Corruption, fast rising food costs, the rounding up of the Muslim Brotherhood, and President Mubarak's trip to Russia dominate the headlines, note Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed President Hosni Mubarak's visit to Russia and his meetings with outgoing President Vladimir Putin and incumbent President Dmitri Medvedev hit the headlines. Mubarak's trip interested the pundits precisely because of its timing and the fact that Egypt will sign a civilian nuclear agreement with Russia that would permit Russia to build civilian nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes in Egypt. Most Egyptian commentators were indignant that the United States poses tough restrictions on nuclear development in countries like Egypt that are supposed to be close allies of the US and are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Contempt for the double standards of the US were noticeable, especially among the independent and opposition papers. Official papers focussed instead on the new windows of opportunity of nuclear cooperation with Russia. Indeed, Russia's standing in the eyes of many Egyptian commentators rose considerably. It is in this context that Mubarak's visit to Moscow aroused much excitement. The official daily Al-Ahram reported on President Mubarak's visit to Moscow, its headline reading, "Egypt seeks a partnership with Russia to build nuclear stations and an industrial zone in Borg Al-Arab". The official daily Rose El-Youssef quoted Mubarak as saying: "Egypt welcomes the convening of an international conference in Moscow to tackle peace in the Middle East." Indeed, there was much speculation that Russia would once again play a more dynamic role in the Middle East peace process. Hopes are pinned on Russia as a counter-balance to the US. On the domestic front, corruption -- or rather the fight against corruption in high places -- proved to be a hot topic. The pundits busied themselves with investigative reports concerning corruption scandals, especially of top officials and even ministers. The conclusion of most commentators was that corruption has become the scourge of the nation. "There have been 283 major corruption cases in the past six months in all sectors of the state", ran a headline of a feature in the independent daily Al-Ahrar. "The administrative watchdog asks permission from the executive to prosecute leading corruption figures," argued the writer of the feature. The paper also noted how opposition parliamentarians emerged as the most vociferous critics of officials accused of corruption. Member of parliament and of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood Saad El-Husseini was quoted in an interview as saying: "Requests for information [about corruption cases] in parliament are discarded by the majority, and this is the main reason behind the spread of corruption." Al-Ahrar also noted there were many facets to the phenomenon of corruption in contemporary Egypt. The paper quoted many a politician and economist saying that the forms of corruption had varied in recent years, like monopoly of key economic sectors and abuse of power, as well as the control of interest groups over decision- making. In much the same vein, but on an entirely different tenor, the paper slammed the US for encouraging corruption and berated the Americans for overlooking the scandalous backgrounds of certain crooks who have milked the country dry. "America is a sanctuary for gays", ran a tongue-in-cheek headline of a column by the Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahrar Salah Qabadaya. Qabadaya suggested, presumably playfully, that Islam Reda, whom he described as a notorious crook and who embezzled millions of pounds before escaping to America, might have told US authorities that he was gay in order to get away with his crime. Questions of religion, too, were extensively raised in the press. This was especially the case in Muslim-Christian relations which had taken on a special significance as Western Christians celebrated Easter on Sunday. Nahdet Masr reported that Pope Benedict had baptised an Egyptian journalist, Magdi Allam, who lives in Italy. Allam, the paper exclaimed in horror, had written a book entitled Viva Israel and was brandished as a traitor and an apostate. Allam would presumably not be visiting Egypt anytime soon. Another domestic concern was the fast rising food prices, especially that of bread. Indeed, the bread crisis, once again, was the preoccupation of many a columnist. "Speculation about the unseating of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif is rife, as Mubarak blames him for the bread crisis", read the headline of the opposition Nasserist mouthpiece Al-Arabi. The paper depicted Nazif as a "scapegoat". In Al-Ahram, Fahmy Howeidy attributed the bread crisis, as well as other crises afflicting the country, to the fact that the authorities are always giving priority to regime security "rather than social security, because governmental bodies were preoccupied with the former and ignored the latter. Police stations are on the alert when any opposition or terrorist activity erupts, but they lag behind when dealing with civic and criminal issues." Writing in Al-Ahram about the ongoing conflicts in the newly established liberal Democratic Front Party, Abdel-Azim Hammad lamented the state of the elitist party. "Although one might be shocked and saddened over the successive rifts that have divided the Democratic Front Party whose founders promised to offer an alternative to the ruling [National Democratic] party and the Muslim Brotherhood... these rifts further emphasised again that the Egyptian political elite is suffering from chronic diseases." Writing in the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom, Diaa Rashwan argued that, "the current regime, which still claims that it is politically liberal and economically capitalist, calls upon the Egyptians to be patient after all these years [in power]." Rashwan added, "One does not need to provide indicators for the failure of this regime in achieving any of its goals over the long past years. It suffices to mention the last two crises which this regime failed to solve... bread battles that erupted among Egyptians, which defies the claim that it is a capitalist system, since this crisis could not arise theoretically in a capitalist system. The second crisis is that of the management of the municipal council elections, which undermines the claim that it is a liberal political system. These two crises put the regime in its place -- a tyrannical regime." On a lighter note, the plight of the contemporary Egyptian woman was tackled in the press. In an attempt to provide a guide for Egyptian women who face psychological harassment, Wafaa Mahmoud wrote in Al-Ahram that women in Egypt today are in an untenable position. "The psychological harassment against women starts with putting them in certain patterns as a commodity with specifications. An upright woman is veiled, a modern woman is unveiled, the ugly woman is cultured, the beautiful woman is foolish, the gloomy woman is the thinking one, the introvert woman is conservative, and the liberal woman is reckless."
