A taste of Egypt: Hummus

I know, I know, Hummus isn't really a traditional Egyptian dish, but seeing as how it is often the complementary partner to Tahina and frequently served as a staple appetizer here, it's Egyptian for the day.

Hummus is surprisingly easy to make, and serves as an amazing appetizer, a dip for veggies, a spread on pita breads, and the list goes on. Did I mention that it's suitable for vegans and vegetarians? Yum!

So here's what you'll need: 

1 can Chickpeas
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp sesame oil (if you want more of a "Tahina" taste to your hummus, add 1 - 2 tbsp of sesame paste)
Fresh juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp EVOO (or more, depending on how thick you want your Hummus)
Seasonings to taste. Popular seasonings include paprika, pepper, and in some cases cumin.

Image source Wikipedia

Directions: 

Drain your can of chickpeas and set the liquid aside. 

Add your chickpeas and garlic in a blender / food processor, and pulse until the chickpeas and garlic are cut up. 

Add your sesame oil (and / or paste), and EVOO. If you want to spice up the hummus, add your spices here too. 

Pulse until smooth. 

Slowly add your lemon juice and chickpea liquid and continue pulsing until you reach the desired consistency.

Garnish with parsley and enjoy :)

Bil hana wa Shiva!

When the many suffer the consequences of the few

Unless you have completely avoided any form of media outlet over the past 24 hours, you have probably heard what is happening in Cairo. Specifically, the dozens of protesters that stormed the Israeli Embassy (eventually swelling to their thousands), causing the evacuation of the Israeli ambassador and a handful of diplomats, and opening up a can of political worms that Egypt just might not be able to wiggle its way out of.

As per usual, there are many accounts for the causes behind what happened. They include: remnants of the former regime paying thugs to stir up violence and aggression in an already tense crowd (re-playing the popular sentiment during the revolution); frustrated protesters who, for the past few weeks have been demonstrating outside of the Israeli Embassy as a result of the attacks in Eilat, finally lost their patience and mob mentality took over; and finally, that forces outside of Egypt are stoking the Middle East fires in a political powerplay to throw the region into further chaos and potentially war. All of these theories include stories to back them up; all of them are lacking in that they do not address the underlying reason for why these attacks were allowed to happen in the first place.

AP News reports that "Egyptian police made no attempt to intervene during the day as crowds of hundreds tore down an embassy security wall with sledgehammers and their bare hands or after nightfall when about 30 protesters stormed into the Nile-side high-rise building where the embassy is located."

Further reports indicate that at least 3 Israelis were trapped inside the Embassy while protesters were storming the building, causing Egyptian special forces to rush in to save them. CBC News reports that the protesters beat one of the Israeli's, but no corroborative reports could be found.

Israel has appointed its consul for state affairs to oversee the Embassy while Israel contemplates their next move. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has allegedly been speaking with Leon Panetta, U.S. Defence Secretary, on how they will address the growing tensions in the Middle East. U.S. President Barack Obama expressed "great concern" with the situation unfolding in Cairo, assuring the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. was acting "at all levels" to find a solution to the situation.

Ironically enough, peppered in with the media reports of Egyptians attacking the Israeli Embassy, I was pointed towards this report, from Al-Masri Al-Yawm. The report claims that Israel filed charges against a 24 year old man, David Macmill, who was arrested for stoning the Egyptian Consulate near Eilat, the location notorious for the recent incident involving Israel shooting at Egyptian police in response to an attack on a bus carrying Israeli tourists.

The charges levied against Macmill include "a maximum of four years in jail on charges of "harming the flag or symbol of a friendly country" and "attempting to cause damage with malice", according to the indictment served at Beersheba Magistrate's Court."

Can anyone else spot the irony here? The paradox of the two situations?

Egyptian protesters were virtually unhindered in their attempts to break into the Israeli Embassy. Currently politicians are sitting back discussing what we hope will be a diplomatic solution to the problem. Police seem unable to regain control over their country. Does this indicate to the rest of the world that Egypt essentially has no government at the moment?

One man, acting alone, was arrested for throwing stones at the Egyptian Consulate. One man.

Do you think that these two Egyptian protesters, proudly displaying their seizure of documents from inside the Israeli Embassy will ever see the inside of a court room?

Source. AP image. 

At this point, only time will tell. The continued aggression against Israel's Embassy in Egypt will not be left unheeded much longer. What happens then is a guess for anyone to make. Will Egypt be slapped with international sanctions? Will foreign forces enter the country under the auspices of returning the country to a state of order? Will these protests continue unhindered until it really is too late and there is no turning back from a war in the Middle East as the Telegraph would have you believe? Because let's face it; the use of any weapons of mass destruction in this volatile region will spell disastrous affects for millions of people, forced to accept the consequences of the actions of a few testosterone and aggression fueled individuals.

Or will the Egyptian youth be able to regain their revolution, with their ideals, with the hand they are being forced to play.

It's a tense time in Egypt these days.

For more reading on this situation as it unfolds, check the following:

Egyptians break into Israeli Embassy in Cairo

Egypt on alert after Israel embassy stormed in Cairo

Full scale Middle-East war is 'imminent', warns Israeli general

Over 450 injured in Egypt clashes at Israeli Embassy

Israeli PM condemns embassy attack in Egypt

Israel condemns attack on Cairo Embassy 

Domino Effect continues

Aside from the horrific story of the earthquake to rattle Japan and the ensuing Tsunami's, we can witness the unrest spreading throughout the Middle East, as Saudi Arabia sees police open fire on protesters.

Below is the story from the BBC. It should be interesting to watch the developments in this country in particular over the next few days. I can only wonder if women will head out and join the protests too...or if that is where the Saudi men will draw the line.

Police in Saudi Arabia have opened fire to disperse protesters in the eastern city of Qatif, a day before planned countrywide anti-government protests.

Witnesses said police also beat demonstrators with batons injuring at least three people.

The protesters, from the Shia minority, were demanding the release of prisoners they say have been held without charge.

Protests are illegal in Saudi Arabia, which has had an absolute monarchy since its unification in the 1930s.

But last month the arrest of Shia cleric Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amer, detained reportedly for calling for a constitutional monarchy, sparked outrage and drew crowds on to the streets.

He was released last weekend, but relatively small-scale protests have continued in the Eastern Region, where much of the country's crude oil is sourced.

The protesters have been demanding the release of nine Shia prisoners who they say have been held without trial for more than 14 years.

A witness in Qatif told AFP news agency the crowds had once again been demanding the prisoners' release.

"As the procession in the heart of the city was about to finish, soldiers started shooting at the protesters, and three of them were wounded," the witness said.

Other accounts said the police had also used stun grenades and had beaten the protesters with batons, injuring many more than three.

Continue reading the main story

Rights groups have accused the police of beating protesters during previous rallies in Qatif.

An interior ministry spokesman told reporters that police had fired over the heads of protesters on Thursday.

The spokesman added that three people, including a policeman, had been injured.

The unrest comes amid calls over the internet for a so-called "day of rage" protest in cities throughout the country after Friday prayers.

Analysts say it is unclear whether anyone will heed the calls, as Saudi Arabia has so far not seen protests on the same scale as other nations in the Middle East and North Africa.

Shias, who are mainly concentrated in the east of the country, make up about 10% of the population in Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia.

The region borders Bahrain, a Shia-majority kingdom ruled by a Sunni government that has been rocked by anti-government protests since mid-February.

Amid signs of growing unrest in the region, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah recently unveiled $37bn (£22.7bn) in benefits for citizens, including a 15% pay rise for state employees.

Free and Fair...to an extent

My years of experience in working with the Voices of Iraq (Aswat al-Iraq) have really helped me to develop my instincts and writing abilities as a journalist. On top of that, it really gives you an insight into what extent our media is manipulated, how it is achieved, and what types of people are targeted with each new article that is posted. This of course included in the added bonus of knowing what's going on in current events (or at least that's the theory :p).

Today, I posted a story about the elections in Iraq, specifically the results. Now, the process of holding the elections in Iraq has been a point of debate for quite some months now. I love to hackle about the dos and donts, the positives and negatives, with my journalist friend LeAnne. It's advantageous to be able to discuss things like this with someone who is also intricately familiar with how the media is run, not to mention also up to date on current events.

I know that the elections were not "free," but I would always bleat to LeAnne about how it's a great step forward, the people have been granted the ability to express their voice, and are being granted new political freedom that was unheard of during the time of Saddam. She believes it's mostly a farce. I can't disagree, but I maintain my original belief that a corrupt election, while still a huge issue, is better than no election at all.

So my story today, 52 (yes that's right) 52 politicians were completely stripped of any votes they won. Their votes were cancelled. Entirely nullified. And why? Because of their quote unquote "ties" to the former Baath party.

Does this seem ridiculous to ANYONE else but me? That's like discluding politicians in Germany for their rumoured ties to the Nazi party during WWII; who wasn't connected to the Nazi party! The article fails to mention how they were connected, just that they were. This could mean that they were on speaking terms with politicians in the Baath party, once went to a Baath rally, any number of menial things that could be seen as "ties" to the Baath party. Semantics aside, just look at what this says about the elections in Iraq. 52 politicians. It's a staggering number.

It makes me wonder what is going to happen to the votes originally cast for these politicians. Their political parties are not getting the votes...so where are they going? Are they just disappearing? As though they never existed? Or, as is sadly more likely, are they being funnelled into the ruling parties total vote count. Perhaps slightly short of a majority victory?One can only wonder.

What's even better, is that the Iraqi authorities mistrusted the original results of the elections. So what are they doing about it? A manual recount. I'm sure there are NO chances for ballots to slip in there unnoticed. None at all. Manually recounting the votes, totally maintains the elements of a transparent elections. Just to make sure that these votes are correctly counted, the Iraqi's brought in the experts. Representatives from Florida to oversea the voting process. Representatives from the very state that botched the elections that brought George W. Bush into office in the first place. The irony just smarts.

Sadly, Iraq is not the only country to be experiencing this quasi-democracy, Sudan is also a prime example. But that's an entirely different topic.

It's a cruel and sad truth, Iraq appears to be a quasi democratic state , that really is teetering on the brink of civil war caused by sectarian unrest. Most Western news outlets fail to report this, as who to bear the responsibility for destroying a country which ultimately led to the eruption of a civil war. Would the Obama administration do something about it? Would Tony Blair or Gordon Brown? Or would history repeat itself, and watch the Western "peacekeepers" again pull out, and let the Iraqi's deal with the Iraqis? Hey...as long as we have our oil contracts right?

So while I maintain my original belief that to be able to hold an election in Iraq is a monumental step forward, the lack of freedom, let alone fairness, just goes to show how much is left to be done.