Peace Prize

Tags

Canada, Egypt, Nasser, Nobel Peace Prize, Pearson, Suez

Today 15 October some 63 years ago in 1957 the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was and remains a towering figure of Canadian Foreign Policy and was a role model for many Canadian diplomat.

Lester Bowles Pearson was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1897. His father and grandfather enjoyed high reputations as Methodist preachers, and the boy grew up in a religious but broad-minded environment in which even athletics played an important part in his training. His father saw to it that he received a good education. He enrolled as a history student at the University of Toronto, but his studies were interrupted during the First World War when, at the age of eighteen, he joined the University Medical Corps as a volunteer. At the end of the war in which he eventually became an actual participant, he resumed his studies and obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919. After an interval in his uncle’s meat processing plant, he won a scholarship for studies at Oxford. In 1923 he took his Master of Arts degree. He taught for some time, becoming an assistant professor of modern history at the University of Toronto.

In 1928, when he was thirty-one years old, Lester Pearson entered the service of the Canadian Department of External Affairs. This step marked the end of his academic career and the beginning of his life as a civil servant. He was first secretary at the Department of External Affairs in Ottawa until 1935, when he was appointed counselor at the Office of the High Commissioner for Canada in London. He returned to Ottawa in 1941 as assistant undersecretary of state at the Department of External Affairs, and in the following year he was appointed Canadian minister in Washington, where he stayed until 1946, for the last two years as ambassador. Then followed two years as undersecretary of state at home until – at the age of fifty-one he became secretary of state for External Affairs in the Canadian government in 1948.

Pearson worked at the creation of the United Nations and its Agencies like the FAO. He opposed the creation of a Veto measure at the Security Council for the Great Powers, USA, USSR, France and UK. He drafted Resolution 181 for the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 with the help of a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. He also suggested the creation of the UN Peace Keeping Corps to monitor conflict zones. He also developed the policy after 1945 of an inter-dependent world and a multilateral approach to relations between States to avoid further world conflicts.

The first really important conflict which the UN had to deal with was the question of Palestine. This matter was considered in a special session in 1947. Mr. Pearson was elected chairman of the Political Committee, and the Special Committee on Palestine recommended that the British mandate over Palestine should be discontinued and that the country should be divided into a Jewish and an Arab state. The recommendation of the committee was considered at the Second General Assembly. The question of division was then dealt with by an ad hoc committee in which Mr. Pearson participated very actively. And indeed the recommendation had a positive result. The two State solution to ensure peace was a Canadian Idea.

At the end of July, 1956, President Nasser of Egypt suddenly proceeded to nationalize the Suez Canal. The Suez conflict was brought before the Security Council in September, and it seemed that it might be possible to find a solution.

Then, on October 29, Israel marched into Egyptian territory. On the 30th the French-British ultimatum was handed to Egypt, and the next day both these countries proceeded to the attack.

The Security Council, which immediately called on the aggressors to cease hostilities, was made inoperative by the veto of Great Britain and France.

The matter then came up before the General Assembly, and on November 2, a resolution was put to the vote which required the aggressors to stop fighting immediately.

Before this resolution was submitted, Lester Pearson had been working unceasingly night and day, through conferences and informal talks, to give the resolution a wider scope, sufficiently comprehensive to form a real basis for a solution of the conflict and for creating peace. With his rich experience, his positive attitude, and his determined vigor, he pointed out that the resolution lacked any provision for solving the problem itself. He felt that this was a matter of decisive importance in that critical phase of the developments when the world was at the very edge of disaster.

But Lester Pearson did not give up his efforts even though the Resolution of November 2 did not contain what he had wanted. In the acutely dangerous situation other ways out would have to be found. On November 4 he submitted to the General Assembly a resolution in which the Secretary-General was requested to put before the General Assembly within forty-eight hours a plan for an international United Nations Peace Keeping force to be employed in the area of fighting to secure and supervise the cessation of hostilities, this was done.

Never, since the end of the war in 1945, has the world situation been darker than during the Suez crisis, and never has the United Nations had a more difficult case to deal with. However, what actually happened has shown that moral force can be a bulwark against aggression and that it is possible to make aggressive forces yield without resorting to power. Therefore, it may well be said that the Suez crisis was a victory for the United Nations and for the man who contributed more than anyone else to save the world at that time. That man was Lester Pearson.

In Ottawa, the building of the Department of Foreign Affairs is named after him, his statue stands on Parliament Hill and the Airport in Toronto is named after him. He is buried in the Gatineau Hills at the MacLaren Cemetery in Wakefield, Quebec across the river from the Capital Ottawa. His wife Maryon Elspeth Moody 1901-1989 is also buried there and they had one son Geoffrey 1927-2008 who was also a Canadian Diplomat and author.

Rt. Hon. Lester Bowles Pearson, known as Mike Pearson 1897-1972. Was Prime Minister of Canada from 1963-1968.

David Roberts, R.A.

Tags

culture, Egypt, history, Jordan, paintings, Roberts, UK

Back in 1989 in Cairo, Egypt, I started to collect David Roberts work. At the time I did not know much about Roberts and I liked what I saw because it was an historical recollection of what Egypt was like as an old Kingdom then under Ottoman rule and as seen by tourists on the Grand Tour.

David Roberts was a Scottish painter, born in Stockbridge which is part of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1796 and died in London in 1864.  Stockbridge is an elegant neighbourhood filled with Georgian and Victorian terraced houses.

Roberts is especially known for The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia, a prolific series of detailed lithograph prints of Egypt and the Near East that he produced from sketches he made during long sojourn in the region.

Roberts was a member of the Royal Academy.

Apprenticed for seven years to be a house painter and decorator. During this time he studied art in the evenings. After his apprenticeship was complete, Roberts’s first paid job came in the summer of 1815, when he moved to Perth to serve as foreman for the redecoration of Scone Palace, where Scottish Kings were crowned until 1296.

His next job was to paint scenery for James Bannister’s circus on North College Street. This was the beginning of his career as a painter and designer of stage scenery.

In 1822 the Coburg Theatre, now the Old Vic in London, offered Roberts a job as a scenic designer and stage painter. He sailed from Leith with his wife Margaret and their six-month-old daughter Christine and settled in London. After working for a while at the Coburg Theatre, Roberts moved to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane to create dioramas and panoramas.

While he built his reputation as a fine artist, Roberts’s stage work had also been commercially successful. Commissions from Covent garden for opera stage sets came regularly.

The painter J.M. William Turner persuaded Roberts to abandon scene painting and devote himself to becoming a full-time artist. Roberts set sail for Egypt on 31 August 1838. His intent was to produce drawings that he could later use as the basis for the paintings and lithographs to sell to the public. Egypt was much in vogue at this time, and travellers, collectors and lovers of antiquities were keen to buy works inspired by the East or depicting the great monuments of ancient Egypt.

Roberts made a long tour in Egypt, Nubia, the Sinai, the Holy Land, Jordan and Lebanon. Throughout, he produced a vast collection of drawings and watercolour sketches.

Muhammad Ali Pasha received Roberts in Alexandria on 16 May 1839, shortly before his return to the UK.

The scenery and monuments of Egypt and Holy Land were fashionable but had hitherto been hardly touched by British artists, and so Roberts quickly accumulated 400 subscription commitments, with Queen Victoria being subscriber No. 1. Her complete set is still in the Royal Collection. The timing of publication just before photographs of the sites became available proved fortuitous.

I bought my first Roberts in an old shop just off Tahrir Square in Cairo and near J. Groppi pastry shop on Talat Harb Sq.. The first one, Plate 238 entitled Cairo from the Gate of the Citizenib, looking towards the desert of Suez. Published in London 1 Dec 1856 by Day & Son, 17 Gate Street, London. I did learn that Roberts did give some fancy names to sites when he was not sure what the actual name was as in this case it is the Sayeda Zeinab Mosque and gate. Also because he belonged to the Orientalist school of painters, romanticize views to make them more attractive to his European viewers and clients. Many of his paintings and lithographs were made as advertisement to promote the Grand Tour to wealthy people who could travel in style for 3 months to a year. The London Illustrated News used a lot of his work to promote areas of the British Empire one could safely visit.

When I was posted to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan I started to look for lithographs of the Holy Land to add to my collection. One is entitled Jerusalem, from the Mount of Olives. By today’s standard it would be difficult to see this view given that old Jerusalem is surrounded not by modern suburbs.

From Jordan, I have views of Petra and of the roman city of Jerash. In all 10 lithographs. It is interesting to see them and examine them, so you get a view of the world some 180 years ago and how it appeared to people like Roberts.

Theme song

Tags

Cairo, Canada., Durrell, Egypt, Embassy, Lilliburo, Mahfouz

In 1989 I was appointed to the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Then the President was Hosni Mubarak who had served under President Anwar Sadat and previously under President Nasser. In those days our Chancery was in Garden City which is a neighbourhood next to Tahrir Square and is very central in Cairo. We had purchased at some point in the 1950’s an old villa and it was a funky spot for an Embassy. At the end of the street was the British Embassy, a large complex which at one point stretched all the way down to the Nile. The British occupied this piece of land in central Cairo since at least 1800. There was several buildings, one being the Residence of the Ambassador in British colonial style with the lawn stretching down to the river, that is until Colonel Nasser who took over the government in a coup in 1952 decided to block river access by building a road, the Corniche al Nil, the reason was that the British had sea planes fly to Cairo and land on the Nile docking at the Embassy. The Egyptian authorities had no control on those planes and the British claimed that they were covered by Diplomatic privilege. However this being Egypt, the government built the new stone wall and gave the Brits some 300,000 Egyptian Pounds in compensation. Next to the Ambassador’s Residence was another building used at one point as a ballroom, it was now used as a Consular section. The third building was quite large and had been built in 1951-52 at the height of tensions between Egypt and Britain when riots took place all around the Embassy compound. The British continued building not paying much attention to the Egyptians. Egypt had been their protectorate since the 1860’s and the British Army and Navy had a strong visible presence in the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and in the Mediterranean. I could walk from my Office to the Commissary store where the British gave us access and we could buy duty free goods, liquor and British style foods which were brought in for diplomats of the Commonwealth. The distinctive feature of the Embassy was the large wrought iron gates with the cypher VR (Victoria Regina) with gas lamps.  This Embassy complex saw many events from the glory days of the British Empire and it was a symbol of the importance of Britain in the world.

His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador Residence in Garden City

I lived in Kamal Al Tawil street in Zamalek on the island Gezira on the Nile in Central Cairo, from my apartment I had a panoramic view of all Cairo. I would drive from my home down to the Qsar Al Nil Bridge in dense and totally uncoordinated traffic

The famous larger than life lions guarding the bridge, they were sculpted by a French artist Alfred Jacquemart. The bridge until 1954 was called Khedive Ismail Bridge. The current bridge was built in 1932 by an Australian company.

I had bought a VW Jetta in Canada and had it shipped to Egypt by cargo ship in a container. The car had a nice radio that you could pull out completely and take with you, a security feature. The radio was able to get short wave transmission and I would listen to the BBC World Service while driving around. Marion Marshall one of the most recognized voices of the BBC World Service read the news on the hour coming from  London. In those days the BBC identification tune was the military march Lillibulero. The French version is known as the Marche du Prince d’Orange, and is attributed to Louis XIV’s court composers Philidor the Elder and Jean-Baptiste Lully. The basic melody of Lillibulero appears to have been adapted by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the theme of the first movement of his Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K.

 

Anytime I hear this tune I instantly think of those days in Cairo. This was amongst one of the best posting I had. Life in Cairo was fun and always full of extravagance and peculiarities so Egyptian. Cairo a Capital of 15 million people is a vast metropolis full of history going back thousands of years. It is reflected in the way the Cairene think of themselves. Previous to my posting in Egypt I had read several books by Nobel Literary Laureate Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) his stories of the people of Egypt, ordinary people living in and around old Cairo are fascinating. I could walk the streets and recognize buildings and sights described in his books. He use to say; If we reject science, we reject the common man.

Another writer was Lawrence Durrell who writes about life in the Middle-East prior to 1940. His book The Alexandria Quartet begin with young David Mountolive on the Hosnani estate near Alexandria, where he has begun an affair with Leila Hosnani, mother of Nessim and Narouz. This leads to a recollection of Mountolive’s maturation and career as a diplomat, a career which in time returns him to Egypt. This book won many awards, and is fascinating to read.

I have not returned to Egypt in 20 years and I don’t know if I would recognize it today. But I do keep the most wonderful memories of my time in Egypt.

Found photos

Tags

Cairo, Egypt, Ibn Tulun, islam, Mosque

I was wondering what had happened to these photos and I am happy to have found them in an entry of 2015 on Cairo.

Happy days indeed, here I am at the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo in July 1990, I was 34 then and I had a full head of blue black hair then. I am bare feet since you must not enter the precinct of a Mosque wearing shoes. A bit like removing your hat in a Christian Church or covering your head in a Synagogue. A sign of respect.

Ibn Tulun was deserted, we were visiting in the afternoon between prayer times. Such an ancient place so fascinating.

 

Monsieur Malesh

Tags

Adam Henein, artists, Cairo, contemporary, Egypt

In July 1989 I arrived in Cairo, our Embassy then was in Garden City just off Midan Tahrir in the centre of the City, on Mohammad Fahmy Al-Sayed street. The British Embassy was just up our street with its Victorian Gates and the US Embassy was one street over, a gigantic complex. Garden City has the name implies was built in what was before the 1952 Revolution, the vast garden of a Royal Palace. I lived in the middle of the Nile river on the Island of Zamalek, a beautiful area just to the North of Garden City.

There was always occasions to discover the arts and culture in Egypt and many modern artists at the time were still working. One artist who had designed many large modern sculptures in Cairo and Alexandria lived in one of the out suburbs of the city. From the outside you could not tell what was behind the great wall but once inside it was a beautiful riotous garden of greenery, flowers and art work.

The artist Hassan Hesmat, (1920-2006) had a gardener to look after his house garden. He nicknamed him Monsieur Malesh. What a funny name, he explained that if he ever asked his gardener about the garden or something needing attention, the reply would be ”Malesh”. The word malesh in Egyptian Arabic means no matter, not to worry, you hear it all the time. Of course when you say Malesh your facial expression must match the meaning of the word, in speaking Egyptian Arabic you quickly learn the hand gestures and the facial expression which conveys the meaning of what you are saying.

Hassan Heshmat captured in stone sculpture his gardener and named it Monsieur Malesh.  When I saw it in his studio I knew he had to come home with me. Monsieur Malesh is one of my remaining souvenir of Cairo and Egypt. He has been in our gardens and amongst plants ever since.

1989 – 2009

Tags

diplomacy, Egypt, Europe, Iraq, Sudan

Some 20 years separate these two photos.

My Official passport photo of 1989 when I was posted to the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt with responsibilities for the Sudan. Back then only one photographer in Ottawa could take such pictures for the Foreign Ministry and his studio was on Sparks Street behind the Langevin Block which is the Office of the Privy Council for Canada and the Prime Minister’s Office. You had to make an appointment and you had to wear a suit and tie because that photo would go into your Diplomatic passport with mention on page 5 of the document stating your rank and function at the Embassy. Egypt then was a great posting, it was also the time of the First Gulf War when Kuwait was invaded by Iraq and Canadian war ships sailed down the Suez Canal, we went to the Canal to see them pass by.

I also travelled often to Khartoum and we had special permission to board the Lufthansa flight which made a pit stop in Cairo to travel to Khartoum 2 hours South following the Nile River in a straight line. We did not want to take Air Sudan it was too dangerous, planes poorly serviced and mostly unable to fly on any given day. Egypt Air was not safe enough because of tensions between Egypt and the Sudan. Lufthansa had a great flight and so did British Airways back then. I also often carried with me 10 to 12 bags of Diplomatic mail and documents all sealed up. It was all pretty romantic to be a diplomatic courier and also representing Canada in the Sudan. To me that country was about General Gordon and his heroic death in Khartoum. In Saint-Paul Cathedral in London there is a memorial to Gordon of Khartoum next to 19th Century painter Frederick Lord Leighton. I say a memorial because when the expeditionary force arrived in Khartoum to relieve Gordon and his men, everyone had been killed and his body was never found. When I went to the Sudan a new ”Islamic” government was in charge, same people as today. The funny thing was that we had to pay for every curfew pass and special permission pass to travel in the City with bottles if not cases of Johnny Walker Red Label, I discovered that Scotch is an international currency and the favourite drink of staunch Muslims. So we use to call it Johnny Mohamed Walker.

In early 1991 I found myself again in Khartoum and it was at this point that the First Gulf War ended with the defeat of Iraq and the setting on fire of all the oil wells in Kuwait by the retreating Iraqi army. As I arrived at the Hilton Hotel I heard a commotion behind me and turn to find myself face to face with Tareq Aziz (1936-2015) the deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, the cultured face of the Iraqi Regime. I had a very uneasy feeling when I saw him surrounded by his goons. He was well dressed and spoke impeccable French and English. The clerk at the Front Desk explained that Mr Aziz would have his room on the third floor and I was bumped to the seventh floor. The war had just ended the Sudan was an ally of Iraq and Canada was part of the coalition which defeated Iraq. We simply exchange polite greetings, there was nothing else to say and I had absolutely nothing to say to him.

What puzzled me was how he got to Khartoum from Baghdad, there was a no fly zone, it took me some time to figure out that he would have travelled by road from Baghdad to Amman in Jordan which took about 10 hours. Then flew on a private jet from Amman to Cairo and then on to Khartoum. A few years later when I was posted to Amman, I would become more familiar with the Iraqi Regime and the politics of the region, a very complex affair to say the least.

Rome 2009 at home on Via dei Villini

My last post, what was interesting about this posting was my accreditation to Greece, Malta and Albania. I went to Tirana some 26 times, it must be a record of some kind, no one else at the Embassy went so many times. I had regular business to attend and I wish could have gone to Athens more often. Albania was a very strange country, waking up after 45 years of brutal dictatorship under a madman Enver Hoxha (1908-1985) who completely isolated this tiny country, it is only slightly bigger than Vermont, from the rest of the world and broke relations with every country including his Communist allies in the USSR and then China for not being communist enough. No one could travel outside and very few could ever enter Albania. Now in 2007, Communism had vanished with the death of  Hoxha and the nightmare was over which led to all manner of excess. A very poor country with no paved roads, a very poor electric grid and primitive social services. It was difficult to image that to the South was the border with Greece and just across the Adriatic was Italy.  During my time the country saw much progress, there was a large US presence, there was also much investments by Austria, Germany, Sweden.

 

Mezzeh!

Tags

Africa, Arak, Cairo, Egypt, Food, Levant, Mezzeh, Middle East, Muslims, Pasha, Scotch

I do not know what made me think of it today but I suddenly had a memory of Cairo and other places in the Middle East where I served at a time when I was Consul Pasha.

The name Consul Pasha was bestowed upon me by my Egyptian friends, a Pasha is or was an Honorific title given to people who served at a certain level in the government of the Ottoman Empire, you were either a Pasha or a Bey. A Pasha could also be the brother in law of the Ottoman Sultan, a general or a senior diplomat. In Egypt until fairly recently it was given as a sign of respect.

When you live abroad you often have to get used to many different foods and cuisine tradition which are totally foreign to you. Many countries hold on to their culinary traditions and do not give in to fast food or food globalization. As a tourist you just need to step out of your International chain hotel to realize that no one eats like you do. A good example in Italy, where tourists will stuff themselves with Pizza and cheap pasta because these are the only two foods they recognize from back home. Missing all the other culinary dishes of veal, wild truffles, cheeses, beef and seafood.

One discovery in the Middle East was the variety of the food and its quality. I learned a whole new way of eating and what was wonderful was the freshness of all the dishes, always made daily from scratch and always served fresh. A good Host would make it a point of honour to have the best food for his guests. You would never hear the phrase ” It is just something we threw together at the last minute, nothing fancy”, that would be an insult to your guests. You would also not be served dips and chips or peanuts or something frozen or processed. Same went for liquor, only certain brands of Scotch was acceptable, yes even amongst my Muslim friends. Scotch was not seen as alcool it was the drink of Gentlemen. No one would think of offering you a beer.

If you were not invited at home, the host would make sure he knew a good restaurant and know the owner and or the chef and make sure the quality was high, no haphazard selection of a place they did not known or who did not have a good reputation.

The first time I was invited for dinner, we arrived around 9 PM, dinner would never be served before 11:30PM so in the meantime Mezzeh was served with Raki or Arak anis flavour drink on the rocks with a little water. Also know in Greece as Ouzo or in France as Pastis. It is closely associated with food and all culinary matters in the Levant.

The word Mezzeh is found in all the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and comes from the Turkish meze “taste, flavour, snack, relish”, borrowed from Persian, Maze.

The photo below show the traditional display put before you, an incredible variety. This is before dinner while you are a glass of Arak. Now the real connaisseur will only have a little bite and will not make a point of finishing all the plates presented. This is just so that you are not famished by the time dinner is served later on. All of it is very good and as a novice you might be tempted to eat too much. Your Host will press you to eat more, but does so only out of politeness. You have to know to refuse politely while always showing interest in the dishes. It is a complicate ”Oriental” tradition one could say, but then in the Orient nothing is ever simple. Far too many people fall for the Mezzeh and then are caught not being able to have dinner, that was a faux pas. Worse still colleagues would complain about the hour and make a quick exit after the Mezzeh course. They were never invited again, forgetting that they were not back home and cannot behave as if they were.

I will never forget one evening in Damascus when a colleague of mine invited some of our contacts who had been more than generous in their hospitality towards us in the past. He counting his pennies decided to short changed his guests by ordering just a couple of plates of Mezzeh and cheap beer. What a stupid mistake and how embarrassing it was.

In Cairo we use to go to a restaurant called Papillon in Mohandessin (Engineer city) on the Western bank of the Nile with a friend of mine A.M. El Solh. They had a great Mezzeh.

Popular mezzeh dishes in Cyprus, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Syria include:

Mutabbal/Babaghanoush – eggplant (aubergine) mashed and mixed with seasonings.
Hummus – a dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas
Hummus with meat (hummus bil-lahm)
Falafel – a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, fava beans, or both.
Tashi – Dip made from tahini, garlic, salt and lemon juice with chopped parsley garnish.
Köfte – meat balls and patties consisting of ground meat, usually beef or lamb, mashed onions, spices and a small amount of bread crumbs.
Kibbeh (İçli köfte in Turkey) – dishes made of burghul, chopped meat, and spices
Kibbe Nayye – burghul, chopped lamb meat, and spices
Spicy lamb and beef sausages (naqaniq/maqaniq/laqaniq and sujuk)
Halloumi cheese, usually sliced and grilled or fried.
Souvlaki – Bite sized meat cubes (lamb is very common), grilled on a skewer over charcoal.
Stifado – Slow cooked beef stew with lots of onions, garlic, tomatoes, cinamon, pepper and vinegar.
Afelia – Diced pork marinated in wine with coriander seed, then stewed.
Lountza – Smoked pork loin slice, usually grilled.
Dolma Vegetables like peppers, eggplants or courgettes stuffed with rice, chopped mint, lemon juice, pepper, minced meat. (Turkish)
Sarma (also known as Koubebkia or Mashi Warqenab) – Grape vine leaves, stuffed with rice, chopped mint, lemon juice, pepper, minced lamb. (Turkish)
Yogurt (Mast-o-Khiar in Iran)
Cacık – Dip made from plain yogurt, chopped cucumber with finely chopped garlic and mint leaf.
Tarama – a fish roe dip based on cured carp fish roe, mashed potatoes and olive oil. In the traditional Istanbul variety of this dish, a substantial part of the roe must remain intact.
Labneh – strained youghurt which tastes similar to cream or sour cream only more tart.
Shanklish – cow’s milk or sheep’s milk cheeses
Muhammara – a hot pepper dip with ground walnuts, breadcrumbs, garlic, salt, lemon juice, and olive oil
Pastirma – seasoned, air-dried cured beef meat
Tabbouleh – bulgur, finely chopped parsley, mint, tomato, spring onion, with lemon juice, olive oil and seasonings
Fattoush (Fatuş in southern Turkey) – salad made from several garden vegetables and toasted or fried pieces of pita bread
Arugula (known also as Rocket) salad
Artichoke salad
Olives
Tulum cheese

Yes all of it will be presented to you and then a full dinner. My favorite Mezzeh dish are: Babaghanoush, Hummus, Falafel, Köfte, Halloumi cheese, Dolma, Tabbouleh, Fattoush, Olives, Tulum cheese with a nice drink of Arak. Of course this would be accompanied by conversation on various topics.

Because Ramadan just started a few days ago, dishes served during the Holy Month are totally different, IFTAR is the meal served as sunset. The dishes are too numerous to name and many are special dishes and desserts made specifically for Ramadan. If you do Ramadan and fast during the day, it is important that you not stuff yourself quickly at Iftar, your stomach cannot take it and a polite person will eat slowly, serve food to others and enjoy a long meal, at the same time eating in moderation. But that is another topic for another time.

Cairo Markets

Tags

Cairo, Egypt, Fatimid, Khan al Khalili

One of the pleasures of Cairo is its old market place the Khan al Khalili. It is in the centre of the old Islamic heart of the city, bordered by Bab-Al-Futtuh (Gate of Conquest) Bab al-Nasr (Gate of Victory) and the Mosques of Al-Azhar, Al-Hakim and Al-Hussein all dating from 1000 years ago, marvels of Islamic Architecture. There are also many wonderful monuments to the different dynasties and rulers of the City from the Fatimid period.

Within all this architecture a great Souk established itself and has been in place for centuries now. You find everything in the Khan, from food to furniture, gold and silver jewellery, to tailors, spice vendors, restaurants, cafés, it is truly like Ali BaBa’s cavern.

One of the oldest Café’s in the old Khan al Khalili, Al-Fishawy always a nice place to have a Turkish coffee or a glass of tea with mint.

So many of the old Khan al Khalili is featured in the books of Nobel Literature prize Laureate (1988), Naguib Mahfouz, just like this street, an area he knew very well.

Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006), I had the very great pleasure to speak with him at the Zamalek Marriott Hotel in 1990. His books are wonderful, especially the Cairo Trilogy, full of humanity and life’s unruly details, his characters are so very real, the reader feels an attachment to them.

Bread delivery on a bicycle, I often saw them, day and night and wondered how do they do it without falling or being run over by a car or bus.

An area I came to know very well and I always enjoyed walking around 

The Khan al Khalili was also an excellent gold market, Cairo was the Mint of the Ottoman Empire and to this day solid gold coins can be found and many other good quality gold jewellery pieces in 18k, 22K and 24K. White and Yellow gold rings, bracelets and necklaces with good craftsmanship can be bought. No gold is sold under 18K because it is not considered of good value by Egyptian customers. I bought my wedding ring in the Khan 22K white and yellow gold, the metal is so soft it took the imprint of my finger with time.

I also bought an old pocket watch with a Swiss movement, these watches were common as conductors on Tramways and trains used them in the Ottoman Empire to mark time and keep tram schedules. I bought two had them cleaned and they work fine to this day. I determine that the watches are about 105 years old. If they could talk the stories these watches could tell.

Cairo the City of one thousand minarets

Khartoum, the Sudan

Tags

Egypt, Gordon, Khartoum, Kitchener, Lufthansa, Mahdi, Omdurman, Sudan

During my posting to Egypt, I also visited the Sudan on a regular basis every quarter of the calendar year more or less. In those days we did not have an Embassy in Khartoum and we were accredited to the Sudan but not residing there. If we went to Khartoum we could, in case of emergency, go to the UK Embassy. Now the British had been in the Sudan for a very long time and they had a long colonial history, where as Canada had none whatsoever.

To me Khartoum was a place I had seen in an old movie, the scene where Gordon and the British are waiting for relief from Cairo and are besieged in their compound. In a desperate attempt to frighten the natives who are on a religious war path led by the Mahdi, Gordon dresses up in his parade uniform with all his medals and steps out at the top of the stairs armed with his sabre and a pistol. The sight of him did in fact stop the battle according to accounts, the natives were startled to say the least, however one warrior chucked a spear at him and killed him, all was lost.

Here is a little historical background to that bit of history. Since the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, the British military presence had ensured that Egypt remained a de facto British protectorate. Egypt also controlled the Sudan, and the administration of the Sudan was considered a domestic Egyptian matter by the British government. It was left to the Khedive’s government to administer. As a result, the suppression of the Mahdist revolt was left to the Egyptian army, which suffered a bloody defeat at the hands of the Mahdist rebels at El Obeid, in November 1883. The Mahdi’s forces captured huge amounts of equipment and overran large parts of the Sudan, including Darfur and Kordofan.

The Mahdist forces backed their self-proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad. He claimed to be the redeemer of the Islamic nation and enjoyed the support of many in Sudan who desired independence from their Egyptian rulers.

The rebellion brought the Sudan to the attention of the British government and public. Prime Minister William Gladstone and War Secretary Lord Hartington did not wish to become involved in the Sudan and persuaded the Egyptian government to evacuate all their garrisons in the Sudan. General Charles George Gordon, a popular figure in Great Britain and former Governor-General of Sudan in 1876-79, was appointed to accomplish this task. If you visit London UK go to St-Paul’s Cathedral and there you will see the Memorial to General Gordon next to that of Frederick Lord Leighton.

Going to the Sudan from Cairo is a two-hour flight straight down the Nile to Khartoum. Air Sudan had a terrible safety record, most of their flights were either delayed for days or cancelled, was not an option. So I could take Egypt Air, which is a reliable airline or Lufthansa or British Airways. But there was a rule, I needed to obtain from the Egyptian Authorities permission to board the flight at Cairo for the last leg towards Khartoum. Egypt Air wanted to protect their traffic monopoly and Cairo was just a pit stop for flights from Europe or returning to Europe from the Sudan. I preferred to  opt for Lufthansa for various practical reasons and comfort and would board at Cairo. I would also carry with my luggage all my files for a week’s worth of work, remember these are the days before computers, we were still using IBM Selectric typewriters, and would also often have several bags of diplomatic mail, which attracted a lot of attention upon arrival in Khartoum, though such mail is inviolate, meaning cannot be inspected by Customs authorities, the Sudanese government was still curious, though they knew they could not tamper with the bags.

In 1989 a new government was in place in the Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir became President in a coup d’état. He is currently accused of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in Darfur and in the War in South Sudan. Darfur was an issue then and the bloody war in South Sudan was raging on, also Ethiopians and Eritreans were streaming by the tens of thousands out of Ethiopia, the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam was about to collapse and famine was yet again threatening the country.

It was estimated that over 1 million Ethiopians lived in the Sudan at that period. They were not welcomed and not well treated by the Sudanese, may horrors were visited upon this population by the Sudanese army. You had several reasons for this conflict, the Sudanese in the North saw themselves ethnically as Arabs, Muslims. Ethiopians are Orthodox Christians and belong to a very old people of a different ethnicity. The Sudanese in the South were Africans either Christians or Animists. The Government of the Sudan wanted to dominate and control them, slavery was an acceptable form of control on those population seen as inferiors. The Government in Khartoum also had very poor relations with Egypt because the Egyptians were the former masters historically speaking, a very complex situation which had nothing to do with logic and all to do with twisted Politics. In other words a lot of human misery could be seen everywhere. Also at that time the Sudan decided to ally itself with Saddam Hussein’s Regime in Iraq against the West.

Khartoum as a city then was dusty and had few remarkable buildings, except for the Cathedral now closed, the Palace of the British Governor now the President’s Palace and the Hilton hotel where the Blue and the White Nile met, that hotel is today called the Coral. Each time I visited Khartoum there would some kind of epidemic, typhoid, plague, etc…  I also needed to take my Malaria pills and have by yellow health booklet of numerous inoculations. The Hilton however was another planet, a modern building with its own power supply, water purification plant and armed guards once inside the compound it really was another world.

All the food of the hotel was brought from Europe on a daily basis and all meals were lavish buffets, of seafood, beef, chicken, mountains of desserts and fresh fruits. The bar had been closed for political reasons and so was the pool for pseudo-religious reasons. It was all surreal and typical of such regimes in most third world countries. There was nowhere else to stay in Khartoum, that was clean, safe and secure. The Sudanese government could also in a crude fashion monitor our presence.

At night there were few lights in the City and a curfew after 9pm. Tanks would appear and heavily armed soldiers manned several intersections of the city. Late at night you would also often hear machine gun fire. If you wanted to circulate after 9pm, you had to have with you 2 items, one a special curfew pass obtained only through special permission usually payable in bottles of Johnnie Walker Scotch to a so-called religious official and lots of Marlboro cartons of cigarettes to be given to the soldiers on the streets at check-points, they could not read the Official Curfew pass, only spoke Arabic and they were usually in a very dark mood. It did happen that you would get to a check-point and the soldiers were asleep, what to do, do you wake them up and get shot or beaten severely, you could not simply drive through, because that would create other problems, so often you would stop, somewhere on a very dark street and make noise so the soldiers would wake-up and offer them cigarettes. Marlboro always did the trick and you would get a smile out of them and a quick signal to move along. During my stay in Khartoum I would meet a lot of people and travel in the Sudan to Port Sudan and to Kassala. I would see the increasing presence of the Communist Chinese and their early investments, another way of cultivating allies in geo-political conflicts. I would also have a most memorable encounter in 1991 at the Hilton, but that will be for a later post.

Al-Qahira, Misr

Tags

Cairo, dachshunds, Egypt, life, Mamluks, Nile, Salaheddin, Shepheard, Zamalek

I went on posting to Egypt in 1989 after completing my posting to Mexico, quite a change in geographic location, I was also responsible or accredited to the Sudan. Both countries have a long history. Egypt is the largest and most populous country in the Near East or North Africa and the leader of the Arab World until recently. Radio, television and movie production all came from Cairo, the oldest movie production studios are in Cairo circa 1938 and Egyptian culture dominated the air waves this also means that Egyptian Arabic dominated the Arab Speaking World. It is in terms of a spoken language not as pure as Classical Arabic spoken by Bedouins, often you will hear students of Arabic wanting to go live with the Bedouins to learn highly classical Arabic which is quite beautiful but so difficult to learn.  If you want a comparison Egyptian Arabic is like American slang if you compare it to British English in terms of vocabulary pronunciation. Grammatically Arabic is a complicated language and difficult to master unless you are a serious student. It is poetic language very florid and it follows very different rules in terms of how you formulate a sentence again in comparison to English which is relatively simple as a language.

The Cairo of 1989 was like New York a big, noisy, bustling town, it is truly a city that does not sleep, with a population of 9 million people compared to 2014, the population is now 14 million. Cairo is also a very old City, its foundation dates around 869 AD and architecturally it has many influences and you can clearly see the history of Egypt through the centuries in the buildings and palaces of the City. Various dynasties the Abassid, the Fatimid, the Ayubid, Umayyad dynasties and rulers built the patrimony of Cairo, always following the idea of a great Imperial City to reflect the long rule of the Egyptians over neighbouring countries and region. These Arabic dynasties ruled from Bagbdad and Damascus, later under Ottoman Turkish rule from Istanbul but Cairo being more populous attracted quickly more political clout. Mecca in the Hejaz in comparison is a religious centre and a relatively small new town.  Cairo also became a religious centre with great mosques and the Al-Azhar University with examples of magnificent Islamic architecture, truly marvels of art and with many connections to Mecca due to the migration to Egypt of the relatives of the Prophet after his death. The historian K.A.C.Creswell wrote a wonderful book on early Muslim architecture in 1958.

The night I arrived in Cairo was in early July, so fairly warm around 28 C. my plane touched down around 10pm, Cairo Airport was about 30 Km outside the city then, a big sprawling complex, welcoming all the major airlines of the world. The Embassy driver was waiting for me and took me to my hotel which was on the Nile about two blocks from our Embassy in Garden City. I immediately noticed the heavy traffic and people walking everywhere, Cafés full of people, lights, music and the stench of blood everywhere.

Mausoleums of Mamluk rulers on Moqattam Hill, Cairo

The stench of drying blood was very strong and as we came closer to the centre of the city it was unpleasant. We took the Moqattam Cliff road passing through the Cemetery of the Mamluks and then around the Old Citadel of Salaheddin turning down on to Qasr Al-Ayni road which passes along the Aqueduct (c.1311) to Fumm Al-Khalig on the Nile and turning again unto the Corniche. I asked the driver about the smell and he looked at me and said, Sir it is the great EID and people follow the tradition of slaughtering sheep as Abraham was commanded by God. I also noticed in the more popular neighbourhood that people would then smear the door ways of their houses with the blood of the sheep another biblical tradition.

The aqueduct of Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad stretches half a kilometre from the Nile to the Citadel. 

The meat of the sheep is then roasted and served up, first to any poor person you might know or beggar, this is an obligation and people respect it. When we got to my hotel the Semiramis Intercontinental which is next door to the famous Shepheard hotel, home of British spies and intrigue during WWII, it was around 11:30 pm. The street was absolutely packed with revellers, music, lights, it was like a carnival.

As I entered the lobby with my numerous suitcases, I must have had 4 or 5, they were taken by several Bellhops and then I was greeted by the most fantastic spectacle, there was a great wedding reception going on at least 300 people were singing and dancing, there was a great band dressed in Mamluk era costumes, drums and trumpets and a dozen belly dancers with candelabras on their heads. I was pulled into the Conga line and only dropped off at the Front Desk where the reception clerk greeted me with a smile and said ”Welcome to Egypt Sir”. In many ways the next few years for me in Egypt (Misr) would be like my arrival, one adventure after another, leaving me to this day with great souvenirs.