Egypt

            In my group, Arabic literature, I have been learning more about Egypt.  I have read the short novel War in the Land of Egypt and watched an Egyptian movie titled A Man in Our House.  Egypt has always fascinated me, but more so in the last year as I have learned more about its corrupt government and ongoing political unrest.  In the past, I have also read a book called the Yacoubian Building, a book by Alaa Al-Aswany that exposes the corruption of Egypt’s government and society. 

                  The novel War in the Land of Egypt is about a poor man’s son that is sent into the military in the stead of a rich man’s son, all because of a bribe to get the poor man’s land back.  (I will not tell you the ending because it is one we may all read as a class!)  A Man in Our House is an excellent movie that tells the journey of a young man who assassinates the Prime Minister of Egypt.  The Yacoubian Building is a novel with several different characters living in a single building, all experiencing different struggles with the government or societal systems.

                  As I was looking for more information pertaining to continuing unrest in Egypt, I learned that its leader, Mubarak, is very aged and will probably die in the near future.  He has no successor right now, and the politically unstable situation that exists now could explode after he dies, with different factions/leaders fighting for control of the government.  This is especially true since there have been many movements against his government, and against the rising prices of food and low wages.  I also discovered that there was a recent shortage of bread, and how some people waited in line for hours just to buy bread for their families at a price they could afford.

                  I included three links below, two YouTube newscasts and one newspaper article on Mubarak.  They are very interesting, so I hope that you get to watch them!  My group goes first, so I am sure we will be discussing many of these issues in the next couple of weeks!

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-05-04-as-mubarak-turns-80-egypt-faces-inflation-unrest  -- Mubarak article

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhI-FSKgTfs  --Al-Jazeera newscast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lavfa2VXq0  --other newscast on bread shortage