An Egyptian Success Story

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Hafiz
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An Egyptian Success Story

Post by Hafiz »

Many may know of the Culturewheel in Cairo. Part night club, part educational venue with a strong commitment to young people and Egyptian cultural development. It covers music, literature and theatre with four halls often running simultaneously. Its performances range from traditional to techno-funk. They don’t do belly dancing or other tourist shite.

Here is a profile on its founder Mohamed el Ghawy. http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... hawy-.aspx

They also know how to do striking promotional images like the posters of the 20’s:
Image

I’ve never heard or read a single bad thing about el Ghawy. Still, I’m sure that, eventually, his success will be punished.

Culturewheel is the first, and possibly last, private cultural center in Egypt, a country where culture is tightly controlled and heavily subsidized. His success is a painful critique of the poor management of everyone else in this sector and his story shows that international aid and NGO’s can have positive results.

Significantly they are commercially and culturally successful with no state largesse whilst extravagantly subsidized, poorly attended, western style ballet, symphonic music and opera for the rich are at seat prices of less than a glass of wine. For those with a memory of past misdeads, Farag of Luxor is/was head of the Opera House shambles where lots of taxpayers money produces little.

For the dipso’s- there is no booze – so it’s a case of a hip flask or get tanked before you go. Or both. Drugs are a no-no, so that keeps the ruling class brats away.

If you are in Cairo its very worthwhile popping in one night – there is bound to be something of interest. Only the boring would be bored. Tourists are in small numbers although a few disheveled, high and unwashed western aid workers posture as ‘old hands’. Its also friendly, safe and cheap and older people are made welcome.

They are on July 6th on the western border of Zamalek. Their web-site: http://www.culturewheel.com/.

With a cultural entrepreneur like Ghawy, Luxor could do a lot during the high season to put on ‘knees-ups’ to get pennies out of tight wadded packaged tourists. He is a good planner and manager and Luxor needs that and also knows how to make money honestly - a rare skill. Therefore, the mayor/governor could do worse than send a few Luxor locals for a six month internship to the Culturewheel. Better than bringing in another western consultant to propose an expensive master plan for night-life.

Another venue with a mixture of local jazz, film, dance and adapted traditional music, and which also has a very good café, is ‘Room’ in Garden City with a younger crowd, safe and not expensive. http://www.roomartspace.com/events/ and connected to the young(ish) ‘Mr Jazz’ of Cairo, Amro Salah http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... how-d.aspx

His next Cairo Jazz Festival is Downtown, 28-30 September. http://www.cairojazzfest.com/

The Jazz Festival also has good taste in graphics:
Image

Again its hard to find a bad word about him and he doesn’t have (too much of?) his snout in the public trough.

With both of these characters its good to see that people of talent and ambition have stayed when leaving would have been an attractive option.

A website which tracks Cairo art, performance and architecture from a liberal progressive perspective http://www.cuipcairo.org/en - on its last legs but with a good interactive map of both established and less conventional cultural/entertainment venues


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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by newcastle »

Another very interesting post by our antipodean contributor.
With a cultural entrepreneur like Ghawy, Luxor could do a lot during the high season to put on ‘knees-ups’ to get pennies out of tight wadded packaged tourists. He is a good planner and manager and Luxor needs that and also knows how to make money honestly - a rare skill. Therefore, the mayor/governor could do worse than send a few Luxor locals for a six month internship to the Culturewheel. Better than bringing in another western consultant to propose an expensive master plan for night-life
Indeed...and maybe any Luxorians on here could drop the idea into the relevant ears.

The Hakawy Festival (an AFCA initiative) was in Luxor 16th March....I don't recall mention of it anywhere. The sort of thing they get up to :

https://atimetwaly.com/2017/03/30/a-pla ... -festival/
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by Winged Isis »

Thanks Hafiz, we'll keep it in mind for our next foray to the Big Smoke.
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by Major Thom »

Went to see the Jersey Boys in Concert last night, I walked like a man, with a couple of Sherries, actually saw a couple of Big Girls Crying and was told to Stay for the 30min extra that people demanded. Next week Rod Stewart and Band. Love Cultural stuff!
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by Mad Dilys »

Rod Stewart = cultural stuff? :o :lol:
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by HEPZIBAH »

Mad Dilys wrote:Rod Stewart = cultural stuff? :o :lol:
'Cultural' is very much a 'broard church' if I may be so bold as to borrow a frequently used term. :D
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by carrie »

Well there's low culture and high culture and then there's the culture that includes going to watch tribute bands. I love Rod Stewart and even if I was going to see the real thing would hardly describe it as a cultural experience.
That's where we have all been going wrong, when we said to MT embrace the culture of the country he didn't understand. He certainly seems to have done so in Cyprus, where is he staying Ayia Napa?
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by newcastle »

Nothing wrong with tribute bands.

Or karaoke and bingo for that matter.

Think Blackpool....with more sun 8)
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by A-Four »

carrie wrote:. Ayia Napa?
Ayia Napa Carrie,.......Ayia Napa ?,............ that place is very late these days. It's for those grannies who are now in their mid 40's, who appreciated such things as Ministry of Sound etc. if the young kids today who usually listen to the likes of KISS FRESH radio station, but certainly not KISSTORRY, (non-stop old school & anthems), and they still want to go to Cyprus, then they should go to Protaras, a few miles further north along the coast. :wi .
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by carrie »

I lived not far from Blackpool and always hated the place. Fish and chips and kiss me quick hats UGH :!:
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by newcastle »

Protoras is for live singers, tribute bands.....and, yes, karaoke! Right up MT's street I imagine.

Ayia Napa for the late night (early morning really) club scene. A sort of Ibiza for the less classy...and those who baulk at the cost of Ibiza nightlife.
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by A-Four »

newcastle wrote:Protoras is for live singers, tribute bands.....and, yes, karaoke! Right up MT's street I imagine.

Ayia Napa for the late night (early morning really) club scene. A sort of Ibiza for the less classy...and those who baulk at the cost of Ibiza nightlife.
Sorry Newcastle, but when It comes to the music scene in either Ayia Napa or Protaras,.....I think you are totally out of your depth.
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by newcastle »

A-Four wrote:
newcastle wrote:Protoras is for live singers, tribute bands.....and, yes, karaoke! Right up MT's street I imagine.

Ayia Napa for the late night (early morning really) club scene. A sort of Ibiza for the less classy...and those who baulk at the cost of Ibiza nightlife.
Sorry Newcastle, but when It comes to the music scene in either Ayia Napa or Protaras,.....I think you are totally out of your depth.
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by Dusak »

Cultural? What a planker. Rod that is. :D
Life is your's to do with as you wish- do not let other's try to control it for you. Count Dusak- 1345.
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by Hafiz »

Unlike others my point is not about ‘high’ or ‘low’ culture – besides some have started on one side and ended up on the other.

However, Ayia Napa seems to be an exception to the rule that one should not judge others.

As far as A-Four and Newcastle are concerned they are both right, and both wrong. Yes Protaras has bingo and, besides cheap shots, little else. In any case karaoke is the new bingo – with incontinence seats.

I know that some obsess about how bad Luxor is but 10 minutes of goggling gives you access to the ‘delightful’ consumers of Ayia – and what they want and get from their Euro-trash-brothel destination.

Here is what the ‘people’ who have been to Napa say about their positive experiences:

‘widely considered the premier nightlife location of Cyprus.’

‘synonymous for Sun, Beach and Fun Holiday Experience.’

‘Bars close at dawn’

‘Toga Toga or Moulin Rouge, the main strip clubs on the island. Toga Toga has agents who are very persistent and will harass you multiple times on their moped during your stay.’ (apparently a minor issue in a great place).

‘Watch out for two guys that come around asking if you want to come on a boat party, as in 2004 several boat party operators were arrested for organizing drunken orgies aboard their boats.’ (apparently only an issue because of the risk of arrest). (posted years later)

Here are some of the things that actually go on:

A22yo Brit, described by friends as ‘a true Napa cult hero’ was stabbed to death, and his night club ‘manager’ friend stabbed, in a dispute over their urinating in the town street in August ‘16.

‘In Ayia Napa in Cyprus ..there are still three to four British stabbings every summer.’

‘A mum claims she had a ' holiday from hell' where amorous guests left 'sperm' floating in the hotel pool and dirty underwear hanging in trees. Chelsea Stark says visitors also dumped used condoms in the foyer of the complex in Ayia Napa, Cyrus, which staff allegedly failed to clean up…‘were disgusted to notice a white, cloudy substance - which they believed to be sperm - floating on the surface of the water’ (of their hotel pool).’

Bar owners in the village have a promotional site and used a video of an unconscious Brit in a gutter in the square having his pulse taken. They used their hashtag: “Checked his pulse cus we thought we killed him #ShotsOverload Can’t Handle the Mayhem!”. Here is the photo they used in their ‘marketing’ material which is revealing about the people who run tourism in this place:
Image

The bars fund the following entertainment in the public square:
Image

For those 'interested' the net is full of videos of public group sex in Napa bars with hoons urging them on. For others there are orgy boat parties, apparently well videoed on the net, and ‘all-in’ organized beach parties.

Its really rather sad. Aimless, loveless, incurious not very bright or successful people with a strong desire to trash themselves to forget just how bad their lives really are. And we think things are bad in Luxor. Thank your lucky stars that you don’t have Napa customers.

Two can play at the game of defaming tourist destinations - although I concede that Napa cannot be as bad as revealingly described by those who love it so much.

I'm sure its generally as MT describes it - but every destination has its black spots and a sensible person weighs the good with the bad.
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by A-Four »

newcastle wrote:
A-Four wrote:
newcastle wrote:Protoras is for live singers, tribute bands.....and, yes, karaoke! Right up MT's street I imagine.

Ayia Napa for the late night (early morning really) club scene. A sort of Ibiza for the less classy...and those who baulk at the cost of Ibiza nightlife.
Sorry Newcastle, but when It comes to the music scene in either Ayia Napa or Protaras,.....I think you are totally out of your depth.
:))) :))) :))) :a8: :a8: :))) :))) :)))
Please do be very careful of such hysterical outbursts of laughter, as any of the other grannies of your age, will tell you not only,....so I am told, will your soft furnishings suffer from discolouration but, again,......so I'm told, ones home takes on a whiff of you know what.

It's quite sad actually because,.......again,...... so I'm told, friends and family no longer call, and believe it or not, some old grannies take to then live, from dawn until bedtime on Internet forums, where one is constantly available, at the drop of a pad,.....sorry, I mean i-pad, to make a bitchy sarcastic acid drop comment. :wi .
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by newcastle »

The above could hardly be less intelligible. I've even tried rearranging the words....to no effect.

You need to leave the confines of your local boozer and take a course in elementary English.

It's never too late!
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by A-Four »

newcastle wrote:The above could hardly be less intelligible. I've even tried rearranging the words....to no effect.

You need to leave the confines of your local boozer and take a course in elementary English.

It's never too late!

Yer, but mi thinks, yer place might still have a whiff of you know what. :wi . :wi . :wi .
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Re: An Egyptian Success Story

Post by newcastle »

A-Four wrote:
newcastle wrote:The above could hardly be less intelligible. I've even tried rearranging the words....to no effect.

You need to leave the confines of your local boozer and take a course in elementary English.

It's never too late!

Yer, but mi thinks, yer place
might still have a whiff of you know what. :wi . :wi . :wi .
Per Google Translate :

"Yes, but methinks, your place....." :tk

Q.E.D.
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