Society

Driving through post-revolution Cairo at night is eerie. The normally busy streets are deserted, most of the city’s  squares and roads are blocked by military checkpoints, and dark clad figures slip in and out of the shadows. Breaking the curfew may result in a six month sentence, or worse. Come dawn, however, the city springs to life, looking like it has done for millennia — busy, noisy, lively. This tale of two cities — one cowered, quiet and run by the military, and another that is lively, chaotic and civilian — is perhaps a tale not only of Cairo, but of Egypt in the midst of an ongoing transition. For

Jazz musicians absorb tunes, spend time with them, nearly live with and in them. Getting to know a tune means internalizing its contours and chord sequence to the point where one can walk onto that no-bullshit-zone of a bandstand and tell a story through just joining up the notes. It’s what you work towards. In British jazz that process also goes with a self-deprecating sense of humour. In particular, the songs get nicknames — sometimes punning, sometimes oblique, often childish and always funny. Alright, perhaps they’re only funny the first time. So here’s a different sort of Spotify Sunday playlist. Normally, Night and Day contributors list their selections with the

With NATO planes circling above Libya, Saudi troops quashing protests in Bahrain, and troops killing civilians in Syria and Yemen, there has been little attention paid to Israel. But Israel has recently been the victim of a series of violent attacks. More than 30 people were injured in a bombing in Jerusalem, and Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigade, has fired mortars and rockets into Israel for days on end. The attacks suggest that Hamas is, once again, struggling to rein in other terrorist groups like Islamic Jihad. Some IDF commanders fear a descent into chaos in Gaza. In the face of the onslaught, however, the Israeli government has