Getting Blitzed in Cairo
The Washington Post reported on the recent ban on alcohol sales at the Cairo Grand Hyatt. After it was sold to a Saudi businessman, he ordered the alcohol be poured out. This is sending its alcohol revenues, and the many tourists seeking a drink, to the Hard Rock Cafe next door — which is owned by a bin Laden.
This story illuminates the gulf (pun intended) between the strictures of public religiosity and the private lives for many in the Arab world. Gulf tourists, especially, used Cairo as a destination for haram vacations. The article’s highlights though are in a few gems:
-When asked about how two Saudi businessmen, the owners of Hard Rock and the Hyatt, could differ so much on alcohol policy, the (Armenian-Arab) manager of Hard Rock cited the Arab proverb: “Even the five fingers on your hand aren’t the same, are they?” Brilliant saying.
-A columnist, and likely drunkard, who opposed the ban, wrote that the Hyatt’s owner “deprived foreign guests from finding the alcoholic beverage which they wanted, and forced it upon the Muslim fish of the Nile” (after being dumped through the hotel drains).
-I laughed at the image of Egyptian waiters trying to woo female clientèle with cheesy Al Qaeda humor: “Waiters at the Cairo Hard Rock like to try to impress female customers by telling them a bearded man at some table or the other is the owner, bin Laden.”
