This week's caravan

I am all for new ideas. I love picking up the Caravan and getting an in-depth look at specific angles at AUC. I loved the idea of a picture edition, and thought it would work out very well.

Unfortunately Caravan missed its mark this week. Many students were uninterested in the issue, and many others were just offended.

I realize the Caravan is understaffed. It's been a hell of a semester for all of us. Asmaa and Reham, the editor in chief and managing editor, worked really hard to keep the students up to date and informed. I also know that the Caravan is lacking specificlly on the Arabic side. There aren't enough students who know how to read and write arabic.

I also understand that as a journalist you sometimes need to be offensive. But this issue didnt need that. The second page of the Arabic side was supposed to show the city life we left behind, and how sad it is that we are stuck out in the desert. Yet, when I look at the pictures published I think , I'm glad i dont have to be there any more. Since when does a butcher, a homeless man on the street, and the guy smoking shisha represent Cairo life? Where's the beautiful architecture? Where's the fakahani? Perhaps it would have been a better page if they had added images that show the beauty of Cairo, and what we all really miss about it.

The page after was a comparison between Ain Shams University and AUC. A number of students approached me, angry and upset about this page. The page read:

The difference between Ain Shams University and AUC is the difference between the old-fashioned and the modern, the wealthy and the middle class, the complex and the simple

The students said the pictures made AUC students look like the rich spoiled kids, and the students of Ain Shams the polar opposite. More important, they say that they have been to Ain Shams, and this is not representative of that community.

Perhaps next semester the Caravan will try to truely reach out to the Egyptian community by finding common issues we all can associate with. This may be a better angle than further distancing ourselves from the community we live in, and know so little about.