Red Sea and Port Said clean up to celebrate Earth Day

Valentina Cattane

Fri, 22/04/2011 - 09:16

People around the world are celebrating International Earth Day in an effort to encourage respect for the planet and raise awareness of the importance of daily “green acts” to preserve the environment.

Earth Day, celebrated annually on 22 April every year, was originally founded by the USSenator and environmental activist Gaylord Nelson in 1970. Earth Day was primarily celebrated in the USbefore becoming an international holiday in 1990 and then receiving recognition from the United Nations in 2009.

The event is celebrated in more than 175 countries around the world and coordinated by the Earth Day Network, which is sponsoring a “Billion Acts of Green Campaign” to persuade people to participate in public events or private initiatives.

There are many ways to celebrate Earth Day: Planting a tree in your neighborhood could be an entertaining way to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; making nature crafts at home or at school could help younger generations adopt a positive approach toward the environment; recycling plastic bags, using alternative transportation (i.e. a bicycle) for at least one day a month, stopping the use of pesticides and toxic cleaning products or eating local food are easy ways to actively support the initiative.

In Egypt, the main event to celebrate Earth Day is organized by the NGO Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA), which works in the field of marine and land conservation.

Urte Fiek, project manager at HEPCA, said the NGO organizes cleanups throughout the year. “For the Earth Day, we contacted hotels and diving centers asking them to organize cleanups independently because we want them to adopt the practice in the future," said Fiek.

Many hotels have joined the initiative in Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Quseir, Safaga, and SomaBay.

"Other cleanups will be directly organized in the same areas today by HEPCA, which expects the participation of about 100 people gathering from 9 am to 3 pm," she said.

Fiek said she noticed public support for the cleanup initiative has increased after the Egyptian revolution, and many more people are making an active civic commitment to environmental protection.

Two Port Saidevents are celebrating Earth Day, including Portsaid-online.com’s clean up of the city, MontazaParkand Port Fouad.

“The event is counting on volunteers to clean up and paint El Montaza Park,” environmental activist and event coordinator Watter al-Bahry said.

The second event is organized by the Red Crescent and coordinated by Abdelhameed Ahmed Metwaly. The program includes a painting workshop for kids with an environmental theme and a lecture about the negative impact of garbage discharged in the sea followed by a screening of the documentary The Earth is our home.

In Cairo, the Community Service Association celebrated Earth Day yesterday, with a garden Earth Day bazaar featuring 15 vendors who sold recycled products and environmentally-friendly home equipment.

Japan nuclear crisis 'over in nine months'

Click to play

The BBC's Roland Buerk says that people are pleased that they have been given some idea of how long the crisis could last

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has said it expects to bring the crisis under control by the end of the year.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) aims to reduce radiation leaks in three months and to cool the reactors within nine months.

The utility said it also plans to cover the reactor building, which was hit by a huge quake and tsunami on 11 March.

Nearly 14,000 people died and another 14,000 are still unaccounted for.

Tepco unveiled its roadmap as Hillary Clinton briefly visited Tokyo to pledge America's "steadfast support" for Japan's reconstruction.

'Cold shutdown'

Radiation levels in the sea near reactor 2 rose to 6,500 times the legal limit on Friday, up from 1,100 times a day earlier, Tepco has said, raising fears of fresh radiation leaks.

A UK firm's robots, operated via a standard games console, will go into the reactor

Tsunehisa Katsumata, the chairman of Tepco, Asia's largest utility, told a news conference in Tokyo on Sunday they would need up to nine months to bring the power plant to ''cold shutdown''.

He said the plan would allow the tens of thousands of families evacuated from the area around the facility to return home as soon as possible.

"We sincerely apologise for causing troubles," Mr Katsumata said. "We are doing our utmost to prevent the crisis from further worsening."

Tepco said after cold shutdown it would focus on encasing the reactor buildings, cleaning up contaminated soil and removing nuclear fuel.

Japan's government had ordered Tepco to come up with a timetable to end the crisis, now rated on a par with the world's worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

But the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says it is still not certain that the nine-month deadline can be achieved.

He says the immediate priority for Tepco is to stop radioactive water leaking into the Pacific Ocean.

The utility said it was sending remote-controlled robots into one of the reactors on Sunday to gauge radiation and temperature levels.

UK defence contractor QinetiQ said it had provided the machines, which are controlled using a standard games console.

The robots can carry out tasks such as rubble clearance, demolition and radiation testing.

Japan is a world leader in such technology, but its robots are not adapted for dirty work such as meltdowns at nuclear plants, experts say.

US thanked

Emergency workers have been unable to enter any reactor building since the disaster.

Before the disaster, Japan-US ties had been strained by a dispute over military bases

Our correspondent says Japan's recovery bill has been estimated at $300bn (£184bn) - already the most expensive disaster in history.

But the government said last week that figure might be an underestimate.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Clinton said in Japan she believed the country would emerge stronger from its worst crisis since World War II.

She met Prime Minister Naoto Kan and had tea with Emperor Akihito at the Imperial Palace, said to be a rare privilege for a non-head of state on a Sunday.

America has won Japanese admiration for sending scores of US ships and aircraft as well as 20,000 troops to help the relief effort.

Operation Tomodachi, or Friend, was the biggest humanitarian mission the US has conducted in Japan.

Before the quake, the two nations' ties had been strained by a dispute over US military bases on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

Mr Kan's predecessor as premier quit last year after being accused of reneging on a promise to remove at least one of the bases.

Nationwide protests against educational sector heads

Staff

Sun, 17/04/2011 - 19:51

Photographed by Hossam Fadl

• 1

A number of protests calling for the resignation of senior figures in the education sector took place on Sunday.

Sixteen educational groups organized a protest outside the Ministry of Education to demand the resignation of Education Minister Ahmed Gamal al-Din Moussa and all of the senior ministry figures from the Mubarak era.

The protesters also demanded that all temporary teachers be appointed in permanent positions, that all ministry employees be given equal salaries and that a minimum monthly wage of LE3000 be set.

Protests were also staged at most universities nationwide, demanding the resignation of university heads and the election of their replacements.

Meanwhile, Minister of Higher Education Amr Ezzat Salama announced that he would be presenting a new proposal to the university society within days. The proposal would allow university staff to elect the dean and university president through a committee consisting of a representative from each university, a representative of the university staff, and the faculty secretary.

In related news, dozens of Ain Shams University students protested to demand the resignation of University President Maged al-Deeb. Dozens of students also protested at Ain Shams’s Faculty of Languages, demanding the resignation of the university’s administrative board, which they accused of failing to obtain accreditation from the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation for Education.

At Cairo University, staff members and students protested to demand the resignation of the head of the English language department at the Faculty of Arts following the poor results of the first term exams.

At Port Said University, engineering students demanded the resignation of University Dean Ahmen Sasser.

At Al-Azhar University, medical school students at the Assuit branch of Ain Shams University protested outside University President Ossama al-Abd’s office in Cairo to denounce the closure of the Assuit University Hospital.

Sunday’s papers: Last call for the National Democratic Party

Mohamed Elmeshad

Sun, 17/04/2011 - 11:03

Photographed by MENA

• 1

Egypt finally saw the long-awaited dissolution of one of its main symbols of corruption and nepotism: the now non-entity formerly known as the former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). A picture book of the NDP’s leadership over the past 30 years could serve as a Who’s Who of the people who contributed most heavily to Egypt’s downward spiral -- barring a very small minority that many considered to be honest. Under the leadership of Talaat al-Sadat, a failed attempt was made last week to revive the party with a new name: the New National Democratic Party.

Al-Wafd’s party paper called it “The end of the NDP legend.” Independent Al-Shorouk simply used a Tahrir Square chant to express the ruling: “The NDP... invalid.” The Political Party Management arm of the Supreme Administrative Court decided to confiscate the NDP’s assets.

State-run Al-Ahram says that head of the court, Mohamed Agaty, decided that the NDP’s dissolution is a natural by-product of the 25 January revolution that called for the fall of the regime. Since its head stepped down, “legally and logically,” his main tool must go as well.

As for the former regime’s head, ousted president Hosni Mubarak, independent Al-Dostour says that Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud is awaiting medical reports before deciding when to interrogate him. Al-Dostour says that Mahmoud sent Mubarak to the International Medical Center on the Cairo-Ismailia road, and not to the Tora Prison hospital, as reports recently suggested.

The prison, now a historic Egyptian landmark due to its all-star cast of corrupt officials, is scrutinized by newspapers in order to satisfy the public's desire to know what conditions are like in the prison. Al-Shorouk says that the former prime minister refereed a soccer match between former NDP chair Ahmed Ezz and some of his business/political associates against former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and some of his security pals. The former president’s son Gamal Mubarak, former Minister of Information Anas al-Fiqqi and NDP henchman Ibrahim Kamel apparently watched from the sidelines. Al-Ahram, however, says that Gamal and Alaa Mubarak are depressed and alone in prison, and have yet to receive visitors.

Famed political commentator Osama Heikal writes in Al-Wafd that although keeping all these individuals in the same prison may be a security advantage, it is a political liability. He argues their proximity with each other may allow them to organize counter-revolutionary efforts.

State-run Al-Akhbar highlighted the visit of Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb to the rebuilt “Sol (Atfeeh) Church.”

Meanwhile, political parties are dealing with their own mini-revolts, according to Al-Shorouk. The youth of the Muslim Brotherhood met again in an effort to “change the skin” of the group to give it a more progressive look. They also report on a Wafd Party decision to freeze memberships of some its younger members who have called for party’s overhaul.

The municipality issue is one of the more controversial ones for this government. Many are calling for the dissolution of municipal councils, which are thought to have exploited by the former government to maintain control over municipalities. They are also seen as one of the main culprits of waste and corruption. Al-Wafd says that Prime Minister Essam Sharaf promised to dissolve these councils “within hours.”

Al-Ahram says that the new governors, who swore oaths of office yesterday, were given orders to focus on “youth issues” and building new housing units. The headline is reminiscent of Mubarak-era vagueness on government issues. In Al-Shorouk, government employees objected to the decision to dissolve the governorates of 6th of October City and Helwan and re-attach them to Giza and Cairo respectively.

Egypt’s finance minister is in Washington to look into financial assistance for Egypt. In Al-Ahram the Central Bank says that the government does not need aid or the restructuring of its debts; it needs US$10 billion in grants to help it cope with Egypt’s budget deficit and give it more freedom to sell bonds on the international market. Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, meanwhile, decided to tour Gulf countries in order to promote investment in Egypt.

Financial analysts in Al-Dostour criticized the request for aid (grants) in different ways. Magdy Sobhy, an analyst at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that US$10 billion is too much to ask for from European countries while many EU countries -- such as Portugal -- are dealing with their own financial crises. Salah Gouda, head of the Center for Economic Studies, said he thinks that the controversial and mysteriously ear-marked pork-barrel ministerial “spending boxes” should be able to provide this amount.

The Omar Effendi issue is on the table again. The formerly public-owned landmark retailer was controversially sold to a Saudi retailer in 2006. Al-Dostour reports on a lawsuit claiming that its sale was invalid as it was sold at a quarter of its value. Al-Shorouk says that government commissioners were discussing nullifying the sale due to numerous contractual infringements.

Many papers brought to light the plight of Egyptians in Libya. Al-Wafd has an interview with an Egyptian doctor who returned from Misrata and says that Muammar Qadhafi used Egyptians as human shields. He says there are many unidentified Egyptian bodies scattered in Libyan cities.

Egypt's papers:

Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt

Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size

Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run

Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run

Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned

Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned

Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party

Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Arab Nasserist party

Youm7: Weekly, privately owned

Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned

Govt to negotiate Toshka land settlement with Saudi prince

Metwali Salem

Sun, 17/04/2011 - 15:04

Photographed by Hossam Fadl

• 1

The Egyptian government will start official negotiations on Wednsday with Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal, aiming to settle the dispute over lands he bought in Toskha, southern Egypt. Leading the negotiations will be Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, which will be considering various possible solutions put forward by the prince.

The prince will be represented in the negotiations by a high-level delegation from his company, Kingdom Agricultural Development Co. (KADCO). He has so far made three separate offers to the Egyptian government with a view to solving the ongoing dispute over 100,000 feddans of land he purchased from the government in 1998, but which the attorney general confiscated last week.

The land is part of the Toshka desert project to pump water from Egypt's Aswan High Dam reservoir and deliver it via a 50 km (30 mile) canal to reclaimed agricultural land located 60 km from the Sudanese border. Al-Waleed bought the land in 1998 after the project started, but recent investigations by the government have declared the purchase illegal. The contract of purchase granted outright ownership of the land once the company had completed payments, in violation of rules stipulating that the land should be completely reclaimed and planted within five years.

In a statement to reporters on Sunday, Agriculture Minister Ayman Abu Hadid said that the talks will seek the best solution possible, one which will serve the interests of both Egypt and the Saudi company. The minister added that Saudi-Egyptian ties will provide a suitable framework for solving the crisis and maintainig the flow of investment for the Toshka project.

Abu Hadid noted that the results of the negotiations will be referred to the cabinet, which, in turn, will submit them to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). He revealed that Bin Talal will meet with the council's head, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, next week to make a final announcement on the settlement achieved.

The minister also pointed out that the meeting with the KADCO delegation will handle the means of amending the contract Egypt signed with Bin Talal, in a way that conforms with the country's laws and binds the Saudi prince to a timetable for the reclamation of the lands.

KADCO’s legal representative announced, meanwhile, that Bin Talal has agreed to amend the contract as a sign of goodwill.

Number of visitors rises to Egyptian museum

MENA

Sun, 17/04/2011 - 16:14

Photographed by Fouad Elgarnousy

• 1

The number of Egyptian Museum visitors rose considerably on Sunday, said Tareq al-Awadi, the museum's manager. Visitors include Egyptians and foreigners, he added.

More than 2000 people visited the museum on Sunday. Of this total, 1217 were foreigners from different nationalities and 793 were Egyptians. Al-Awadi said he expects the number to rise even higher with next week’s vacations.

France to allocate 20% of aid for democracy in Egypt and Tunisia

Magdi el-Gallad

Agencies

Sun, 17/04/2011 - 18:58

Photographed by Louise Sarant

• 1

Paris -- French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said 20 percent of France’s foreign aid will be allocated to support democratic change in Egypt and Tunisia.

Speaking to the Arab Spring Forum in Paris on Saturday, Juppe said the West should not worry about the revolutions in the Arab world. “The young people who lead those revolutions are able to protect democracy,” he said.

Juppe saluted the Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi and the Egyptian Khaled Saeed who had helped trigger the eruption of revolutions in both countries.

“Quite frankly, we were trying to blend policies supporting authoritarian regimes, who told us they were the bulwark against Islamist expansion, and others supporting democratic movements and civil society in these countries,” he explained.

“What is happening in Egypt is an example of democratic change,” he said, adding that he spoke to the youth of the revolution when he was in Cairo. “They were confident that no one would hijack their revolution.”

Ziad al-Alimy, member of the 25 January Youth Coalition, said at the forum that the Islamist trend in Egypt is not as strong as some believe. “There were half a million from religious movements out of 20 million who did the revolution,” he said.