[extropy-chat] Not exactly a warm welcome

Terry W. Colvin fortean1 at mindspring.com
Wed Jun 29 00:40:45 UTC 2005


Sierra Vista (Arizona) Herald, Sunday, 26 June 2005

*This is another dispatch from Glen and Julie Bradley, former Sierra Vistans
who are on their way around the world in their boat, the C'est Assez.*


"First of all, I recommend you tell everyone you are Canadian.  
Egyptians will
never tell you to your face, but because of the U.S. support to Israel and
the invasion of Iraq, Americans are second only to Israelis in lack of
esteem over here.  Take my advice.  You'll be safer and have a better
experience all around."

Those words shocked us, but this was sound advice from our travel agent
at the marina in Abu Tig.

The travel agent was right.  The opening phrase of most greetings in
Egypt is "Where are you from?"

Until we arrived in Cairo we did not know that all Americans and Israelis
visiting Egypt are given armed security guards who accompany them
everywhere except the hotel.

To us this seemed very unsafe.  To walk down the street with a bodyguard
or escorted by a police vehicle is like shouting that here is someone worth
attacking!  It's like waving a flag to suicide bombers or terrorists.

We were able to make this "Canada" ruse work because Glen, Bob, Cyn
and I were usually accompanied by our English-speaking Egyptian guide
who agreed with the necessity and understood our situation.

Good thing because she was incredibly hassled about us by every policeman
we saw.  Many times each day our vehicle was stopped when they saw us
through the window.

Then the driver and guide explained to the police that we were non-Jewish
Canadians and not Americans.  It also happened walking in the streets a
couple of times so it got to be that we clammed up around any public
place because armed guards and police were so numerous.

Even posing as Canadians, we had to sign a statement that we felt safe
and did not want an armed guard on forays out of the hotel.

The down side is that now it is so common for everyone from
English-speaking nations to say "we're Canadian" that the police
rarely believe it.

The other insight was the candid comments from Egyptians concerning Canada's
American neighbors.

Gee, they sure don't like America very much right now.  It seems that
Egyptians, like other Mideasterners, feel as though "they could be next" if
they don't truckle to the demands of U.S. politics.

As crazy as it sounds, there is considerable opinion here that the U.S.
president and many Americans hate Moslems.  They call it the modern
crusade against Islam.  One shopkeeper gave America what he believed
the worst insult possible by telling us, "Don't worry, soon the U.S.
dollar is weaker than Canadian dollar."

About the fifth time during one day that our van was stopped our guide
asked the policeman, "Are there four Americans missing?  Why does
everyone keep stopping us--this has never happened so often before."
Of course, no one answered her question, but we were beginning to
feel a little bit like fugitives evading detection.  We now speculate
that it was Cyn and me--both 5 feet 9 inches tall--one blonde and
one redhead that stood out so obviously.

Our guide told us that because of the atmosphere, many Americans,
Australians and Britons say they are Canadian to avoid the hassles.

It worked for us, but I think soon everyone will catch on.  It was
hard to not laugh when one shopkeeper told us, "Welcome Canadians!
Egyptians like Canadians and Canadians must like Egypt because in
the past year we have soooo many Canadians.  Thankfully, not so
many Americans!"

In any case, we owe our Canadian neighbors a big thank you for the
temporary adoption.  All four of us were quite happy to return to
trusty C'est Assez after our 10 days of land travel.

It looks like a weather window is coming and we need to get "outta
here" and head for the Mediterranean.  They still like us there,
don't they?


-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
     Alternate: < fortean1 at msn.com >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
Sites: * Fortean Times * Mystic's Haven * TLCB *
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