TheCaroVan's YouTube channel

TheCaroVan's YouTube channel is no more.  The channel featured short clips of bellydancers from the Middle East and occasionally singers, usually in scenes or clips taken from old Egyptian and Lebanese movies some as far back as the 1930s.  Full movies were never uploaded.
TheCaroVan YouTube account has been terminated after receiving copyright demands from companies and copyright organisations who claimed the ownership of some of the clips and/or the accompanying music.  While some of the claims were from entities who, after a minimal amount of research proved to be non-existent, some claims and organisations were legitimate and if you were a regular visitor to TheCaroVan you would have noticed that in the past, clips has been removed in compliance.
In the end, TheCarovan account was terminated due to a take-down notice by a company in France who claims to own the copyright to the 1955 Egyptian film 'Sigarah wa Kas' (A Glass and a Cigarette) which features dancing by Samia Gamal.  Interestingly enough there is at least one other company who claims to own the worldwide copyright of this same movie.
I removed the offending clip yesterday, immediately on receiving the notice, but that wasn't good enough apparently and the account has been terminated.  As a result the channel and its research and information that more than 6,000,000 viewers had accessed, is now lost.
So, long story short, TheCaroVan is no more and I am now 'An individual whose account has been closed [is] prohibited from accessing, possessing or creating any other YouTube account.'
Ah well, as someone who lives in the Middle East, as you can imagine, we have one or two other things to worry about at the moment.....

Bellydancer fears her art is dying

From The National, 30th June 2008 
Despite the date its a very interesting read and the situation hasn't changed.
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At about 2.30am on a Saturday, Dina, Egypt’s most famous belly dancer, slinks on to the stage of Haroun el Rashid Night Club wearing a revealing pink outfit, accompanied by the sound of her trademark music.
Without an introduction she eases into her routine, gyrating her hips and rolling her stomach in slow, sensual motions, gradually raising the tempo with ever more daring and titillating movements of her thighs and torso.
The audience, made up of upper class Egyptians, Gulf businessmen and tourists as well as a smattering of westerners, is enthralled.
Dina is practising an art that dates back to the Pharaohs, but belly dancing, or raqs sharqi, is these days more often condemned as immoral than celebrated as a national pastime, as religious conservatism grows in Egypt.
In May, Dina caused an uproar after giving a brief performance at a high school party. Apart from the storm that ensued in the media, 17 Islamist and independent lawmakers filed an urgent inquiry with the education minister, and Nabih al Wahsh, a well-known lawyer, filed a lawsuit against her for “seducing students”.
Ali Laban, a legislator and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, called for talks with the culture, education and interior ministers, while Sherif Omar, who heads the education committee in parliament and is a member of the ruling National Democratic Party, referred to the incident as a “catastrophe”.
Dina, in her forties and who goes only by her first name, was taken aback by the reaction, though it is far from the first time her dancing has raised the ire of conservatives.
“When I heard that my dancing for five minutes while wearing a jeans and T-shirt in the prom party [caused such offence], I was shocked,” she said, sipping a cappuccino and smoking a cigarette in the cafe of the Semiramis InterContinental Hotel in Cairo, where she performs three times a week.
“Sometimes I feel I get used to these things, but I don’t, because they never cease to amaze me,” she said.
In Oct 2006, Dina was widely blamed – by officials, the media and the public – after scores of young men chased women through downtown Cairo groping them and pulling off their clothes – even those wearing Islamic headscarves and face veils.
She had been dancing with a popular singer in front of a downtown cinema to advertise a movie that was playing during Eid, and allegedly aroused the men, causing them to run riot.
“This accusation made me laugh,” Dina said. “I couldn’t believe I could be responsible for unleashing a sexual uprising by hundreds of men. It’s just unbelievable.”
Famed for her green eyes, long black hair, and voluptuous figure, sculpted by more than 20 years of dancing, Dina is now one of the only well-known belly dancers in Egypt.
“I see no hope or future for belly dancing in Egypt,” she said. “Ten years ago we were so many. Each one had her own style and audience, whether first-class belly dancers, or second and third class. Now I look around and see nobody.”
According to the Egyptian Arts Authority, 5,000 professional belly dancers were registered in the 1950s, compared with less than 100 today.
While belly dancing is legal, dancers cannot perform on state-owned television in Egypt. And in an attempt to reduce the number of dancers, authorities are giving fewer licences to foreigners and making it difficult for them to renew existing ones.
Police also monitor nightclubs to ensure that dancers’ costumes are sufficiently modest, with slitted skirts that must start below the knee. The navel is always supposed to be covered, if only by transparent material.
According to Dina, who holds an master of arts in philosophy from Cairo University, the belly dancing outfits are the main cause of controversy in Egypt, rather than the dance itself.
“I think the problem some have with belly dancing here is the dancing costume; but it has always been seductive like this, we [our generation] didn’t invent it. Like ballet – can the ballerina dance with a different outfit? We too can’t dance with our bodies covered,” she said.
Wearing a beige tank top and tightfitting pants, and a golden necklace studded with blue charms, Dina said it was becoming increasingly difficult to be accepted as a belly dancer in Egypt, where 90 per cent of Muslim women wear the veil and the trend towards conservative Islam is growing.
“If I had a daughter, I would advise her not to become a belly dancer,” said Dina, who is a widow and the mother of an eight-year-old boy named Ali.
“It’s very tough being a belly dancer in Egypt.
“I surround myself with people who love dancing, and who are very understanding, so I don’t get the feeling that I’m doing something wrong at all,” she said. “But when these problems happen from time to time, it’s a reminder that many people look down on dancing, and that it’s [seen as] shameful.”
Yet demand for belly dancing in Egypt is still high among those who approve of it, especially among the rich who can afford to pay the LE12,000 per hour (Dh8,250) rate that Dina and her band charge to perform at private functions.
“I still dance at many weddings,” Dina said. “Most of the brides are veiled but they don’t stop dancing with me and their groom all night long. For Egyptians who can afford it, a wedding means a belly dancer.”
Suha Abdel Wahab, 30, is one such Egyptian. “Of course I would never imagine myself being a belly dancer,” Mrs Wahab said. “But I had Dina at my wedding, that was a dream come true.”
Still, people like Mrs Wahab seem to be the exception.
“At my wedding, I slaughtered sheep and distributed to the poor, by the same amount of money that I would have paid to a belly dancer,” said Rasha Moustafa, 29, who wears the veil.
“I think God would bless a marriage that begins by feeding the poor not wasting money on belly dancers.”
Nonetheless, in the face of growing disdain for her profession, Dina sees herself as “the guardian of belly dancing”, and vows to continue doing what she loves.
“Belly dancing is in our blood, it’s deeply rooted in our soil,” she said. “I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.
“When I get old, and can’t dance anymore, I will train belly dancers. I just hope there will be ones to train.”

Egyptian bellydance from the 70s: Heyatim

Heyatim is an Egyptian dance star from the 70s. Even on video she oozes confidence but it doesn't come across to the viewer as the in-your-face aggression we see from some of today's dance 'stars'. Heyatim's style is relaxed and fluid.  This video is also an example of the camera styles back then, where every possible backdrop is used (forest, sky, fish tank etc etc) which can be very distracting.

The Great Galebaya Battle

Just before dusk the boat entered the locks on the Nile River at Esna and before we knew it a number of small boats approached. Each boat had one man rowing and another standing calling out to passengers on the top decks of the cruise boats while waving plastic bags containing tablecloths, galebayas (the national dress of Egypt) and shawls. In what seemed like a death defying act, the guys in the row boat grabbed onto ropes hanging from the side of the ship and then threw a rope to the next small boat to form a chain. The process then is that they throw the galebayas up in a plastic bag, and if you like it after a bit of negotiation you put your money in a plastic bag and drop it over the side of the ship and into their boat. If you don't move fast enough you're liable to get hit by one of the flying galebayas though some of the guys had amazing distance and accuracy when they threw the stuff up to the ships. For long after the boat passed through the lock we could still hear cries of “Lady, lady, hey meester” in the darkness. We docked that night at Edfu.

Next morning we visited the Temple of Horus (falcon god) at Edfu. This temple was built in 327BC. It had a magnificent sanctuary which looks like it is made of burnished metal but is actually highly polished stone. Assem our guide also pointed out the lion head water spouts that were used to drain water from the roof of the temple.

After some more cruising along the Nile, the next day we visited the temple of Kom Ombo which is an unusual site because it is the fusion of two temples, one side dedicated to Horus and the other to the crocodile god Sobek. Prior to the building of the high dam at Aswan, crocs used to be a major hazard for people along the Nile. Our guide told us that if you put a cat on the sanctuary stone of the Horus temple it will sit there happily, but if it is placed on the sanctuary stone of the crocodile god Sobek it will scratch and hiss and run away. Unfortunately no cats were at hand to test this theory. I’d heard a folkloric group playing on the way up to the temple but they were on their break when we returned. I went back to the boat while Colin took some sunset photos. He came back to get me as the band had CDs and DVDs for sale. We had only 10 minutes before the boat sailed but we ran back to the garden where they were playing and I was able to sit with them while they played and had a try at playing the rababa too. It was a great experience. In the evening there was a galebayas party on the boat with all the guests getting dressed up and Egyptian food on the menu for dinner. Colin’s green and gold “Aussie dishdash” was the hit of the evening!

Next day we went to the Aswan quarry to see what would have been the largest obelisk in the world at 42 metres tall, had it not fractured during the carving process. Next stop was a short trip by boat to see the temple of Isis at Philae. This temple was originally located on a small island in the Nile but to save it from the rising river levels after the building of the Aswan dam, it was dismantled. The original island’s topography was recreated on an adjacent island called Agilkia and there the temple was reassembled. Next we headed up to the High Dam of Aswan. The advantages of the High Dam are that there is no longer any annual flooding downstream, the farmers can get three crops each year instead of one, irrigation is no longer a problem and the crocs and hippos that were a danger to the residents are now all on the north side of the dam. The main disadvantage is that without the annual flood carrying the rich silt to replenish the Nile fields the farmers now have to use chemical fertilisers instead. The silt is banking up behind the dam and a further channel is being built to allow some of the silt to flow downstream.

During the afternoon we took a felucca trip to the Botanical Garden on Kitchener's Island in the middle of the Nile then on by boat to visit the Nubian village and have tea with a local family.

Yesterday was a big day. The wakeup call was at 4:15am so we could get to Aswan airport to catch an early morning Air Memphis flight to Abu Simbel. Colin and I were so far ‘down the back of the bus’ that we didn’t have a window! Abu Simbel is unique as its the only temple in Egypt where a pharaoh, Ramses II, has glorified himself as a god. The temple is located in the heart of what was once the nation of Nubia and is only 30 kms across Lake Naser from the Sudanese border. It was carved out of the rock on the orders of Ramses II and is most famous for the 4 huge statues of the seated pharaoh which flank the entrance. Inside the temple the entrance hall is flanked by enormous statues of Ramses, the walls covered with large carvings depicting his various military successes. Once, like all the other temples we’d seen the carvings would have been painted. The hall leads to the sanctuary, 65 metres from the entrance, which contains the statues of four gods including the self appointed god, Ramses himself. At the left of this quartet is the statue of Ptah who was the god of darkness. Twice a year at the equinoxes, the sun reaches into the depth of the temple striking the three statues including Ramses but somehow the ancient Egyptians did the calculations so the sun never shines on Ptah as he only likes darkness. Incredible. Next to the Ramses Temple is a temple dedicated to Ramses No 1 wife, Neferteri. Both temples were relocated in the 1960s to save them from the rising waters of Lake Naser.

Cruising down the Nile

Last Tuesday we flew from Dubai to Cairo, Egypt with our friends Cathy and Stan who've arrived from NZ. We stayed the night at Le Meridien Pyramids in Cairo and could see the pyramids from the front steps of the hotel.

Early the next day we headed out for a full day of sightseeing, first visiting the ancient capital of Egypt, Memphis, where there is a huge statue of King Ramses II (going the Memphis to see the King....). Next stop was Sakkara to see the funeral complex which includes the world's first pyramid built by King Zosar and unlike the pyramids we immediately think of, is constructed in steps or 'benches'. I was amazed by how many other pyramids were visible from the walls of Sakkara including the "Bent Pyramid". Apparently this pyramid was built for one of the early pharaohs who, mid-way through construction, become seriously ill. Fearing the worst the builders hurriedly finished the top section of the pyramid leaving it with a lopsided top. The pharaoh recovered, took one look at the Bent Pyramid, declared it to be rubbish and demanded that a completely new one be built. I guess you can do that when you're a pharaoh. As a result, a whole new pyramid was built and the Bent Pyramid remains the only one that has never been "occupied". Next a quick stop at a carpet factory where we watched local kids making the carpets. The kids go to school for half the day then do a couple of hours work on the carpets. Their fingers move so fast on the loom but apparently they stop working at around 18 years of age as their fingers grow too large to handle the intricate knotting patterns. However, they've learnt a skill that they can use at home and then send their own completed carpets to the factory to be sold. After that we were off to the Giza plateau to see the 3 most famous pyramids. My reaction was the same as the first time I saw them nothing prepares you for their sheer size and they seem to loom over you. The main pyramid (Cheops) was built in 24 years and modern engineers have worked out the number of stone blocks that were used and that, in order to complete the pyramid in that time, the builders would have needed to place one stone block every 2 minutes. As some of the blocks weigh up to 2.5 tons it seems incredible that it was ingenuity directing raw muscle power that built the pyramids; no cranes in those days. We also went to see the Solar Boat which was housed in a special museum behind the second pyramid. The boat, which is 43 metres long and 6 metres wide, is believed to be at least 5,000 years old and is constructed of cedar wood from Lebanon. It was found in pieces, like a kitset, in a large pit behind the Cheops pyramid. There are several theories about the use of the boat; whether it was used to carry the pharaoh's body up to the pyramids for burial or whether its use was strictly symbolic. The boat has since been reconstructed from the jigsaw puzzle of pieces that were found in the pit. The reconstruction uses only ropes to hold the pieces together as would have been the way in the ancient times, and is well worth seeing.

Next was a quick stop at the Sphinx which is the smaller than expected but magnificent. We went back to the hotel briefly and then headed back to Giza to watch the Sound and Light Show.

Wednesday started with a short flight to Luxor, followed by a short drive to Karnak Temple. The temple is on a 250 acre site which once was covered by religious sites, temples, tombs etc. The temple is breathtaking, the carvings awesome and like the pyramids, raises the big question "How did they do it?" Some of the carvings are in solid granite and modern scientists have been unable to figure out how such a hard stone has been carved with such delicacy. There are colours imbedded in the granite carvings but how this was done also remains a mystery. As Assem our guide remarked, "There are papyrus which have survived from those times listing what the pharaoh had for breakfast and noting facts such as "The Queen enjoyed smelling flowers today" but nobody considered it important enough to record how the pyramids and temples were built!"

At this point Assem (who's a qualified Egyptologist) warned us to hurry along because the "Red Sea day trippers are coming". And he wasn't joking! About 20 minutes later I happened to glance towards the entrance only to see a heaving mass of sunburnt humanity exiting a fleet of buses and bearing down on the entrance gates to the temple. These were the Red Sea day trippers, tourists mainly Russian, who stay in the Red Sea resorts to sunbathe, drink and party. They only have one "culture" day so they rush through the sites like a horde of locusts (a bit of a Biblical allusion there) and then return to the resorts.

Having survived the human tsunami, we boarded our cruise ship the Ms Miriam which is home for the next 7 days and within a short time we were underway. The banks of the Nile are lush and green with agriculture still the main source of income, as was the case thousands of years ago. Round every bend in the river is a photo waiting to be taken; people working in the fields, donkeys and cows grazing down on the riverside, kids waving, guys fishing, women doing the washing in the Nile, visual overload - almost. I took some good photos of the sun setting over the Nile last evening too (even I couldn't mess up that scene.) After 4 hours of sitting on the top deck watching the world go by, we arrived at Dendara where the boat docked for the night.

Yesterday started with a visit to Dendara temple which was dedicated to Hathor, a goddess with the body of woman and the head of cow. The carvings in the temple, while now devoid of colour were very impressive.

After an afternoon of travelling back up the Nile the boat berthed and we visited Luxor Temple. Luxor Temple is an extension of Karnak Temple and was once linked to Karnak by a 3 mile long causeway lined with 1,000 small sphinx. Over time Luxor temple was buried by Nile mud and eventually people built a town right on top of the temple complex having forgotten that it was ever there. Now that restoration has started the buildings that were constructed overhead are being demolished as they come free and the free land which is now at least 50 feet above the temple floor, is removed revealing the temples, statues etc below. However one building, a mosque, remains in place, now seemingly perched on top of the pillars of the old temple and accessible only from what is still street level outside the temple complex. As the sun set the temple was lit by carefully positioned floodlights. On board the boat last night there was a floorshow with a bellydancer (local girl), live music (keyboard, riq and tabla and they weren't too bad either) and a tannoura (whirling dervish).

Today there was a 5am wake up call for an early start to visit the Valley of the Kings. We visited 3 tombs: Ramses IX, the tombs for 50 or so of the sons of Ramses II and the tomb of Tawosert and Setnakht (Tawosert built it first then Setnakht usurped it). The colours and the carvings are truly amazing. I didn't go into King Tut's tomb as the things worth seeing from the tomb are all now in the Cairo Museum that we'll visit next week. Next stop was Hatshepsut's funeral temple which is built into the cliffside in the next valley over from the Valley of the Kings. Hatshepsut was Egypt's first female ruler and despite the fact that her successor attempted to remove all evidence of her, the funeral temple remains. It seems very modern in design, three terraces linked by a series of wide ramps the entire building blending in with the surrounding hills. Strangely enough, in the past the building was used as a Christian convent. It was at this site that in 1997 fanatics killed 59 tourists in an act that crippled Egypt's tourism industry for years afterwards.

Final stop for the day was the Colossi of Memnon, which are two 18 metre high statues of Pharaoh Amenophis III. The statues, which are believed to be at least 3,000 years old, served as guardians of the entrance of a huge temple. The temple was destroyed in an earthquake about 27 BC leaving only the two statues.

We're now back on the boat heading up river towards our next overnight stop at Edfu. Shortly we'll be entering the locks at Esna which should be fun.