Egypt

In October, the World Bank dubbed Egypt as "World's Top Performer". It rose fast to the 126th place.

Figures for September released by the Egyptian government said growth is at 7.1%. Egypt's revenue rose as oil prices have risen, and as oil rich neighbors poured their revenue into Egypt. Foreign investment in 2006 was $5 billion, more than India.

What are the results? Rolex, BMW, and Mercedes ... Luxury items are being bought by the upper class.

Back in August, opposition newspapers in Egypt reported that president Hosni Mubarak's health has deteriorated, as well as speculation about the succession.

It seems that this is a sensitive topic among the ruling elite,
because in a rare reaction, Mubarak was interviewed in Al Ahram, the
semi official newspaper and the headline read : "I know who is
spreading these rumors and their objectives".

Well, for the last month, I have been in Egypt, on a visit to extended family.

I planned to work via my laptop and had an ADSL installed from Link for that month. On the days I am out of the city, I planned to use the dialup modem.

Sounds like a good plan with all the bases covered. Right? No, wrong!

What happened was a series of unpleasant surprises that left me frustrated.

I have very little time to read general blogs. I visit random blogs of various Egyptians occasionally when a link is passed on to me or when I am lost or something.

I don't know when the topic of this post started to happen, but I am amazed at the amount of foul language in use by Egyptian bloggers currently.

Perhaps it is a meme that I missed, or perhaps something else.

Previously, extremely offensive language was used only by anonymous posters when they tried ad hominen attacks on the blogger. Alaa and Manal's blog had many of these for example.

Back in university in Alexandria, a long time ago, there were several Malaysian students on scholarships.

It seems that Egypt is still a touted destination for Malaysians looking for an overseas education.

This article from The Star, Malaysia seems like a propaganda piece by the cultural attache in the Egyptian embassy there, or Sami Omara, an "Egyptian education consultant".

The mummy of Hatshepsut, the most powerful female Pharoah of Egypt has been identified from her tooth.

Well, I got asked that question by more than one person in the last week. One of them even asked if I am descended from the Pharaoh of Egypt and hence the dynasty!Well, no. I don't think I am descended from Pharaohs. My ancestry on my father's side is Syrio-Arab, and Circassian. On my mother's side it is Moorish. You can see more in the ancestry section.So, what was I thinking when I called this site the Baheyeldin Dynasty?

This is the e-Learning portal that Egypt's Ministry of Education has setup. Seems like a good cause, and would be useful inside Egypt as well as for other Arabic speakers abroad.E-Learning Portal for Egypt's Ministry of Education بوابة لتعليم الإلكتروني - وزارة التربية والتعليم

Crayfish are fresh water crustacean that look like a tiny lobster, to which they are closely related. Out of 250 species in the South-East United States, the species Procambarus clarkii, known as Louisiana red swamp crayfish, is the most well known.In places like Louisiana it is farmed commercially and consumed in various dishes.

A while ago, the BBC reported on a poll conducted in Egypt by a government agency. The poll of 1,000 Egyptians was surprising in its findings. Israel was perceived as the most hostile to to Egypt, which is in itself no surprise. However, it is followed by Denmark, Britain and the United States, in that order!