Archive - Feb 28, 2011 - Article

The Museum that is Luxor

Luxor is where Egypt showcases its antiquities. In what is called the largest outdoor museum in the world, the monuments to life and afterlife in ancient Egypt are on display. There are temples to worship gods, temples to worship pharaohs, and tombs of pharaohs so designed as to enable them to travel after death with gods in the underworld. The monuments were built over many centuries in this long-lasting pharaonic religious capital. Their remaining walls, columns, statutes, and reliefs stand as witness to times long bygone. Even the scars they bear tell tales>>>

A thousand years later

Aswan is a rare place. It’s a living community amidst the ruins of old settlements. It was a strategic gatekeeper at ancient Egypt’s southern frontier. Yet it absorbed the very people it aimed to keep out. The Nubians of the south are now almost indistinguishable from the Egyptians. They were the early Christian converts in this corner of the world who were later integrated by intermarriage with the Egyptian converts to Islam. In this largely Sunni city, the legacy of the Shiite Ismaili rule still competes with those of the Romans and Greeks. All of these relics are ingénues compared with what is left of the Pharaonic age. In the ruins of Abu one finds the magic of this place>>>

Bumpy Road to Freedom

In the summer of 2005, shortly after Ahmadinejad had first been elected President, I visited Iran. I saw with my own eyes the many changes that had taken place. I remember trying to enter Tehran University. A few bassijis (herasat ) were at the gate and would not let me in. I entered from another gate where the guy who was a bit nicer allowed me in on the condition that I would not go into classrooms. I kept to my promise but managed to interview a few students. They had voted for Ahmadinejad>>>

Green Ideas Survive Movement

While the Islamic Republic may have relative advantage over its opponents in the immediate future, its long-term survival is by no means guaranteed given the growing public disillusionment and dissatisfaction. Even if we were to assume the death of the Green Movement, we must not forget that the Iranian people, its upper, middle and base classes, will continue to struggle for their corresponding needs, namely economic development, political reform, and social justice>>>