to food imports.

“CBE decisions has balanced and maintained the exchange rate, yet these procedures will only tempo-rarily prevent the exchange rate from deteriorating,” said Sherif Delour, an economist.

“There is a danger of decreasing for-eign currency reserves, so the govern-ment should help the CBE take action to protect the exchange rate,” he added.

“The prices will rise as a result of this decision, but it will also decrease importing accessories that we won’t need,” Delour said.

CBe removes insurance rates on imported commodities

8 Daily news egypt SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013

art & CUltUre Art should make a statement and Culture is what surrounds us.

Music

Basheer

Basheer will be performing his

unique form of Nubian music

tonight at After Eight. Minimum

charge is EGP 60.

After Eight

6 Qasr El Nil Street

Downtown, Cairo

Tel: 010 0339 8000

10 February 9pm

Eleonora Ianotta

For a night of Latin infused jazz

go to Cairo Jazz Club tonight

where Eleonora Ianotta per-

forms to infectious bossa nova

and samba rhythms. Reserva-

tions are recommended.

Cairo Jazz Club

197 26th July Street

Mohandessin, Cairo

Tel: (02) 3345 9939

10 February 9pm

FilM

Sonny Boy

The film tells the story of how

the relationship between a white

Dutch mother of four children

and a young, black Surinamese

man suffers during the German

occupation of Holland. Dutch

with English subtitles.

Netherlands-Flemish Institute

1, Mahmoud Azmi Street

Zamalek, Cairo

Tel: (02) 2738 2520

10 February 7pm

TheaTre

No exit

A new version of Sartre’s

famous play, directed by Omar

El-Moutaz Bel’lah, opens the Fes-

tival des Jeunes Créateurs at the

French Institute.

1 Madrasset El Huquq El Frenseya

Mounira, Cairo

Tel: (02) 2791 5800

10 February 7pm

exhibiTion

Untitled

The Townhouse Gallery show-

cases the latest works of Daniel

Rhode, in which he explores the

problems of modern methods of

communication.

Townhouse Gallery

Hussein Al Me’mar Pasha Street

Downtown, Cairo

Tel: (02) 2576 8086

10 February 10am

Alia’s Drinks

Mashrabia’s latest exhibition by

Ramy El-Dozy, inspired by the six

months the artist spent in the

Ard El-Lewa neighbourhood.

Mashrabia Gallery

8 Champollion Street

Downtown, Cairo

Tel: 010 0170 4554

10 Febuary 11am

events

Alexandria 19°C / 9°C

Aswan 29°C / 14°C

Cairo 22°C / 11°C

Hurghada 28°C / 14°C

Luxor 27°C / 11°C

Sharm El-Sheikh 28°C / 14°C

Suez 18°C / 7°C

Sunday, February 10

Weather

By Adel Heine

In a time where singers who play covers and accompany themselves on a semi-acoustic guitars seem to be a dime a dozen, Tamer Emad is in a refreshing league of his own. Not only does the half British, half Egyptian Emad have a great voice, he accompanies himself with his guitar which makes the mu-sic flow seamlessly and his choice of songs is surprisingly different. We saw him perform on a Thursday night in The Club House in El-Gouna.

Emad grew up in the UK and dab-bled a little in music but never seri-ously. “As a kid I had a couple of years of guitar lessons and I was part of a punk-rock band. That was not singing though, that was screaming,” he said. “I did not really start singing until 2007.”

It is not a coincidence that this was also the year when Emad moved to Egypt. “Living in Egypt has softened me up a little, I defrosted living here. I have learned to express myself and I have come out of my shell,” he said.

When asked why he prefers to live in Egypt, Emad is very clear: “I like the traditions even though in the begin-ning they were very alien to me, an

English man who grew up on a council estate. I feel my roots are here and my temperament, level of sensitivity and reactions are very Egyptian.”

After a summer visit Emad decided to stay in Egypt and he moved to the family farm for a while, where he caught himself singing around the house a lot. “I would hear myself hum and sing and I

liked it. My father had an old guitar and since it was lonely on the farm I had all the time to practice and learn to play the songs that I liked,” he said.

When friends invited him to Hurghada, he took a chance and played and sang in one of the local bars for food and drinks. The reaction of the audience was good and the bar owner

asked him to come back. “It gave me a chance to stay in Hurghada, eat and learn on the job,” Emad said smiling.

Emad never looked back, he col-lected his own setup, consisting of a new semi-acoustic guitar, an old micro-phone from his father, a small mixer and a music stand and started playing in the local hangouts. “I remember the first gig

I played where I was paid in cash and not in kind. I was completely broke, did not have money for a taxi and had not eaten in a few days but I had to get to the venue. So I walked the 15 kilometres, with all my equipment,” Emad said.

Those days are long gone though. These days Emad has a large reper-toire of songs and he has started writ-ing his own. “I sing my own versions of other people’s songs and I some-times slip in one of my own songs but I do not announce them as such. I have close to 30 originals ready but I am waiting to go into the studio and record them properly before I start playing them in public,” he said.

When asked what makes the Thurs-day night gigs so popular and special, Emad said: “The Club House is the only place in town where literally everyone is welcome and I do not have to pre-tend, I can just be myself. It makes it easier to perform. I like to map the songs I play to tell a story and I use them to make the audience feel like I do. When that works, everything falls into place and we all have a great night.”

A large group of locals, frequent visitors, a few tourists, and our re-viewers certainly did last Thursday.

By Abdel-Rahman Sherief

The Egyptian revolution not only represents a political change that re-sulted in the ousting of a ruler, but it is also a great social and demographic movement that deserves to be thoroughly re-searched and studied as it may turn out to be one of the more significant occurrences in Egyptian history.

The time after the up-rising of 25 January has been filled with so many important and significant political events that very few writers and research-ers to date have analysed the revolution as a whole. The Egyptian Book Au-thority recently released the first part of the Encyclopaedia of the Egyptian Revolution, in which they attempt to record and document the Egyptian Revolution.

The Encyclopaedia will consist of eight books and is written by Egyp-tian researcher and head of Egypt’s Folk Encyclopaedia Project Hisham Abdul-Aziz.

Abdul-Aziz compares himself with the famous Egyptian chronicler Al-Jibarty who lived 200 years ago and witnessed and recorded significant historic events that preserved a thor-oughly detailed image of his age.

“I try to document this great and intricate phenomenon from a linguis-tic angle,” said Abdul-Aziz. “There are enormous amounts of videos and photo archives of every singular event that took place, all uploaded on the internet and available for anyone,” he said. In the books Abdul-Aziz ob-serves and records the effect of the Revolution on Egyptian slang.

The encyclopaedia is arranged alphabetically and each Arabic letter has its own section that includes all the new words starting with this let-ter that have occurred in Egyptian slang after the Revolution as a result of political events.

A good example is Estebn, which in colloquial Egyptian means the spare tire of a car. In the presiden-tial elections the word was used to describe now-president Mohamed Morsi when he was put forward as the candidate for the Muslim Broth-erhood after their first candidate was

prevented from running. In the ency-clopaedia the writer defines the word, mentions its origin and gives a small explanation on its use.

The encyclopaedia documents the revolutionary and political events starting from 25 January 2011until the first session of parlia-ment which took place in February 2012. “I tried to stay as objective as possible, although pure objectivity is very difficult as I am recording a revolution in a society that I am a part of and of course I have a per-sonal opinion and point of view on all the events that are occurring around me,” Abdul-Aziz said.

“Egyptian society has changed sig-nificantly and on a scale that deserves study and analysis. The encyclopaedia is an attempt to document a single angle of this change and preserve it for future generations.”

To gather the data, Abdul-Aziz used as many sources as possible, includ-ing magazines, newspapers, news websites, Facebook groups and pages in addition to personal observations the author made in Tahrir Square, dif-ferent means of transportation, cafes and anywhere people discuss political issues.

The first part of the encyclo-paedia covers only three Arabic letters and was featured on the shelves of the Ministry of Cul-ture and Egypt’s Book Authority sections in Cairo’s Book Fair. It is now available at most of Cairo’s bookstores and libraries.

By Thoraia Abou Bakr

One of the most popular series of comics in Egypt during the nineties was Flash, an Arabic comic magazine aimed at children. Other comic mag-azines originated from the GCC or USA and Europe, lacking Egyptian flair and local artistic capabilities. Flash was different from other magazines be-cause it was purely Egyptian and not affiliated with any foreign characters like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. The characters in Flash had Arabic names, such as Karim or A’laam, and were very specific to Egyptian culture.

Then there was a hiatus during which there were no new creations on the Egyptian comic scene. In 2011 a group of comic artists gathered to

publish a new magazine, Toktok. The magazine dubbed itself the

home of Egyptian comics as it accepts submissions of comic artists of any age or genre. It sparked a renewed interest in the Egyptian comic scene and other initiatives followed in its wake. The main difference between the current maga-zines and Flash is that they are aimed at adults and not children. The content varies from fictional sci-fi pieces to po-litical satire to existential stories pon-dering the origin of life. And of course, the humorous comic strips poking fun at iconic Egyptian traits such as the street valet, the obnoxious merchant lady, or even the fat house cat.

Recently, an online comic maga-zine was created by Sherif Adel and named Barbatoze Comics. Barbatoze

in Egyptian Arabic means the onesie often worn by babies. Adel is a dentist, but he attributes his interest in com-ics to his childhood. “I grew up read-ing a lot of comic books and I always had a deep passion for it as a medium for story-telling,” he said. In school, he developed his abilities as a comic artist by drawing comic strips, some-thing he continued through college. Last year, he decided to create Bar-batoze Comics to establish himself in the world of comics.

Adel’s main objective is to make people laugh. “If you read my comics and it makes you laugh and if -maybe- it brightens up your day a little, then I’m definitely happy,” he said. His most fa-mous piece to date is Spiderman and The Tears, where he reenacts Spider-man’s origin story in the method of Egyptian soap TV shows. He aimed it to be humourously “cheesy with inap-propriately aged actors and everything.”

When asked about his sources of inspiration, Adel said “I try to expose myself to different forms of creativity, in the hopes of occasionally jump-starting mine.” He also follows the works of other comic artists and continues to read comic books of different genres. Adel posts a comic on his website every 10-14 days and is working on his first graphic novel. Barbatoze Comics includes satirical pieces on the Egyptian community and political scene, yet its main goal remains simply to brighten up the day for Egyptians.

By Thoraia Abou Bakr

Since the 2011 Revolution many art-ists have released music that attempts to appeal to the newly found pride and patriotism of Egyptians. The recently released song Al Masry, The Egyptian, is different in that it is full of musical imagery and is focused on identifying or revealing the typical traits of the Egyptian persona. The creators of the song have dedicated it to the souls of the Egyptian martyrs, giving the song a nationalistic flair.

The music relies heavily on typi-cal Egyptian instruments, such as the ney, oud, tabla, and the Egyptian tambourine, and is composed by Mohamed Antar, a professional ney player who studied Middle Eastern, specifically Egyptian, music. The vo-cals are an ensemble of classically-trained Egyptian singers of both genders, with remarkable capabili-ties that warrant each one an op-portunity to sing a verse. The singing style is reminiscent of the seventies or eighties when operettas were more common.

The song celebrates Egyptian heritage through the use of local artistic imagery such as hand pup-pets, which are often tied with Salah Jahin and Saeed Mekawy’s El Leila El Kebeera. The song seems to slight-ly mimic the style of this famous Egyptian operetta but when asked whether this theme in the video was intended, Antar explained that the director, Hala El-Koussy, used images “from Egyptian folklore with modifications to suit the era and current events”.

Al Masry centres on explaining the attitudes of Egyptians, rather than create comic sketches or satirical ideas. The song praises the patience, resilience and general good nature of Egyptians and tries to highlight the di-versity rather than generalising them into one bland idea. According to An-tar, the song lyricist, Salim Al-Shabani, wanted to present an array of “purely Egyptian characteristics”.

Antar explained that to avoid fall-ing into the “purely nationalistic” genre, the artists chose “to make it [the song] a message directed to

any Egyptian ruler” so that the ruler “knows how to deal with the Egyp-tian mentality”. Antar went on to say that the song targets the Egyptian people as well, to remind them of their “solid historical, moral and so-cial background that enables them to deal with different situations”.

The song tries to preserve the traits of Egyptian music as well as the Egyptian persona. Antar said his primary goal when he composed the song was to go back to the roots of Egyptian music and try to achieve the desired sounds or effects without the use of any foreign or non-oriental instrument. Antar’s approach is re-freshing at a time when many artists continue to mimic western styles of music, pushing Egyptian culture fur-ther into oblivion.

Al Masry carries a message of con-servation of everything that is truly Egyptian, set to a nice melody and with meaningful lyrics. It fights against the waves of fast-paced, impersonal songs of loves lost and missed, trying in its own way to present something that is purely Egyptian.

the musical talent of tamer emad

the encyclopaedia of the egyptian revolution

egyptian comic strips

al Masry: a song about all things egyptian

Tamer Emad during a performance

Lion to Cub: Look Simba, all the land which the sunshine touches is our kingdom Cub to Lion: Even Egypt?Lion to Cub: Except Egypt, dear. It belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood

Part one of the encyclopedia

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