Best products from r/Egypt

I'm an American currently sitting in a hotel room in Dahab - it's totally fine. North Sinai, around Arish/close to the Gaza Strip is the portion that is a bit dicey, but even that's pretty much under control. I flew from Cairo to Sharm El-Sheikh and then took an 45 minute taxi ride through the beautiful mountain desert. Dahab is a bit of a hippie beach town with lots of yoga and watersports (mainly windsurfing and scuba). It's a low enough crime town where the street vendors barely even cover up the souvenirs they sell overnight. Honestly, I feel about as safe in Dahab as I do in Cape Cod only more relaxed (and richer).

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Naguib Mahfouz is Egypt's most well known modern author. I love "Palace Walk" (I think he won his Nobel Prize for it) and his short stories. I also just started reading this book about Cairo, which is a super easy read and full of fun little tidbits about what a bonkers city Cairo is. Totally recommend it too. I don't recommend Cairo though. Terrible city. Fly in there with a long layover, go see the pyramids and get the fuck out of there.

For context, Peter Hessler is an author who became really well known writing similarly about China (he traveled there in 1996). He has a great knack for becoming really close with his subjects, and it translates into great books/articles. If you enjoyed this article and are at all interested in China's rise, I'd strongly recommend Country Driving.

He just moved to Egypt a few years ago, so I'm really looking forward to what he writes next

Asking for what to do with your life is a somewhat too big of a question to be answered by anyone. Nevertheless, I can help a bit in the politics part.

1. Avoid being pressured to join a "group." It will be tempting to just align yourself with people that you feel comfortable with, but be aware of their core tenets before doing so. Take your time to familiarize yourself with political movements and know your "right" and "left." There is no problem in withholding judgment when one does not have sufficient information.
   
   
2. Do some philosophy. Especially, moral philosophy, epistemology and political theory (political philosophy). These should give you a good basis for political praxis (fancy way of saying practice).
   
   
3. History, history and more history. There will be a lot of it and at times it will be veeeery boring. My only advice is to try and find secondary sources that simplify events/ideas you can't tackle on your own due to the sheer boredom of dealing with them. The things you will most probably encounter are: socioeconomic situations of different countries throughout different times, political ideas with a large impact (Socialism and Capitalism) or more obscure ones ( Anarchism and Anarcho-capitalism) and political struggles between different schools of thought. There is so much to dig from history I can't even begin to scratch the surface.
   
   
4. Expectations. Don't have too much or too little of them. Politics isn't as hard as most people make it seem but isn't as simple. It might seem overwhelming when starting, but keep at it. As long as you are arguing in good faith, I am sure you will understand the political situation of the world more.
   
   
5. Avoid moralists and Cryptos. I think moralists are pretty self evident; those who speak politics without any reference to theory or praxis, aiming at the "moral" failings of the oppositions is not politics. The cryptos are a little bit complicated. Telling them apart from normal people is initially hard. One can find himself believing in very toxic ideas if routine self-questioning isn't practiced. A good book that goes deeper into that issue.
   
   
6. Doubt is good. It shows that you think. On the other hand, the feeling of being lost can be hard to deal with. Take your time and don't rush. Know how the game is played before dealing your cards.
   
   Feel free to private message me if you want more sources. I wish you luck in your journey!!!

https://www.amazon.com/N156HHE-GA1-Colours-Replacement-Screen-Laptop/dp/B07HKVB6BV/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=N156HHE-GA1+120Hz&qid=1554469440&s=gateway&sr=8-6

This was the seller I got it from, However as you can see now they dont ship to egypt sadly :( if you wait around and look at other sellers then eventually one will prob up and sell to egypt, Prcies range from 1,2K to 1.9k with shipping to Egypt! Thats for the 120hz Screen! however for the normal screen you can get any normal screen i think for around 800 or 900 in Egypt, tho anyone selling to you would prob Hike it up and you would need to haggle.

You want something like this that says eligible for shipping to egypt

https://www.amazon.com/Generic-LCD-Replacement-Display-B156HAN04-1/dp/B0788B277Y/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=30+pin+1080p+monitor&qid=1554469947&s=gateway&sr=8-3

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Tho i dont recommend purchasing Normal NON 120 hz panels from outside of egypt, just get the cheap ones at compumall

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As for the Thermal Paste Endevour, i was getting Ridiculous temps at 106 Celsius So i purchased the MX-4 And applied it.......very ^(carefully) my god it was such an anxiety inducing experience, but temps now rarely touch 80!

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as for the Mesh, Your right, Vaccum and clean that sucker every month maximum. and elevate your laptop.

I made a whole tutorial series on the y50-70 model laptops that i never got around to posting due to University

and my mesh i replaced it externally I Purchased fabric that is called Tulle, and Applied it with electric Tape, Dust is an issue in Egypt! SO i had to get creative, I also Taped up the heatsink to have proper airflow and removed the aluminum hinges at the sides to get more air, I can safely Say I can browse chrome without my Laptop Revving up! Lol and thats with 50+ tabs open

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Never read it, but my mom thinks Omaret Jacobian is the best modern Egyptian novel.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Yacoubian-Building-Alaa-Al-Aswany/dp/0060878134

Taxes on mobile phones? I'm buying directly from Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Oneplus-GM1910-Unlocked-International-Warranty/dp/B07TMSBMJ7/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=Oneplus+7+Pro&qid=1563824782&s=gateway&sr=8-6

-It says taxes = $0 - is that correct?

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-Is it safe to directly order from Amazon to Egypt?

Thanks lads.

2019 Latest ELUK OMEN Obelisk Gaming Desktop PC (Liquid Cooled Intel Core i9-9900K CPU, NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti 11GB GPU, Z390 Mobo, 750 Watt Platinum PSU, Windows 10 Pro, 2TB NVMe SSD + 2TB HDD, 64GB RAM)This is the one and it cost 3k us dollar (the original price without shipping) .. if there is any one know the price of items here in Egypt u can custom the same parts and tell me how much it will cost . i think it will cost around 59k egp . does it really worth the save !!!
"the link will lead u to another version because this version is out of stock at the moment"

If you think it's about money and corporations, you are wrong. It's about keeping countries with a largesse debt to their populations stable, and it starts with Saudi Arabia. Until the last 10-15 years or so, nation states were far more cohesive. In arming Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, yes even Iraq et al, no power vacuum would erupt a destabilization of the oil supply or the canal. You remember that canal right? Pretty important. Egypt's military isn't a fantastic fighting force. They can't even hold the Sinai. In their own backyard. It's a conscript army with discipline and motivation problems that put it on par with some 3rd world nations. (I once saw a guard outside our hotel sitting on a folding chair with his loaded rifle, butt on the ground, forehead resting on the muzzle. I saw his officer in charge beat the shit out of him not for sitting in a suicide position but for sitting.) They can't afford the hardware, hence the free aid. The military aid relations that the US involves itself with isn't to make a penny for defense industry, it's to keep the oil flowing so the global economy doesn't outright collapse, a collapse that would certainly precipitate a global war. Not because gas would go up, but because the cost of everything that is shipped anywhere would go up or stop flowing. Things like all the food Egypt imports.

Now 20+ years ago, the US wanted Egypt secure after the routing the Israelis gave it. An unsecured Egypt is a power vacuum with a vital strategic asset, the canal. It's an insanely tempting target for Libya, Iraq, or Syria to pour into. Mostly Iraq. The genesis of the defense agreements goes back to the Camp David accords. From that point in History on, US policy has always been to seek an equilibrium of power in the region. With no one country getting uppity or feeling cornered, no one country would unilaterally attack another. With the exception of the always unpredictable Saddam Hussein, it worked. That's the theory anyway. I don't put much faith in statecraft outside of self-preservation.

It wasn't until the last 10-20 years that people started looking at countries differently. The globe is a shrinking place, with an even more interconnected economy and an even higher risk of a catastrophic cascade failure. Only now do people look at Egypt not as a country on a map, but as a collection of different peoples within a shared space and culture.

THAT'S why the US is giving Egypt aid. That's why they are getting Block 52 F-16's and Apaches. You are getting it for free because it's worth the billions (according to current policy) to keep the balance of power in play, even if Egypt can't afford the hardware to make it happen. People think it's about having a handle of power in the Egyptian government, or making a few million for Lockheed, but in the end it's just not that simple. In the end the US doesn't care who is in power in Egypt. That's for the Egyptian people to decide. So long as Egypt remains a nation state and that canal stays open, the region stays secure, and global war does not ensue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Partnership_Initiative#Foreign_policy

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=us_international_relations&us_international_relations_us_foreign_relations=us_international_relations_us_middle_east_relations

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/minister-egypt-imports-40-its-food

I won't link some stuff, but you can find the bulk of the current assessment of Egypt's military power online if that's what you are looking for.

Suggested Reading - all have good things to take from them, though none is authoritative or without contradiction/error:

American Orientalism

Syria, the United States, and the War on Terror in the Middle East

State of Disrepair: Fixing the Culture and Practices of the State Department

The last book is more of a recreational read and an insight into this end of things. Just as Egypt is more complicated than Islamists and Pyramids, the US is more complicated than government and people, left and right, etc. etc. The government itself is usually contradictory or even stalemated within it's own power structures, and power bases exist in spectra rather than categories.

Far more chaotic than corporations want money -> corporations make policy -> policy makes money. It's far worse than that, because that implies that someone knows what is going on and controls it all. I don't think either is true. It's way worse. Nobody knows what is going on, and nobody is in control. Not for lack of trying, but because now the web is too complex to untangle or manage, so now we play patchwork.

Oh and Russia is in on the game too, I would guess. All I have are books and the news to go on. Russia, China, the US, and the EU are all working to keep things running. There's a lot of political show for the news cameras but the policies and actualities show that the leaders of the world are trying really, really hard right now to keep the peace globally. Egypt features because of the canal. Congrats!

I have faith in the Egyptian people though. Not that Egypt will pull it off, but that Egypt can pull it off.

Edit: punctuation

Edit 2: Holy cow. Thank you! If I had known ahead of time, I would have put a lot more effort into citations and support, and paid closer attention to proofreading.

Get earplugs from abroad, the Hearos foam series block out 80% of the noise and are comfortable. They're rated 33db. You can buy them from edfa3ly (or similar)

This one: https://www.amazon.com/HEAROS-Earplugs-Recommended-Professionals-%C2%A0Physicians-/dp/B01JXYH042/

Or this one (slightly weaker protection 32db but more comfortable):
https://www.amazon.com/HEAROS-Ultimate-Softness-Foam-Earplugs/dp/B01JY1TFZQ/

There is a locally available Bosch foam ear plugs for workers operating heavy machinery that also works, I've seen it in ACE but they were like 35 EGP for 5 pairs, it was rated 36db, or so, crazy expensive and that was even before the flotation. I tried them once but they were the least comfortable (but still OK) among all.

All of the above are disposable foam, but if you clean your ears regularly, you can reuse them almost for several days.

Some high-end pharmacies sell the washable plastic spring-like ones (seen them in abd el maksoud pharmacy) but they don't work nearly as well and are much much less comfortable.

However, avoid the silicone ones, because they can tear and get stuck inside your ear (I recommend only disposable foam or reusable plastic ones).

For even more isolation, you can wear your headphones while wearing the plugs to hear soft brown noise drowning out the remaining sounds the ear plugs don't block.

Also, don't worry they don't block out noise completely, you can still hear cars and people talking.

alright thanks a lot for you reply, got one last question why do some graphics cards have import fees (1k plus) written next to them while other dont at all. do you think somehow i will pay for customs somehow later on?

like this gpu that i am trying to buy https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TV9CLL5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Hello guys! I am looking for the nylon pocket size / travel abaya/jilbab/prayer dress. I have seen some Egyptian women carrying and praying in them and they seem super compact and light to carry in a bag. I dont know what it's called and cant find it anywhere, any leads on that? Something like this but one full piece.

If anyone wants the science on this topic, a book was finally written by a professor of pharmacology at the U of Arizona.
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Misunderstood-Molecule-4-Dinitrophenol-Pharmacology/dp/1985234661/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522800925&sr=8-2&keywords=schnellmann (Amazon book: Schnellmann is author)
She knows her &^it. Get all the info here before trying this out. I got the book. It is the best and most complete resource available. It is the only science-based resource in existence.

> It probably wasn't.

The more history I learn the more evidence I find that it was. Apparently Churchill created Iraq.

Arrakis
During the events of Dune, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV grants Duke Leto Atreides I control of the lucrative spice harvesting operations of Arrakis, ousting the Atreides' longtime rivals, the Harkonnens.

Mandatory Iraq
Faisal ibn Husayn, who had been proclaimed King of Syria by a Syrian National Congress in Damascus in March 1920, was ejected by the French in July of the same year. Faisal was then granted by the British the territory of Iraq, to rule it as a kingdom, with the British RAF retaining certain military control, though de facto; the territory remained under British administration until 1932.

Britain’s Legacy in the Middle East: Iraq’s Oil
Lord Curzon famously observed that the Allied Powers of World War I had “floated to victory upon a wave of oil.” As far as the British Empire was concerned, the only problem was that the oil had come from the United States. For imperial strategists like Lord Curzon and Winston Churchill, the discovery of oil within the British Empire was a key aim.

right ,it's cheaper on amazon but customs make you pay twice the price .https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Switch-Gray-Joy/dp/B01MUAGZ49

i thought to use s&s however i'm not sure if it could have been less expensive than amazon .

thanks

This is so ignorant I don't even know where to begin addressing this.

First of all - Egyptians have never been a fixed ethnic group. They were descended from the Nilotic people and ethnically mixed and even the ancient Egyptians were aware of this. They were culturally and religiously conservative but did not equate the Egyptian identity with an ethnicity - which is why there were black Egyptians and white Egyptians. They were extraordinarily mixed ethnically with Influxes of Africans, Nubians, Levantines, bedouins, Berbers, and Greeks. You can verify what I've said in this book. The ethnicity of ancient Egyptians is covered early on. You can also verify what I've said in the Teaching Company lecture series by professor Bob Brier. So basically "our DNA is literally different" is a Mickey Mouse comment. Egyptians are extremely mixed genetically and highly related to other Arab and North African groups.

Secondly, whilst the descendants of those groups define themselves today as Egyptians, there are still ethnic minorities in Egypt. Have you ever heard of Beja, Nubians, Berbers in Siwa, or magyarabs? These groups together number 2 million people. The number of tribal people in the sa3eed who identify by a tribe, like Hilalians, Banu Sulaym, and others, aren't even counted statistically. People like Abdel Nasser who are distantly descended from tribes aren't counted either because it's impossible to distinguish who has tribal ancestry anymore and who doesn't.

Tl:dr: the Egyptian identity is based on culture and nationality and not ethnicity. It's not even easy to distinguish Egyptians from their neighbours. I did a DNA ancestry test with 23andme and they offered me Yemeni and Lebanese background even though my family's been in Egypt for a minimum of 500 years. Even if you counted all Egyptians as being ethnically Egyptian despite their wide variety of features, skin tones, and ancestries, you can't say "every human being belongs to one ethnic group" given that Egypt is full of Nubians, Berbers, bedouins who identify as such today.


Edit: and if you really think Egyptians are a single ethnic group who's Dna is "literally different" from others then I invite you to travel from Alexandria to Luxor. Ya3ni a7a when did Egyptians fall into this idiotic master race bullshit?? What is this, 1930??

Yeah, linked them down below. Some discuss ancient times while some discuss our lives before and after being displaced from our homes after the construction of the aswan dam.


https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Nubia-African-Kingdoms-Nile/dp/9774164784

https://www.amazon.com/Nubia-Ancient-Kingdoms-Joyce-Hayes/dp/0878463623

https://www.amazon.com/DONGOLA-NOVEL-NUBIA-IDRIS-ALI/dp/1557285314

https://www.amazon.com/DONGOLA-NOVEL-NUBIA-IDRIS-ALI/dp/1557285314

https://www.amazon.com/Nubians-Egypt-Peaceful-Robert-Fernea/dp/029275504X/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483475944&sr=1-6&keywords=nubians+egypt

https://www.amazon.com/Nubian-Ethnographies-Robert-Fernea/dp/0881334804/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483475978&sr=1-11&keywords=nubians+egypt