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aida called off amid security concerns
["into the shadows," february 1998]

what was a public relations disaster and showcase for bureaucratic bungling now looks like a wise decision in hindsight. every year at around this time, the ministry of culture puts on the classic verdi opera aida, which is one major facet of its considerable contributions to the government’s tourism coffers. but this year, several weeks after the midsummer opening of ticket sales for dates in the second half of october, the ministry suddenly announced that the whole fandango was off.

although the decision prompted the cancellation of several european opera-fan package tours, the damage to the reputation of egypt’s tourism industry was minimal, according to one cairo opera house official. the show had been scheduled to run october 12 to 17, subject to additions or subtractions depending on ticket sales (maximum 5,000 per night). when the cancellation came, "only a few hundred tickets had been sold," said the official.

the government’s explanation was that with parliamentary elections kicking off on the same day – 18 october – cairo’s security apparatus would be stretched to the limit. the current elections are being conducted in three stages, with voting held on october 18 and 25, and more to come on november 8, in different parts of the country. somewhat inconsistently, however, the opera spectacular was due to be staged at the giza pyramids, on the edge of the sprawling capital – and cairo’s polling stations do not figure in the election process until the november 8 phase.

the suspicion expressed by some culture commentators is that the government simply feared that not enough currency-bearing foreigners would want to visit the country at such a potentially risk-ridden time as voting season. opera house officials tacked on the additional excuse that next year is the centenary of the death of aida’s italian composer, so all energies should be thrown into organizing for that.

but as it happens, events in the region have made such excuses moot. once the images of three weeks of violence on the streets of israeli and palestinian towns had beamed into the homes of millions all over the world, aida’s chances of pulling in the pounds – pounds sterling, that is – would have plummeted anyway. "we would have had to cancel the event in any case because of all this," the opera house official said. and it’s so much less embarrassing to refund hundreds of tickets rather than thousands.

so aida – the classic tale of forbidden love between a pharaonic army officer and an ethiopian princess, which premiered in 1871 to mark the opening of the suez canal – must wait until 2001 for its first airing in the new millennium.

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red sea hotels address environmental impact
["egypt’s reefs look healthy," august 1998]

five hotels have signed on to a scheme to "green" egypt’s environmentally sensitive red sea coast. based on a model first tried in jamaica several years ago, the red sea sustainable tourism initiative (rssti) is meant to help hotels reduce environmental damage resulting from their activities and save up to £e 1 million annually. the initiative, a pilot project jointly run by usaid and the tourism development authority (tda), "aims to show hotel operators how to make savings in their bottom line while at the same time protect the sea and desert environments around them," rssti project director christopher howell said.

the participating hotels include two sheratons (in el gouna and soma bay), the utopia hotel (in qusseir), the karaman (in marsa allam), and the champs allam (south of marsa allam). each hotel has undergone an environmental audit, and each has received hundreds of recommendations for "greener" hotel management, howell said.

many of the recommendations involve low- or no-cost remedies and immediate or short-term cost returns. according to howell, simple measures such as installing foot pedals for kitchen sinks or installing correctly fitted faucets have saved thousands of liters of water, and thousands of dollars, almost overnight.

medhat el dakory, general manager of the champs allam hotel, said that rssti measures "not only save us considerable amounts of money, but also result in us providing a better level of service to guests."

staff members at all five hotels are being formed into specially trained "green teams" to implement the necessary improvements.

"the hotel staff have been set realistic objectives and goals that we can follow and measure," said mark van lewven, activity manager and green team leader at the sheraton soma bay. "everybody within the hotel is aware of the objectives and they are followed to the last dot. it is crucial that the rank-and-file members of staff follow every objective, as they are the ones who are going to make an impact on the hotel’s operations."

on november 21, a conference at the cairo sheraton will showcase the rssti’s work and launch a set of standard "best practice" guidelines for hotels. according to rssti deputy director keith sproule, the guidelines – known as environmental management systems (ems) – could revolutionize how hotel operators run their businesses and treat their natural surroundings. "the hope is for all red sea hotels to adopt the ems best practice model, and then for it to be replicated throughout the entire country," he said.

usaid started monitoring the environmental impact of tourism on the red sea more than 20 years ago. "at that time there was only one hotel in hurghada," howell said. "but during the late 1980s and into the 1990s, construction took off and a whole lot of unoccupied land became actively considered for tourism development."

open-slather construction methods allowed millions of tons of topsoil to be loosened by desert winds and blown onto offshore reefs, he added. "the coral reefs are still in fairly good shape, but there has been noticeable damage to some reef areas."

project leaders are pushing for hotels to comply with international environmental management guidelines such as iso 14,001 (an international quality-control standard for the tourism sector) or green globe environmental accreditation requirements. some international tour operators are becoming reluctant to send customers to hotels that do not comply with such standards, sproule said. europe’s largest travel agency, touristik union international (tui), meanwhile, has in place a green labeling scheme that assigns environmental ratings to the company’s various destination hotels, letting customers make choices based on these ratings.

"most tourists to egypt come from europe, where people expect high environmental standards at the hotels or resorts they visit," sproule added. "hotels that do not meet the standards these high-end-market tourists expect are severely limiting their potential for economic growth."

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business groups split on boycott
["fatwa in aisle 5," may 2000]

following the recent wave of palestinian-israeli violence, many egyptians vowed to boycott israeli and american products. us-based fast-food chains, highly visible on some of cairo’s major thoroughfares, became a prime focus of the boycott, which reflected the perception among most egyptians and other arabs that the united states is flagrantly biased towards israel.

in a meeting on october 17, the cairo chamber of commerce called for an official boycott of israeli and us products and a halt to any form of normalization with israel. the president of the organization, abdel alim nawara, told al alam al youm that traders had always been the "spearhead of nationalist movements," stressing that the most effective way to fight "israel and those behind it" was through economic measures.

mohamed atef qamber, a member of the cairo chamber’s exporters’ section, argued that businesses should maintain their credit accounts in euros rather than dollars. "that would be the best reaction to the adamant us policies against the arabs," he said.

representatives of multinational corporations affected by the boycott, however, countered with their own meeting, where they agreed that "those who boycott these products are hurting egypt and those who work there." american fast-food chains in egypt, for example, tend to be franchises owned by local investors, and furthermore provide employment for egyptian workers.

as akhbar columnist said sonbol argued on the day of the cairo chamber meeting, boycotting goods produced in the us would be one thing, "but boycotting goods manufactured by egyptian workers, just because they carry american names, sabotages our interests without affecting us interests."

on the individual level, many young egyptians previously chose to boycott american products following american air raids on iraq and sudan in 1998.

this time protests took a rougher turn, with angry demonstrators lobbing stones at a sainsbury’s supermarket in maadi in mid-october, alleging that the british chain was owned by jews.

the tenth of ramadan city investors’ group, meanwhile, urged that tenth of ramadan be made "a clean city" devoid of israeli workers, al alam al youm reported. a number of israeli technicians are known to work in the industrial city.

meanwhile, the government – proceeding with its "liquidity injection" plan announced in april – has paid back £e 8.4 billion of debts owed to domestic companies, according to an august 13 statement from minister of economy youssef boutros ghali.

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lakah group to settle tab
["banks put squeeze on businessmen," october 2000]

business magnate rami lakah – whose debts are estimated by some to be in the vicinity of $1.5 billion – has delegated integra company for financial services to hold negotiations with egyptian banks to reschedule his debts.

lakah, chairman of the lakah group, returned to egypt on september 18 after a month-long absence from the country, during which he stayed in paris. immediately following his departure, egyptian newspapers reported that he had fled to avoid prosecution for obtaining loans illegally. lakah insisted that he had been on vacation and threatened legal action against anyone who reported otherwise.

his return to egypt, however, followed assurances from prime minister atef ebeid that businessmen could re-enter the country and negotiate solutions to their debt problems without facing trial. according to the august 31 edition of al ahram weekly, lakah received a proposal from the government to repay half of his debts immediately and the rest by 2006.

"the lakah group owes egyptian banks £e 1.2 billion," said an official at a state-owned bank, who asked to remain anonymous. "they delegated the integra company to negotiate over the rescheduling of his debts."

integra’s vice-chairman, amr kamal, told al alam al youm of october 2 that the negotiations with the banks "were very promising," and that the bank officials "were very cooperative and understanding." but he was not forthcoming about the exact size of the company’s debt or the names of its creditor banks.

integra company for integrated financial services, established by a consortium of bankers, represents a number of businessmen in their debt negotiations with creditor banks. the company also conducts credit feasibility studies and provides funds for industrial enterprises.

lakah is now running in parliamentary elections as an independent in cairo’s ezbekiya constituency, having declared his candidacy a few days after his return from france. he is up against national democratic party candidate abdel ahad gamaleddine, former minister of youth and sport.

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