Archives for December 2022

Friendly People:

As I travelled through Egypt I met many people, all friendly and wanting to encourage others to come visit.

People here are struggling to make ends meet. They are more than willing to help you.

I was invited to dine at least four times in people’s homes. I was also invited to stay at their homes “next time.” I was invited to going sailing on the Nile River. (“My brother and I own a boat…”)

The food is wonderful. Hummus and baba ganoush that I had is some of the best I have ever tasted, smooth and creamy. Then there were figs, dates, and persimmons. Fabulous.

Security:

Our tour was often accompanied by security. Sometimes, it was a man who sat in the front of the bus in a suit. Other times, it was a military escort in jeeps front and back. At Amarna, which was the capital of the pharaoh Akenaten, famed for creating a single god for the people to worship. It didn’t work out too well. soon after he died they moved the capital back to Thebes and went back to their pantheon of gods. But at Amarna we were escorted by military that spread out to the four corners of any area we were inspecting. when we went to the rock cut tombs and stela at Amarna I noticed there was a soldier on the top of the cliff as well. it was never clear to me if this was necessary or if it was more of a way to keep people employed. One of the security men who rode on the bus with us became friendly with me. I don’t know how it came about but he opened the flap of his suit to reveal a shoulder hung semi-automatic weapon. I asked if he ever used it. “Oh yes,” was the answer. However, I’m not sure if there might have been a misunderstanding due to the language difference. 

Whenever we were out and about at remote sites, almost all the men were armed. Most with automatic weapons, but some of the older men had military style rifles.

None of them wanted to be photographed.

Weather:

The weather was bright and sunny during the day and cool at night. I wouldn’t characterize the daytime temperature as hot so much as the sun was bright, which made you sweat. Yes, it was hot, but not a humid sweltering hot, but rather a dry hot. There were times at night that I was glad I had brought my puffy winter jacket along. I forgot that in a desert environment when the sun goes down it gets cold.

Litter, Dust, Women, Meals and Homes:

Outside everything gets covered in dust, things look grimy. That’s the cost of living in an area with a lots of desert. Our hotel in Cairo had a lovey lawn. It was exotic looking. Every morning a team of groundskeepers watered the grass and trimmed the shrubbery, and let the flamingoes out of their nighttime pen. If you didn’t constantly water and wipe down floors and walls they quickly became covered in dust and then sand.

I was invited into a hoe that had a dirt yard. You took your shoes off at the entrance. the floors were dirty by American standards, but that is the norm. I visited several friends in their apartments. The hallways are grimy, but once you walk through the door the homes are clean and inviting. 

Women by and large stay home. Often times they are sitting on sofas in the main living area watching TV. I was taken into a side room where we ate. The we being me and my male guide. After we ate the women and children ate in the main room.

Egyptian TV has a channel that plays black and white shows from the 1950s. One show was an early sci-fi show with an evil man at a control screen and the heroes flying in a rocket that was suspended by a string. Other times it was a performance at a nightclub or a daytime TV drama.

There was lots of trash in the streets and canals. I saw a few dumpsters, but they were filled to overflowig. I did see a few garbage trucks, but I also saw a man with a donkey cart dumping litter from plastic crates onto the side of the road just out of town. Sometimes I saw trash burning or I saw it mixed with loads of dirt on the outskirts of a town.

If you travel in most of the world this is what you will see.

Hi Ho Silver:

The people selling trinkets around the Giza pyramids and everywhere else in Egypt for that matter have a standard introductory line:

“Where you from? Oh, America! Number one.”

But the folks at Giza throw in “Hi Ho Silver!” 

How many people in America even know what that is? 

Oh well. 

Egypt is a magical place. Like many places it is filled with contradictions and friendly people.

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Christmas Eve

Okay, so what do we know?

Well, Trump’s tax returns reveal, if nothing else, that he’s a terrible businessman.

Also, he doesn’t pay much in taxes, and there are a lot of questionable deductions and accounting things.

Shocking, I know.

Then there’s the Jan 6th Committee Final Report and associated transcripts. Wow. 

They have outlined eight – count ‘em eight – schemes for Trump to try and stay in power.

One involves seven states that were directed to send in fake electors – and they knew it was fake.

One state, Georgia, has made a referral to their Attorney General. We’ll have to see what happens.

Michigan made an investigation and referred it to the Justice Department.

But what about the other six states? We don’t know.

Then there’s the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson. There is a great deal of backstory information. She had a lawyer, who wouldn’t tell her who was paying him (Trump) and he said to her, “I don’t want you to commit perjury.” And then gave her advice that would have her committing perjury. How serious is that? Well, as soon as the information came out he resigned from his firm. I am told he should face disbarment and criminal charges.

Even more interesting is how Ms Hutchinson came to her decision. She read Bob Woodward’s book about Watergate. Not once, but three times in one weekend. She related to the man who revealed to the Watergate Committee that there was a recording device in the Oval Office and all the conversations were recorded.

Now we get to Jan 6th. The committee has laid out that this was a coordinated, planned, well financed event. There was nothing spontaneous about it. Even more terrifying is what Trump wanted. He wanted 10,000 National Guard to “protect” his people as they marched on the Capital. He wanted to be there too. He wanted to be in the chamber as they counted the votes and he planned to speak.

Imagine if those rioters with Trump in their midst and 10,000 armed military had descended on the Capital?

It is part of the reason the Pentagon was hesitant to send the National Guard to the Capital. Whose side would they be on?

Finally, and this is incredible, more than 30 people who pled the fifth in their testimony to the Committee. You plead the Fifth if you think what you will say could incriminate you.

Roger Stone pled the Fifth when asked if his name was Roger Stone. He also pled the Fifth when asked his age. Michael Flynn did a similar kind of pleading.

Another person said they could not recall if they were in the White House or home on that day.

Now, here’s the problem with that, it’s the fact that certain events trigger a response in a population. My parents remember VE (Victory in Europe day, when in WWII Germany surrendered).

For my generation it was the day Kennedy was shot. We remember exactly where we were and who told us.

The Challenger was a similar case.

9/11 was another case.

And, perhaps, Jan 6th. It is incredible or rather it strains credulity that someone “forgets” where they were that day.

Tuesday December 20, 2022

Apparently, I haven’t said anything about the political landscape since October 28th. Amazing, I know. Right? Yeah. Well, we have a situation. Not the situation. But a special situation.

Congress has referred to the Department of Justice a criminal referral for the ex-President (“I’m still President!”) Trump for, among other things Insurrection.

This will create an interesting situation because in a few days the House of Representatives will change hands and the Republican Party will be in charge. What will they do with their new found power? Last time they were in charge every committee they were in charge of decided to investigate what happened in Ben Ghazi and how was Hillary Clinton implicated in the deaths of several diplomats. They knew the facts before the first gavel was struck. They also knew that the underlying reason for the deaths was due to their cutting the funding for security, but they ignored that and they tried to twist the facts and the truth. Imagine what they will do this time?

Many are anticipating they will issue subpoenas. For what? you ask. Why for Hunter Biden of course. Okay. He’s an easy target. He has had all sorts of problems. Addiction for one. Plus, he was hired by the Ukrainian gas company Gasprom when it was controlled by Putin’s stooge. The stooge had the very important job of skimming 30% off the top of any gas that was shipped. Skimmed probably isn’t the right term – added to, would be more accurate. So what did Gasprom do to clean up their image? They hired Hunter Biden, because he was closest they could get to the then Vice-President Biden, who had been pushing to get the corruption out of Ukraine’s politics and their gas company. The Republicans were outraged. They did ignore that many of their sibs had been hired in similar instances by other companies trying to clean up their images. Just like they ignored the fact that they had used private email servers for which they accused Hillary Clinton of such sacrilege. 

The Jan 6th Committee also pointed out that several Republican members of the House had refused to comply with their Congressional subpoenas. Those members had been referred to the House Ethics Committee. I wonder what the new committee’s subpoenas will be handled if they are ignored?

So much to contemplate. Until he is cuffed, charged, found guilty and put behind bars …

South of Luxor is Aswan where the dam was built in the 60s by Nasser. It forever changed the Nile. Now, there is no “inundation” – no flooding. The marshes are gone. So too, I guess, the hippos and baboons. 

I considered going down to Aswan to see the temple of Abu Simbel, but it’s a bit too far. However, there are sites along the way that one can see. I went one day and saw two (Esna and El Kab) and another day to see two more (Kom Ombo and Edfu). Probably, if you were to cruise the Nile you would stop off and see these sites.

We headed out of Luxor and the road to Aswan. The Temple of Esna is in the center of the city of Esna. There’s a dock on the Nile or a canal off of it, where tourists can unload, buy a ticket and walk thru a block or two of shops and hawkers. “You want a shirt? I give you good price.”, “Come have a look. Maybe later? On the way back. My name is Amed. Promise?”

Then you arrive at an open block. You look down, like forty feet, and there it is – The Temple of Esna. It is remarkably well preserved. I guess because it was buried in dust for years? I mean, how does a temple get buried forty feet down from the city around it? Handing your ticket to the guard you descend a wooden staircase situated against one of the retaining walls. Entering the temple in the middle of one wall you are then in a hypostyle hall, which I recently learned means an interior space whose roof rests on columns. In the case of the Egyptians they are fat columns. Why? The better to cover with glyphs to tell everyone about your life and deeds.

The carving is exquisite. Repeating themes seen many times before.

On to El Kab. It’s a series of rock cut tombs. Four I think. The painting and carving is quite good.

That evening I had dinner at my driver’s home. It’s an apartment. The interior stairs and hallway up are filthy and grimy and would freak out many Americans, but that’s the way it is. The apartment is four or five rooms. His wife, their child, his sister, her child, his mother all live in this space. There’s a central room with a TV. His wife was chopping mulukhiyah with a curved bladed two knobbed knife when we came in. Mulukhiyah looks like parsley. It is used in soups and broths and as a seasoning, much like you’d use parsley.  It has a delicate flavor.

I was escorted into one of the side rooms where three beds were arranged against the walls. I was introduced to all the members of the extended family, who greeted me and then left for the large central room. Kids came in to say “hi,” chatter at me in Arabic and talk to their dad, uncle, cousin. A round metal tray with several different bowls of food, soup, and bread was brought in. There being no table it was placed on a large metal bowl, which raise it about ten inches off the floor. We sat on the floor and ate. The we being my guide/driver and me. I had soup and a rice dish, meat in a broth and two kinds of bread. It was very filling and good. When we were done the tray went out to the central room. As we left I saw the women and children eating from it.

The next day we went on the same road but a little further toward Aswan and saw Kom Ombo and the Temple of Horus at Edfu. Kom Ombo (sometimes Komombo) is a temple half of which is dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek. They’ve got a museum and they’ve got crocodiles – mummified. Edfu’s temple is dedicated to the falcon god Horus. By now I was used to seeing the big sloping wall, called The First Pylon and then an inner courtyard followed by another courtyard.

I think it was at Kom Ombo a guard took me around to show me the highlights. We walked through a group of twenty or thirty people with their eyes closed, in seated yoga poses, forefinger and thumb creating an “O”. They were “feeling the energy,” I guess.

As I’ve walked through these amazing structures I kept asking myself, “did they ever ask if it worked?” Hundreds and thousands of years of this stuff and not a shred of evidence that it worked. 

Have we learned anything? I look at all our temples and institutions based on belief without evidence and sadly I conclude we really haven’t.

There seems to be an innate desire in people to think there is an answer, that someone planned all this. 

I keep thinking of Pogo’s famous quote, “We have met the enemy and they is us.”

We have the evidence, and yet we refuse to accept it. Instead we believe.

“When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?”

            – from “Where have all the flowers gone?”

After seeing the Luxor Temple this morning I took the boat across the Nile and rode to the Valley of the Queens. Just to orient you, let me explain the layout of the western part of Egypt opposite Luxor. First off, Luxor is the modern name of the ancient capital Thebes. It grew into an important religious center and each pharaoh wanted to leave their mark on the city by erecting something. Across the way, they were buried in what is now known as “The Valley of the Kings.” If you look across the Nile at this area you’ll see a line of orange tan cliffs. I think it’s called an escarpment. The idea being that the ground rises up abruptly. It’s not so much rock as it is hard packed soil, clay, and stone. There are places where water has carved valleys. It doesn’t rain much, but when it does it floods. These carved valleys are referred to as wadies. It is bright, hot, and desolate here. As tombs were discovered they were numbered in the order they were discovered. In the King’s Valley that would be KV1, KV2, KV3, … 

Just to the south of The Kings Valley is another wadi and it houses tombs of women. Hence the designation Queens Valley and numbering of QV1, QV2, etc.

If you were to move to your right, going north, past the Valley of the Kings you would come to Hatshepsut’s Temple. This stuff is all within spitting distance of each other. Okay, you’d have to be able to spit a distance of a mile or two, but still. It’s not far.

The Queens Valley is not nearly as busy as The Kings. It has far fewer tombs. When I was there, three regular tombs were open and one “extra ticket” tomb, The Tomb of Nefertari. If you’re going to go to The Valley of the Queens you need to buy the extra ticket, because it is the main thing to see.

When I got to the tomb there was a couple that was going in before me and no one else. I let them have some time, because I wanted to have my own private time without them gawking about. A guy outside, who wasn’t the ticket taker but seemed to have some authority told me that I only had ten minute in the tomb. A sign backed up that statement. I readied my 360 and dove in.

There was a guard at the first room and he, like most of the fellows in these positions, showed me the important stuff, and then had his hand out for “bashish” – a tip. “A little something for the effort,” as a fellow in New Jersey might say. I had gotten used to this by now and whenever I got approached I began calculating how much it was going to cost me. I figured this time 50 EGP, about $2.00. 

I descended to the next level and then to the funerary room, another guide, more bashish. This time he took my photo, pointed to where  wanted me to stand, snapped the pic, That’s 50 EGP easy. Now, here – another 50. Come here look. 50 more. Stand there. Snap. Okay we’re at 200. More to see. Great.I gave him the 200.

It’s a fabulous tomb. Great colors. Richly done. Well, worth the entry price and the bashish.

As I came out the authoritative guy pointed to his phone. He had a stopwatch running. I had been in for 19 minutes and 37 seconds. I’m not sure what the point was. He got distracted by other tourists and I beat a hasty exit up the path to the other tombs.