Grand Hayatt

Sheikh Abdel Aziz Ibrahim, the aparently crazy Saudi owner of Cairo's awesome Grand Hayatt hotel (the one with a UFO) recently threw $1 million worth of sweet, tasty liquor in the Nile, according to this story. Minister of Tourism Zohair Garana has said this may cause the Hayatt to be reduced from a five-star hotel to a two-star one.

I've been in the Grand Hayatt, and most of their visitors are dumpy-looking American and European tourists and their identical children. Such people enjoy drinking when paying more for a night than many locals will make in a year.

Will these people stop going to the Grand Hayatt if its rating is reduced or complain when they can't get a drink? Probably some, but Ibrahim's motivation is clearly not economic. This is all about pandering and getting in the papers. Ibrahim probably has of political ambitions.

Former Egypt Today superstar Noha El-Hennawy wrote the piece for the LA Times' unfortunately named middle east column "Babylon and Beyond." I was a little disappointed to see Noha satisfied her obligatory "other side of the story" with some random chitchat from Islam Online. No religious scholars, no economist estimating annual income of Grand Hayatt from booze, not even a direct quote from Ibrahim.

Call it a punt.