al-Jazeera Studios

Well, the day we have been planning for months has finally come: our visit to al-Jazeera Studios (both English and Arabic satellite channels).

Today, the meaning of this dialogue was realized – the journalism and middle east studies “theme” that we designed came to pass with the tour of al-Jazeera, a meeting with one Program Editor, a few public relations people and their interns, and a walk through both the Arabic and the English language studios, including two “live” broadcasts (in one of these, a student kept using her flash on her camera, despite our repeated warnings!, and the anchor wondered aloud, but during a break, “who are these people?!”).  

al-Jazeera was “born” or conceived as an idea by the Emir of Qatar.  He had been interviewed by an Arab reporter working for the BBC-Arabic News Service.  It was 1995.  The Emir asked the reporter, “why don’t you report from the region?” (or some such apocryphal statement)  The reporter said something to the effect of: ‘there is no place where reporters can freely report in the Arab world.’  The Emir said, come and build one.  Only after BBC-Arabic service shut down [only to be revived last year or so] did the reporter accept the Emir’s offer; and that reporter brought a large staff of reporters suddenly out of work.  al-Jazeera started operating in 1996, transmitting only 6 hours a day at the start.  10 years later, on 15 November 2006, the network launched al-Jazeera English as a 24-hour English-language news and current events channel, broadcasting at the outset to more than 80-million housholds worldwide, and now reaching over 130-million households.

In addition to the history of al-Jazeera, we were introduced to the network’s mission, its code of ethics carved into the wall of the reception area of the Arabic service, its struggles with Arab governments (many of which have banned it, due to their displeasure over al-Jazeera reports about their corrupt or authoritarian practices), and of course its struggles with the Bush Administration (“Clinton loved us, since we promote free speech,” said one of our hosts), its openness to Israel (al-Jazeera was the first Arabic television service to maintain reporters in Israel, leading many Arab critics to accuse it of being “an agent of Mossad”, the Israeli intelligence service).  In a recent “tiff” with an Arab government, the Tunisian Ambassador to Qatar closed his embassy and returned to Tunis after al-Jazeera did an interview with a member of Tunisia’s opposition.  In other cases, as in Egypt, the government tends to ban the channel from operating; and in some countries – Saudi Arabia and I think also Kuwait – the channel has never been allowed to operate or broadcast.

We learned how al-Jazeera relies for 90% of its funding on the State of Qatar (namely, the Emir and his wife; al-Jazeera was after all the idea of the Emir back in 1995); we also learned that the Emir and his family (and his government) have no editorial influence over al-Jazeera, sometimes to his own dissatisfaction but also to his pride of having launched the only legitimate independent Arab television voice in the world.

We learned early in our visit that one of its reporters is being held under house arrest in Granada, Spain.  His crime: he interviewed Osama bin Laden; however, the sadder part of this is that CNN asked al-Jazeera to assign one of its own reporters to conduct the intervew with “a senior al-Qaeda leader” (which is all CNN was told would happen; no one knew it was to be bin Laden until the reporter showed up).  Spain convicted the al-Jazeera reporter, doing work in cooperation with CNN, for aiding and abetting terrorists.

We also learned of an al-Jazeera cameraman who was picked up in Afghanistan (or was it Pakistan??) in 2001 or 2002; his crime: having the same name as a “wanted terrorist” and having been picked up and sent to Guantanamo for 7 years.  His identity was eventually proven, his status as a journalist finally accepted by U.S. officials, and he returned to active service for al-Jazeera.

Mostly, we heard from only a few members of the al-Jazeera “family” (as they call themselves), and they represent far more than the Arab world.  Our hosts were from Sri Lanka, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, and Tunisia.  They pride themselves in “showing both sides of the story; we show not only when the missiles go up, but also when they come down, and how people on the ground are affected.”  

I hope the students will share more about the 3 hours we spent!  I’m just listing a few of the highlights that I remember, or took notes on; and of course some great pics.  One of my favorites is a picture with a quote (in Arabic and English) by Edward R. Murrow: To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.

 

Quneitra and Golan Heights

We met with the Mayor of Quneitra for well over an hour; he discussed (in Arabic only, through at least 2 different translators – his own, and one of our hosts from NUSS, National Union of Syrian Students) Golan’s history, its people, its occupation by Israel beginning in 1967, and its destruction by Israel as it withdrew slightly in 1974 as part of a U.S.-brokered (Kissinger Diplomacy) “disengagement” treaty.  Here are pictures of our visit with the Mayor and our tour of the destroyed hospital, church, homes along the way, and the disengagement fence, monitored by UN troops (from Croatia, Poland, India, and a few other nations).

Syria – “Week in Review”

Our time spent in Syria (Damascus mostly, plus a day in Quneitra and Golan Heights, plus tours of beautiful rural and village life beyond Damascus) has been largely immersed in “officialdom” – meeting Syrian government officials, Damascus University students (for a wonderful “dialogue”, one of the main reasons we’re here), plus a different set of student activists (who thus are government supporters, or let’s call them political cheerleaders, and probably the future leadership of different aspects of the Syrian system).  This latter group are the true believers in the system they have grown up in, and into which it seems they hope to join soon … how different are they from College Republicans, College Dems., or other “Youth” groups?  That I can reflect on, and answer?, much later … still playing with the comparisons (and real contrasts).

Yesterday, I also had the chance to meet with an American official, quite unofficially (if we can call coffee unofficial, which I do!); someone involved in educational programs, or trying to be so involved.  Given the poor state of Syrian-US relations, and the “Syria Accountability Act” (i.e., America’s on-going, Bush-inspired, Obama-renewed, punishing sanctions against Syria) and the reciprocating policies by the Syrian government to close down American education and cultural offices here, it’s pretty difficult to actually promote much of any educational programs.  All the more reason why I wanted to be here, to bring Americans here on this educational program, and to work to expand such a program (I’m hoping next year to have a 5-week Dialogue here in 2010).

Over the past week, I have been interviewed by Syrian newspapers, at least one blogger, and appeared (unwittingly, but not with disappointment) on Syrian television.  Our last day of “official visits” in Damascus was on Thursday with the Minister of Information.  I was not prepared for what occurred – and again, I am not disappointed with how things went; my students were quite proud of my efforts, or so they told me afterwards; and I’m just enough of a “ham” (no pun or disrespect intended) to not be shy in front of several microphones and television cameras.

What happened is this:  we all (all 29 of us) left the Carlton Hotel as planned on Thursday, and were ‘deposited’ by our bus at the office of the Minister of Information, which also is in the Syrian Radio & Television building (or, the soon-to-be-mothballed building, about to move to a beautiful new facility outside Damascus).  We spent some minutes meeting the Minister and some independent – err, let’s scratch that word and say – “private” (but not independent) radio and television personalities.  And then, without any indication of what was next, we were escorted through the maze of hallways, bridges to other buildings, and offices to … a press conference!  With the Minister and me as the main speakers!  Thank God I wore my suit J  

The Minister spoke wonderful words about our country and our history and our standing up for human rights and freedom; that he rejected the notion of a “clash of civilizations” and believed instead in “dialogue” and the notion of one village, one world; how his country suffered from one term, “occupation”; how his country “stood with us” in our war against terrorism; how Americans asked, ‘why do they hate us’, yet we Arabs ask why do you hate us?!

With no prior notice that I was going to be in such a position, I nonetheless reciprocated with my own introductory remarks, saying something to the effect of:  “I will replace your use of the word ‘United States’ and insert the word ‘Syria’ and say that Syria is a great country, Syria has a great culture, Syria has a great history, and Syria has a great future. 

“Just as I hear you say that Syria suffers from occupation [he refers to the Golan Heights], I can say that the United States and all nations suffer from a type of occupation – an occupation of injustice, and intolerance, and hate, and poverty, an occupation that we all – all members of the ‘global village’ the Minister mentioned – collectively must fight against and to promote a ‘world civilization’ of justice, tolerance, human rights for all. 

“Just as you say you have hope for President Obama to be a more enlightened leader for the United States, I share that hope and say that my hope is for a more enlightened leadership among all nations of the world … ”  (Did I mention I was not prepared for any of this?  I spoke ‘off the cuff’ and from notes I scribbled as the Minister spoke, and I thought best to reciprocate, and not fall into any particular “bashing” of anyone in particular [note: Israel and U.S.].)

I then said that my hope for this “meeting” (I never called it a ‘press conference’ until just now as I write this – but that was the look and feel of it; as all of us were so unprepared for any of it, we still thought we were having a meeting with the Minister, just as we met his counterpart the Minister of Higher Education and the President of Damascus University; we thought it was a 1-on-29 meeting) …  my hope for our ‘meeting’ was for our students to ask him questions.  And so, I turned the focus back to where we wanted it – on the students asking questions of the “journalist-in-chief”, the Minister of Information.  Soon enough I had a list of at least 8 of our students (and more later) who wanted to ask questions; but then, half of the room was filled with Syrian journalists, and they wanted to ask me questions.  So, I insisted on “fielding questions” from the room, first picking an American student (who largely asked the Minister their question – but for my friend Jarod, who asked me a question); and then I would call on a Syrian reporter (who asked me questions, as if I were a politician or a spokesman!), and then back and forth throughout. 

The Minister took the first question and spoke for at least another 10 minutes, playing to his camera and his television audience, to bash Israeli aggression and occupation (again and again … here’s a tip: we get it!).   And then one question asked of me was such a loaded question that I honestly couldn’t understand what the Syrian journalist was asking me – and so, just as our students had been given leading, loaded, “answers-imbedded-in-the-question” questions by student journalists, I suggested to my questioner that I be given an open-ended question without “leading the witness” to the answer the reporter wanted to hear!  I could see my students beaming at this, as I was now responding to how they’ve been feeling all along – being asked questions with the answers inside them (e.g., “tell us how much disgust you feel for Israeli aggression against Palestinians”).  Thankfully, another Syrian woman (with a British accent) came to my aid and said the question asked is: “how do you distinguish between terrorism and the legitimate right to resisting occupation?”  Now, THAT I could answer! 

Throughout my responses, I kept ‘peppering’ my answers with disclaimers – first/foremost that I was speaking for myself, as a political analyst of the Middle East and of U.S.-Middle East relations; that I was NOT, most definitely NOT a U.S. government official, spokesperson, apologist, or employee and that my mission was educational, to bring students to the Middle East so that they might see and hear first-hand about the places, peoples, politics, cultures, and histories of as much of the region as possible.

The best part of the meeting was when one of our students asked a great question and the answers came from Syrian journalists in the audience (rather than the presumed ‘talking heads’, the Minister or the Professor – i.e., me!).  That’s when we got to a real dialogue on journalism.  Sadly, our time flew by and I could only get to about 5 of our students’ many questions.

Arab League (Cairo) to Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs …

It’s been a whirlwind few days.  Our last night in Cairo, we were honored to visit the Arab League and especially honored to have nearly 2 hours of Q&A (no holes barred, no topic off-limit) with Mr. Hesham Youssef, Chef d’ Cabinet (Chief of Staff) and “2nd in command” to Mr. Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League.

Friday, 22 May, we left Cairo for Damascus.  We were met at Damascus airport and rushed into the “VIP Lounge”.  Yep, we’re VIPs, simply by virtue of us being a rare breed – a group of Americans visiting Damascus and actually learning from Syrians first-hand about their interests, their perspectives, their desires.  And three days into our stay here, we’re doing just that – yesterday, we met with the Deputy Foreign Minister; today, we met with the President of the National Union of Syrian Students (we found out today why it is such a highly powerful organization – in short, it was founded by Hafez al-Asad in 1950, when he was a young student activist).

Our students are loving Damascus (I’ve not read every single one of their blogs, but in a ‘random survey’ of nearly all of them, they’re expressing their love of the place; as one student wrote me on an email on another topic, she ended with this:  p.s. Syria = awesomeness!).  I’m loving it, too – it is (literally) a “breath of fresh air” after Cairo; clean air, clean streets, etc.; much more manageable as a city; and many other things Cairo does not have (just as there are many other things Cairo has and Syria lacks).

Saturday, May 23, we had a full-day tour of Damascus.  Omayyad Mosque, Old City (and souq), and 

Internet access is limited in our hotel; it exists, but it’s sloooooooooowwwww!

Night life and food and “down time” is great – lots of amazing restaurants (and clubs, according to our students).

Dialogues, transition, wrapping up and moving forward

My posts are few and far between.  Running a dialogue program takes all my energies, “faculties”, creative thinking and problem-solving:  curricular, financial, oversight and care of students, paternal (my 2 daughters at home in Boston), marital (my love and my wife here in Cairo).

Tonight is our last dialogue with Egyptian students (at AUC – American University in Cairo); I’ve also been planning for dialogues with Syrian students once we get to Damascus (Friday).

Tomorrow night, we visit the Arab League – the regional organization born out of the United Nations system of 1945.  The League is designed to promote inter-Arab cooperation – political, diplomatic, social, educational, economic.  It is not a defense organization (a la NATO).  Sometimes, it is the best forum to resolve internal Arab disputes (e.g., it helped with the 1958 Lebanon civil war.)  It has a long history (often controversial) regarding inter-Arab politics and especially the Palestine-Israel conflict.  And, combine the two and you get one of the most controversial parts of its history:  after Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, an up-and-coming not-yet dictator (Saddam Hussein of Iraq) forced Egypt out of the Arab League.  With Cairo as the traditional home of the League, after Egypt’s ouster, the League had to move elsewhere (it went to Tunis).  And beyond the physical location, Egypt has always been the “political weight” of the League, including the one to appoint one of its own as Secretary General of the Arab League – so, with Saddam’s political fight against Sadat (and Egypt), this meant that for a period of time (1979-1991), the Sec. Gen. was non-Egyptian.  

After Egypt came to the aid of Iraq (the same Iraq that forced Egypt out) in Iraq’s war against Iran, and only after Sadat was long in his grave, was Egypt welcomed back into the League.  The headquarters were returned to their beautiful location in Tahrir Square (I can’t wait to show it off to our students tomorrow!), and the Sec. Gen. once again went to an Egyptian.  

In 1964, an Arab League Summit took a decision that ultimately led to the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization.  Nasser controlled the PLO (appointing the head of that organization) until his own humiliating defeat at the hands of Israel in the 1967 war.  Only after that debacle did Palestinians themselves rise up politically and seize control of the PLO.  In 1968, a young Yasser Arafat orchestrated his own rise to power (through an open election among Palestinian factions) and he became its leader (for life, much like most other Arab dictators) until his own death in 2004.

The League in 2002 adopted the Arab Peace Initiative, pushed (surprisingly) by Saudi Arabia – an initiative that offered full normalization with Israel provided that Israel withdraw to its pre-1967 borders — thus, withdrawing from the Golan Heights, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.  This would end the Syrian-Israeli conflict (we’ll be visiting Golan in the week ahead!) and it would create a viable Palestinian state.

Back to logistics in preparation for wrapping up in Egypt:

Tomorrow morning, I’ll lead a 2nd day of touring Islamic Cairo (without Iman Abdel-Fattah, my trusted friend and our true guide through “all things Islamic”, architecturally speaking  

and oh! I have to pack, clean the apartment, make it ready for Ilham to occupy while we head to Syria and Qatar … the joys of living in Cairo for 5 full months (so far), and getting ready to head to Syria (10 days) and Qatar (4 days), and back to Egypt again.

Ayman Nour

I was very proud to tell Mr. Ayman Nour that I was with him “at the creation” - i.e., I was in the audience some 6 years ago when he announced the formation of al-Ghad, the Party of Tomorrow.  He made the announcement in his family’s traditional home-district of Bab al-Sha’riya.

A lot has happened to this man, and to Egypt, since that joyous event …

Ayman Nour served 4 years in Egyptian jail basically because he dared to challenge the “President-for-Life” here.  Mr. Ayman ran for president of Egypt in 2005, and won more votes than any other opposition candidate for president (of course, Mubarak won, as expected; and of course, we will never know how many votes either candidate got due to the nature of the regime here, which runs the elections, counts the votes, announces the winners, and imprisons the losers … at least in this case).  Mr. Nour was released from prison recently, ostensibly on “humanitarian grounds” due to his ailing health.  Today, we learned a lot more to the real story … 

Ayman told us that he was going to return to jail voluntarily to serve out the rest of his sentence (4 months) because Mubarak was being praised (in Washington and in European circles) for releasing him, yet because of his imprisonment, Mr. Nour can no longer practice law, can not open a bank account, can not do a number of “normal” things — so why should his release be beneficial to Mubarak while Nour remains a social prisoner, with little ability to function politically or otherwise? When he told us this, it seemed like we had just gotten a great scoop in Egyptian political terms.  

Then, Mr. Nour’s son came in, and two party officials, and they were telling us that no way will they allow him to walk back into prison!  

Mr. Nour impressed us all with his thoughtful discussion about liberal politics in Egypt over the past 100 years, and about his own involvement in politics (from college to the Wafd Party to becoming a member of parliament to forming al-Ghad and running for president).  My wife Nevenka translated for the students (Nic, Kate, and Dani) and me; Nevenka’s eldest son Ali also joined us.  

Someone once told me that Ayman Nour was “too nice” of a man to be in politics.  Today, I saw that first-hand.  He was kind, thoughtful, generous with his time (2 hours for our little Northeastern Dialogue group!), and gracious with us all.  This meeting today was mainly an amazing experience and a pleasant surprise; it also is another “feather in our cap” for this program.

Colleagues, friends teach our students about Journalism in Egypt

One of my greatest treats as a professor is to introduce our students to friends in Cairo and introduce my friends to our eager, hard-working, intelligent students.  This past week, I’ve experienced one ‘treat’ after another.  First stop (Monday 11 May) was at Al-Ahram Center for Political & Strategic Studies.  Dr. Abdel-Monem Said welcomed our students and spoke with them for 30-40 minutes about the Center, its history, its mission, and its place in Egyptian public policy.  Dr. Dina Shehata, another of my many friends at the Center, along with her colleague Ms. Hanaa Ebeid, then spent another hour-plus with our students and discussed a range of topics (see story on our main page).

 

Tuesday, it was back to Al-Ahram, but this time it was the “old building” (as it’s known) and the newspaper headquarters.  And our speaker/teacher for the day was Mr. Yehia Ghanem, military and war correspondent for Al-Ahram.  My friend spoke for nearly 2 hours about his experiences in (and sometimes his injuries from) his work in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Congo, Rwanda, Israel, South Africa; this intrepid reporter was almost too casual (for me, that is) when discussing his narrow escapes, his being beaten (and 2 broken ribs), his imprisonment in Afghanistan, and his being dropped into war-torn (and crumbling) Yugoslavia.  One of his more memorable lines of the day was his response to a student question – “why do you do it?”  ”You have to be a bit crazy,” Yehia stated ever-so-casually.  And then there was the notion that “if not us, then who will do it?”

In the week just past, we also held class in my living room in Zamalek.  Carlene kept students thinking, story-boarding, workshopping, and otherwise planning to write and file reports; I held forth (on Thursday) about Egyptian politics, internal security issues, the Muslim Brothers and their role in politics past, present, and future.  I asked students about their impressions, their questions, and their perplexities – i.e., what was it about Egypt that ’stumped them’ most?  What do they see and try to see through?  

 

Colby is going to interview me soon about security – the one thing that bugs me more than anything else!  i.e., I spend hours and hours each week talking to Egyptian security who insist on following us all over Cairo, “for our protection” although it seems to all of us that it is merely to annoy us, given that they want to know when we have class, when we go to lunch, when we go to bed.  I also am comfortable enough with our ever-present security guys to tell them when we prefer to go to the loo as well!

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Director General, Supreme Council of Antiquities

The last time I met Dr. Zahi, it was at the feet of the Sphinx alongside Kitty and Mike Dukakis. Today was an equally exciting meeting – in his office in Zamalek, alongside 4 of our journalism students and Mr. Geoff Edgers (Carlene’s husband), an Arts correspondent for the Boston Globe.

Dr. Zahi gave us a considerable amount of his valuable time, perhaps due as much to Geoff’s and our students’ excellent questions (and topics that are near and dear to his heart) as to the fact that “his person” on Islamic antiquities (Ms. Iman Abdul-Fattah), who also is my dear friend, was with us for the talk. He spoke passionately (doesn’t he always?!) about his new “master plan” for the Giza Plateau (great pyramids and Sphinx), including his plan to “clean up” the area and remove camels and horses, arrange electric cars to shuttle tourists to and from the site, and otherwise “license” the vendors, ostensibly to remove the incessant “hawkers” from bothering tourists. He also spoke about  his passion for Egypt’s antiquities that are being held (prisoner?) by Boston’s MFA and other museums around the world (the Louvre, the British Museum, and others).

Again, this was an amazing experience for our journalism students, and for me. 

And so it begins …

It is 3 pm in Boston, 10 pm here in Cairo. Presumably (fingers crossed, or “holding my thumbs” as my Serbian wife says, or “insha’allah” as we all say in Egypt, no matter our nationality), all students have met up with Carlene and are checked in and already through security awaiting the announcement that they can board Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt (then on to Cairo).

I have been in Cairo now for 4 full months. I’ve been “sharpening” my Arabic skills – reading, speaking, listening; conducting research on the Muslim Brothers and their plans for next year’s (2010) parliamentary elections; and otherwise, and most importantly, getting married and building my life with Nevenka.

Now, or more accurately tomorrow around 3:00 pm, I face an entirely new role – “dialogue leader”, Dr. Denis, Mr. Egypt, teacher, mentor, guide-around-Cairo (and then Syria and then Qatar). I told Nevenka a few hours ago: “this is it! This is what I do! This is what I love! Introducing American and other students to Egypt and the Arab world.” And so, I eagerly await our 26 students, Carlene, Edwin (our student assistant and 2-time ‘dialoguer’ in Egypt). I can’t wait to hear their first, second, and 99th impressions of Cairo, of Egypt, of this central actor in the Arab and Muslim worlds, and then of course how that all compares (and contrasts) with Syria and then Qatar.

yalla! come on over, safely (bis-salaama, insha’allah). Abduh and I will be there, at the Cairo airport, awaiting you with open arms.