A few thousand protesters congregated in Tahrir Square on Friday May 17, spurred by Tamarod, a grassroots movement calling for early presidential elections. (Photo by Hassan Ibrahim)

BY MAI SHAMS EL-DIN Cairo – Full of enthusiasm, Iman El-Mahdy, member of Tamarod (Rebel) campaign says she never expected that the dream she shared with a group of her friends would become reality.

Tamarod, a grassroots movement petitioning for a withdrawal of confidence from President Mohamed Mursi, in office since June 2012, announced last week that they had already collected 2 million signatures against Egypt’s first ever elected civilian president.

The campaign has set a target of 15 million signatures by the end of June, when mass protests are scheduled to coincide with the first anniversary of Islamist-backed Mursi’s ascendance to power. The organizers say they will display the petitions in front of the presidential palace and take them to the Supreme Constitutional Court to demand early presidential elections.

“In the beginning, we initially planned for a moral victory against the ruling regime. Mursi claims that he possesses constitutional legitimacy by virtue of the 13 million voters who backed him a year ago,” El-Mahdy told The Egypt Monocle. “So we want to show him that there are now 15 million who want to end the contract that he violated over the last year.”

But the campaign has been criticized for lacking a sound legal base.

Islamist detractors of the initiative have pointed out that there is no way of verifying the validity of those signatures and eliminating forgery. They slammed the movement for its aim to trump the democratic process through illegal means.

Former Freedom and Justice Party MP and leading member of the party Mohamed El-Beltagy reportedly said : “I call on the members of the ‘Rebel’ campaign to translate the alleged signatures they collected into a political party that could enable them to gain a majority of seats in the parliament.”

A widely-hyped protest called by Tamarod last Friday saw merely a few thousand turn up in Tahrir Square.

Yet protests have been on the rise against President Mursi since he issued a contentious constitutional declaration last November granting himself sweeping powers, as critics say he faces dwindling public support. Even though he retracted his decisions, the fact that he fast-tracked an equally contentious constitution at the same time has sustained opposition against him.

A recent poll conducted by Baseera (Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research) released last week shows public support for Mursi dropped to 46 percent, compared to 73 percent after his first 100 days in office, while 47 percent of the respondents say they are dissatisfied with his performance.

The poll also shows that only 30 percent would vote for Mursi if early presidential elections take place, compared to 58 percent after the first 100 days.

Mursi’s opponents say the ruling Islamist regime follows Mubarak-style policies, accusing it of flagrant rights violations, tighter control over state institutions in addition its impotence in dealing with deteriorating economic conditions.

El-Mahdy explains that the campaign is very keen on making sure that the petitions are correct, as they developed a database for all the petitions including the identification card numbers of those who signed them.

“We have a technical team whose primary job is to ensure that the ID numbers are correct and that they are not repeated,” she says. However she declined to give an estimate of the exact number of signatures collected.

“The last published count is 2 million. But since then we have been receiving many more, we will hold another press conference next week to update the public,” she says.

El-Mahdy believes that the key to the campaign’s success is that it has been extremely decentralized.

“We have representatives in all provinces and many political parties have offered their headquarters to help collect signatures. But what really surprised us is the fact that ordinary citizens were voluntarily photocopying the petitions, distributing them among their circles, then submitting them to our representatives,” she says.

Most of the campaign supporters interviewed by The Egypt Monocle say that the movement has succeeded in capturing public attention.

“For me, this campaign is the last peaceful solution available to show the entire country that Muslim Brotherhood rule will never end peacefully and that we have already run out of non-violent tactics,” says Nisreen Waheeb, a 39-year-old civil servant who lives in the coastal city of Ismailia.

“I signed the petition online and I photocopied it and sent it to my family and friends who openly supported it,” says the mother of two. “What I like the most about this campaign is that it is a grassroots movement that is not affiliated with any political entity which made people trust it even more.”

Freelance translator Al-Zahraa Mohamed from the southern city of Mallawy, Minya, agrees.

“I see this campaign as a public referendum against Mursi’s rule, just like the ballot box,” she says.

She adds that the campaign has been very popular in her Upper Egyptian hometown  where the majority had voted for Mursi less than a year ago.

“Upper Egypt provinces stood by Mursi during the elections against Ahmed Shafiq who was a Mubarak-era holdover. But what has he done for us since then? He did nothing for us. The economy is deteriorating,” she says.

Mohamed complains that most of the youth in her city rely on tourism to earn a living, a sector that was hard hit in the past two years.

“I boycotted the elections last year, but my family which voted for Mursi, is now fed up. They enthusiastically signed the petition,” she explains.

However, critics of the campaign say that a moral victory is not enough, and that it is important to have more practical steps to challenge the strong electoral base run by the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm the Freedom and Justice Party.

“I am not a huge supporter of the movement and I will not sign the sheet. I don’t think that this is the solution at the moment,” says Reem Gehad, a journalism school graduate.

“While gathering signatures may raise morale or exert pressure, I don’t really think that it will make any practical difference,” she adds.

Ideally, she believes that working on a political alternative to the Brotherhood’s tightly-organized structure is the key.

“Leadership with a clear vision and a feasible plan to reform the country and a leadership that would take practical decisions to execute those reforms are the solution.

“But this is not the case because we are bogged down by political and legal dilemmas and conflicts. I don’t know the solution for that! I am just another citizen,” Gehad says.

Ultras football fans enter Tahrir Square to join anti-Mursi protests calling for early elections on May 17, 2013. (Photo by Hassan Ibrahim)

Cairo – Several thousand protesters converged in marches to Tahrir Square on May 17 spurred by the ‘Tamarod’ (Rebellion) campaign. The grassroots  movement aims to withdraw confidence from Egypt’s elected President Mursi and bring about early elections. They have claimed to have collected 2 million signatures so far, but are targeting 15 million by the end of June to mark one year of Mursi’s term in office.

Islamist leaders have criticized the campaign as “illogical”.

According to several news reports, former Freedom and Justice Party MP and leading member of the party Mohamed El-Beltagy said : “I call on the members of the ‘Rebel’ campaign to translate the alleged signatures they collected into a political party that could enable them to gain a majority of seats in the parliament.”

"Master of the House" Monsieur Thernardier (Sheirf Rizkallah), Madame Thernardier (Rita Achkar) and Eponine (Nesma Mahgoub) in a scene from "Les Miserables" in Arabic staged at AUC last week. (Photo courtesy Amira Gabr)

BY DALIA BASIOUNY Cairo – Few performances can move their audience emotionally, while engaging them artistically and intellectually. But some very lucky Cairenes had the opportunity this week, watching highlights from the renowned musical “Les Miserable” at The American University in Cairo (AUC). The remarkable performance was presented in Arabic for the first time late last week at the Malak Gabr theater.

The successful Broadway musical “Les Miserable” by Claude-Michel Schoenberg and Alain Boublil is based on Victor Hugo’s powerful novel about poverty, injustice and the struggle against oppression, set during the 1932 student revolt against the French monarchy.

The Egyptian adaptation of this musical is a collaboration between translator, theater critic and director Sarah Enany, music director Neveen Allouba and director Mohamed Abul Kheir. But it isn’t the first collaboration between this incredibly talented creative team which was behind the sole Arabic offering of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” in 2010-11.

The creative team worked with a gifted cast of young singers, many of them students at AUC. Allouba trained them vocally and led them musically with precision, grace and finesse. The triumph of this performance was indeed in the talent and appeal of the performers, and the strength of the music composition. The 20-strong cast was accompanied only by the playing of superior pianist Rosalie Capps.

Mohamed Abou El Kheir opted for simplicity in the set design, using an empty stage, with three levels of risers at the back, and relying on atmospheric lighting to indicate changes in location and mood.

But the true star of the show was the translation of Sarah Enany, herself a theater and film director and opera singer. Enany’s Arabic lyrics illustrated the power, beauty and splendor of colloquial Egyptian. Her talent as a writer was clear in the range of diction she used. Enany was comfortable moving from the profound to the profane to capture the essence of Alain Boublil’s lyrics while tapping into the soul of the Egyptian revolution, connecting the struggles of the oppressed across time and place.

Unlike other translated operas, “Les Miserable” did not sound foreign and did not feel translated as Enany was able to find the perfect parallels in Egyptian Arabic to the original lyrics, without altering the music.

For those who know the original musical (recently popularized by a 2012 film production) the joys of this performance were doubled. Not only were they able to enjoy the powerful story of love, triumph, defeat, and overcoming, but they could also connect the lyrics they were hearing in Egyptian Arabic to the original songs they know, and appreciate even more the prowess, ingenuity and wit of the Arabic lyrics.

The 75-minute performance presented highlights from the musical, capturing the essence of the story. Among them was the moving song “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables” (Yally sherebto fee yom ma’aya) about those who lost their lives for the revolution. It brought many audience members to tears as the touching lyrics and warm voice of Steven Labat evoked memories of the martyrs.

Classic crowd-pleaser “Master of the House” (Saheb el Makan) was hilarious. The audience roared with laughter, partly because of Sherif Rizkallah’s physical comedy, but mainly at the witty lyrics that dug deep into the essence of colloquial Egyptian and street slang to capture the sheer crassness and brazen vulgarity of the innkeeper.

“Using the language of everyday life makes this work a living breathing theatrical production accessible to a far broader audience base,” says Enany, “including illiterate and underprivileged communities, instead of preserving the elitist and somewhat antiquated restrictions that have alienated Egyptian and Arab audiences from Western musical theater in general and opera in particular for far too long.”

The students’ song resonating with optimism wraps up the performance. Although many have fallen, the revolution will never die, they belted out in “Same’ sot el gamaheer..tale’ yenadi bel tagheer”.

Enany was able to weave some of the slogans from the Egyptian revolution into the lyrics, where they fit perfectly with the storyline and the music bringing home the fact that the demands of the oppressed are the same across time: bread, freedom and justice.

The lyrics of the last song were also included in the program allowing the audience to sing along for a new dawn, one that conquers injustice. An energized, jubilant audience crooned “oul wi ghanni be’ala sout…laa mosh hanseeb el thawra temout” (sing it loud we will not let the revolution die!).

At the end of “Les Miserable”, the full house shook with the thunderous applause of the audience, while the final encore gave them a chance to join in, channeling the powerful energy that was transmitted to them throughout the performance, in a chant for a better tomorrow.

This labor of love by the volunteer creative team and the inspired cast and crew was an exciting artistic experience you must catch if it’s ever staged again. How often do you get to watch “Les Miserable”, Egyptian Arabic style?

The revolutionary farming methods of permaculture design emphasize sustainability, community and respect for the environment. (Photo by Leyla Doss)

BY LEYLA DOSS Cairo – Almost a year ago, Abdel-Khalek Betiti (Abbouda), owner of Fekra Center in Aswan, realized that the family farm of his childhood, overlooking the beautiful Philae Island along the banks of the Nile River, had reached a standstill. His land was overused, economically unsustainable and arid.

This is where Nawaya, a local agricultural non-profit organisation, comes in. Last month the NGO gave a weeklong introductory course on a concept new to Egypt, permaculture design, to provide farmers with the tools to combat the very issues that many like Abbouda face.

Permaculture, short for ‘permanent agriculture’,  is a multi-disciplinary livelihood design philosophy, which seeks to work with nature and imitate naturally-occurring patterns.

Sara El-Sayed, one of the co-founders of Nawaya, believes that we are not benefiting from Egypt’s vast resources “because we are not using our land, surroundings and communities, in a manner which provides for local and adaptable solutions.”

Students who participated in the introductory course lived in a commune adopting the local trading exchange system (LETS) for an entire week, whereby community members exchanged services and committed to performing daily tasks.

The course highlighted how this microcosm of society could integrate different people, with different needs and skill sets, in a multi-beneficiary system, stressing the importance of people care and creating a collective rather than an exploitative system.

“Although permaculture requires some limited intrusion by humans into nature, it creates a cyclical, re-generative system, which is eventually allowed to grow for itself,” added El-Sayed.

With the help of Nawaya, Abbouda was able to improve his farm’s productivity.

“This course helped me use my available resources and develop them further by creating sustainable design systems such as water-harvesting, compost and recycling,” he said.

The workshop included techniques such as harnessing already available water resources by creating land slopes, or swales, low tracts of land, to manage water runoff and increase water harvesting.

Participants also learnt how to create innovative and sustainable farming structures such as guilds and keyhole gardens.

Guilds are a mutually beneficial arrangement, where each component plays a role. Some plants may play the role of a natural fertiliser, by being nitrogen fixers, while others act as pesticides by repelling harmful insects.

“We can take this a step further by using local seeds, and planting crops which are adapted to Egyptian climates and environments,” said El-Sayed.

The course also stressed the importance of a holistic approach to caring for for the Earth by studying and respecting the local environment.

Participants took soil samples from different parts of the land in the Fekra Center and tested its solubility, PH levels and other factors to improve its fertility.

Nawaya also taught participants how to use compost, an organic alternative to damaging and expensive chemical fertilisers, as well as homemade eco-friendly solutions to harness energy, such as the rocket cooking and heating stove, which works without using gas.

In a preemptive move to confront the pending electricity crisis, participants were taught how to harness the strength of Egypt’s sunlight to create solar cookers and other solar-powered systems.

While many landowners are able to buy subsidised chemical fertiliser for as low as  LE 65 per 50 kilograms from the government, farmers don’t have this option and are forced to buy it in the black market for prices as high as LE 200 for the same amount.

As a result many farmers resort to costly banks loans and are straddled with debt for years.

“Using resources in their own farms, such as compost, is not only more sustainable and environmentally friendly, but can also give many farmers greater economic independence,” said El-Sayed.

Aam Shalali, one of the farmers at the Fekra Center, agrees. “We keep on damaging our soil with costly pesticides, chemical fertilisers, and in return end up in debt.”

In a bid to reinforce respect for local heritage and cultures, participants went on a field trip to the displaced Nubian villages.

Throughout the past century, more than 150,000 Nubians and Sudanese were displaced and over 45 villages were submerged from floods caused by construction of the the High and Low Dams.

In response, a mega-government project in 1963 relocated many of these Nubian villagers, who traditionally lived along the Nile, to the desert environment of Kom Ombo.

“The land was wasted because they didn’t have the skill set to reclaim it,” said El-Sayed. “And they also lost their source of income.”

While realizing that it’s not easy for farmers to change the way they’ve done things their entire lives, El-Sayed is still optimistic.

Today, she says, only a small group of dedicated farmers will use permaculture design, “but once benefits will be obvious and widespread, more and more people will come on board.”

In the meantime, Aam Shalali has resolved to take the risky but revolutionary path of permaculture design farming.

“I dream of a system where everyone can treat their land and community as  part of their life, and actually care about it, rather than destroy it,” he says.

Screen grab shows the ousted Mubarak in the cage on the first day of his retrial for complicity in the killing of protesters during the January 2011 uprising.

BY TAMIM ELYAN Cairo – Carrying a poster of her 20 year-old son, Moaz, who was killed in clashes with police in Tahrir Square in the early days of the January 2011 uprising, Sanaa Saeed doesn’t expect punishment to be meted out to her son’s killers, but she won’t give up the case.

Outnumbered by media and riot police, Saeed and a handful of victims’ relatives stand under the blazing sun outside the police academy in an eastern Cairo suburb which plays host to what is dubbed the “trial of the century”. This is where ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his top security officials face trial for complicity in the killing of protesters over two years ago.

The huge parking space that used to be teeming with pro and anti-Mubarak protesters  during the first trial, is now empty as the opening session of the retrial kicked off Saturday in accordance with an appeals court ruling.

The case was adjourned to June 8 till the presiding judge goes through new evidence. “Another session, another postponement,” say the victims’ families. Like many other Egyptians, they are disappointed and have no hope  that the trial, now entering its third year, will bring “retribution”.

“The martyrs’ families have lost hope. When we were organizing the protest today many refused to come as they see the trial as pointless,” said Saeed, who described the trial as a “scandalous play.”

“We were very optimistic when the pharaoh [Mubarak] was first put in the cage. Justice was supposed to take its course, but unfortunately it didn’t. The judiciary that was always praised in the media wasn’t fair … otherwise we wouldn’t have been like this now,” she said.

Her words echo those of many Egyptians who have lost track of the developments in the case.

“It has been a long time, the interest is less now,” said English teacher Abdel Maguid Mohamed, as he pointed to a story about the trial in an inner page of the newspaper he was reading in a café in Downtown Cairo.

“He will be acquitted because of his age … we are more interested in the current events,” Mohamed said.

Mubarak, charged with complicity in the killing of protesters during the 18-day uprising, was handed a 25-year sentence last June but he appealed the ruling and a retrial was supposed to begin on April 13 but the presiding judge recused himself.

When he first appeared live inside the cage in August 2011, the scene made headlines in local and international media while hundreds protested outside the court and millions of Egyptians gathered in front of TV sets and in cafes.

Since then, two legislative elections, a presidential vote, a constitutional referendum and rampant street violence have served to distract people’s attention preoccupying them with economic woes caused by the political instability.

Rising food prices and plans to cancel some energy subsidies as part of reform procedures needed to secure international monetary aid are increasing the burden on ordinary Egyptians among whom more than 40 percent live on less than $2 a day.

“The economic suffering is the first priority for people right now,” said lawyer Saieed Ahmed who blames the “prolonged” legal procedures in Egypt for robbing people of their rights.

The repeated acquittals of police officers accused of killing protesters across the country caused many to lose faith in achieving retribution through legal means. Many are quick to blame the judiciary.

Last month a court ruling to release Mubarak pending trial angered some Islamist parties, including the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, which organized a mass protest that sparked a crisis between the presidency and the judiciary.

“This is a wrong trial at the wrong timing. Any revolution must have revolutionary trials so that the people calm down and feel that they got their rights back from those they rose against,” says Saeed Mansy, 32, a cashier.

“I was optimistic at the beginning but now I feel it will be natural for Mubarak to get out of this,” he added.

“If it was the judge’s son who died in the events, would he do that,” said Somaia Hanafy, whose brother died in Alexandria during the uprising. “Didn’t they see with their eyes what happened?”

Even Mubarak supporters, who gathered in front of the police academy chanting “innocence Mr. President” have their suspicions over the judiciary.

“This is a play and they are serving certain people … Mubarak should be released, he loves his people and couldn’t have done what he is accused of,” said Mohsen Mohamed, 55, a shop owner.

Legal experts agree with the public discontent and demand “exceptional” courts for trials related to the events of the uprising.

“The judicial system wasn’t prepared to handle cases of this kind and the current laws aren’t able to deal with these cases as well, which resulted in all the acquittals,” said Mohmed El-Damaty, a plaintiff lawyer and a board member of the lawyers syndicate.

But it seems like a far-fetched dream for the victims families who are provoked by the scene of Mubarak being transferred to the court by a helicopter and receiving a special treatment which they see as a sign of the “injustice” they are suffering.

“The pain and sadness is inside our hearts … we are disappointed in the trials but we are confident that god will force his justice,” said Mahmoud Salah who joined the victims’ families in front of the court to support them.

The world premiere of Lebanese performance “Alice”, created by Sawsan Bou Khaled in collaboration with Hussein Baydoun, is a case in point. This one-woman show was directed, authored and performed by Bou Khaled, a theater veteran who made her directorial debut in 2006.

The exceptionally talented Hussein Baydoun, is an architect by training, but is known in the Arab world and beyond as a visual artist, stage and film designer. His stage work utilizes simple techniques to create theater magic with powerful imagery, reminiscent of the grand theater wizard of our times, Robert Lepage.

D-CAF’s program describes “Alice” as “a performance that flirts with the edge of the abyss, where time stops and then accelerates, where realities, fantasies and hallucinations come together to give a true look of [at] the storm inside the brain of most intense state of absence.” Text references are attributed to Agota Kristof’s “Le Monstre” and Fernando Arrabal’s “La Tueuse du Jardin d’Hiver.”

The performance was presented in two adjacent rooms in the defunct Viennoise Hotel in downtown Cairo. The deceptively simple set consisted of one wrought iron bed, and its bedding. Throughout the performance the bed and everything on it changed shape and function. Through the sheets a third leg appeared to the actress and terrorized her in her sleep. Under the pillows were blown up photos of the protagonist in different stages of her childhood. The photos were all missing one eye, through which the actress poked at the audience. The blanket eventually revealed a larger than life photo of the character’s mother illuminated with a halo, like images of Saints in churches. When the lights changed it was possible to see the actress in the fetus position in her mother’s womb. Toward the end of the performance the mattress transformed into a scaly prehistoric monster. Attached to it were many small dolls with fragmented limbs, representing a child’s nightmare of being eaten alive by a monster.

“Alice” did not end with that majestic image of the imposing monster occupying a much larger space than the solo performer carrying it on her back. Instead the playmakers chose a more haunting image of the lone actress on top of the bed, which was stacked up high, huddling up her imaginary dog friend, Alice. The theatrical effect came from the projection superimposed on the actress, making her appear as one of the birds in the shadowy tree on the back wall.

But although the theatrical effects were enchanting, the text was not captivating enough to sustain the 60-minute solo performance. The thin text had one witty line at the beginning as the actress chewed the cucumber she had just used as an eye mask to protect her skin. “Cucumbers end wrinkles…defy time. Cucumber is the time defeater!”

The rest of the text was neither interesting nor introspective. What pretended to be pensive wording was more like naval gazing, lacking depth or insight into the human psyche and its agony. Simplistic ideas and unimaginative sentence structures were performed in monotone which made them even more painful to listen to.

(“I am your imaginary friend? You mean I don’t exist? I represent the sick society? Sick with illusion? Shut up, they can hear us. Who? The Houlagou Army, the Mongols. There are no more Mongols? We are in another time?”)

The pretend dialogue between the protagonist and her puppet dog Alice went in circles.  The protagonist felt trapped, and the audience was trapped with her. “No we can’t leave. Why not? If we leave we die. And what if we die? What kind of life is this anyway? Could we leave? Could we leave? Leave, how?”

Writing, performing and directing one’s script is a huge challenge. (I tried it myself, and I know how difficult it is.) Bou Khaled has stage charm. Her personal appeal made it possible to follow her as she tossed and turned in the bed for a few minutes, with nothing else happening. She has a great feel for physical comedy, as she moves her limber body and transforms it from an adult to a child to a monster or bird hanging on a tree. But the script she wrote didn’t help her as an actress, to show her range of talents and skills. Directing herself deprived her of the benefit of a critical eye that could have scrutinized both the text and her physical presence on stage.

Though “Alice” was presented as site-specific theater, it felt more “set specific”. Alas, the cleverly thought out “bed” set did little to save it from being a rather sleepy show.

File photo of the Egypt-Israel border.

BY ITAMAR RABINOVICH and TAMARA WITTES 

Washington, DC – The rocket strikes that a militant Islamist group recently fired from the Egyptian Sinai into the Israeli city of Eilat served as yet another reminder of how delicate bilateral relations remain two years after Egypt’s revolution. Terrorist activity could easily cause a crisis on the border, with the potential to trigger an unwanted confrontation that would threaten the peace treaty that normalized bilateral relations in 1979. To avoid such an outcome, Israel and Egypt must take convincing action now to uphold the treaty.

Last November, when hostilities erupted in Gaza, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi mediated a swift resolution, even providing a guarantee for the cease-fire with Gaza’s ruling Hamas. Morsi thus implicitly recommitted Egypt to upholding peace on the border and to playing a constructive role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This boosted confidence in Israel that the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s ruling party, would uphold the 1979 peace treaty. But Morsi has not explicitly endorsed peace with Israel and has avoided direct engagement with Israeli leaders.

Preserving peace is in both countries’ interests. The attack on an Egyptian army outpost in the Sinai last summer, in which armed militants killed 16 soldiers, demonstrated that terrorism threatens Egypt just as it does Israel.

In this volatile environment, reverting to a confrontational relationship with Israel would be extremely dangerous, inviting the risk of another disastrous war. Upholding the peace treaty with Israel would have the opposite effect, enabling Egypt to pursue its goals of consolidating the military’s authority at home and enhancing its influence throughout the Middle East.

Egyptian and Israeli leaders must recognize that the ongoing struggle to secure the Sinai Peninsula – which the treaty established as a demilitarized zone – is testing peace daily. Israel has so far tolerated Egyptian military activity and force deployments that technically violate the bilateral treaty, approving them retroactively in the hope that Egypt will do more to secure the border and crack down on weapons smuggling into Gaza. But Israel has little confidence that the deployments will enhance its security, and Israeli leaders are becoming increasingly anxious about the Egyptian military’s mobilization of forces without notice.

In Egypt, the treaty is even more clearly under threat. The Muslim Brotherhood has long called for a referendum on the treaty, viewing the restrictions on Egyptian forces in the Sinai as an affront to national sovereignty. The Brothers condemned Morsi’s involvement in resolving the Gaza crisis last year, portraying it as kowtowing to Israel.

In fact, Morsi is under fire from both the left and the right for upholding former President Hosni Mubarak’s obliging approach to Israel, as well as for reasserting Mubarak’s authoritarian bargain – diplomatic and financial support in exchange for “stability” – with the United States. Faced with a collapsing economy and approaching elections, the temptation for Morsi to stoke nationalist, anti-Israel sentiment will become stronger. A major incident on the border could be enough to push him over the edge.

In order to sustain the peace treaty, Egypt and Israel should renegotiate its military annex to allow Egypt to deploy forces in previously restricted zones and re-establish full sovereignty over the Sinai. Such a move would strengthen bilateral relations, generate goodwill in Egypt, and increase Israel’s confidence in the Muslim Brotherhood’s commitment to peace.

During such a renegotiation, the two countries would discuss in detail the most effective approach to tackling their shared challenges related to terrorism and transnational crime, in order to ensure that Egypt’s increased military presence in the Sinai also enhances Israel’s security. Egypt’s newly democratic government would be more strictly accountable for fulfilling the treaty’s terms if it played an active role in establishing them. At the same time, the agreement would boost domestic support for Egypt’s government and enhance its regional standing.

Likewise, US involvement in the negotiations would benefit all parties. The process would provide an opportunity for the Egyptian military to engage with the US, helping to bolster its case for aid in a difficult environment.

Moreover, the US could set clear, narrow terms for the talks and provide a guarantee that the outcome would not impinge on Israel’s core interests, thereby mitigating Israeli officials’ fears that opening the treaty’s military annex for revision would call into question its other terms. Finally, playing a successful role in bolstering Israel-Egypt relations could advance US Secretary of State John Kerry’s diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East.

In a region as volatile as the Middle East, no country can afford to take peace for granted. But, by renewing their bilateral treaty now, Egypt and Israel would maximize their chances of prolonging an arrangement that has kept them from fighting for more than three decades.

Itamar Rabinovich, a former ambassador of Israel to the United States (1993-1996), currently is based at Tel Aviv University, New York University, and the Brookings Institution. Tamara Wittes is Director of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. This commentary is published by The Egypt Monocle in collaboration with Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).

Photo taken in Senegal, courtesy Austrian photographer Herwig.

BY DALIA BASIOUNY Cairo – Shamans are medicine men and women in the tribal cultures from Northern Siberia to tropical Africa and the Americas. They are known to facilitate transition and work between the physical realm and the spiritual non-material world. They communicate with the elements and the plant kingdom. In modern societies they act as conduits between worlds; they help their fellow humans who are troubled either in mind or in body.

Shamans do not choose their job. They are chosen for their life path by higher powers. In primal societies, the shaman is summoned. She hears the song inside her. It might come in a dream, as a vision, or a voice inside. When she hears it, she has to follow it to find her true path of healing herself and the world around her. The path is often full of obstacles and challenges. Yet that voice inside has an inexpressible truth that makes that difficult journey worthwhile.

Today most of the modern world is immersed in a cookie cutter culture. In developed societies, many people inhabit similar kinds of housing. Your “look” shows others the level of your success whether it’s the make of your car, or your designer outfit.

In developing countries the picture isn’t very different. “Upworldly mobile” segments of society opt for the same formula of what they deem sophisticated.

In Egypt, it’s easy to see this phenomenon around us, from the clothing people choose to wear, to the style most of the middle class select to decorate their apartments. The cookie cutter culture makes little room for individuality. Many follow in the footsteps of those around them, ignoring the shaman’s song.

Many of us hear the song but most of us ignore the calling. We find justifications in our responsibilities and commitments. We fear to change our lives because of our obligations to others, traditions, what will they think, how will my family feel. The list of excuses we hide behind is long. But we all know that it is most important to be true to ourselves first, in order to fulfill our obligations more wholly, and share our authentic self with the world.

Photo taken in Senegal, courtesy Austrian photographer Herwig.

One of my friends started hearing his song. Its sound was too loud to ignore. As a man of computers and numbers he did not think of it as a shamanic calling. But he knew in his heart that he had to follow that sound inside him.

Although he was a successful banker, he quit his job and travelled on a quest to study filmmaking. He enrolled in courses, attended workshops, volunteered in small projects. It wasn’t easy. It’s hard to compare the comfort of the air-conditioned office of a bank manager, to the unglamorous, unpaid job of a gofer on a film project in the freezing cold streets of New York. But he was following his song and he was happy to dance to its unconventional beat.

A few years later, he started making a name for himself in the competitive film scene, and celebrated selling his first film script to an Egyptian producer. He was so much closer to being the filmmaker he wanted to be. The path was not smooth. Actually there was no path at all. There is no self-help book out there for bank managers who want to become filmmaker. He carved his own route, and keeps clearing the land to create a path for himself, in a continuous struggle with the demands and the intrigues of the filmmaking world.

In his book “Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation” the inspirational Joseph Campbell recounts one of the medieval myths of the Holy Grail. It ends with each of the Knights of the Round Table “entering the Forest Adventurous at that point which he himself had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no way or path.” Campbell comments on the myth saying: “You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there is a way or path, it is someone else’s path; each human being is a unique phenomenon. The idea is to find your own pathway to bliss.”

In this exciting historical moment in Egypt and in the world, it is crucial for us to remember that we play a role, a vital role in the transformation of our lives and that of our planet. It is critical to remember the role we chose to be here to play. In order to revolutionize our societies we need to change ourselves, to follow the shaman’s song inside of us, to “live” our song out loud and clear, and not die with unsung songs.

File photo of a protest by Ain Shams University students against on-campus thuggery in April.

BY MAI SHAMS EL-DIN Cairo The practical advice from the vice president of student affairs at Ain Shams University wasn’t exactly what young Omnia Hassan expected when she complained that she was attacked  on campus by a group of “thugs”.

“He suggested I carry a knife to protect myself because, according to him, even the president of the university can’t protect himself,” said Hassan, a junior at the Faculty of Arts.

Ain Shams University students have been complaining from what they call “thugs” on campus. Theories abound about who they are, but it is widely believed that they are predominantly unemployed university graduates who had been groomed during their student years by security forces (before the revolution) to police the political activities of university staff and students.

After the revolution, Interior Ministry-affiliated security was ordered off  university campuses on the basis of a court decision stipulating that the police should not be allowed to interfere in student life.

But while the police left the campuses, their thugs have remained, Hassan claims.

“We’ve had a long history with those thugs who used to harass protesting university professors and students who held sit-ins on campus. Those thugs belonged to the state security apparatus and used to rig student union election,” Hassan said.

Hassan was filming an attack by those thugs on an activity booth at the faculty of arts when she was threatened by them.

“They broke my camera and threatened me but when I complained, I was advised to carry a knife to protect myself. So I carry one now. It’s thuggery against thuggery,” she said.

Thousands of Ain Shams University students headed by the Student Union staged a protest mid-April against thuggery and to lobby for tighter on-campus security by private security firms.

During the protest, they were attacked by thugs and hundreds were injured, which led the university administration to suspend educational activities from April 17-27. But protests continued until the administration pledged to hire private security firms and took legal action against the thugs.

“The chaos outside has moved into the campuses, the walls of the university can no longer protect us, and the campus does not enjoy the sanctity  it used to have before,” she said.

In the Delta province of Mansoura, campus violence reached further heights. Students belonging to the Ahrar Islamist Student Movement demonstrated in front of the office of Mansoura University’s president, who they accused of complicity in hiding evidence against a faculty member who accidently drove over student Gehad Moussa as she was backing up her car last month.

Moussa’s family claimed that their daughter died of negligence in the university hospital and accused the university officials of tampering with evidence against the professor and guiding the prosecution to another crime scene.

In the protest, students were allegedly attacked by thugs hired by the university president. Twenty of the students were arrested by police and claimed that they were subjected to maltreatment before they were released.

Back in Cairo, Al-Azhar University’s now serial food poisoning incidents in the dorms have also led to huge waves of violence when hundreds of students blocked the road in front of Al-Azhar Grand Imam’s headquarters and stormed the building in April to protest against the deteriorating conditions inside the student housing facilities.

Ensuing calls by conservative political currents to dismiss Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayeb were a reflection of off-campus animosity between Egypt’s Salafis and El-Tayeb, whose moderate views have consistently challenged the Salafi discourse on vital social issues related to women and Copts.

Ahmed Hemdan, an engineering junior at Cairo University and a supporter of the Ahrar movement says that there is a crackdown on the student movement.

“Students are attacked by thugs inside campuses with no respect to the sanctity of the campus. Students will definitely respond with anger. What do they expect from us,” he says.

Hassan believes that students must not stand silent in the face of such atrocities.

“Our academic life is completely endangered, we are unsafe inside our campuses and I  cannot go to the university even though some of those who attacked me were arrested. I know I’m targeted,” she complains.

“During our protests, the Minister of Higher Education visited the campus but the surrounding security personnel only guarded him even as we were being attacked for the second time by the thugs. The state is impotent,” Hassan says.

Hemdan believes that the deteriorating security conditions on campus are part of a bigger picture in which the state is unwilling to implement the law.

“The state is not just impotent, it is also complicit in engineering this level of violence,” he adds.

Egypt’s increasingly polarized political situation has overshadowed the already troubled campus atmosphere, as the political conflict between the ruling Muslim Brotherhood and secular political forces escalates. While this hasn’t served as an indication of the the weakening of the Islamist group in the past, the Brotherhood’s student representatives have lost student union elections against independents this year, unravelling the MB’s traditional dominance on campus.

The recent events have left students like Hassan disillusioned with the fact that the student movement has become too preoccupied with the ongoing political conflict off campus.

“I resigned from my post as a member of the cultural committee of the Faculty of Arts’ student union. The unions have failed to protect the student body,” said Hassan.

"Disturbance" modern dance performance by Sherine Hegazy. The show was part of the Alternative Solutions arts fest last month. (Photo courtesy Osama Dawoud.)

BY DALIA BASIOUNY Cairo Stunned by news that Rawabet Theater, the only affordable independent performance space in downtown Cairo was shut down, two theatre technicians decided to take matters into their own hands.

As technicians Saber El Sayed and Mido Sadeq knew how to turn empty, unequipped spaces into full-fledged performance venues. Rawabet’s abrupt closure in February for lack of funding triggered the ingenious idea to transform The Factory, a space run by the TownHouse Gallery, and debut an arts festival they dubbed “Alternative Solution”.

Converting this huge empty white-walled hall into an equipped performance space with a rigging system for the lighting, sound proofing and a ramp for audience seats was no easy feat. But with the determination of artists and technicians who volunteered their time, effort and equipment, the saga took four sleepless days of absolute dedication to the concept of creating an alternative space for independent art.

The team documented their efforts in a short video that was shown at the entrance to the space. The comical speed by which the work was presented allowed both audience and passers-by to witness the transformation and how huge practical challenges can be surmounted through collaboration.

“We are not organizers, we are technicians. We are always solving problems. We always work with ‘alternative solutions’. There is a deep shortage in artistic spaces. Why not do what we are doing all the time to solve the problem that is facing artists regarding space,” said Mido, the co-founder of the festival.

The 15 days of programming from March 24-April 17, were full of performances ranging from plays, film screenings, dance, music concerts, mime, stand-up comedy, clown gigs and open mics. Audiences filled the limited seats, and many were happy to sit on the floor to watch some of their favorite artists and to welcome new ones.

Egypt’s January 25 revolution was at the heart of this improvised festival, with most theater performances focusing on it. Documentary plays like “No Time For Art” by Laila Soliman, “Be Basata Keda” (Simply Like That) by Ana El-Hekaya Group, and El Warsha’s “Zawaya” and “No Exit” by Omar ElMoataz Bellah are cases in point.

The theatricalized poetry performance “Without Names” by Amin Haddad, directed by Reem Hegab, was a lyrical commentary by the poet on his complicated relationship with his muse, Egypt. It included a number of poems by Haddad, composed by Hazem Shaheen, co-founder of Eskenderlla, the mouthpiece of Egypt’s young revolutionaries including the powerful “martyrs’ song’ “From Maspero to Mohamed Mahmoud”.

In addition to many short films by rising filmmakers, there were a number of music concerts by the enchanting Nada El Shazly, the inspiring Yousra El Hawary and the popular Mashrou’ Koral run by Sallam Yousry. The program also included new fare such as Martial Art Brazilian Capoeira performance by Mohamed Tiger, Mime by Amro Abdel Aziz, HipHop Dancing by We Are Group, and stand-up by Ali Qandeel.

Contemporary dance performances included work by young and veteran choreographers. Ahmed El Gendy (aka Zero) performed his exciting work in water “One”, while Sherien Hegazy choreographed “Disturbance” and the queen of Egyptian contemporary dance Karima Mansour and her troupe were part of the festivities of the closing night.

A screen placed in the street outside The Factory allowed passers-by to follow some of the events in a practical move to stretch the boundaries of space with clown gig Outa Hamra (Red Tomatoes) surprising pedestrians as they ventured out into the street on an impromptu public performance.

“There was a great spirit in the festival,” said Saber, co-founder of the festival. “We all agreed that in post revolutionary Egypt no one is going to control us. We will present our art, come what may.”

He emphasized that the event was independent on every level. None of the artists or technicians were paid, and admission was free.

Saber describes the “unique energy of the event” whose successful first round has stimulated a search for other empty spaces, garages, or vacant lots. The scouting has taken them outside downtown Cairo, where most of the art scene is concentrated, hoping to reach audiences everywhere in the big city.

To keep the momentum going Mido and Saber are even considering showing short films by up-and-coming filmmakers in their friends’ apartments around town. The inspired and inspiring technicians are keen on rejuvenating the stagnant cultural scene through pursuing even more “alternative solutions”.

Their motto: “We will not stop. We will continue to change things. We are the change.”