Universities Vary In Swine Flu Precautions

Unlike AUC, not taking enough precautions towards swine flu, the GUC is taking extra safety measures to protect its students.

The German University in Cairo has taken some dramatic measurs since the beginning of the fall semester to protect the students from the increasing number of swine flu cases in the country.

Among the changes on campus are newly installed thermal cameras, longer school days and a shorter semester. But for students the increased caution is also causing an increase in headaches.

”Thermal cameras are applied on every gate in the university so If any student has a fever (more than 37.8 c), he is not allowed to enter,” said Ahmed El Naggar, security guard on GUC gates.

Classes are also now divided into groups to decrease the student gatherings indoors, and are only conducted twice a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. To The University decided to cancel the midterms and only finals will be taken. Finally, the semester will end before Christmas, one month before it usually ends.

”We are too stressed from all the precautions taken,” said Menna Adel, business major in GUC.

Adel added that students were concerned about their semester grades being entirely dependent on the final exam and class participation.  And the 12-hour class days were also making it difficult for students to focus on the material.

“It’s too hard to concentrate for 12 hours,” she said.

Freddy George, engineering major, added that the semester used to be around two months longer making him too stressed and concerned about his grades this semester.

George added that the classes are well aired and the tutorial class is around 20 students per group. No students are allowed to attend the tutorials in different groups so that the numbers stay the same.

But GUC’s precautions are a far cry from the atmosphere at the American University in Cairo, which has made relatively few drastic changes to combat the spread of swine flu. . Hand sterilizers are located in every floor of the campus buildings and the common flu vaccine is available in the school clinic. And instead of decreasing the class times, make up classes are being held on Saturdays and Fridays to complete the semester that was interrupted by the two-week swine flu break

Reem El Sissy, psychology major, added that she doesn’t get to have any weekend breaks due to a make-up class for her Religions of the World course which are held every Friday to finish the class material in time. She added that the class has 40 students and air conditioners are the still in use.

The students also didn’t seem to show any concerns about the disease. AUC students still gather in crowded places, take crowded buses, kiss and hug their friends, and they even smoke shisha.

Rana Sarrouf, CMA major, said “we thought that the students’ numbers on the buses will decrease because of the swine flu chaos, instead, 200 more students take the buses now and the buses’ numbers are not increased”

Sheriff El Zimaty, political science major, said “I don’t think that it’s a big deal” he added that he goes with his friends to “time out” café near campus in the 3 hour gap he has to smoke shisha and study.

With almost all of the swine flu cases resulting in recovery, people don’t just think of it as a deadly disease or take it that seriously.

Zimaty added that he knows a girl, Lina Saddek, who had the swine flu and recovered in a week. She told hum that it was just like the common strong cold flu that just needs some rest at home.

In the last couple of decades the hijab phenomenon has became very popular but does that mean that the people are getting more religious? The hijab is supposed to be worn for religious and conservative reasons, but women choose the veil for highly individual reasons; some are pressured by their families, and do not really feel a desire to veil. Others are wearing the veil as a fashion statement. A significant percentage of women wearing the hijab wear it for religious reasons because it was mentioned as an obligation in the holy Qur’an. But not all the veiled women wear it out of religious devotion. For some women, because of the pressure of family or peers, wear the hijab to fit in socially. In Egypt’s poorer areas, all Muslim women are veiled, yet some of them might not even know how to pray. They wear it to feel that sense of belonging to their community. If they are not veiled they feel oppressed, undermined and even disrespected by other people in their community. In such a case, the hijab becomes simply a symbol of membership to a group and not a result of a deep, spiritual belief. Other women wear the hijab to feel ‘’free,’’ meaning that they can then pursue a professional and public social life. Wearing the hijab allows them the free movement outside their house, they can go to schools and universities, work, and travel without the constant fear of them being harassed or disrespected. They feel that they are taken in a more serious way than those who are unveiled. For those women the veil becomes an icon representing physical safety. On the far extreme, women from the upper classes of Egyptian society wear hijab a fashion trend because of peer pressure; they feel that everyone else is doing it and they don’t wish to be left out. The beautiful designer scarves and new trends of wearing it make headscarves very appealing. Young women in Egypt can wear the hijab and still look appealing and sophisticated, especially when they also wear very tight clothing, which undermines the essence for wearing the hijab. If one wears a stunning headscarf to stand out and be noticed, one is not dressing modestly. This type of woman is more likely to take the scarf off when she is tired of wearing it, or when the trend is not longer so popular. Her commitment is fueled by her social life and not her spiritual values. Therefore the motives that drive Egyptian to cover their heads are different according to her social class which determines her role in society. It is this role which defines her behavior. However even lower class women who veil for supposedly religious reasons may not be entirely informed as to why the Quran asks women to cover their heads, and how a woman who covers her head should behave. If a woman who covers her head is also lying, gossiping, stealing or cheating, she is a hypocrite. Likewise women who choose expensive headscarves in an effort to attract attention are also not following the true path of Islam. Overall, there is reason to believe that the masses who veil are doing so out of ignorance or vanity. Therefore there is no evidence that Egypt is truly growing more religious, but only more fanatica

 “it’s becoming a new trend,” said Maie Kamel, psychology major in AUC “Teenagers get married instead of getting into a relationship”

Kamel added that many of her girl friends who didn’t exceed the age of 20 got married in the last couple of years. She said that when their friends got married they thought that getting married was the right thing to do according to the religious aspect and parents’ pressure.

“Yes, I was too young but I thought that getting married is better than being in a relationship with Amr,” said Sarah Khaleel, engineering major in auc and a newly married 20 years student. “My parents are close minded and it’s religiously forbidden.”

She said that the married life is much more difficult than she has previously imagined.

“It’s so hard to study and take care of a one year old baby” said khaleel.  She added that she didn’t think that it would be that hard and that she even made it harder to get pregnant during university. “Amr is always working and I’m taking care of the baby alone, my mom helps sometimes though when I have midterms.”Some couples got married just for sex and its consequences. Alex Wright, sociology major in AUC married his girlfriend just because he got her pregnant.

”I got married at the age of 18, divorced at 21”, said Wright

 He added that he only got married because his girlfriend was pregnant. Both of the couples being students and Wright also working made it too hard for the couples who only wanted to please their parents.

Wright added that two young couples who are friends with him Ourfi married just for the sake of sexual desires. The couples are divorced now, he said.

Some other couples get married through family friends the old fashioned way. Sarah Mesbah is an AUC student majoring IMC. She got divorced last year.

Aya Kamel, her best friend, said “she knew him through family gatherings, got married after 6 months, divorced after two years.”

Kamel added that Mesbah’s husband abused her verbally and physically. She didn’t get to know him well to marry him. His violent side wasn’t obvious at all in the time they were dating.  Mesbah thought that her family knew what’s best for her and she trusted their choice.

Despite of the fact that divorce rate between young couples has increased, some young couples have successful marriages.

Mira George, IMC graduate, said “I’m extremely happy”… “My husband and I are young, but we are responsible, we make compromises and try our best to make it work. Luckily we made it work.”

Mira got married last February, she is 20 years old. Tamer, her husband is 22 years. They are expecting a baby.

Rana khaled, business major, got engaged this month. She is 18 years but she is very happy. She is planning on getting married next September.

Khaled said “it’s the best decision I have made so far. I love feeling committed and I can’t wait to get married.”

 Lead In: Egyptian angry crowds gathered Infront of the Algerian embassy demanding the departure of the Algerian ambassador as a civilized pay back to what the Algerians did to the Egyptians in Sudan. 

on the way back home,Thursday after classes, and after taking this new empty road heading toward rehab city escaping the ring road and the traffic there, It took us more than usual to go back home and that happened more than once this week. I though about it for a while and I found out that the day we imagined as the day with the traffic jam that would prevent any car from moving is coming soon. This day is really near. I heard that the average speed for a car inside Cairo is 20 Km, that means that if u want to go from Heliopolis to 6th of October which is 60 km away, it will take you 3 hours by your 20 km average speed, so consider yourself lucky if you go in less than that. The problem is as I’ve heard and found lots of logic in this reason, is that the number of cars and people are increasing while the roads and traffic network is not expanding on the same rate nor capability. The vertical expansion of Cairo is increasing the number of inhabitants while using one designed to handle 10 millions inhabitants living in the 80′s.plus the corruption letting building owners rent the parking level area for stores and restaurants. Also the driving behavior for Egyptians is a key role. We are not organized unless there is a big punishment waiting for us. if u have been driving in Egypt for some time, you have experienced being stalled in your car because people getting married and making a big deal out of it in the middle of the road with their cars, blocking anyone who is passing by, making big noise with their horns and finally coming out of the window to dance over ‘’Saad el Soghayar’’ music (local low class music). My family and I are really considering moving out to somewhere else rather than Heliopolis to avoid the traffic and its stress. Maybe rehab or somewhere in the 5^th settlement would be much better.

Accidents… why every couple of days we hear that someone died in a car accident, killed someone, or crashed the car? Especially after moving to the new campus, the ring road is very tempting for speeding. For AUC students, most of the guys have really nice cars that can reach a very high speed in seconds. That’s when accidents happen. I have been in auc for 5 semesters, since we moved to the new campus, two of my very close friends had car accidents and totally destroyed their cars, the brother of Maha Ayoub, a colleague died in a terrible car accident, and Sherine Hany hit an old lady in the rehab road and she almost killed her. Another problem is that many students finish their classes very late and the way back is dark, and it’s a high way. Even if they are careful and they don’t drive very fast, the trucks and other drivers are driving fast so its even harder to control others and make them drive slower. For me, I had one accident myself last semester on my way back from university. A truck was driving in the opposite direction in my lane and also fast so I had nothing to do but suddenly turning left. The car behind me crashed into my car. The truck driver didn’t even stop to see what happened because of him and he was out of sight in no time. Since that day im not even allowed to drive to school, instead I was stuck with the bus.

 I believe that the there should be more campaigns addressed to students telling them to slow down and save their lives because no matter how fast their cars are, they can never control the people in front of them and they are jeopardizing everyone’s life. The campaign should also include everyone but at least we can start with ourselves and make our driving habits better before judging other people.

i went to sharm el sheikh with my relatives in the last eid break and it was amazing. I was really happy that this place got back on its feet after the bombings that almost destroyed its reputation and made the huge tourism rate decrease. It was crowded and full of life as usual. There were even more tourists than Egyptians there. One thing though caught my attention there, which was the way the workers there mistreat the tourists. I felt that they were really abusing them. For example, the vendors of the gifts and souvenirs there whenever they see a tourist they raise their prices to the triple or even more. At one gift shop, I bought a scarf for my sister for 35 Egyptian pounds. When an American bought the same scarf, she paid 50 dollars for it! That’s not the only abuse I noticed. The taxi drivers charge the foreigners way much more than they charge the Egyptians.  Also the rates of snorkeling, renting boats, food, safari, and even clubbing tickets tremendously vary between Egyptians and foreigners, I don’t like that and I believe that it’s totally not ethical. They should be fair when it comes to prices not only because it’s unethical, but also because the image of Egyptians is hurt with their actions. Tourists believe that the Egyptians are thieves and are trying to steal their money. I think there should be an intervention from an upper hand and try to get this fixed. Maybe a possible solution is having a fixed price for everyone for the same goods and services. This way the tourists would feel more comfortable and safe. Some of the tourists might think that Egypt was beautiful and a great place to go but wouldn’t come again because he felt unsafe and used.  A huge part of the Egyptian economy relies on tourism so I think that this issue should be taken more seriously.

Even though whenever I talked with anyone before about leaving this country I always agreed and had so many reasons to however, 18/11 made me realize how much I really care about this country. I didn’t sleep all night to watch the TV and see what was happening in Sudan. I was very worried about the Egyptians there and was really furious and angry about the situation. I felt a strong sense of community towards this country and everyone I knew did too. The whole population of Egypt united emotionally and physically because they felt abused and disrespected. There were a lot of angry groups on Facebook and everyone joined to show how angry they are. A lot of people went In front of the Algerian embassy in zamalek to show how they hated Algeria and that they wanted the Algerian ambassador out of this country. Everyone, including the oppressed felt empowered and equal to the other Egyptians. Women, men, poor, and rich had the same cause and shared feelings and beliefs. Even though we lost and some Egyptians were abused, I believe that day was a turning point in the history of Egypt. Football can unite people and give them a great sense of belonging towards this country. Everyone cared about the fellow Egyptians and was really worried about their safety when they were trapped in Sudan. Even the president, Hosny mubarak, called some of the people there insuring them that everything will be ok and calmed them down. He kept his promise and sent some of the army to Sudan to bring back the Egyptians. When I saw people raising the flags even though we lost, I started to feel that there is hope for Egypt to become better. It had the potentials before but the people being not united always held it back. Maybe if the people kept on having this sense of belonging they would want to make their country better, work harder for that goal, and help the Egyptians in need.