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Local Historians Fight To Commemorate ‘Little Syria’

Food vendors in Little Syria, circa 1915-1920. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. Sarah Aziza Gothamist  Just off the roaring Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and a few minutes from Wall Street, the scaffold-encrusted blocks of lower Washington Street are strangely quiet. In the shade of neighboring skyscrapers, these sterile streets have so far resisted realtors’ attempts … Continued

How the American Civil War Built Egypt’s Vaunted Cotton Industry and Changed the Country Forever

By Peter Schwartzstein
SMITHSONIAN.COM

When Confederate artillery opened up on the Union garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, it marked the beginning of an exceptionally bleak chapter in U.S history.

Over the next four years, roughly 700,000 Americans were killed, and millions of others were injured or made destitute. The south was reduced to a weakened state ravaged by war and no longer able to thrive on the free labor provided by the pernicious institution of slavery.

But for a number of fledgling countries and colonies across the world, America’s loss was their great gain. As northern warships blockaded southern ports, closing them off to commercial shipping, the cotton plantations of the Confederacy struggled to export their ‘white gold.’ With the great textile mills of England now deprived of the lifeblood of their industry, 80 percent of which had previously come from the U.S, the price of cotton very soon went through the roof. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, birthed in Britain, the United States and its former antagonist and overlord  had symbiotically thrived on the massive revenues from the cotton trade, a titan of commerce reliant on the lives of the American South’s enslaved population. Now, the Civil War imperilled everything for the moneymakers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

It took just a couple of weeks after the outbreak of hostilities in South Carolina for farmers the world over to realize the scope of the bounty that had landed in their lap. Agricultural laborers from Australia and India to the West Indies ditched wheat and other food staples and hastily planted up their fields with cotton. Prices had risen by up to 150 percent. As soon as it became clear that England wouldn’t enter the war as allies of the Confederacy, many farmers doubled down and gave over every scrap of their acreage to this enriching crop.

No one, however, seized on the opportunity quite like the Egyptians, who had just a few decades beforehand freed themselves from almost 300 years of direct Ottoman rule. Under the ambitious leadership of Muhammed Ali, an Albanian soldier who had seized power in 1805 and is widely considered the founder of modern Egypt, the country had already embraced cotton as a valuable cash crop. The discovery 40 years beforehand of a fine long-staple variety by a visiting French engineer – a Monsieur Jumel – meant that Egypt was also well on its way to building a reputation for high-quality cotton, which linen-makers rave about to this day.

But now, with prices continuing to soar and desperation high in northern England as the mills of Manchester exhausted the excess supply left over from a bumper American harvest of 1860, authorities in Cairo moved with extraordinary speed to ramp up additional production.

In 1861, Egypt had only exported 600,000 cantars of cotton (a traditional measurement equal to about 100 pounds), but by 1863 it had more than doubled this to almost 1.3 million cantars, the New York Times reported at the time. By the end of the 19th century, Egypt derived 93 percent of its export revenues from cotton, which had also become “the major source of income for almost every proprietor in the Delta,” writes Roger Owen in Cotton and the Egyptian Economy.

Egypt goes forward – and backwards

Looking back, it might seem as if there were a certainly inevitability to Egypt’s capture of much of the American market share. With its foothold on the Mediterranean, it was much closer to Liverpool than its competitors, and to the ports at Marseille and Trieste, through which France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire funneled cotton north to their mills. And certainly few countries could rival the Nile Valley and Delta, once considered the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, for shear agricultural pedigree.

But it was above all through the force of will of Khedive Ismail, Muhammad Ali’s equally driven grandson, that things really took off.

After assuming the throne in 1863, he presided over a massive program of public works, which included building much of the network of irrigation canals that farmers use to this day, and continuing his father’s embrace of modern technology. In the 1850s, Egypt had become the first country outside Europe or the United States to have a railway, and Ismail pushed its expansion  – and that of the telegram lines – well beyond Cairo and Alexandria. So determined was he to satisfy the needs of European cloth merchants that he even commandeered Nile barges to transport cotton downriver to the sea when floods temporarily cut off the railway tracks in 1863.

Initially, at least, it wasn’t just the landowning and mercantile classes who benefited from this extraordinary boon. With their unexpected new prosperity, some villagers paid dowries or went on the pilgrimage to Mecca. “Others built houses; others again purchased silks, jewelry, silver, pipes, furniture and slaves,” writes Owen.

But as the trade evolved, and cotton morphed into even more of a money-spinning opportunity, life for the fellaheen (peasants) took an unpleasant turn for the worse.

For just as the expansion in the trafficking of slaves to the southern United States is often explained in part by the pick up in cotton production, so too the arrival of this tremendously labor intensive crop in Egypt led to the introduction of a variation of the feudal system. Farmers who had previously spent much of their time planting land that was for all intents and purposes theirs, now found themselves pressed into work on large estates. Where once poorer townspeople had had access to cheap produce, soon they discovered that the cultivation of cotton at the expense of food meant much higher prices for fruits and vegetables.

“It explains child labor, it created seasonal labor [during the harvest],” says Mona Abaza, a professor at the American University in Cairo, whose book The Cotton Plantation Remembered recounts how her family built up great wealth through cotton. “It was very exploitative and is hard to look back at with any sentimentality.”

Cotton and Colonization

Unsurprisingly, Egypt’s newfound riches didn’t escape the attention of enterprising tradespeople across Europe or the Levant either, many of whom were keen to share in the cotton spoils. Between February and August 1864 alone, 12,000 more foreigners arrived than left, Owen writes, with Greeks the largest group among them. Intent on securing business for their nationals, European governments rushed to open up missions throughout the Delta and Upper Egypt. Even Minya, a now struggling and somewhat isolated city to the south of Cairo, once boasted a U.S consulate due to its proximity to valuable cotton stocks.

This influx was in itself not terrible as the foreigners brought with them considerable expertise to a country still clawing its way back from centuries of stagnation. They also orchestrated much of the redevelopment of Alexandria, which had slumped badly in size and grandeur since the days of Cleopatra and the Ptolemies, and financed the construction of several Cairo neighborhoods, whose names still hark back to their cotton baron patrons.

But their arrival also coincided – and indirectly contributed – to a rash of poor decision-making among Egypt’s ruling classes that was to eventually lead to the arrival of the British military on a long-term basis in 1882. Ismail was so intent on building up cotton infrastructure and transforming Cairo into a ‘Paris on the Nile’ that he encouraged the “establishment of banks like the Anglo-Egyptian from which he might borrow heavily in return for certain favors,” writes Owen. Very soon he’d built up such big debts to mostly British and French creditors that he couldn’t hope to ever pay them back. Additionally, the end of the American Civil War in 1865 led to a steep fall in global cotton prices as the U.S. crop came back on the market and proved particularly damaging for Egypt. It created a sharp budget deficit and ultimately a declaration of national bankruptcy a decade later

“I think you can say that the American Civil War – and the effects on cotton – made the British change their policy towards Egypt,” says Mohamed Awad, director of the Alexandria & Mediterranean Research Center at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. “Indirectly it was one of the main reasons for the occupation of Egypt.”

As the overwhelmed Egyptian treasury bounded from one crisis to another, the European and Syro-Lebanese communities set about snapping up much of the cotton trade. By the time the Egyptian monarchy came crashing down in 1952, only two of the 35 registered cotton brokers at the Alexandria stock exchange were Egyptian, according to Samir Raafat, a Cairo historian.

Egyptian cotton on its last legs

Nowadays the great Egyptian cotton industry is a pale shadow of its former self. Very little of the celebrated long-staple cotton is still grown, and when it is, the country’s own textile mills are no longer equipped to process it. The few remaining cotton plants of the Delta have completely given themselves over to dealing with the imported short-staple forms of the crop. But the stellar reputation of Egyptian cotton still holds, even though in the United States, linen manufacturers can use the name on products with just five percent of the Egyptian crop.

Last year, the Egyptian government announced it would end the cotton subsidies on which the few remaining cotton farmers rely, before a few months later changing tack and announcing that it would ban all cotton imports. This decision too was soon reversed. It’s all part and parcel of an “industry that’s in constant decline, with constant deterioration, and constant corruption,” says Jano Charbel, a journalist and labor rights activist.

In the meantime, the infrastructure that cotton built continues its slow, sad decay. Much of the 19th-century irrigation network that crisscrosses the Delta is so clogged with trash that many farmers at the end of the canals complain that the Nile waters can’t penetrate through. While in Alexandria, most of the cotton barons’ mansions that once lined the seaside Corniche have fallen victim to ruthless developers.

It’s fitting perhaps that a lingerie shop stocking cheap goods from Southeast Asia now inhabits part of the former headquarters of one of Egypt’s leading cotton conglomerates in downtown Alexandria.

For just as the U.S inadvertently built Egypt’s cotton industry, China with its cheap cotton exports appears to have more or less destroyed it.

Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

11 Arabic Books (in Translation) to Read with Teens

BY MLYNXQUALEY ArabLit.org Many of the books on the list of Middle Eastern Literature for Middle School are excellent works — my eldest child, for instance, gives a thumbs-up to Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Where the Streets Had a Name. However, the list, like most of books recommended for young readers, includes almost entirely texts written in English. There are … Continued

Hummus and other ‘healthy’ dips contain more salt than FOUR bags of chips

Katie Morley

Telegraph 

Hummus and other “healthy” supermarket dips are laced with high levels of salt and fat, it has emerged, as health campaigners have revealed some pots contain more salt than four packets of crisps.

For decades savoury dips have been enjoyed with crudites as a “light” snack, but according to a damning report by campaign group, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), this may not be as virtuous as people think.

Diets high in salt and fat are attributed to people developing strokes and heart disease, two of the leading causes of death in the UK.

Cash tested 210 chilled dips from high street supermarkets and found a total of zero packets were marked with a green traffic light for salt, indicating a low level.

Overall taramasalata was the most salty dip, with an average content of 1.25g per 100g, with a serving of Asda’s taramasalata containing as much salt as thirteen Ritz crackers.

Health-conscious snackers often avoid crisps, but new research shows dips could be even worse. The least salty dip was salsa, which has an average of 0.49g of salt per 100g.

Among the saltiest hummus dips was Marks & Spencer’s Caramelised Onion Hummus which contained more salt per 100g (1.53g) than four packets of ready salted crisps. This is equivalent to over a quarter of the daily maximum recommended intake.

The salt added to hummus dips ranged from 0.43g per 100g (Lidl Red Pepper Hummus) to 1.6g per 100g (Tesco Caramelised Onion Hummus). Both contained more salt than 100g of KP original salted peanuts, the research showed.

Around three quarters of the hummus products tested were marked with a red traffic light label for fat, showing that as well as being excessively salty, many are also laden with excess calories. 

For example, a pot of Essential Waitrose Sour Cream and Chive dip was found to contain more total fat than a Big Mac.

Hummus, which is predominantly made from chickpeas, contains on average 280 calories per 100g, more than 10 per cent of the recommended daily intake for women.

Cash is calling for the Government to produce a “strong and robust” Obesity Strategy that will include reducing salt and fat in the nation’s diet.

Sonia Pombo, nutritionist and campaign manager for Cash, said: “Food companies need to take action and reduce both the salt and fat content in dips.

“The variation of different products revealed in our survey shows it can be achieved which is why it’s equally important that we as individuals read the label carefully and opt for healthier brands.

“Also remember to swap unhealthy sides with vegetables e.g. carrots, peppers and tomatoes, for added bonus.”

Professor Graham MacGregor, of Queen Mary University of London and chairman of Cash, said: “Once again we demonstrate the unnecessary amounts of salt and fat being added by the food industry to what could be a healthy product. “A diet high in salt leads to strokes and heart disease – the commonest cause of death in the UK.

“Reducing salt is the most cost effective measure to reduce the number of people suffering which is why it’s imperative the government announce a new robust plan for reducing salt in our diet.”

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Archbishop Atallah Hanna’s Fight for Peace in Palestine

BY: Mary Elbanna/Contributing Writer A Religious Calling Archbishop Theodosios, more commonly known as Atallah Hanna, is a Christian Palestinian known for his political activism in Jerusalem. He is the only Orthodox Palestinian Archbishop in the world and has been highly recognized for his commitment to unifying Christians and Muslims within Jerusalem, and speaking out in … Continued

A Thousand And One Journeys: The Arab Americans to premiere at Atlanta History Center on Aug. 28th at 6:30 pm

Press release: Alif Institute ATLANTA – July 28, 2016 – At a time of heightened political focus and continued misunderstanding of Americans of Arab descent, ALIF Institute is pleased to announce that it is bringing the first historical full-length documentary about Arab Americans to Atlanta to make its Southeastern US premiere. A THOUSAND AND ONE … Continued

Palestinian Advanced Physics School is a first 

Michael Banks

physicsworld.com

 

Physicists are gathering in Jenin, Palestine, for the first ever Palestinian Advanced Physics School. The two-day meeting starts today at the Arab American University in Jenin (AAUJ), and aims to boost physics in the region and provide students with an overview of recent research developments. Some 40 Palestinian physics students studying for Master’s degrees at the AAUJ, the universities of Al Quds, An Najah and Birzeit, as well as the Islamic University of Gaza, are expected to attend.
Co-sponsored by the CERN particle-physics lab and the Sharing Knowledge Foundation, the school will include lectures on physics from prominent researchers including Philip Argyres from the University of Cincinnati, John Ellis from King’s College London, and Giorgio Paolucci, scientific director of the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) – an international X-ray facility being built near Amman, Jordan. It will also include problem-solving sessions, an applied particle-physics tutorial, as well as a panel discussion about life in academia.

“Physics does not respect borders and international collaborations are the engines of rapid scientific progress,” notes University of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking, who is a member of the international advisory board for the school. “I am delighted to see that physics education and research in Palestine continues to grow and strengthen its international connections.”

Boosting science

Science in Palestine is expected to be boosted by a number of recent developments. In December 2015, Palestine signed an agreement with CERN that will let researchers join the ATLAS experiment. Previously, only a handful of scientists had worked at the lab, with some students participating in CERN summer student programmes. Palestine is also a member of SESAME, along with Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey. The 2.5 GeV synchrotron is expected to come online later this year, and as well as boosting science in the region in the Middle East, it will foster scientific collaboration and better relations in the region.

Enrolment in university education [in Palestine] is more than 10% higher than the average for the Arab region, and half the students are women. 

Yet the school comes at a time when physics in Palestine faces a lack of funding and travel restrictions for students and academics. Universities and other scientific institutions are also suffering from forced closures. “Despite the difficult challenges Palestinians have faced over the past several decades, they made great contributions throughout the region and the world,” says AAUJ physicist Adli Saleh , who is helping to organize the school. “Enrolment in university education is more than 10% higher than the average for the Arab region, and half the students are women, a ratio among the highest in the world.”
“Remarkable drive”

“Despite obstacles and lack of support for fundamental research, we all noticed the remarkable drive to achieve good physics from both professors and students,” says Mario Martone from the University of Cincinnati, who is on the international organizing committee for the school, told physicsworld.com. “[The school] will be a remarkable contribution to provide international support for the growing Palestinian physics programme.”

The school was created by Scientists for Palestine – a newly founded international group that promotes and supports science in Palestine. It is hoped that it will become an annual event, with the group planning other scientific activities in the coming years. “We plan to hold a similar school next year with a focus on condensed-matter physics, establish a mentoring programme for Palestinian students, as well as try to organize activities in Gaza,” adds Martone.

Source: physicsworld.com

New Documentary Reveals Israel’s Public Relations Strategies in America

BY: Clara Ana Ruplinger/Contributing Writer The Occupation of the American Mind is a sophisticated and in depth analysis of how Israel’s public relations manufactures misguided support for its occupation of Palestine in American media. The documentary featured scholarly commentators who have become experts on the Israeli propaganda machine. It is conceivable to think that Israel’s occupation of … Continued

Documentary Reveals How Israel Convinces Americans Palestine Occupies Israel

By Mnar Muhawesh  Mint Press News MINNEAPOLIS — Following the Holocaust, the world community — led by the United States and Britain — sought to create a European Jewish-only state. This humanitarian move, though, utterly failed in respecting the humanity of the land’s indigenous inhabitants — Christian and Muslim Palestinians. Starting in December of 1947, … Continued

American Students Studying Arabic for More Than Just Getting a Job

BY: Kristina Perry and Clara Ana Ruplinger/Contributing Writers   In the U.S. today, Arabic is a language that has been highly stigmatized. Individuals speaking Arabic have found that using the language, or even looking Arab, can make a person seem so threatening that they can be thrown off of planes, harassed, or even attacked. In the climate of … Continued

The Legacy of Edward Said

BY: Clara Ana Ruplinger/Contributing Writer Edward Said, notable academic and scholar of post-colonial criticism, was born on November 1, 1935 in Jerusalem, which was then part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Born to a Lebanese mother and Christian Palestinian father, he became an American after his father gave military service to the U.S. during … Continued

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