Columnists this week oscillated between grief over Asia's catastrophe and assessing the outlook for 2005. Gamal Nkrumah reviews both Yesterday's papers spotlighted President Hosni Mubarak's lightning visit to the Saudi capital Riyadh. The visit came in the context of preparations for the Arab summit scheduled in Algiers and this month's Iraqi and Palestinian elections. Mubarak's mediating role was highlighted as Egypt is spearheading efforts to bridge the political divide between Saudi Arabia and Libya and ease tension between the two countries. Diplomatic niceties aside, the tsunami disaster dominated the headlines this week as the horrendous scale of the catastrophe preoccupied the pundits. The spiralling death toll, the health hazards and heavy economic costs incurred by the disaster-stricken countries were the focus of numerous reports, editorials and commentaries. "Three new earthquakes hit southeast Asia", ran the front page headline of the national daily Al-Gumhuriya last Thursday. The following day, the paper focussed on Egyptian emergency relief efforts in the face of the growing threat of epidemics and the need to distribute food aid to the survivors of the tsunamis rendered homeless. The paper highlighted President Mubarak's personal involvement in Egypt's emergency relief effort. "Mubarak directs Egypt's response to Asia's tsunami catastrophe and orders emergency relief to the countries battered by the earthquake", ran the front page banner of Al-Gumhuriya 's Friday edition. "The biggest rescue and relief operation in history to save the victims of the Asian disaster and the participation of the United Nations, Europe and America", ran the front page banner of the national daily Al-Ahram. The paper also reported in bold letters that a third of the victims were children and that it would take billions of dollars to rehabilitate and reconstruct areas devastated by the earthquake. "Five million rendered homeless, and entire villages and towns lay in ruins amid the stench of rotting bodies," Al-Ahram reported on Sunday. The nine megathrust earthquake was "a health hazard threatening the world," warned the opposition daily Al-Wafd. The paper reported that the magnitude earthquake was such that tsunami (tidal waves) devastated countries along the Indian Ocean rim included the coasts of Africa and Arabia. "The earthquake was the most powerful in 40 years," the paper wrote. "Thousands of bodies rotting in tropical heat and more corpses washed ashore in what is seen as the world's most dreadful disaster." "Welcome 2005", read the front page banner of the weekly magazine October. "What is in store for us in the New Year", wondered Editor-in-Chief of October Ragab El-Banna. "We had high hopes for the Arab world in 2004. Arab leaders hailed the long-awaited aims and aspirations of the Arab people and proclaimed their intention of turning Arab dreams into reality. Sadly, the year passed and nothing was achieved. "Where is the Arab Bank for Investment which was supposed to play a critical role in strengthening the private sector in Arab countries?" El-Banna asked. In much the same vein, Abdel-Rahman Aql writing in Al-Ahram questioned the credentials of the private sector in the Egyptian economy. "The private sector has also had its responsibilities re-assessed, with new laws and legislation that will enable it to provide the Egyptian economy with an additional LE60 million in investments. An important step here was the opening of the debtors' file, hopefully curing that particular economic ailment once and for all." October also ran a four-page spread on the disaster in Asia. Ahmed Shahin speculated extensively about what he termed the "earthquake industry". Shahin wrote about waves the size of mountains moving at speeds of up to 500 kilometres an hour. He scanned reports from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Geological Survey (USGS) and the Geostationary Satellite Service (GOES), carefully examining the fearsome implications. Shahin wrote that the devastated Indian Ocean rim countries would have benefited from a more efficient early warning system (EWS). He noted that while NOAA scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii were alerted early to the impending catastrophe, there was no such system serving the Indian Ocean countries. The NOAA scientists detected ominous seismic signals and they noted that the tsunamis were triggered by a massive 9.0 undersea earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra. Shahin cautioned that seismologists have been warning of the possible aftershocks. The tsunametres, measuring tidal waves, also warn of more impending disaster. The most powerful aftershock registered 7.1 on the Richter scale, only three hours after the Aceh earthquake, he noted. He added that there have been some 70 aftershocks since the first quake on 26 December. Many papers also carried reviews of 2004 and looked at the prospects for 2005. The reviews took an in-depth look into various aspects of Egypt's political, social and economic life in 2004. Even cultural concerns were not overlooked. "I am the servant of intellectuals," declared Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni in the magazine Akher Saa. Hosni was apparently poised for a "charm offensive" to woo disgruntled intellectuals. The magazine's Editor-in-Chief Mohamed Barakat was among several commentators who examined the state of the Egyptian economy. Of particular interest was the fact that the US dollar, the highly-esteemed currency of the world's most credit-worthy country, has fallen against the Egyptian pound. There is considerable wonder how the currency of the country with the deepest and most liquid credit markets has slid into a downward spiral. Indeed, the indefinite rise in US external debts and US deficits to economies with floating exchange rates were the subject of much speculation in the Egyptian press this week. The editor-in-chief of the financial weekly Al-Alam Al-Youm Al-Isboui Lamees El- Hadidi tackled another hot potato: the development of a more dynamic financial system in Egypt and the unprecedented fall of the dollar against the Egyptian pound. El- Hadidi lashed out at Ahmed El-Bardaei, the governor of Banque du Caire. "It appears that El-Bardaei decided to deal with the media in much the same way as he deals with his defaulting clients. He accused us of 'harbouring ill intentions' and 'distorting the facts'." El-Hadidi did not mince words. She thanked her lucky stars that she did not have a bank account with Banque du Caire, adding she has no intention of taking out a loan from El-Bardaei's bank. After conceding that for editorial purposes she extracted parts of a letter El-Bardaei sent to the paper complaining about its reporting, she went on to remind El- Bardaei that some journalists take their responsibilities seriously and are not cowed by threats. But columnist Fahmi Howeidy writing in Al-Ahram begged to differ. He had a rather unflattering conception of contemporary Egyptian journalists. "If the state of Egyptian journalism continues in decline, I am afraid that there will be no journalists left. Professional journalists are an endangered species," he said.
