11 Recent Cultural Disasters in Egypt

[HEPZIBAH]

11 Recent Cultural Disasters in Egypt.

This is a long, but interesting, article. Because of it's length and number of photographs I won't copy it all here but give you the link so you can read it for yourselves.

The article focuses on (with related photo's):

1. Major damage to Cairo’s Museum of Islamic Art and the National Library and Archives building and collections.
2. Destruction of many of Cairo’s historic and landmark villas and palaces
3. Destruction of Mansoura Theater
4. Looting of the Malawi Museum in Minya
5. Destruction of the Institut d’Egypte
6. Uncontrolled urban transformation of the historic of Darb el Ahmar district in Cairo
7. Encroachment on archaeological sites at Fustat, Dahshour and Al-Matariyyah
8. Partial collapse of Muhammad Ali’s Shubra Palace
9. Thefts at several sites in Islamic Cairo
10. The rapid loss of Alexandria’s architectural heritage
11. The disappearance of Cairo’s Railway Museum

http://cairobserver.com/post/7540371769 ... u-Vgz1_s3R

[Chocolate Eclair]

Are these happenings since the Revolution, because I was under the impression these historic and cultural sites were well guarded to prevent this type of happening.

[HEPZIBAH]

The obvious answer to that is - Read the article!

I will say that Luxor is mentioned and the comments about there relate to Jan 2011 (I think!).

[Dusak]

All these artifacts looted, stolen and destroyed. The beauty with those three words is that they could, in all eventuality be replaced by way of new discoveries, but the countless innocent lives that were also lost are gone forever, impossible to replace which is, to me, a far greater cultural loss.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Very interesting article. Very sad and tragic.

[HEPZIBAH]

... but the countless innocent lives that were also lost are gone forever, impossible to replace which is, to me, a far greater cultural loss.

That is very true.

[Glyphdoctor]

I think the word disasters is inappropriate. It makes it sound like these things just...happened. A lot of them are deliberate political acts.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Good point Glyph re: use of the word. Since you pointed it out "disaster" actually implies to me something like an earthquake or other natural disaster and that is NOT what is happening here. What is happening here is deliberate willful intentional malicious planning to destroy with maximum destructive result.

Am not getting into Anthropology or Sociology 101 but very simplistically Culture is a part of us. We all belong to groups that have accepted cultural norms. What I'm not getting is while these jihadists or political activists or terrorists or whatever they want to call themselves are actively tearing down all that is presently in place what do they intend or want to replace it with? They want to destroy everything that brought us to where we are now and eliminate it?

Take away ALL the culture and what is left?

[Glyphdoctor]

Logic 101 is needed here. If the predominant narrative you have been told about these incidents doesn't make sense to you in terms of who benefits and how and why, then perhaps the predominant narrative is incorrect.

[HEPZIBAH]

I had problems over the word 'disaster' too. However, I absorb it as each incident being caused by neglect or greed resulting in the potential for/eventual Cultural Disaster.