Food Safety in Egypt: A Lecture at AUC

By: Amira Mahmoud, Farah Abdelkader, and Farrah El Essawi



Cairo, Egypt – On Monday, March 31, the Chemistry Club at the American University in Cairo hosted a lecture on “Food Safety in Egypt” given by Dr. Tarek El-Arabi, assistant professor of agriculture at Ain Shams University. El-Arabi shared his own opinions about the “safety” of the food industry in Egypt.

El-Arabi has been trying to raise awareness about the gravity of hazardous food in Egypt for many years. He has stated that food safety should be applied in each stage of the food supply chain, beginning with how we produce the food until we dispose of it. But apparently, this is not the case in Egypt.

Egyptian food contains different forms of hazards, including physical or chemical hazards, such as small rocks and nails found in our bread or polyvinyl chloride, a chemical used in plastic packaging. This chemical causes “severe health damage,” explains El-Arabi and it even “takes around two million years to degrade.”

The food safety in Egypt is below zero and the only thing we do is count on personal references for where to eat, which El-Arabi believes is highly dangerous. Just because somebody did not get sick eating at a certain place does not mean that the underlying affects of the hazardous foods will not eventually show.

El-Arabi was asked, “Would word of mouth create awareness, though?” He responded by explaining that while he believes this is not enough, it is definitely a start. He added that when there is a demand for a certain service by the people, the food industries will eventually have to comply. Yet, this demand is not currently prevalent.

Madonna Nassif, head of the Chemistry Club, had contacted El-Arabi to give the lecture. Nassif believes that this topic is important because it “would interest all students, not only chemistry or science students,” and according to the information El-Arabi had to share, one could say it would. This lecture was educational to those attending seeing as it enlightened them on the safety of food which is something we are exposed to everyday.

"Al-Mutanabbi In His Own Words" Lecture

By Yara Al Kaweesh, Yasmine Tawfik, Yara El Said

CAIRO, Egypt-  Dr. Adam Talib, assistant professor of Classical Arabic Literature in

the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations (ARIC), gave a lecture called "Al-

Mutanabbi In His Own Words," on Monday in the Rare Books and Special

Collections Library of the American University in Cairo.

 Talib started his lecture by introducing Al-Mutanabbi himself. He quoted

that he is "the most famous poet of Arabic literature in about 1400 years, he's much

more impressive than Shakespeare, so he's a big deal." He expressed that the reason

why he chose to talk about him is because how he is to many Iraqis a national and a

pan-Arab figure. 

Further in the lecture, Talib mentions the strong relationship between Al-

Mutanabbi and Saif Al Dawla. Al-Mutanabbi had a powerful dual rule during the

ruling of Saif Al Dawla, and was the official representative of that kingdom.

Talib also mentioned that Al-Mutanabbi received a lot of criticism for his

writings. People criticized his tendency of being paid for his poems. People also felt

that he did not write enough poems about love and praising the Prophet, yet focused

on praising the ruler. Therefore,Talib claims that people misunderstand the role

of poets in the society.

When Talib concluded his lecture, he received a great round of applause.

Some people started asking questions. Their main interest was why he chose to talk

about Al-Mutanabbi. Talib explained that it was because he is a pan-Arab figure

and that there is a larger exhibition called "Al Mutannabi Street Starts Here" where

he was responsible to talk about the person behind the street's name. This lecture

was part of "Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here" exhibition, which is part of an

international tour by a San Francisco-based project. The Rare Books and Special

Collections Library, AUC, is hosting this exhibition. The exhibition began on 5

March 2014 and will end on 30 August 2014, from Sundays to Thursdays at 10 a.m.

to 3:30 p.m.

Nadine Awadalla, an AUC student, who attended the lecture said "it was

really informative, the professor gave us a couple of examples of Al-Mutanabbi's

poetry and he talked about his influences." So the lecture seemed a success.

Spinoza on the Relationship between the Mind, Body, and Technology

By: Hanan Khayal, Nourhan Tomoum and Salma Rizk

View all

Get your own

CAIRO, Egypt - The Department of Philosophy and the Philosophy Club held the lecture “Spinoza, the Mind/Body, and Technology” by Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, associate professor of Philosophy and Dean of HUSS, who discussed Benedict Spinoza’s conception of the relationship between the mind, body, and technology.

         Bowditch began the lecture by giving a brief biography of Spinoza. Benedict Spinoza was a prominent philosopher of the 17th century whose ideas are still popular today. He then discussed some of Spinoza’s speculations. “Human beings are modes of God and nature who strive to expand their power of being," said Bowditch. He explained how passion could literally make a person less powerful physically. 

         Spinoza’s ideas revolve around the fact that there’s only one substance: the universe, which God created, and therefore, everything revolves around the idea of “God.” The lecturer continued to explain the relationship between the mind and body. He gave the example of how the creation of something like the printing press allowed for massive spread of books like Luther and Erasmus. Such books expanded the human minds and suggested new ways of thinking. Also, “The internet is simultaneously a physical and mental entity,” Bowditch emphasized.

         At the end of the lecture, Bowditch related Spinoza's classic ideas to modern times. He explained how technology played an vital role in our mental and physical lives. In the interview, when asked about further notes on Spinoza, Bowditch said, “Spinoza is a useful text, a useful metaphysical picture, saying what's going on.”

         The lecture was hosted in The American University in Cairo last Sunday in the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Hall. Steffen Stelzer, former chair of the Department of Philosophy, members of the Philosophy Club, students, and faculty members also attended the lecture. 

The Object-Oriented Approach to Philosophy

By: Sarah Hassan, Hania Elkady and Mayar Maged

Cairo, Egypt - The American University in Cairo hosted a lecture on “Object-Oriented Method in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Art and Architecture” on Sunday, March 30, where Dr. Graham Harman introduced his new approach in philosophy, discussing the various criticisms posted against his view.

Harman initiated the event by discussing the term object-oriented, as he assumed the audience had no background about the method. Apparently, the term is driven from computer science in which he borrowed from the object-oriented programming without having prior knowledge in the field.

Although he uses many terminologies, Harman stuck with naming the term “object-oriented” because he realized that people became more familiar with it.

Harman defined what an object is, and how its definition varies from ordinary people to the one that he believes in. According to him, an object for most people tends to be limited to midsize durable things and does not include ideas, events and large collections of objects like armies, countries or universities.

Despite what others perceive, he believes that the definition of an object is broader. An object contains all of those cartoon characters like squares or circles. It is also anything that has a certain individual consistency to it as well as anything that cannot be reduced either to its component piece or to its effects.

“I think his view goes against most famous ones and many people attack him on the Internet. I was eager to hear what he has to say about this,” Mathew Crippen, philosophy professor, said as he was commenting on the fact that Harman has a lot of opponents against his object-oriented approach to philosophy.

When asked what he has to say about the criticism held against him, Harman replied, “criticism can be a good sign, especially if you are being criticized for opposite reasons. Some people say I’m too based on science, some people say I don’t take science seriously enough. It’s a good sign that both of them are missing the point.”

Study Abroad in Denmark: Journalism Students Share their Experience

By Youmna Hashem, Hana Koueider and Rowaida Khidre. 

CAIRO, Egypt – On Sunday, three journalism students at the American University in Cairo shared their Danish study abroad experience with their peers and faculty. The panel discussion was an hour long and took place in the Mary Cross Hall.

     Ola Noureldin, Nour El Afandi and Yara Enany took turns introducing themselves and telling the audience about their experiences in a land foreign to them. They spoke candidly about their fall 2013 semester abroad at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark.

     Nour, the first to take the floor, explained that Aarhus, the city in which the three young women stayed, is a student city that is rich in cultural and ethnic diversity. “You’re going to become open minded,” she said. “You’re going to deal with people who are completely different to you,” Nour added. She went on to say that, although she felt homesick at first, she adapted quickly and began enjoying everything her courses had to offer.

     Yara, the first graduate student to go on this study abroad programme, spoke about the challenges she faced during registration. She explained that, although she initially had some issues finding accredited courses for her master's degree, it worked out to be a “brilliant experience.” Being the only graduate student, Yara’s time at DSMJ was slightly different to her undergraduate counterparts. She was given the opportunity to carry out “risk reporting” in collaboration with the United Nations and the EU.

     Ola, a senior, spoke about the teaching approach adopted by her professors at DSMJ. “The teachers don’t spoon feed you the information. They want you to figure out the right way on your own,” she said. She explained that the main difference between education there and education at AUC was the practical application of knowledge. In a post-interview, Ola said she would "advise (students) interested in study abroad to go for it. It's very enriching."

     We spoke with audience member Malak Assad, a journalism student planning on going to DMSJ next fall. When asked what her overall impression was, Malak said, "I see how much (the students) grew there... I'm really looking forward to seeing it."