Egypt | 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

How to get out of Gaza. Kind of.

26 July 2011 by ST McNeil

I have crossed many borders, most with my brother Ben in southern Africa, but Rafah was the worst. The Palestinian National Authority stamp I now have in my passport is by far the hardest one I’ve acquired in the last 26 months of traveling. After pocketing a stone from the Philadelphi Strip, Hussam and I drove to the Rafah Border Crossing. He told me I’d have plenty of time – it was noon and the border closed at four. While [...]

Categories: Egypt, Middle East, PalestineIsrael • Tags: Cairo Press Office, Egypt, Gaza border crossing, Hamas, Palestinian passport stamp

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

Baubles and trinkets of language

5 July 2011 by ST McNeil

Old Cairo Bazaar underneath the labyrinthine alleys of the Coptic Christian neighborhood took me by surprise. Down a small path far below the ground, I walked past hundreds of black and white photographs of Egypt throughout the years. A gaggle of Egyptian tourists were listening to a guide explain Coptic history before a large storefront. Two enormous doors opened to inky blackness. Lights erupted as I entered: quadrants of halogen bulbs blinked to life exposing piece by piece the immensity before me. [...]

Categories: Africa North, Photography • Tags: Coptic Cairo, Egypt, Old Cairo Bazaar, tourism trinkets

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

Still Revolting

1 July 2011 by ST McNeil

The soldier behind the machine gun turret was looking out over The Nile River through the enormous floor-to-cieling windows of the Cairo Press Center as I waited to fill in credential forms. Dressed in desert camoflauge, with a helmet and bullet belts, the soldier looked barely out of his teens, and had a pencil-thin moustache. “Mister Sam,” the press officer said, focusing my attention back on the beauracratic formalities, “when do you want to go to Gaza?” Too early, I [...]

Categories: Africa North, News • Tags: 25 January Revolution, 29 June Tahrir Square clashes, Al Jazeera, anti-Americanism, Egypt, press credentials, River Nile, soldier, Tahrir Square

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Thebes At War

29 June 2011 by ST McNeil

Naguib Mahfouz´s Thebes At War reads like watching Ridley Scott directing John Wayne´s jihad against the infidel invaders. Set during the Hyksos two-hundred year occupation of Egypt, between the Middle and New Periods of the Pharaohs, the story follows the royal family starting a war that ultimate rids the Nile Valley of the last of the white Herdsmen to the barren wastelands. It is a quick, fast-paced romp of battles, palace life, patriotic speech and sacrifice, chariot squads and siege [...]

Categories: Book Reviews • Tags: Ahmose, Ancient Egypt, Egypt, Egyptian nationalism, Hyksos, Naguib Mahfouz, Nile Valley, Thebes At War

The Dahab Deal

29 June 2011 by ST McNeil

The Egyptian Revolution, begun on January 25 and still boiling, has devastated Dahab. A small tourist village on the eastern edge of the Sinai penninsula, many its hotels are unfinished and its restaraunt tables are empty. Dahab is a kaleodoscopic carnival not to be missed – and now its cheaper than ever. It might be a form of pillage, but it could also be a way to support the Egyptian people in their time of need. Penguin Hotel’s Titu [...]

Categories: Africa North, Photography • Tags: Dahab, Egypt, January 25 Revolution, scuba, Sinai, vacation

ST McNeil

Environmental Convergence Journalist

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