EGYPT: Cairo's hovering 'black cloud'

Fires burn in the provinces, and mornings break smoky in the city.

It’s harvest time. The rice has been gathered, and farmers light the chaff. The Cairo skyline -- smudged gray even on good days -- turns ominous, an ashy, strange-scented cloak. Lungs grow scratchy. Eyes water. 

Is the annual rice harvest alone to blame for what Egyptians call the ‘black cloud’? Many say, definitely. But there are other theories and myths: Military maneuvers kicking up sand in the desert, dust storms, rubbish fires, global warming, autumn fog off the Nile or, perhaps, all of these mingling with the smoke from rice farms to create a sky of gloom.

Some days are worse than others, but even on the “clear” afternoons the horizon seems tinged with smoke. Egypt is not known for environmental protection, and Cairo, a city of 18 million, is streaked in air the shades of mustard dust and pepper. 

"It has been 10 years since we first saw the black cloud," said Dr. Mostafa Ghoneim, a specialist in respiratory illnesses. "The government and the Ministry of Health never put any effort into investigating such a phenomenon despite the diseases many are suffering because of it."

The problem is larger than the burning of rice straw "because smoke that spreads from these burnings can only have limited effect and shouldn’t reach Cairo with the strength we see here. Cairo alone has more than 12,000 factories and 2 million vehicles," said Ghoneim. "The black cloud is most dangerous to people with sensitive eyes, as well as children. Children’s lungs become very vulnerable when inhaling such smoke, and they can easily develop asthmas once exposed to smoke for long."

The harvest fires in the Nile Delta will burn until mid-November. Until then, shutters stay dirty, windshields gritty and the sky is a plague, descending.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: A policeman views Cairo's '"black cloud." Credit: AFP/Getty Images

IRAN: Old trees cut in name of Islamic purity

The daily Iranian newspaper Etemaad today covered a funny but sad story about the cutting down of two centuries-old mulberry trees by authorities under the pretext of fighting local superstitions.

The story comes out of the town of Rezvanshahr, along the Caspian Sea province of Gilan, where lush forests are increasingly destroyed by  urbanization and pollution.

There the local head of an Islamic charity named "Mr. Eshkavari" has decided to tear down a pair of old trees on properties he owns because some people are placing candles and ribbons at them as part of an ancient ritual.

Eshkavari was quoted as saying that "votive offerings to the trees have no justification is Islamic precepts."

ISRAEL: How green is my army?

It's early in the morning and the young guys learn about the desert ecosystem and the sex life of porcupines. They might be biology majors on a field trip but they're carrying guns: meet Company B of the next generation of IDF officers, in environmental training.

The Israeli army lost large parts of its stomping grounds when Sinai was returned to Egypt but it's got to  train somewhere. Many army bases, including the officers' school of Bahad Ehad, are located in the southern Negev desert constituting 60% of the country's territory.

 

Fifty percent of the Negev is fire zones, 20% nature reserves. Another 20% overlap (the other 10% is residential/infrastructure). All army activity in the overlaps must be coordinated between liaison officers and park rangers assigned to the area.

ISRAEL: Politics threaten unique natural expanse

Last week, Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection honored 12 citizens with lifetime achievement awards. Among the winners were five of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, or SPNI.

The society warmly congratulated the winners but boycotted the ceremony to protest the environment minister's support of a decision they denounce as a "black day for the environment, planning and democracy in Israel" and the bluntest instance of aggressive political intervention in planning.

The national planning and construction committee had approved plans for Mirsham, a new residential community to sprawl three hilltops in the area of Lachish, a beautiful expanse of untouched nature already slated for protection for its flowers, wildlife and historic heritage sites.

Actually, planning policy prefers expansion of  communities rather than constructing new ones, especially in open natural areas. The communities south of Israel's crowded urban center are smallish and rural. Modestly populated, most are eager to take in new families to rejuvenate older communities, and inexpensive housing opportunities are not lacking. Besides, two new communities had been approved.

So why carve up a beautiful landscape and spend billions on infrastructure for a community no one really needs?

ISRAEL: Natural surprises underground

Start digging anywhere in Israel and you're bound to run into bones or an archeological site, as just about every spot of the ancient land had been settled by someone at some time. Construction projects are frequently held up because of archeological findings and burial grounds, for both scientific as well as religious reasons.

But some of the best underground surprises found in Israel are not human-made at all.

In early May a tractor carrying out development work for a sewage line exposed the small entrance to a cave in Israel's western Galilee. The fortunate few called to enter were left in awe of the spectacular stalactites, as well as important prehistoric findings that include a human skull and bones of animals long gone from the Israeli landscape.

Researchers' first impression is that the cave dates to the upper Paleolithic period, though further studies will attempt to determine whether it had been in use before that. Dr. Ofer Marder, head of the prehistory branch of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who saw the cave, said that in the last 40 to 50 years "no cave has been found with such a wealth of prehistoric finds and certainly not inside such a lovely stalactite cave."

ISRAEL: From the sewer to the sea

This one is not for readers with delicate stomachs. Consider yourselves warned.

Much has rightly been made of the myriad deprivations suffered by residents of the Gaza Strip because of the 10-month-long economic siege of the territory imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas took control last summer.

Merchants have run short of everything, from auto parts to diapers; an alarming percentage of the population now lives on international aid; and all but emergency surgical procedures are put on the back burner because of shortages of most medical supplies.

Now comes a new sign of Gaza's desperate state — one that should disturb fans of the Mediterranean beaches in Israel and Egypt.

A new United Nations report states that public utilities officials in Gaza have pumped millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Mediterranean over the last three months.The shortage of fuel and constant power cuts make it impossible to treat the sewage, the report states:

Full sewage treatment requires 14 continuous days of uninterrupted power supply which cannot occur due to daily power cuts and insufficient fuel to operate power-supplying and back-up generators."

According to the report, the sewage flows northward toward the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.

— Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Photo: Coming soon to a beach near you. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

EGYPT: Chaos, war and traffic

Egyptians ruefully ponder the traffic on their streets and the chaos in their hearts. They seek, especially in rattling, boisterous Cairo, anecdotes and asides to describe their exasperating predicaments. Here’s a sobering assessment from writer Suleiman Gouda, who recently mused in the newspaper Al-Wafd:

What’s really strange is that when an Egyptian is in a capital other than Cairo, he/she behaves well every step they take and turns from a chaotic creature, who is used to unlimited chaos in his home country, into a civilized person.

Gouda goes on to say that he was startled by a glimpse at traffic statistics:

When a recent report says that the number of those killed (and injured) in accidents in Egypt hit 73,000 in a single year, this only means what is happening in our streets is a war, not an ordinary movement of traffic. The U.S. has been fighting in Iraq for five years, and the number of its soldiers killed did not exceed 4,000!

Yet, somehow, Egyptian friendliness and a wry sense of humor overcome the din of horns and the screech of brakes in a tangle of rolling eyes and shared, knowing smiles.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Cairo gridlock. Credit: auto.howstuffworks.com   

IRAN: Space to breathe in downtown Tehran

Climb up the stairs out of downtown Tehran’s Galoubandak subway stop near the Grand Bazaar and you can’t help but be astounded. A sidewalk that used to be packed full of shoppers, cart pushers and motorcyclists, leaving no elbow room for any of them, is now a scene of old women and men relaxing on benches, reading newspapers, gossiping or chatting.

The Grand Bazaar was once the hub of all consumer goods filtering into the country. It’s declined in economic power in recent decades, in part because of global economic trends beyond Iran's control. But the motor vehicle pollution and congestion in downtown Tehran have not helped either, driving away many potential customers.