New York- I have a new piece out for New Africa Daily on the dispute over the fate of the Blue Nile. As the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, GERD, for short, is over 70% complete, upstream Ethiopia and downstream Egypt…
Hydroelectric Headwaters
Category: Egypt
A Weathered #fabledcity
New York- For close to two years now I’ve been putting up ink jet analog prints up around three of New York City’s five boroughs and in my favorite locales in EU Mediterranean states as part of my #fabledcity project…
The Intrinsic Value of Ancient Sites
New York- As the faux caliphate referring to itself as ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyyah (Islamic State) continues to smash the shared human heritage of Iraq and Syria, the world watches in revulsion with no strategy to halt it. The threat posed by salafi-jihadis…
Libya: Revolution Awry
New York- How did we get here? This is what you may be wondering with the news today that a group of 21 Egyptian Copts were mass beheaded in an unspecified area of coastal Tripolitania by salafi-jihadis in Libya that…
Syria: A Lost Revolution
New York- Three years ago today I trekked into northern Syria’s rebellious Idlib Governorate from Hatay Province in Turkey. I had to put immense trust in my fixer who was living in a Turkish Red Crescent camp at the time with…
Libya- Looking Back on Revolution 2011
New York- Three years ago today a bloody revolution kicked off in earnest in Benghazi, Libya which ended the rule of Muammar Qaddafi, longest dictatorial regime in post-colonial Africa surpassing even that of Omar Bongo in Gabon who ruled that…
A Decade of War and Peace
Barcelona- Partly out of boredom and partly out of the itch to simply create something new out of old, I threw together this photo montage over the weekend. In this era of digital photography where one shoots thousands of frames…
China in Africa
Addis Ababa- Crashed the African Union HQ here in Addis yesterday to do research on my next Jamestown article. Absolutely fascinating, rather quiet place. I just showed up at the front gate, which took me a bit to locate, handed…
The Sound and the Fury
Cairo- I had one of those accidentally fantastic days in Cairo today. Spent most of the day lazing around Zamalek, shot a few phot’s of some killer post-revolutionary street murals, and all I ate were two heaping bowls of mega…
March Issue of Militant Leadership Monitor Out Now!
Cairo- The new issue of Militant Leadership Monitor (MLM) was released today by the Jamestown Foundation and it is our strongest issue yet. In this issue: • The MILF’s Murad Ebrahim by Zachary Abuza (which is our gratis article this…
The View From Egypt
Alexandria- Nothing too, too much to report here from Alex. Just quietly working away on the next issue of Militant Leadership Monitor which is looking to be my best issue yet. Got a serious trick up my sleeve on this…
Walking Like An Egyptian
Cairo- I’ve been enjoying myself wandering around Cairo’s slightly Islamabad-esque (but way more lively) Zamalek island the last couple of days. Zamalek, the city’s diplomatic enclave, is a breezy oasis squeezed in the middle of the Arab world’s Mumbai. I’m…
“City of the Living!”
Cairo- Took a very leisurely journey from the relative calm of Alexandria’s Midan Saad Zaghloul and a week of regrouping after the previous two in the Libyan insurrection, to Cairo’s posh Zalalek island, a leafy, diplomatic enclave in the center…
Are You Ready To Referendum???
Alexandria- Had an exhausting, thrilling day covering the constitutional/presidential referendum here in Egypt today. It was a bit exhausting as I used the old heel-toe express to get around. It was amazing to see so many people genuinely psyched to…
In Revolutionary North Africa
Alexandria- Well, where to begin. In the big picture, the Western powers and Amr Moussa’s Arab League are finally getting things into gear and the Qaddaf’s keep playing the international community like a fiddle with ploys like this ceasefire announcement…
Not Ice Cold in Alex…
Alexandria- Relaxing away a few days here in this crusty, dusty Mediterranean port city. The curfew here imposed by the Egyptian army from midnight till 6am has everyone a little on edge. Needless to say this is a hard place…
My War Gone By, I Miss It So
Ajdabiya & Alexandria- I did one last trip toward the front on Sunday and it was a near disaster. I joined up with an Englishman working for AFP and an Andaluciana from El Periodico and we tried to make our…
A Day In Alexandria-After the Revolution
Alexandria-Had a very long day getting to Alexandria yesterday. Flying from Queens to Cairo on no sleep wasn’t so hot but then getting in a cramped microbus from Cairo to Alexandria did it. Then walking and haggling with taxis all…
To Shores of Benghazi
New York- Off to Libya tomorrow evening via Cairo and Alexandria. Can’t stop, won’t stop. My colleague at Jamestown, Andrew McGregor appeared on PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer discussing the possible military strengths and weakness of Libya’s opposing forces.
Libyan-Egyptian Border ‘Open’
New York- An NBC News reporter is somehow texting (though he says there’s no cell service?) from the port city of Tobruk where an editor in London is posting the texts on Twitter. The border between Egypt’s Western desert and…
The Rise of Twitter Can Lead to the Demise of a Career
New York- When I woke up this morning, as per usual, I scan the Google News headlines on my Blackberry to see what’s going on, or in the case of the Middle East and South Asia considerate of time zone…
BHO’s Debut in Misr!
Obama appeared in Misr yesterday. Misr, for those who are not acquainted, is the endonym of Egypt as Deutschland is the endonym of Germany. Americans and other concerned parties might do well to address people how they prefer as…