STICKS AND STONES

Journalists are known to have a way with words, but recently, writers and editors have taken the scandalous headlines, mudslinging and cursing a tad too far, and conservative readers are fast becoming disgusted by all the foul language.

Last month, the dirty laundry came out not only in the morning papers, but on live satellite airwaves as well. Millions of viewers worldwide watching their favorite late-night talk show, the hugely popular Al-Qahira Al-Youm (which is aired on satellite across the region and in Europe) were sickened into switching their TV sets off as Dr. Abdel Halim Qandil, editor-in-chief of Al-Karama newspaper, and Karam Gabr, Rose El-Youssef’s chairman of the board, thrashed it out, calling each other names including “donkey” and “insect.”

The name-calling quickly escalated into a full-blown mudslinging match while mediator Amr Adib failed to, well, mediate.

Adib later came under fire from Tamer Bassiouni on national television’s popular El-Beit Beitak’s evening talk show. Bassiouni attacked Adib for his refusal to accept a fatwa issued by Grand Mufti of Egypt Ali Gomaa allowing the installation of mobile base stations above mosques. In turn, Adib called on Bassiouni to step back and learn to respect others. Amid public outcry against the unacceptable state of Egypt’s media campaigns, Galal Aref, head of the Journalists’ Syndicate, called for a committee to be formed to admonish wayward journalists.

A meeting of all editors-in-chief was also held to discuss the problem. (NM)

Mohsen Allam Disasters continue to plague Egypt’s transportation network

El-Beit Beitak saw another battle on air last month, this time between presidential Chief-of-Staff Zakaria Azmy and outspoken Minister of State for Economic Development (then-Minister for Planning and Local Development) Othman Mohammed Othman.

The war of the words erupted during a program discussing the collapse of a 12-story building going up in Shubra. The falling building crushed neighboring homes and forced residents into the streets — literally. With a court order banning the removal of any of the evidence, which includes the hapless residents’ belongings, the homeless families had no choice but to sleep on the streets in front of the rubble. Residents of two adjacent buildings were evacuated as the collapse violently shook their walls and resulted in massive cracks and gashes.

Azmy tore into Othman for his sluggish reaction in forming a committee of consultants and supervisors from Shubra University’s Faculty of Agriculture after the court order. The forming of the committee — intended to first inspect the site before declaring it safe for victims to collect their belongings — was allegedly delayed because the dean of the faculty was on holiday.

Less than two weeks later, Azmy was in the hot seat himself after his wife’s cousin was appointed dean at an Alexandria University faculty. Azmy pre-empted critics when he released a statement the morning of the appointment saying he had exerted no influence in procuring the position for a member of his extended family.

Mohsen Allam Avian flu has come home to roost.

That day’s edition of Al-Masry Al-Youm, however, carried a short article questioning the cousin’s eligibility and hinting that toes were stepped upon for the appointment to go through. Azmy has since asked for an investigation into the claims. The chief of staff has said he will push the Minister of Higher Education to remove his wife’s cousin himself if the claims prove well founded. (NM)

The mystery of the Bani Mazar murders and mutilations continued as the Minya Felony Court acquitted Mohammed Abdel Latif, 28, last month. Abdel Latif was the only person charged in the slaying of 10 people from three families and the subsequent mutilation of their bodies. (The sex organs of all male victims were removed.)

The court refused to convict Abdel Latif because of discrepancies between coroners’ reports. The victims’ families were baffled as they watched the family and friends of the accused cheer in jubilation. After all, the arrest was fairly quick, and the police were certain they had caught the true culprit, declaring him mentally unstable the minute he was in custody.

The families of the accused have promised to wage a vendetta against Abdel Latif and his family. At least 23 members of Abdel Latif’s family are believed to be under police protection.

Omar Mohsen AUC’s Wissa Wassef Art Center will receive part of a new $127,450 grant.

Abdel Latif’s lawyer, the high-profile MP Talaat Sadat, had spearheaded a media campaign against Minister of Interior Habib El-Adly ever since he took on the case, and the battle has only intensified since the acquittal. “The Ministry [of Interior]’s insistence that Mohammed [Abdel Latif] is the murderer was meant to mislead the public,” he told the press, adding that he expects all sorts of “horrendous crimes to take place in the coming time” because the true murderers are still on the loose.

According to Sadat, whom the victims’ families have also vowed to punish, the case against Abdel Latif was flimsy. He alleges that one account stated the accused had said he hid the murder weapon in a pile of manure, then said he took it out and threw it in the canal. Later, Sadat claims, the account says Abdel Latif says he did not remember how he committed his murders, nor did he remember where the weapon was.

Sadat adds that the shoes said to have belonged to Abdel Latif, which had traces of blood on them, were much too small for the accused.

The coroner’s report ultimately stated that the accused lacked the motive, the weapon and the opportunity to commit the murders at the said times, while another report from Abassiyya Mental Health Hospital declared that Abdel Latif was mentally competent to stand trial. (MJ)

It’s back: The potentially lethal H5N1 avian-flu strain that caused the poultry industry some LE 2 billion in losses over a period of less than three months resurfaced in Egypt early last month. The news threatens what was once a LE 17-billion industry that employed as many as 1.5 million people, while producing 750-800 million chickens a year.

Just as the industry was seeing an increase in production and a continuous (and much welcomed) decline in poultry prices, the highly pathogenic strain once again raised its head, with 28 outbreaks reported at press time, all of them in chicken flocks.

Health officials announced during the first week of September that the virus had been detected in three locations in the capital city and at a fourth in the governorate of Sohag, south of Cairo. All infected poultry has since been culled, and people in contact with the infected birds have all tested negative for the virus.

“The strain is currently under control in poultry. There are no new human infections [yet], but human infection is possible, especially because 26 out of 28 sites were found in domestic poultry. Thus, citizens should be careful when approaching live fowl,” cautioned Minister of Health and Population Hatem El-Gabali.

These have been the first cases of avian flu in birds in over three months. Since its initial emergence in Egypt last February, avian flu has relentlessly attacked 20 of Egypt’s 26 governorates, prompting a cull of over 20 million birds to contain the virus. It has also infected 14 Egyptians, killing six, with the last human case dating back to May.

The government has once again enforced a precautionary ban on selling live birds in shops, as well as on transport of poultry from one governorate to another — only allowing the transport of specially inspected birds. Domestic poultry breeding has also been entirely prohibited in urban areas. The ban on hunting migratory birds will remain in effect for the upcoming 2006-07 season.

In a bid to further curb the spread of the disease, the Ministry of Information launched a media campaign last month to once again raise people’s awareness of the nature of the virus and means of avoiding infection. (SM)

Another bad month for Egypt’s transportation network saw the sinking of a dredger in the Suez Canal. The accident, which happened mid-September, claimed the lives of at least three crew members, with a fourth still missing at press time. The sinking briefly closed the canal’s eastern channel and 10 large vessels had to be turned away, as they were too big to negotiate the western channel. The canal has since re-opened.

Meanwhile, British veterans have attacked their government for failing to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Suez Crisis, believing that their sacrifices have been forgotten because the crisis remains a political embarrassment.

The British Ministry of Defense denied it had snubbed the veterans. A spokeswoman said that Tom Watson, then the minister of veterans affairs, attended a fiftieth anniversary event in May at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. She said the MoD funded a fly-past, a band and a team to help with logistics.

“The MoD are being a bit cheeky to claim the credit,” argued David Hickman, secretary of the Suez and Middle East Veterans Club in London and the Southeast. “I know because I had to organize it myself with the committee. There was not very much support from the government. They did provide some funding, but it wasn’t a great deal and we had to rely on a lottery grant. We would like an event in October or November as well. I did have a word with the Prime Minister when I met him at Number 10 [Downing Street], but we didn’t say too much about it. I am not a political person, but I do think some effort should have been made. It was still a battle, still a war, still active service, and a lot of men died.” (NM)

The American University in Cairo’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library has received a grant of $127,450 from the US National Endowment for the Humanities to preserve and improve access to the archives of Hassan Fathy and Ramses Wissa Wassef, two of Egypt’s most prominent twentieth-century architects, renowned for their use of traditional elements, such as domes and vaults, wooden mashrabeyya screens, and mud brick construction, in their buildings.

In a press release, AUC announced, “The grant will go toward cleaning and repairing items in the Rare Books Library’s conservation laboratory and transferring materials to archival storage containers to ensure that they are preserved for future generations. Detailed descriptions will also be created to promote awareness of the collections and to enhance researchers’ ability to locate materials of interest.

The collection includes a record of indigenous Egyptian building styles, such as Fathy’s photographs of Nubian houses which were submerged by waters rising behind the Aswan High Dam in the early 1960s. The preservation project will increase access to AUC’s Fathy and Wissa Wassef collections to expand knowledge of the architects’ work and their efforts to apply traditional solutions to modern issues of housing in Egypt and other countries with desert climates.” (NM)

“OK, your holiness, two choices left: the sledgehammer and the fly swatter. Which should be used to kill the fly?

2trillion dollars, the estimated sum a bird flu pandemic among humans could cost the global economy. The figure was issued by the World Bank last month, a sharp increase from earlier estimates.

5percent, the expected increase in the price of electricity this month. The decision, which had not been confirmed at press time, comes in the wake of a 30 percent increase in oil prices, which has directly affected electricity stations running on oil.

40million Egyptian pounds, the amount of money spent by the government on floral arrangements last year, according to a report from a local auditing authority. The report also alleges that LE 317 million was spent on paving and repaving sidewalks which were already in good condition.

480Egyptian pounds, the new price of the long-term anti-virus Hepatitis C drug Interferon, down from LE 1,302. The much-needed subsidy was ordered by Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali last month, who also announced that the short-term unit would be slashed from LE 77 to LE 45.

5,the number of members of a Sudanese family from war-torn Darfur who were arrested while attempting to illegally cross from Egypt to Israel, where they were seeking asylum. The refugees told authorities they paid Bedouin smugglers $2,000 to help them sneak through the Egypt-Gaza border. No Bedouins were arrested. According to the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which offers free medical treatment to illegal residents and foreign workers, up to 200 people are smuggled from Egypt into Israel each year.

5,the number of bureaus set up in Africa by the Al-Jazeera network for its new 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel, Al-Jazeera International, headquartered in Doha. Bureaus will open in Cairo, Abidjan, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Harare. et

Newsreel is written by Fatima El-Saadani, Sherine El-Madany, Manal el-Jesri and Noha Mohammed