Travels
Dear readers - apologies for the long silence! It's been an exhausting and exciting couple of weeks. I'm wrapping up my current consultancy in Tunisia, and it's exciting as the product I've been working on - [...]
May 2012
April 2012
“Tunis Reads” as Tunisians reclaim their public space
I forgot to post this one! Crossposted on Foreign Policy Transitions. Last Wednesday, hundreds or perhaps thousands of people took over Habib Bourguiba Avenue, Tunisia's revolutionary epicenter. Not to protest the prime [...]
Curtain falls on the Daily News Egypt.
I am certainly not worried about the Daily News Egypt journalists: they are an exceptionally talented group of people, and for them, the sky is the limit. I am however sad for the disappearance of [...]
When Egypt was a Nubian Country: The Pyramids of Meroe
[Note: Today is 'Blog about Nubia' day, marking the expulsion of entire Nubian villages in 1964 to make way for Lake Nasser. (here's a short video in Arabic). This unpublished travel/politics article was written a [...]
More disqualified candidates: elections make even less sense now
Crossposted on Foreign Policy Magazine: Transitions blog. Egypt's presidential elections will take place less than four weeks from now and we still don't know who's running. As I've said before in this column (this sentence [...]
Amr Mohamed, the Nerdy Teenager I wanted to become
He got more coverage than Mohamed Sanad but still much less than he deserves. In case you haven't heard: Amr Mohammed won the Youtube Spacelab contest to design an experiment to be implemented in [...]
Attention all dictators: A Manual for Constitutional Disaster
My latest post for Foreign Policy Magazine's website*. IN EGYPT, A RECIPE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL DISASTER Attention all dictators! Are you looking to pass a constitution tailored to keep you in power while maintaining a semblance [...]
Tunisia: Of flags and Salafis
[CROSSPOSTED IN FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE - TRANSITIONS] In the second such incident this month, Tunisia's hardline Salafis decided to scale buildings in order to, well, put up a flag. Seeing the cheers of [...]
Why this 27-year old will be writing Egypt’s constitution
I have no doubt she’s “very smart” and a “wonderful human being” and now “a lovely mom” as I was told by her classmates (class of 2006) – some of whom I tutored back in [...]
March 2012
As always, no one hears about this: “Egyptian chosen best innovator in Africa”
Googling "Mohamed Sanad Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA)" gives you hits in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Tunisia. None in Egypt. And in Arabic, Ahram has two lines - literally: 32 words! - on him. There's [...]