Egyptian superstar Amr Diab was featured by Spotify on a massive billboard in the heart of Times Square as part of the music streaming company’s attempts to promote music and culture of the Middle East and North Africa. Diab, who in 2016 became the first Egyptian and Arab artist to break a Guinness World Record for breaking the record number of World Music Awards achieved, featured solo in the Spotify advertisement in New York City’s Times Square with the tagline ‘This is Amr Diab’. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Spotify Arabia (@spotifyarabia) on Nov 12, 2019 at 12:59am PST According to Spotify, this is the first time an Egyptian or Arab artist has appeared so prominently on a Times Square billboard. In statements quoted by The National, Spotify MENA’s Managing Director Claudius Boller praises 58-year-old Diab’s legacy. “Experiencing Amr Diab’s devotion to Arabic music for nearly four decades straight and witnessing his fan base expand across the world is beyond incredible,” said Boller, reports The National. “Today we are celebrating Diab’s legacy and we are proud to see him shine so brightly – literally…
Egypt’s Refugees Are Engaging in the Entrepreneurship Scene, and They’re Succeeding
Souad, a refugee from Syria and a mother of four, lost her husband on a failed illegal trip to Europe. Authorities never found his body and the family, which had escaped the airstrikes in Latakia in 2012, ended up with the same fate as thousands of others: broken, through the circumstances of war and political instability. However, Souad’s story was not an obstacle to her career as a certified human development trainer. She resolved to better herself and continue her practice, even while her husband was in Libya, prior to his tragic accident. Initially, the harsh reality of relocating to Egypt forced her to consider starting her own business. Having witnessed the positive effects of communication and training in Syria, namely through a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) course, Souad was keen on sharing her training with other refugees and Egyptian disenchanted from the Egyptian revolution. With time, Souad started giving conferences and talks at numerous universities across the Middle East, inspiring others and taking the stage regularly. Today, she is working on increasing her outreach and empowering other women to follow suit. Indeed, Souad is not the only refugee to have…
The Tech Startup Reviving Egypt’s Marine Life With 3D Printed Coral Reefs
Fabrigate’s 3D printed corals on display at the 2019 Vested Summit (photo: Nour Eltigani/Egyptian Streets) According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN), coral reefs house the world’s most biodiverse ecosystem and directly support more than 500 million people, the majority of whom are in developing countries. Naturally formed out of thin layers of calcium carbonate (limestone), coral reefs have sustained great damage over the past decades due to the effects of climate change—such as warming waters, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation, including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the largest living thing on Earth, which has lost half of its colorful ecosystem and the life it once sustained to heat stress. And since they are crucial to life on Earth, the destruction of coral reefs wouldn’t only wreak havoc on marine life and the ecosystems that depend on it, it would also threaten the world’s food security and ecological balance. In Egypt’s magnificent Red Sea, one of the most climate resilient ecosystems, according to scientists, few instances of coral bleaching (mass mortality) were observed, but the country’s rebounding tourism industry threatens to put additional pressure on marine life. “Coral reefs…
Egypt Launches First Smart Electric Bus Route
Egypt’s Arab Organisation for Industrialisation has started running on Monday the first electric bus route in cooperation with China’s Wanxiang Group Corporation and Egypt’s Transport Company Mowasalat Masr, local media reports. The first route will link Maadi to the Fifth Settlement, and passengers will be able to pay their fares using prepaid smart cards scanned by a machine. The launching ceremony was attended by Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmin Fouad alongside representatives from Shanghai Wanxiang, Mowasalat Masr, United Investment Company, and the Public Transport Authority. The Military Production Ministry signed an agreement earlier in May with Beijing-based automotive company Foton Motor to manufacture 2,000 electric buses in Egypt over the next four years. The vehicles will be assembled by a production plant owned by the Egyptian military; 45% of the components will be sourced in Egypt. Earlier in May, The Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) has signed an MoU with Chinese electric bus manufacturer Shanghai Wanxiang Automotive Co to set up a JV to begin producing electric buses in Egypt. Wu Wei, General Manager of Chinese company Wanxiang, one of the leading companies for the manufacturing of electric buses, said that cooperation between…
‘We Are Not Refugees, We Are Guests’: How Two Syrian Women Are Integrating Communities Together in Egypt
Eight years ago, Shefaa Al Refaai and her sister, Refaa Al Refaai, were just two ordinary Syrian girls from Damascus who had just graduated from university with little experience of the world around them. After the troubles of the revolution in Syria at the time, they left to Egypt as refugees – or as ‘guests’ as they prefer to be called. “We came to Egypt and suffered a lot in the first five or six months, because we did not have any job experiences or any knowledge of the community here, so we tried really hard to integrate, make connections and familiarize ourselves with it,” Shefaa Al Refaai tells Egyptian Streets, “I don’t really like the title ‘refugee’, because I feel as though we are like guests coming inside another person’s home, and like all guests, we should also be protected and cared for.” Sitting by the sea in Alexandria in 2012, Shefaa and her sister saw a little child play across them. Gripped by emotions of homesickness and estrangement in a foreign land, both sisters debated whether the child was Syrian or not, until Shefaa Al Refaai went to…
‘Climate Change Is the Next ISIS’: Meet the World Economic Forum’s First Iraqi Female Board Member
“I decided to do my master’s because I didn’t like my job, I thought, I want to leave this job, but I don’t know what to do, so master’s it is! Even the topic of my master’s thesis I didn’t pick because I didn’t know what to do,” Iraqi entrepreneur and green architect Basima Abdulrahman recounts. Fast forward three years and Abdulrahman seems to have picked up a few things along the way. She now knows how to pioneer sustainable architecture in Iraq through her startup, KESK Green Building Consulting; how to co-chair the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland; and how to shatter the glass ceiling and walk the corridors of global power by becoming the first Iraqi woman and youngest member on the Foundation Board of the Global Shapers Community alongside Chinese billionaire Jack Ma and WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab. Most importantly, however, Abdulrahman knows how to fire up the imagination of the aspiring entrepreneurs and change makers who flocked to Sahl Hasheesh for the 2nd edition of the Vested Summit, the world’s first conscious tech summit, where she spoke about her incredible journey…
Lowest in Decades: Egypt’s Inflation Rate Drops to 2.4%
Egypt’s annual inflation rate dropped to 2.4 percent in October 2019, marking the lowest annual inflation rate in recent records. According to Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt’s national statistics agency, the inflation rate plunged from 17.5 percent in October 2018 to 2.4 percent in October 2019. The last time Egypt’s annual inflation rate was recorded at a similar low level was in 2001 and 2002, where inflation was recorded at 2.43 percent. Since February 2019, the inflation rate has been steadily declining. In June, the inflation rate dropped from 13.2 percent to 8.9 percent. Meanwhile, in September, the inflation rate dropped from 6.7 percent to 4.3 percent. According to CAPMAS, the lower inflation rate is primarily driven by a decline in food and beverage prices. Inflation had peaked in 2017, when it was recorded at an annual rate of 29.5 percent, rivaling high inflation rates recorded in the 1980s. News of the low inflation rate comes months after CAPMAS released a report that revealed 32.5 percent of Egyptians are living below the poverty line – an increase of 4.7 percent from 2015. The increase in the…
Sufis March in Egypt to Celebrate the Birth of Prophet Muhammed
A Sufi march headed by the the Supreme Council for Sufi Orders from Salah Al-Gafary mosque in Cairo to Al Azhar mosque took place in celebration of the birth of the Prophet Mohamed on Saturday, gathering thousands of Sufi worshippers. Shortly after Asr prayer from the Salah Al-Gafary mosque, the Sufi devotees were equipped with microphones and speakers that broadcast religious chants and prayers of Sufi origins. Families distributed also sweets and candy among one another, and the march saw the union of all Sufi orders, such as Al Shazli, Jaafari, Ghazoli, Rifai and others. Egypt has long been home to Sufi communities, which organize annually countless festivals (Mawlids) and celebrations marking birthdays of the Prophet, number of Sheikhs and Islamic figures, including Mawled El Hussein in Cairo. In celebration of the Prophet’s birthday, Egyptians also traditionally celebrate it by eating sweets such as lokum with nuts (malban), peanuts and dried chickpeas with syrup (soudaneya, homoseya) and desiccated coconut treats (gozeya) among others….
Egyptians React to the Sad Death of Haitham Ahmed Zaki
Following the news of the death of actor Haitham Ahmed Zaki early Thursday, son of prominent actor Ahmed Zaki, Egyptians reacted to the news on social media through photos and stories of his tragic life story. At 35-years-old, Haitham Ahmed Zaki was found dead in his apartment in Sheikh Zayed after a sudden collapse, with the cause of his death reported to be related to his blood circulatory system. News outlets and social media pages said he “died like how his mother and father died. He lived for a short time after living alone as an orphan.” https://twitter.com/NFSHesham/status/1192694611015294977 The young artist suffered from loneliness for a long time after both of his parents died from cancer. He insisted on living in his father’s house after his death, which he confirmed in several television interviews before his departure, saying “After the death of my father Ahmed Zaki, I suffered a lot, especially since I remained in his home. I lived the same as my father lived from loneliness.” He joined the film industry at the age of 22, starting his film acting debut in 2006 for the film Halim to fill…