Articles inside the category: Egypt Unwrapped

Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Tuesday, 21 Feb, 2012
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All the President’s Men

TV weathermen have a cosy life in Egypt – a country where the climate is as predictable as a Russian UN veto. The wind, for instance, which blows upstream along the Nile for nine days out of ten, is so obliging that the ancient hieroglyph for travelling north or south simply showed a boat with its sails full or furled. If only the politics was so simple. Take the forthcoming presidential election – a poll which, if you buy in to all the pre-match hype – will usher in the first de...

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Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Wednesday, 8 Feb, 2012
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Egypt’s Second Half

The young football supporter looked like a Napoleonic foot-soldier he strode through the heaving streets of downtown Cairo. His left eye was covered with a fresh gauze – a result of the ferocious rioting which broke out across Egypt last week – while in his hands he held upright a pole with three flags attached, one above the other. At the top was the Egyptian national ensign. The other two belonged to Cairo’s two biggest football clubs, Zamalek and Al-Ahly; for so long the most im...

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Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Tuesday, 31 Jan, 2012
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I is for Insurrection

As the crowds of protesters waited outside Mustafa Mahmoud mosque in western Cairo last week, the face of a famous terrorist could be seen lurking amid the throng. Guy Fawke...

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Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Tuesday, 24 Jan, 2012
2

A Democratic Exception

Kenneth Roth, the chief executive of Human Rights Watch (HRW), probably wished he had more to smile about when he arrived in Cairo over the weekend. Given it was the first t...

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Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Wednesday, 18 Jan, 2012
2

A League of their Own

Back in March 1945, as the old colonial hierarchies were crumbling into the ruins of the war-shattered Europe, a new Middle Eastern order was emerging in Cairo. Estab...

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Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Wednesday, 11 Jan, 2012
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Voice of the People

Reporters are forever on the hunt for “real people” in their quest to unpick the fabric of a country. But where are they? How do they think and live? And in the case of Egy...

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Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Wednesday, 28 Dec, 2011
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Getting Egypt Back on its Feet

Surrounded by shelf upon shelf of Perspex perfume bottles, all crafted into an array of voluptuous designs and gilded by gold and silver paintwork, fragrance-seller Mohammad...

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Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Friday, 25 Nov, 2011
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A Storm Before the Calm

After nearly a week of the deadliest violence seen in Egypt since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak, calm has descended on Cairo – but one wonders for how long? Som...

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Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Tuesday, 15 Nov, 2011
1

Freedom and Justice

The office of Professor Mohammed Morsy does not look like the lair of a man who will soon become one of Egypt’s premier political players. About 10ft square with a pot pla...

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Alastair Beach
Written by :
on : Wednesday, 2 Nov, 2011
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A Sting in the Tale

Today on the website of al-Masry al-Youm newspaper was a light-hearted story poking fun at the Salafis, the fundamentalist Muslims who have become increasingly visible since th...

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