Yesterday, I spent most of my day with a very good friend. She's an accomplished young lady who is doing her share in terms of being a productive citizen, and thus feels she's earned the right to respect from society. The entire day was filled with complaints about "the way things are"; people driving on the street, people serving us food, people walking in malls, etc... Honestly, I agreed with almost everything she said. Something is wrong with this society.
What is wrong with us? Let's see... we simply don't relate to each other. Why is Egypt a dirty country in general? Is it because we, as people, are not clean? That's simply not true. Go into in any of our houses and homes and you will find it as clean as can be (well there are exceptions off course). But walk on the street, and you find litter all over the place. Is this a problem of governmental regulation? I doubt that any regulation can effectively prevent citizens of any country from contributing to the general filth on the streets. Keeping a county clean can only be achieved on basis of social awareness. While Egyptians take good care of their private posessions, public posessions are fair game. We have become individualists with nothing to gather us onto common grounds. Surely, there are groups of people rallied together, but even these share a common best interest. In actuality, we have no real society.
A friend of mine (now wisely relocated in the States) said that this society is dead. Well, I agree, but I'm still here - perhaps not for long, but I am here for now. The question that has really been nagging me lately is: what can we do to try to make a difference? I haven't found a single decent societal or political movement that I can feel comfortable working with (well the best one was a group called Bazrameet, which is a word I cannot find a specific translation for in English, but believe me it's not very enticing. On the other hand, I cannot sit around and watch anymore, or else I forfeit my right to complain.
I guess this article is a calling for ideas. I thought of theatre as a tool to bring about change... to communicate a message aimed at reviving this society. I thought of political parties (only because that would allow us to publish). I thought of working out a web-site to gather all those interested in societal (not political!) reform. I know that many of the people who read my blog shar this common interest.
What can we do?
I need ideas that can be turned into an action plan that we can actually implement. I guess that working towards reviving this society can be a goal worth living for.
Any thoughts?
3 comments:
A sense of society can only come from a sense of ownership. That means that my vote matters, my opinion makes a difference. Remove my capacity for choice, you remove my capacity to care....
W
stop blogging and forget about it.
Why Karim??? Because there's no hope or because you feel what I wrote is nonesense... in all honesty? I don't know that there is any other way to at least vent one's frustration except to blog. Any other suggestions?
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