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Students are turned away by locked gates at American University in Cairo on Sept. 20.
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Students are turned away by locked gates at American University in Cairo on Sept. 20.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>One month into my study abroad, I should know better than to think that any trip in Egypt will go according to plan.This past Friday, most of the international students embarked on a trip through the school to Ain Sokhna, a resort town on the Red Sea coast near Sinai. It sounded fun and was free, so I decided to go. I thought it would be a good chance to get away from the city. The first few days went surprisingly well. We spent Friday on a beautiful beach surrounded by desert mountains. The seawater was so clear we could see the ocean floor, and we could see the Sinai coast across the water.On Saturday, we went to St. Anthony’s Monastery, the oldest monastery in the world. We hiked to a mountain behind it, in the middle of the desert. We loaded our buses that night and prepared to make the two-hour trek home. At the same time, what we believe was a petrol truck exploded on the one road we needed to get home. Perhaps the driver finished a cigarette and threw the butt out the window, or a passerby discarded his or her cigarette. Despite an iron tank, this somehow managed to set the petrol on fire.As one of our Egyptian orientation leaders said, “Welcome to Egypt.” Traffic was shut down in both directions and we were forced to sit in traffic for hours. Eventually, our leaders made the call that we would spend another night at the hotel and leave in the morning. Of course, we couldn’t simply turn around and drive back. Traffic was gridlocked.We had to walk about a kilometer, or 0.62 miles, at night in one of the more dangerous parts of Egypt. An armed security guard escorted us. We had to walk in three lines — girls in the middle with guys on either side. It went smoothly and nothing of much interest happened, aside from jokes and stares from the Egyptians watching this parade.The next day, we set off again for Cairo. The two-hour trip took about four hours. When we arrived, we all had received an email from American University. The email said classes on campus were shut down indefinitely due to student protests. The students have reached an impasse with the administration, and security is refusing to back the administration because the students supported a security strike last year. You’d think they’d call in the police. They can’t — the police are at odds with the university’s private security. It’s the administration versus everyone else. In an attempt to stop the students from locking the gates, American University President Lisa Anderson had all of the gates removed. There’s a bit of irony to that.The prim and put-together Anderson was forced to climb and hop the same gates last week in order to meet with administrators. I would have paid money to witness that. When some students discovered the missing gates, they bought new ones, had them installed and proceeded to lock those. The students who can’t afford a 7-percent tuition increase somehow found a way to afford new gates for the school.Welcome to Egypt, indeed. The most shocking thing to me is how this no longer shocks the rest of us. Students protesting, armed escorts — it’s our new normal. It takes a lot to faze us now, and we’re only one month in. That being said, Egypt usually finds a way to get a rise out of us. Even if it takes a blazing truck.— hannsmit@indiana.edu
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When the protests in Tahrir Square ended, we all thought we could breathe a sigh of relief.At school on Sunday, we were proved wrong. I wasn’t feeling well, I hadn’t slept enough and I couldn’t convince myself to do the one-hour commute to campus at 7 a.m. Sorry, Mom. It turned out I had made the right call. A group of students had decided to shut down our campus.This past year, tuition at American University in Cairo went up 7 percent. Some students say that amounts to about 10,000 Egyptian pounds, or $1,500. To an American student, that doesn’t sound so bad. To the Egyptian students, it’s apparently intolerable. When the buses got to campus Sunday, they were forced to stop. A mob of students stood in the parking lot outside the front gates.Unbeknownst to the university, they had chained the gates to the parking lot shut.It was a demonstration against the tuition increase. Classes were canceled.To quote my mother, it was like an “Egyptian snow day.” The ringleaders were suspended and all students received a stern email from the university. Flyers were strewn around campus with the simple message, “Wait for Thursday.” Thursday, the stage has been set for an even bigger protest. This protest is controversial, even among students, because the protesters are some of the richest kids in the Middle East.American University is one of the most expensive schools in the Middle East. The kids protesting aren’t the kids on scholarships, because scholarship students don’t pay for their tuition. My roommate is an Egyptian student here on scholarship.“If these kids can afford 100,000 pounds a year, they can afford 110,000,” she told me. “It’s not that big a difference at that level. They can give up an iPhone for a year.”Many international students, myself included, are inclined to agree. On the other hand, there might be something to be admired here. Think of all the tuition increases we undergo in America. One American girl in my political science class told the class Thursday that her tuition back home went up 30 percent in the past year alone.What did kids at her school do?They applied for more financial aid or took out loans. Nobody protested. Egyptian students believe if they protest unceasingly, the administration will have to cave. They hope things can be changed for the interests of the majority. I have to admit I admire that kind of hope and determination. Perhaps in America we’ve become complacent. Maybe we assume protesting won’t do any good.Egyptians are still riding the wave of the revolution where they had extreme success through protests. It makes sense that if they’re not happy about something, like the tuition increases, they’d protest. Why don’t we have that same belief in the U.S.?
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CAIRO — There is a bridge on our island, Zamalek, which leads directly into Tahrir Square. We decided to walk across the bridge Friday morning. As soon as we stepped out of our dorm and began walking, we could tell that something had changed. Groups of men gathered on sidewalks for the noontime prayer. An anonymous voice blasted through loudspeakers across the island, different from the usual call to prayer. It was in Arabic, and he kept talking about “the day of Egypt.” All the men at the prayer gatherings were listening to him on radios. While we walked, we noticed the roadblocks. Barricades had appeared overnight, blocking traffic to the secondary roads on our island and guarded by even more police than we usually see. As we approached the base of the bridge, we began to see the riot police. About a dozen armored trucks were scattered along the roads, each with half a dozen soldiers in black uniforms bearing automatic weapons. The eeriest sight was the bridge itself. We take this bridge frequently by cab and bus. It’s the type of bridge that usually has five lanes of traffic trying to go six different ways on the two-lane road. On Friday, there were at most five cars driving across.Later, we would learn protesters in the square had barricaded the bridge to use it as an escape from police. We made it to the edge of the square but no farther before we turned around. We could see a great mass of people being dropped off by cabs at the end of the bridge. One boy walked past us, holding his dad’s hand while a black Islamic flag fluttered in his other. He was only 5 or 6 years old. On Friday, something about this situation changed.So much confusion surrounds these events. Is it about a crazy filmmaker? Is it about revolutionaries who want to settle scores with the police? Arab nationalists who hate America? Muslims versus Christians and Jews? It’s complicated, but I think it comes down to one main thing. It’s about a country whose people are stuck in a stagnant state when they thought they’d already won the battle for change. In the Arab Spring, Egyptians fought and died for freedom, democracy and equal rights. What they’ve been left with is a democracy many believe to be fraudulent, a police force that’s just as brutal as it was before, further reliance on outside nations and more dangerous streets for everyone. There’s a water shortage. There’s a fuel crisis growing daily. There are mountains of trash in the streets. Who wouldn’t be frustrated? Why did so many die if nothing were to come of it but the same old story?Some blame the U.S. or Israel. Some blame radical filmmakers. Some blame vocal minorities. Some blame the police. In the end, it’s evolved into the same sort of frustration. An uneasy calm has fallen here, and protesters have dispersed five days after the protests started. It’s uncertain whether it will last. I don’t think the protests will stop until the people receive the change they’ve been demanding for nearly two years. The hard part is, change is something Egyptians have to achieve for themselves. No one outside can help them get there. America has tried before and, more often than not, we’ve made things worse. I’m not saying that resorting to violence or murder is the way to get there. That is never acceptable. The overwhelming majority of Egyptians don’t think it is, either, and they despise that it’s gone to that. I just hope the Middle Eastern governments don’t miss the message their people are trying to send.Change must come. — hannsmit@indiana.eduRecent activity in CairoWHO: American University in Cairo students who pay tuition WHAT: Students protest against the recent 7 percent raise in annual tuitionWHEN: There was a strike on campus Thursday. Students did a sit-in in one of the administrative buildings’ courtyards. On Sunday, students chained the gates to the university parking lot and blocked entry to the lot with their cars. Buses with students and faculty members could not enter. The protest started at about 8 a.m. in Cairo and was disbanded by 11 a.m., yet school was still shut down.
A bridge on Zamalek, an island of Cairo, leads toward Tahrir Square. The usually busy bridge was mostly empty after protestors created barricades to keep out riot police.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CAIRO — I don’t really know how to describe what it feels like to see your host country’s people burn your home nation’s flag. The best word I can come up with is “stunning.” In the last couple days, protests have broken out across the Middle East and in Cairo in particular, 10 minutes away from my dormitory.It’s all people are talking about. American international students are caught in the middle. We’re not Egyptians, but we’ve come to love this country and its people. Of course, we also love America. We didn’t think we’d have to choose between the two. It started with one man who produced a film depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a degrading way. I’ve seen the film, and it is offensive. This film was distributed to the Arab media outlets, which aired it on state television. But now it’s so much more complicated than a film. First of all, let me clear up a few things. The riots, to our knowledge, had nothing to do with the anniversary of Sept. 11, at least in Egypt. Sept. 11 simply isn’t a recognized day outside the United States. The fact that the riots started on Sept. 11 was something noticed after the fact.Second, the U.S. press is dramatizing how things are here. Classes and work are continuing. The rest of the country is functioning normally as of now, aside from Tahrir. There is a million-man march planned for today, so we’ll see if that comes to pass. Every day, we get email after email from the U.S. Embassy, the state department and American University. Parents and friends back home have been sending frantic emails.For the record, all of the students here are safe and sound. But the true story isn’t about a film. It’s about a clash of two cultures, American and Egyptian, that have never really taken the time to figure the other out.Our classes are ongoing, but the curriculum has stopped in many of them. Instead, we debate the situation. Egyptian protestors have essentially three demands. They want America to ban the film and arrest the man behind it, and they want Egypt to revoke citizenship of the U.S. ambassador and of those Egyptians who may have helped fund or make the film. Most Egyptians don’t understand why America can do none of these things. In my journalism class, I found myself trying to explain free speech to them.“Why can this man say these hateful things?” they asked me. “Why doesn’t America stop him?” The thing is, Egyptians have never lived in a country where speech is free. The entire concept is not on their radar, at least not to the same extent it is on ours. Most think free speech has limits. On the other hand, Americans don’t understand why this film is so offensive. They don’t understand that while Americans view the riots as an unjustified attack on what we deem free speech, Egyptians view our free speech as an attack on their religious freedoms. It is a messy situation. Messy and muddy, and right now the rumors are flying so fast it is hard to know what’s true, even in the Western press. There is a lot of speculation. Some say the Muslim Brotherhood is behind it in an attempt to garner unity from a country that has yet to fully accept their new president. Others say America is using the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens as means to become involved again in the region we just left war torn. What I think we have to be really careful about is not to jump to conclusions and stereotypes. The Muslims here are angry about the film, but many are even more angry about the protests. Violent actions cause the culture to slip back into the stereotype of the Muslim terrorist. I asked the Egyptians in my class not to do the same thing to us, judging us by one man who made a movie. You can’t judge a nation by its outliers. I know it looks bad. But let’s wait it out. More of the Egyptians are against the violence in the protests than are for it. But the ones who are against it don’t get the attention. — hannsmit@indiana.edu
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If you go to Tahrir Square in Cairo today, it’s as if the revolution never stopped.The square itself is a plot of dust and dirt surrounded by highway. Graffiti depicting elaborate images from the revolution coats the sides of buildings. People must still climb over massive stone roadblocks to get from one side to the other. Every Friday, there are still protests. Tahrir gained fame as the location for major protests during the Arab Spring. Similar protests in Tunisia, Libya and Yemen resulted in the overthrow of government power.It forced changes in the government here in Cairo, but for one group of people, the view now is much the same as before. Women in the Middle East are some of the most misunderstood people in the world. In the West, we see them as exotic and suppressed products of abuse, forced to do as men say. There’s more myth to this than truth, at least in Egypt.Women here, for the most part, do not cover themselves because a man tells them to. They cover their hair or body out of respect for themselves and their religion as a personal choice. Some of them even bedazzle their burqas with rhinestones so personality still comes through, but with modesty. Several Egyptian women I’ve spoken to believe Western women are the oppressed ones. They want to ask us to look at how we have to dress to please men in tight dresses, high heels and makeup.Many Westerners also talk about how the Egyptian government suppresses women. It is made up primarily of a conservative Islamic group, the Muslim Brotherhood. Women here don’t deny there is some truth to this, but I’ll never forget what one Egyptian woman said to me when I asked her about it. “What about that man, Akin?” she asked, referring to the recent scandal with U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo. She laughed and said, “Americans keep going on about how women have no rights here, but look at who you put in office.”She’s not saying women in Cairo are treated equally, because they aren’t. She’s just asking, don’t we have similar issues in America? It has been a difficult experience for us female international students. We typically can’t walk places alone, particularly at night. Street harassment is a daily occurrence. I’ve been catcalled by men, brushed against by one man and hissed at by police officers. Fortunately, few of us have yet to experience the pinching or groping most Egyptian women face during their lives here.It’s so frustrating because there’s no place to report it. Where would you go? What would they do? All you can rely on is for passersby to come to your aid. They almost always will, both men and women.I spoke recently with a student at my university who participated heavily in the mass protests in Tahrir. She is an Egyptian journalism student. During the Arab Spring, she was hit with tear gas and shot at. Every day she took the bus to Tahrir, skipping classes and sleeping in the square on weekends.I asked her what kind of Egypt she wants to see. She told me she wants an Egypt where she can walk down the street without fear. Where she can travel alone. Where she can work in television while wearing a hijab. She has been denied internships before because of her headscarf.She wants equality, and she told me she was willing to die for that idea. Freedom for others would be worth the sacrifice. She’s a Middle Eastern woman, a conservative Muslim, and she’s one of the strongest women to whom I’ve ever spoken. The women here aren’t weak. They’re not submissive, even when society wants them to be. They’re tough, and they’re strong, because they have to be. All of us Western women do them and our gender a disservice to overlook that. - hannsmit@indiana.eduLooking back: Egypt's revolutionAlthough Egypt’s revolution technically lasted only 18 days, major events continue to shape politics and society from 2011-12.2011 Jan. 25 Protests against President Hosni Mubarak begin in Cairo and other Egyptian cities for the “Day of Revolt.”Jan. 28 The “Friday of Rage” protests take place in Tahrir Square despite government censorship of social media websites used to plan the rally. Feb. 11 Mubarak resigns. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and the Egyptian army serve as an interim government,Feb. 12 Egypt’s constitution is suspended, and parliament is dissolved.March 19 A new constitution is approved with 77.2 percent of Egyptians in favor.June 6 The political party formed by the Muslim Brotherhood is legalized.June 29 More than 1,000 people are injured after a conflict between protestors and police in Tahrir Square.July 29 Over 100,000 Islamists gather in Tahrir Square.Aug. 3 Mubarak, his two sons, former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six police commanders go on trial for the deaths of protestors during the 18-day revolt.Nov. 28-9Islamist parties win three-quarters of parliamentary seats in Egypt’s first election since the uprisings.2012Jan. 21Muhammad Saad al-Katatni of the Muslim Brotherhood is elected by parliament as its speaker during the first People’s Assembly.May 23-4 Egypt has its first free presidential elections.June 2 Mubarak and al-Adly are sentenced to life in prison for allowing the killing of protestors. More than 850 people died during the revolution.June 20 Mubarak is moved from a prison hospital and said to be in a coma.June 24Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood is declared the winner of the presidential election.Aug. 2 Morsi swears in members of his first cabinet.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Every day, those of us living in the city take an hour-long bus ride to campus in the suburb of New Cairo. Our bus driver honks incessantly, as do all the drivers. Eventually, we cross a bridge over the Nile, along with a stream of cars. After that bridge, we drive through the slums.It’s poverty like I’ve never seen. The houses here are tall but are made from what looks like mud and brick. Kids pick through mountains of trash. American University in Cairo is very wealthy. It’s sometimes easy to forget the fact that we are living in a place that is classified as a third-world or developing country, but it’s starting to show. Last week there was a major water shortage. Water was shut off to our campus for several days, meaning no drinking water or toilet water. Even bottled water is scarce in some areas.A few days ago, we went to Giza to see the pyramids. Horses and donkeys pulled carts of produce or textiles. One man led a camel across a fast-paced street amid honks and shouts in Arabic. Women in niqabs walked toward shops or side roads, dragging children along behind them.The pyramids were beautiful and bigger than any of us could have envisioned. We saw the sphinx and took pictures next to camels or sitting on pyramid blocks.But what I noticed most were the people at the base — the vendors. Street children here are common. They are often without birth certificates or parents, living on the streets by begging or selling souvenirs to tourists. At the pyramids, very young children had learned enough English to hold plastic pyramids or postcards and say, “$1? $1?”We always said no. One boy, jokingly, grinned and held up a post card and said, “One million dollar?”It’s also easy to forget that Cairo can be dangerous.Last week, I took a survival Arabic course. Our teacher was friendly and middle-aged, a mother and wife. Often between Arabic lessons, talk of culture would surface. She repeated herself, telling us one thing.“It is a different Egypt now.” She means it’s different because of the revolution. Jan. 25 and 28 are dates that need no explanation here, the two most important days of the revolution last year. Many Egyptians know people who died for Egypt during the riots, and they all have stories from living when former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ruled.But many Egyptians aren’t happy with the Egypt that has grown out of the revolution, at least not in the short term. It’s more dangerous now. Street violence never used to be an issue, and now it is. Women are touched or pinched in daylight on the street. Police don’t respond to calls. The politicians aren’t of the caliber most Egyptians hoped for.Egypt is a nation with seemingly insurmountable problems. But when Egyptians look to the government, there’s something I haven’t seen in America in a long time: hope. Things aren’t great now, but the people have hope that the government and President Mohamed Morsi will work to make it better. Egyptians’ love of their country trumps its troubles.It’s refreshing to see, coming from a country so cynical and tired as America, since the United States has entered election season. In a lot of ways, we’ve lost hope in our government. I don’t know how Egyptians manage such hope for change after facing not just years but centuries of oppression by various groups or leaders, but they do. To me, that’s pretty amazing.
A camel rests near one of the Great Pyramids at Giza on the outskirts of Cairo. Near Giza, horses and donkeys pull carts of produce an textiles.
Vendors sell souvenirs to tourists at the base of the Great Pyramids at Giza. Street children often approach travelers to sell them postcards and plastic replica pyramids.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As our plane descended into Cairo, my face was glued to the window. It was unlike anything I’d seen before. Miles of sand-colored skyscrapers sprawled out over the desert, all clustered in bunches around the massive Nile River. I thought the plane glass was dirty because there was a haze surrounding the buildings. The person next to me said, “No, that’s the smog.” I think the haze around Cairo is fitting, because that’s kind of how it feels to be here. Hazy. The jet lag doesn’t help. The heat isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it’s definitely hot, especially considering the fact that women have to cover our skin.The heat takes some getting used to, but the language even more so. Many people here don’t speak English, and the ones who don’t are the people I’ve come into contact with so far. They work the restaurants, shops and taxis. They’re happy to try and work with my broken Arabic, but it’s challenging. And, as us students have quickly realized, our lack of Arabic language fluency leaves us extremely vulnerable. It’s not so bad for me because I have wavy, brown hair and Grecian skin. I’m still obviously American to Egyptians, but I’ve already noticed I’m less likely to be ripped off when paying for things than a blonde haired, blue-eyed girl on the trip.Everywhere we’ve gone, the Egyptians point at us, but then smile and wave, especially the children. They’re eager to talk with us. That’s a nice change, considering many other countries aren’t so fond of Americans. In a way, it’s strange we are so welcomed in Egypt, of all places. I’ve found that the only place Egyptians aren’t respectful is on the road. Imagine driving in a big American city, like New York or Chicago. Now, triple the amount of traffic. Then remove all stop signs and stoplights. That’s Cairo. Every time we have driven so far, some part of me has been convinced we are going to die. Or, at the very least, we will hit someone trying to cross the seven-lane street, Frogger-style. We got a fair tour of the city because we went to Old Cairo, or Coptic Cairo as it’s sometimes called. Coptic is the form of Christianity here. We saw the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Cairo. According to legend, it’s located at the site of the burning bush. In modern times, it’s simply a place where controversy echoes because it’s nestled between a church and a mosque. It is well guarded by police for fear of terrorism. There is still much friction between Israelis and Egyptians. We saw the church where the Holy Family is said to have lived during their several years in Egypt after fleeing King Herod. Then, we saw the mosque of Amr Ibn al-As, the oldest mosque in Cairo. To enter, all women had to wear robes that covered our arms, legs and hair completely. Both sexes had to remove their shoes. Every day here is punctuated by religion, literally and metaphorically. Five times a day, the call to prayer, or adhan, rings through the city through loud speakers. Most women walk about in niqabs, the black robes showing only a woman’s eyes, burqas, which show only the face or hijabs. Some men walk about in long tunics that go to their feet. Then, there’s us: the Americans in our jeans, t-shirts and cardigans. I’ve never been a minority before, but I think I’m starting to understand what that feels like, to live in a country where you go against every possible norm. Despite the heat and the smog, I like it here already. And we’ve only been here for less than two days. I can’t wait for this haze to clear so I can truly see what Cairo is all about.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Four months doesn’t sound like a long time. 120 days. 18 weekends. Two holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. A single semester. But if you think about it in terms of college years, it’s an eternity. I’ll leave Friday to live and study in Cairo for four months. I’ll spend an eighth of my college career in a foreign country, making new friends who, after the semester, I probably won’t see again. I’m going to miss 21st birthday celebrations with my best friends — my own birthday included. I’ll come back to inside jokes that I don’t understand and stories to share that no one back home comprehends. In the last week I’ve had enough goodbye meals and coffee to feed a city. Even distant friends have come out of the woodwork to bid me farewell or at least make a request. “Please don’t die or get arrested in Egypt.” It’s funny to me that this is their primary concern, because the school seems to agree. Most of my preparation to go to Egypt has been based on staying safe and healthy.For the sake of transparency, I must admit I’ve studied abroad twice before. I lived in Berlin for a summer in high school and in London last summer. But preparing for Egypt has been an incomparable experience. I’m not saying that it’s better or worse, easier or harder, to go to a non-European destination. I’m saying it’s completely different. To go to Egypt, I have had to sign more waivers than I possibly have the rest of my life combined. Some of them are the standard study abroad waivers. But, as I’m going to a place that could qualify as African or Middle Eastern, many have been more interesting.For example, I signed one form stating I recognize I’ll put myself at risk of danger from “wild cats.” I signed another to say I know I’ll be in a territory with known terrorist activity. A third was to reassure the Egyptian government that I have no intention to become pregnant while in Egypt.For the record, the latter is not a goal of mine.After the paperwork came the doctors’ appointments.I went to a special travel office to get the required vaccines. They lectured me about Egyptian health risks like bleeding fevers, West Nile virus, sun sickness, scorpion stings and contaminated water. To get into Egypt, I had to get a blood test and papers confirming my HIV status. I was the first HIV test my nurse had ever done. I’ll let you imagine her reaction.To top it off, I am also bringing enough medication with me to run a small pharmacy.It sounds scary, and at first it was. But at some point, you’ve just got to accept it as part of the adventure. Besides, all the people who have been to Egypt have told me three things: it’s beautiful, safer than expected, and I’m going to love it. My parents will drive me to the airport Friday. The travel time to get there is about 20 hours, and Egypt is currently six hours ahead of Bloomington time. I’ll live in a dormitory on an island in the Nile an hour away from campus.I’m sad to go. The goodbyes seem endless, and I know when I return, things will be different. But the fact that I’m so sad means I have something awesome to come home to at the end of all this. I can only hope I’ll be this dismal at the end of my time in Cairo and for the same reasons.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When people find out I’m leaving in a few weeks to study in Cairo, I generally get one of two reactions: excitement or terror.After the reaction come the questions: Do you have to cover your hair? Don’t they have Shariah law in Egypt? Can women drive there? Can they wear jeans? Aren’t there terrorists in Egypt? Or more seriously, why Egypt?How are your parents handling it?Aren’t you scared?First of all, let’s get a few things straight: I do not have to cover my hair in Egypt, as I am not Muslim. This is something women do by choice, according to their religious beliefs. Although women are culturally treated differently there, they can drive. They can work. They can most definitely wear jeans. Egypt does not operate according to Shariah law — not by a long shot. To the terrorist question, I ask — aren’t there terrorists everywhere, including America? Terrorism isn’t exclusively Arab.The other questions aren’t so easily answered. I never really thought about why I was going to Egypt until it was already decided. It’s this mix of intense interest in the politics, religions, culture and history of the region. I’ve always been interested in Egypt, even as a kid. Having grown up in post-9/11 America, our fear of the Middle East interests me further. I want to understand how this one place can evoke such questions and instill such fear in so many Americans. I want to know how the Middle East came to be America’s boogeyman, and if it even deserves that title.But it took my parents a long time to understand my reasoning. I think it’s fair to say most parents wouldn’t exactly endorse their 20-year-old daughter living alone in the Middle East for four months. Mine were no exception. People have openly told my parents and siblings they are crazy and horrible for letting me do this. A few weeks back, I asked my mom why they were letting me go. She laughed at my question and said, “Hannah, you didn’t give us much of a choice.” In the beginning, my parents scoffed and thought I was bluffing when I said I wanted to study abroad in Egypt. When I actually applied, the panic began to set in. This was, thankfully, followed by acceptance. Now, they’re more excited than scared for me to have this opportunity. I’m not sure the same is entirely true for me. Don’t get me wrong. I’m excited, but I’m nervous. To go, not only to the Middle East but as a woman, is daunting. I won’t be able to drink most of the water or eat fresh food if it hasn’t been rinsed in bleach. I’ll have to wear clothing that shows only my hands, wrists, feet and face, despite desert heat. I’m traveling alone, and I don’t know anyone there. And none of that considers the language barrier, which, despite several semesters of Arabic, I’m sure will be vast. But I will get to see the pyramids. I’ll get to look out on the Nile. I’ll get to walk through Tahrir Square and see mummies in their native land. I’m scared, excited and nervous. I know it’s going to be rough, but I also have faith it will be worth it. In this column, I’m hoping to answer the questions I’ve been asked for months. Do Egyptians have the same distrust of Americans as we have of them? How are women actually treated there? Do people really ride camels? I’m hoping to tell you what it’s like to live there and to shed some small bit of light on our misunderstanding of the Middle East. Maybe the boogeyman won’t be so scary after all.— hannsmit@indiana.edu
Attendees walk through the rain Jan. 4 at the Super Bowl Village in Indianapolis. Local businesses reported an increase in customers the week before the game.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WonderLab’s First Friday Evening Science of Art event will take place from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Friday. The event will explore the science behind dance. Windfall Dancers will perform on the B-Line Trail outside of the museum as well as inside WonderLab, said Andrea Oeding, assistant gallery manager for WonderLab. Visitors can also participate in activities related to the science behind dance such as kinetics, movement and balance. “One of them is a mobile that’s mimicked after an Alexander Calder mobile, the first person that invented mobiles,” Oeding said. “Then the second activity is a zoetrope, which is kind of a moving picture.” Oeding said the kids will be able to draw or color pre-printed drawings of dancers that they can watch move through their zoetrope.The Science of Art events used to take place in February, but this January, WonderLab programmers decided to sponsor the events the first Friday evening of every month, Oeding said. This way, the event can use the nice weather during warmer seasons. “We like that a lot better for the use of our garden space and the B-Line,” Oeding said. Although sometimes the science behind the art can seem hard to find, Oeding said she’s been surprised by how much the two rely on each other. “Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how those two fields relate to each other,” Oeding said. “But in general, we’ve been surprised also by how many artists have science backgrounds and know a lot about the science behind their art. So a lot of times, it works out that they start to explain their art and they talk about science while they’re doing it.”The projects at the event will demonstrate the science concepts from the artist. Oeding said anyone is welcome to come and participate in the event and its projects. She said they try to make projects interesting enough that both young children and adults can enjoy them. “We always hope for about 300 or 350 because it’s about as much as the museum can hold,” she said. “But more realistically, we’re hoping 200 to 250 maybe, and that would be great. But we always shoot for about 300 and try to have enough activities for about 200 people to do, knowing that not all of the parents are going to do them or not every member of the family will do them.”Admission to the event is half the normal admission price of the museum, $3.50 per person. Members can get in for free. Oeding said adults can get as much out of the event and projects as the kids. “A lot of the times, it’s something they haven’t tried before, or it’s not been something they’ve tried for a while,” Oeding said. “Once you stop taking art classes in school, you might not pick up a paintbrush or a colored pencil for a while.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The State of the Bloomington Regional Economy report, released last week by the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation, showed gains in several sectors.“I think some of the interesting stuff, and if you think about the recession going off around the world the last few years, it had a lot to do with housing prices and people’s housing values,” said Ron Walker, Bloomington Economic Development Corporation president. “When you look at how many housing units have been sold in the first three months of 2012, it was almost an 8 percent increase over the same period a year ago.”Walker said prices for housing in Bloomington have also increased. “That means it’s good for sellers and a little tougher for buyers, but it tends to show you that the economy is improving and that this is becoming a more valuable place and that people are willing to pay more to be here,” he said. The report also examined how jobs in particular industries are predicted to increase or decrease during the next year. “One of the surprising things was how many life sciences jobs we expect,” Walker said. “We’re up to 1,000 new jobs in the next 12 to 18 months, and that’s more than we expected these companies would say.”Walker said the large student population in Bloomington does skew the results of the report, but the corporation expects this and is able to account for it. “It skews it in a couple ways,” he said. “Because of the student population here, we tend to appear as one of the poorest communities. It also skews it in another way in that because of the student population, there’s a lot of housing demand. People make a lot of money renting places to students, and so it drives up rent.”Walker said the corporation is looking to try and grow several local industries. “We’re really focused on the IT and tech sector here because it typically pays well and it doesn’t require a lot of resources and infrastructure to grow those industries,” he said. He said they are also interested in growing the life science industries. “We have a lot of expertise in that area, and we have an abundant supply of water, and if you’re making pharmaceuticals, you use water quite a bit,” Walker said. “And we also have good energy production.”Walker said the point of the report is to track trends for the Bloomington area. “It was an idea that came up in our marketing committee as a way to provide a big group of people some fairly comprehensive information on the economy,” Walker said. “You can get some indicators on how we’re doing and all in one spot.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The City of Bloomington Commission on Aging will sponsor the second annual Creative Aging Festival during May to celebrate Older Americans Month. The event begins May 1. The festival will include a series of different events aimed at highlighting artistic talents of older adults, said Julie Hill, chair of the creative aging festival committee.“Probably this year’s highlight events are that there’s a creative aging symposium, which is an all-day workshop for professionals, and also a really cool presentation from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City,” Hill said. “The last session is the future of community-based programs for older adults. It’s kind of a panel discussion.” Hill said these events will be ongoing throughout May and that people of any age are invited and encouraged to participate. Several of the objectives are aimed at enhancing understanding and respect between different generations, Hill said.“The first objective is to showcase the talents and skills of both first-time older artists and performers. And you don’t have to be a seasoned, lifetime artist. You can be a first-time artist in order to be showcased,” Hill said. “And then the second objective is to promote intergenerational understanding through dialogue, sharing traditions, storytelling, that sort of thing. The third objective is to enhance awareness about the value of creative engagement to adult health and well-being.”Hill said the festival is also in response to a wider global trend of viewing aging in a more positive light. “One of the most profound changes is the way of seeing older adults, and it’s moving from kind of the concept of deficit and need-based to stressing the assets approach,” Hill said. “That’s one of the things we’re really trying to promote, is to get people to see aging as not a disease process, but there’s a whole host of positive potential aspects that come with the aging process.”Hill said the local shops or businesses are encouraged to participate by sponsoring their own events related to the creative aging theme. A full list of events can be found at bloomington.in.gov/coa. Hill stressed that students are welcome to participate in the event because of the need for people to foster creativity in the older community. “I think that overall society doesn’t really value that, so we’re really trying to paint a new, more positive aspect and celebrate the success of aging,” Hill said.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Shahar Arieli, the deputy consulate consul general of the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest in Chicago, was in Bloomington this week. He was invited by members of the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center and gave a talk there about Middle Eastern politics. His job entails promoting relations between Israel and Midwestern states and nurturing cultural and educational cooperation between the U.S. and Israel. The IDS asked Arieli about his job and his thoughts about the current state of Israel. IDS Why should a 20-year-old in Indiana be interested in what’s occurring in Israel or even just Israel in general? ARIELI First of all, I would like to say that we have been speaking about only one aspect of the state of Israel — the political conflict that we have, unfortunately, with our neighbors. But Israel is much, much more, whether it is an attractive tourist destination, whether it is a high-tech superpower. Israel, because of a lack of natural resources, we had to develop the only resource that we really had, which is the human resource. And our economy’s mainly based on high tech and export of high tech. It is a well-known fact that Israel, after the Silicon Valley, Israel has the highest number of startup companies in high-tech, so that is another aspect of the state of Israel. Tel Aviv — we call it ‘the city that never sleeps.’ It’s really a party town. From all my trips in the U.S., the trip that reminds me the most of Tel Aviv is Miami Beach, Florida. The climate, the architecture. This sort of bathhouse architecture. Yeah, and this atmosphere of 24-hours parties. Like Tel Aviv on the beachline, you’ll see people walking at 4 a.m. It’s a vibrant city ... and for Americans, Israel is the one true friend America has in the Middle East, which is an important part of the world, certainly in terms of strategic interests. Israel is one island of stability and democracy that is always on the side of the U.S. I can tell you that in Israel on independence days, people actually put the American flag on cars alongside the Israeli flags. You will not see that in any other country in the Middle East. You will see American flags, but they won’t be on cars. They’ll be, you know, burned in the streets.IDS How do you think the Arab Spring affected Israel? Because American news outlets didn’t really focus on that. ARIELI I would say I want to be optimistic in the long range and hope that as more and more countries in the Middle East will turn democratic, hopefully, then Israel will not be so unique. We will be just one democracy out of many. And that, you know, it is a fact of history that never two democracies were involved in a war between them, and there’s a reason for that. But in the short range, we do see that everywhere the Arab Spring gets to, extremism follows, and the forces which are rising in the short range are the extremist forces. So we are concerned, obviously. One thing for sure is that Israel cannot really get involved in that because even if we want to support those pro-democratic forces in the Arab world, if we openly support them, that will be the kiss of death for them. Because Israel is perceived in such a negative way by the Arab people. They don’t like Israel, so everyone that we support will become either a traitor or an accomplice with Israel, and we don’t want to do that to them.IDS Since there have always been tensions since Israel’s creation between it and its neighbors, do you think it can ever really be resolved? ARIELI It’s difficult to see an end to this complicated situation right now because the truth of the matter is Israel was never really accepted into the region by the neighbors. In the beginning, they openly called for the destruction of Israel. They said we should throw the Jews to the sea. Now they understand that they can’t really say it in this way because it won’t be accepted, so they say other things. But the fact is that in the Middle East, except for Egypt and Jordan, who have disagreements with us, all the other countries of the Middle East don’t recognize us. Even the (Palestinian) government is saying they are for what they call the “right of return,” which means millions of Palestinians should enter Israel, therefore turning it into a Palestinian state. It’s not easy, but I think the understanding in the Middle East now is that Israel is here to stay, and they will have to make compromises, as well as we understand that we have to make compromises. It’s not only on their part. Israel has to make compromises for peace, but the other side must be ready to accept the existence of the state of Israel. If we can do that, then we will go a long way in making compromises.IDS Anything else to add?ARIELI Speaking on Middle East politics, I think that maybe the number-one issue right now for the safety and stability for the Middle East, and the world, I would say, is the Iranian nuclear project and how to stop it.IDS You think it needs to be stopped?ARIELI It has to be stopped. Otherwise, once they develop a nuclear bomb, you will see other countries in the region, mainly Arab countries who are neighbors of Iran — you will see Saudi Arabia, you will see Egypt — you will see other countries developing nuclear weapons, and then you will have a nuclear arms race in the area where most of the oil reserves of the world are located, and you know regimes which are not exactly stable, not exactly democratic, you don’t want that. I think you know we are on the right track ... We have been warning, I think seven years before 9/11, that the Iranian danger for the Western world comes from this sort of religious extremism that comes from the Middle East and nuclear weapons, when you combine them together. Which is what Iran is trying to do. They are extremist. If you combine these two elements together, then you can have something that is going to make 9/11 look like child’s play.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A health fair at Razor’s Image barbershop will offer free blood pressure, cholestorol, diabetes, HIV and body mass index screenings next week.The Bloomington Black Barbershop Health Initiative event will be 9 a.m. to noon April 28 at Razor’s Image barbershop, 223 Pete Ellis Drive, and is open to people of any age, race or gender.Health Projects Manager Nancy Wooler said the city’s Community and Family Resources Department helped plan the event. “African-American men have higher incidence of diabetes, hypertension, prostate cancer, than white men,” Woolery said. Greg Tourner, chair for the Commission on the Status of Black Males in Indiana, also helped plan the local event. “Some of the things that we did to prepare for this is we met with the Indiana Commission on the Status of Black Males,” he said. “We conference called to understand what our goals were that we wanted to accomplish with this barbershop health fair.”Tourner said the state gave them the goal of having 100 participants in this year’s barbershop health fair. However, Woolery said she will consider 30 to 50 participants a success. “We’re hoping that we have a pretty good turnout,” Tourner said. Tourner also said they have been working with several partners to sponsor the event, including IU Health Bloomington Hospital and the Omega Psi Phi fraternity at IU.“We have testing supplies and everything being donated by IU Health, which is a big help,” Tourner said. Omega Psi Phi sponsored a similar event earlier this year, Tourner said. This helped Bloomington to be selected as a participating city. “In January, this past year, we ran a mock barbershop health fair partnering with Omega Psi Phi fraternity,” Tourner said. “We sent staffers in order to understand what we would endure in the April 28 event. So, that helped us get a leg up.”Woolery said all testing is free, and no appointment is required. She also said they ask participants to fast for 12 hours before a cholestorol test. “We’re just hoping that it’ll be successful and we’ll get a good turnout, and we’re trying to get the word around as much as possible,” Woolery said.
Editor’s note: Doug Wilson was the speaker for the controversial “Sexual by Design” lecture Friday. Unavailable for comment in the previous story that ran in the IDS on Monday, Wilson spoke with the IDS to discuss his take on the event, during which numerous people protested and one person was arrested.