Between Satellites

I have been fighting an urge to comment about what’s happening in Cairo and all around Egypt. 

I have been fighting that urge since Day One. 

I am still fighting that urge because there’s so much that happened and so much that’s been said, whether from people, from the media, from the government or from the outside world, that quite frankly, I’m a little sick of it all. 

My stance and opinion differed as the events unfolded and I’m not going to go into that. 

I do have a couple of points however that I feel should be stated.

One: The system is fucked. We all know that. But the focus has been on one person, the president, while other names, names of people that are as corrupt as it gets, and who have been around for as long as Mubarak has, if not longer, were never mentioned. Is everyone that scared of those people?

Two: The system is fucked. We’ve always known that. Everyone over the past week have broken the barrier and spoken up. That is a great thing. However, change should be gradual. In politics, something I personally have never had any interest in, change has to be gradual. The current state of the country is deplorable and we cannot continue this way. 

Three: The system is fucked and unfortunately, so are the people. My opinion this morning was that people who went to Tahrir today after yesterday’s speech were being as stubborn as the president they want to leave.  There are still things to be accomplished, true, but the main demand has been met. Focusing on just that is quite childish; there are more important things to focus on.

Four: The system is fucked and the government, that lays down the system and propagates it, is losing ground. The disconnect between the ruling party’s words and their actions is enough to prove that. But try and remember, politics is played in a dirty arena, and the other parties aren’t all that better. They just seem to be because they don’t have the power that would reveal their true colors. 

Right now, everybody is in a state of panic. News and rumors blend together and a bad case of Chinese Whispers has been spreading. People have started fighting amongst themselves, whether at home, on the phone, online or on the streets. 

You can be Anti-Mubarak, Pro-Mubarak, Pro-Baradei, Anti-Kolombo, or whatever other stance you choose, that’s fine. Also, what is happening today, with the camels and the horses, is unacceptable and has to be reprimanded. However, life has to return to order. This cannot go on.  We are on the brink of things spiraling down into an oblivion from which there is no return. This fire needs to be put out. And unfortunately, I don’t see how that can happen.

As a post-script, the only positive thing that has come out of these events is a sense of unity and pride amongst Egyptians that had been lost for a while. Let’s try and hold on to that.

I had a particularly interesting impulse today: I wanted to touch a cockroach.

To preface this, I would like to say that I’ve never been fond of cockroaches. I, like most people, found them rather disgusting, their existance rather pointless and to me, a nuisance.

But upon looking, I found that there is no rational explanation to this belief. It’s just there. Has been for as long as I can remember. Probably passed down from my parents, or from viewing some TV commercial selling some roach-killer spray.

Isn’t in rather amusing that we find ladybugs beautiful and cockroaches disgusting? Does that make sense?

(By the way, even as I write this, the image of a cockroach still evokes a certain cringe in me.. And if you bother to defend that disgust with: they transport microbes and bacteria.. and whatever kind of microscopic threat to our system, then please resist the urge.)

So I decided, since there is no reason for my disgust of cockroaches to be there, then it should not be there.

And there it was, that impulse, that thought: I want to touch a cockroach.

Ironically, for some reason, my kitchen (which at this particular hour of the night usually has one or two small-sized roaches crawling about) was roach-free.. so that impulse was left unsatisfied.

I guess it’ll have to wait for another time.

I wrote this a couple of years back and thought I’d share it:

I feel different. I just watched a play called Diversey Harbor. It was a string of 10-15 minute monologues, 4 of them. Centered around a girl called Lindsay, who never appears on stage. This play will forever remain in my memory. It made me question something I’ve questioned countless times before.

How many faces pass us by everyday, every hour, yet we don’t know what’s behind these faces. Hidden. What will become of these faces? We’ll probably never know. Millions of lives, intersecting sometimes. The world is smaller than we all think. Our lives could be forever changed if we take a chance, put ourselves out there. Your future partner might be out of these faces, your best friend, your big break, the ticket to your dreams.

I’m in a city I know nothing about, know noone in. Yet, i’ve met a few people. Good people. Will our lives intersect again? One can never know. However, I believe that it might. I might’ve met someone yesterday, or last week, who might email me sometime for a favor, or a job. If I had not talked to that person, that would not have happened.

Every step you take, every encounter you make & every decision has the potential to change your life or the other person’s, forever.

So take it! Talk to & meet as many people as you can. Think about these things. I’m all for spontinaeity. I personally don’t plan much in advance. But keep that thought in the back of your mind. I guarantee you, if you look back at your life, you’ll find something like this has already happened to you. And remember, chance and coincedences are not always what they seem.

“Really important meetings are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other” - Paulo Cuelho

Just think about what prompted you to read this, and what effect it might have on you.

If you live in Egypt, you are probably aware that our national football team won the African Cup of Nations (again) for the third time in a row; seventh time overall. Ever since our win (and althroughout the event) I have been pondering about my feelings towards the football team, and more specifically to the public’s attachement to it.

Now, I think it would be safe to say that football here has turned into a sort-of propaganda machine, designed to make Egyptians feel patriotic, something they do not feel (much less act on) in any other context.

This is where I start to get annoyed.

After winning the cup, people started flocking to the streets, waving the Egyptian flag and screaming ‘Masr!’ joyously. It was a happy day for most Egyptians. And this happens almost everytime we win an important match.

Another similar occurance happened last year (meaning in 2009), when Algeria beat us 1-nil in the final qualifier for theWorld Cup we felt enraged (partly because of the loss itself and partly because of the aftermath in Sudan). The public went ballistic! Football turned into poltics. The streets were filled with angry protesters that are willing to do whatever it took to be heard (Zamalek, a district of Cairo, was completely blocked both on the ground and the bridge running through it). It was as close as I have witnessed to a riot..

This was proof to me that the public, when united, are strong.. with a voice.. that has to be heard..

Now my question is, living in a country where poverty levels are off the charts, corruption is spread like wildfire and “the status quo is NOT quo” at all, why do we only summon that strange yet wonderful energy only in football-related activities. When people are obviously not happy with the way things are, why can’t they do something about it. Protests in Cairo have been known to attract miniscule numbers (in comparison to football), and that is a sad fact.

I’m almost certain that if people were as enthusiastic about change as they are about football, the state of this country would be very different.

“Do not speak of withered trees, of lichen strangled coverings
And life just barely in the leaves, it will not be undone

Do not speak of what we’ve seen, of water choking algae
And dust where fountains used to be, it will not be undone

A wilderness unraveling, we’ve only just begun

Do not speak of ice retreat, of islands eaten by the sea
And industrial economy, we’ve only just begun
It will not be undone

Do not speak oh do not speak cause nothing’s left but words to reap
And what we sowed is ours to keep – good day to everyone!”

- Phideaux (taken off of Doomsday Afternoon)