The end of a controversial scholar
Egyptian scholar and thinker Nasr Hamed Abou Zeid, passed away in Sheikh Zayed hospital last Monday. After being diagnosed with an unknown disease, Zeid returned back to Egypt and went through a coma right before his death.
Born in 1943, Abou Zeid was unable to continue high school education due to economical problems. He gained technical school diploma instead, and later worked as a technician for the Egyptian Telecommunication Authority. During this period, he finished high school degree and enrolled in Cairo University, where he earned BA in Arabic Studies, MA and PHD in Islamic Studies.
Abou Zeid became a controversial scholar and dealt with very sensitive Islamic issues. In addition he wrote some books The Philosophy of Hermeneutics, Critique of Islamic Discourse, Text, Authority, and the Truth, Women in the Discourse of Crisis, Thus Spoke Ibn 'Arabi, and others.
His progressive ideas led some to accuse him of apostasy. He was excilled from Egypt in 1995 and settled in Netherlands were he worked as a professor of Islamic Studies in University of Leiden. Further more, he was ordered to divorce his wife Ibtihal Younis, a professor of French Literature at Cairo University, based on Islamic law that a Muslim woman cannot marry an apostate. The verdict was based on hisba, a doctrine that entitles any Muslim to take legal action against anyone or anything he considers to be harmful to Islam. At that time, the case drew the media’s attention about the controversial topic, which was considered against freedom of expression according to the human rights defenders.
Since then, Ibtihal Younes has been to Egypt a number of times since the separation order, primarily to discuss MA and PhD theses at the French Department at Cairo University. Abu Zeid has not been to Egypt since 1995, despite requests to attend seminars and conferences.
Last December Abu Zeid was banned from entering Kuwait to give two lectures about religious reform and women’s position in Islam. He was sent back to Cairo despite obtaining a valid visa.
Abu Zeid is an award-winning scholar. Alongside working in Egypt and Holland, he was a visiting professor at Osaka University in Japan between 1985 and 1989. He also received a fellowship from the Center for Middle East Studies at Pennsylvania State University in the United States of America between 1978 and 1980.
He will be buried later on Monday in his home village of Kahafa in the Nile Delta.
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Audio Documentary: The Cairo International Model United Nations
The audio documentary script:
05/08/2010
Kassasseya
14:30 minutes
LEAD IN:
Music Fade in (Omar Khairat)
A-U-C (0:12 Sec)
The activity began during the summer of 19-88, when a group of students from The American University in Cairo participated in the first inter collegiate Model United Nations held at The Hague, site of high school M-U-N sessions in 19-68. Since then, the delegation from A-U-C decided to organize a similar program in Egypt, where the Student Union sponsored the idea with the help of Office of Student Affairs. (0:25 Sec)
Doctor Mona Said, an Economics professor at The A-U-C attended the first Model United Nation conference, and remembers three remarkable people who proposed the activity. (0:11 Sec)
SAID "Three people I remember in my M U N experience; the first is Tim Sullivan who was professor of Political Science, and the key figure behind organizing it. Later he became a provost. The other two key student's organizers were Mohammad el Farnawany who worked on the Egyptian Foreign Service and who currently has quit a distinguished position as an advisor of the Minister of foreign affairs. And the third person is Mahdy El Fashany who was the President of the Student Union. And I see him on television as Palestinian intellectual; he is very outspoken of issues of the Arab-Israeli and Palestinaina-Israelian conflicts."(0:30Sec)
Throughout the years, M-U-N activity developed several times in order to meet the demands of the students and to give more opportunities for students to choose the council they are interested in. (0:10 Sec)
Hana Khaled, a president of the Economic and Social Council knows more about the history on the activity. (0:07 Sec)
KHALED "The first MUN conference started in 1988, back then it was only one council, it was the Security Council, and throughout the years they started expanding, and now after 23 years MUN evolved from one council to seven councils. Three of them are permanent councils; the Security council, the Human Rights council and International Court of Justice. And then there are other four councils that alternate every year."(0:29 Sec)
The important difference between the M-U-N activity and the real M-U-N has to do with the delegates who represent the countries, the limited time and the procedures for the debate. These criteria did not change at all since its emerging. Each council consists of a president, secretariat and a rapporteur. The council chooses a couple of students to represent a country. These countries are mixture between developed and undeveloped countries. Around four delegations are just set as observers, which mean that they do not vote.
Mark Haddad, a student who involved himself in to several M-U-N conferences describes the conference. (0:06)
HADDAD "During the conference, what happens is that developed countries provide solutions to the problems of undeveloped countries, and relating to the issues within the topics. At the end of the debate for each topic, resolutions which are formal documents comprised of the problems and their solutions are drafted and voted upon, once they have been voted upon, they are officially resolutions for that year. "(0:38 Sec)
The Model United Nations activity acquires students to work hard in order to successfully participate in the conference. Many of which face challenges. (0:09 Sec)
Laura Frega, a sophomore student who experienced M-U-N twice and won the best delegate on her second experience, describes the challenges and efforts she put for the conference. (0:10 Sec)
FREGA "Yes, I did find it challenging especially my first year; my council was the World Economic Forum. It was hard. In University they give you the material, C-I-M-U-N they link between the material and reality and what happens in the world. And because I did not have any background about economic situations of the world and global economy. I felt I was ignorant and I had to study a lot, like sometimes I would study for C-I-M-U-N more than studying for my regular classes. You get addicted to the work, you can't stop working and then you apply for the next year, like currently I am a secretariat at M-U-N and I am a director for the Economic and Social Council and I started off not knowing anything about economics in real life. Like now it's different, after you learn and you have so much knowledge, you feel like you are more valuable now and you can get in to discussions and you have an opinion and it's great." (0:64 Sec)
Students wait for the four day conference in order to express their thoughts about the topics and to try to reach some solutions. Yet, for the conference to succeed, the council provides eight sessions earlier, to widen the student's perspective about the two topics that will be discussed during the conference. So it takes the council one year to do preparations for the entire activity (0:20 Sec)
KHALED "Secretariats and head recruitments start every spring, and as soon as the new team is set, they start preparing for the conference for next year. During summer break secretariats start selecting topics, they start the background paper writing process which lasts for seven to eight months. Also the secretariats get trained for the conference for example; how to prepare sessions and so many other things until the conference in March, and so the process goes on for almost a year."(00:30 Sec)
During this year, organizer heads start interviewing and recruiting students for their committees. The idea of having organizers was brought later after the first conference was made, when the students realized the importance of having organizing teams to develop and prepare for the four day conference. (0:20 Sec)
Farida Amin, the organizer head and have been in the organizing teams for several years, states the following. (0:07 Sec)
NAT Sound fade in:
AMIN "Basically MUN started in 1989, and then after a year they realized that in order to be able to achieve the conference success we need an organizing committee, we need a committee to make finances, we need to publicize to bring delegates and so one. So from then onwards the organizing committee started to develop. And right now we have seven committee; fund raising, public relations, external public relations, information technology, publications, reception and more." (0:25 Sec)
NAT Sound fade ou
Additionally, three program committees emerged that perform extra work. These are the development program, awareness program and the environmental program. (0:09 Sec)
NAT Sound fade in
AMIN "Of course not all committees emerged at the same time. In 2004, the awareness program was the first of the three programs. And it basically started when one of the students who was is also a member of MUN, he was walking in the Greek campus and he found out that almost no one knows what is happening in Iraq and he got very frustrated and decided why not to have a program in MUN that makes people aware of what happens outside their bubble. So that is when the awareness program started. "(0:27 Sec)
NAT Sound fade out
Recently, the committee realized that an environmental program is needed. (0:04 Sec)
NAT Sound fade in
AMIN "In 2009, we decided to have the environmental program, which basically it raises awareness about the environmental issues and it also works off campus on different projects like recycling and so on. "(0:12 Sec)
NAT Sound fade out
It sounds like tough work is made through out the year for the sake of the students. But after this hard work, does students really benefit from this? (0:08 Sec)
SAID "I was presenting the United States part of delegation. I don’t remember the details of what we talked about, but I just remember that it was very well organized and people were passionate about it. And it was interesting and fun to get to now the other point of view. At that time there was this usual animosity between the Arab world on one side and United States being perceived as so pro-Israel in their decision making and structure of governance. But I can't remember when the consensus part was, I probably picked something on economics issues there." (0:30 Sec)
Another student shares his experience on recent MUN experience (0:04 Sec)
HADDAD " I believe that the M-U-N activity develop personal skills that are needed in the market and of course for myself. One of the most important of those is the art of negotiating, researching of course debating, which is important in every adult's life regardless of their job. So personally I have learned how to express my self, my views and most certainly at the same time, respect other's and be more open to different points of view."(0:34 Sec)
FREGA " Ok, basically what had I acquired from this conference was how to learn, learning how to negotiate with people, how to debate, how to identify what is important and what should be discussed first. It was relevant to the delegation you take, like this year I had India, and so I had to contribute the most, because the topic we are talking about mainly affected my country. So you have to know according to what delegation you take, you have to speak and you have to fight for the rights of your country. And I learned a lot of things, I learned how to research and filter what I have required or what I got through the internet."(0: 40 Sec)
However, Doctor Mona Said is no longer able to see why M-U-N is not as important as people might see (0:07 Sec)
SAID "As for myself, I finished my PHD, went straight after that to work in an International organization, which is the International Monetary Fund. Now since then my views about all issue now became more critical and I wouldn’t say I had those ideas at the time I was a student at A U C, but having myself worked in an International organization whose governance is based upon board of directors that have representatives from all countries around the world. And I have seen what really matters and what makes a difference and why decisions look so scued against developing countries interests. They all look like you know why they simply represent what the major countries like G 7 basically on top of them, the US and the UK. And the answer is very simple because the way these institutions are structured. "(30 Sec)
The greatest seven countries always have the authority to present their overwhelming ideas and suggestions. They have the capability to impress other countries and at the same time, they do not give developing countries their rights for voting. And so it all serves the interests of the developed countries. (0:18 Sec)
SAID "The same go for the United Nations, and UN is further weaker organization in terms of how developing countries represent themselves. They seem to do a lot of work a lot of fields a lot of organizations, but very little impact is felt. There is suspicion rightly so, about their intensions when they conduct programs through the world, with few exceptions of course. You know organizations that are very humanitarian in nature of course have respectability most of the organization seems to be very politicized and represent the will of the G 7." (0:25 Sec)
From a personal experience, as a past M-U-N delegate of Norway, I realized that the same scenario applies on the activity, where the developed nations unite to help other developing countries but still have hidden agendas. (0:14 Sec)
SAID "So students can be encouraged to come with their alternative vision of what the UN can be. So suppose that every country around the world has equal voting rights and you know there is nothing called the Security Council decisions is dominated by the major five countries or any other decision dominated at that way. How would the same issues that are brought in front of the UN, how would they be voted on in a truly democratic structure. That would be much more interesting, perhaps the media can even write about. And this is I think is the true fight and the true issues that developing countries should be talking about. How to increase their share of decision making and governance on international level orders organizations. So they are truly, a truly United Nation rather than something that is having the name but the structure itself is very different" (0:40)
The Model United Nation activity has created opportunities for students to come up with new ideas and new principles. It shaped new thoughts and different generations. It taught them current problems and allowed them to develop skills of negotiation and collaboration. If students have the opportunity to represent a country and negotiate for their rights, then I can imagine them in real life fighting for the sake of well being. (0:25 Sec)
Christine Kassasseya, A-U-C
Credits:
Doctor Mona Said, an Economics Proffesor
Hana Khaled, Economic and Social Council president at the Model United Nations
Farida Amin, organizer head and have been in the organizing team for three years
Mark Haddad, delegate of three councils
Laura Frega, delegate of two councils
The Music by Omar Khairat
1. Abla Hekmet
2. El Bioot Asrar
3. Edam Mayet
Music Omar Khairat Fade out
Christine Kassasseya
Duration: 14:30 minutes
The journal :
The audio documentary is about the history of Model United Nations at the American University in Cairo. To do this documentary, it took me long time trying to collect bits and pieces of information from different people and from the archives as reference.
Regarding the history, the activity passed through several changes, but in general, it did not transform in huge terms since it is adapting the same criteria of the Model United Nations held in New York and the real MUN. Obviously, the first conference was very basic or in other words ' a trial of adapting something similar', but through out the years it started to improve till it reached its peak. The Cairo's International Model United Nations is considered to be one of the best through out the world and it receives first and second places each year.
Concerning my challenges, my president gave me access to the archives and was helpful during the interview. She provided me with a lot of information that I needed to make a story. At the same time, I sent emails to Doctor Mona Said and Doctor Pascal Gazelle asking them for an interview. Yet none answered. So I had to pass through their offices every now and then to get my interview done. And at last, I succeeded on interviewing Doctor Said, which was not happy at all about it, but still helped me when I insisted. Yet, I discovered that Doctor Gazelle is not available this semester as she is giving birth. But now I feel that it was going to be useless if I have interviewed two people from the same generation.
Later, I decided to interview an organizer to fill the missing parts, since the organizing team presence is important. So I passed through their booth and asked the head for an interview. At first, she was not pleased with the idea because she did not believe I was doing this for a class. But when she found the audio recorder, she felt content to some degree and was willing to help. Afterward, I heard about a guy who has been taking part in the MUN organizing committee for four years. And I was ready to interview him yet I never found him in the MUN room, nor near the booth. I asked people about him but I could not reach him.
I started to write my script after interviewing the three people listed above. Yet I found out that there is a lot of information missing. I decided to interview a forth person. So I asked my friends and they suggested Doctor Noha Bakr, a political science professor who teaches MUN related course. Nevertheless I was not lucky enough to find her. Then I thought of interviewing the provost Tim Sullivan, but I did not have the courage to. I felt I was going to waste his time.
05/08/2010
Kassasseya
14:30 minutes
LEAD IN:
Music Fade in (Omar Khairat)
The Model United Nations activity has been around for more than two decades at The American University in Cairo. Christine Kassasseya has the history of M-U-N at
A-U-C (0:12 Sec)
The activity began during the summer of 19-88, when a group of students from The American University in Cairo participated in the first inter collegiate Model United Nations held at The Hague, site of high school M-U-N sessions in 19-68. Since then, the delegation from A-U-C decided to organize a similar program in Egypt, where the Student Union sponsored the idea with the help of Office of Student Affairs. (0:25 Sec)
Doctor Mona Said, an Economics professor at The A-U-C attended the first Model United Nation conference, and remembers three remarkable people who proposed the activity. (0:11 Sec)
SAID "Three people I remember in my M U N experience; the first is Tim Sullivan who was professor of Political Science, and the key figure behind organizing it. Later he became a provost. The other two key student's organizers were Mohammad el Farnawany who worked on the Egyptian Foreign Service and who currently has quit a distinguished position as an advisor of the Minister of foreign affairs. And the third person is Mahdy El Fashany who was the President of the Student Union. And I see him on television as Palestinian intellectual; he is very outspoken of issues of the Arab-Israeli and Palestinaina-Israelian conflicts."(0:30Sec)
Throughout the years, M-U-N activity developed several times in order to meet the demands of the students and to give more opportunities for students to choose the council they are interested in. (0:10 Sec)
Hana Khaled, a president of the Economic and Social Council knows more about the history on the activity. (0:07 Sec)
KHALED "The first MUN conference started in 1988, back then it was only one council, it was the Security Council, and throughout the years they started expanding, and now after 23 years MUN evolved from one council to seven councils. Three of them are permanent councils; the Security council, the Human Rights council and International Court of Justice. And then there are other four councils that alternate every year."(0:29 Sec)
The important difference between the M-U-N activity and the real M-U-N has to do with the delegates who represent the countries, the limited time and the procedures for the debate. These criteria did not change at all since its emerging. Each council consists of a president, secretariat and a rapporteur. The council chooses a couple of students to represent a country. These countries are mixture between developed and undeveloped countries. Around four delegations are just set as observers, which mean that they do not vote.
Mark Haddad, a student who involved himself in to several M-U-N conferences describes the conference. (0:06)
HADDAD "During the conference, what happens is that developed countries provide solutions to the problems of undeveloped countries, and relating to the issues within the topics. At the end of the debate for each topic, resolutions which are formal documents comprised of the problems and their solutions are drafted and voted upon, once they have been voted upon, they are officially resolutions for that year. "(0:38 Sec)
The Model United Nations activity acquires students to work hard in order to successfully participate in the conference. Many of which face challenges. (0:09 Sec)
Laura Frega, a sophomore student who experienced M-U-N twice and won the best delegate on her second experience, describes the challenges and efforts she put for the conference. (0:10 Sec)
FREGA "Yes, I did find it challenging especially my first year; my council was the World Economic Forum. It was hard. In University they give you the material, C-I-M-U-N they link between the material and reality and what happens in the world. And because I did not have any background about economic situations of the world and global economy. I felt I was ignorant and I had to study a lot, like sometimes I would study for C-I-M-U-N more than studying for my regular classes. You get addicted to the work, you can't stop working and then you apply for the next year, like currently I am a secretariat at M-U-N and I am a director for the Economic and Social Council and I started off not knowing anything about economics in real life. Like now it's different, after you learn and you have so much knowledge, you feel like you are more valuable now and you can get in to discussions and you have an opinion and it's great." (0:64 Sec)
Students wait for the four day conference in order to express their thoughts about the topics and to try to reach some solutions. Yet, for the conference to succeed, the council provides eight sessions earlier, to widen the student's perspective about the two topics that will be discussed during the conference. So it takes the council one year to do preparations for the entire activity (0:20 Sec)
KHALED "Secretariats and head recruitments start every spring, and as soon as the new team is set, they start preparing for the conference for next year. During summer break secretariats start selecting topics, they start the background paper writing process which lasts for seven to eight months. Also the secretariats get trained for the conference for example; how to prepare sessions and so many other things until the conference in March, and so the process goes on for almost a year."(00:30 Sec)
During this year, organizer heads start interviewing and recruiting students for their committees. The idea of having organizers was brought later after the first conference was made, when the students realized the importance of having organizing teams to develop and prepare for the four day conference. (0:20 Sec)
Farida Amin, the organizer head and have been in the organizing teams for several years, states the following. (0:07 Sec)
NAT Sound fade in:
AMIN "Basically MUN started in 1989, and then after a year they realized that in order to be able to achieve the conference success we need an organizing committee, we need a committee to make finances, we need to publicize to bring delegates and so one. So from then onwards the organizing committee started to develop. And right now we have seven committee; fund raising, public relations, external public relations, information technology, publications, reception and more." (0:25 Sec)
NAT Sound fade ou
Additionally, three program committees emerged that perform extra work. These are the development program, awareness program and the environmental program. (0:09 Sec)
NAT Sound fade in
AMIN "Of course not all committees emerged at the same time. In 2004, the awareness program was the first of the three programs. And it basically started when one of the students who was is also a member of MUN, he was walking in the Greek campus and he found out that almost no one knows what is happening in Iraq and he got very frustrated and decided why not to have a program in MUN that makes people aware of what happens outside their bubble. So that is when the awareness program started. "(0:27 Sec)
NAT Sound fade out
Recently, the committee realized that an environmental program is needed. (0:04 Sec)
NAT Sound fade in
AMIN "In 2009, we decided to have the environmental program, which basically it raises awareness about the environmental issues and it also works off campus on different projects like recycling and so on. "(0:12 Sec)
NAT Sound fade out
It sounds like tough work is made through out the year for the sake of the students. But after this hard work, does students really benefit from this? (0:08 Sec)
SAID "I was presenting the United States part of delegation. I don’t remember the details of what we talked about, but I just remember that it was very well organized and people were passionate about it. And it was interesting and fun to get to now the other point of view. At that time there was this usual animosity between the Arab world on one side and United States being perceived as so pro-Israel in their decision making and structure of governance. But I can't remember when the consensus part was, I probably picked something on economics issues there." (0:30 Sec)
Another student shares his experience on recent MUN experience (0:04 Sec)
HADDAD " I believe that the M-U-N activity develop personal skills that are needed in the market and of course for myself. One of the most important of those is the art of negotiating, researching of course debating, which is important in every adult's life regardless of their job. So personally I have learned how to express my self, my views and most certainly at the same time, respect other's and be more open to different points of view."(0:34 Sec)
FREGA " Ok, basically what had I acquired from this conference was how to learn, learning how to negotiate with people, how to debate, how to identify what is important and what should be discussed first. It was relevant to the delegation you take, like this year I had India, and so I had to contribute the most, because the topic we are talking about mainly affected my country. So you have to know according to what delegation you take, you have to speak and you have to fight for the rights of your country. And I learned a lot of things, I learned how to research and filter what I have required or what I got through the internet."(0: 40 Sec)
However, Doctor Mona Said is no longer able to see why M-U-N is not as important as people might see (0:07 Sec)
SAID "As for myself, I finished my PHD, went straight after that to work in an International organization, which is the International Monetary Fund. Now since then my views about all issue now became more critical and I wouldn’t say I had those ideas at the time I was a student at A U C, but having myself worked in an International organization whose governance is based upon board of directors that have representatives from all countries around the world. And I have seen what really matters and what makes a difference and why decisions look so scued against developing countries interests. They all look like you know why they simply represent what the major countries like G 7 basically on top of them, the US and the UK. And the answer is very simple because the way these institutions are structured. "(30 Sec)
The greatest seven countries always have the authority to present their overwhelming ideas and suggestions. They have the capability to impress other countries and at the same time, they do not give developing countries their rights for voting. And so it all serves the interests of the developed countries. (0:18 Sec)
SAID "The same go for the United Nations, and UN is further weaker organization in terms of how developing countries represent themselves. They seem to do a lot of work a lot of fields a lot of organizations, but very little impact is felt. There is suspicion rightly so, about their intensions when they conduct programs through the world, with few exceptions of course. You know organizations that are very humanitarian in nature of course have respectability most of the organization seems to be very politicized and represent the will of the G 7." (0:25 Sec)
From a personal experience, as a past M-U-N delegate of Norway, I realized that the same scenario applies on the activity, where the developed nations unite to help other developing countries but still have hidden agendas. (0:14 Sec)
SAID "So students can be encouraged to come with their alternative vision of what the UN can be. So suppose that every country around the world has equal voting rights and you know there is nothing called the Security Council decisions is dominated by the major five countries or any other decision dominated at that way. How would the same issues that are brought in front of the UN, how would they be voted on in a truly democratic structure. That would be much more interesting, perhaps the media can even write about. And this is I think is the true fight and the true issues that developing countries should be talking about. How to increase their share of decision making and governance on international level orders organizations. So they are truly, a truly United Nation rather than something that is having the name but the structure itself is very different" (0:40)
The Model United Nation activity has created opportunities for students to come up with new ideas and new principles. It shaped new thoughts and different generations. It taught them current problems and allowed them to develop skills of negotiation and collaboration. If students have the opportunity to represent a country and negotiate for their rights, then I can imagine them in real life fighting for the sake of well being. (0:25 Sec)
Christine Kassasseya, A-U-C
Credits:
Doctor Mona Said, an Economics Proffesor
Hana Khaled, Economic and Social Council president at the Model United Nations
Farida Amin, organizer head and have been in the organizing team for three years
Mark Haddad, delegate of three councils
Laura Frega, delegate of two councils
The Music by Omar Khairat
1. Abla Hekmet
2. El Bioot Asrar
3. Edam Mayet
Music Omar Khairat Fade out
Christine Kassasseya
Duration: 14:30 minutes
The journal :
The audio documentary is about the history of Model United Nations at the American University in Cairo. To do this documentary, it took me long time trying to collect bits and pieces of information from different people and from the archives as reference.
Regarding the history, the activity passed through several changes, but in general, it did not transform in huge terms since it is adapting the same criteria of the Model United Nations held in New York and the real MUN. Obviously, the first conference was very basic or in other words ' a trial of adapting something similar', but through out the years it started to improve till it reached its peak. The Cairo's International Model United Nations is considered to be one of the best through out the world and it receives first and second places each year.
Concerning my challenges, my president gave me access to the archives and was helpful during the interview. She provided me with a lot of information that I needed to make a story. At the same time, I sent emails to Doctor Mona Said and Doctor Pascal Gazelle asking them for an interview. Yet none answered. So I had to pass through their offices every now and then to get my interview done. And at last, I succeeded on interviewing Doctor Said, which was not happy at all about it, but still helped me when I insisted. Yet, I discovered that Doctor Gazelle is not available this semester as she is giving birth. But now I feel that it was going to be useless if I have interviewed two people from the same generation.
Later, I decided to interview an organizer to fill the missing parts, since the organizing team presence is important. So I passed through their booth and asked the head for an interview. At first, she was not pleased with the idea because she did not believe I was doing this for a class. But when she found the audio recorder, she felt content to some degree and was willing to help. Afterward, I heard about a guy who has been taking part in the MUN organizing committee for four years. And I was ready to interview him yet I never found him in the MUN room, nor near the booth. I asked people about him but I could not reach him.
I started to write my script after interviewing the three people listed above. Yet I found out that there is a lot of information missing. I decided to interview a forth person. So I asked my friends and they suggested Doctor Noha Bakr, a political science professor who teaches MUN related course. Nevertheless I was not lucky enough to find her. Then I thought of interviewing the provost Tim Sullivan, but I did not have the courage to. I felt I was going to waste his time.
Failing to interview a forth person on my last week frightened me a lot. I wrote a personal message on facebook asking people to help me with my problem. None of the replies useful. And I could not find any older contacts from the archives, like people from the 1990s or early 2000.
While I was completely dispread, I decided to take an overlook at my MUN year book, and I found three people that could help me since they live somehow close. So I called the three, and two were more than happy to help. I was further delighted that both had more than one experience and one of which was chosen as the best delegate.
At last, I know I failed to stick to the schedule. Yet I believe that the people I interviewed were the best I can get anyway, even if I started earlier, because I tried to reach people and I failed because they either did not answer or were not interested.
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Final project video and audio promo: The History of the Model Unied Nations
During the summer of 1988, a group of students from the American University in Cairo participated in the first inter collegiate Model United Nations to be held at the Hague, site of high school MUN sessions since 1968. And since then, the delegation from AUC decided to organize a similar program in Egypt, where the Student Union sponsored the idea with the help of Office of Student Affairs.
There is a long history of success and achievements from this activity, which makes it one of the oldest and most important activities in the University.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Video Promo Script
Kassasseya
5/02/2010
Music: Fade in 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' for ABBA
The Model United Nations has a very long history at the American University in Cairo. (:04)
Hana Khaled "The first MUN conference started in 1988, back then it was only one council, the security council, and throughout the years they started expanding, and now after 23 years, it evolved from one council to seven councils." (:13)
Attend the Listening Sessions, at AUC's New Cairo campus on Sunday, May 16 and Wednesday, May 19 at 10 a.m. each day in the BEC building, room 1061 (:09)
Music: Fade out 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' for ABBA
Audio Promo Script
Kassasseya
5/02/2010
The MUN representatives of AUC face great challeges in order to win the Model United Nation award in New York, whch requires them to work hard for a whole year.
Hana Khaled "Secretariats and head recruitments start every spring, and as soon as the new team is set, they start preparing for the conference, and then during the process we have delegate selections, interviews, so the process goes on for almost one year."(:14)
For more information, attend the Listening Sessions, at AUC's New Cairo campus on Sunday, May 16 and Wednesday, May 19 at 10 a.m. each day in the BEC building, room 1061 (:09)
Hana Khaled: The president of the MUN Economic and Social Council for the year 2009-2010
There is a long history of success and achievements from this activity, which makes it one of the oldest and most important activities in the University.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Video Promo Script
Kassasseya
5/02/2010
Music: Fade in 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' for ABBA
The Model United Nations has a very long history at the American University in Cairo. (:04)
Hana Khaled "The first MUN conference started in 1988, back then it was only one council, the security council, and throughout the years they started expanding, and now after 23 years, it evolved from one council to seven councils." (:13)
Attend the Listening Sessions, at AUC's New Cairo campus on Sunday, May 16 and Wednesday, May 19 at 10 a.m. each day in the BEC building, room 1061 (:09)
Music: Fade out 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' for ABBA
Audio Promo Script
Kassasseya
5/02/2010
The MUN representatives of AUC face great challeges in order to win the Model United Nation award in New York, whch requires them to work hard for a whole year.
Hana Khaled "Secretariats and head recruitments start every spring, and as soon as the new team is set, they start preparing for the conference, and then during the process we have delegate selections, interviews, so the process goes on for almost one year."(:14)
For more information, attend the Listening Sessions, at AUC's New Cairo campus on Sunday, May 16 and Wednesday, May 19 at 10 a.m. each day in the BEC building, room 1061 (:09)
Hana Khaled: The president of the MUN Economic and Social Council for the year 2009-2010
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Project Five: Organ Transplant New Law
Organ Transplant New Law 2010 WRAP
Kassasseya
4-18-10
LEAD-IN:
The new law on human organ transplants in Egypt is on hold. The law lacks a clear definition of death. A-U-C’s Christine Kassasseya has the story.
Organ transplant regulation was approved by Egypt’s Parliament last year. The law aims to decrease illicit trade in human organs.
The World Health Organization says that thousands of Egyptians sell their organs, like their kidneys, to pay off their debts. Egyptian Senior Product Specialist Oncology Department of Lipomed Roger Badawi confirms that the country’s economic conditions make it a prime target for organ trafficking.
BADAWI : “We can not deny that it happens in Egypt in illegal way, so we have to put some rules to make it more organized. We don’t want to legalize the abuse, we need to legalize the issue itself not the abuse of it”. (:17)
According to the law, organs donated from live donors will be restricted to “family members of the fourth degree”, and the removal of organs should be officially authorized by the Egypt’s Minister of Health higher Committee for Organ Transplants.
For deceased patients, the law stipulates that a three-person panel reach consensus on whether or not the potential donor is dead.
However, doctors disagree about the definition of death. Cardiologist and Physician consultant, Doctor Seif Abou Seif says the lack of a clear definition of death is the main reason behind the delay of the law.
ABOU SEIF: “One group says that when there is a brain death, that means the person is dead. The other group says that there should be a brain stem death to say that the person is dead”. (:22)
According to the new law, any decision to remove organs before the panel’s approval would be considered first-degree murder and punishable by death and a fine ranging from 100 000 LE to 300 000 LE.
The new law also states that transplant procedures for low-income patients will be financed by the State. Operations would be conducted according to case urgency, with a specialized committee in place to decide on priority cases.
Several months passed and the law is still not approved, and it might take time Abou Seif says,
ABOU SEIF: “Up till this moment I realize that both groups are not going to be one group or one word because every one of them is not feeling that the other is right”. (:19)
Christine Kassasseya, AUC News
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Towards a better life
One of the very interesting facebook groups I saw is called “ Save Minimum Charge’, which basically fights against the notion of paying large sums of money on outings.
It is known that all Egyptian youth go out on Thursdays, and many on Fridays and Saturdays. Thus restaurants set a minimum charge according to the quality of the place, from 20 L.E to more than 200 L.E, forcing many poor people to feel depressed for not going out to such good places.
The problem is that wealthy people can afford to pay a range from 75 -150 LE , but they feel it is too high for eating the drinking. After all, it is just dinner not lunch. And the prices of the food are mush higher than their quality!
This scenario repeats itself every week, and wealthy people have nothing to do but to pay these sums of money for just one outing! The questions to be asked here, are we a rich nation?
Lets us examine a little bit the life of the poor people, which counts the majority of the population!
Men on average yield 600 LE per month, where they must make end meats. They pay for house rent, transportation, food, water, shelter, school fees and extra fees for stationary or any break down.
A windowed woman yield not less than 300 LE and not more than 500 LE, due to discrimination, and she still have to pay the bills.
Needless to say that enfant mortality is high due to lack of food and health care. And the last thing a parent would like to see, is his poor child suffering from a disease and dying in front of his eyes. Who can tolerate this mess!
While all of these people suffering, a bunch of friends are paying around 1000 L.E not even benefiting of the money they spend. While a 1000 LE can help a child to cure or even encourage a couple to get married before the 40s!
What I would highly empahizise on, is to give ourselves few minutes daily, and see the real problem that we always leave behind.
God gave us money, not to make full use of it, but to help our dear poor brother who is in need.
I see young innocent eyes dream of a car similar to mine when they look on it, or even to have the money to get married to the one they love.
The sense of guild is very hard, that I can not tolerate these looks. I want to see happy people. I want to see people’s dreams come true. And it is not my dream, but it should be our dream.
If each person on earth help with only 10 pounds daily, a difference will be seen. Instead of paying 100 LE and more, dedicate one day, and go out with your friends to the nearest orphanage or help institute and spend the sum of the money you were going to spend elsewhere. And I guruantee you that the happiness brought from helping the others, will not be described in words. Because it is real.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny is a rabbit that holds a basket full of colored eggs. Not only eggs but sometimes candy, chocolate and toys. Usually the bunny hides these things from children at night, so they can find them in the morning. This tradition is very close to the Christmas one, where presents are hided and the children have to wait till the nest day in order to see their gifts.
The notion has pre-Christian origins. It is originated in Germany ands was first mentioned in German writings in 1500s. And the first edible Easter bunnies were made during 1800s. The first edible German Easter Bunnies were made of sugar and pastry. It was then introduced to American folklore by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1700s. And it was believed that if children were good, "Oschter Haws" will put a nest full of colored eggs. The idea was very similar to Santa Clause.
Children also built some nests using caps and bonnets. And they spent time on coloring the eggs too.
A question that many of us ask, why rabbits and eggs? They must be symbols.
Rabbits and hares give birth to large litters in the early spring, and do they became symbols of the rising fertility. Besides, it is known that rabbits can have a second litter while she still pregnant with the first. And so they give birth to several litters annually.
The origin of eggs is not known yet. However since eggs reflect fertility and are colors white, so children either boil them with flowers or color them with bright colors.
Nowadays, Easter bunny is celebrated world wide and is considered to be very important tradition for children like Christmas and Halloween
Journal # four: Trouble with hubble bubble

Produced by: Nicola Humphries
Narrator: Konnie Huq
Length: 24:17
Shisha is getting popular in Asia, where it started to spread through café’s and even universities. Some youth started to prefer shisha over cigarettes believing that it is less harmful. This is a summary of what was reported on BBC Asian Network regarding the issue.
Known as Naguila, Hookah and other names, shisha is served with several fruit flavours and is known to be a sort of relaxation. It became a traditional thing and citizens believe that it is not as serious or danger ad cigarettes for example. That’s why, children as young as eleven smoke shisha with their parents normally in café’s.
Shisha produces carbon monoxide more than that being produced by the cigarettes. Smoking shisha especially indoors can collapse the body’s natural defence mechanisms which will not facilitate oxygen to reach the brain.
More exposures of shisha can cause flue like symptoms such as headaches, running noses and sore eyes. Medium exposure can result in to dizziness and sickness while extreme exposures can result in unconsciousness, brain damage and death.
Carbon monoxide is not visible, that’s why many people believe that water cleans the tobacco making it less hazardous, unlike the cigarettes which leave stains on the tissue for example. Hillary Warren elaborated more on this misconception by saying that “How long will it take you to smoke a cigarette… two minutes, but shisha lasts half an hour and sometimes an hour”
A restaurant manager Akram believes that Smoking shisha is different that smoking cigarette because shisha is taken in to the mouth to taste the flavour and then exhaled, while cigarettes are inhaled directly in to your lungs so more smoke is taken in to the body.
Carbon monoxide should be only fifty in the body, excess might be risky. A continuous process of smoking shisha may cause strokes and heart attacks.
The documentary was very interesting for me because I used to believe that shisha is less hazardous than cigarettes and I was proven wrong.
There were around ten music samples as music background in the audio documentary. The duration was from 1 to 3 minutes each, and they were not the same, some of which were Indian, others were Arabic, English…etc. The samples were very interesting as it created an Asian atmosphere and made the audio documentary more interesting especially that it was a long documentary. However, I noticed that the music was loud at first and gradually started to get lower and lower. It did not match the flow of the documentary because it could make the listeners get bored or even sleep. Loud music is not also a smart thing because it attract attention more than the announcer, but at least it enthusiasms the listener to hear and be more alert.
Regarding the announcer’s voice, I felt it was very clear despite the music going on in the background. And the sentences were understandable that I got what she said from the first time. Moreover, I liked the way she interviewed people and talked between each guest and another. The announcer did make a very professional flow of her documentary that was appealing. However she should have minimized the documentary by interviewing less guests because it started to get boring at the end. And what I noticed is that very interesting information were showed during the first five minutes and the last ten minutes, and maybe some in the middle. So having very interesting information at the end is not smart because those who will get bored in the middle will not continue to hear till the end. I believe that interesting information should be divided equally among the time in order to keep the documentary as smooth as possible.
Hillary warren, the director of tobacco control collaboration centre had a British accent that I could not understand easily. On one hand, it is illogic to have guests with different accents because it makes it hard to follow up. But in the other hand, it made the documentary more interesting.
Caron Carter from the NA Chest stop smoking service was talking very fast as if someone was running after her! It was very hard to understand her from the first time. She even took clear large breaths between each sentence and another.
The voice I liked the best was Akram's voice, a man who runs a restaurant. Akram voice was clear and from his sentences he seemed very wise. I liked his tone of his speech and the way he clarified his points by giving examples to support his statements and beliefs.
To sum up, the voices of the guests were clear and understandable to a large degree. The only difference was the speed of the speeches. Some were talking slowly, others were talking fast. And it is very hard to tell your guests how to speak, but at the same time, the documentary sounded not alike.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/documentaries/troublewithhubblebubble.shtml
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)





