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Fwd: Re: Muslims and Muslim Cultures-- accuracy
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From: Pauline Tso <paulinetso2_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 09:44:29 -0700
I have never been to Cairo, but just to play Devil's Advocate...
I have been to Beijing five times since 2004 and in the space of those ten years, have seen incredible changes at an amazing pace. I don't have statistics to prove it, but I would say that 10 years ago, there were easily twice as many bicycles and a quarter of the number of cars on the streets as there are today. There were three (or four?) subway lines in 2004, now there are seventeen! Yet even today, you can still see the occasional street vendor, complete with horse-drawn cart, selling vegetables and fruit from the curb, and a scattering of traditional hutongs still exist.
"The Day of Ahmed's Secret" was published in 1995. Perhaps there are no longer camels in the streets of Cairo today. But just maybe, 20 years ago...?
- Pauline
On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 7:21 AM, Elsa Marston <elsa.marston_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> Since Seemi Aziz has also raised questions about THE DAY OF AHMED'S
> SECRET, I'd like to say something more about accuracy. (I discussed this
> in a long letter in *Bookbird *a few years ago.) For the most part I
> think Ted Lewin did a wonderful job in capturing the essence of street
life
> in the old city in Cairo; but there are errors, big ones, that I think are
> worth talking about.
>
> Camels would be most unlikely in downtown Cairo, and as for
> "caravans"--laden with goodness- knows-what and covered with trappings
like
> camels that tourists ride at the Pyramids--No, definitely not! Both the
> text and the illustration, though charming to look at, are absolutely
> false. ("But in the city are the caravans of camels and their riders who
> have crossed it [the desert] many times.....} I'm tempted to think it's a
> joke. Anyway, it's false information that has been added, it would seem,
> just for exotic appeal. Muslims, and especially Arabs, are very sensitive
> about these hoary old stereotypes, which seem intended to push them out of
> the modern world and back to some sort of primitive or at best quaintly
> old-fashioned world.
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Received on Fri 15 Aug 2014 11:44:56 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 09:44:29 -0700
I have never been to Cairo, but just to play Devil's Advocate...
I have been to Beijing five times since 2004 and in the space of those ten years, have seen incredible changes at an amazing pace. I don't have statistics to prove it, but I would say that 10 years ago, there were easily twice as many bicycles and a quarter of the number of cars on the streets as there are today. There were three (or four?) subway lines in 2004, now there are seventeen! Yet even today, you can still see the occasional street vendor, complete with horse-drawn cart, selling vegetables and fruit from the curb, and a scattering of traditional hutongs still exist.
"The Day of Ahmed's Secret" was published in 1995. Perhaps there are no longer camels in the streets of Cairo today. But just maybe, 20 years ago...?
- Pauline
On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 7:21 AM, Elsa Marston <elsa.marston_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> Since Seemi Aziz has also raised questions about THE DAY OF AHMED'S
> SECRET, I'd like to say something more about accuracy. (I discussed this
> in a long letter in *Bookbird *a few years ago.) For the most part I
> think Ted Lewin did a wonderful job in capturing the essence of street
life
> in the old city in Cairo; but there are errors, big ones, that I think are
> worth talking about.
>
> Camels would be most unlikely in downtown Cairo, and as for
> "caravans"--laden with goodness- knows-what and covered with trappings
like
> camels that tourists ride at the Pyramids--No, definitely not! Both the
> text and the illustration, though charming to look at, are absolutely
> false. ("But in the city are the caravans of camels and their riders who
> have crossed it [the desert] many times.....} I'm tempted to think it's a
> joke. Anyway, it's false information that has been added, it would seem,
> just for exotic appeal. Muslims, and especially Arabs, are very sensitive
> about these hoary old stereotypes, which seem intended to push them out of
> the modern world and back to some sort of primitive or at best quaintly
> old-fashioned world.
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Received on Fri 15 Aug 2014 11:44:56 AM CDT
