So Now We Know

The news clippings (the title provides a link) this morning were full of the announcements by the Supreme Council for Antiquiities that a new pyramid had been found in the Sakkara Antiquities Area. This pyramid, called a "headless pyramid" by its initial finder the German Egyptologist Lepsius over 150 years ago, had been lost when covered with sand over the years. Lately the SCA has been rediscovering the site and in the process having to find a way of disposing of all the sand, rock and rubble that had covered it.

For about a year now, people riding their horses in the desert just east of the Step Pyramid at Sakkara have been treated to increasing mounds of sand, stone, and unfortunately as well, some garbage in the area fondly known as the Boneyard, the Antiquities Council dumping site. While the sand, stone, pottery shards and bone are fairly naturally occurring items, the sheer volume of the dumping has been quite impressive. Happily, the garbage dumping has been rather less in volume and hopefully now that the archaeologists have found what they were looking for, will be even less.

Dr. Hawass is probably quite right in his statements that only a third (I'd guess even less than that) of the antiquities in the Sakkara area have been found. I'm quite sure that the locals of the village of Abu Sir, who have been as intimately involved in amateur archaeological expeditions in the area as their more famous colleagues from Gurna in the Luxor area, would agree with me. I would like to suggest, and in fact I have suggested, to the Antiquities Council that the dumping of debris so close to the area is perhaps not the most brilliant idea in the world.

Most fishermen and divers know that the surest way to attract sharks to the area of a boat is to dump trash overboard in the vicinity of boat. The sharks will come for the trash and stay for a meal of the fish that are being caught or the odd diver. Human sharks are no different. By dumping truckloads of sand and rock in which can be found the odd pottery fragment, piece of alabaster pot, bead, bit of pharaonic woodwork or even mummy wrappings, the local scavengers are being lured to an area in which ideally, for the sake of Egyptology, they really shouldn't be scavenging.

copyright 2008 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

Ever Higher

After the protest in April, the Egyptian government announced that they would be raising the salaries of the public sector employees by 30%....everyone was very happy. Then in the last couple of days it's been announced that there are going to be price rises in the neighbourhood of 50% or more in many fairly central areas. Gasoline for cars is going up from about LE 1.4 to LE 1.9 a litre and the propane bottles for cooking are going up about 50% as well. While Egypt has been subsidising a lot for the population for years and no one can continue that forever, most of the population are utterly unaware of the fact that they've been in a protective bubble all this time. So their perception of all this is not at all friendly or understanding. There seems to be a prevailing attitude here that everything is on a "need to know" basis...and no one really needs to know. But it's time, I believe, for the Egyptian government to realise that one way or another the people of the country will learn about things and it's usually better to learn it from the government...seems to me that was the argument for sex education in the 60's too as I recall..better not to learn it in the streets? Be that as it may, a concerted effort on the part of the powers that be here to let the populace understand that at some point even government money runs out might be a good idea.

But the math here is not very good because even with the salary increases, with the gas price increase the inflation rate will still outrun the salary increases by a significant amount. The price of gas is going to be added on to all the food prices, the cost of transport of everything, right down to my hay trucks. And then I notice that they only put a 10% tax increase on cigarettes. Ok, boys, smarten up. By increasing the price of cigarettes by 100%, they are still cheaper than anywhere else in the world AND you might actually get people to stop smoking and costing the entire system tons of money in health costs. But dollars to donuts, the guys doing these figures are smokers.

copyright 2008 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

Journeying

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge …
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.
Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.
Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.

C.P. Cavafy was a Greek Alexandrian who was born in the late 1800's and lived into the 20th century writing poetry that was inspired by his Greek heritage and his Egyptian upbringing. He wrote in English and Greek and likely spoke Arabic rather badly if at all, having been raised some of the his youth in the UK. He's always been one of my favourite poets. This poem seems important to me right now because at the end of the month I will be traveling to the US for two weeks to see my children who are both at the beginning of their travels, although they probably don't see things that way. My son is completing his graduate studies and going to work for at least a while in the US and my daughter is just at the start of her graduate studies which will likely take her to some fairly interesting places.

I am more than happy to be here on my farm enjoying the flow of visitors and the changes of seasons. I know that the children will be in that flow as often as they can arrange it, partly to keep an eye on their old mom who has a tendency to do odd things even at her advanced age and partly because Egypt with her Nile and desert is part of their being. Like my Greek friend, my Ithaca is here under the palms and the endless sun of Egypt. I don't know where my children's Ithaca will be, but I hope that the journey is a long one.



copyright 2008 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

The Extended Present of Survival

A couple of days ago I read a New York Times essay by Harriet Brown that quite simply knocked me over. The link to the article is the title here. She was talking about how after having gotten her two daughters through life-threatening illnesses, she was having trouble adapting to a more relaxed life. In some respects, all of us have been through the same situation. I have a daughter who flies home from her high stress university life and promptly comes down ill the moment she walks in the door. It seems to be that becoming a "daughter" with a mother who is available to care for her is the trigger that allows her to let it all out. She usually recovers in a day or so after her arrival and is fine again.

What really struck me about Ms. Brown's article was the comment that "In times of crisis, the brain goes into protective mode, a kind of extended present tense intended to get you through danger without wasting energy or emotional resources. After all, there is no evolutionary advantage to worrying about the future when the future may never come." I'm not a stranger to this extended present tense, but I've always thought of it as the response to an immediate emergency, that icy calmness that allows one to bundle a bleeding kid into the car to get to the emergency room for stitches. As I was reading about the extended illnesses of her daughters, I realised that I'd also relied on that extended present tense to get me through the Bad Years of reorganising my late husband's businesses to take care of the needs and desires of the banking community in Cairo. Friends and family wondered at my ability to simply deal with the multitude of blows, setbacks and complex problems that were my lot for those years. I'd get up in the morning, dress for whatever corporate duty lay in wait for me, and get on with my day. I was in a sort of emotional shock.

My kids, bless them, would turn me around at the kitchen door many evenings sending me out to my horses with a change of clothes and tell me to go ride. I would ride, sometimes for hours, silently through the countryside night listening to the sounds of families resting in front of their homes, chatting, watching television, playing...the sounds of normality that would heal the wounds of each day. But all that time, I couldn't think ahead clearly to plan anything, I couldn't think of who/what I had lost, memories were fuzzy and not useful to me. It took years to reach a point when I suddenly began writing poetry quietly during board(bored) meetings, tugging out tiny bits of feeling from the numbness within. Poetry was the only way I could access my feelings at that point. Everything had to be in bite-sized pieces because I seemed to be incapable of dealing with anything larger than a moment.

This idea of extended present tense has given me pause to think as well about the people around me. I wonder how many people that I deal with on a daily basis get into the habit of this extended present tense in defense against the difficulties of life. I live among people for whom the only guarantee is that they and their families will someday die...the old "death and taxes" as sureties but they are too poor to pay taxes. Visitors here look at the villagers and ask how do they live with.... a million things that might occur to someone, but I'll bet that much of their life is spent in that present tense where the future has no meaning and the past has no bearing. I'm sure that when your life is a mess in general, survival mode becomes normality.


copyright 2008 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

Obviously An Endangered Species

In preparation for a general strike called to protest the rising prices and level salaries, the powers that be seem to have decided to round up some of the local bloggers who have been instrumental in calling for the strike. Living out in the boonies, I wasn't planning on going into town anyway and I have no plans on spending any time at all out in the current sandstorm, so I imagine that I'm probably safe. I'm also not all that convinced that a march or strike is going to be all that effective in fighting the inflation that afflicts Egypt and so many other places as well. I do find it interesting to note that there is a statute on the books, "Article 124 of the Penal Code punishes all those who shirk their work obligations with a prison sentence of 3 months to one year" and I wonder why it isn't used against the clerks in government offices who'd rather drink tea than work...or maybe against the plumber who gives you three appointments one after another and never shows up for any of them..

As a general rule, I don't comment that much on politics. It's not a healthy thing to do in Egypt as can be seen in the article to which the title links. On the other hand, as a housekeeper I'm a great believer in the disinfecting power of sunlight, so let the light shine.

copyright 2008 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

A Problem For Everyone

There have been stories in the press here and abroad about the problems at the government bread bakeries due to flour shortages. We are definitely in the midst of a serious problem in Egypt with inflation, especially as it affects food. But we are not alone, as detailed by the writer of the Globe and Mail article I've linked to with the title. People are experiencing similar problems all over the world.

I don't go into the city that much, especially since there is almost nothing that can be done there that doesn't cost money, and with a farm to support, I really don't want to go about spending unnecessarily. Today I went into Maadi to pick up a replacement pair of glasses and to do my month's grocery shopping. Shopping every day the price increases sort of sneak up on you, but shopping once a month, they smack you in the face. I have to admit that I'm spoiled rotten by having the wonderful Mohamed...driver, accountant, supervisor of workers, right hand man....who does my day to day shopping. He has the advantage of living near one of the best fruit and vegetable markets in Cairo but we've been watching the price fluctuations in that realm with a jaundiced eye.

Going to the market once a month for the essentials puts a special light on pricing. I am a boring shopper. I buy the same basics month after month: some chicken breasts, corn meal for parrot bread, skim milk and skim milk yogurt, some oil, some rice, lentils, chick peas...simple stuff. It's only me in the house after all and I like my food real and freshly cooked, so I don't need too much.

I do this shopping in one of the largest supermarkets in Maadi. There are things that I like that I can find in a place like that, such as cherry preserves, that I like. Yeah, like I said, I'm a bit spoiled. Metro, the supermarket, has a cheese section, a meat section, a poultry section, a fish market, and a delicatessen...it's a normal supermarket. Last time I was there, I bought a tray of chicken breast for about 30 LE...that's for about 8 half breasts. Today the same tray was over 40 LE. My skim milk that was about 3.5 LE 6 months ago is now almost 5 LE a litre. A small jar of nice green pepper salsa, locally produced, was 3.5 LE last month and is 5 LE this month. Rice that was 2.5 LE is now almost 5 LE.

As I wandered around the aisles gazing in horror at the costs of living exploding before me, I noticed that there was almost no one else in the store. Ordinarily, I'd see families doing their shopping, mothers with toddlers in tow picking up cereal and pampers, all nationalities...but today there was an older gentleman moving about looking at more things than he was buying and a young woman picking up item after item only to put them down with a snort of disgust. The store, while not empty, was significantly less crowded than I'd ever seen it.

My staff have been telling me about the price increases over the past months, but it isn't the same thing as walking in and being assaulted by the price increases at every turn. We are living and working in a farming area where we can grow some of our food. How are people who are on very limited incomes in cities and have no way to provide for themselves going to manage?

In my reading about the price issues in the grain trade I've seen that there are some interesting issues involved in the shortages and high prices. One of the issues that one article was discussing was the abnormal trading and pricing patterns over the past few years since investment funds were allowed to trade commodities. This means in addition to stocks and bonds, these investment funds could speculate on commodities that are the bases of our food supply. As the widow of a grain trader, I have some understanding of the general workings of this field, and I really think that the trading of something as important as food should not be in the hands of speculators. I realise that everyone in the grain trade is also speculating to a certain extent, but at the end of the day they are trying to move the grain from Point A to Point B. Mutual funds aren't moving food from producers to consumers. I also have to question the wisdom of the current field of biofuels. If we are using food for people to power vehicles that many of the people needing food don't even have...what is the point? It's all very well to try to develop a renewable fuel source, but do we want to compete with our own cars and buses for our food supply? These aren't just Egyptian concerns and problems. They are affecting us all. Shortages in rice, corn, and wheat are causing price increases in staples and meats all over the world. A Canadian friend of mine confided that a loaf of bread in her area was about $2.50. Looks like we are all in this together.

copyright 2008 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

Five Years Old Today

Today is my blog's 5th birthday. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't believe that I've been writing this thing for the past five years. That's longer than I've worked at any job other than being a mother. (By the way, don't expect any logic to the photos accompanying this post. They are totally random other than for the fact that I chose them today.) When I started the blog I was definitely inspired by the Baghdad Blogger. I read his work and could feel and sense the life in Baghdad during the days prior to the American invasion. After answering all sorts of questions from people who, in the wake of 9/11, couldn't fathom what a more or less normal Canadian mother type was doing in a "dangerous, anti-western, fundamentalist" country like Egypt, I rather hoped that I could bring readers a sense of life in Egypt.

In 2003 there seemed to be a sense that life in Egypt was very serious, rather dangerous, and a bit frightening. At that point I'd been living here for about fifteen years and one of the reasons that I loved living here was the general love of life and laughter that was so much a part of society and family here. Somehow, I guess that my message came across because after some time I seemed to have accumulated a number of readers many of whom have stuck with me over the years, and a surprising number of them have even ended up here at the farm for a cup of tea or a horseback ride. Just today, I had a group of women from Cairo come out on a Community Services Association trip and one of them told me that she'd been reading my blog for years.

So now as I embark on a second five years of blogging about everyday life in Egypt, I've had some time to think about what on earth possibly convince me to do this. I still think that just opening a window onto one of the most welcoming and warm cultures in this world is important. I really love sharing Egypt with people who haven't had the chance to experience Egypt, and I hope that some of them decide to come to see for themselves as a result of reading about this amazing place.

Then there is the feedback that I've gotten from Egyptians both living here and abroad...that has been inspiring. When I get an email from someone who tells me "Yes, this is my country. I recognise it. Thank you.", I feel truly honoured. As a relative newcomer to Egypt, having come here in mid-life, it's a wonderful feeling to hear that somehow I've been able to capture life here in my adopted land. I only hope that I can continue to do so.

I hope that the next five years in Egypt will be peaceful for most of us. This isn't a peaceful area of the world and we've had our share of problems here. Domestically, many of us are worried about what will come after Mubarak. Will his son succeed him? Will he do a good job? Will the military accept a non-military president here? How is Egypt going to handle the pretty crazy inflation rate that we are suffering from these days? I'm looking at how I can increase my staff's basic pay rate so that they can support their families, but at the same time I have to be able to afford my expenses. Inflation is a nasty, nasty business that is affecting all of us. I read my news reports and notice little things like the fact that we are now competing with two new breweries in Egypt for barley for the horses and forage is also becoming more expensive as farmers are competing with villas for land. Guess who is winning... I guess the only way to find out is to keep going. I'll be here if you will.


copyright 2008 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani