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Politics/headline news
Rumsfield tells Cairo: We're satisfied
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield was in Cairo on Thursday for whirlwind talks with President Hosni Mubarak and other top Egyptian officials, including the Foreign and Defense Ministers. The visit was part of the US Defense Secretary's tour through several strategic Middle Eastern nations whose support and backing Washington is trying to win for its global war against terror.
During the meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak -- who has said that Egypt is willing to participate in an international coalition against terrorism, and has been suggesting such for years now -- clearly indicated to Rumsfied, however, that Cairo will not be providing any planned military attack with its own troops.
"We're satisfied with the important relationship with Egypt," Rumsfield said, indicating that "each country has a different perspective... [but] on the fundamental issue there is no question."
And since the war on terrorism will not just be limited to military maneuvers, but will be a different kind of war, relying, for much of its effectiveness, on intelligence gathering and sharing between nations, that there were several other non-military coalitions that Egypt would probably be a part of. Each country is cooperating in those various coalitions, Rumsfield said, and doing it in their own way.
On Osama bin Laden, the US's prime suspect, Rumsfield said there was "absolutely no doubt the Al-Qaeda network is involved in the terror attacks." However, the US Defense Secretary admitted, "If he were gone the problem would remain. The chances of any military action affecting any single terrorist is modest. Rather than a cruise missile or a bomb, a scrap of intelligence information," may be the key to rooting out the trend, he said.
Rumsfield also hinted at things being much worse if terrorists got their hands on chemical and biological weapons. "That's why all freedom loving people and nations have to come together," he said.
Television
Not quite Nielson
Nadia Aboul Naga, head of the Nile specialized thematic channels, the set of Egyptian satellite channels launched a few years ago to compete with the plethora of other Arab satellite channels in the market, is quoted in Al-Wafd as saying that overall, the channels attract some 17 million Arab viewers. The bulk of that number -- 10 million, the paper says -- tune in to the education channels, while 7 million tune in to the more entertaining channels like Nile Variety, News, Culture and Drama. Those 7 million, Abul-Naga says, are divided up mainly between Egypt -- with 3 million viewers -- and Saudi Arabia -- with 4 million. In order to watch these channels you have to have a decoder and dish pointed towards the Nilesat satellite.
Ad watch
Slicker and slicker
The ad industry continues to pull its punches, gradually leading the audience into a more sophisticated state of marketing. Amongst recent examples of this positive trend are Internet service provider Starnet's recent ads in the papers, which have asked readers to learn the shorthand "Arabic in English transliteration system" that Arabic speakers on Internet chat and messenger programs seem to know so well. The transliteration system involves using number like 3 and 7 to indicate Arabic letters like "ain" and "kha".
"El Internet a7'd wa 3ata" is the ad's tagline. Or: "El-Internet akhd wa a'ata..." Meaning: the Internet is give and take.
Certainly an interesting message, meant mainly to drive home the feeling that the Internet is cool, and Starnet is the Internet.
Another colorful print ad, this one for Korean electronics giant LG, announces, in dramatic, cinematic fashion: "This is an imported Korean television from 6 October City!" The joke is on the whole concept of "assembled in Egypt". Critics have complained that foreign brands -- whether cars or electronics -- assembled in Egypt aren't quite up to par all the time, because of a lack of quality control. But the small print in this ad reassures you that with this particular product, it might as well have been fully imported from abroad. The television they've chosen to show off -- a silvery model that looks like a spaceship -- helps make the ad even more striking and effective.
Did you like this article? Send your comments to comments@cairolive.com
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