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Zahi Hawass Quits as Egtprian Archaeology Head

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Egyptian King
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« on: March 09, 2011, 09:15:49 am »

The New Egyptian Government Can't Fire Zahi Hawass — Because He Quits



Zahi Hawass speaks with the press outside of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Egypt is putting together its first post-revolutionary government, but Zahi Hawass will not be a part of it. The crusading Egyptologist and antiquities minister has announced his intention to resign. Though he has not reported this on his frequently updated blog, he spoke to media outlets yesterday and today.

Egypt's prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, resigned yesterday, and his replacement, Essam Sharaf, has been asked by the army to form a caretaker cabinet. "If the government will ask me again, I will not accept this job," Hawass told the New York Times yesterday. Today he said to CNN that the police have been unable to protect Egypt's cultural heritage and that his resignation "is a protest, really, that not enough can be done now to protect these sites and treasures."

But is the publicity-savvy Hawass simply putting a positive spin on the fact that as a close associate of deposed president Hosni Mubarak — who promoted him to a newly-created cabinet post in late January — he is not exactly welcome in the new Egypt? Last month, concerned students and archeologists staged a protest to demand his resignation, seeing his domineering tactics as a symbol of the Mubarak regime. It is doubtful that the 1,000 archeology internships he subsequently promised did much to soothe their anger.

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Yesterday, Hawass posted an extensive list on his blog of sites that have allegedly been looted since Mubarak was removed from power, including storerooms for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's excavation site at Dahshur. Met director Thomas P. Campbell said in a statement that the storerooms were looted weeks ago, which raises the question of why Hawass — who consistently downplayed the scale of the looting — is only reporting on its full extent now. The Met did not disclose this information because the objects excavated at the site belong to Egypt, not the museum, and since the "nature of the information we were getting was confused," according to the New York Times.

Last month, Hawass reported the looting of Cairo's Egyptian Museum somewhat tardily, raising questions of whether he had withheld the information for political reasons.


http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/37149/the-new-egyptian-government-cant-fire-zahi-hawass-because-he-quits/
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Horus
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« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2011, 11:28:40 pm »

Finally! And good riddance! Let's hope his successor is open-minded to the alternative camp.
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"For the greater individual is the one who is the servant of all. And to conquer self is greater than taking cities."

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Psycho
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« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2011, 01:36:36 am »

We won't have Zawi to kick around anymore.  Better check his house for some of the most valuable missing artifacts.  He probably has a whole room devoted to Atlantis.
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