بمناسبة إنتخابات مجلس الشعب

يا بلدنا لا تنامي
دوري وسط الأسامي
واجمعي الصف الأمامي
واصطفي وراه يا بلدنا

دوري على مخلصينك
اللي من زمن شرينك
وباعوا الراحه
لبسو هدمة شغلينك
أعدو ويا فلاحينك
في الغيط و الساحه يا بلدنا

يا بلدنا لا تنامي
دوري وسط الأسامي
واجمعي الصف الأمامي
واصطفي وراه يا بلدنا

أولادك أولاد كفاحك
أولاد ضحكتك و جراحك
أصوات الثورة
سكتنا لبكره يا بلدنا

يا بلدنا لا تنامي
دوري وسط الأسامي
واجمعي الصف الأمامي
واصطفي وراه يا بلدنا

هم شايفين القضية
بضمير الأيام الجيه
شايفين المحطة محطة الوصول
عارفين إيه معنى الحرية
والزاي الكلمة الثورية
تجي شايلة و حطة

كلمات الشاعر عبد الرحمن الأبنودى

Shame on you!

As you probably know "Rafah crossing" is the only way for the Palestinians to enter Gaza, however it isn’t always open as the Egyptian government opens it occasionally according to the mood and the requirements of its political image. I’ve always hated this fact and thought that this way we help Israel to tighten the siege on the residents of Gaza. However when the government opens the borders I don’t see it as a heroic action but rather as the normal way things should be.

As a result of the occasional opening of the borders, the people of Gaza who work abroad are afraid of getting in to visit their relatives as they might not be able to get back to the countries where they work. However, because of the last wave of the Egyptian government generosity the crossing was open to an unlimited end. So, a friend of my brother in law who lives and work in Qatar with his family decided to take them to Gaza through the Egyptian borders to visit his parents there. He didn’t tell me about what he’s gone through to get in, however the shameful fact was in his way out. When Palestinians cross the borders out of Gaza, they’re not allowed to actually enter the Egyptian lands and so the procedure is that whenever you cross the borders you’ll be locked on the Egyptian side till the end of the day (8 PM) then you will be taken in a van (a police van or a similar one) to the airport. There you’ll be locked again in a small room till your flight time, and only God knows the kind of people you might be locked up with. This procedure is applied on everyone regardless of age and sex. So, this friend and his family had to go through this and all the way they heard comments referring to the fact that they’re treated this way because they belong to Hamas!

My brother in law believed that this was done to force Hamas, who is ruling Gaza, to sign the conciliation paper with Fat7 that Egypt has proposed so that Egypt can regain its image (and I’m not going to say role because a role is not that easy to regain) as the big sister of the Arab countries in the region.

So shame on you who gave the orders for this and shame on you carried out this and shame on you who are remaining silent about this.

بمناسبة مشاهدة فيلم عسل أسود

بلدى أحبها كما تحب الأم طفلها المشوه

The 23rd of July Revolution

For many people this day pass unnoticed, especially when it coincides with a normal off day (Friday and Saturday) and so the government doesn't make it an official day off. However, in our family we usually celebrate this day even by just listening to the old patriotic songs. However, this year we did something new which is trying to explain what a "Revolution" means to my almost 5 years old nephews. I won't claim that I was very successful in conveying the concept but at least at the end one of them decided to be a Warrior so that he can defend the country if the bad guys got to rule again. I resisted the desire to tell him that we actually need his efforts now because this would have taken me into a long conversation with them that you never knows how it can end :)

So, let's not forget and download these songs today and share it with your family and friends:

http://music.nghmat.com/song_2_1530.html

P.S. I strongly recommend (الجيل الصاعد، الوطن الكبير، و صوت الجماهير)as they fit the occasion.

The Egyptians

What I like most about us, Egyptians, is that we are survivors. We manage to live in the darkest and most difficult circumstances and find ways to survive. Some call this surrendering and being helpless but I call it survival. I always feel this, especially way when I see some girls selling different stuff in the underground. I won't talk about this phenomenon again but I've just seen a girl that felt like myself in another life or just in some other circumstances, and the examples are countless in our daily life. Maybe we just need to pay more attention to these details.

و ستعرف بعد رحيل العمر...بأنك كنت تطارد خيط دخان

Have you ever been there?

I don't know why people usually get a very positive idea about me only after a short acquaintance. Though this should be a good thing, I'm sometimes not sure if it really is. This because it makes people expect from me more than what I'm actually capable of, and when I fall short of their expectations, they're disappointed and in turn I am depressed. Sometimes I get confused, am I really that good or I just seem this way. Am I really that smart or they're just expecting me to be so? Am I feeling this way because I don't have enough confidence in myself or they are the ones who are fooled? Have you ever experienced this?

فى أوروبا و الدول المتقدمة *1

In Europe and other developed countries (1)

When the Iceland volcano first erupted and I saw people on TV stuck at different airports worldwide, I felt pity for them and never imagined that I’ll be one of them. I was in a business trip to Germany (and to be honest the business part took only one day and the rest was shopping and sightseeing :)) and on my way back the volcano erupted again and caused the close of some European airports including Munich, from which I was supposed to fly back home. I was very depressed when I knew this because I was totally in the mood to return home, I had my passport stamped, and was right by the gate waiting for it to open. Soon we knew that all flights were canceled and that we have to wait in the queue to make another reservation to return home, hopefully the next day. It was a very long, spiral queue that the one can’t see its beginning or end but at least the people, from all different nationalities, were actually able to stand in a queue! My colleagues and I took turns in standing in the queue waiting for our turn. During our stand in the queue, the Lufthansa employees kept assuring the passengers and answering their questions, and then they began to give us water, soda, and sandwiches, of course in addition to the coffee (the machines can make not only coffee but cappuccino, mocha etc.) that is always there, for free. They also distributed pillows and covers for those who needed them. As for families with children, they were allowed to wait in the first class lounges! We were lucky enough to skip the long queue as we weren’t in urgent need to return to Egypt the next day and so joined another queue (but we were lucky enough to be the first to stand in it) so that Lufthansa can make us a hotel reservation. They did make a reservation including dinner and breakfast, in addition to giving us a voucher for a taxi to get us to the hotel, which the taxi driver simply took without complaining or saying that he can take only cash. However to be fair to our taxi drivers, the driver behaved in this way because he is sure that he’d be able to refund his money. On our way out of the airport, they just made a sign on our exit stamp to cancel it so that we can return back to the German lands (Imagine how the Egyptians employees would have acted in a similar situation). So in short, everything was perfect but for the fact that we wouldn’t be home in the time we expected. However we can’t complain, because we met a lady at the airport who was off to see her sick mother and was crying as she might not be able to see her for that last time and at the hotel an American couple were on the phone the whole night trying to book a flight back home as their children were alone there. After passing by all this, we all started to think about passengers who were trapped in Egypt and about our situation if we were trapped in one of the “developing” counties, like Egypt. To mention just one point of comparison, Egypt air doesn’t provide its passengers with hotel reservation and so those who can’t afford staying in a hotel just have to wait in the airport or the streets! Ironically, someone told me that Egypt air was considering allowing passengers to pay for their stay during the crisis time through an installment plan!

* In reference to this movie or series, I don’t really remember, where one of the characters came recently from a European country and was still impressed with all what he saw there, that he used to start almost every sentence by saying “In Europe and the developed countries” followed by comparisons of here and there.

أدى الربيع عاد من تانى

Here comes spring again

Buying Carnation has been one of my delayed plans for the last 2 springs, and then I saw them today in my way back from my first Tennis training :). Though the man wasn’t my favorite florist, I decided to buy a bunch. I didn’t want this spring to also pass without having these colorful flowers with their lovely scent.

One of the things that always make me feel that spring is here, beside the flowers, which we can actually notice only at the florist’s because Cairo streets are not that full of trees and flowers, is Soad Hosny’s lovely song about spring (الدنيا ربيع). The poet “Salah Jaheen” who wrote the lyrics is already one of my favorites and in this song he has been really creative and spontaneous.

This is my favorite line in the song:
الشجر الناشف بقى ورور و الطير بقى لعيبى و متهور،
و إحنا هانفرفش إمتى أومال دلوقتى و لا فى سبتمبر

And these are my carnations for this spring:



Have a colorful spring!

A positive reaction

Yesterday, in the underground, I noticed an amazing thing. I noticed that a good percent of the passengers are following the rules of getting on and off from specific doors in each carriage and some were even talking about how civil it is to have such attitude. I didn't imagine that my article would have such great effect :) though it is probably this silly lady who keeps repeating the rules that should she followed as well as the consequences of not following them, over and over, that the passengers thought of acting this way on the hope that she'd shut up!

Here I'm starting: Positivity

I believe that many of our problems, here in Egypt, will be solved if we just adopt a more positive attitude. I usually regard myself as a positive person but sometimes I know that I’m not and that in these times I act negatively though I know that being positive will make a difference. Take for example, when I find someone smoking next to me in a transport, meeting room or wherever. In the transports, I rarely ask the person to put out his cigarette because I’m simply afraid of the consequences (I don’t like to be insulted in the bus). In the meeting room, I don’t do so because I may not want people to get upset and think of me as a silly person (though they’re the one who are being silly). Another example is the terrible problem of taking on and off the underground on rush hours. There are supposed to be gates for getting on and others for getting out. I’ve not once seen anyone following this and the view of people crashing into each other while struggling to get in or out is really sad. I usually get on from the right gate because there are marks on the ground but while getting down I simply forget. I call this a semi-positive attitude because the really positive one would be to tell people about the rule and try to organize them, at least when the carriage isn’t overcrowded and there is a chance to do so. I know that many of you would be now saying that, “we’ve tried this once and people quarreled with us and accused us of getting their way”. Actually this is the core of the problem. It’s difficult to be positive because this requires changing people’s attitude and people always resist change, whether for the better or worse. It is something in our human nature. Anyhow, we should be optimistic :) If we started with the solo positive actions and expanded them whenever there is a good chance (for example when dealing with people with an obvious tendency to change), till this positivity becomes more like a habit and an everyday activity, change will eventually comes.

We can always share experiences about the situations we face daily and how we deal with them to encourage each other as well as to find new and may be better ways to be positive.

Big thoughts and small actions make a difference.

Things to think about (and do) this year

I lately read an article about a “Project” whose idea has really impressed me.

The idea of the project started this way:

Seth Godin, the innovator, writer, and blogger extraordinaire, persuaded 70 other innovators, writers, and bloggers to participate in a project he calls What Matters Now. The idea is simple: Each of us suggests one word -- literally one word -- that all of us should think about in 2010, and then takes one page to explain why and how that word matters. The result is an intriguing, inspiring, and at times downright moving collection of unconventional wisdom that is available free to everyone.

The whole project reminded me of what they do at ElSawy Culture Wheel by choosing an idea or target to focus on every year through their different activities. I remember the year of “Arabic Language” and the year of “Dignity”. Anyway, I thought that we can add to this project by coming up with new words or even handling the same words from a different perspective. I believe that it would be a good brain activity and at the same time a good way of communication between us.

You can use the link below to download the results of this work to enjoy them as well as getting some ideas.

(http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2009/12/70_words_of_unconventional.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a38:g26:r11:c0.087339:b29466088:z6)

Start posting now :)

P.S. Feel free to post your thoughts in Arabic, English or even German and French, it would make this experience even richer.

A step on the way

Yesterday, I had to ride the underground twice, once from Mohamed Nageeb station to Dokki and then from Gamal Abd ElNasser to ElSayeda Zeinab. And before you imagine the worst, this is not a bad story about things that happen in the underground, on the contrary it is a positive one :). I noticed that in the first three stations, a part of the ground near the tickets windows was surrounded by a low fence, supplied with carpets, and used as a praying area. I liked the action very much because whenever I've a long day and had to do all my prayers out I always find so much trouble with that, because I may not find a near by mosque and if I went to a far one I'll miss my appointment etc. Of course this positive solution hasn't solved by problem because there isn't a closed area for ladies, but who knows may be it is a step on the way. I just hope that they, latter on, won't find it an uncivilized view and disassemble it.

Delayed Plans

I was examining my 2009 organizer to copy some of last year’s notes that I might need this year, mainly the names of the books I write down through the year to buy or search for in the book fair, which is by the way will be held on the 28th of this month (for those interested, I’m talking about Cairo International Book Fair). I was really surprised with the amount of to-do-lists, things to buy etc. that I had. What is more surprising is that, many of these things weren’t done during 2009 and I believe that they were in my 2008 and may be 2007 organizers as well. Some of these things are really trivial and easy to do like spending a day out with my best friend, redecorating my room, organizing my laptop files, and having my hair cut! As for my great plans and things that I want to do, at least once in this life, they definitely need another post.

I don’t know why we keep, and I’m saying “we” because I’m sure that a lot of people behave the same way, so many things undone. Is it work that is keeping us so busy? Are these things not important and that’s why they we left from one year to another? Or we are just being lazy?

I once read an advice in an article about management that said that “In order to keep a task off your mind, you need to decide a course of action”. I think that the author meant that in order to be able to concentrate on your current task, you should have a written plan or at least list of the other task you’ve to do latter so that you wouldn’t keep yourself worried about the other task and finally miss up both tasks.

I think that I’ve been taking with this advice; it is just that I suffice with writing things down and never do them :)

Happy New Year

مش عارفة أنا عايزة إيه !!

ساعات كتير باحس إنى مش عارفة أنا عايزة إيه. يا ترى عايزة أقعد فى المدينة و اشتغل و احتك بالناس و لا عايزة أقعد في الريف و أعيش حياة الطبيعة من غير تليفزيون و انترنت و لا حتي كمبيوتر، ازرع و أربى إلى محتاجا و أعيش أورجانك :) و يمكن أفتح مدرسة و أعلم الأطفال و أحببهم فى القراءة و المعرفة. و لا عايزة أكمل دراساتى العليا و أوصل لحاجة مفيدة ممكن تتطبق و تفيد البلد بجد و بعد كده أسافر أكمل دراستى بره عشان أعرف أكتر و أتعلم أكتر و أشوف العالم. و يمكن عايزة أتجوز و أقعد فى البيت أخترع فى المطبخ و أربى أولادى صح و ابنى معاهم علاقات مميزة كان نفسى دايما اتمتع بيها مع أهلى. أو أدرس دينى بجد و أعرف و أقترب من ربنا أكتر وبعد كده أكون داعية لديننا الصح زى ما لازم يكون. حاجات كتير يمكن بعضها قريب من بعض و بعضها بعيد كل البعد، يمكن بعضها ممكن يتعمل مع بعض و بعضها لازم يتعمل لوحده. بجد مش عارفة بس إلى أنا عارفا إن أوقات كتير ببقى مش مبسوطة و لما بقعد مع نفسى باحس إن السبب فى إنى مش عارفة فعلا أنا عايزة إيه و مش عارفة أنا ممكن أنجح فى إيه و المفروض اكمل فيه و غالبا هافشل في إيه و المفروض أبعد عنه. و فى النهاية الأمر بيفضل معلق و بافضل أحاول فى كل الطرق يمكن مرة أوصل للطريق الصح.

In their shoes!

I regard teaching as a very influential profession. I’ve always liked it and think a lot that if I wasn’t an engineer; I’d like to be a teacher. Or may be when I finally retire, I shall go to some rural area, build a school there and start changing the world :). I may be thinking in this way because I had some teachers who have really changed my life and I’d like now to mention them by name to show my gratitude to what they’ve done to me or just to the kind of teachers they have been. They were both my teachers during the preparatory stage; my Arabic teacher Mr. Ahmad Suleiman, and my English teacher Miss Hayam.

Beside the great message that teaching can deliver and all the nice things such process may involve, it can be really hard and frustrating. I’m not going to talk about the situation of our educational system, because it’s really bad and just talking about it is depressing, I’d rather talk about a personal experience that I’m having. For about a month now, I’ve been teaching Arabic (Egyptian Colloquial) to foreigners (actually they’re just two) as a volunteer in a non-governmental organization that offers free course to students, mainly by other students. Such courses include language courses that are preferably taught by foreign students who happen to be in Egypt. In return, such students need to learn Arabic in order to be able to communicate more easily in their daily lives. When I volunteered I was planning to teach computer but it somehow ended up with me teaching Arabic. This is almost my first experience in teaching and though it may seem easy, because after all it’s 3amaya! It isn’t that easy at all. This is because 1st 3amaya has no rules, 2nd many rules in Arabic hasn’t a match in English, 3rd the last time I studied the rules of Arabic (grammar and such stuff) was back in high school and now I don't remember most of the rules. I’m trying to do my best but I really feel bad and become frustrated when I find my students not paying attention, making gestures that show that they’re waiting impatiently for the lecture to end or at least don’t get what I’m saying. I feel that I must be interesting all the time and that my students should understand each and every word of what I’m saying.

After this experience I really became more compassionate with all the teachers I’ve ever had, because I simply stood in their shoes! I felt that I should have paid more attention and should have never fallen asleep during the lectures, even the boring ones :).

Treat people in the way you’d like to be treated not in the way they treat you!

In my trials to follow the manners of a true Muslim, I tend not to judge others, I try to find excuses for them, I try to see things from their perspective etc. Also from my readings in management and communication skills, it is always mentioned that this is the best way to deal with others and have successful communication with them. The problem is that not all people follow the same attitude and though I may be doing my best to deal with people in this manner, I many times get shocked with their mean attitudes. At the same time I find others around me, who doesn’t try to presume the good intentions and see things from others perspective, are less socked because they saw it coming or at least have always presumed the worst scenarios. I began to doubt my policy in dealing with people, though I don’t feel like changing it because I think that it’s a good policy after all and presuming good intentions is better that presuming bad ones because by then dealing with and trusting others would be really hard and life would be miserable. So should we just keep the good intentions and try to see things from others perspective, or should we do that while being cautious to avoid latter shocks or would it be easier to presume bad intentions and worst case scenarios from the start?!

What lies beneath

We’ve a general tendency for not believing our government. Whenever someone in authority shows up on T.V. to give a statement or something, we usually doubt everything he/she is saying and try to search for the truth between the lines; though he/ she might actually be honest. This attitude from us is most obvious in the times of disasters and crisis. When we hear, for example, that a plane crashed somewhere in the world and hundreds of people died, the government quickly declares, may be before any other country, that all the Egyptians who were on board of the plane are safe and sound. This turned into some kind of a public joke such that whenever an accident happens, we quickly say that for sure all the Egyptians are fine.

The whole world was suffering from the last economical crisis (recession) whereas the finance minister declared that our economy is doing just fine and was minimally affected! I’m not an expert in economy and I don’t claim to understand its theories well but if the speaker is a fool, the audience shouldn’t be.

To my good luck or bad luck, I can’t really tell, I work for the government in an important ministry. So, I’m sometimes aware of what is going on behind the scenes. That is why in a recent crisis that we faced when the ministry officials showed up on T.V. to assure the people that everything is fine and that the government has made the best it could, I wasn’t really assured because I knew that things weren’t that fine. Indeed great efforts were made but as usual the work wasn’t perfectly finished. It seems that the government is more concerned with the image that reaches the population than the actual work that affects them.

I became very depressed when I examined this situation because I measured on that all the other declarations I hear from different officials in the government and I completely lost trust, because I realized that things aren’t as good as they say, if not worse.

I believe that we’ve all the right not to trust our government because it rarely says the truth and has never been a “transparent” government. It’s better to tell your people that things are bad but every effort is made to make them better, than to tell them that everything is perfect while they can see in their daily life that they aren’t. I think that I’ll feel more secure if the government adopted this attitude.

Dignity….to where?

El Sawy Culture Wheel launched an awareness campaign lately to restore dignity to the Egyptian society. They called the year of 2009, “The Year of Dignity”. The campaign had four main focuses; among which is a program aiming at eliminating the profession of “Begging”. They asked the people not to give money to anyone who asks for it in the streets, transport etc. because this would encourage them to continue doing so. The good thing is that, for them, things didn’t stop here but they had a plan to support people in need. They said that they’ll make some sort of database with the names and data of the individuals & families who can’t support themselves. Then according to the condition they can give them monthly salaries or make them small projects that would allow them to afford themselves and quit begging. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to the volunteers’ monthly meetings after that, to see the progress of their project or idea. Anyway, this made me think of whether I should really stop giving money to people who beg and does this apply to those who sell products in the streets or transport? Because, you know, most of these people are actually begging while pretending to sell their products. In the following lines I’d share with you some of what I see daily regarding this issue, may be we can decide together whether we should give those beggars or not, whether we should buy from beggars disguised as sellers and what to do about those who really sell goods in the different ways of transport.

Situation 1:

A middle-aged woman gets on the bus and starts asking the passengers for money to buy a life-saving medicine for her daughter. She tells us that she had to take permission and leave work for some time to get the money and also tells us that the shot her daughters need costs 150 L.E. She finally adds that if it wasn’t for the sake of her sick daughter she wouldn’t be begging in this way.

Now, let’s analyze this situation. First, when people give charity to those they don’t know (in the streets, transport etc. ), they don’t usually give large sums because they’re in doubt that the beggar may not be telling the truth but they might give money anyway so that they can relieve their consciousness. So, if the woman was telling the truth, how could she imagine that she can collect the 150 L.E. in a couple of hours or so? And wouldn’t it be better if she tried to do some serious work, like cleaning a house or mopping a ladder (especially because she seemed pretty healthy to do so), instead of begging in the bus? One might say that it’s humiliating to clean others houses, but I don’t think that it’s more humiliating than begging!

So the conclusion is that I think that this woman is a liar and whether my idea is true or not, I wouldn’t be giving her money under any circumstances.

Situation 2:

A young lady gets into the ladies carriage in the underground. Shortly she begins to get out her goods and show it to the passengers and sell. I didn’t buy anything from her and didn’t really bother to examine her goods but I rather examined her situation. She was well-dressed and from her appearance and behavior I could tell that she had some sort of education. I admired the fact that she chose this job instead of begging or more worse do other illegal or unethical work. I thought that I can buy things from her to help and encourage her, but here rises another problem! The underground police forbid selling in the stations or carriages and they usually chase such sellers. I don’t know the real reason why the police forces are doing this. May be it’s the preservation of our civil appearance! May be this is because of the beggars disguised as sellers or may be there is a law that forbids selling in the underground. I really don’t know.

My conclusion here is that, if this young lady or whoever was selling something that I need I’d buy it even if it was sold elsewhere in order to help such people. As for the police, why don’t they interview such sellers, take their names and ID numbers, etc. and those who are really selling would be given some sort of permission to do so. This way the process would be organized and those who are seeking to earn their living decently won’t be punished because of those who don’t.

Finally..

The previous two situations repeat everyday as well as tens of other similar scenarios and I believe that we should all agree on the right behavior towards dealing with the problem and stick to it.

The topic is open for discussion!

Why things are not surprising anymore?!

I remember the surprise and amusement I used to feel whenever I visited a new place, a nice feeling of excitement and happiness that I don’t usually experience in my ordinary days. Now all such feelings are gone. I don’t know exactly when this lack of amusement sensation has started but lately I just don’t enjoy my time and have fun easily. The little things that used to elevate my spirits don’t do that anymore; Fairouz voice early in the morning, a nice act from a stranger, a cup of coffee “mathboot” with a favorite book, a sudden visit from a dear friend etc. I was in Matrouh a while ago. I remember the first time I visited Matrouh, about 7 years ago, I was amazed by the view of the sea with its extremely pure water and different colors that change within the hour; the clean weather and many other beautiful things that I can’t recall now but just recall the feeling. May be I’m getting old! Really, I lately found out that the more experience you gain in life; the less you enjoy its little things. Though I think that it should be the other way round; the older you get, the more you appreciate life little things because by then you know how precious they are. I just hope to have these first time astonishing and amusing feelings again.