Transplanted Englishman Paul Rogers writes about music and lifestyle for LAWeekly, and reports for us from the Characters of Egypt Festival:"Does he have to keep using that bright pink cell phone?"
groaned the lady atop the camel in front of mine as she pointed her camera down
at the little lad leading the lanky beast. My fellow tourist was lamenting the otherwise exotic, trapped-in-time
image in her viewfinder--the boy's hungry eyes and tousled hair emerging from
a traditional earth-toned robe--being tainted by a disappointingly familiar, decidedly 21st-century fuchsia
Motorola.
That happened in Tunisia a few years back, but I was
reminded of it while perusing the Characters of Egypt Festival in that
country's Eastern Desert last weekend. The event returned for its second year to a sandy valley within sight of
the Red Sea, about 30 miles south of the rapidly developing resort town of
Marsa Alam. An enthralling
coming-together of numerous tribal "teams" representing indigenous peoples from
all over Egypt, it was a chance to witness their poetry, dancing, jewelry,
music, and racing (camel/running/hopping) in and around an array of outsized
tents. Organized by the Wadi
Environmental Science Centre (WESC) and the Egyptian Desert Pioneers Society
(EDPS), Characters of Egypt gathered around 160 of the country's estimated 300,000
tribespeople.
With fewer than 500 tourists attending on each of
its three days and a charmingly loose "desert time" schedule (and despite the
presence of sponsors like Infiniti and EgyptAir), Characters of Egypt offered
illuminating peeps into numerous threatened cultures in an unusually informal
setting. But it was also a
place where I found myself, like the lady in Tunisia, trying to influence
(rather than truly experience) my surroundings.
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See, Egypt is rich in those clichéd yet tempting "juxtaposition of old and new/poor and rich/simple and complex" photo ops. From my 15th-floor room in the Conrad Cairo, I could see chickens, geese, and goats foraging amidst satellite dishes on apartment rooftops; from bus windows I noticed rudimentary desert shacks sprouting incongruous Coca-Cola signs; in Luxor, a gaudy knock-off Real Madrid soccer shirt jumped out amidst the monochrome galabiyya robes of Muslims' prayer. Yet I found myself, camera in hand, trying to orchestrate still more such contrasts at Characters of Egypt: "Excuse me, Mister Bedouin Tribesman--could you put that cigarette back in your mouth for ironic effect?"; "I say, passerby in traditional Egyptian outfit, can you hold that laptop a little higher so it's in-frame?"
My attempts at staging these situations were just as distasteful as the woman in Tunisia trying to artificially avoid them. In addition to the cringe-inducing, patronizing/arrogant overtones of such behavior, it's also self-defeating, as with it we contaminate the very reality we trekked thousands of miles to witness (yes, even poor folks in remote places use cell phones--or would we prefer that they stay in the Stone Age for the benefit of our holiday snaps?). By trying to control what we witness on our travels, we only create fake memories that are more "us" than "them," and which conform to our comfort zones rather than challenge them. In so doing, we neuter the very mind-expanding, authentic adventure we (presumably) left home for in the first place.
Photos: Paul Rogers
Egypt - Africa - Tunisia - Paul Rogers - Society and Culture]]>
While the bulk of us will be lounging around in pj's, basting in post-turkey tryptophan-induced lethargy, our intrepid travel writer Andrew Nelson will be hitting the streets of Miami armed only with his BlackBerry. Andrew's plan is to rely on the Twitterverse to help him navigate the city this weekend, so it's up to you to help him get around. You can be a bird on his shoulder, even if it is only from your couch. Follow him @andrewnelson and send him your tips using the hashtag #andymiami. 
