World Blog : Cairo, Egypt

Swine flu fears for hajj pilgrims

Petra Cahill — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:42:00 GMT

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia – The road to Mecca for Islam’s annual hajj is littered with needles this year. Before you even leave your country of origin you have to get vaccinations for meningitis, seasonal flu, yellow fever, and for the lucky, the H1N1 vaccine.

Our trip started in Cairo, where Egyptian authorities are keen to prevent their residents from catching the H1N1 virus during the yearly pilgrimage and bringing it back home.

They insisted on a complete physical, including blood tests, chest x-rays and electrocardiograms to make sure we were healthy enough to travel before we were even allowed to get the H1N1 vaccine, which Egypt requires of all hajj pilgrims. China, Turkey, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and others also are mandating the H1N1 vaccine.

Why are they so afraid? For at least five days, more than three million pilgrims from 160 countries are assembling in one place at one time, worshipping, eating and sleeping next to each other. For Muslims, it is the spiritual voyage of a lifetime; but for the H1N1 virus, it is the opportunity of a lifetime to hitch a ride on hosts that will deploy to the four corners of the earth.

Saudi Press Agency via EPA

Hajj pilgrims wear protective face masks ahead of the start of the hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.

That is why the Saudi government, in conjunction with the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been hard at work for several months reviewing every possible step of the pilgrims’ journey – from pre-departure, arrival, pilgrimage, departure and post-departure – to limit the spread of the virus and its chance to mutate.
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Cash for cab clunkers in Cairo

Petra Cahill — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:53:00 GMT

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

CAIRO – While General Motors sales struggle in the United States, the American automaker can’t keep up with demand for its Chevrolet Lanos here in Egypt. The car's popularity has skyrocketed due to a new government-sponsored incentive to encourage Cairo’s taxi drivers to trade in their decades-old beaters for brand new models.

Although prospective buyers can select from five models – ranging from the modest Russian Lada at $6,607 to the pricey French Peugeot – the vast majority opt for a Chevy at $9,549.

"There is a high demand for Chevrolet. It is a durable car and people love it, but the choice is left to the driver and supplier," said Mohamed Shawky, the supervisor of the program.

Mohamed Muslemany

One of the typical old black-and-white taxis that used to rule Cairo’s streets.

But many of Cairo’s cabbies have made their choice clear.

"Chevrolet is the most popular car because it is strong, and has spare parts readily available on the local market. Installments are cheap at only 800 Egyptian pounds a month ($143) for a five-year period," explained Magdy Mansour, the happy new owner of a 1-month-old Chevrolet. The only drawback: "It takes a lot of gas."
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Thumbs up on speech in one Cairo cafe

Petra Cahill — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:43:00 GMT

By Tom Aspell, NBC News Correspondent

CAIRO – At the Wadi Nile cafe in Tahrir Square, 40 men sat watching President Barack Obama's widely anticipated speech to the Muslim world on a television mounted high in one corner.

The café was unusually quiet. Security concerns for the president's one-day visit to the Egyptian capital had prompted police to restrict traffic in the area, so the familiar cacophony of snarling engines and blaring horns on the streets outside was absent. The entire speech, translated simultaneously into Arabic, could easily be heard.

David Silverman / Getty Images

Egyptian men watch President Barack Obama's speech on TV in a Cairo coffee shop on Thursday.

Wissam Charaf, a 30-year-old Lebanese visiting from Beirut, shared a table with Hisham Deeb, who lives immediately above the cafe. Deeb dropped by on his way home from shopping to drink a glass of tea and stayed to watch the speech.

When Obama began by addressing American-Muslim relations everyone listened intently. There were nods of approval when the president said, "I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition."

For nearly an hour, pausing for occasional applause from his audience at Cairo University, Obama spoke to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. He touched on America's historic relationship with Islam, the necessity for cooperation against terrorism, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was easy to imagine many of the world’s Muslims, like the 40 men sitting in the Wadi Nile cafe, listening to his words as a captive audience.

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Arabs look for action from Obama

Petra Cahill — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:24:00 GMT

By Tom Aspell, NBC News Correspondent

CAIRO – Egyptians are immensely proud that President Barack Obama has chosen Cairo University as the site for his speech addressing the world's 1.5 billion Muslims on Thursday. They see it as a gesture of respect, and an acknowledgement that their capital is the seat of Islamic-Arab culture.

Workmen cleaned the university's gates this week as students hurried across the manicured campus. Final exams are only days away, yet the talk was all about the American president's visit.

Amr Nabil / AP

A veiled Egyptian vendor sells newspapers and magazines about President Barack Obama in Cairo on Wednesday, a day before his arrival to address the Muslim world in a speech.

Ingy Attallah, a 20-year-old business major, is one of about 300 students chosen to attend the speech along with politicians, business leaders and notables from all over the country.

"When they told me I could attend, I was very excited. I was one of Obama's biggest fans during his election campaign, and when he won I was very excited," she said.

And what would she like to hear in the speech?

"A specific plan of action on how he will deal with the conflicts in the Middle East, especially the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And when he will get American troops out of Iraq," she said.

Mohammed Abu Shakka, a 19-year-old engineering student, also plans to attend the speech.

"We have high hopes for Barack Obama," he said. "But if he doesn't do anything – just talk – it will get people really disappointed."

Actions, not just words – that was the strongest common sentiment we encountered this week when asking people in Cairo what they would be listening for in Obama's speech.

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Americans make difference for poor Egyptian family

Petra Cahill — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:27:00 GMT

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

CAIRO – The aisles were empty in Country Homes Furniture in Wilbraham, Mass., and owners Hazel and Nazih Zebian were sitting in their office doing what they described as the "usual whining and complaining" about how bad business had become and questioning how much longer they could last.

"Like so many people in these economic conditions, furniture has been hit hard," Hazel said. "It’s the last thing people want to buy."

Out of boredom, she began to surf the Internet and came across a story on msnbc.com about another man half a world away facing hard times: Abu Sayed in Cairo.

Mohamed Muslemany

Abu Sayed picks up his money from a Cairo Western Union.

We reported on how Sayed had just lost his small herd of pigs, the only source of income for his extended family of 14. The Egyptian government began culling all pigs in a misguided attempt to prevent swine flu. But pig farmers, most of them living below the poverty line, lost everything when police seized their swine herds without any compensation.

Sayed was no exception. He was beaten by police when he asked what would happen to his herd. He had no idea how he could continue to feed his own children or help provide for his brothers and sister.

But after reading Sayed’s story, Hazel silently calculated how much it would cost to replace the 25 pigs.

"I read it to my husband and as I started reading it, multiplied in my head and all it amounted to was $1,125. I said, ‘I wish we could give that to him ourselves.’ And he said, ‘If that's what you want to do, just go ahead and do it.’"

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Egyptian police clash with protestors over pig slaughter

Petra Cahill — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:56:00 GMT

Egypt's slaughter of pigs, a move described by the government as an effort to combat swine flu, is inciting riots between the farmers who raise the pigs and police. The World Health Organization and the U.N. say the cull is not necessary.

NBC's Charlene Gubash reports from Cairo.

VIDEO: Egyptian police clash with protesters over slaughter of pigs

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Egyptian farmers forced to kill swine herds

Petra Cahill — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:19:00 GMT

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

CAIRO – Amidst overflowing bags of garbage, Abu Sayed raises pigs, chickens, ducks, pigeons and goats on a small muddy plot of land in order to feed and clothe the extended family of 14 with whom he shares a blackened makeshift shack.

Since he doesn’t own a radio or a TV, we were the first to inform him that the Egyptian government decreed on Wednesday that his pigs, along with all 300,000 pigs in the country, had to be slaughtered as a precaution against the spread swine flu; despite the fact that no cases of the H1N1 swine flu virus have been reported here and it is spread by people, not pigs.

Charlene Gubash/NBC News

Egyptian farmer Abu Sayed looks at his pigs before he was forced to bring them to a slaughter house.

Half of the families’ annual income comes from the sale of their small herd of 25 pigs, which usually sell for about $45 a piece.

Sayed looked away as he responded to the unwelcome news about the mandatory slaughter and said, "The interest of the country is more important than anything."

But his brother Ahmed Mohammed was less magnanimous. "If they want to do this, they must find some other kind of income to replace it. All the family depends on the money we get from the sale of the pigs. My mother is sick. She needs money to get medicine for her diabetes and needs to get her eye infection treated."

Encouraged by his brother’s frankness, Sayed ventured an opinion. "Before they take a decision, they have to see what people can do instead to make a living."

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Arab world still looking for ‘change’

Petra Cahill — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:10:00 GMT

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

CAIRO – President Barack Obama's first week in office has been filled with words and deeds calculated to restore America’s image in the Arab and Muslim world, gestures that some of this region’s leading media figures believe are already changing the way people think about the United States.

"You can't believe the change," said Gamal Abdel Gawad, a senior political analyst in Cairo. "People are beginning to entertain the idea of the U.S. as a force of good, not evil."

But other Arab and Muslim reporters and editors gathered in Cairo to hear from President Obama’s Mideast envoy remain skeptical.

"Where is the policy? Is it just words?" asked Kareem Fathi, a correspondent for Kuwait TV.

Amr Nabil / AP

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, meets with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell in Cairo on Wednesday.

Beginning with his inauguration promise to seek "a new way forward" with the Muslim world based on "mutual respect," Obama has made headlines across the region by announcing the closure of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, making his first official telephone call as president to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, sending his Middle East envoy George Mitchell to the region (whose Irish-Lebanese parentage has been duly noted by many), and granting his first television interview to the Arab satellite network al-Arabiya.

"[Obama's] approach was extraordinary because of his choice," said Randa Abul Azam, Al- Arabiya’s Cairo Bureau Chief. "He corrected eight years of Bush during which Arabs and Muslims felt portrayed as terrorists. He is trying to mend that mistake. The distinction has been made and is felt and appreciated."
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Captured by pirates, ship captain recounts ordeal

Petra Cahill — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:48:00 GMT

NBC News’ Charlene Gubash interviewed Mahmoud Hammad, an Egyptian captain whose ship was hijacked by Somali pirates. He gives a first-hand account of the 23-day ordeal he and his crew went through.

CAIRO – Egyptian Captain Mahmoud Hammad quickly dispelled any notion that Somali pirates treat their captives well.

"Any movement and they would put a gun to our heads or in our sides," he said of the pirates who seized his ship. "Every second, we didn't know what would happen next."

Hammad was transporting a cargo of cement from Karachi to Djibouti with his 24 shipmates aboard the Mansoura, an Egyptian-owned, Panama-flagged ship, when pirates struck.

"On the third of September at 7:20 a.m., pirates surrounded us in two small boats, seven men to a boat. When we saw them, we rang the alarm bell to warn the crew."

NBC News/Mohamed Muslemany

Captain Mahmoud Hammad, safe and sound back in Cairo after his 23-day pirate ordeal.

The captain’s first thought: "How can we resist them? They have weapons. I have nothing. The second thought was that I wanted the crew to be safe. They threatened to hit us with rocket-propelled grenades and sink us if we didn’t stop."

The crew grabbed high-pressure fire hoses and began shooting water to sink the small boats, just as they had been trained to do. But water was no match for bullets.

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For Egyptians ‘It's a new beginning’

Petra Cahill — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:44:00 GMT

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer

CAIRO, Egypt – It may be a dark day for Joe the Plumber, but Cairo's Ali the Plumber had a grin on his face after president-elect Barack Obama's historic victory.

"It proves that racism in the United States is on the wane," concluded Ali Ibrahim.

Egyptians rejoiced at the victory of a man of African heritage. "It is the first time for a black man to win the presidency. There is democracy in America!" exclaimed Anwar Gad, a gardener in Cairo.

NBC News/Mohamed Muslemany

Cairo’s Ali the Plumber was pleased with Barack Obama’s election victory.

Many seemed to believe that a black president will show more compassion to the Arab world. "For Arabs it’s a good thing. Bush turned the world upside down," said Gad. "Obama has African roots so he will be more sympathetic. We hope he will fix what Bush has damaged."
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