Cairo | ST McNeil

Brand Justice and Development: Just call them a success

9 December 2011 by ST McNeil

Beneath all the din of an Islamist Trojan Horse following the despots’ downfall is simple, savvy electoral strategy: promise jobs, preach broad cultural values, and call for justice and development. While Al Jazeera spread Mohammed Bouazizi’s revolutionary flame to Cairo and beyond, another pattern is emerging from the ashes of Ben Ali and Mubarak. It is best seen in the election results between the straits of Hormuz and Gibraltar. Who is getting the votes? The winners in Morocco, Tunisia, and [...]

Categories: Egypt, Middle East, Tunisia • Tags: 25 January Revolution, Cairo, Egypt, Ennahda, Justice and Development Party, Mediterranean, Morocco, Muslim Brotherhood, Racshid Ghannouchi, Tahrir Square, Tayyep Erdogan, Tunisia, Turkey, Zen El Abdine Ben Ali

Not another Twitter Revolution

23 September 2011 by ST McNeil

The Jasmine Revolution and the January 25 Revolution are not Twitter revolutions…sorry, but sometimes you just need to beat a dead horse. Only 131,204 Egyptians used Twitter as hundreds of thousands massed in Cairo earlier this year. Just 35,746 Tunisians tweeted along Avenue Habib Bourguiba and Le Kef during the days of rage and tear gas. Barely two percent of Egyptians and five percent of Tunisians log onto Facebook (nine million together), no doubt socializing with the Arab world’s other [...]

Categories: Africa North, Egypt, Middle East, Research, Tunisia • Tags: Cairo, Digital Evangelism, Malcolm Gladwell, Mark Zuckerberg, Moammar Gaddafi, Net Delusion, SISMEC, social media, Tahrir Square, Tunis, Tunisia, Zen El Abdine Ben Ali

Palestine’s Coast

11 July 2011 by ST McNeil

Nagoua pulled up in an enormous SUV right at seven am. With reflexes slowed by a night spent drinking Egypt’s finest Stellas in the famous revolutionary hangout Hurreya, or Freedom, I hopped in the back and offered her a croissant. “Oh, you shouldn’t have,” she said, smiling while revving the engine. We drove down the street to pick up her two charges – Dutch filmmakers on their way to work on a documentary about the smuggling tunnels of Gaza. I [...]

Categories: Africa North, PalestineIsrael • Tags: Cairo, Gaza pollution, Gaza tunnels, palestine, Rafah border crossing, Suez Canal

Flag-waving in Tahrir video

9 July 2011 by ST McNeil

A short video clip from Tahrir Square yesterday: flag waving while shouting “the masses want an end to the system”.

Categories: Africa North, Photography • Tags: 25 January Revolution, 8 July, Cairo, Egypt, Israeli activists, Tahrir Square, thawura

July 8 Tahrir Square: Revolution 2.0

9 July 2011 by ST McNeil

The July 8 protest in Tahrir Square, Cairo was packed full of people. An estimated 100,000 attended from nearly every one of Egypt’s 160+ new political parties. Before the 25 January Revolution, there was a handful of registered parties. But following Hosni Mubarak’s exit, Al-Ahzaab have multiplied rapidly. I saw labour, environmental, fundamentalist, pro-Palestinian, secular, youth and veterans groups with tents and booths underneath the main tent in central Tahrir. They were all calling for a “purification” or Egypt’s leadership of [...]

Categories: Africa North, PalestineIsrael • Tags: 25 January Revolution, Cairo, Egypt, Tahrir Square

Giza Wonders

4 July 2011 by ST McNeil

Categories: Africa North, Photography • Tags: Cairo, Egypt, Giza Pyramids, Sphinx

Felucca dusk voyage on the Nile

2 July 2011 by ST McNeil

Categories: Africa North, Photography • Tags: Cairo, Egypt, felucca, River Nile, video

Sufi dance dance

29 June 2011 by ST McNeil

The Egyptian Ministry of Culture sponsored the Al-Tannoura Traditional Troup at the Wekalet El-Ghouri Arts Center near the Al Azhar. Just a few pictures, but ooh-la-la it was joyous.

Categories: Photography • Tags: Al Tannoura Traditional Troup, Cairo, Egyptian culture, Sufism, whirling dervishes

Cairo crazy, me sick

29 June 2011 by ST McNeil

Cairo hit me first with its size. The entire West Bank’s and Israel’s population would fit inside a suburb, it seemed to me as I entered its outskirts at dusk. I was suffering from decompression sickness, with a knot of pain in my stomach and fatigue draining my bones, but I was excited. Seeing Nura lifted my spirits. I knew it would be OK. She would take care of me. But then she blew my mind. Waking up the [...]

Categories: Africa North, Photography • Tags: Al Azhar Mosque, Al Gazira, Cairo, Mohandiseen, Tahrir Square, The Niza

Piss Pride Porcelain

22 June 2011 by ST McNeil

From Seattle to Jerusalem, I’ve pissed in hundreds of urinals. One has time to think in those sixty to six hundred-second leaks: aim, pressure, splash radius, urinal cake odor. If us men are lucky, we get to power-melt leftover ice from the hotel bar. Sometimes these recepticals of our fluid waste are simple troughs of cheap metal. Other times stately affairs of crafted porcelain accomodate our urine streams. On top of most urinals, though, is a clue to American foreign [...]

Categories: Research • Tags: American exceptionalism, American Standard, Cairo, Dahab, Egypt, Gaza, Ideal Standard, Libya, lion fight, palestine, Sinai, toilet philosophy, Tunis, Tunisia, urinals

ST McNeil

Environmental Convergence Journalist

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