Nile University and Zewail City of Science , the same old Egyptian problem

When Ahmed Zewail won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999 and got that hero reception in Egypt , he spoke about having this city of scientific research in Egypt like the Silicon valley. It was something great for sure but everybody knew that it would not be achieved in time of Mubarak because simply Mubarak did not give a damn for our scientific research advance or development.
Still in 2000 The Zewail city of science and research’s corner stone was set up in a location in 6th of October area and 300 acres were allocated to that project. It was too good to be true then the project faced a lot of red tape and bureaucracy and in the end Zewail left and returned back to the States.
Nile University or NU is a non profit university founded by Egyptian foundation for technological education Development “EFTED” in July 2006 and has been working since then with its headquarters in “The Smart village”. Then Former PM Ahmed Nazif re-allocated 127 acres from Zewail city’s land to NU which witnessed a lot of problems in those 4 years.

The buildings of the NU were built on these 127 acres and its crew managed to make achievements in those 4 years despite all those problems in an atmosphere
A quick look to Nile University and you will find the following in those 4 years :

• 40 Egyptian scientists from our best scientists working in this university managed to publish 700 scientific research in 4 years including 250 research published with the help of the research assistants in NU
• The University has grants from big international corporations like Google, Microsoft, GM, Intel, Alcatel-Lucent, STDF, ITIDA, NTRA, EU, RDI, Qatar Foundation, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, Cadence.
• Around 285 top graduates of local universities are studying post graduate programs in NU.
• Dr. Haitham El Desoky , the R&D Engineer that won in the Stars of Sciences is another NU researcher.

Now after the ousting of Mubarak and during the good old days of PM Essam Sharaf , we found out that the old project of Zewail is resurrected  again in  which for sure is something great but there was a price.
But there was a price : wiping out the Nile University and merging it inside the new Zewail city without even recognizing its achievements , Zewail will take the NU , its students and researches with no price at all !! The buildings of those 127 acres re-allocated to NU are now part to Zewail city. Not that only the buildings and the NU facilities were closed for months in front of the NU students with no regards for their researches !!
I do not know how any scientist in the world would accept that NU , its buildings , equipment , researchers and scientists to sit idle like that for a whole year !!

The NU

The students and the researchers have launched a big campaign to Save NU whether online or offline through protests and sits in. Here is the official Save NU website and its official FB page. They do not want to be a part of the Zowail city.
With my all respect and admiration to Dr. Ahmed Zowail , I think naming a university or an academy after his name while he is alive is a bit narcissistic. Update : Dr. Zowail is speaking about the matter on twitter in his official twitter account where he said that the Government is the one that named the city after him. It was not his choice.Zowail also said that the NU has given up the land according to some contract , well it turned out that that this contract was signed by former PM Ahmed Shafik.
Zewail is insisting in all his meetings that he met the NU students and administration and they are more than ok , unfortunately it is untrue to the level that makes me wonder about these people he is meeting.
Last February 21st,2012 the Zewail city issued a statement saying that it has reached to an agreement with the NU administration by which ZC ethnically acquires the NU and that Zewail had meetings with the angry student.
Then NU administration and its Chairman Tarek Khalil have slammed the statement denying what came in.
The last thing we have got is that the minister of higher education saying that nothing bad will happen to NU adding that it will continue in its mission and everything will be fine !!!
And this is ladies and gentlemen a true Egyptian case : Solve a problem by creating another one !! Nazif should not re-allocated those 127 acres but I think in the same way after 10 years Zewail can get not only 127 acres but another 300 acres for fear from the government or even from SCAF in now time leaving NU alone.
After few hours from now Zewail will appear for the first on Yosri Fouda’s famous TV show “Last Talk” on ONTV and the Nile University supporters are asking Fouda to give them the opportunity to speak with the Nobel Prize winner for once seriously about the Nile University for once.
TV hosts always speak in front of Zewail as an idol with big admiration and opened mouth like kids in KG , they do not dare to ask him any important question about NU or even criticize him. I hope that Yosri Fouda proves he is unlike all other TV hosts.

Links :

• Nile University in Wikipedia “ENG”
• Zewail city for science and research in Wikipedia “Arabic”

Technorati Tags: Nile University,Zewail City of Sicence,Geek,NU,Egypt,Society,Media,Citizen journalism,Mideast