Good Design in Business Cards?

Maybe it's a matter of personal choice.  Perhaps it is a cultural difference.  Maybe it's just the fact that I am unable to read the text. An article in the October 2012 PRINT magazine is tag-lined "The noisy aesthetics of Cairo's business-card district". Noisy is exactly what I see.  I'm not sure this equates to good graphic design though. The article's author explains that historically, business cards have had pictorial scene's on them. Of course, in recent generations, the European and U.S. method has been far simplified following the Swiss design style.

So, what perfect timing to find this article, when we're making design decisions in an identity project. I see modesty in a few, but mostly the designs are loud and obnoxious reminding me of a few that I've seen in the past from people like karaoke DJ's. 

To me, these are just chaotic in nature and are attempting to tell you a life story on a 2 X 3 card.  I'm nearly 100% certain that my design professor would tell me to go back to the drawing board if I were to present a concept like one of these in class. They are colorful and perhaps the way things are done in another land. But, apparently here, we just can't get away with this type of  loud chaos in design.