A piece in Al-Masry al-Youm (English) on the last days of the Egyptian pork industry, as we approach the first anniversary of the great pig cull of 2009. In a few weeks, the country's biggest pork processor will run out of its stock of frozen meat, and with the herds virtually eliminated, the industry is dying.
As the story notes, though the pig farmers themselves received financial compensation for the culled pigs, the others who made their living off pigs, from the zabbalin trash collectors to the meat packers and processors, were not so lucky.
And of course, as the names of the various pork processors quoted in the story make clear, this was a Christian industry and the Coptic population has been hit hardest by it, since the Muslim majority do not eat pork.
And Egypt had many cases of Swine Flu anyway, none of it apparently vectored through swine.
Showing posts with label swine flu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swine flu. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Hajj in the Age of H1N1
I haven't yet posted anything about this year's Hajj, but the month of Dhu'l-Hijja (literally, the month "of the hajj") begins today and the Saudis have announced that the crescent moon was seen last night and thus the Day of ‘Arafat — the second and central day of the hajj — will fall on Thursday, December 26: the same day as Thanksgiving in the US. The ‘Id al-‘Adha celebrated by Muslims worldwide will also occur over the US Thanksgiving weekend this year. (I'd better write my holiday posts ahead of time: my family won't let me blog during Thanksgiving dinner.)
The hajj is often billed as the largest gathering of human beings in one place, at one time, for a single purpose, on earth, and I can't think of what other claimant to that title there might be. Up to three million people assemble in Mecca for the days of the hajj; though Muslims may make the lesser pilgrimage (‘umra) to Mecca at any time, the hajj only occurs once a year, and is considered a pillar of Islam: incumbent on the believer once in his or her lifetime, if possible. All those millions perform the same ritual on the same days at the same time.
There are always the usual security concerns about the hajj: about large scale movements of crowds that have led to trampling deaths on several occasions; political actions by other pilgrims (Iran was long a major problem on that score), and so on: but this year there's the added factor of the H1N1 virus. The Saudi media has stopped using the term "Swine Flu" so far as I can see (it would be pretty inappropriate in this context, anyway). But concern over a mass outbreak due to the large crowds gathered for the hajj has been under discussion for some time. As far back as the first stirrings of the virus last spring, Egyptian clerics were suggesting suspending the hajj or other drastic measures. The Saudis seem determined to encourage people to make the pilgrimage, while discouraging those who might be especially vulnerable and, of course, seeking to screen out any infected pilgrims at the point of entry.
For details in English language media, I can refer you to a CNN report, a Saudi Gazette article about the Army of health professionals checking arriving pilgrims at Jidda Airport, a somewhat overlapping Arab News story about precautions taken by the Health Ministry, etc.
As the hajj approaches I'll no doubt have more to say.
The hajj is often billed as the largest gathering of human beings in one place, at one time, for a single purpose, on earth, and I can't think of what other claimant to that title there might be. Up to three million people assemble in Mecca for the days of the hajj; though Muslims may make the lesser pilgrimage (‘umra) to Mecca at any time, the hajj only occurs once a year, and is considered a pillar of Islam: incumbent on the believer once in his or her lifetime, if possible. All those millions perform the same ritual on the same days at the same time.
There are always the usual security concerns about the hajj: about large scale movements of crowds that have led to trampling deaths on several occasions; political actions by other pilgrims (Iran was long a major problem on that score), and so on: but this year there's the added factor of the H1N1 virus. The Saudi media has stopped using the term "Swine Flu" so far as I can see (it would be pretty inappropriate in this context, anyway). But concern over a mass outbreak due to the large crowds gathered for the hajj has been under discussion for some time. As far back as the first stirrings of the virus last spring, Egyptian clerics were suggesting suspending the hajj or other drastic measures. The Saudis seem determined to encourage people to make the pilgrimage, while discouraging those who might be especially vulnerable and, of course, seeking to screen out any infected pilgrims at the point of entry.
For details in English language media, I can refer you to a CNN report, a Saudi Gazette article about the Army of health professionals checking arriving pilgrims at Jidda Airport, a somewhat overlapping Arab News story about precautions taken by the Health Ministry, etc.
As the hajj approaches I'll no doubt have more to say.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Egypt and the Pig Cull: Now, Garbage in the Streets
Because I don't post on weekends I didn't comment on this New York Times article on the second thoughts in Egypt about the pig cull earlier this year. But since I posted plenty of comments on the absurdity of the cull at the time — a classic case of letting bureaucracy and public panic (about the name "swine flu") drive policy — it's worth noting the aftermath as the (Pig ghosts?) come home to roost.
The problem: the garbage in Cairo has always been hauled by the zabbalin, which just means garbagemen, who lived in slums out at the foot of the Muqattam hills. They hauled the garbage, fed it to their pigs, and raised the pigs accordingly. Without the pigs, they have no real use for the garbage. The zabbalin are Copts, naturally (no Muslim will deal with pigs) and not the most popular social group. But they performed an essential service.
Now, both in protest of the pig cull and for other reasons, the garbage collectors are not picking up the garbage. So we have poor parts of town drowning in garbage and the better quarters piling up with stink. We get headlines like "Cairo Schools Inundated with Refuse". I'm not even going to try to link to all the stories. Garbage is piling up in Giza, in Heliopolis, in the best neighborhoods, and the poorer neighborhoods are just swamped.
The NYT article has a picture of fat-tailed sheep (originally identified as goats; lovely NYT correction at the end of the story, though I think two of them are goats) who aren't doing nearly as good a job as the pigs.
Perhaps the world needs to ship a new resupply of pigs to Egypt, but oh, my, that would raise problems with the religious authorities.
Think before you act. Deeds have consequences. You cannot remove a species entirely from an ecosystem without effect. The pigs ate the garbage. Bureaucrats killed all the pigs. Nothing is eating the garbage. (Should we make the bureaucrats eat ... no, that would be wrong.)
I love Cairo. It deserves smarter governors.
The problem: the garbage in Cairo has always been hauled by the zabbalin, which just means garbagemen, who lived in slums out at the foot of the Muqattam hills. They hauled the garbage, fed it to their pigs, and raised the pigs accordingly. Without the pigs, they have no real use for the garbage. The zabbalin are Copts, naturally (no Muslim will deal with pigs) and not the most popular social group. But they performed an essential service.
Now, both in protest of the pig cull and for other reasons, the garbage collectors are not picking up the garbage. So we have poor parts of town drowning in garbage and the better quarters piling up with stink. We get headlines like "Cairo Schools Inundated with Refuse". I'm not even going to try to link to all the stories. Garbage is piling up in Giza, in Heliopolis, in the best neighborhoods, and the poorer neighborhoods are just swamped.
The NYT article has a picture of fat-tailed sheep (originally identified as goats; lovely NYT correction at the end of the story, though I think two of them are goats) who aren't doing nearly as good a job as the pigs.
Perhaps the world needs to ship a new resupply of pigs to Egypt, but oh, my, that would raise problems with the religious authorities.
Think before you act. Deeds have consequences. You cannot remove a species entirely from an ecosystem without effect. The pigs ate the garbage. Bureaucrats killed all the pigs. Nothing is eating the garbage. (Should we make the bureaucrats eat ... no, that would be wrong.)
I love Cairo. It deserves smarter governors.
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Sheikh and the Saint
An odd little aside here from yet another article about Egypt's controversial ban on mulids, the public celebrations of saints' days, due to swine flu, which I previously blogged about here: the issue is apparently continuing, and this English language report from Al-Masry al-Youm updates the story and, in passing remarks:
Today the people of the Mit Damsees village in Daqahleya begin celebrating moulid of Sheikh Mohamed Abu Bakr el-Seddik and Mar Girgis (Saint George) for five days, after the governor reduced the number of days from eight. The governor is imposing rules, he says, can possibly prevent the spread of H1N1 virus and bird flu, such as banning pork and live birds. Doctors will be available during the celebration.Did you catch it? Yes, the sheikh and Saint George seem to share a mulid. That's actually pretty common in parts of Egypt and North Africa where there are Christian and Muslim communities in the same town: sometimes they each celebrate a saint of their own on the date of the other community's mulid, or Muslims venerate the Christian saint and vice versa. Islamists and Christian hierarchs, of course, don't approve, but then, Islam and Christianity as practiced at the village level find their own ways of accommodating. Think of the Teutonic pagan Christmas trees and mistletoe (or Easter eggs) and you realize that syncretism is an old, old habit.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Can Egypt Successfully Ban Mulids Over Swine Flu? We're About to Find Out
An interesting article on the English site of Al-Misry Al-Youm on Egyptian resentment of the government's efforts to cancel the Mulid Sayyida Zaynab, one of the major festivals of the Egyptian year when the Sufi orders celebrate one of the patronesses of Cairo. Not surprisingly people resent the ban on public celebrations, and tonight would be the big night for the mulid. Can fear of the flu stop one of the biggest popular festivals in Egypt? We're about to find out.
Oh, I don't expect the revolution to begin tonight or anything. But when for any reason (even public health) you start cracking down on public celebrations, you're playing with explosive materials. This particular celebration is particularly interesting because it is traditionally one of Cairo's biggest, brings lots of money into a relatively underprivileged neighborhood, and is particularly popular with women. A little background is in order.
I've not commented much on the swine flu controversy in Egypt lately, though it got a lot of coverage from me earlier, collected here; what changed is that swine flu actually reached Egypt, and thus the overreactions were a little less absurd than when there hadn't been a single case in the whole Middle East.
But one of the government's reactions was to ban the traditional mulids, (mawlids in Classical Arabic), the holy days honoring saints (literally "birthdays" because that's usually the date chosen). The mulids are major popular festivals in Egypt, not just in Cairo but in many provincial towns, each of which has its own traditional saint or saints. Cairo has several. The biggest may be Imam al-Shaf‘i, who is buried in the sprawling southern cemetery known as the City of the Dead; there's an irony in that one because Imam al-Shaf‘i, founder of one of the four Sunni legal schools, didn't like the veneration of saints very much. And now he is one.
But alongside Imam al-Shaf‘i, there are several other patron saints of Cairo, among whom are Sayyidna Hussein, the Prophet's Grandson, whose shrine mosque near al-Azhar is also the scene of a major mulid right in the Khan al-Khalili quarter. Along with Hussein (who is mostly buried in Karbala, Iraq, though Cairo claims some part of him, I think his head), there are two other venerated saints usually more venerated by the Shi‘a than the Sunni: Sayyida Zaynab, granddaughter of the Prophet, and Sayyida Nafisa, a later descendant of the Prophet, great-granddaughter of Imam Hasan.
The point here is that Egypt had its Shi‘ite era: when the Isma‘ili dynasty known as the Fatimids ruled the country. During that time veneration of the Prophet's descendants buried in Cairo became very popular, and continued so when Egypt returned to its Sunni roots.
Sayyida Zaynab and Sayyida Nafisa ("sayyida" tends to become "sitt" in colloquial) are also popular saints among women, because they are women, in the Prophet's line.
The Sufi orders — the tariqas — are very influential in Egypt, and they come out in strength during the mulids. An extremely important expression of popular piety, they have been somewhat eclipsed by political Islamists (who tend to be very anti-Sufi), but they are still a major element in pious religious expression at the grass roots.
The link above to the newspaper account notes the resentments about the cancellation and the intentions of some to try to celebrate anyway. It also notes the fact that some people are going to lose money over the cancellations.
I'm not sure this will work. Popular religious piety tends to override government decrees, in Egypt as elsewhere. This is an unpopular move by all accounts. Cancelling Sayyida Zaynab is like the Grinch stealing Christmas.
I don't think there'll be some huge political result, not immediately and perhaps not ever, but it's still something worth flagging, I think.
Oh, I don't expect the revolution to begin tonight or anything. But when for any reason (even public health) you start cracking down on public celebrations, you're playing with explosive materials. This particular celebration is particularly interesting because it is traditionally one of Cairo's biggest, brings lots of money into a relatively underprivileged neighborhood, and is particularly popular with women. A little background is in order.
I've not commented much on the swine flu controversy in Egypt lately, though it got a lot of coverage from me earlier, collected here; what changed is that swine flu actually reached Egypt, and thus the overreactions were a little less absurd than when there hadn't been a single case in the whole Middle East.
But one of the government's reactions was to ban the traditional mulids, (mawlids in Classical Arabic), the holy days honoring saints (literally "birthdays" because that's usually the date chosen). The mulids are major popular festivals in Egypt, not just in Cairo but in many provincial towns, each of which has its own traditional saint or saints. Cairo has several. The biggest may be Imam al-Shaf‘i, who is buried in the sprawling southern cemetery known as the City of the Dead; there's an irony in that one because Imam al-Shaf‘i, founder of one of the four Sunni legal schools, didn't like the veneration of saints very much. And now he is one.
But alongside Imam al-Shaf‘i, there are several other patron saints of Cairo, among whom are Sayyidna Hussein, the Prophet's Grandson, whose shrine mosque near al-Azhar is also the scene of a major mulid right in the Khan al-Khalili quarter. Along with Hussein (who is mostly buried in Karbala, Iraq, though Cairo claims some part of him, I think his head), there are two other venerated saints usually more venerated by the Shi‘a than the Sunni: Sayyida Zaynab, granddaughter of the Prophet, and Sayyida Nafisa, a later descendant of the Prophet, great-granddaughter of Imam Hasan.
The point here is that Egypt had its Shi‘ite era: when the Isma‘ili dynasty known as the Fatimids ruled the country. During that time veneration of the Prophet's descendants buried in Cairo became very popular, and continued so when Egypt returned to its Sunni roots.
Sayyida Zaynab and Sayyida Nafisa ("sayyida" tends to become "sitt" in colloquial) are also popular saints among women, because they are women, in the Prophet's line.
The Sufi orders — the tariqas — are very influential in Egypt, and they come out in strength during the mulids. An extremely important expression of popular piety, they have been somewhat eclipsed by political Islamists (who tend to be very anti-Sufi), but they are still a major element in pious religious expression at the grass roots.
The link above to the newspaper account notes the resentments about the cancellation and the intentions of some to try to celebrate anyway. It also notes the fact that some people are going to lose money over the cancellations.
I'm not sure this will work. Popular religious piety tends to override government decrees, in Egypt as elsewhere. This is an unpopular move by all accounts. Cancelling Sayyida Zaynab is like the Grinch stealing Christmas.
I don't think there'll be some huge political result, not immediately and perhaps not ever, but it's still something worth flagging, I think.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Suez Governor: Prosecute Bird Flu Victims?
This seems to belong to the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" category, except that it's in no way funny: the Governor of Suez in Egypt wants people who come down with bird flu prosecuted for illegally raising birds. Leftish blogger Hossam al-Hamalawy points to the story in Al-Masry al-Youm with the comment, "This is not from The Onion." No, The Onion is actually funny.
I commented during the Swine Flu furor that bird flu was a bigger problem but no one was proposing killing all the birds. It never even occurred to me someone might think of prosecuting people for getting bird flu.
Egyptian governors, in case you were wondering, are appointed, not elected. I don't know the background of this particular governor, but traditionally those in border governorates or strategically important ones like Suez tend to be military men.
I commented during the Swine Flu furor that bird flu was a bigger problem but no one was proposing killing all the birds. It never even occurred to me someone might think of prosecuting people for getting bird flu.
Egyptian governors, in case you were wondering, are appointed, not elected. I don't know the background of this particular governor, but traditionally those in border governorates or strategically important ones like Suez tend to be military men.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Bring Out Your Dead . . . Um, Wait
Okay, I'm going to start swearing off swine flu posts. But now that WHO has declared it a pandemic and Egypt, after its mass hamicide, actually has real honest to God cases of swine flu, I can't help but note that Al-Masry al-Youm, your one source for all things swine flu all the time in Egypt, has a headline boasting their having the "First Photo of the Five Americans Kept in Abbassia Fever Hospital Published by Al-Masry Al-Youm" Wow. What a scoop. The Typhoid 'Mericans themselves.The Horror, the Horror: There they are, writhing in their death throes — um, wait, they seem to be smiling, standing, and looking pretty self-confident, even a little cocky, perhaps a tad insouciant. They look like young Americans who are having a bit of fun with their newfound fame, in fact. Three have their face masks down on their necks and two seem to have them protecting their chins. Nobody has his or her mouth or nose covered. Perhaps the Black Death isn't at hand? Or just isn't all that bad? They look like they feel better than I do on an average day without swine flu.
Also, no one's in a hospital gown?
Oh, and I've used the "Bring Out Your Dead" comment on this subject before, but realize that some of you aren't even old enough to have Monty Python memorized. We baby boomers think everybody understands our jokes. For your cultural enlightenment, what I'm referring to is this:
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Swine Flu in Cairo at Last: America's Fault?
Cairo, having been in all-out combat against Swine Flu for weeks now, finally has some actual cases. Al-Masry al-Youm, which has done its best to fan the flames of fear over the past month or so, announces that "Growing panic broke out yesterday among people, especially in the American University in Cairo (AUC), Zamalek district in Cairo and New Maadi in Helwan." Previously, an AUC dormitory in Zamalek (an upper-class neighborhood on Gezira Island*) had been quarantined when several AUC students were diagnosed with swine flu. The Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company also has some cases and the first case there was — a theme emerging here? — an American.
Now, given the fact that the strain originated in Mexico and hit the US before anywhere in Europe, and that the first cases in the Middle East were Israelis who'd been visiting America and US troops in Kuwait, the role of Americans as vectors in the disease isn't exactly surprising: but given the fact that bird flu has been a much greater threat in Egypt for several years, the very name "swine flu" seems to be part of the panic in Egypt, as illustrated by the great pig cull. Now it would seem that Americans are to blame. (Remember, there were calls to quarantine the Obama entourage!)
*Yes, I know "Gezira Island" is redundant.
Now, given the fact that the strain originated in Mexico and hit the US before anywhere in Europe, and that the first cases in the Middle East were Israelis who'd been visiting America and US troops in Kuwait, the role of Americans as vectors in the disease isn't exactly surprising: but given the fact that bird flu has been a much greater threat in Egypt for several years, the very name "swine flu" seems to be part of the panic in Egypt, as illustrated by the great pig cull. Now it would seem that Americans are to blame. (Remember, there were calls to quarantine the Obama entourage!)
*Yes, I know "Gezira Island" is redundant.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Post # 300: After the Pigs, What Will the Zabbalin Do?
I think this is going to show up as the 300th post on this blog, so I guess it's some cause for celebration.
Al-Masry al-Youm has a new, beta website up, and its English pages contain an interesting article, Now That the Pigs Are Gone: How Will the Zabaleen Make a Living After the Culling of Pigs?
It's a good question: I know that I've spent more time on the pig issue than seems reasonable, but I feel it really does show an aspect of the current Egyptian government's policies that aren't very well thought through. The zabbalin (the "Zabaleen" of the article) are the garbage collectors of Cairo. Overwhelmingly Copts, they have traditionally raised pigs in the garbage dumps out on the edge of the desert. Some Coptic leaders, both in Egypt and abroad, have charged that the entire swine flu pig cull is really a new attempt to oppress the Christian population by robbing them of their livelihood.
The Al-Masry Al-Youm article seems to be a fairly serious inquiry and worth a read. I couldn't find the equivalent article on the Arabic website: this is still a beta site and I don't know my way around it yet.
Al-Masry al-Youm has a new, beta website up, and its English pages contain an interesting article, Now That the Pigs Are Gone: How Will the Zabaleen Make a Living After the Culling of Pigs?
It's a good question: I know that I've spent more time on the pig issue than seems reasonable, but I feel it really does show an aspect of the current Egyptian government's policies that aren't very well thought through. The zabbalin (the "Zabaleen" of the article) are the garbage collectors of Cairo. Overwhelmingly Copts, they have traditionally raised pigs in the garbage dumps out on the edge of the desert. Some Coptic leaders, both in Egypt and abroad, have charged that the entire swine flu pig cull is really a new attempt to oppress the Christian population by robbing them of their livelihood.
The Al-Masry Al-Youm article seems to be a fairly serious inquiry and worth a read. I couldn't find the equivalent article on the Arabic website: this is still a beta site and I don't know my way around it yet.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
A Few Quick Takes . . .
. . . to start the day.
- Some speculation by Amos Harel in Haaretz about the rolling up of the alleged Israeli spy network in Lebanon. Not a lot of hard information here but he raises some interesting points.
- I can no longer rant about the fact that Egypt is killing all its pigs despite having no cases of swine flu (which isn't caused by pigs anyway); it has found its first case. A 12-year old American girl arriving at Cairo airport. It's the first case on the African continent, but hardly suggests a pandemic in Egypt. Sorry about that, pigs.
- The ruling National Democratic Party is proposing revisions to increase the size of the People's Assembly to 500 (it's currently 454, 444 elected and 10 appointed), and to reserve 56 seats for women. Since the NDP has a dominant majority in Parliament it can pretty well guarantee passage.
- My linking to Marc Lynch, who has a lot more readers than I do at this point, is somewhat lame, but if you aren't reading him you should be, and so I should note his post yesterday about the recent quarrels between the Iraqi government and both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. It's something I haven't taken the time to write about, and since he has, I don't have to.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Weekend Reading
As I do each Friday, a quick roundup to hold you over the weekend.
- Lebanon's ongoing series of arrests of what is alleged to be a spy ring for Israel has continued with the arrest of a Lebanese Army Colonel, Mansur Diab. The fact that the alleged spy ring is being rounded up in the midst of Lebanon's elections is probably no coincidence.
- Ayman Nour, the Egyptian opposition figure last heard from when his wife announced she was divorcing him at the time of the 6 April fizzled protest movement, is the center of a new controversy. He claimed he was attacked by an assailant on a motorbike who lit the spray of an aerosol can, giving him first degree burns on the forehead. Then yesterday Al-Masry al-Youm published a story quoting a "Professor of Dermatology" as saying that Nour told her that he had been burned by a hair dryer and that he wanted to have plastic surgery and a hair transplant to repair the damage. Nour has now fired back that this is nonsense, that no one he saw at the hospital was old enough to be a professor, and has repeated his original claims. Whether this is self-dramatization by Nour or disinformation planted by the regime or some combination of the two is unclear at this point. Nour may really have been the victim of an attack, but if the hair dryer/hair transplant version is government disinformation, it is likely to be what people remember, and it makes him seem vain and a bit ridiculous. Which, of course, is the point of good disinformation, if such it is.
- I've been irreverent from time to time about Egypt's massive overreaction to Swine Flu, particularly its mass slaughter of pigs, and have regularly pointed out that not a single case of swine flu had been confirmed in the Arab world (though Egypt has persistent problems with bird flu, yet doesn't slaughter its chickens). Well, I can no longer make my observation, because the World Health Organization has confirmed swine flu in the Arab world: 18 cases in Kuwait. But there's a punchline: all the infected are US soldiers, presumably infected elsewhere before arriving in Kuwait.
Friday, May 22, 2009
For Your Weekend Reading
It's a three-day holiday weekend here in the US, and I'll be traveling on Monday so posts will resume Tuesday; so some weekend reading as usual:
- First, a couple of house plugs for MEI events: on June 1, in an event held at the Carnegie Endowment, a panel on "After the Visits: What Next for Middle East Peace?" with M.J. Rosenberg of Israel Policy Forum, Ghaith al-Omari of the American Task Force for Palestine, and Geoffrey Aronson of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Then on June 10, following the Lebanese elections, a discussion of The 2009 Lebanon Elections: Outcomes and Implications with Graeme Bannerman of MEI and Bilal Saab of Brookings (a former MEI intern, by the way). RSVP for either at the link. Podcasts and/or transcripts usually go up soon after the events.
- Mossad is said to be upset about the Defense Ministry deciding to close down a unit headed by Iran expert Uri Lubnani and tasked with studying Iran; the timing does seem odd. Also in Haaretz, Yossi Melman says Israel's military option against Iran "has died" following the Obama-Netanyahu meeting.
- A Tony Cordesman PowerPoint-style analysis of the Afghan-Pakistan wars from CSIS (PDF). Lots of graphs and maps. If you like the sort of things Tony puts out, well, this is the sort of thing you'll like.
- The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) has a new report: Looking Forward: An Integrated Strategy for Supporting Democracy and Human Rights in Egypt. (PDF)
- A RAND report, called Dangerous but Not Omnipotent, urging that "US Strategy Should Avoid Inflating Iran's Role in Middle East Instability, Exploit Constraints on Iranian Power and Seek Areas of Engagement," Press summary at the link; full document here (PDF).
- Al-Masry Al-Youm continues to be your key source for all swine flu, all the time, with a piece (English here and Arabic here) Killer quote: "The US Health Department announced for the second time that the number of infected people with the virus may be 100,000 people." But WHO only says 10,000 worldwide, and even this sentence in the article doesn't justify the headline "US Health Department Expects 100,000 to be infected with swine flu." I wish they'd link to that: I'm still not seeing any "Bring out your dead!" carts around here.
- For continuing English-language coverage of the Lebanese elections (besides, of course, The Daily Star and other papers), the blog Qifa Nabki continues to provide good, solid commentary with enough background for the non-Lebanese to follow.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Criticism of Pig Cull Growing After Video
After Al-Misry Al-Youm posted a video showing the more unpleasant aspects of Egypt's attempt to eliminate pigs, the international and domestic uproar has intensified. Pigs were shown with quicklime being thrown atop them to cause a slow death, rather than the humane slaughtering normally required by Islam. I'm not going to embed the video here, as it's pretty strong stuff, but those with strong stomachs can find the version posted by Al-Masry Al-Youm here. An AFP clip covering the story is here.
Now Prime Minister Nazif has ordered that the cull be carried out humanely, And, almost predictably, the Governor of Qalyubiyya (the Governorate where the video was filmed) has blamed the messenger by criticizing Al-Masry Al-Youm for posting it. (Though as I've noted previously, Al-Masry Al-Youm has offered some pretty sensationalist stories on swine flu, including the one proposiing that President Obama be quarantined, so it's not entirely innocent in fanning the hysteria that it is now documenting.) And one official allegedly said the pigs weren't slaughtered by the Islamic method of slitting their throats because pigs don't have necks. (Believe me, pigs have throats. This kind of rationale does no one proud.)
What at first seemed an amusing overreaction now seems increasingly like one of the worst public relations disasters in recent years. Humane societies and animal rights organizations are up in arms, and increasingly there are efforts to portray the pig cull as a deliberate attack on the Coptic population, since the pigs are raised only by Christians. The fact that the government's own rationale for the cull has shifted (once it had to acknowledge that swine flu is not spread by pigs, it started to claim that unsanitary conditions created by raising pigs in the garbage dumps of Cairo was the motive) also tends to encourage such interpretations. From a PR point of view the logical thing to do would be to put an end to the massacre, but a combination of bureaucratic inertia and public hysteria over swine flu (which has still not been found in Egypt) seem to be keeping it going, as world outcry intensifies.
Meanwhile the total number of swine flu cases in the Middle East now stands at seven in Israel (no new cases there) and two in Turkey. Not one in an Arab country. WHO map here.
Now Prime Minister Nazif has ordered that the cull be carried out humanely, And, almost predictably, the Governor of Qalyubiyya (the Governorate where the video was filmed) has blamed the messenger by criticizing Al-Masry Al-Youm for posting it. (Though as I've noted previously, Al-Masry Al-Youm has offered some pretty sensationalist stories on swine flu, including the one proposiing that President Obama be quarantined, so it's not entirely innocent in fanning the hysteria that it is now documenting.) And one official allegedly said the pigs weren't slaughtered by the Islamic method of slitting their throats because pigs don't have necks. (Believe me, pigs have throats. This kind of rationale does no one proud.)
What at first seemed an amusing overreaction now seems increasingly like one of the worst public relations disasters in recent years. Humane societies and animal rights organizations are up in arms, and increasingly there are efforts to portray the pig cull as a deliberate attack on the Coptic population, since the pigs are raised only by Christians. The fact that the government's own rationale for the cull has shifted (once it had to acknowledge that swine flu is not spread by pigs, it started to claim that unsanitary conditions created by raising pigs in the garbage dumps of Cairo was the motive) also tends to encourage such interpretations. From a PR point of view the logical thing to do would be to put an end to the massacre, but a combination of bureaucratic inertia and public hysteria over swine flu (which has still not been found in Egypt) seem to be keeping it going, as world outcry intensifies.
Meanwhile the total number of swine flu cases in the Middle East now stands at seven in Israel (no new cases there) and two in Turkey. Not one in an Arab country. WHO map here.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
More Swine Flu Overreaction
I really take no pleasure in noting the ongoing hysteria in the Middle East, and especially in Egypt, over swine flu, but now Al-Masry al-Youm has found some experts to quote as saying that President Obama and his entire entourage must be quarantined and endure medical checks to make sure they don't introduce swine flu into Egypt. At this point I think Al-Masry al-Youm is one of the main agents of this hysteria. The Egyptian government has seemed pleased that Obama chose to make his address to the Islamic world from Egypt, and I doubt that they'll be eager to see calls for quarantining the President.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Postpone Hajj Due to Swine Flu?
This is getting stranger and stranger. The Grand Mufti of Egypt is suggesting Muslim scholars issue a collective fatwa to postpone the hajj due to swine flu. Arabic version is here. Keep in mind — I know I keep repeating it — there have been no cases in Egypt. In fact, according to WHO's rundown as of yesterday, the only cases confirmed in the entire Middle East are in Israel (seven cases). And WHO says, "WHO is not recommending travel restrictions related to the outbreak of the influenza A(H1N1) virus." Oh, yes, and another thing: the hajj isn't until November. Am I missing something here? Has the hajj ever been postponed for health reasons, in all of Islamic history? I don't know, but I expect you'd need at least one infected person to justify it. (Not only are there no cases in the Middle East, except Israel, but none in Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan — well, anywhere Muslim.)
And a group of Egyptian Sufi sheikhs have declined to go to a Sufi conference in the US because of fear of swine flu. (I don't know about other parts of the country, but if there are carts in the streets and someone shouting "Bring out your dead!" it's not around here.)
Elsewhere it's reported that 44 suspected cases in Egypt have all tested negative, while the pig kill goes on.
For a country with no cases, the level of hysteria seems high, fanned by the press and irresponsible public statements. I know I've spent a lot of time on Egypt's swine flu overreaction, but I'm mirroring the local media.
And a group of Egyptian Sufi sheikhs have declined to go to a Sufi conference in the US because of fear of swine flu. (I don't know about other parts of the country, but if there are carts in the streets and someone shouting "Bring out your dead!" it's not around here.)
Elsewhere it's reported that 44 suspected cases in Egypt have all tested negative, while the pig kill goes on.
For a country with no cases, the level of hysteria seems high, fanned by the press and irresponsible public statements. I know I've spent a lot of time on Egypt's swine flu overreaction, but I'm mirroring the local media.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Afghanistan's Pig is Named "Pig" and Other News from the Swine Flu Front, Including a Pop Song
The Reuters news story I linked to in yesterday's post about how Afghanistan has quarantined the (reputedly) only pig in the country left out one bit that the BBC has added: the pig is named "Khanzir," which is just Arabic for pig. (Of course Arabic isn't spoken in Afghanistan, and I think Persian uses a different word (Afghan Dari is basically Persian) and I have no idea how you say it in Pushtu. So the pig is named pig.
Meanwhile, Egypt has still had no cases of H1N1 (swine flu), despite a scare with an Austrian tourist in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada. Hurghada is on the Red Sea coast and would be a pretty easy place to isolate from the Nile Valley if there were an outbreak, but it was apparently a false alarm.
The last time I saw press numbers on the great pig massacre the numbers killed so far were nothing like the 300,000 originally reported as targeted. I'm not sure if the Egyptians have backed off a bit following international protests and ridicule, or if they're just not publicizing it. The story linked above says they're proceeding with the cull. Then, from the same article, there's this to consider:
And, continuing the overreaction, from the same article:
And finally, thanks to The Arabist for linking to a MEMRI TV posting of a new pop song in Egypt about the swine flu, including the immortal lines:
For the video, I don't immediately see any imbedding codes and am not tech-savvy enough to post the video here without them, but you can watch it at The Arabist. He's thoughtfully provided an MP3 download in case you just have to have it for your Ipod.
AND AN UPDATE: I belatedly should mention for those unfamiliar with Egyptian popular music in recent decades that Sha‘aban ‘Abd al-Rahim, or "Sha‘abula" as he is popularly known, made his name with a song called "I hate Israel" and went on to make a reputation for political songs denouncing the US, the war in Iraq, and other stuff. He's a political singer, in other words.
Meanwhile, Egypt has still had no cases of H1N1 (swine flu), despite a scare with an Austrian tourist in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada. Hurghada is on the Red Sea coast and would be a pretty easy place to isolate from the Nile Valley if there were an outbreak, but it was apparently a false alarm.
The last time I saw press numbers on the great pig massacre the numbers killed so far were nothing like the 300,000 originally reported as targeted. I'm not sure if the Egyptians have backed off a bit following international protests and ridicule, or if they're just not publicizing it. The story linked above says they're proceeding with the cull. Then, from the same article, there's this to consider:
On Tuesday, a few hundred pigs were found in one of Giza’s main roads, reportedly left there at midnight. It turned out to be a failed attempt to smuggle the pigs.And here are some numbers:
Meanwhile, the General Authority for Veterinary Services finished slaughtering 1,320 pigs and culling 5,138 out of 168,000 pigs in Egypt, according to Major General Abdel Salam Mahgoub, Minister for Local Development.So the 300,000 to 350,000 seem to have become 168,000? Or were the original numbers wildly inflated?
And, continuing the overreaction, from the same article:
Reading this, one has to keep reminding oneself that Egypt has not had a single case of swine flu. Neither has Afghanistan. Egypt has had serious outbreaks of bird flu in recent years, and I can understand a certain amount of overcaution, combined with the taboo on pork.Meanwhile, pupils in some schools started wearing medical masks during their lessons as a preventive measure.
An official source at the Ministry of Education, though, said this was not ordered by the ministry, adding there was actually no need for such a measure at this time.
Education Minister Yousry El-Gamal said instruction had been given that doctors and female health experts be deployed in schools during the exams. He stressed the place and timing of the exams would not be changed, ruling off the possibility of holding them in open spaces.
And finally, thanks to The Arabist for linking to a MEMRI TV posting of a new pop song in Egypt about the swine flu, including the immortal lines:
In every port and airport, we need to write in large letters:Always good advice. And I had not realized until now just how easy it is, in Arabic, to find rhymes with khanazir (pigs, swine). The fact that there are not more Arab songs about pigs isn't for lack of rhymes, I guess. I like the interview with the singer, as well, in which he says that someone (his agent?) called him and said, "you have to immediately write a song about influenza." Ah, show biz. It adds to the surreal nature of the entire swine flu panic, which has seemingly disrupted countries without a single case in evidence.
You’re not allowed to enter Egypt and bring a pig with you.
For the video, I don't immediately see any imbedding codes and am not tech-savvy enough to post the video here without them, but you can watch it at The Arabist. He's thoughtfully provided an MP3 download in case you just have to have it for your Ipod.
AND AN UPDATE: I belatedly should mention for those unfamiliar with Egyptian popular music in recent decades that Sha‘aban ‘Abd al-Rahim, or "Sha‘abula" as he is popularly known, made his name with a song called "I hate Israel" and went on to make a reputation for political songs denouncing the US, the war in Iraq, and other stuff. He's a political singer, in other words.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Roundup on the Mass Hamicide
To my dismay — and as a lover of Egypt it really is to my dismay though I'll post on it anyway — the whole pig cull is becoming a real awkward situation. Over the weekend The Arabist posted a good links post (called "Pig Fever") that links to multiple commentaries on the subject. I won't repeat his links. Here's an update on the progress of the mass hamicide, but of greater concern are reports of clashes between the government and the zabbalin. The zabbalin, the garbage collectors of Egypt, are mostly Copts; they received a great deal of international publicity due to Sister Emmanuelle, a Belgian nun who worked among them for decades until her death at nearly 100. Being primarily Christian, they raised pigs among the garbage dumps in the Muqattam area and elsewhere. The government has now said that its crackdown on pigs is not aimed at the swine flu (since the world has been denouncing the pig cull), but at cleaning up the urban garbage dumps where swine were raised.
Once in the late 70s, while living alone in a Cairo apartment, my local zabbal, who had previously collected at Christmas and Easter, showed up for a tip on the Prophet's Birthday. I said, but you're a Christian, you asked for gifts on Easter and Christmas. He said, no, I'm a Muslim, and we celebrate Prophet Jesus as well, and pulled out a government ID card that showed his religion as Muslim. Maybe he was the rare Muslim zabbal, but most are Copts; maybe he had a fake ID.
Sister Emmanuelle has passed on now after nearly a century, and it sounds as if the zabbalin are facing a real challenge to their livelihood. It's hard to be sure, from outside. I hope they do well.
Once in the late 70s, while living alone in a Cairo apartment, my local zabbal, who had previously collected at Christmas and Easter, showed up for a tip on the Prophet's Birthday. I said, but you're a Christian, you asked for gifts on Easter and Christmas. He said, no, I'm a Muslim, and we celebrate Prophet Jesus as well, and pulled out a government ID card that showed his religion as Muslim. Maybe he was the rare Muslim zabbal, but most are Copts; maybe he had a fake ID.
Sister Emmanuelle has passed on now after nearly a century, and it sounds as if the zabbalin are facing a real challenge to their livelihood. It's hard to be sure, from outside. I hope they do well.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The Pigicide Creates Resistance: Reflections on Pork and its Taboos
UPDATED: The Day Pigs were Slain in Egypt.
There is resistance in pig farms north of Cairo to the decision to kill all the pigs in Egypt. Some pig farmers apparently object to eliminating their entire livelihood, especially since a) swine flu isn't currently spread by pigs, and 2) there hasn't been a case of swine flu in Egypt yet.
I think what we're seeing here has only a tangential relationship to the swine flu near-pandemic. Both Islam and Judaism have, of course, a profound religious taboo against pork. All the pigs in Egypt are raised by Copts, and they do a pretty good job of keeping their pigs away from places where Muslims might come into contact. Pork butchers have to be separate from other butchers, and clearly labeled; they are for obvious reasons in Christian neighborhoods. I remember once going to a pork butcher in Cairo: not only were there plenty of signs to make clear to any Muslim who might venture there that this was not the place he was looking for, but the butcher had up photos and paintings of pigs and an extremely large collection of piggy banks, ceramic, pigs, etc., enough to make your average North Carolina barbecue joint proud. No desire, in other words, to have a Muslim wander in by mistake and be scandalized.
Most of us who have lived in Muslim countries have probably also encountered the phenomenon of Muslim friends invited to lunch or dinner seeking reassurance that we are not serving pork. The fact that it takes a real effort to find pork in Muslim countries and that no one other than a seriously disturbed person would try to sneak pork into the diet of someone for whom it is taboo doesn't seem to compute: there seems to be, among some folks, a fear that Christians will try to sneak pork to Muslims. This must be something inculcated in childhood; I can't actually imagine anyone but a really disturbed person trying to force someone to eat pork unknowingly.
There are plenty of theories about the Jewish/Muslim pork taboo; anthropologists often argue that it is a sign of the ancient rivalry between the desert and the sown: the pig is an animal of settled culture, raised in towns, wallowing in its wallow: no one drives great herds of pigs across the desert. Cattle are raised by nomads, and camels, sheep, and goats, but never pigs. (I believe Sumerians raised pigs but the Akkadians banned them: again the urban/nomadic origins influenced the taboo.) Some modern rationalists think it was a means of protecting people against trichinosis and other diseases of pork in hot climates, making Moses into a sort of Bronze Age Surgeon General. For believers, of course, the word of God is sufficient explanation of the taboo.
And it is a profound aversion. I have known Muslims who insist they do not believe very much in God or practice their faith, wouldn't think of fasting in Ramadan and drink like fish, but who nonetheless admit they would be physically ill if they were confronted with eating pork. The culture sometimes goes much deeper than the faith. And of course that is true for all of us, not just Muslims.
Many countries that are nearly entirely Muslim ban pork entirely, but I've also seen at least one breakfast buffet in Abu Dhabi where an entire table was set aside for foreign visitors with the word "Pork" in Arabic quite clearly displayed. The foreigners would just see bacon or ham, the locals would immediately be warned away.
Israel has always had a limited pork culture for the secular side of the country, always clearly distinguished, and usually not in Jerusalem. Christian towns, in Israel or the Palestinian Authority, serve pork, and a great many years ago in the West Bank Christian town of Beit Sahour (just down the hill from Bethlehem) I was taken to a place known for its bacon cheeseburgers, which offends Muslims with the bacon and Jews not only with the bacon but with mixing meat and dairy. A truly transgressive place, and I suspect with the growth of Islamist fervor and the coming of the Palestinian Authority, it's not there anymore.
Except for such deliberately rebellious or transgressive situations, though, there's just not that much pork in the Middle East. Since no Muslim will go near a pig, alive or slaughtered, I have no idea how the Egyptians think swine flu could be transmitted to the general population. I suspect we are seeing an instance, perhaps subconscious, of the profound cultural taboo against pigs. As I noted in an earlier post, Egypt has had several years of bird flu outbreaks, but hasn't tried to kill all the birds.
Some things are predictable: the fact that the pig farmers whose pigs are being destroyed are Copts will mean there will be new charges of religious persecution against the Copts; radical Islamists may use the whole thing as a reminder that pigs are a Christian presence in Egypt and therefore somehow subversive in their own right; and other rabble-rousing accusations. Lebanon has banned pork imports and Jordan is talking about limiting pig farms; and yet there seems to be no evidence that pigs are a major disease vector in this outbreak! The term "swine flu" refers to the source from which the original strain of human flu of this category originated and does not mean that pigs are causing it today. I really don't know why the Egyptians are doing this, except for pure domestic consumption. But it is a reminder of how profound at least some food taboos can be.
Addendum: Since I've had the word "Pigicide" in the title all day, I won't change it, but it belatedly occurs to me that "mass hamicide" would have been better. (Sorry.)
There is resistance in pig farms north of Cairo to the decision to kill all the pigs in Egypt. Some pig farmers apparently object to eliminating their entire livelihood, especially since a) swine flu isn't currently spread by pigs, and 2) there hasn't been a case of swine flu in Egypt yet.
I think what we're seeing here has only a tangential relationship to the swine flu near-pandemic. Both Islam and Judaism have, of course, a profound religious taboo against pork. All the pigs in Egypt are raised by Copts, and they do a pretty good job of keeping their pigs away from places where Muslims might come into contact. Pork butchers have to be separate from other butchers, and clearly labeled; they are for obvious reasons in Christian neighborhoods. I remember once going to a pork butcher in Cairo: not only were there plenty of signs to make clear to any Muslim who might venture there that this was not the place he was looking for, but the butcher had up photos and paintings of pigs and an extremely large collection of piggy banks, ceramic, pigs, etc., enough to make your average North Carolina barbecue joint proud. No desire, in other words, to have a Muslim wander in by mistake and be scandalized.
Most of us who have lived in Muslim countries have probably also encountered the phenomenon of Muslim friends invited to lunch or dinner seeking reassurance that we are not serving pork. The fact that it takes a real effort to find pork in Muslim countries and that no one other than a seriously disturbed person would try to sneak pork into the diet of someone for whom it is taboo doesn't seem to compute: there seems to be, among some folks, a fear that Christians will try to sneak pork to Muslims. This must be something inculcated in childhood; I can't actually imagine anyone but a really disturbed person trying to force someone to eat pork unknowingly.
There are plenty of theories about the Jewish/Muslim pork taboo; anthropologists often argue that it is a sign of the ancient rivalry between the desert and the sown: the pig is an animal of settled culture, raised in towns, wallowing in its wallow: no one drives great herds of pigs across the desert. Cattle are raised by nomads, and camels, sheep, and goats, but never pigs. (I believe Sumerians raised pigs but the Akkadians banned them: again the urban/nomadic origins influenced the taboo.) Some modern rationalists think it was a means of protecting people against trichinosis and other diseases of pork in hot climates, making Moses into a sort of Bronze Age Surgeon General. For believers, of course, the word of God is sufficient explanation of the taboo.
And it is a profound aversion. I have known Muslims who insist they do not believe very much in God or practice their faith, wouldn't think of fasting in Ramadan and drink like fish, but who nonetheless admit they would be physically ill if they were confronted with eating pork. The culture sometimes goes much deeper than the faith. And of course that is true for all of us, not just Muslims.
Many countries that are nearly entirely Muslim ban pork entirely, but I've also seen at least one breakfast buffet in Abu Dhabi where an entire table was set aside for foreign visitors with the word "Pork" in Arabic quite clearly displayed. The foreigners would just see bacon or ham, the locals would immediately be warned away.
Israel has always had a limited pork culture for the secular side of the country, always clearly distinguished, and usually not in Jerusalem. Christian towns, in Israel or the Palestinian Authority, serve pork, and a great many years ago in the West Bank Christian town of Beit Sahour (just down the hill from Bethlehem) I was taken to a place known for its bacon cheeseburgers, which offends Muslims with the bacon and Jews not only with the bacon but with mixing meat and dairy. A truly transgressive place, and I suspect with the growth of Islamist fervor and the coming of the Palestinian Authority, it's not there anymore.
Except for such deliberately rebellious or transgressive situations, though, there's just not that much pork in the Middle East. Since no Muslim will go near a pig, alive or slaughtered, I have no idea how the Egyptians think swine flu could be transmitted to the general population. I suspect we are seeing an instance, perhaps subconscious, of the profound cultural taboo against pigs. As I noted in an earlier post, Egypt has had several years of bird flu outbreaks, but hasn't tried to kill all the birds.
Some things are predictable: the fact that the pig farmers whose pigs are being destroyed are Copts will mean there will be new charges of religious persecution against the Copts; radical Islamists may use the whole thing as a reminder that pigs are a Christian presence in Egypt and therefore somehow subversive in their own right; and other rabble-rousing accusations. Lebanon has banned pork imports and Jordan is talking about limiting pig farms; and yet there seems to be no evidence that pigs are a major disease vector in this outbreak! The term "swine flu" refers to the source from which the original strain of human flu of this category originated and does not mean that pigs are causing it today. I really don't know why the Egyptians are doing this, except for pure domestic consumption. But it is a reminder of how profound at least some food taboos can be.
Addendum: Since I've had the word "Pigicide" in the title all day, I won't change it, but it belatedly occurs to me that "mass hamicide" would have been better. (Sorry.)
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