Haven’t read this one from the Atlantic all the way through yet, but it looks promising (NRO had the link yesterday): PJ O’Rourke on Egypt. O’Rourke, of course, has the gift of convincing the reader that his life was in constant danger every time he leaves the U.S. Here’s a classic from this one, on driving in Cairo:
“[M]ost foreign driving has the advantage of either brevity, in its breakneck pace, or safe if sorry periods of complete rest, in jam-ups. Cairenes achieve the prolonged bravado of NASCAR drivers while also turning any direction they want, in congestion worse than L.A.’s during an O.J. freeway chase.
When I could bear to peek, I saw traffic cops�not in ones or twos but in committees, set up at intersections and acting with the efficiency and decisiveness usual to committees. And I saw a driving school. What could the instruction be like? ‘No, no, Anwar, faster through the stop sign, and make your left from the far-right lane.’ Surely John Kifner, Chris Matthews, and NBC News are kidding when they use ‘Arab street’ as a metaphor for anything in the Middle East. Or, considering the history of the Middle East, maybe they aren’t.”