Electricity woes

The cuts, at the height of summer, with daily temperatures hovering in the low 40s, along with rising food prices and water shortages, have had Egyptians fuming and cursing during a months in which their sacrifices are supposed to bring them closer to God.
And people are venting their frustrations on the government, adding to a list of grievances over what critics argue is its disregard for anything other than holding on to power.
Recently an angry crowd temporarily blockaded a major highway south of Cairo with burning tires.
Officials say the blackouts — which mostly hit in the evening for up to three hours, even in the most upscale residential areas — are necessary to protect the national grid from collapse as a result of higher-than-usual consumption caused by the use of air conditioners during a prolonged heat wave.
They have sought to reassure the public with a flurry of announcements about bolstering power capacity in coming months.
They have also denied reports in the country’s independent media that the export of natural gas to Israel has left them with insufficient fuel to run their gas-fired power stations.
Complaints about services, or the lack of them, are not new in Egypt, where nearly half of the 80 million citizens live on incomes of about two dollars a day.
Since the start of the year, people have protested over rising food prices and for a higher minimum wage and better working conditions.
Egypt has seen a wave of labour unrest in the past few years, coinciding with economic reforms that have been praised by foreign investors but also criticized for further impoverishing the country’s poor.
But the complaints about electricity have increased since the onset of Ramadan and are another mark against the ruling party ahead of parliamentary elections in November and a presidential election next year.
The country’s estimated generating capacity of 25,000 megawatts has been sorely tested, with consumption hitting over 23,000 megawatts.
According to cabinet spokesman Magy Rady, a new 375-megawatt power station would come into operation north of Cairo, and there were hopes output from the Aswan High Dam’s hydroelectric turbines could be boosted by 175 megawatts. Later in the year another power station would be coming on stream south of the capital to produce an addition 140 megawatts.
And late last month Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif convened the Supreme Energy Council to discuss the issue.

Opposition leader urges election boycott

Egypt’s leading democracy advocate made a forceful call Monday for the nation to boycott November’s parliamentary election, saying they were certain to be rigged and urging his young supporters to be patient and plan for a lengthy struggle.

Nobel laureate Mohammed ElBaradei told about 200 activists gathered a sunset Ramadan meal that participating in the vote would go against “the national will” to transform Egypt into a genuine democracy.

“If the whole people boycott the elections totally, it will be in my view the end of the regime,” he told reporters afterward.

Egypt’s opposition groups are divided over the issue of a boycott and it is not clear how many would heed a call not to contest or vote in the election. The largest opposition force, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, for example, is unlikely to boycott, although it backs ElBaradei and his demands for change.

ElBaradei, who served as the chief of the U.N. nuclear agency, returned home in February to a hero’s welcome. Supporters have rallied behind him to press for democratic reforms and urged him to run in the 2011 presidential election.

ElBaradei, whose campaign has provoked government anger, said he would only run if there were constitutional changes and guarantees of free elections. In six months, his campaign has gathered around 800,000 signatures on a petition calling for such changes — a force that seems to have encouraged ElBaradei to attack the government more forcefully.

Until Egypt’s political system opens up, it would be wrong to legitimize it by participating in elections, he said. By pressing from the outside, the regime is more likely to give way, he said.

ElBaradei said the ruling party has failed to govern Egypt, bringing only rising poverty, illiteracy and disregarding human rights.

“When I look at the temple they built, I see a decaying temple, nearly collapsing. It will fall sooner rather than later,” he told the crowd.

“I will never enter this temple. What we call for is to bring down this temple in a peaceful civilized manner.”

President Hosni Mubarak has ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years, using emergency laws that severely restrict civil rights. His ruling party is expected to dominate the parliamentary election; while the older opposition parties are not seen as capable of mounting a serious challenge.

ElBaradei was not specific on where he would take his campaign next, but he threatened civil disobedience if the regime continues to ignore calls for change. However, for the time being, he urged his supporters to reach out for bigger numbers.

The crowd at Monday’s event chanted: “ElBaradei keep on going. We are behind you for change. There is no going back.”

Egypt fights Islamists with TV drama

Television drama has become the latest weapon used by Egypt’s authorities in their confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned group that represents the largest opposition force in the country.

Independent candidates affiliated to the Brotherhood won 20 per cent of the seats in parliament in the last election in 2005. The government has made clear that it intends to prevent a repeat of these gains.

Three months before the next parliamentary elections, Egyptian television has been running a nightly series called Al-Gama’a – or “The Group” – tracing the history of the Brotherhood as founded in 1928 by a young cleric, Sheikh Hassan al-Banna. He is depicted as a dour political opportunist, prepared to use violence in his quest to establish an Islamist state.

“The timing of the series is deliberate,” said Essam El-Erian, a senior member of the Brotherhood. “They want to plant the idea that the Brotherhood is violent and that mixing religion with politics is a defect which should be abolished.”

The series shows Mr al-Banna as a young boy devising a game in which he divides his friends into two groups – the “army of believers” and the “infidels” – and then beats up those in the latter category.

The episodes, which are repeated several times a day on different channels, are being broadcast during the holy month of Ramadan, traditionally a peak viewing period as families gather around their television sets after breaking their dawn-to-dusk fast.

The Brotherhood says that apart from the tendentious depiction, the series contains specific historical inaccuracies. But Wahid Hamid, the author of the script, says he relied on memoirs and other writings by members of the group.In the past, the Brotherhood did have a clandestine armed wing, but analysts say the programme overlooks the fact that the group has not been implicated in any acts of violence for more than 50 years. After severe repression in the 1950s and 1960s, the Brotherhood made a strategic decision to adhere to peaceful methods.

Despite frequent crackdowns, the group has run candidates in most elections held in the past 25 years. A network of charities providing social services ensures that the Brotherhood has grassroots support.

Observers, however, have faulted the response of some Brotherhood members who have set up a Facebook group against the series called the “Brotherhood Deterrence Brigades”.

“You cannot react in this chauvinistic spirit to a work of drama,” said Hossam Tammam, an expert on the Brotherhood. “You can’t face a television series with ‘deterrence brigades’. This will only reinforce the fears of the social and intellectual elite.”

But there is also a strong feeling that the authorities may have scored an own goal by focusing attention on the Islamists.

Wahid Abdel Meguid, a political analyst, said the Brotherhood may actually benefit from the series.

“Egyptian state television used to be banned from any reference to them,” he said. “Now they are on it every day. Maybe liberals or leftists will receive the negative message sent by the programme-makers, but a big portion of the public will get a positive message – that the group defends religion and cares for it.”

Egypt says ‘Jewish state’ concerning

“Israel wants to call itself a Jewish or Hebrew state. This is worrying,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the al-Arabiya television network on Monday, Israel’s Ynet news website reported.

“If the international community defines Israel as a Jewish state — such a decision should be approved by the UN,” he added.

The Egyptian minister expressed concern over the fate of the Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the occupied territories.

“Will they receive all the civil rights? Will they remain a minority or will they be expelled?” he questioned.

Speaking on the recently launched direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), Aboul Gheit criticized Tel Aviv’s continual illegal settlement building in the West Bank, despite repeated international calls for a permanent freeze on the construction.

He mentioned permits that will allow West Bank construction to proceed for the next two to three years despite a 10-month halt due to expire on September 26.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who attended last week’s summit in Washington along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, also urged a renewal of the West Bank construction moratorium.

Mubarak said settlement building constituted a “violation of international law.”

Egyptian officials to be tried in Van Gogh theft

Eleven culture officials from Egypt’s government have been formally charged in last month’s theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum that had no functioning security alarms.

The public prosecutor says he has referred the eleven Culture Ministry officials to trial on charges of negligence and harming state property. Among them is a deputy minister who says he appealed to his boss for funds to make security upgrades before the Aug. 21 theft but received little assistance.

The $50 million painting, titled “Poppy Flower,” was stolen in the middle of the day from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum, where investigators found that no alarms and only seven of 43 security cameras were working.

If convicted the suspects could face three years in prison.

Mubarak concerned over ‘new dangers’ in the Gulf

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Sunday he was concerned about “new dangers” in the Gulf, in an apparent allusion to Iran, whose nuclear ambitions concern numerous Arab countries.

In a speech to mark the Night of Destiny during the holy month of Ramadan, Mubarak said “our celebration comes as our Arab and Muslim world faces difficult times.”

In addition to the problems in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan and Somalia, Mubarak warned of “new dangers that are emerging in the Gulf region and threaten its stability.”

Western countries and Israel suspect Iran is using its civilian nuclear programme to hide efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, a prospect that also worries Arab nations.

Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia, are also concerned about Shiite Iran’s support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Egypt, which has been deeply involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, postponed last week a visit to Cairo by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki over comments criticising the role of some Arab leaders in facilitating the talks.

Ties between Tehran and Cairo have been severed since 1980 in the wake of the Islamic revolution in Iran and Egypt’s recognition of Israel.

Since then the two countries have only maintained interest sections in each other’s capitals.

Ramadan demand prompts rise in food prices

Sharply rising meat prices in the Arab world have hit celebrations for the holy month of Ramadan, during which tradition dictates that families host large meals, and prompted concerns over food price inflation across the region.

The increase in the cost of meat comes as rising world food prices have sparked fears of a repeat of the 2007-08 food crisis, which triggered riots from Egypt to Senegal. Last week 10 people were killed in Mozambique during a protest over bread prices.

Traders said the cost of red meat such as beef, lamb and mutton had risen by as much as a third over the summer in some Middle Eastern countries. “We have a huge shortage of meat,” said Alaa Radwan, chairman of Egypt’s meat importers association.

The Muslim world, where pork consumption is forbidden, is one of the largest markets for lamb and mutton, which are trading at their highest levels in decades on the back of smaller flocks in Australia and New Zealand. “Australian sheep are at their highest price in history in the Middle East,” said Peter Dundon, a Bahrain-based representative of Meat and Livestock Australia, an industry body.

Food prices usually go up during Ramadan, which is due to end this week. Food consumption tends to rise despite dawn-to-dusk fasting because families gather for banquets to break their daily fast and companies host business and promotional meals. However, prices were high before the holy month began and have continued to rise.

The surge has raised concerns over inflation in the Arab world and the potential political ramifications. Some governments in the region subsidise staples in an effort to maintain social stability. The annual rate of food inflation in Egypt has reached 18.5 per cent.

In Riyadh, John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi said: “Food inflation is one of the main causes of the build-up in inflation we are seeing this year.”

Saudi Arabia and Egypt, two of the biggest grain importers, have been hit hard by the devastating drought in Russia and Moscow’s subsequent decision to ban grain exports.

That caused wheat prices to surge more than half and barley to double. In response, Riyadh moved to cap barley importers’ profit margins at 5 per cent at the end of last month.

The move was driven in part by soaring meat prices. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest barley importer as the country’s livestock farmers prefer to feed their sheep, camels and goats with the grain. The country sources 70 per cent of its barley from Russia and its neighbour Ukraine, which has also lost a large part of its crop.

“Traders were hoarding feed barley to create an artificial crisis because they wanted to exploit the global grain shortage reports,” said a government official in Riyadh. “We moved swiftly to prevent unreasonable lamb and red meat price surge and now prices are normal.”

Some believe there may be more increases in meat prices, with the feast of Eid-al-Adha – when Muslims traditionally slaughter a ram – falling in November.

“We need to plug the gap before November,” said Mr Radwan in Cairo. The quantity of meat on the Egyptian market had halved in the past year, he said, because of a combination of import restrictions and an earlier bout of disease.

In the well-to-do Cairo district of Zamalek, Hamdy Ezzat, a butcher, bemoaned the prices that were keeping his customers away.

Four in 10 Egyptians are classified as poor and are struggling to feed their families. The government subsidises bread and some other staples, but not meat.

“I sell much less now than I did before Ramadan,” Mr Ezzat said. “There is no buying power.”

Egypt to close border crossing with Gaza for Eid

Egypt will close its Rafah border crossing with the blockaded Gaza Strip for the period of the Eid holidays, security sources announced Sunday.

The crossing will be closed for three days to allow border officials to take time off for the Eid holiday, which comes at the end of the Ramadan month of fasting for Muslims.

The closure period, from September 10 until September 12, will be the first time Egyptian authorities have closed the Rafah crossing since June.

Egypt opened the crossing for an unlimited period following the deaths of nine Turkish activists in late May. They were part of a flotilla aiming at breaking the blockade on the coastal territory.

The crossing has now been open for the longest period in the history of the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza. Security was tightened after the Islamist Hamas movement took control of the territory in 2007.

Palestinians with the appropriate paperwork have been allowed to cross back and forth, though many say they are still denied free movement.

The blockade on Gaza, which leaves more than 1.4 million Palestinian trapped in the strip and almost entirely reliant on international aid, has been described as a humanitarian disaster and a “flagrant violation of international law” by international rights group Amnesty International.

Egypt’s political battle lines drawn on the web

A web page casting doubt on the religious credentials of the family of Egyptian presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei has become the latest focus of an online battle for votes.

The creators of a Facebook page carrying images of ElBaradei’s daughter Laila at events serving alcohol and wearing a bikini on a beach are anonymous. But the aim seems clear: to discredit her father’s campaign for political change, and a possible run for president next year, in a country that is overwhelmingly Muslim.

The web has become a main field of political conflict in Egypt, where around a quarter of the 78 million population are aged 18-29. It is also one of the few public arenas where opposition and pro-government voices can spar openly.

“Everyone is resorting to the Internet because it has more impact on younger generations in Egypt, and because politics is in a state of death in the real sphere,” said political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah.

The authorities are quick to quash public political protests, and severely restrict the activities repress the main political opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood.

But online, opposition forces can draw levels of support that could never be mustered on the street.

A Facebook page backing ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog who has called for constitutional change, now numbers a quarter of a million followers.

The number of his online supporters shot up after state newspapers, using more traditional media weapons, disparaged ElBaradei in coverage and columns earlier this year.

It is far from clear whether the opposition can turn online support into a movement that can challenge a well-established security apparatus. But it is certain that government supporters are now also turning their attention to the online arena.

Dozens of sites have emerged supporting Gamal Mubarak, the president’s son, who is tipped as a future president if his 82-year-old father, Hosni Mubarak, chooses not to run next year.

Ruling party officials deny any role in the pro-Gamal campaign, just as they have denied a role in the latest website targeting Laila ElBaradei.

Opponents are not convinced.

“This (campaign against Laila ElBaradei) proves we face a regime that will not refrain from using the dirtiest means to achieve its political ends,” ElBaradei publicity coordinator Abdul Rahman Yusuf told Reuters.

Alongside photos, the site highlights Laila ElBaradei’s own Facebook page, where it indicates that she described her religious views as “agnostic”.

The statement could damage her father’s reputation in a country where many, though not all, hold conservative Muslim views. Most Egyptian women wear the Islamic headscarf in public, but alcohol, banned by Islam, is available.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s biggest opposition group which backs ElBaradei’s call for change but also calls for the peaceful establishment of an Islamic state, said it set little store by the website.

In an online article, it said democracy was “more important than Laila ElBaradei’s bikini”.

Egypt journo faces trial for ‘insult’

A prominent opposition journalist is to go on trial for allegedly libelling Egypt’s foreign minister in a newspaper, a judicial source said on Sunday.

Hamdi Qandeel could face prison or a fine if found guilty of the charge of “insulting and libelling a public servant or citizen performing their work,” the source said.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit filed a complaint against Qandeel alleging that he insulted him in a piece he wrote in the independent daily Shorouk.

Qandeel could not be reached for comment, but the official MENA news agency reported prosecutors as saying that he did not intend to insult the minister.

Many restrictions on the independent press in Egypt have been lifted in the past decade, but media rights activists say they still face censorship and spurious libel suits.

Ibrahim Eissa, the editor of another independent daily, was sentenced to prison in 2008 for writing that President Hosni Mubarak’s health was in decline. Mubarak pardoned Eissa, who did not spend any time in prison.

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