Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Cover boy 2

We are still in our journey with our Egyptian Cover boys of the Time magazine since 1923 till now ,Please check the first part of the post .Now we go to the fourth Egyptian leader who appeared on the cover of the Time .

He was the first Free officer and the second President of Egypt historically and the second most Egyptian Leader who found his way to the cover of the Time through his ruling years from 1954 to 1970 . you will be amazed how he was a controversial character and you will learn how the media can turn 180 degrees because of the international polices , yes I am talking about President Gamal Abd El-Nasser whom whether you like or dislike you can't deny that he was a center of news in the world and in his time there were many events ,international crisis and wars in only 16 years. The relationship between Nasser and the foreign press with the Time in particular was strange , I mean they would attack him and on the same time they would publish a long interview with him !! The strange thing which puzzles me is that I know that Nasser had special departments for monitoring what was published abroad whether in the Egyptian Presidency or in the Foreign ministry "My grand mother's brother was a head for it for couple of years during the Nasserite era" not to mention of course the intelligence , so I do not know how he used to welcome them for interview anyhow may be it was an intelligent move to communicate with the outside world specifically the West

The relation between them was an example of how the American President Nasser on the cover of the time for the first timeadministration considered Nasser ,it was like a mirror of reflection to the phases in the Egyptian-American relations during that time

The first time was on Sep. 26, 1955 they considered Nasser revolutionary  with a very beautiful illustration for the young officer and behind him a beautiful illustration of ancient Egypt Wall that looks like a wall from one of the Karnak Temples , representing Egyptians behind him

The second time was on August 27, 1956 and the revolutionary turned in to a Counterpuncher dictator during the Suez Crisis after President Nasser on the cover of the time for second timethe Nationalization of the Suez Canal,now he became the new villain of the western world , you only have to see the cover and how the cartoonist illustrated Nasser and compare it with 1955 cover to know the difference in the attitudes and view , the close up look with a devilish smile and big hawk nose not to mention the ancient Egyptian Wall behind representing an Egyptian soldiers from Ancient Egypt holding riffles and swords , it was full of meanings with direct messages , the difference from the previous less than year issue is amazing .The cartoonist who made that cover was  Ernest Hamlin Baker

The third time was on July 28,1958 , after two years from the Suez Issue the Counterpuncher dictator became an adventurer in the middle east whether with his new United Arab Republic or the crisis in Lebanon 1958 ,the marines came to the middle east ,still the President Nasser on the cover of the time for third timecover was different than the one in 1956 , first of all the it was an photograph representing Nasser and the Egyptian Old green flag that was going to be changed later ,here Nasser was no longer wearing his military suite and for the first time you find a normal smile on his face , in 1955 the cartoonist did not show him smiling and in 1956 he had that cartoon devilish smile , but in 1958 he had this calm smile  another remark Nasser name on the cover was no longer associated with Egypt like in 1955 or in 1956 may be because then he became the President Of UAE . The Photograph was taken by famous photojournalist David Douglas Duncan

Now after 5 years Nasser made it for the fourth time appearing on the cover of the time on March 29, 1963,the epic of the Pan Arabism ,again he returned as Nasser of Egypt yet he became the President Nasser on the cover of the time for the fourth timemost influential man in the Arab world , sending his armies to Yemen , supporting revolutions here and there, his allies were like the pain in the ass , the pan Arabism dream from the Ocean to the Gulf and his alliance with the Soviet Union were like the pain in the ass for America and its allies in the Arab world . The adventurer from 5 years ago became the Camel driver , leading the Arab world I guess .The cover was another illustration influenced with the history of ancient Egypt ,Nasser as a pharaoh standing with side by side with Sphinx , there are three men with sticks walking in the shadow I do not know who they were if you have idea please tell me , the very interesting part in the cover that time was the Arabic proverb on the right corner of the magazine "Keep your tents separate and bring your heart together" already I do not in Arabic a proverb like this but in the end I do not know all the proverbs , the proverb is about the Arab unity of course by the way .That cover was drawn by illustrator Robert Vickery

After another 6 years later He made it again for the fifth time on the cover of the time on May. 16, 1969 ,yes after the defeat of the Six days . That issue included  a long interview with him made by two Presidnet Nasser on the cover of the time for the fifth timejournalists one of them was the managing editor of the time then himself in Nasser's house.There was another report about the general conditions of the Arab world Egypt in particular after the defeat which affected the whole Arabic world painfully ,not only the countries of the front .very powerful Nasser was illustrated like A stone statue behind him a stone wall ,in a very powerful way with the title a deadlock in the middle east , strong and sad look in the eyes of Nasser of Egypt who was longer a dictator or adventurer but a president of Egypt.The cartoonist who made that cover was Louis Glanzman

That was the last time Nasser would appear alive on the Time as the following sixth time , he appeared on the international President Nasser on the cover of the time for the sixth timemagazine after his death on October 12,1970 in a graphical cover made of combined a photo for Nasser and other photos of Egypt of Abu Simbel II temple ,from the war , with two shapes of Crescent representing the Islamic identity of the Egypt and the Arab world with red background , I do not know if they chose red on purpose referring to the alliance with the soviets of what. Nasser was not an easy politician or leader and what he made that was considered a legacy was questioned in that critical time in whether to stay or vanish and the most important question to the west then who fill his vacuum . This cover was designed by Lawrence Lowry

President Nasser appeared 6 times in his 16 years rule of Egypt ,4 illustrated covers and two photographic covers. The covers presented the troubled relation with the west and specifically the United States .

This is the end of the second ,there will be a third part covering the rest of the Egyptian leaders who appeared on the cover of the time , I hope that the post was not too long ,damn it when blogger.com will add the read more feature !!??

6 comments:

  1. You know ,sorry but your English is So bad !!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey there! This is a really fantastic post, i had no idea how internationally popular he was. Brilliantly researched and written. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Re; the statement (in Cover boy-1 comments)describing Egyptian’s street reactions following Nasser’s speeches and during his funeral as being whole hearted and less due to government nudging speaks badly about Egyptian preparedness to espouse democratic principles of governing. That statement implies if hypothetically, there was a clean election (not like the ones with 99.9%) he would still have won. I can only imagine this may to be true during the period of Suez Canal nationalization, post 1956 war, and up to 1962 when most positive glorious news (real or fictions) surrounded him, that I have no quarrel with. From 1962 onward there were a lot of questions about the wisdom of unity with Syria and the Yemen war, followed shortly by the disaster of 1967 and his famous reaction of “I didn’t know”. If honestly, Egyptian still worshipped him after that fiasco, added to the fact that after 9 years nationalization of business in Egypt didn’t deliver any of the claimed social promises (meaning that their day to day lives essentials re; food, transportation, and accommodations were rapidly going downward), this means that they cannot distinguish truth from fictions. Responding to glorious words and political promises is one thing, assessing and accommodating factual, unimaginable military venture and defeat, and military corruption, is another. I don’t know how we expect them to criticize Mubarak(s) (Hosni or Gamal), and even have hope for something close to democracy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. honestly after watching the King Farouk series, I have no respect at all for all the revolutionary officers coz they are bunch of thieves and traitors to the King and Egypt. They accused the King of corruption, thief, womanizer but King Farouk was not a man as mentioned above in fact he was a decent man who loves Egypt more that any of these revolution officers. He left the country without taking anything which belongs to him. The revolution officers are the one who are bunch of thieves and robbed egypt and egyptians people of their money. Egypt would have been better if there is no revolution! Allah swt have punished a few of them and soon others too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. If Gamal Abdel Nasser was a good President and one of the revolution officer and being the first to rule after the King left (not mentioning President Naguib coz he was President for a short time before Nasser put him under house arrest!) where is all the treasures belong to the Late King Farouk and his families until now and why it is never being openly shown to public?

    Why is that we have a lot of revolution officers having stolen treasures belong to the late King Farouk and now the treasure are kept by bank in England thru auction? What did Nasser bring to Egypt except shameful war loses and collapse of Egypt economy! Sadat didnt manage to rule long either coz he was killed but he was a good President and he took Sinai back from the Israel and the world respect Egypt. The current President didnt do anything for Egypt either. No development for the last 26 years. Israel managed to build a country with the money from US within a short period only! With all the money aide came from US and money came thru the Suez Canal, Egypt should have been a rich country already so long!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Anonymous , you did not see my Arabic it is even worse

    @Frank , welcome to my blog , Nasser was popular as international threat , wait till you see the Sadat era

    @Ohio , look dear I do not deny that the Socialist Union used to organize protests from the school kids and factories workers but you can't deny that the man had one hell of a charming personality , do not speak about the Egyptian people what about the Arabic people , first of all People in Egypt began to wake up in 1967 but not earlier because the country was under huge control of censorship ,about the achievements of the revolution let's be realistic , first of all we have had till 3 president "Naguib time unfortunately can't be counted" each one of them is different from the other and each of them did not apply any or all of the revolution 6 golden promises , still each of them had a chance to make a change , you know I am sick of the Shama3 of the revolution , Mubarak had 25 years and he is certainty was the first to be from the generation beyond the revolution , he could have made huge changes more than Nasser more than Sadat I do not defend the revolution here by the way.

    @Anonoymous , so President Sadat was a traitor and President Nasser was a traitor and President Naguib who was better than all of them and than Farouk himself was a traitor!!?? treason charges are too big to be thrown when you just made your judgement after watching TV series written by Human beings
    being a dictator is something and a traitor is another ting , do not fall in the same mistake like them
    NO body can say that Hitler was a traitor to Germany
    they are not called the revolutionary officers by the way,all of them are dead "The revolution leadership council" except may be two " The Mohi Din Cousins
    my dear I know very well the scandals of the Jewels of MOhamed Ali family may be more than you do from facts by names ,dates ,persons and Jewels then and now and believe me I am more angry than you from them
    There is a poor musuem in Alexandria
    and as fact not all the free officers were thieves , in fact the good ones are the minority of them

    Look my point history is not read like simply by watching a A TV series , I did not reach to my conclusion that the 23rd July coup was not as successful as it was said to be from reading books and articles from different sources ,countries and years

    about Mubarak and 25 years , well please read my above comment
    history is not black or white
    neverless

    ReplyDelete

Thank You for your comment
Please keep it civilized here, racist and hateful comments are not accepted
The Comments in this blog with exclusion of the blog's owner does not represent the views of the blog's owner.