Rolling in the Deep State

“We could’ve had it all if it weren’t for those pesky kids”

                                                                                              –Omar Suleiman

Los Tigres Del Boursa*

النمور من الشمال

We’re working on a hard-hitting piece with a Boursa angle but we thought we should share some observations and information about the old neighborhood, seeing as the original raison d’etre for this blog was to chronicle its happenings.

المشير في متاهته

Left Behind

Who knew the US government had a sewing book?

“This was a campaign for social behavioral change,” he said. “I would ask people, ‘What do you do when you’re frustrated?’ And they would say, ‘I march.’ ”

His reply became almost standard, he said: “If the people who marched actually voted, we wouldn’t have to march in the first place.”

That’s an NYT article from a couple days ago, about Obama’s hopes to win Arizona by galvanizing the Latino vote next year. The situation for Latinos in Arizona and liberals and leftists in Egypt is quite different. But…

SCAF Wiedersehen

a milli a milli a milli

Huge numbers of people turned up in Tahrir last week, despite a noticeable lack of official enthusiasm from the Brotherhood leadership. The obvious lesson for the MB to draw is that there is a very large constituency that wishes to see SCAF out. That is why the Brotherhood is making loud noises, the first day after the first round of elections, about a civilian takeover of Egypt’s government immediately after the elections. SCAF, after all, could easily characterize the protestors in Tahrir as not representing Egypt (putting aside the casting of aspersions that they are not “Real Egyptians”) but it will be much harder for them to do so when confronted with a coalition of the MB and the denizens of Tahrir (ie the old revolutionary coalition).

The Second Coming: Slouching Towards Qasr al-Qobba

TBE still carries a torch, however flickering, for Mohamed ElBaradei, but we feel the need to offer some advice on his* “campaign,” and where we see things moving from here. We originally intended to make this one long post, but decided that might be too boring for readers, so we’ve split it into two parts. Part 1 deals with the necessity of creating campaign infrastructure now, instead of waiting until the immediate pre-election period. Part 2 will deal with policy and messaging, and what we see as ElBaradei’s strengths and weaknesses in these areas, especially vis-a-vis Amr Moussa.

ايه أجمل من جمال؟

What with Lil’ Wayne’s new album coming out last week, it seemed only natural to revisit his catalogue and its lasting contributions to Arabic song. In particular we were drawn to his brilliant commentary on the hyper-extended greeting sequence, with which we’re sure many of you are familiar. We write, of course, of Lil Wayne’s “’عامل ايه؟”

It seems, however, that Tarek Masoud may have heard the lyrics differently, as an ode to the heir apparent. He apparently heard “Gamali, Gamali” (sample lyrics: “I’m a Young Guard Gamallionaire/tougher than Captain Mamdouh’s eyewear”…“What’s a goon to a goblin?”…“I’m okay, but my pops’ sick” )  In short, a modern-day “O Captain, My Captain” (or is that “O Hosni, My Hosni”???)

That was an awful lot of throat clearing but you know what DJ Kool always says… (sample lyric: “We never let the blog magnetize me no more”)

As for the article itself:

Youth Against Fashionism

Having returned, briefly, from the land of the open-throated alifs (Hala Wallah at your boy!), we’ve got several updates coming your way in the coming day or days. Today we’ll be covering some fashion happening around town.

Juelz

Although TBE’s dream of opening a hamburger joint in Cairo is currently on sabbatical, we’re happy to announce that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the tonier districts of Zamalek and beyond. It is with great pleasure that we announce the founding of Amoura Designs, the brainchild of a most stylish friend of TBE, which is currently producing gorgeous jewelry like that which graces the top of this post. Check the Facebook page for ordering information and more work samples.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAAAAANND

Limited engagement. One weekend only. You can call me uncle.

NEWSWEAK

TBE WEB EXCLUSIVE

If there’s one thing that’ll awaken TBE from the non-alcoholic champagne and caviar haze in which we currently live, it’s poorly argued journalism about Mohamed ElBaradei. Reading the recent commentary on ElBaradei in Newsweek, we kept having to check the URL, to make sure we weren’t reading the aggressively illogical and agrammatical musings of a certain “journalist” whose comments, despite being free, often leave one demanding a refund.

Since we’re shorter on time than we used to be, we’ve simply reprinted the article with some parenthetical annotation. Following the article are a few more thoughts, and an invitation to the article’s author to clarify a few points.