Heron on the Nile
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  Eid Al Adhar Eid and Tradition  

At 3pm I visit Suleiman, my Head of Department. He's only three doors down the road. He leads me from his gate briefly through a neatly brushed yard to his "rakuba" (a rustic gazebo made with straight-ish branches and grass thatching). Inside are two beds and two chairs around a low table. There are no possessions. Everything is ready for me. We sit and talk; some children come and go. One, a girl about 10 years old, exchanges names; but Mona's too busy looking after her baby brother to stop and talk. A plate of homemade shortbread biscuits and individually wrapped sweets are offered. A glass of water. It is customary to use one glass. A visitor is given a full glass and expected to drink it all, urgently, there and then. Any residue is shaken out onto the dust floor and the glass refilled and passed to the next person. A round metal serving tray arrives. The basketwork cover is removed. Hands are urgently washed. Bowls of meat and meat and a salad accompanied with a few puffed bread rounds. It is delicious (of course), but best not pig-out (or whatever the Moslem equivalent is); I have more invitations to attend.

We talk about tradition and if it's the same as culture (we think it is) and if we can have development without changing tradition (I insist we can't) and crucially whether globalisation is a) good, b) an American conspiracy to dominate the world (ask Nokia or Toyota) c) different from development. He's entertained. "Is this what you've been discussing with my students?" he asks. (This can go either way.) He's pleased. "And what do they say?" I explain they say we must have development - women doctors even - but at the end of the day a woman's place is in the home. It's their custom, their culture, their tradition.

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