2008 Woodie Awards
An American student in Cairo
Greg Collins is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at gcollins@student.umass.edu.
Issue date: 9/2/08 Section: Editorial / Opinion
One group of people hail primarily from the Middle East, they commute to school in a dirty, dusty, smelly city of 20 million people and eat falafel and shawerma daily.
The other group of people come from all over America. They live on or right off campus, and their dietary patterns are dictated by Pita Pita and Domino's "5-5-5," deal.
At first glance, there is a distinct contrast between the former - the student body at The American University in Cairo (AUC), where I studied last spring - and the latter - the students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Among the most obvious of the differences is the religious factor. The vast majority of AUC students are Sunni Muslim, the predominant branch of Islam in Egypt.
Here, of course, there are a variety of religious sects practiced openly and promoted by various student organizations, such as Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism.
In addition, many females at AUC wear hijabs, the veil worn over the shoulder and hair, as a sign of modesty. While here clothes of both males and females are worn more liberally.
Most AUC students commute to school by either a family car or by a driver hired by their family to transport them (many of the cars these drivers operated were the Jaguars of the Middle East in comparison to the dilapidated taxis I rode in frequently).
At UMass, students are required to live on campus for their first two years, and then they can choose whether or not to live off campus.
AUC students were among the most privileged people in their age group in the Middle East. Many of their parents were diplomats or held high positions in lucrative Gulf oil companies, enabling students to travel around the world to places like the United States, Russia and Australia.
The sad reality was that many other Egyptians and Arabs did not have the same opportunities as these students because of the limited socioeconomic freedoms in the region.
The other group of people come from all over America. They live on or right off campus, and their dietary patterns are dictated by Pita Pita and Domino's "5-5-5," deal.
At first glance, there is a distinct contrast between the former - the student body at The American University in Cairo (AUC), where I studied last spring - and the latter - the students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Among the most obvious of the differences is the religious factor. The vast majority of AUC students are Sunni Muslim, the predominant branch of Islam in Egypt.
Here, of course, there are a variety of religious sects practiced openly and promoted by various student organizations, such as Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism.
In addition, many females at AUC wear hijabs, the veil worn over the shoulder and hair, as a sign of modesty. While here clothes of both males and females are worn more liberally.
Most AUC students commute to school by either a family car or by a driver hired by their family to transport them (many of the cars these drivers operated were the Jaguars of the Middle East in comparison to the dilapidated taxis I rode in frequently).
At UMass, students are required to live on campus for their first two years, and then they can choose whether or not to live off campus.
AUC students were among the most privileged people in their age group in the Middle East. Many of their parents were diplomats or held high positions in lucrative Gulf oil companies, enabling students to travel around the world to places like the United States, Russia and Australia.
The sad reality was that many other Egyptians and Arabs did not have the same opportunities as these students because of the limited socioeconomic freedoms in the region.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Mac
posted 9/02/08 @ 1:45 PM EST
wow what a fantastic piece of rehashed journalism. This budget article gets put up somewhere each semester; outside of the truly illuminating contrast-and-compare, this one wins points for bluntly calling Cairo "smelly" and stereotyping Egyptians as felafel and shawerma-fueled wretches. (Continued…)
JS
posted 9/04/08 @ 6:47 PM EST
I've got to agree in saying that this article is pure rubbish, Praise America & Israel? I don't believe in universities in the United States we sit and Praise Egypt or any other Middle Eastern nation for that matter. (Continued…)
TJ
posted 9/05/08 @ 9:28 AM EST
Collins is right on... Egypt needs to step up their game and get the same freedoms that Americans and Israelis worked for.
Stuart
posted 9/09/08 @ 8:42 AM EST
Dear Greg,
Consider this possibility. It is not the AUC environment that lacks the free-flow of information, as you claim, but rather your own highly circumscribed worldview. (Continued…)
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