I wanted to tag this post, and couldn't find it. I'd written it in Cairo, but was apparently unable to post it. Given what's going on in Egypt today, the conversations with Dr. Shehata, from the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, are particularly interesting. Sorry this reads more like notes; I should edit it and make it a bit more readable, but here it is raw.
In the middle of the night, I heard text messages going off. I woke up this morning to find ATT had been texting me because of my data usage. I set up my international data plan before I left, but they said that because of my billing cycle, they had to start it on November 3. I guess I’m supposed to plan my trips around ATT’s billing cycles. I didn’t think it could be that bad in a day, but they texted me to say I had used something like 20 MB of data, and since it occurred before my data plan went into effect, they were going to charge me at the rate of $20.00 per MB. Megabyte, not Gigabyte. Megabyte. You know, the average picture is like 3-4 MB? So snapping pics of myself in the airport and posting them to facebook cost me dearly. Enough that I have no qualms about jailbreaking my phone and using another carrier. They’ll probably credit it back when I finish arguing with them, but it won’t be until after I pay them out of pocket. It’s the same thing they did last year, for some equally ridiculous reason – last year I had them set up the plan, and they claimed they made a mistake. This year I set it up, but it would only let me start it after my billing date. Hmmm…. Wonder if there’s a pattern here? It sort of feels like extortion.
Today is our second full day of touring, which probably means it’s Wednesday, November 3. We started the day with devotions on Matthew 2:7-15. We looked at the Scripture through a different lens, as is common here in Egypt – we looked at Egypt not as a place which oppressed Judean slaves, but a place TO which the Lord and His parents escaped from the oppression of the Roman Empire. A wicked Judean king was oppressing Jesus, an Israelite child.
So this is sort of the same theme we covered last year. Here is a link to last year’s blog on the subject. We then proceeded to the Great Pyramids. Walid, our guide, spent lots of time telling people about the dimensions, and how the pyramids were built according to astrological projections, how the Egyptians were actually the progenitors of the One God reality long before the Israelites were exposed to the concept, and how the Pyramids were built, not by slaves, but by skilled laborers – I didn’t really pay attention to all that, not because it wasn’t interesting, but because that wasn’t the space I was in. Even though he’s a skilled Egyptologist, I don’t really have to come to Egypt to have someone tell me that people have historically co-opted African cultures, taken the best parts of it, and claimed it for their own. That’s not news.
We ended one of our discussions with the takeaway that any good Bible study should urge us to ask “so what?” “What’s the point of all this?”
And what really is the point of our being here? I don’t want to just be a tourist and observe. It’s clear God has called me here for a purpose. So we were talking about the Middle East, and about how no countries in the Middle East really established their own borders. The whole Nation/State concept is not the norm in this part of the world. This is still very much a land of tribal associations. Most of the instability, Peter thinks, in the Middle East can be traced to colonialist establishment of other nations.
So. Why are we here? What difference DO we make? After a tour of the pyramids and a rare chance to see the Cheops Boat museum (it’s amazing to me that the Nile used to be so big and wide that we can see outside the pyramids – now in the middle of the desert -- places where boats used to dock) – after that, we had lunch at the Khan Al-Khalili bazaar. There was a constant stream of people trying to sell stuff. Where last year it was mobbed and we were unable to walk, this year the streets were nearly empty, both at the Pyramids and at the Bazaar. Tourism in Egypt has taken a tremendous beating because of the political instability. Which is to our advantage.
So. After lunch, we went to the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. We met with Dr. Dina Shehata, a Senior Researcher. We talked about the Rolling Revolution (because it is still going on). The Al-Ahram Center is one of the oldest and largest think tanks in the Middle East. First they were concerned with the Arab-Israeli conflict; now they deal with domestic concerns. An independent entity, they are loosely affiliated with the newspaper Al-Ahram, one of the older, more conservative papers in Egypt (note: so I wonder how TRULY independent the think tank is; they only do analysis and don’t set policy, so there may be a chance they are vaguely independent). They were first privately owned, then nationalized in the 1960s; similar, she says to the US Institute for Peace. The Al-Ahram machine also runs a publishing house that puts out, among other things, the Annual Arab Strategic Report (it’s not available in English).
Dr. Shehata tells us that the entire Middle East is being reshaped for the first time since WWI. The change is being driven by internal revolutions, such as those we’ve seen in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and so on. “Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice” was the rallying cry in Egypt.
There have been forces for and against this change. The Gulf monarchies are working actively to limit change in their regions; time will tell who will prevail.
What they’ve found so far is that, while the revolution toppled Mubarak, the (corrupt) system is still entrenched. The military intervened at first, but now people tend to feel the military is interested in preserving the regime. Elections will be at the end of November, and then we’ll be able to see if/what happens. Whoever wins the election will draft the new constitution. This is sort of backwards, so there is an opportunity to see conflicts and an opportunity to see consensus building. The mistake, of course, was that the elections will happen before there’s a constitution. Everyone hopes for a balanced outcome, but the only thing that’s fairly sure is that the military will be assertive. It’s the generally accepted opinion that the US tacitly supports whatever the military does.
These are the same kinds of challenges being faced by other countries in the region. The US, we’re told, is generally viewed negatively regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict and the US invasions of Iraq and Iran. The present situation in the Middle East is simply not sustainable, especially as the Arab population increases. One problem is that US-implemented policies have been the cause of social inequality. The hope is for the new Egyptian government to adopt better policies. Lots of people (a new demographic: young, urban, and educated) are hoping Egypt will do it.
Regarding the rest of Africa, Egyptians have admittedly been elitist and/or racist. The hope is that that, too, will change. Ethiopia is especially problematic for Egypt, because Egypt hasn’t paid enough attention to the (other) African countries. Again, it is hoped this will change.
We found ourselves speaking about the Coptic Church (we’ll speak about them later, with the Anglicans). For a long time, the Coptic Church has aligned itself with the military, authoritarian regime. Again, this is likely to change…. Lots of breakdowns have been highlighted since the revolution. Security is weak. Once a stable government is in place, it is hoped this government will be able to address those issues.
We had a question and answer period, then went off to meet with Rev. Dr. Bahiq Ramsey, who works with the Senior Bishop of Cairo. We also met a British priest, Rev. Michael, who’d worked in Cyprus and Scotland.
Across from the Anglican Church’s headquarters is a Marriott hotel. I was still quite tired and wanted some coffee. We had time, so I went over to the Marriott. It’s the one place I’ve seen in Egypt where they actually use the metal detectors. Every place has them, but only the Marriott actually makes you put your things through and pays attention if it beeps. So we went in, and after 3 or 4 times telling then I wanted a cappuccino to go, they told me I could sit down. I waited, and they of course brought me a cappuccino in a cup. But it looked so pretty I decided to stay. I ended up paying 30LE (Egyptian Pounds) for it, which included tax and tip. Which translates to about $5.00 US. While it was an outrageous price to pay, it was in the Marriott, which is, in both décor and patronage, quite different than the hotels we’re staying in. We’re staying in 3-star hotels. The Marriott in Cairo is 4 or 5 star, frequented by American businesspeople and, most likely, Gulf-State elite. It even smelled different – I think perhaps this one doesn’t allow smoking inside. I don’t know. I know that I paid $5.00 for a cappuccino, which is an outrageous amount here, but didn’t mind. Too much.
Dr. Ramsey, a lifelong Anglican, was an MD. While working with his Bishop, they had occasion to talk about spiritual needs, and Dr. Ramsey found himself becoming Rev. Ramsey. His wife, a former engineer, resigned her job to help her husband with his ministry. He shared with us his experiences during the uprising and his thoughts since then. We learned that he and Fr. Michael work at the Egyptian Anglican Refugee Center, which has English, Arabic, and Sudanese speaking people, as well as people from Myanmar, who are effectively slaves. They would, he says, be the Filipino house servants people have in the US.
Like everyone in Egypt, these priests are waiting to see what happens after the elections. The process of revolution, they say, has actually seen the church GROW. They say they feel safe in Cairo; Fr. Michael says he feels safer there than in most big Western cities. Fr. Ramsey thinks one of the most significant effects of the uprising is that people are finally learning to say “no.” Freedom of the press and freedom of speech are now realities, not just foreign concepts.
Regarding Copts, we were told that 90% of Egyptian Christians are Copts. They have, it is perceived, a “mother church” attitude. They’ve been very powerful, if not mobile. Fr. Ramsey stated that many Christian clergy were confused at the beginning of the conflict. It was only, he says, when they saw Mubarak doing poorly that they began to speak (which is consistent with Dr. Shehata’s statement that they were aligned with the prior authoritarian regime. CP editorialization: looks like we still have not learned the lessons of Constantine’s merger of church and state…). These fathers also stated that the economics of change are the most visible, with people being concerned about security.
At the beginning of this post, we were talking about what difference any of this makes, and why we do it? Fr. Michael shared with us the three priorities of the Bishop of Cairo:
- SHARE the faith. Evangelism. You can’t share the faith, of course, unless you:
- KNOW the faith. Discipleship. But it’s not enough to simply share and know, you have to:
- SHOW the faith. Missions. Do something to demonstrate the Good News. Show someone the love of Jesus.
It’s interesting that we started our day with that question, and ended it with that answer.
I came home and FINALLY got my jailbroken phone to work (at least the voice part. We’ll have to work on data next) with an Egyptian phone card. Once I get the data working, I can stop using my ATT phone card, saving hundreds of dollars in ATT’s exploitive overcharges.
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