Ibra Update and Other News
Not an isolated incident after all
I heard from Amanda and Sarah in Alexandria the other day after they had read my last entry. They too had gone in search of an ibra which too them on a wild goose chase.
They ended up finding one at a tailor’s shop. In the mean time, however, they would find at the Fathallah only thread, sewing scissors, and sewing kits WITHOUT NEEDLES IN THEM. This is very confusing. At least their goose only led them around their neighborhood in Alexandria.
The End
Alhamdulillah, I had the last of my exams today and I am now free of TAFL in Alexandria. In a few weeks I will move to Cairo, inshallah. I am very excited about the change as I have been quite frustrated here. Things simply did not go as I expected, in any way. However, that is all behind us now. I am on to better things.
For the next few weeks I will be in Alexandria still, writing and working on my thesis. The break will be nice. There are very few students here who are staying through the break. A couple of of my Egyptian friends will be in town visiting family. Fun fun.
Stay Tuned
I have something exciting in store for you tomorrow. Be sure to check back. Then again, it may not be as exciting as all that. Only you can be the judge.
1
A needle is a cheap tool that can be used to produce new things or fix old ones. Where is your consumerist spirit? Do you want people to fix their couches for a few piasters instead of buying new ones for hundreds of pounds? If everyone had a needle, the new world ecomony will come to a halt. What do you want next? Grow wheat in Egypt or reintroduce the good old cotton?
You have found the secret word to the hidden cave. ibra is the key to the 70 million strong Egyptian market: new clothes, bedding, and couches, all of which are imported.
quick notes
(a) Omar Effendi was one of the biggest department store chains in the world, and so was Ades and Shekorel. Coco Chanel used to visit them to promote her brand. These were all nationalized (a nice word for confiscated) by the Nasser regime in the fifties. Ever since, they have been going to hell. Now, they are all sold out (privatized). The stores were sold for less than 10% of their real value (bribes not inlcuded).
(b) You think most Egyptians go to Carfour to buy their needles? That is a separate economy with consumers who do not know what they are for. Before you leave for Cairo, take a walk in El-Attarine street downtown Alex and then cross the tram line into the Bab Omar Basha souq. That is a different economy with five stores on every block that sell needles and even repair kits.
take the tour:
http://alexandriaegypt.com/photoalbom/alexandria%201900%20.htm
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1172&letter=A
2
See, this is the kind of comment that I am always fishing for but very few people ever take the bait.
I am just trying to figure out how and when it will happen that the entire economy here will begin figuring out that there is viability in sustainable local economy again. The same thing is happening in the United States right now. Can we grow our own cotton? Yes. Can we grow our own wheat, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, etc? Of course we can. We have all sorts of arable land around us. Why are we importing tomatoes from Nicaragua?
The same thing goes for reusable or non-disposable goods, like furniture, electronics, clothing, etc. I feel that a big part of the problem here is that in parts of Cairo, even Alex, there is no focus on local sustainability and only a focus on screwing tourists out of wads of cash which they are happy to be screwed out of. This leads to exactly the situation that we were in, which is that if you look around and can’t find a needle, as a foreigner, you might be more likely to chuck it and buy a new one.
My only assumption was that the Carrefour here were more closely related to the Carrefour in Europe, which have everything under the sun. This is not, however, the case. You can call it what you want, but it is just a tourist attraction. I try to stay out of the places if at all possible. However, ever Egyptians will tell me to go there if I need something and ask if they know where I can get it.
“Hey I need some Post-It notes/a gallabiya/pens/blank CD’s. Do you know where I can get it?”
“Oh, go to Carrefour.”
This is common. Then, when I get there, the item that I was looking for is often not present in any form, because there is no consistency in the rotation of stock.
On the other hand, usually, if I just set out to the souq or any baladi part of town, I can find exactly what I need without ever having to ask anyone. This is a lesson I am learning over and over again.
This is the second problem though, there seems to be this overarching trend of self-loathing when it comes to products, food, or anything that can be purchased here. No one will ever tell you to go to the Ibrahimiya souq to get tomatoes, they will tell you to go to Metro, where the tomatoes are shit. However, because they are foreign tomatoes, they must be better. I want a shirt, I am told to go to Armani. I don’t want an Armani shirt. I wouldn’t even buy one in the US.
I love the Bab Omar Basha souq. My sheesha guy, Muhammad, is over there. He gets me tobacco that I can’t find anywhere else and his sheesha rigs are superb. You’re right too. There are about a hundred places where you can get needles there, along with everything else you could ever want. I looked all over the city for a prayer rug. A PRAYER RUG in a Muslim country! And it wasn’t until I went to Bab Omar Basha that I found one.
Ah well, these are the things that I came here to learn. The lessons are starting to sink in.
I’ll never forget what “ibra” means, anyway.
3
I actually grew up in Bab Omar Basha, and I always thought it was great that I could find everything I needed within a five minute walk: two major souqs, six pharmacies, three hospitals, fifteen schools, five shoe repair shops, and countless small shops that sold everything. Every Friday, there was a pet market where people sold everything from goldfish and monkeys to exotic eagles and homing pidgins. If I had the time, I would look into the really interesting stores: a guy who irons fezes (people stopped wearing them in thirties) or the guy who fixes and refills plastic cigarette lighters (they cost a pound brand new). Of course, there was the used books market on Nabi Danial Street (I spent most of life there), the antique market on Attarine street (mostly leftovers from the palaces of the pre-Nasser times), and the junk market off Attarine Street, where I would buy a clock for 10 piasters to take apart. Within a twenty minute walk, I had two eight public libraries, the university, and all the entertainment of Ramel Station. However, I never told anyone at college where I lived; Bab Omar basha was too baladi.
It is not self loathing; it is the baladi-modern dichotomy. There is an Arabic word for it: 3oqdet el-khawaaga (the foreigner’s complex). Where do you see it? Everywhere:
-most major league soccer coaches are foreigners
-more expensive services have foreign names: the American University, the German Hospital and the Spanish train
-women put make up that makes them look fair skinned (the bankeek ‘pancake’)
-there is a huge industry of products that destroy your skin to make it white. If you noticed, many girls stay away from the sun in the summer.
-If you have non-Arab heritage (Armenian, Greek, Turkish), you make sure everyone knows.
-foreigners are considered more beautiful, hence all the harassment on the streets. How many marriage proposals did your female classmates get?
-baladi neighborhoods have Arabic names (Moharram bey, Omar Basha). Fancier neighborhoods have foreign names (Stanley, Laurant, Hannaux Ville, (m)Azaritta). You live in Mustafa Kamel, which used to be the ASTA English Camp.
It is endemic. You will even find characters in movies that represent this phenomenon: the guy in El-Irhaab wel-Labaak (terrorism and Kabab), who prefixes every sentence with “in Europe and developed countries), and the guy in Laylat SuquuT Baghdaad (the night Baghdad fell), who responds to all threats of an American invasion of Egypt with (HaynaDDafuuna).
Why the self inflected orientalism?
-The first Egyptian to rule Egypt since the pharos was Nasser in 1953: four centuries of Ottoman Rule, the Albanian Mohammad Ali dynasty, and 80 years of British occupation. No need to go further back in history.
-Things looked promising in the fifties, but it ended abruptly with the Six Day War.
I think Egypt never had a chance to develop a culture of its own. Look around you and everything you will see is either invented in the west and made in China or it has always been in Egypt since the pharos. This is actually why Egyptians love Umm Kalthoum. That woman’s name is synonymous with Egypt because she produced an artistic cultural mix that was purely Egyptian, a possible new culture. Have you heard Egyptian hip-hop? No wonder extremism, whether fundamentalist or occidentalist, is rampant. This is a people in search for a culture.
Food for thought:
-Why do Egyptians insist on taking you to nice places (San Stefano mall and Carfour) instead of the places where they normally hang out?
-Why are there tourist prices for everything, even hospitals and trains? Most of these services are not for foreigners; ever heard of the Tourist Pilgrimage el-higg el-siyaaHi?
-Why are all Egyptian prayer rugs and rosaries made in China? China makes and sells prayer rugs for Muslims!
Listen to Umm Kalthoum online:
http://www.6rb.com/ar/file-7/html-816.shtml
My favorite is faat el-ma3aad (it is too late). It is the sixth down the list.
Readings:
Banaat Iskindiriyya (Girls of Alexandria) by Edwar El-Kharat.
Tuyuur al-3anbar (Birds of Amber) and Laa aHad yanaam fi al-Iskandariyya (No One Sleeps in Alexandria) by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid