Hicham Maged's blog Acquiring knowledge lead to the acquisition of power

Egypt @ Digital Age

Media simply means the process of delivering materials (data/information) to public via different tools, which is something that had been practiced since dawn of history within different civilisations.

The tools involved in such process had been developed according to the technological human achievement which varied among ‘incisions’, ‘paper prints’, ‘radio broadcasting’, ‘TV broadcasting’ and last but not the least ‘digital broadcasting’ in the current 21st century.

Broadcasting Overview

This process has not merely dealt with delivering the message, but mainly stepped into archiving the material in an attempt to facilitate reaching it either for normal people generally or researches specially in different fields.

Consequently, archiving had been developed according to the technological human achievement which has not only dealt with backing-up the material but stepped into indexing them in a searchable form that make it easily for anyone to find what he/she is looking for in a short time. This is an overview for the concept of media either the mass media or the news media without any technical details.

Broadcast and Beyond

Egypt had started digitizing different media material since the 90s of the last century, either the governmental or non-governmental media outlets. This can be clearly figured out in ‘Newspapers and Magazines’ which have their own websites with digital archives, and this means they are achieving.

Nevertheless, at the end of the 1st decade of the 21st century, we still lack for good archiving systems that facilitate calling back what has been broadcasted in Radio or TV. Citizens have different interests so it is impossible to keep following with all channels, either talk-shows which deal with covering vital issues for the citizen, or documentaries that deal with whatever Egyptian aspects.

In a nutshell, I am simply calling for availability of archived Radio/TV broadcasting of media establishments, either governmental or non, on the internet in an way that make it easy to reach them.

Such archiving shall help a lot in enriching people, either the normal citizens or the researchers in different fields such as: social, economical, political, environmental, and media researchers/students. By the way, this is not science-fiction since many other media outlets are already uploading their content to various broadcasting services like YouTube for example.

Bureaucratic Effect

I myself do not limit the scope of ‘sustainability’ on the natural/built environment; rather I see it capable of enclosing the digital environment. Hence, I can not end this post without mentioning how astonished I felt when an idea of applying Fair Usage Policy (FUP) for internet usage was presented this month in Egypt.

Whether this was a suggestion from local ISP or a governmental idea; I see it as a perfect example on how a bureaucratic mentality can be an obstacle in the way for empowerment of citizens.

C'mon! We are living in the Digital Age which means citizens are looking forward for getting more information for whatever reasons; work, education or even entertainment. Hence we are expecting more speeds to pave the ‘Information Highway’, not to limit the usage!

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. ~ [Thomas Jefferson]

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The Giza Zoo: Boo!

It seems that rumours about transferring Egypt’s Giza Zoo to another place outside Cairo in June 2009 have been partially deactivated by the efforts of Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of ‘The Supreme Council of Antiquities’ who declared parts of it as ‘antiquities’ specially the ‘architectural landmarks’ such as Japanese Kiosk and Citadel Hill.

As an Egyptian Architect, I am supposed to feel happy for such decision however I strangely did not enjoy it that much unless such decision is the first step on the thousands miles way Egypt shall go before we sleep!

An Overview for the Zoo

At first, let me briefly present the zoo since I discovered that many Egyptians know nothing about its history and importance but the name and the location.

Located at the heart of Cairo near the west bank of the Nile River with its northern tip overlooking Cairo University, this 80 Feddan (100 acres) plot embraced a unique collection of animals, birds, and plants species since officially opened for public on March 1st, 1891.

Prior the openning date, Khedive Ismail Pasha (1863-1879), grandson of Muhammed Ali Pasha (1805-1848), was the first Egyptian ruler to think about opening a zoo on the occasion of the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869 however he could not afforded it due to the lake of time and maybe funding, I am not sure of the last.

Since opening, the zoo has played an important role as an institute to study the behaviour of the species collected their, which labelled it as one of the richest places for the wild African animal life, especially that the climate of Egypt helped in preserving the exhibition of such collection. It was the only -and later the largest- zoo in North Africa and Middle East.

Such qualifications nominated it to be one of the founding members of the ‘World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA)’ in the past century. Nevertheless, unfortunately due to many reasons on our own that I want to know, the zoo has been eliminated from WAZA’s international body as the aftermath their investigations back in 2003/2004. Shortly after, its membership was terminated after dues went unpaid.

Reservation not Evacuation

I think it is clear now why I am not happy as supposed to be; it is not only about the ‘architectural value’ of the place -despite its importance which no one can deny of course- however Egypt need to work in parallel on the physical restoration of this unique zoological garden to bring back its label as reputable institute for studding behaviours for the unique collections of the species there.

A basic fact is that what was valid in 1891 is not working in 2009, so I see that such work needs a serious plan that takes into consideration:

• Zoo Managment: A sustainable management systems for a zoological garden to be implemented by speciallits;
• Places and Species: Establishing an up-to-date framework on how to deal with both the architectural places and living creatures;
• Weather: The current changes in Cairo’s weather, specially polution, needs another approach, out of the box.

Campaign + Initiative

If there was a sum of money planned to spend on transferring the zoo to another location, it would have been more useful to implement in the suggested restoration.

On the other hand, I do believe that many scientists and activists either locally or globally, might be interested in such plan, so what about launching a campaign that may lead to an initiative to restore Giza Zoo back? I am thinking about a model that may lead to establish partnership between NGO/NPO and the government, something like what happened in Al-Azhar Park in Cairo as a part of the ‘Aga-Khan Trust for Culture Programme’, and of course with a different scope of work.

A sustainable development for our zoo might makes it an extraordinary opportunity for regular tourism and scientific studies that can nourish in case we worked on this passionately. Just imagine the place as workshop for kids who want to know more about the already places species! Endless ideas can be generated and fund the project too.

I do believe we are not talking about a luxurious plan but indeed an essential one to restore and improve the life of the different living species their plus working on decreasing polution in the core of our capital, Cairo. Hey! we are not strating from the begining.

p.s. I found a website that claim ‘Welcome to Official Egypt Zoo Website’ and it seems no update available since 2006 so it will be a nice idea to develop it too! Nevertheless I also wonders why the domain is not ‘.gov.eg’ since it claims being official?!

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. ~ [Milton Berle]

Related Sites

• Egyptian Zoo

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