Everytime I go to downtown Cairo, I get a bit nostalgic. I try to imagine that part of Cairo 50 years ago when it was still shining... and I can't help but wonder what happened to us? When you're downtown the next time, try to imagine the streets without the crowd of cars and people and pollution. Try to imagine the buildings in brand new form, the streets clean, and the air crisp and fresh. For me, this transformation exemplifies what has happened to us as a people.I can't help but wonder about the so many things I always wonder about. I have so many unanswered questions - and what's worse, I have so many people who feel they're already found the answers.
Why can't we agree, as a people, to bring about positive change?
Why do we accept, as a people, to be humiliated every day in a thousand ways, the least of which the pollution in our air and water?
Why is that the death of thousands in a ship wreck has become something for us to get angry about for a few hours (or even a couple of days) and then forget about completely and go on with our everyday lives as if nothing has happened? (I, too, am guilty).
Why is it ok for us to remain oppressed by a regime that has been refuted by the intelligentia after turning the majority of the country into followers?
Have we become insensitive to oppression? Was that the plan from the start? To get the majority of a nation to get used to being oppressed such that it becomes a fact of life?
Why are we not calling for our rights with enough force to be heard?
When can we get our country back - get our society back?
When will we retain the respect of the world in a manner that prevents abuse and disrespect of our sacred symbols?
When will we accept our responsibility as a people towards others who have been placed in the line of fire while we sleep safely in our homes? When will we be men (in the philosophical sense) to accept our responsibility towards our daughters, sisters and mothers who get raped everyday in those places of the world?
When will we wake up from the opium being fed to us from every direction?
What will it take? What will it take?
I have asked before what can we do - the best reply I got was to shut up and forget about it.
I don't want to remain a cynicist, but when that's the only response I get - I have to remain a cynicist.
I call again upon those who want to make a difference... what can we do for this society?
5 comments:
Amr, your blog is one of my favourites. Good work, Amr!
Reading your latest post, I felt being interested in the following:
"When will we wake up from the opium being fed to us from every direction?"
My comment on this question is that we need to promote communication among ourselves so that we can keep our memory fresh and uncontaminated by the media, our counsciousness present by discussing everything related to our existence as Egyptians, and our thoughts green by exchaning views.
thanks!
Dear Mukhtar,
Thank you for your comment. One of the benefits of blogging is that you get connected with others of the same kind... I went over to your blog and I saw what you're trying to do... good effort!
My problem is that I do nothing but talk - I want to do something more substantial that write in a blog that only a few dozen people read. It took me a long time and a few changes of ideology to decide what the problem was - now I want to take the next step and do something about solving it.
What can we do?`
Omar... never really tire of reading of your inputs!
You have eloquently defined the problem further - that we are disconnected from the past and afraid of the present so we risk the future - that we don't have a mechanism by which we can even agree on the end goal (agree as intellegentia, as a majority of the populus, as a societal consensus)... too many directions to go.
I agree with focusing on trying to become better men and women - and to raise our children to be better than us... We've talked about grapevining and effecting the immediate circle of people around you many times.. But it seems to me that this is a very long term plan... Impatient as I am, I'd like to be doing something now - especially because the level and quality of opium has improved during the past few years.
Does our only salvation lie in becoming better people? Are all advanced societies made up by a majority of better people?
I often feel that this lack of faith explains alot. I hate to say this, but sometimes I feel that Arabs are genetically handicapped without their faith... in many ways, but most important of which is the mechanism by which they come to agreement about anything. I always remember the following verse:
(( واعتصموا بحبل الله جميعاً ولا تفرقوا واذكروا نعمة الله عليكم إذ كنتم أعداء فألف بين قلوبكم فأصبحتم بنعمته إخواناً . وكنتم على شفا حفرة من النار فأنقذكم منها كذلك يبين الله لكم آياته لعلكم تهتدون)) ((آل عمران 103))
This is our problem - without our faith we are warring tribes - on all levels - governments, societal factions, extended families, families...etc.
Until this society has a critical mass of well-bred people who are able to think clearly - I guess our goal should be to try to create a mechanism for exchange so that members of our society can try to focus on what's common between them rather than what's different.
Thanks dear Amr. I think that the three of us, you, Beblawi and I, have almost defined the problem: Egyptians and Arabs are effectiveless because they lack unity; they lack public consensus and so they do not have the same "big" dreams. Every nation must have similar goals and dreams, similar concerns so that they can unite. Otherwise, they will remain fragments, islands and disconnected individuals. What I want to say now is that "talking" online and trying to find "connections" with people of "the same kind" - to quote your words - all this will help bridge the gap between my goals and yours and others, will help unify your dreams, mine, and others. By using such technological inventions we can rebuild public opinion about some BIG issues. And there lies the solution, I believe.
thanks for your thoughts
Hi Amr ,
u've just over estimated what ppl are feeling every where in our country, Egyptians are used to be living this way since 1952. Let me say it "54 years are fair enough" to make what u wanna change "a life style".
My man, Samuel J. Certo said "show me a man who gets sleepy on his way to work every morning and still believes that he wanna live"
On the other hand, we offer our government an opportunity to make'm "gurus", we r the absent lord land owner; so, they get the power for free !!!, as u know my man: no more beast is savage than a man with a power to make his rage a reality.
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