Egypt Antiquities Chief: 3 Missing Objects Found

By BEN HUBBARD Associated Press

Three of 18 pieces reported missing from the famed Egyptian Museum after it was looted at the height of the country’s political turmoil have been found, the country’s chief archaeologist said Wednesday.

The 18-day popular uprising, which forced Hosni Mubarak to resign as president last week, has struck a blow to Egypt’s tourism ministry, a key source of income.

However, Egyptian Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass said the Egyptian Museum was the only major tourist site to suffer damage. Hawass said he hoped the museum could reopen Saturday, but has not checked with tourism or security authorities yet.

“God almighty saved the antiquities from this hell because God loves Egypt,” he told a news conference.

On Jan. 28, while thousands of street protesters called for Mubarak’s ouster from the downtown square outside, looters climbed a museum fire escape, broke windows on the roof and entered the museum by rope.

Hawass said the looters shattered 13 display cases, scattering about 70 objects on the ground. About 20 of those will be repaired, he said. Of the 18 missing objects, none were considered masterpieces, which include the gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun and other stunning items from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

Hawass said three of the 18 missing objects were found in the museum, one underneath a display case and two in the courtyard. He said he believes the looters dropped them as they tried to escape.

The recovered items include a statue of a goddess who was holding a figurine of the 18th Dynasty King Tutankhamun.

The most important of the missing objects — a limestone statue of the Pharaoh Akhenaten standing and holding an offering table — has not been found. Akhenaten is the so-called heretic king who tried to introduce monotheism to ancient Egypt.

Hawass said police arrested a number of suspects in the robbery. “They were people looking for the gold and red mercury in the museum,” he said of the suspects. They also stole items from the gift shop.

he missing pieces are registered and would be difficult to sell, he said.

Hawass said the Egyptian Museum was the only one of the country’s 24 museums to suffer any loss. He said no damage had been done to Egypt’s famous temples in the southern cities of Luxor and Aswan, nor to the Great Pyramids in Giza.

Hawass, who makes frequent TV appearances in archaeology shows and often sports an “Indiana Jones”-style fedora, has faced some criticism since Mubarak’s ouster. Archaeology students protested and demanded his removal, calling him a “showman” who cares little about helping them find work in their field.

Hawass said Wednesday he had raised enough money to employ 500 new graduates and would continue to seek more money.

Sweden eases Egypt travel recommendations

Sweden, who on January 30 advised its citizens against all non-necessary travel to Egypt, said Monday it was safe to visit Red Sea resorts.

But Swedish tour operators Apollo and Ving said Tuesday that despite the foreign ministry’s new travel recommendations, all of their winter trips to Egypt would remained cancelled.

Also the Danish foreign ministry on Tuesday eased its recommendations for travel to Egypt, telling its citizens it was safe to visit the tourist resorts along the Red Sea.

The ministry however maintained its advice to avoid all non-essential travel to the rest Egypt, it said on its website.

Danish tour operators Atlantis Rejser and Apollo, which in late January cancelled all their trips to Egypt in coming months, said Tuesday they had decided to start sending tourists to Egypt in March and April respectively.

Competitor Star Tour, which sends between 15,000 and 16,000 Danes to Egypt annually, said it did not plan to reverse its decision to cancel all trips to Egypt until the beginning of May, deeming the situation in the country had not yet returned to normal.

Tourists fled Egypt amid recommendations to avoid the country last month during mass civilian protests which succeeded in driving out President Hosni Mubarak last Friday.

Source: AFP/The Swedish Wire

Sharm el Sheikh – stable and open for tourism, despite Egypt’s political situation

Many winter sun seekers with holidays booked in Red Sea resorts will have been concerned to see recent news images of political and social unrest in Egypt, fearing that, for reasons of personal safety, their trip might have to be cancelled.

Perhaps I can allay some of those concerns. I returned home from a week in Sharm el Sheikh just before Hosni Mubarak stepped down from his position as President of Egypt but saw no evidence of unrest. In fact, the area was very pleasant to visit. Despite the country’s widely reported tension, the staff in hotels, restaurants and bars maintained a high level of professionalism. I would never wantonly take risks while travelling and at no point during my stay in Sharm el Sheikh did I feel the need to cut short my trip. In fact, I quite fancied the idea of prolonging my stay to take advantage of the resort’s relative quietude, in order to enjoy more of the Red Sea’s excellent scuba diving.

It was interesting to be in Egypt during a momentous period of the country’s modern history and talking to Egyptians about the root causes of their country’s troubles was fascinating. Hearing first-hand reports of what it was like to pass through improvised checkpoints in Cairo made me realise that much more was taking place, beyond just the high-profile protests on Tahrir Square. In a way, I felt a bit like someone who was in Dallas, Texas, on 22 November 1963 but nowhere near Dealey Plaza, where JFK was assassinated; I sensed that these were historic times but that I was far removed from the real action.

Friends and family members kept sending me messages of concern, asking if I was safe. That in itself was interesting. On the television news I had been told that the internet and mobile phone connectivity had been suspended throughout Egypt, though they continued to function there in Sharm el Sheikh. As my week in Sharm progressed, I could see that the number of holidaymakers was dwindling. More and more poolside sun loungers lay empty and, by the end of the week, restaurants had a surprising number of empty seats.

The foreign ministries of several European countries have advised their citizens against travel to Egypt. Likewise, the US Department of State recommended its citizens not to travel to Egypt “due to ongoing political and social unrest.” The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, meanwhile, was taking a softer stance, observing that the “Red Sea Resorts, including Sharm el Sheikh, remain calm” and that the 8pm to 6am curfew, which was being applied elsewhere in Egypt, did not apply.

I travelled out of Sharm el Sheikh to St Catherine’s Monastery and the Coloured Canyon in the Sinai Desert. Prior to travelling, the tour operator needed to check on the latest security situation, but we could visit the attractions without any hinderance. The only “disturbance” of any note was that banks and ATMs remained closed for a couple of days, on the orders of the Central Bank of Egypt. Ultimately, for me, that just meant less souvenir shopping.

Local hoteliers and resort owners are undoubtedly concerned by cancellations made in the wake of the country’s political crisis. Occupancy rates in some of Sharm el Sheikh’s hotels have dropped below 20 per cent and will fall even further over coming days, when those holidaymakers now present return home.

“I believe very much that the situation is not going to last for long. Here in Sharm we are on a different continent; we’re not in Africa. We are 550km from Cairo and the only connection is one tunnel under the Suez Canal. You could be in a different country. Everybody here is here for the tourism. Tourism is our livelihood; if there is no tourism there is no life,” said Emad F. Aziz, the Chairman of the Savoy Group, which operates Sharm el Sheikh’s Royal Savoy, Savoy and Sierra resorts, as well as the Soho Square entertainment and dining area.

“Red Sea areas are safe and secure,” said Hamada Abou El-Enin, the Chairman and CEO of the Hilton’s Sharm Dreams Resort and Spa. “This is a storm and we have to wait,” he added.

I also spoke with General Ahmed Saleh Al Edkawy, the Assistant Secretary General of the Governorate of South Sinai, who has a key role in the crisis management currently being undertaken by stakeholders in the region’s tourism industry. “The tourism industry may face some disturbances but it will never die. We will get back to where we were. Sharm el Sheikh is a big resort and not a city; the changes will be limited,” said General Al Edkawy.

“My main concern is the labour here,” said General Al Edkawy. “I don’t want to lose them. We must keep them; they have experience and know how to deal with tourists,” acknowledging the role that well-trained staff have in satisfying the service expectations of foreign tourists.

One early estimate suggests that Egypt’s tourism industry has suffered to the tune of $1.1b since disturbances began on January 25. Resorts along the Red Sea account for 40 per cent of that industry. People within the industry will undoubtedly want Sharm el Sheikh to remain attractive as quality sunshine resort. Yet as tour operators and hoteliers seek to win back business, it may be that prospective holidaymakers can pick up some attractive bargains over the coming weeks and months.

The beaches may be emptier than is usual but the sun – hope thousands of people who depend on the tourism industry for their livelihoods – has by no means set on Sharm el Sheikh and Egypt’s Red Sea resorts.

Source: The Travel Editor.com

Circle of Peace at the Great Pyramid

The small British school, NCBIS, brought together 53 nationalities around the Great Pyramid to create the first ever Circle of Peace in Egypt.
Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Lesotho, Namibia, Japan and Australia were among the many nations represented by the beautiful national costumes the children wore. A helicopter captured this spectacular moment to record a new generation expressing peace among such diversified cultures. Hisham Abbas sang a special dedicated song for this moment. A day we will all remember and share with the rest of the world. ‘We’ve made our Mark in History’

Barcelona greets Egypt’s Revolution Martyrs and received 14 Arab ambassadors

Stop my players to Barcelona and Sporting Gijon minute of silence before the start of their match on Saturday evening tribute to the martyrs of the Egyptian Revolution that broke out on Jan. 25 and ended with the resignation of President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak from office.

And everyone in the Stadium Municipal El Molennon stand a minute of silence in honor of the lives of about 300 killed between citizens and security men were killed during the protests, which lasted 18 days and were stationed in Egypt’s main squares, especially the editorial heart of Cairo.

The meeting ended with a draw the two teams lined up for Aboheme Mtusbandin around the circle in the middle of the field sucked majestic.

This was not the only communication on the part of Barcelona with the Arab world, as the Catalan club announced on Saturday through his reception President Sandro Rosell, the ambassadors of 14 Arab countries to Spain to discuss ways to build bridges of relations with different countries.

And AGP for the meeting, the Egyptian ambassador in Spain, without giving any reason for his absence the club, though the great political change through which the country may be the closest interpretation of reality.

The meeting was attended by the ambassadors of Jordan, Kuwait, Algeria, Oman, Tunisia, UAE, Qatar, Syria, Iraq, Mauritania, Yemen, Morocco, Sudan, Saudi Arabia in addition to the Ambassador of the Arab League.

 

source: www.allvoices.com

FREEDOM…Can you hear it?

When people find themselves caught in a place where their dreams, hopes and ideas have nowhere to breathe or fly, something happens. Something that is so natural and powerful, like the water we seek when thirsty, or the food we need when hungry takes over. This energy to change, to move in a different direction produces a voice—a voice loud and strong enough to vibrate and shake the wall that attempts to oppress the will of the masses and the fight for the future. From that first small voice that dared to speak, to resist, to protest – a small, but important insult has now grown into a voice of millions that cannot and will not be silenced.

I have visited Egypt and as I traveled through along the streets of Cairo, the back streets of Alexandria and the villages along the Nile, it was easy to see that a small, quiet vibration was growing, building, reaching to a pitch that is now heard by the ears of the world. There have been many who have attempted to deny the force of change as if trying to prevent a flower from its blossom or a mother from giving birth. In every case this deeply rooted will to express what cannot be denied, rises up and forces all of us to recognize and respect this voice that produced the sound of freedom playing long and strong throughout Egypt.

Now as the light of the sun and the sand gust winds from the Sahara blow without permission and cover the streets and pyramids, let’s remember that this undeniable spirit to speak—even to shout from the heart, should never be denied and never, ever be ignored.

Now when I look at my son, I realize more than ever that his name represents more than the will to be free—it stands for the fight for change, and the courage to shout!

We can hear the voice… and it is ours.

Alicia

 

I Am Egypt , WE Are Egypt

” I Am Egypt ” video.. in support to all egyptians who had lost their lives in the unfolding events of the 25th of January 2011 Revolution.

Music – Glasstop by Jon Hopkins
(Acoustics by Leo Abrahams)
From the album Contact Note, donated by Just Music and Just Publishing

Tahrir Square

The most popular square in the world by now

Tahrir Square

Egypt is an Opportunity

By Herbert E. Meyer

The lid has finally blown off the pressure cooker in Cairo.  And as the Director of National Intelligence is apparently just now starting to notice, there are a few more pressure cookers on the stove that are beginning to make odd noises.

Alas, in the real world there is no rewind button.  So while it’s tempting to dwell on how ineptly the President and his team have coped with the unfolding revolution in Egypt — and God knows it’s fun, given the breathtaking combination of arrogance and stupidity this administration has displayed — our nation’s security requires that we focus on the future.  More precisely:

• Where are we now, in Egypt and more broadly in the Mideast?

• What is likely to happen next, and then down the road, in this volatile and vital region?

• What do we want to happen?

• How can we tip the odds in our favor?

Where We Are Now

Managing a revolution is like leaping across a chasm; it’s best to reach the other side in one hop.  When the old regime falls and is immediately replaced by a popular new regime — which is what happened in countries including Poland and Czechoslovakia at the end of the Cold War — that country’s future usually is stable.  But when the old regime falls and isn’t immediately replaced by a new regime capable of quickly forging a new political structure, that country’s future is up for grabs.  This is what happened in Russia in 1917, when in February the Czar was overthrown and replaced by Kerensky and his (fairly decent) Social Democrats, who then fumbled in the Duma and lost control in October to Lenin and his (murderous) Bolsheviks.

In Egypt the House of Mubarak has collapsed, and the country’s army is dutifully holding things together until a new political structure can be erected.  So while the jubilation in Cairo’s Tahrir Square is understandable, Egypt hasn’t had a revolution.  It’s had half a revolution, which means the country’s future is in play.

What Lies Ahead in the Mideast

In today’s world of mass communication and social networking, the uprising in Egypt is likely to spread throughout the region.  Indeed, the uprising in Egypt itself was triggered, at least in part, by the recent popular uprising in Tunisia.  And now there may well be popular uprisings in Jordan, Yemen, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and perhaps Iran. There could be popular uprisings in Lebanon, Syria, and even in Gaza and the West Bank.  And since information moves around the globe literally at the speed of light, it wouldn’t be surprising to wake up one morning, turn on the television, and see scenes of mass unrest in Havana.  (And if we do see a popular uprising in Cuba, wouldn’t it be nice if the CIA got its act together — fast — and tossed a few banana peels under the Castro brothers’ feet….)

In short, we have suddenly entered one of those rare moments in history when the world is about to be remade.

Source: American Thinker

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/egypt_is_an_opportunity.html

What Egypt Can Teach America

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

It’s a new day in the Arab world — and, let’s hope, in American relations to the Arab world.

The truth is that the United States has been behind the curve not only in Tunisia and Egypt for the last few weeks, but in the entire Middle East for decades. We supported corrupt autocrats as long as they kept oil flowing and weren’t too aggressive toward Israel. Even in the last month, we sometimes seemed as out of touch with the region’s youth as a Ben Ali or a Mubarak. Recognizing that crafting foreign policy is 1,000 times harder than it looks, let me suggest four lessons to draw from our mistakes:

1.) Stop treating Islamic fundamentalism as a bogyman and allowing it to drive American foreign policy. American paranoia about Islamism has done as much damage as Muslim fundamentalism itself.

In Somalia, it led the U.S. to wink at a 2006 Ethiopian invasion that was catastrophic for Somalis and resulted in more Islamic extremism there. And in Egypt, our foreboding about Islamism paralyzed us and put us on the wrong side of history.

We tie ourselves in knots when we act as if democracy is good for the United States and Israel but not for the Arab world. For far too long, we’ve treated the Arab world as just an oil field.

Too many Americans bought into a lazy stereotype that Arab countries were inhospitable for democracy, or that the beneficiaries of popular rule would be extremists like Osama bin Laden. Tunisians and Egyptians have shattered that stereotype, and the biggest loser will be Al Qaeda. We don’t know what lies ahead for Egypt — and there is a considerable risk that those in power will attempt to preserve Mubarakism without Mr. Mubarak — but already Egyptians have demonstrated the power of nonviolence in a way that undermines the entire extremist narrative. It will be fascinating to see whether more Palestinians embrace mass nonviolent protests in the West Bank as a strategy to confront illegal Israeli settlements and land grabs.

2.) We need better intelligence, the kind that is derived not from intercepting a president’s phone calls to his mistress but from hanging out with the powerless. After the 1979 Iranian revolution, there was a painful post-mortem about why the intelligence community missed so many signals, and I think we need the same today.

In fairness, we in the journalistic community suffered the same shortcoming: we didn’t adequately convey the anger toward Hosni Mubarak. Egypt is a reminder not to be suckered into the narrative that a place is stable because it is static.

3.) New technologies have lubricated the mechanisms of revolt. Facebook and Twitter make it easier for dissidents to network. Mobile phones mean that government brutality is more likely to end up on YouTube, raising the costs of repression. The International Criminal Court encourages dictators to think twice before ordering troops to open fire.

Maybe the most critical technology — and this is tough for a scribbler like myself to admit — is television. It was Arab satellite television broadcasts like those of Al Jazeera that broke the government monopoly on information in Egypt. Too often, Americans scorn Al Jazeera (and its English service is on few cable systems), but it played a greater role in promoting democracy in the Arab world than anything the United States did.

We should invest more in these information technologies. The best way to nurture changes in Iran, North Korea and Cuba will involve broadcasts, mobile phones and proxy servers to leap over Internet barriers. Congress has allocated small sums to promote global Internet freedom, and this initiative could be a much more powerful tool in our foreign policy arsenal.

4.) Let’s live our values. We pursued a Middle East realpolitik that failed us. Condi Rice had it right when she said in Egypt in 2005: “For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither.”

I don’t know which country is the next Egypt. Some say it’s Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Syria or Saudi Arabia. Others suggest Cuba or China are vulnerable. But we know that in many places there is deep-seated discontent and a profound yearning for greater political participation. And the lesson of history from 1848 to 1989 is that uprisings go viral and ricochet from nation to nation. Next time, let’s not sit on the fence.

After a long wishy-washy stage, President Obama got it pitch-perfect on Friday when he spoke after the fall of Mr. Mubarak. He forthrightly backed people power, while making clear that the future is for Egyptians to decide. Let’s hope that reflects a new start not only for Egypt but also for American policy toward the Arab world. Inshallah.

Source: (The New York Times)