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The French Foreign Ministry maintains a Higher Research Institute in Cairo, Egypt, called the "Centre d??tudes et de documentation ?conomiques, juridiques et sociales (CEDEJ) " (Centre for economic, juridical and social documentation studies). It deals specifically with Egyptian society, and has a post-doctoral researcher, who has published a number of sociological studies on the impact of epidemics on this country's health/political system. One of which deals specifically with avian influenza. (http://www.cedej.org.eg/article.php3?id_article=178)
I have also found out there that this French Foreign Ministry maintains this Institute not just for Egypt, but it serves as an observatory for the Sudan. Moreover, it has other similar institutes in other countries in Africa and in Asia. This is important. The work of these researchers will be fed to diplomats who are in charge of understanding what goes on in a country and this type of information may be used for governmental decisions, or at the very least for background information for such decisions to be made.
As we ask ourselves today whether one should believe in a genuine transparency in the Egyptian government's media communications, one ought to read the following article, which well describes the possible effect of epidemics on Egypt's communications.
It's a long essay, so I've used Google Translation from French into English, but if there is something unclear in the process, please say so on this thread and I'll manually retranslate these parts, as and when I get time to do a good job of it. I wanted to post the French in the Francophone des Flutrackers, but I just couldn't find an appropriate section - Mods please would you kindlz see to this? Thanks
------------
Between war and corruption: Egypt under threat of bird flu
1) The point of view of European-focused media treatment of bird flu in countries of the European Union will not see that the process of charging similar epidemiological are at work in other parts of the world. Thus, for the Egyptian media, the threat of avian flu comes from Europe and Asia. This process allows you spilled a bit of symmetry where the power of strikes and the media wealth laboratories in Europe could believe in a chain of transmission unilateral poor countries and to Eastern Europe.
Imagine, for a process of science fiction, the following configuration. We are in spring 2006. Migratory birds slowly back of the tropics and sub-tropics, where they spent the winter to temperate areas of Europe. After a few weeks, European health authorities say a new threat to the poultry industry and human health. From this point of view, the interpretation seems clear: migratory birds were fed the H5N1 virus (or one of its recombinant) at their place of refuge winter. The trope of the virus fully functional: like the hordes of African immigrants facing mass of the electric fence Spanish enclaves in Morocco, migratory birds, repus of their journey to Sinai, on Lake Nasser or in the marshes Sudan, import the virus on European soil ... Yet, it would take just one side of the migratory routes of birds. Before climbing back northward in the spring, these birds are indeed gravitated toward the southern regions during the fall and winter of 2005 when they were very able to import the dangerous virus before it is transported back to the northern areas.
It is the consideration of this second configuration worries us by describing the ways in which the media and Egyptian health authorities are trying to respond today to the viral threat.
Avian influenza and its possible transmission to humans is not unknown in Egypt. In 2004, Egyptian health authorities recognize that the H10N7 virus circulates among humans. It is isolated from two children from the city of Ismailia whose father is a walking poultry. But no epidemic and no other human cases are recorded (Source: EID Weekly Updates, 2 (18-7), 2004.
As for the current crisis, some articles in the Egyptian press not hesitate already, in October / November 2005, to announce that bird flu has entered into Egypt. The Ministry of Health announced a ban on imports of poultry from Turkey and Greece. He has shown the will to transform a large portion of 34 observatories migratory birds (Important Birds Areas-IBA) in the country sentinels to prevent the incursion of the virus. Despite the presence of two complex of laboratories (VACSERA in which is recorded on the National Influenza Center recognized by the WHO, on the one hand, and the Institute of Veterinary Vaccines Sera and on the other hand), he missed in his country of a laboratory with the necessary diagnostic capability. Finally, the growth of the poultry industry in Egypt over the past two decades, and the dual system governing poultry production ?gytienne (private commercial enterprises or governmental receiving veterinary innovations on the one hand and domestic livestock out of reach of veterinary services on the other hand) present another challenge to the viral threat.
2) A society "seized"? Virus, chickens and metaphors media upon arrival of bird flu in Egypt, 2005-2006.
On 17 February 2006, the Egyptian government launched an alert to avian flu. The list published on the number of governorates affected increases by the day. Steps decision-makers are arrested as the slaughter of chickens in farms domestic subject to fines, closure of street stalls specializing in the sale of poultry and the establishment of a council of ministers of health, agriculture and the environment to lead the government response. It is then the question of "crisis" of bird flu which one consequence is the creation of thousands of unemployed workers in the poultry industry.
The alert government also opens a new space to media treatment of bird flu in the country. If newspapers were already the case since September 2005 and international alerts launched by the World Health Organization, the government announcement causes a change of scale with the proliferation of articles dealing either directly ' infection and its consequences (political, health and economic), or indirectly through the mobilization of images and animal viruses in the treatment of national and international news. The aim of this research is meant to be descriptive rather qu'explicative. We try to show how, in pursuit of the discussions around the bird flu, a semantic network of metaphors and analogies into place in the Egyptian press enabling journalists and other spokesmen to mention certain dimensions in the order / social chaos prevailing in Egypt. We want to support the assumption that the animal metaphors (chicken) and virus (H5N1) have provided these players the narrative of a political language.
This narrative is not limited to the metaphor of "killer virus". While fear and war are themes explored widely by the press and allow him to talk about the "threats" on US Middle East. But the semantic network deployed is much richer. It extends its branches up controversy about the nature of corrupt practices gpouvernementales, interest groups described as "mafia" or even citizens themselves. The economic "flu" is from this point of view a test of the government that sits atop of disposing of its culture of lies. Even when it and its affiliated news organizations are spread throughout columns on the action taken to deal with the scourge, their word remains suspect, some newspapers in this profusion denouncing a smokescreen political, or even a "conspiracy Government, "designed to mask inefficiencies government on other issues (government management of the sinking of the Salam 98 in the Red Sea in February 2006, the increase in prices or" crisis "sugar). Other titles evoke even a "flu-government" or "virus of corruption". The image of the corrupt politician, and even cannibalistic, which eat money from citizens, is further reinforced by the display of political representatives feasting around a chicken leg to reassure their fellow citizens on the safety of meat cooked.
The threat virus opens a range of opportunities for different political groups to enable them to display their opportunistic concerns for the health of citizens or in reinsurance strategies and prevention (ministries, or example of the leaflet distributed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Exit mosques), or in strategies denunciations policies.
At another level, the "crisis" of bird flu also provides tools metaphorical referring to a deeper social crisis in Egyptian society marked by poverty, pollution (environmental and even moral) and the crisis in the sector ' Food. The combination of bird flu and foot and mouth disease detected in the governorate of Alexandria in early March 2006 is also a call into question the ability of a society to feed its members (quality of the meat and, in turn, agricultural products). These are the themes that we would like to address in this research.
----------
French original version
Entre guerre et corruption : l?Egypte sous la menace de la grippe aviaire
1) Le point de vue europ?o-centr? du traitement m?diatique de la grippe aviaire dans les pays de l?Union Europ?enne ne permet pas de voir que des processus d?imputation ?pid?miologique similaires sont ? l?oeuvre dans d?autres parties du monde. Ainsi, pour les m?dias Egyptiens, la menace de la grippe aviaire provient bien de l?Europe et de l?Asie. Ce processus renvers? permet de remettre un peu de sym?trie l? o? la puissance de frappe m?diatique et la richesses des laboratoires europ?ens pourraient faire croire ? une cha?ne de transmission unilat?rale des pays pauvres et orientaux vers l?Europe.
Imaginons, par un proc?d? de science-fiction, la configuration suivante. Nous sommes au printemps 2006. Les oiseaux migrateurs remontent lentement des r?gions tropicales et sub-tropicales o? ils ont pass? l?hiver vers les zones europ?ennes temp?r?es. Apr?s quelques semaines, les autorit?s sanitaires europ?ennes d?clarent une nouvelle menace pour l?industrie avicole et la sant? humaine. De ce seul point de vue, l?interpr?tation semble claire : les oiseaux migrateurs se sont nourris du virus H5N1 (ou un de ses recombinants) sur leur lieu de refuge hivernal. Le trope du virus fonctionne ? plein r?gime : ? l?instar des hordes d?immigr?s africains affrontant en masse les barri?re ?lectriques des enclaves espagnoles au Maroc, les oiseaux migrateurs, repus de leur p?riple au Sina?, sur le lac Nasser ou dans les mar?cages soudanais, importent le virus sur le sol europ?en... Pourtant, ce ne serait prendre qu?un seul pan des routes migratoires des oiseaux. Avant de remonter vers le Nord au printemps, ces oiseaux sont en effet descendus vers ces r?gions m?ridionales au cours de l?automne et de l?hiver 2005 o? ils ont tr?s bien pu y importer le dangereux virus avant de le transporter ? nouveau vers les zones septentrionales.
C?est l?examen de cette seconde configuration qui nous pr?occupe en d?crivant les mani?res dont les m?dias et les autorit?s sanitaires ?gyptiennes tentent de r?pondre aujourd?hui ? la menace virale.
La grippe aviaire et son ?ventuelle transmission ? l?homme n?est pas inconnue en Egypte. En 2004, les autorit?s sanitaires ?gyptiennes reconnaissent que le virus H10N7 circule parmi les humains. Il est isol? chez deux enfants de la ville d?Ismailia dont le p?re est un marchant de volaille. Mais aucune ?pizootie et aucun autre cas humain ne sont enregistr?s (Source : EID Weekly Updates, 2(18-7), 2004.
S?agissant de la crise actuelle, certains articles de la presse ?gyptienne n?h?sitent d?j? pas, en octobre/novembre 2005, ? annoncer que la grippe aviaire est entr?e en Egypte. Le ministre de la sant? a annonc? une interdiction des importations de volaille en provenance de Turquie et de Gr?ce. Il a affich? la volont? de transformer une grande partie des 34 observatoires des oiseaux migrateurs (Important Birds Areas-IBA) du pays en sentinelles afin de pr?venir l?incursion du virus. En d?pit de la pr?sence de deux complexes de laboratoires (VACSERA au sein duquel est enregistr? le National Influenza Center reconnu par l?OMS, d?une part, et l?Institut des S?rums et Vaccins V?t?rinaires, d?autre part), il a regrett? l?absence dans son pays d?un laboratoire ayant la capacit? diagnostique n?cessaire. Enfin, la croissance de l?industrie avicole en Egypte ces deux derni?res d?cennies et le syst?me dual r?gissant la production avicole ?gytienne (entreprises commerciales priv?es ou gouvernementales b?n?ficiant des innovations v?t?rinaires, d?une part, et ?levages domestiques hors d?atteinte des services v?t?rinaires, d?autre part) pr?sentent un autre d?fi face ? la menace virale.
2) Une soci?t? "gripp?e" ? Virus, poulets et m?taphores m?diatiques lors de l?arriv?e de la grippe aviaire en Egypte, 2005-2006.
Le 17 f?vrier 2006, le gouvernement ?gyptien lance une alerte ? la grippe aviaire. La liste publi?e du nombre de gouvernorats touch?s s?accro?t de jour en jour. Des mesures d?cisoires sont arr?t?es comme l?abattage des poulets dans les ?levages domestiques sous peine d?amende, la fermeture des ?choppes de rue sp?cialis?es dans la vente de volaille ou encore la mise en place d?un conseil des ministres de la sant?, de l?agriculture et de l?environnement destin? ? piloter la r?action gouvernementale. Il est alors question de la "crise" de la grippe aviaire dont une des cons?quences est la mise au chomage de milliers de travailleurs du secteur avicole.
L?alerte gouvernementale ouvre aussi un nouvel espace au traitement m?diatique de la grippe aviaire dans le pays. Si les journaux suivaient d?j? l?affaire depuis le mois de septembre 2005 et les alertes internationales lanc?es par l?Organisation Mondiale de la Sant?, l?annonce gouvernementale provoque un changement d??chelle avec la multiplication d?articles traitant soit directement de l?infection et de ses r?percussions (politiques, sanitaires et ?conomiques), soit indirectement par la mobilisation d?images virales et animales dans le traitement de l?actualit? internationale et nationale. L?ambition de cette recherche se veut avant tout descriptive, plut?t qu?explicative. Nous cherchons ? montrer comment, dans la poursuite des d?bats autour de la grippe aviaire, un r?seau s?mantique de m?taphores et d?analogies se met en place dans la presse ?gyptienne permettant aux journalistes et ? d?autres porte-parole d??voquer certaines dimensions de l?ordre/d?sordre social pr?valant en Egypte. Nous voulons ?tayer l?hypoth?se que les m?taphores animales (poulet) et virales (H5N1) ont fourni ? ces acteurs la trame narrative d?un langage politique.
Cette trame narrative ne se limite pas ? la m?taphore du ? killer virus ?. Certes la peur et la guerre sont des th?mes largement explor?s par la presse ?crite et lui permettent d??voquer les ? menaces ? am?ricaines sur le Proche et Moyen-Orient. Mais le r?seau s?mantique d?ploy? est bien plus riche. Il ?tend ses ramifications jusqu?? des controverses sur la nature corrompue des pratiques gpouvernementales, de groupes d?int?r?ts d?crits comme "mafias" ou encore des citoyens eux-m?mes. La conjoncture "grippale" constitue de ce point de vue une mise ? l??preuve du gouvernement qui est somm? de se d?partir de sa culture du mensonge. M?me lorsque celui-ci et ses organes de presse affili?s s??talent ? longueur de colonnes sur l?action entreprise pour faire face au fl?au, leur parole demeure suspecte, certains journaux d?non?ant dans cette profusion un ?cran de fum?e politique, voire un ? complot gouvernemental ?, destin? ? masquer l?incurie gouvernementale sur d?autres questions (la gestion gouvernementale du naufrage du Salam 98 dans la Mer Rouge en f?vrier 2006, la hausse des prix ou la "crise" du sucre). D?autres titres ?voquent encore une ? grippe gouvernementale ? ou le ? virus de la corruption ?. L?image du politicien v?reux, voire cannibale, qui "bouffe" l?argent des citoyens, est encore renforc?e par l?affichage des repr?sentants politiques festoyant autour d?une cuisse de poulet afin de rassurer leurs concitoyens sur l?innocuit? de la viande cuite.
La menace virale ouvre ainsi une s?rie d?opportunit?s aux diff?rents groupes politiques leur permettant d?afficher leurs pr?occupations opportunistes pour la sant? des citoyens soit dans des strat?gies de r?assurance et de pr?vention (minist?res, ou encore exemple du tract distribu? par les Fr?res Musulmans ? la sortie des mosqu?es), soit dans des strat?gies de d?nonciations politiques.
A un autre niveau, la ? crise ? de la grippe aviaire procure aussi les outils m?taphoriques ?voquant une crise sociale plus profonde de la soci?t? ?gyptienne marqu?e par la pauvret?, la pollution (environnementale, voire morale) et par la crise du secteur de l?alimentation. La conjonction de la grippe aviaire et de la fi?vre aphteuse d?tect?e dans le gouvernorat d?Alexandrie d?but mars 2006 repr?sente aussi une mise en question de la capacit? d?une soci?t? ? nourrir correctement ses membres (qualit? de la viande et, par ricochet, des produits agricoles). Ce sont ces diff?rents th?mes que nous aimerions aborder dans cette recherche.
I have also found out there that this French Foreign Ministry maintains this Institute not just for Egypt, but it serves as an observatory for the Sudan. Moreover, it has other similar institutes in other countries in Africa and in Asia. This is important. The work of these researchers will be fed to diplomats who are in charge of understanding what goes on in a country and this type of information may be used for governmental decisions, or at the very least for background information for such decisions to be made.
As we ask ourselves today whether one should believe in a genuine transparency in the Egyptian government's media communications, one ought to read the following article, which well describes the possible effect of epidemics on Egypt's communications.
It's a long essay, so I've used Google Translation from French into English, but if there is something unclear in the process, please say so on this thread and I'll manually retranslate these parts, as and when I get time to do a good job of it. I wanted to post the French in the Francophone des Flutrackers, but I just couldn't find an appropriate section - Mods please would you kindlz see to this? Thanks
------------
Between war and corruption: Egypt under threat of bird flu
1) The point of view of European-focused media treatment of bird flu in countries of the European Union will not see that the process of charging similar epidemiological are at work in other parts of the world. Thus, for the Egyptian media, the threat of avian flu comes from Europe and Asia. This process allows you spilled a bit of symmetry where the power of strikes and the media wealth laboratories in Europe could believe in a chain of transmission unilateral poor countries and to Eastern Europe.
Imagine, for a process of science fiction, the following configuration. We are in spring 2006. Migratory birds slowly back of the tropics and sub-tropics, where they spent the winter to temperate areas of Europe. After a few weeks, European health authorities say a new threat to the poultry industry and human health. From this point of view, the interpretation seems clear: migratory birds were fed the H5N1 virus (or one of its recombinant) at their place of refuge winter. The trope of the virus fully functional: like the hordes of African immigrants facing mass of the electric fence Spanish enclaves in Morocco, migratory birds, repus of their journey to Sinai, on Lake Nasser or in the marshes Sudan, import the virus on European soil ... Yet, it would take just one side of the migratory routes of birds. Before climbing back northward in the spring, these birds are indeed gravitated toward the southern regions during the fall and winter of 2005 when they were very able to import the dangerous virus before it is transported back to the northern areas.
It is the consideration of this second configuration worries us by describing the ways in which the media and Egyptian health authorities are trying to respond today to the viral threat.
Avian influenza and its possible transmission to humans is not unknown in Egypt. In 2004, Egyptian health authorities recognize that the H10N7 virus circulates among humans. It is isolated from two children from the city of Ismailia whose father is a walking poultry. But no epidemic and no other human cases are recorded (Source: EID Weekly Updates, 2 (18-7), 2004.
As for the current crisis, some articles in the Egyptian press not hesitate already, in October / November 2005, to announce that bird flu has entered into Egypt. The Ministry of Health announced a ban on imports of poultry from Turkey and Greece. He has shown the will to transform a large portion of 34 observatories migratory birds (Important Birds Areas-IBA) in the country sentinels to prevent the incursion of the virus. Despite the presence of two complex of laboratories (VACSERA in which is recorded on the National Influenza Center recognized by the WHO, on the one hand, and the Institute of Veterinary Vaccines Sera and on the other hand), he missed in his country of a laboratory with the necessary diagnostic capability. Finally, the growth of the poultry industry in Egypt over the past two decades, and the dual system governing poultry production ?gytienne (private commercial enterprises or governmental receiving veterinary innovations on the one hand and domestic livestock out of reach of veterinary services on the other hand) present another challenge to the viral threat.
2) A society "seized"? Virus, chickens and metaphors media upon arrival of bird flu in Egypt, 2005-2006.
On 17 February 2006, the Egyptian government launched an alert to avian flu. The list published on the number of governorates affected increases by the day. Steps decision-makers are arrested as the slaughter of chickens in farms domestic subject to fines, closure of street stalls specializing in the sale of poultry and the establishment of a council of ministers of health, agriculture and the environment to lead the government response. It is then the question of "crisis" of bird flu which one consequence is the creation of thousands of unemployed workers in the poultry industry.
The alert government also opens a new space to media treatment of bird flu in the country. If newspapers were already the case since September 2005 and international alerts launched by the World Health Organization, the government announcement causes a change of scale with the proliferation of articles dealing either directly ' infection and its consequences (political, health and economic), or indirectly through the mobilization of images and animal viruses in the treatment of national and international news. The aim of this research is meant to be descriptive rather qu'explicative. We try to show how, in pursuit of the discussions around the bird flu, a semantic network of metaphors and analogies into place in the Egyptian press enabling journalists and other spokesmen to mention certain dimensions in the order / social chaos prevailing in Egypt. We want to support the assumption that the animal metaphors (chicken) and virus (H5N1) have provided these players the narrative of a political language.
This narrative is not limited to the metaphor of "killer virus". While fear and war are themes explored widely by the press and allow him to talk about the "threats" on US Middle East. But the semantic network deployed is much richer. It extends its branches up controversy about the nature of corrupt practices gpouvernementales, interest groups described as "mafia" or even citizens themselves. The economic "flu" is from this point of view a test of the government that sits atop of disposing of its culture of lies. Even when it and its affiliated news organizations are spread throughout columns on the action taken to deal with the scourge, their word remains suspect, some newspapers in this profusion denouncing a smokescreen political, or even a "conspiracy Government, "designed to mask inefficiencies government on other issues (government management of the sinking of the Salam 98 in the Red Sea in February 2006, the increase in prices or" crisis "sugar). Other titles evoke even a "flu-government" or "virus of corruption". The image of the corrupt politician, and even cannibalistic, which eat money from citizens, is further reinforced by the display of political representatives feasting around a chicken leg to reassure their fellow citizens on the safety of meat cooked.
The threat virus opens a range of opportunities for different political groups to enable them to display their opportunistic concerns for the health of citizens or in reinsurance strategies and prevention (ministries, or example of the leaflet distributed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Exit mosques), or in strategies denunciations policies.
At another level, the "crisis" of bird flu also provides tools metaphorical referring to a deeper social crisis in Egyptian society marked by poverty, pollution (environmental and even moral) and the crisis in the sector ' Food. The combination of bird flu and foot and mouth disease detected in the governorate of Alexandria in early March 2006 is also a call into question the ability of a society to feed its members (quality of the meat and, in turn, agricultural products). These are the themes that we would like to address in this research.
----------
French original version
Entre guerre et corruption : l?Egypte sous la menace de la grippe aviaire
1) Le point de vue europ?o-centr? du traitement m?diatique de la grippe aviaire dans les pays de l?Union Europ?enne ne permet pas de voir que des processus d?imputation ?pid?miologique similaires sont ? l?oeuvre dans d?autres parties du monde. Ainsi, pour les m?dias Egyptiens, la menace de la grippe aviaire provient bien de l?Europe et de l?Asie. Ce processus renvers? permet de remettre un peu de sym?trie l? o? la puissance de frappe m?diatique et la richesses des laboratoires europ?ens pourraient faire croire ? une cha?ne de transmission unilat?rale des pays pauvres et orientaux vers l?Europe.
Imaginons, par un proc?d? de science-fiction, la configuration suivante. Nous sommes au printemps 2006. Les oiseaux migrateurs remontent lentement des r?gions tropicales et sub-tropicales o? ils ont pass? l?hiver vers les zones europ?ennes temp?r?es. Apr?s quelques semaines, les autorit?s sanitaires europ?ennes d?clarent une nouvelle menace pour l?industrie avicole et la sant? humaine. De ce seul point de vue, l?interpr?tation semble claire : les oiseaux migrateurs se sont nourris du virus H5N1 (ou un de ses recombinants) sur leur lieu de refuge hivernal. Le trope du virus fonctionne ? plein r?gime : ? l?instar des hordes d?immigr?s africains affrontant en masse les barri?re ?lectriques des enclaves espagnoles au Maroc, les oiseaux migrateurs, repus de leur p?riple au Sina?, sur le lac Nasser ou dans les mar?cages soudanais, importent le virus sur le sol europ?en... Pourtant, ce ne serait prendre qu?un seul pan des routes migratoires des oiseaux. Avant de remonter vers le Nord au printemps, ces oiseaux sont en effet descendus vers ces r?gions m?ridionales au cours de l?automne et de l?hiver 2005 o? ils ont tr?s bien pu y importer le dangereux virus avant de le transporter ? nouveau vers les zones septentrionales.
C?est l?examen de cette seconde configuration qui nous pr?occupe en d?crivant les mani?res dont les m?dias et les autorit?s sanitaires ?gyptiennes tentent de r?pondre aujourd?hui ? la menace virale.
La grippe aviaire et son ?ventuelle transmission ? l?homme n?est pas inconnue en Egypte. En 2004, les autorit?s sanitaires ?gyptiennes reconnaissent que le virus H10N7 circule parmi les humains. Il est isol? chez deux enfants de la ville d?Ismailia dont le p?re est un marchant de volaille. Mais aucune ?pizootie et aucun autre cas humain ne sont enregistr?s (Source : EID Weekly Updates, 2(18-7), 2004.
S?agissant de la crise actuelle, certains articles de la presse ?gyptienne n?h?sitent d?j? pas, en octobre/novembre 2005, ? annoncer que la grippe aviaire est entr?e en Egypte. Le ministre de la sant? a annonc? une interdiction des importations de volaille en provenance de Turquie et de Gr?ce. Il a affich? la volont? de transformer une grande partie des 34 observatoires des oiseaux migrateurs (Important Birds Areas-IBA) du pays en sentinelles afin de pr?venir l?incursion du virus. En d?pit de la pr?sence de deux complexes de laboratoires (VACSERA au sein duquel est enregistr? le National Influenza Center reconnu par l?OMS, d?une part, et l?Institut des S?rums et Vaccins V?t?rinaires, d?autre part), il a regrett? l?absence dans son pays d?un laboratoire ayant la capacit? diagnostique n?cessaire. Enfin, la croissance de l?industrie avicole en Egypte ces deux derni?res d?cennies et le syst?me dual r?gissant la production avicole ?gytienne (entreprises commerciales priv?es ou gouvernementales b?n?ficiant des innovations v?t?rinaires, d?une part, et ?levages domestiques hors d?atteinte des services v?t?rinaires, d?autre part) pr?sentent un autre d?fi face ? la menace virale.
2) Une soci?t? "gripp?e" ? Virus, poulets et m?taphores m?diatiques lors de l?arriv?e de la grippe aviaire en Egypte, 2005-2006.
Le 17 f?vrier 2006, le gouvernement ?gyptien lance une alerte ? la grippe aviaire. La liste publi?e du nombre de gouvernorats touch?s s?accro?t de jour en jour. Des mesures d?cisoires sont arr?t?es comme l?abattage des poulets dans les ?levages domestiques sous peine d?amende, la fermeture des ?choppes de rue sp?cialis?es dans la vente de volaille ou encore la mise en place d?un conseil des ministres de la sant?, de l?agriculture et de l?environnement destin? ? piloter la r?action gouvernementale. Il est alors question de la "crise" de la grippe aviaire dont une des cons?quences est la mise au chomage de milliers de travailleurs du secteur avicole.
L?alerte gouvernementale ouvre aussi un nouvel espace au traitement m?diatique de la grippe aviaire dans le pays. Si les journaux suivaient d?j? l?affaire depuis le mois de septembre 2005 et les alertes internationales lanc?es par l?Organisation Mondiale de la Sant?, l?annonce gouvernementale provoque un changement d??chelle avec la multiplication d?articles traitant soit directement de l?infection et de ses r?percussions (politiques, sanitaires et ?conomiques), soit indirectement par la mobilisation d?images virales et animales dans le traitement de l?actualit? internationale et nationale. L?ambition de cette recherche se veut avant tout descriptive, plut?t qu?explicative. Nous cherchons ? montrer comment, dans la poursuite des d?bats autour de la grippe aviaire, un r?seau s?mantique de m?taphores et d?analogies se met en place dans la presse ?gyptienne permettant aux journalistes et ? d?autres porte-parole d??voquer certaines dimensions de l?ordre/d?sordre social pr?valant en Egypte. Nous voulons ?tayer l?hypoth?se que les m?taphores animales (poulet) et virales (H5N1) ont fourni ? ces acteurs la trame narrative d?un langage politique.
Cette trame narrative ne se limite pas ? la m?taphore du ? killer virus ?. Certes la peur et la guerre sont des th?mes largement explor?s par la presse ?crite et lui permettent d??voquer les ? menaces ? am?ricaines sur le Proche et Moyen-Orient. Mais le r?seau s?mantique d?ploy? est bien plus riche. Il ?tend ses ramifications jusqu?? des controverses sur la nature corrompue des pratiques gpouvernementales, de groupes d?int?r?ts d?crits comme "mafias" ou encore des citoyens eux-m?mes. La conjoncture "grippale" constitue de ce point de vue une mise ? l??preuve du gouvernement qui est somm? de se d?partir de sa culture du mensonge. M?me lorsque celui-ci et ses organes de presse affili?s s??talent ? longueur de colonnes sur l?action entreprise pour faire face au fl?au, leur parole demeure suspecte, certains journaux d?non?ant dans cette profusion un ?cran de fum?e politique, voire un ? complot gouvernemental ?, destin? ? masquer l?incurie gouvernementale sur d?autres questions (la gestion gouvernementale du naufrage du Salam 98 dans la Mer Rouge en f?vrier 2006, la hausse des prix ou la "crise" du sucre). D?autres titres ?voquent encore une ? grippe gouvernementale ? ou le ? virus de la corruption ?. L?image du politicien v?reux, voire cannibale, qui "bouffe" l?argent des citoyens, est encore renforc?e par l?affichage des repr?sentants politiques festoyant autour d?une cuisse de poulet afin de rassurer leurs concitoyens sur l?innocuit? de la viande cuite.
La menace virale ouvre ainsi une s?rie d?opportunit?s aux diff?rents groupes politiques leur permettant d?afficher leurs pr?occupations opportunistes pour la sant? des citoyens soit dans des strat?gies de r?assurance et de pr?vention (minist?res, ou encore exemple du tract distribu? par les Fr?res Musulmans ? la sortie des mosqu?es), soit dans des strat?gies de d?nonciations politiques.
A un autre niveau, la ? crise ? de la grippe aviaire procure aussi les outils m?taphoriques ?voquant une crise sociale plus profonde de la soci?t? ?gyptienne marqu?e par la pauvret?, la pollution (environnementale, voire morale) et par la crise du secteur de l?alimentation. La conjonction de la grippe aviaire et de la fi?vre aphteuse d?tect?e dans le gouvernorat d?Alexandrie d?but mars 2006 repr?sente aussi une mise en question de la capacit? d?une soci?t? ? nourrir correctement ses membres (qualit? de la viande et, par ricochet, des produits agricoles). Ce sont ces diff?rents th?mes que nous aimerions aborder dans cette recherche.
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