An Underground Lost in Translation

Well. Another day of school, yes. But as I am typing this post, the minds and bodies of the students of the Arabic Language Institute are elsewhere. Indeed before the BBC downstairs, or in their rooms on laptops frantically working to translate jihad websites into English, or on the phone. Nearly a quarter of the eighty ALI students are British nationals, hence the phones here have been tied down for the past hour. The British girl in the room next to me with parents and sister in South Kensington has been on her cell the last hour to no avail getting through. I don't really know where this is going, but given the fact the eighty of us have chosen to spend our summer in the Middle East studying Arabic, the occurence of at least seven bomb blasts in London of al-Qaeda orientation is a very, very big deal to us. The Arab world and all it currently encompasses has come to define many of the people here.

American and Egyptian professors were flying through the halls to computers to began translating from these websites with contacts to various government officials in their hands. As a reporter on the BBC mentioned shortly after Tony Blair's (in my opinion, a very simple, and yet very powerful and hanging on his next word) speech from Gleneagles, the BBC had just began configuring a rough translation of a European jihadist's website, but they were having difficulty clarifying their claim of responsibility. Is this what my career holds? Maybe. All of the AP and Reuters feeds being delivered into the major networks concerning those responsible have Cairo on the dateline. This being one from AP. Reuters' website's server appears to have crashed.

And I found this McDonald's advertisement last night on the back cover page of a popular Egyptian magazine. Reminscent of a classic Jihad versus McWorld. As you can see, we have a woman in Arabian dress, asking "What is the real Oriental taste," with a peel away tab stating, "I've found the McArabia...and I owe it all to McDonald's." Seriously, not kidding. A McArabia is Syrian bread, vegetables and (I think) beef. It would have been a separate post of its own, but given how outraged and uncomfortable I was made by advertisement, and today's events in a city I've lived in and loved, it seemed a natural marriage in fundamentalist fury with the West.

Anyhow, I'm studying for the afternoon figuring my weekend out. All students were advised not to use the Metro or public bus system for the next 24 hours. That seems extreme, but I am not questioning it.

POSTSCRIPT: In other news, the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq was executed today according to an al-Qaeda website. My predication proved incorrect.

And on an entirely different note, a very happy 3rd birthday to one Mister Leo Spencer Williams today.