I Remember My Egypt (1997-1999)

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I was fortunate to travel to Egypt 6 separate times during a three-year period. I visited Hurghada on the Red Sea as a tourist three times and came to Cairo as a businessman 3 additional times.

The period of my travels was when I had my own international trade show company in St. Petersburg, Russia. Egypt was a very popular vacation spot for charter flights from Russia. On one trip to Hurghada I happened to meet the owner of an Egyptian Tour Company that catered mainly to older American tourists. He invited me to come back to Egypt and meet with him at his office in Cairo.

That first trip was in itself amazing. I did not do any tourism since I had already come to Cairo for tourism and seen the usual sights at the Pyramids, Cairo Museum, Egyptian Cotton factories, etc. On my business trip I saw a different side of Egypt, Mubarak‘s Egypt.

It was during that summer that one of Mubarak’s sons was directing a light show at the Pyramids during a Performance of Aida. His other son was quite the drummer and my new partner arranged a rendezvous one evening where we went to a privately owned recording studio somewhere in Cairo where I jammed with one of the Mubarak sons. I honestly cannot remember which one, butI know it was not the one doing the light shows at Giza.

I had a hell of a time trying to get foreign companies interested in considering supporting a new Travel Exhibition we wanted to organize in Sharm Al Sheik. I compared it to my first trip to Moscow back in 1991 when no one in foreign representations knew anything about marketing. The same appeared to be  true of the expats living and working in Cairo in the late 1990′s.

I personally hate to imagine Egypt falling apart in total disarray.

May the world be very careful in supporting or worse, inciting violence through the mass media and world internet. If riots break out and people are killed, the media or internet from outside of the country will be to blame. Not the sitting Government.

Related Articles

• The real meaning of democracy in Cairo (thehill.com)
• Egypt President Hosni Mubarak might be on verge of giving up power (nj.com)
• Live feeds from Cairo (laobserved.com)
• Egypt can’t seem to really get rid of Mubarak… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Live updates and analysis on Mubarak’s address to Egypt (theglobeandmail.com)
• Egypt: Mubarak’s exit appears imminent; will Army rule follow? (boingboing.net)
• Jet2.com suspends Egypt flights over unrest (menmedia.co.uk)
• Egypt uprising brings tourism to a standstill (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Egypt: Hague Calls For Orderly Transition (news.sky.com)
• Egypt Unrest: Hosni Mubarak To Resign After Soft Military Coup? (nowpublic.com)
• Factbox: Protests and Egypt’s tourism industry (reuters.com)
• What next for Egypt’s tourism? (shoreshotels.wordpress.com)
• Protesters angry over Egyptian VP’s warning (abclocal.go.com)
• More than 160,000 tourists and foreign residents flee Egypt (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Report: More Than 160,000 Foreigners Flee Egypt (foxnews.com)
• Anger as airline axes Egypt flights (confused.com)
• Travellers ‘could be stranded’ (lv.com)
• Egypt tourism faces blow, may only be short-term – Reuters (news.google.com)
• Egypt – what travellers need to know (independent.co.uk)
• Egypt tourism faces blow, may only be short-term – Reuters (news.google.com)
• Thomas Cook Counts Cost OF Egypt Unrest (news.sky.com)
• Egypt crisis: Egypt facing biggest tourism problem for a decade (telegraph.co.uk)

National Guard (In Federal Status) and Reserve Activated as of February 08, 2011

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) News Release

On the Web: http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=14256 Media contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132 Public contact: http://www.defense.gov/landing/comment.aspx or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 109-11 February 10, 2011

National Guard (In Federal Status) and Reserve Activated as of February 08, 2011              This week the Army, Navy, and Air Force announced a decrease in activated reservists, while the Marine Corps and Coast Guard announced an increase. The net collective result is 407 fewer reservists activated than last week.              At any given time, services may activate some units and individuals while deactivating others, making it possible for these figures to either increase or decrease.  The total number currently on active duty from the Army National Guard and Army Reserve is 69,087; Navy Reserve, 5,755; Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, 9,962; Marine Corps Reserve, 4,916, and the Coast Guard Reserve, 776.  This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel who have been activated to 90,496, including both units and individual augmentees.              A cumulative roster of all National Guard and Reserve personnel who are currently activated may be found on line at http://www.defense.gov/news/d20110208ngr.pdf.

Fallen But Not Forgotten – Army Air Forces Technical Sgt. Charles A. Bode

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U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) News Release

On the Web: http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=14260 Media contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132 Public contact: http://www.defense.gov/landing/comment.aspx or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 112-11 February 10, 2011

Airmen Missing in Action From WWII Identified                  The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of 11 U.S. servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.                   Army Air Forces Technical Sgt. Charles A. Bode, 23, Baltimore, will be buried on Feb. 11 in Arlington National Cemetery.  On Nov. 20, 1943, Bode, along with 10 other B-24D Liberator crew members, took off from Jackson Airfield, Port Moresby, New Guinea, on an overwater mission near the northern coast of the country.  During the mission, the only radio transmission from the crew indicated they were 20 miles northwest of Port Moresby, but they did not return to Jackson Airfield.  Subsequent searches failed to uncover any evidence of either the crew or the aircraft.                   Following the war, the Army Graves Registration Service conducted investigations and searches for 43 missing airmen including Bode and the other 10 airmen, but concluded in June 1949 that all were unrecoverable.                   In 1984, the government of Papua New Guinea notified U.S. officials of a World War II crash site in a ravine in Morobe Province.  A U.S. search and recovery team investigated the crash site in late 1984 and located B-24 aircraft wreckage. They also recovered human remains but were unable to complete the mission due to time constraints and the threat of landslides.  From that time until 2004, multiple teams from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) attempted to access and excavate the location but the threat of landslides made recovery too dangerous to continue.  During a site visit in 2004, local villagers turned over human remains they had previously removed from the area.                  In addition to Bode’s individual burial, the crew of 11 men, 1st Lt. Richard T. Heuss, 23, Berkley, Mich.; 2nd Lt. Robert A. Miller, 22, Memphis, Tenn.; 2nd Lt. Edward R. French, 23, Erie, Pa.; 2nd Lt. Robert R. Streckenbach, Jr., 21, Green Bay, Wis.; Tech. Sgt. Charles A. Bode; Tech. Sgt. Lucian I. Oliver, Jr., 23 Memphis, Tenn.; Staff Sgt. Ivan O. Kirkpatrick, 36, Whittier, Calif.; Staff Sgt. William K. Musgrave, 24, Hutsonville, Ill.; Staff Sgt. James T. Moran, 21, Sloatsburg, N.Y.; Staff Sgt. James B. Moore, 21, Woburn, Mass.; and Staff Sgt. Roy Surabian, 24, Medford, Mass., will be buried as a group on March 24 at Arlington National Cemetery.                  Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of Bode’s remains.                  At the end of World War II, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans.  Today, more than 74,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict.

Fallen But Not Forgotten – Spc. Nathan B. Carse, 32, of Harrod, Ohio, died Feb. 8 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan,

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) News Release

On the Web: http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=14258 Media contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132 Public contact: http://www.defense.gov/landing/comment.aspx or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 110-11 February 10, 2011

DOD Identifies Army Casualty                  The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.                  Spc. Nathan B. Carse, 32, of Harrod, Ohio, died Feb. 8 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 2nd Engineer Battalion, 176th Engineer Brigade, White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

What Israel Fears in Egypt (WashPost)

   

        

 

By Sallai Meridor

Thursday, February 10, 2011

 

One might expect that Israelis, who live in the only democracy in the Middle East, would turn out in the squares of Jerusalem and the gardens of Tel Aviv to show solidarity with the demonstrators in Egypt. The protesters, after all, are seeking to overthrow an authoritarian regime.

Israelis, however, have stayed at home, warily following events on TV and the Internet.

It is not a democratic Egypt that Israelis fear but the prospect of Egypt being hijacked by enemies of democracy, of Israel and of the United States. Within every revolution are some who hope to use democratic processes to establish oppressive regimes. This was, to a large extent, what triumphed in Iran in 1979 and what happened in Gaza only five years ago. Many Israelis wonder why it would be any different in Egypt, which is home to the world’s most powerful and popular Islamist movement.

Should the government of Hosni Mubarak be replaced by one not truly committed to freedom and peace, the consequences for Israel could be devastating. As Egypt struggles toward an internal balance that appeases all forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood, peace with Israel could be the price of an Egyptian compromise. And the risks are worse if the Brotherhood, an organization deeply hostile to Israel, America and the West, gets to call the shots.

Consider what an Egyptian official once told me: “There is no war without Egypt.” From 1948 to 1973, Israel had to fight four wars against coalitions of Arab armies. Since the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, however, there has not been even one war between Israel and Arab states. The lives of many Israelis and Arabs have been saved over the past four decades, and the security burden on Israel’s economy has become more bearable. Yet if the peace with Egypt dissolves, the risks to the Jewish state and its citizens cannot be overstated.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/09/AR2011020906339.html?wpisrc=nl_politics