Previous dispatches:

Bright lights,
big plateau
The Pyramids were the scene of yet another spectacular production.

The wonders
of architecture
 A land where things of lasting beauty continue to be made

House hunting
 The DJ will be determining your mood tonight

The plot thickens
 Is the ad world changing as fast as the audience?

Same bills, bigger denominations?
A weaker currency may inspire larger bills

The trash attack
The Pyramids have seen a lot, but probably nothing like this before.
Photo-rich version

The primadonna 
strikes again
An Arab media summit in Dubai was loaded with symbolism -- and the same sort of drama that governs the way the news is covered. Tarek Atia reports from Dubai

Click here to browse the complete dispatch archives


click here for
RAMADAN 2002
full coverage

 

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DISPATCH

Ramadan digest
 Visit cairolive.com every day during the holy month for interesting tidbits from the Ramadan scene

Not bad so far

The first few days of Ramadan have gone by fairly smoothly, traffic-wise, which in itself was rather unexpected.
Every Ramadan we expect crowded streets and bad-tempered drivers honking their horns. On the contrary, according to Thursday's Al-Akhbar, on the first day of the holy month the streets of Cairo witnessed moderate traffic, mostly because many workers stayed at home, fearing the crowded streets would prevent them from having iftar with their relatives, which is usually the norm in the first day of Ramadan.
The paper reports that a great number of people bought their Ramadan supplies as late as Wednesday, including their stocks of sweets and juices that usually complement any iftar meal. As a result, if there was any traffic congestion, it was usually the result of cars parked in front of the konafa and baklawa (oriental sweets) stores, and the karakadeh (juice) suppliers.
The paper revealed its astonishment that although a normal Egyptian family would only include about four to six members, buyers of sweets and juice usually leave the stores with immense amounts of commodities.
The report also mentions that although many parents had already bought their children fawanees (lanterns), yesterday parents and enthusiastic children were still roaming around inspecting the latest in the fanous industry. The newest fanous on the market is designed to look like Bakar (the Egyptian cartoon figure) and another one is set to look like Rashida (the character that accompanies Bakar in the cartoon). Fanous-sellers this year are also very proud of the lantern that dances and sings when the child claps, the paper says.

 

Endless musalsalat
Friday's Al-Ahram's cartoon section features quite a few strips that make fun of the sheer number of TV shows on offer during Ramadan. The funniest of the lot shows a fellow about to go to bed. An arm, however, is coming out of his TV and pulling him back to his chair. "Where do you think you're going," the TV screams, "there are still half a dozen soap operas, 20 game shows, and 15 programs left to watch..."

RELATED LINKS

To keep up with all that's on offer on TV make sure to visit cairolive.com's TV schedule. There you'll also find synopses of the plots of most shows.

To read about Ramadan traffic in the past click here.

To read this year's previous editions of Ramadan digest:
Digest # 2
Digest # 1

FOR MORE EGYPT RELATED HEADLINES CLICK HERE

 

 

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