859) To Pee or not to Pee ... !!

I think that William Shakespeare would have written it this way if he had a simple walk in the streets of Cairo, and had witnessed himself the view, smell, and feeling of "Pee" allover the walls, sidewalks, bushes, alleys, ...etc.

The scene of people peeing in the streets is becoming quite normal, something I almost see every other day. The last time I did was yesterday when a Taxi driver pulled over beside a 5 starts hotel and went to the other side of the car, opened the door, unzipped his pants, and simply peed between the passenger door and the car !

Although it seems disgusting, but insisting always to put myself in others shoes instead of framing or judging makes me think that most of the time people do that because there are no practical alternatives (
a decent or even functioning public toilet) specially if they are using public transportation or just walking. It gets even worse if you are a female.

I tried it myself, and walked for 2.5 kilometers thinking about something I wanna do work, and I had all that walk without finding one single public toilet, and wondered, what if I really cant hold it anymore during that walk, what should I have done?! So instead of thinking strategically about "being" or not "being", I turned out to be thinking about "peeing" or not "peeing".

M.O.H.@.L.Y

830) "Bab El Khoroug" .. Is it our Way Out?!

Since the mega split that happened in the 19^th of March Referendum, and many Egyptians – if not most of them- are wondering; “What is our WAY OUT?” Where are we heading? .. It has been discussed on TV, Radio, Newspapers, Social Media, everywhere except among those who have the power (SCAF and now Ekhwan). No roadmap was drawn or a path was set that can contain people together and work on the long term (as always mentioned in this blog).

Less than couple of weeks ago I had a board meeting at Nahdet El Mahrousa, and my fellow board member, and AUC colleague Ayman Ismail - a great guy by the way - has insisted that I don’t go home unless I buy a copy of the new Novel for Dr.Ezzeldin Choukri Fishere -a former diplomat and professor of political science at the American University in Cairo-  “Bab El Khoroug ; The Exit Gate or The Way Out”. His persistence made me go buy it and even start reading on the same night … The weird thing is I really couldn’t stop reading till the following night where I spent the whole Friday in reading more than 500 pages till I finished the novel with a floundering mind.

The novel analyzes and predicts the political situation of Egypt from 1990 until 2020 through the eyes of Aly Shoukry, the president’s translator and then secretary for information, as he witnesses the revolution and its aftermath. The novel is written as a letter from the Aly to his son, explaining how he ultimately came to betray his country’s nuclear plans to strike Israel and US presence in the area using secretly acquired arsenal.

It was very daring of Dr.Fishere to publish it in Tahrir Newspaper on periodical daily episodes and committing to his readers without even finishing it specially it is concerned with ongoing actions… Dr.Fishere says, “I have been preoccupied by its plot and main characters for a few months, and I had this urge not only to write it but to get it out to the public. I felt if I didn't do it now, it will be overtaken by events – because it is a novel interwoven with current events.” The beautiful and unconventional thing about the Novel is that although you know the end, you keep a real suspense all over the reading, and you can easily relate to each and every single incidence as if you are an eye witness.

“Bab El Kheroug is not just about the bloody upheavals of a divided Egypt, but also about the life and loves; regrets and lessons learned; joys and struggles of the kind and introverted Aly. The characters in Bab El Kheroug are directly involved in the government or politically active in some way. Empowered, active and hopeful, albeit stuck in a vicious cycle, these characters are the product of Egypt’s revolution; they did not exist before January 25^th, 2011.” says Asmaa Abdallah, a journalist.

“The old world is receding, but the new one is not there yet. Bab El Khoroug is a beginning, a door I am trying to open for myself and my readers. Maybe all I want is to be able, in ten years, to tell the world: I told you so!” Dr.Fishere adds. The interesting thing is that some of the predicted incidents have already happened in the last couple of months after publishing the episodes.

We have to work together and establish a new generation that gets over what we are facing now and looks at the future in a different way. This is in my opinion – Mohaly- is our only way out.

Mohaly

Link to an Interview with Dr.Fishere about it .. Click Here
Link to the Novel ... Click Here
Buy it from Dar El Sherouk.

646) The Egyptian Map .. !

Guys, some or many of you may consider this a trivial issue, but believe me it is an important one. Almost all of the international maps have Egypt boarders with Sudan drawn wrong according to the British Administrative division between Egypt and Sundan when they succeeded in splitting them apart in the 1950s. Halayeb Triangle was recognized as Egyptian land but administrated by Sudan. Egypt boarders officially goes along with latitude line 21, but most of the maps got it wrong.

Please make sure everytime you see the wrong map (above) to send the publishers the right one (below). We should be proactive, it is our land, and our duty to keep it right on the maps.

Mohaly

630) Masr lel Masryeen!

I just can't get rid of the taste of bitterness that is overwhelming me. I feel that my country is being rapped and I can't do anything. It is not about Algeria, it is about everything. When I see the reaction of the world, I feel that we are now positioned as a bug that everyone is either happy, or in best case doesn't bother about it.

We are hitting bottom big time... There must be a way up. Khalas, it is about time to admit that we are nothing and we have to work on being something again, not impossible, not late, IF & ONLY IF we are serious about it.. or else let's contine whinnying and talking to each other, and "nakhod 3ala 2afana" today from Algeria, and tomorrow from the rest of the world.

It is about time to focus on us and our country, bala 3arab, bala israel, ... It is about us Masr & Masrians (I am not using Egypt as the name of our country, it is Masr, not even Misr, that is how we Masreen say it, Masr).

Mohaly

Angry, Sad, and Disappointed, but didn't lose hope.