Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Hawass Soap Opera Continues

The Washington Post has written about the criticism Hawass has faced in the New Egypt for his ties to the Old Egypt of the Mubarak regime. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/egypt-archaeologist-zahi-hawass-faces-criticisms-about-his-job-ties-to-mubarak/2011/04/15/AF9Hvf1D_story.html

The story notes that a Court has sentenced Hawass to jail for failure to follow its orders. Despite all the criticism from Egyptians, the article indicates that Western archaeologists largely remain supportive-- or at least silent-- about Hawass' problems.

In other news, Hawass also recently revealed that he now has his own clothing line with the proceeds going to charity. See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/arts/design/egyptian-antiquities-official-defends-fashion-line.html.

Charity or not, the Hawass story is quickly becoming more of a soap opera than anything else.

1 comment:

Paul Barford said...

Uff, I thought you were dead or had an accident, it took the usually alacritous critic of Zahi Hawass for even breathing so long to catch up with this.

I think it is important to note who is making a "soap opera" from this and why. A lot of people have clothing, cosmetics and all sorts of merchandise named after them, what is the actual problem?

If Harrods were marketing Cultural Property Observer soap-on-a-rope and towel set, would anyone set the hounds on you?