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In brief
Long spring weekend
This Monday is a public holiday in celebration of Sham El-Nessim. The festival signifying the arrival of Spring is a uniquely Egyptian tradition practiced since the days of the Pharaohs. Amongst its most important rites: eating spring onions, and the salted fish known as fiseekh. Sham El-Nessim, like any other eid, is also a perfect time for all and sundry to head out to public parks and gardens. With this year's holiday falling on a Monday, a lot of businesses have also decided to take Sunday off, thus giving their employees a long weekend. Banks will be closed both Sunday and Monday, and the streets should be empty, as many Cairenes take advantage of the long break to get out of town for a while. Meanwhile, the weather is in full cooperation -- a perfect sunny and breezy springtime mild.
Politics/headline news
Rabbi spews anti-Semitism
As the situation on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank gets even worse, with Israeli gun ships launching nearly constant attacks on Palestinian civilians in an attempt to break the back of the popular Initfada once and for all, an Israeli rabbi was quoted last week asking God to annihilate all the Arabs. Asked to comment on the rabbi's request, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa called the statement outrageous, and expressed his incredulity at Israeli anti-Semitism against Arabs.
Meanwhile, security talks between the two sides have begun, ever so tentatively, but with no clear path to a solution even remotely visible at present.
Television
Will "Pyramid" be TV's new money tree?
With actor Ezzat Abou Ouf as the host and a bevy of pretty girls dressed in Pharaonic garb as helpers, Egyptian TV is banking on the new game show "Pyramid of Dreams" to win back some of the audience is it has lost to the Arabic satellite channels.
Egyptian TV has never shied away from imitating its Western counterparts by featuring game shows with prizes, etc. But ever since it started airing the game shows during Ramadan over five years ago, it never seemed to get the formula right. The first incarnations of the game show featured famous actors and actresses as contestants and no real prizes. Later versions began featuring contestants from every walk of life, but something about the studio set-ups was always rather naive. Now, with the help of an English director, and a large budget, Pyramid of Dreams is meant to be the real thing.
No expenses have been spared in building the show's set, and this time, the prizes are significant, with nearly LE300,000 being given out each month. The show will air weekly, and features actor Ezzat Abou Ouf, who showed off his skills at MCing during the 2000 Cairo International Film Festival, as the host.
The problem, however, may not be just one of nice studio set-up, big prizes or congenial host. According to Al-Wafd, the missing link may be good contestants. After seeing an episode where one of the contestants was unable to figure out whether Oslo or Copenhagen was the capital of Norway, the opposition paper's critic suggests that the contestants should be put through a much more rigid selection process, and that the questions should get more difficult as contestants advance through the show's levels.
Last Ramadan Arabic satellite channels like ART flexed their muscles with contests that had much of the Arab world at the edge of their seats, thanks to exciting formats and mega-prizes. Pyramid of Dreams shows that once again, while Egypt can't be beat when it comes to series and films, perhaps a little bit more practice is needed in the realm of talk and game shows. When and if these kind of shows can attract audiences across the region, then giving away all that money will be worth it, thanks to the big ad bucks that will start rolling in.
Archaeology
Who can't visit the Pyramid?
The debate over the new rules governing when and where Egyptians can visit the Pyramids got even hotter this week, with writer Safinaz Kazem responding to Giza plateau director Zahi Hawass's clarification of the new rules, and both being joined by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, who attempted to explain more clearly why the rules were put into place.
Al-Wafd and Al-Ahram have been the playing fields for the debate, which started when antiquities authorities decided to allocate a picnic area far away from the monuments for the crowds of Egyptians that traditionally visit the Pyramids on major public holidays like the eid, and this Monday's Sham El-Nessim.
On those days, the regular entrance to the plateau, at the end of Pyramids road near the Mena House Hotel, would only be open for tourists.
The decision has irked a lot of people, who regard it as a snub to locals in favor of foreigners.
After Hawass attempted to justify the new rules in a column in Al-Ahram last week, Kazem responded in Al-Wafd, challenging Hwass's claims that the area is of too much historical significance to merely be a place to have fun and relax. She also cynically wonders whether Egyptians will now have to seek out green cards or US and Canadian citizenship just to visit the pyramids.
According to the Minister of Culture, whose statement was subsequently published in Al-Ahram, there are "two types of Pyramid visits": the first for specialists, researchers, and explorers, as well as those who want to enter the monuments -- basically tourists. The second type includes those who just want to enjoy the surroundings. This, the Minister argues, is what the division is all about, rather than a decision to deny anyone access to the pyarmids. In fact, Hosni says, the ministry actively encourages school trips, boasting as well that the second type of visit is now feee on public holidays.
All these points may soon be overshadowed by the more major changed set to take place on the plateau. According to architect Tarek Naga, profiled in this week's Al-Ahram Weekly, the whole area is in the process of a transformation of sorts. Naga has been assigned the difficult task of turning the whole area into a more appropriately designed tourism venue. He says he plans on eliminating all structures on the plateau, as well as the asphalt roads, and the Mena House entrance itself. Electric trains will take people back and forth, and any structures will be built underground so as not to clash with the monuments.
In any case, it should be interesting to see how this whole thing develops...
Ad watch
All you need to know
"Hayy Al-Ashgar", one of the new suburbs springing up in the desert around Cairo, came up with a somewhat original advertising scheme that ran in Al-Ahram this week. Playing on the very popular method of obscure ads on subsequent pages leading up to a major ad which then provides all the necessary information on the product, the suburb's ad campaign spans three pages. The first two provide lists of what potential customers should look for when buying a new car, or a new television. The third ad then turns the equation on its head by arguing that when you're looking for a new apartment, all you really need to know is that it's in "Hayy Al-Ashgar". Certainly a good attempt, the ad's efficacy will become clearer only when sales resulting from it are eventually measured.
Food
Fuul takes third
Traditional Egyptian foods won third place at a shaabi food contest in Uzbekistan, reports Al-Ahram. Fuul, fiteer, koshari and other traditional Egyptian foods were amongst the entries provided by the Egyptian Embassy in Uzbekistan for the contest, which was sponsored by the Uzbekistan foreign ministry. With 36 embassies participating in the event, Ukraine came in first and Russia in second, followed by Umm El-Donya.
Environment
Sea-faring limit for Sharm El-Sheikh
Citing environmental concerns, the South Sinai governorate has placed a ceiling on the number of fishing and pleasure boats that are allowed to ply the Gulf of Aqaba in the vicinity of Sharm El-Sheikh and Ras Mohamed. Only 320 such vessels will be licensed to sail in the area, in an attempt to control the damage to the environment caused by the ships. Al-Wafd says those ships that have not received licenses are welcome to try their luck at other Red Sea ports.
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