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AID seeks to inspire a new generation of international leaders and promote America's image in the world.

Citizens for Global Solutions, a grassroots organization, envisions a future in which nations work together to solve the problems that no nation can solve alone.

Engaging Today's Global Citizens

Voices of Egypt

What is on the minds of those living in the Arab world's most populous country?

Eleven senior US editors and producers traveled to Egypt April 29 - May 12 to meet with a wide variety of Egyptians during a two-week fact-finding visit organized by the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University and cosponsored by the Stanley Foundation.

The Stanley Foundation's ongoing journalism training efforts are aimed at improving media coverage and deepening American understanding of a region where the United States has come to play a larger role in recent years.

"Times have gotten a little harder for newspapers and travel budgets are tighter than they used to be. So an opportunity like this can give a basis for coverage you wouldn't get some other way," said participant Eric Ringham, editorial page editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "Knowing something about Egypt, as I do now from this trip, that's going to affect everything I write about foreign policy for some time to come."

The "Gatekeeper" journalists met not only with political leaders but also students, journalists, cultural figures, and "ordinary" Egyptians. Here is a small sampling of what people in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, had to say:

	"We are convinced that development starts here from the countryside. The education of the nation should start with girls." Raga'y Abdelqawy, inspector general of the Egyptian adult literacy authority, at the Tonsa Youth Center. The school has 85 teachers and about 650 students, and is part of a government effort called "Ishraq" (Arabic for enlightenment) aimed at educating girls from rural areas of the country.
	"Nobody is born a terrorist. As a novelist, I believe people are people everywhere. The problem is political but also has something do with every side not knowing enough about the other sides. I believe literature is a wonderful tool to make this bridge." Alaa al-Aswany, author of The Yacoubian Building, the best-selling Arabic novel for two consecutive years (2002 and 2003).
	"The street is really boiling. People don't have a present, they don't have a future. They don't see anything real. The people are fed up with 50 years of dictatorship, fed up with false announcements." Osama Farid, chairman of Project Engineering and member of al Wasat party, a moderate Islamic party whose members have been trying to register as an official political party for the last ten years.
	"It's a continuation of this police state.... It's all targeting the opposition. It's all targeting anyone who would talk about corruption, talk about unemployment." Gamila Ismail, wife of jailed opposition politician Ayman Nour. Nour is a pro-democracy candidate who challenged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in last year's elections; he is now in jail on fraud charges.
	"Mr. Nour got so much publicity in the West...more than I think he deserves. He committed a crime, was found guilty, and is serving a sentence. I think he was given all his rights." Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, defending the government's actions against Nour.
	"This is a big problem. I don't know what the solution is. We can't tell where the truth is. The blood is up to the knees. My heart is breaking. I hope the American youth go home and that is the end of the problem." Ali Gomaa, the grand mufti of Egypt and one of the country's leading religious authorities, on his opposition to the war in Iraq.
	"I don't know a lot about politics. I'm just trying to feed the British Army." Mohammed Belia, a Cairo taxi driver since 1981. The "British Army" he refers to includes his wife, five children, mother-in-law, and a brother-in-law that he lives with.