I think I'll call them Sparky, Motsy, Philip, Professor Wikipedia, Rex....

I think we all know, I am not the classiest of girls. On any given day you'll find me wearing whatever I fell asleep in, which is usually what I was wearing the day before. (I'm kidding! I only fall asleep in my clothes 4 times a week, and I typically change in mornings. Though its getting cold and even that's starting to seem less important.)

So when I moved onto the boat of luxuriant hedonism, I expected it to be, well, a luxuriously hedonistic lifestyle. I assumed I would have to invest in a fur bathrobe and Paris Hilton-esque sunglasses, and spend my nights sipping Italian wine while coyly flirting with Arabian princes on the balcony. No luck, sadly no sheiks have made their way to the Imbaba slum district, surprising I know!

However, I quickly learned that houseboats on the Nile are buggy. Looking like I was raised in Canada by lumberjacks means that it didn't take long for me to not be bothered by the bugs. But this weekend I realized that comfortableness that has developed might be too extreme. I woke up and went out to the balcony to have my morning tea, only to see my roommate had dropped a tablespoon of peanut butter on the ground, my immediate thought was "I should clean that up." Then, I thought "Nah, the ants will get it."

Couple hours later, the peanut butter was just a slight oil stain.

That's right. I treat the bugs like they are the house dog. Well, I've always wanted a pet in Cairo, I suppose.

Coming up with names for all of them is going to be a hassle though.

School-yard rules

A little behind the rest of the world, I've been reading Thomas Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem," beyond being a wonderfully well-written insightful though obviously sided account of the 70s and 80s in the Middle East its gotten my wheels turning again about this region.

Friedman's Op-Ed for the New York Times this week makes an interesting argument- that democracy may not be as important diversity. Respecting others rights, after all, is a keystone of democracy.

The very essence of democracy is peaceful rotations of power, no matter whose party or tribe is in or out. But that ethic does not apply in most of the Arab-Muslim world today, where the political ethos remains “Rule or Die.” Either my group is in power or I’m dead, in prison, in exile or lying very low. But democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can’t take root.

But respect for diversity is something that has to emerge from within a culture. We can hold a free and fair election in Iraq, but we can’t inject a culture of diversity. America and Europe had to go through the most awful civil wars to give birth to their cultures of diversity. The Arab-Muslim world will have to go through the same internal war of ideas.

Maybe instead of state-building we should worry a little more about "creating an environment of tolerance" as my high-school guidance counselor used to call it.