Living Like a Rockstar

The conference has proved interesting already. First, I miraculously made it to Helwan, far on the south side of the city, after the driver had to change a tire and then stop repeatedly to reattach said tire before speeding off down the Nile road again. I was left wondering exactly what happens to a speeding car if a rear tire comes off while trying to enjoy the less warm morning air.

At the main gate I asked one of the security officers to point me towards the conference hall. Instead, he commandeered the vehicle of a lovely woman dropping her daughter off at school and demanded that they take me across campus. Mom was very sweet and insisted it was not a problem. Unfortunately, she didn't know where we were going either and finally asked if I wouldn't mind if we just dropped her daughter off first so she wouldn't be late for class. She then had the grace and class to smile, ask my name and welcome me to Egypt profusely when we finally found the place.

I can't say I've been to another conference where I had to walk a red carpet, flanked by young people with ceremonial sashes and swarmed by papparazzos of sorts. Once again, I find myself the sole ajnabia (foreigner). Actually, that's not totally true. Turns out there are a few professors from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia attending, but I'm the only non-Arab and thus the only one whose Arabic is limited. Translation has been provided in the past and it was assumed by others that it would be provided this year. Well, it's just not cost-effective for me and after asking about headphones I was passed person to person and sort of eventually ignored.
Being a big fan of self-advocacy, I just starting asking people with conference badges if they could help me out. Oh, and nobody had me on the list, I guess, because no badge for me. The ladies at the table smiled, handed me a vinyl laptop bag and ushered me on. Finally somebody grabbed a fourth year undergrad student who spoke English and, bless her, when she determined there would be no translation, simply drafted herself into my service as an assistant and translator. Luckily, she also has a very good sense of humor and provided good color commentary during the speechifying by the VIPs at the opening ceremonies.

In fact, the day was more or less salvaged by students who seemed to sense what I needed before I did. And these were mostly undergrads. They would alternately swarm and subside, asking me questions about me, the U.S., social work. One girl grabbed my cup to force her way to the hot water for tea during the break, another guy wrestled a snack plate from other attendees for me, and a few kept trying to figure out how to get me a badge even after I'd given up. A few students and faculty asked for my help in studying in the U.S.

I must add here that somehow, simply by arriving in Egypt, I have acquired an honorary PhD because a fair number of people introduce me as doctora. Yes, I do try to correct them, but the title seems to have stuck.

In the end, a crowd of students sort of adopted me and treated me like a cross between a professor-pet-big sister-rock star. These guys were lining up to have their picture taken with me. Trust me, this has never happened in my nearly 36 years on this planet. We ended up sharing lunch in the school cafeteria, always an interesting perspective on a school. Two of the women live near where I'm staying and brought me home via the Metro, which is not so bad above ground but an endurance test at rush hour on the subterranean leg for even the heartiest soul.

So, did I learn much? Sure, just not what I expected. Tomorrow, the last day, will feature panels on the papers and there are several I am very interested in. I just hope I can follow along. I plan to hunt down the paper authors, if need be.

Next week I have a few meetings with Egyptian and international NGOs about their development work here. And somewhere in the next week I am squeezing in some sites. I really need a map. I just cannot put the parts of this place together yet.
Peace/سلام

A View From the Bridge

Looking south, up the Nile, in downtown Cairo today.
I know of none (so correct me if I'm wrong), but this place should be a hotbed of great sci-fi writing for it's physical setting alone. The city sits under feet of dust like a lost city too quickly reclaimed. Very surreal in places. A dry, dystopian vision of the hot, dry, crowded future facing much of the world.
Peace/سلام

Initial observations on the journey

Bit of an ad-hoc post, but I've been in Cairo for about 24 hours and have learned a few things along the way:

I love Turkey more than maybe I thought. I literally got giddy on our descent over the Marmara, even though I had I was only stopping for a brief layover on this leg of the trip. A professor from one of the Istanbul universities I made friends with on the flight said perhaps I'll get to "come home for good" someday. My Turkish came back faster than I thought. And, as usual, everybody thinks I'm Turkish, even the Egyptians.

As for Cairo...
Egyptians may be to Arabic as Cubans are to Spanish.
If you had to describe the city in a single word: brown.
I am beginning to think Egyptians invented the energy drink because they never seem to quit. Even on our little back alley, the action kept going until 2am. And I know this because that's when I was having "dinner".
Cairo has the best pedestrian crossing signs ever - a little green LED man running for his life.
Attending an all-day workshop in a language other than your own is not a great choice when jet lagged, but being the only ajnabia at the table is always fun.
Spending half a day with a local patient trying to navigate services in a public hospital in the developing world is fascinating (as long as the patient is not you). Excellent lesson in the need for self-advocacy.
Walk with purpose when crossing the street and do not flinch. Drivers can smell fear. Make eye contact and they almost always let you pass.
I cannot tell you where I am staying in Cairo other than that it's in or near Mohandessine. Maybe. We rode long enough in the taxi from the airport that I was beginning to think she lived in Alex. I know I'm west of the Nile because I remember crossing that...
Anyway, if I don't sleep I may drop.
More when I have it. Conference starts day after tomorrow.
Peace/سلام

Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go!

I'm wheels up for Cairo, and subsequently Istanbul, in 24 hours. I'm hoping my welcome in Cairo will rival ElBaradei's. O.k., I jest. It's been a bit of an arduous week with exams, presentations and meetings galore, helped little by the fact that I have hit some sort of personal line in the sand energy-wise by cramming over two-thirds of the work for this semester into the previous weeks. Luckily, a friend in my Development Policy course offered to roll me into the corner should I fell out of my chair. Joey Ramone is bouncing around my brain, though sedatives would be highly counterproductive at this point:
"Put me in a wheelchair, get me on the plane! Hurry, hurry, hurry, before I go insane. I can't control my fingers, I can't control my brain. Oh, no, no, no oh-oh."

I've set up several meetings with development-related organizations and professionals in both cities. In addition to the Helwan Social Work conference, I've been invited to some meaty-sounding workshops on human rights, women's empowerment and policy development. If anybody has anything else for me, please leave a comment.

Add to all that, I'm lucky enough to get to revisit dearly missed friends.
For now though, I just have to get through today...Hit it, Joey.
Peace/سلام

Stand up and fight for your education!

From student organizers:
Rally at UTAustin, Thursday, March 4, 11:30 AM
Gather at UT West Mall steps (west side of Tower)

"In response to a massive budget shortfall, slashing of funding for public education at all levels, and skyrocketing college tuition costs, students and educators up and down the state of California have been mobilizing, culminating in a call for a day of action on March 4. At the University of Texas at Austin, various colleges and departments have been laying off staff and instructors, throwing UT employees to the wolves and reducing the quality of education despite a relatively shallow budget deficit. Next came news of a 8% tuition increase over the next two years — after tuition at UT has doubled over the last decade — and the closing of the beloved Cactus Café. Now Gov. Perry is demanding another $29 million cut from UT’s budget. Enough is enough. Students and educators shouldn’t have to pay for the crisis others created.

On March 4, join a demonstration at UT to defend public education. Come out and demand: Stop the cuts and layoffs! Protect our education! Stop raising tuition! Save the Cactus! Equal benefits for all UT employees!

Endorse the March 4 Day of Action at UT to Defend Public Education. Email your name and title, or that of your organization, to enmarterre@gmail.com"

You can RSVP via Facebook here.

Peace/سلام

Vote Corporate Interests!

This post is brought to you by the letter P for Procrastination.

Seems as though the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision unfettering corporate influence on government escaped some people's attention. Here's the inevitable result...


Oh, and, my sincerest apologies to the good people in Blighty regarding the latest U.S. export.

This time next week I'll be in Egypt. Wallah!
(cue ululating)
Peace/سلام

Geeking out

Sort of an embarrassment of riches this week at UT Austin:
Tonight, I'm off to hear Mary Robinson speak at the LBJ School. [Free passes still avail. @ Union]
Actually headed for a brown bag session with her this afternoon. Not that I don't have a heap of work to do on deadline...
And, I just found out that MIT Econ Prof. Esther Duflo is lecturing on poverty and microfinance tomorrow on campus. [3:30-5 p.m. ACES Bldg., Rm 2.302, FREE]

O.k., well, it's exciting to a poverty and human rights geek like me...
Peace/سلام

Completely irrelevant to most of you, but...

It's snowing. In Austin.
It was 23C on Sunday.
And now it's snowing as I try to listening to a former U.S. ambassador talk about democracy and development in Africa.
I would rather be outside making snow angels.
Peace/سلام

What do we mean by "terrorist"?

Two things make me raise this issue for the umpteenth time.

First, there was a discussion on CNN the other day about the benefits and drawbacks of civil versus military courts in trying terror suspects. The success rates of civil courts was knocked by the CNN reporter who said it depended on how the word "terrorist" was being defined, as the court's definition included domestic terrorists, those involved in narco-terror, etc. and did not isolate Muslim terrorists. As though the successes of the courts in prosecution terrorists were a moot point without making such a differentiation. I, of course, began screaming at the T.V. (a common thing when I actually watch - my roommate likes to remind me the people behind the glass cannot hear me) that the courts obviously were defining terrorists as people who engage in acts that elicit terror, as opposed to Muslims who engage in acts that elicit terror. Quite a concept, no?

Second, and literally closer to home, today in Austin a man apparently burned down his home and then committed suicide by flying his small plane into an multi-story government office building. The latest news is that two bodies have been recovered, one the pilot and the other an IRS employee. His suicide note included a tirade against the IRS and U.S. government. Yet the local police are calling it a criminal act instead of a terrorist act. So, somebody with a grudge against the U.S. government flies a plane into a building, but it's not terrorism?

Or, as Sepia Mutiny notes, "Terrorist. For f*** sake!"

Does there have to be an organizational structure? What about more nebulous, cell-based groups with more tenuous direct linkages? Is the definition based on death tolls? What about a series of individual, isolated actions based on similar ideological beliefs? What about ETA, True IRA? Or are we just going for brown, funny name (Wait - Richard Reid? Eric Rudolph?), Muslim?
Peace/سلام

Forget Kansas! What's the Matter With Texas?

More crazy from Texas care of Governor Rick "Le Coif" Perry, who is leading in the polls going into the Republican gubernatorial primary here. Of course, in the party primary he's up against a former Republican Senator and "Washington insider," a term equated with many here with fascist/Nazi/elitist/etc. even within your own party, and another Republican candidate who made news this week by questioning U.S. involvement in the September 11th attacks.
Texans, have you people not had enough of this guy?

Of course then there's the codification of crazy in the schools here thanks to the state board of education.

I'll admit, I fervently hope Perry actually plays the secession card before I finish my graduate program. I know he won't, in part for the five bazillion logical reasons that I'm sure at least one advisor on his staff is aware of, but boy would it be fun to watch that crazy unfold.
Peace/سلام

The Mysteries of the Unisex Bathroom

Texas is not a place known for progressive views regarding gender and sexuality - though there was a recent glimmer of hope in Houston - or much else for that matter. Sorry, Austinites and all you right wing haters who claim the city is some sort of cross between Sodom and Moscow c. 1905 or Beijing c.1949, but we're not the wild liberal, socialist hotbed people claim we are. Not by miles and miles and miles.

So, when the staff at the campus gym suggested I try the unisex bathroom because there were no lockers available in the women's locker room I said, "Oh, yeah the...the WHAT?"
I've heard of them, but never seen one. I know one of the arguments in their favor is that they provide a safe space for transgendered folks, which is a good thing. They seem like a perfectly reasonable thing to me. I just never expected our uni to be progressive enough to provide such a space.

Low and behold it's a little locker room complete with showers and everything. I've had all to myself each time I had to use it. None of the staff could tell me the reasoning behind it and none were sure of the proper etiquette for using the place. I'll admit I'm not one to be bothered by public nudity and what not. Even if I'd not been raised in a family with very healthy attitudes towards the human form, working in closed quarters on boats, as I have, should cure most people of any lingering hangups or excitement about walking in on others changing. However, I do try to be somewhat respectful of other people's hangups, at least within reason. The fact that you're out in the open when changing and showering left me wondering how badly I would freak somebody out who happened to walk in not expecting to run smack into a naked lady. Hasn't happened yet, but....If you're on campus and in the gym, consider yourself warned.
Peace/سلام

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

I have the two coolest, most wonderful librarians working my neighborhood branch.
Not only do they help direct me to some really amazing, obscure films and music...not only do they like to hang out and talk...and they're both great musicians...

Today they beaded me for Mardi Gras with a strand of jaw breaker-sized purple beads hefty enough to use as a defensive weapon. Just for stopping by to pick up the copy of Network I had on hold. I mean, how many of you have Mardi Gras-celebrating librarians?

Alas, no gumbo party this year to match the one I threw while living in Istanbul.
Peace/سلام

Beware the Snowpocalypse!

Three weeks until I depart Tejas for Egypt and Turkey. Luckily, I'll have my passport in case Texas secedes from the U.S. whilst I'm gone. There's a lot of work to be cranked out between now and then. I am in need of some fun and frivolity. Other than Hawaii, we seem to be the only part of the U.S. not buried in snow at the moment. Given this photo, we should be thankful.
To my friends and family shoveling out: beware the snow Daleks, people!
Peace/سلام

Really, Pat? Part deux

So, Pat, tell me again who made a pact with the devil?
Peace/سلام

Too much input

In the last 48 hours I've read over 600 pages in coursework. That's not meant as a boast but rather a warning that if you never hear from me again, I've likely read myself into a coma via an aneurysm.

It's fair to say I like a challenge, but more accurate to say I need a challenge. That's true in every facet of my life. I need to rumble. Not saying it's healthy, mind you, just that it's one of the things about myself I've come to understand. If something, somebody, isn't challenging, why bother. Boredom unleashes my Hulk. You won't like me when I'm bored.

This leads me to do things like sign up for five graduate classes, when I'm only required to be in three. On top of a 20-hour a week internship (luckily no teaching assistant position this semester). And then to schedule a three week trip to Egypt and Turkey in the middle of the semester. Why not? Oh, and I've taken up boxing of late, which I've found...soothing.

At the moment, in preparation for my departure, I am cramming about two to three months work for my five classes in to the next four weeks. My goal is to be wheels up with only my Development Economics exam serving as in-flight entertainment on the way to Egypt.

Yes, I did finally connect with E., a member of the Helwan Social Work faculty who worked with our department on an exchange before my time. I'll be attending the 23rd Helwan Social Work Conference and staying in Egypt for nearly two weeks. My department is graciously and generously supporting my trip, believing as I do that it fits well into their desire to internationalize the program. I may have my frustrations with the profession, but my department has always supported me and that's not just blowing smoke. E. has graciously offered to host me in her home, which I am thrilled about. My hope while in Egypt is to sort out some organizations that might be willing to have me intern/volunteer over the summer in some facet of development. With no classes to take at the uni, I would rather spend my time developing professional experience and continuing to work on my Arabic. And Austin just wasn't really quite oppressively hot enough for me last summer. From Cairo I'm stopping in Istanbul for a week on the way home to see old friends and try to connect with the NGO and development sector there, too.

For now, I am nose-to-books/laptop screen, sustained by my joy at returning to my favorite part of the world and finally making it to Egypt.
Uff ya! Back to work....
Peace/سلام