Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Egypt beats Cameroon 4-2 in the African Cup of Nations
The Egyptian Team:
Egypt - Essam El Hadari 7, Mahmoud Fathallah 6, Sayed Moawad 6 (Shady Mohamed 90m, 6), Wael Gomaa 6, Hany Said 6.5, Ahmed Fathi 6, Hosni Abd Rabou 7.5, Mohamed Shawky 6, Mohamed Zidan 8 (Ahmed El Mohamady 68m, 6), Emad Moteab 6, Amr Zaki 7 (Mohamed Aboutrika 60m, 6)
Zidan! Where has this guy been?
Hosny Abd Rabboh: Exceptional performance
Hassan Shehatah: Why was he severely attacked? Why did many refuse that he should be given a chance? Why did they see his achievement in the precious championship as a stroke of good luck?
The Referee: Thumbs Down! Everybody could see that the penalty he counted for Cameroon during the last 5 minutes of the game had no reason!
Friday, November 2, 2007
A Man Who Dared
"Imagine if hordes of reporters and cameras had been on hand at the St. Bartholomew massacre, when hundreds of thousands of French Huguenots were slaughtered by their Catholic compatriots…Or if some intrepid investigative journalist had managed to sneak into the Tower of London and revealed the nightmare existence of the Tower’s assorted prisoners."
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Ramadan TV
I wanted to write this post since the first week of Ramadan, but I thought I would better postpone it till the end of all the series that filled our screens during this holy month. Unfortunately, the Holy Month of Ramadan has turned into a month for TV series. It is like a festival for TV producers to show all their best, taking it for granted that we won't be able to resist the temptation of all the stars and the gripping episodes.
I was so glad to see that Egyptian drama has overcome its previous lapse. They started to learn the lesson, that we are no longer the only Arab capital of art. That's what competition does, it raises the standards for those who wish to participate. Unlike the boring old stories, and the usual meal that writers forced down our throats every year, this year the Egyptian drama was relatively better. There are new ideas and better production (in some series). Of course I can't review all of the series. I learned that they were all in all 47 Egyptian series being broadcasted througout Arab satellite channels. One is lucky to have been able to watch a fraction of that. So, I'll tell you about those I was able to watch (both deserving and undeserving).
1. El Daly: My favorite series this year. Wonderful Script. One of the greatest roles of Nur Al Sharif (Sa'd El Daly). The time of the 70's is not recurrent in Egyptian Drama. The clothes played a big role in making it credible. And Ahmed Safwat (Khaled El Daly) is a discovery.
4. Nafezza 3la el3alam: Yes, I liked it because of Tawfeeq Abdel Hamid (Rashad Ghazal), I don't deny it. A completely different role and he nailed it with great sense of humor. The series itself was so fragmented and it seems they had a very tight budget to spend, that's why the scenes did not attract the eye. The same shots, in the 7arah, the cafe or at home. The action scenes were so hilarious, that it reminds you of the 80's action movies. The final episode was a big disappointment. And who did the montage for God's sake?
4. AlFareesa wal Sayad: What's the story? I suddenly felt I was so dumb. If the series was in seperate episodes it would have made sense. But what connects the many incidents which took place? Is it the biography of Adham Neseem (the policeman)? Is Adham Neseem a famous man that we should know about? What does the story revolve around? I don't know. And things just happen for no reason. It seems they found it unnecessary for viewers to understand why certain events took place. I don't understand why Adham's wife (Dr. Nagwa) hated him so much. This series is a riddle.
Friday, September 28, 2007
5 Reasons Why I Wish I Was 3
These are the 5 reasons why I wish I was 3:
1. Being pampered by everyone and receiving smiles everywhere I go.
2. Recieving toys and candy from my parents and their guests.
3. Having full control over my day: when to eat, sleep and play.
4. Wearing colorful ribbons on my hair and looking cute.
5. Being able to ask all the questions that roam inside my mind.
I tag Ma-3lina, Salama Moussa, Ravine, Fadfadation, Alina, Juka
Friday, September 21, 2007
Marina Diaries - Episode 3
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Marina Diaries - Episode 2
Spending the summer in the same place where the elite and the richest of the Egyptian society spend their vacation sure has its advantages. There's good security, especially where the ministers' villas are located. (I wonder how ministers in our government can manage to afford those fancy villas at the most privileged spot in Marina! It's a mystery if you don't have any bad intentions.) There are all the facilities that you can dream of. It's like Cairo has transferred itself to follow you there. You will find lots of supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, coffee shops, cinemas, you name it. And all shops offer to deliver their goods to your door, a service that became a necessity now after the resort became so crowded. Now, you can't even find a place to park your car just for minutes to order a sandwich to go.
A very funny and common scene was to find a group of young guys wanting to hitchhike. You always find them after midnight, they are guys who are too young to drive, or let's say whose parents still have the wisdom not to allow them to drive (many accidents used to take place because of underage driving). They just keep waving their thumbs and giving you the look if you refuse to stop. I believe the only thing that this resort misses in its current mess is to have cabs to bring those boys back to their homes.
Yet, the presence of security and traffic policemen is strongly felt. At night they will usually stop you to see your driving license, which is great. I wish they are serious about it with everybody, for we didn't try to show them money instead. The outer gates which lead you to the different parts are not all the same when it comes to security measures. Some gates are easier to access than others. For that sake, they made a new system this year, which is that they issue cards to those who own a place there. But they didn't say anything about it, till they already started working by it! We were almost going crazy. We got nothing against the idea, although it doesn't solve the problem for those who rent or those who come from Alexandria for a day use. We only wondered why on earth they didn't give any instructions as to how and where to issue those cards, before they actually stop you to ask about them. Even their stupid magazine didn't mention anything about it. And when you say, I don't have it, security guys look at you as if you are suspicious. You need to yell in order to let them open those gates. They can never show any sign of understanding before they make you reach the yelling phase.
As if this was not bad enough, they inserted inner gates which separate one part from the other internally. Which means that, if you live in Marina 4 and you decide to go to Marina 3, you must get trapped. You will have to pass through one of those ridiculous inner gates, and find a guy who asks you to pay money to pass cause you don't have your card! What on earth?! Are those people nuts? Is this the way to treat families going on vacations? Why didn’t they tell us about those damn cards when we first arrived? Why didn't they announce by any means? Why causing all of this embarrassment and unneeded humiliation to people who did nothing wrong, except deciding to use their summer houses for vacation? Do I have to beg the guard and swear by God that I do have a house there in order to move a few meters away from where I live? I just can't get it.
And what's that thing about the money? Am I traveling? What good will the money do them if I don't have a place there? I'm an intruder who got the few pounds they want, so what? Or worse, what if there is a terrorist who will hand them those miserable pounds in order to blow the whole thing up? What will the money do?
Do they need donations, for instance? Are they in need for more financial resources? If that's the case, why not collect this money in a decent way? Or is it just for fun, to annoy those people who dream about having fun in the sun and all? May be they thought we had no right to do so, saying to themselves "Oh, those vacationers think they've escaped the city and its hellish life, hahaha, let's torture them a bit here in order to remind them of their usual suffering. Yeah, let's surprise them with new rules and everything, and punish them for not following those rules." I fail to find any rational reason behind this pathetic money collecting thing. Can you?
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Marina Diaries – Episode 1
So, let's get started.
We've been residents of Marina since 2004 only, which makes us relatively new to the community. My husband and I preferred to go there during September when the sea is all ours and things are a lot quieter than during the buzz of the summer. Things were a lot different this summer, for we decided to hit the heart of the season and we were amazed to see changes that we quickly taking place. Aside from the huge difference that the establishment of Porto Marina has made, what grabbed our attention this year was the great number of people and the sharp gap between social classes. There are the morbidly rich, whom you would normally expect to see on the beaches of Palma di Mayorca or something, but they decided to build their own small empires on the Northern Egyptian coast. There are those of the upper middle class, who have managed to buy their humble residences before the crazy auctions which hysterically raised the prices of villas to make them reach 6 and 7 million EGP. There is the typical middle class who rent a place for a week or two during the summer, trying to rub shoulders with the elites. And then there are the workers who serve all those people. (Each villa has an average of 3 or 4 personnel who work as guards, gardeners, maids, babysitters, drivers, cooks, …etc.)
You would think to yourself, "Isn't it amazing that all those different people could enjoy the same beach, the same sea, in the same place." I'm sorry to interrupt your wishful thinking to say that although Marina is not considered to be that big, yet it is already divided into isolated islands when it comes to beaches, night spots, restaurants and the likes. There are the private beaches which you can only visit via membership, a very expensive membership. There are beaches for females only, which means that a woman and her daughters would be at a beach, while her husband and sons will go to another! What a family outing! Then there are beaches in front of private property, and these were made by the owners to become part of their properties, making sure that no intruder would think of getting in. So, although you may think it's the same sea, in fact it is not.
Then there comes water piracy. You might wonder what that could be. It doesn't stop at the beach, no. They've owned the water too. It has become a sort of fashion that you can hardly find any villas that doesn't have a speed boat or a jet ski or both parked by its beach. The beaches overlooking Marina's lagoon have become like a parking lot, with all those private motors that go on cruising the water all day long.
Arriving at Marina will make you think that you've traveled outside Egypt. Suddenly all the cars are brand new, half of which are luxury cars and 4x4s. Villas and chalets also vary according to the place you are in. It is known that the whole concept of the resort was to make all units look the same with a limit for heights so that everybody can enjoy the view of the sea water no matter where they are. Both rules have been sabotaged by the morbidly rich of Marina. They want to feel unique in everything, each one of them have decided to make his own theme on his property, how come you can't tell his villa from his neighbor's? To hell with the beautiful unified look of the buildings, let's build a castle, even if it was only a beach house. The rich have found in this summer spot a new battle field, as if it was not enough to compete in business, let's compete in architecture as well. Let's see whose villa is more luxurious. Even the law that forbids constructing anything which would exceed a 2 storey building was broken by the powerful businessmen of Porto Marina. Where you can see a giant hotel that blocks the eye of the sun. To hell with any rules, and to hell with the others who want to enjoy the scenery. If they don't like what we did with the millions we spent on decorating our exteriors and promoting our business, then let them drink from the salty water of the sea.
Just another facet of the chaos that surrounds us, and the exercise of power from the haves as opposed to the helplessness of the have-nots.. All I needed was some peace of mind by the sea, but who can have it in this country?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Marina Diaries.. Coming Soon
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Kiss My Head and Go to Bed
From Al Masry Al Youm: A New “Sectarian” Clash in Al Wasty Ends with Reconciliation [click to read details]
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
The Street Is Not Ours
The cultural shift that Egypt has gone through has unfortunately resulted in a lapse in society's consciousness and its view of women. Women became pounds of flesh walking on two feet. They are just bodies, a means for temptation, which need to be covered up from the eyes of men. But the same theory that was used to justify why we should suddenly all cover up (as if Islam is a discovery of the 21st century) had an opposite effect. Instead of protecting women from those hungry wolves (used to be called men), harassments became a common practice in our streets. We also went as far as witnessing massive harassment attacks during an Islamic feast! Many of the victims of those attacks were veiled girls. The wolves didn't differentiate between covered and uncovered meat. It's all flesh in the end.
The increasing violence against women that we witness nowadays is a result of the inferior position of females in our society. Women are looked down on in such a way which turned them into a means for pleasure. They are not fully human, but sub-humans, in a way which resembles the old ideas which slavery was based upon. Slaves in this context did not have any rights, because if God had cared for them He wouldn't have created them black. The whites at those times saw the slaves as a lesser species. They needed the white man to have a goal in life, that is serving this white man. The same applies to women nowadays, in a culture which stresses the body of the woman either but covering it all up, or over-showing it in indecent music videos which our Arabic channels are full of today.
Sexual harassment takes different shapes and methods. Not all of which has to be by a physical as most people think. Verbal harassment is the most common, cause it doesn't need the victim to be in direct contact with the attacker, it is fast, gives the chance for a quick escape, and the attacker doesn't have to plan it before hand. The verbal sexual attacker can easily turn into a physical sexual predator. But is this verbal harassement categorized as violence? Yes, it is. Because by merely dropping a sexual comment the attacker can not only hurt the feelings of his victim, but also makes her feel afraid and ashamed! It is a kind of terrorism, which makes a girl feel insecure and shaken by a mysterious guilt. It is a very strange thing that victims of sexual harassment bear those feelings of shame and guilt which an attacker ought to have instead. But the image that society keeps feeding up is that a girl is always guilty, even if she is the victim, cause she has the body, the source of temptation.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
www.Egyptians.coma
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Factory of Cheaters [Part 3]
Those schools are actually no more than a social club, where kids go to get even more spoiled and receive a certificate in the end of the year. It is a kind of new service for the rich, which aims to satisfy the customer to be able to keep his money flowing to them. Therefore, if you ever happen to go there, you will find fancy stuff which have absolutely nothing to do with education or its quality, merely for marketing. Like the full option cars, these schools have got luxurious buildings, swimming pools, tennis courts, horse tracks, cafeterias, conference halls …etc. They want to dazzle those rich parents and assure them that their loved ones will receive 5 stars treatment.
As you can guess, such a club is built to entertain. Something as serious as education will ruin the fun atmosphere, and they don't want to scare their customers away. If the kid goes home and complains to his parents, even on a false basis, the parent might then switch to another shop.. I mean school. That's why they make sure that the little angels will have their best time and in the way get whatever education they can through the day. Those students will have the chance to go on as many as 15 trips during the academic year! Their teachers aren't allowed to punish them in any way, even if it is by asking about their homework. Oh, how rude would that be! How can a teacher ask the student whose parents provide his/her paycheck? And what if this student was rude in class? What's the big deal, he's just a kid. And what if he didn't bring his schoolbag? It is his bag not your, he is free to bring it or not. And what if he doesn't attend your class? He has the right to walk about instead of sitting the whole day. It is his school, not yours. You have no authority over him whatsoever.
Now what about exams? Well, we trust them, we don't need to distract them by moving around while they are kind enough to take the exam. But even this is not enough, for none of them can help anyone else with any answers. What can be done? Then comes your role as a teacher. What are you paid for? Your job is to make sure all those students pass, and with high grades. Yes, believe it or not, that's a teacher's job at those schools. You have to make sure that every student has a report which will draw a smile on our dear customers' faces.
What about nationwide exams? Now we really got a problem here. Errr, how will those students pass their thanawya 3amma exams for example? The teachers who supervise those exams are outsiders, as well as those who grade the sheets. Can a business like that allow anything to jeopardize its profits? Of course they have everything carefully planned. I am sorry to say, that the teachers assigned by the educational zones to supervise exams at such schools are very... I don't know which adjective to use here. Excuse me, but I have to say this.. very poor and low-profiled. What happens is that those teachers will be generously hosted by the school, if you know what I mean. They have croissant and canapés for breakfast, and soft drinks and hot drinks during their supervision. Now, you can guess how they pay back for this hospitality.
And the student, you might wonder, what will they do after graduation? They will get promoted to bigger supermarkets; namely, private institutes or universities. How considerate of you. Well, don't worry. They either work in the family business or use dad's connections to find a job. If you want something that is truly worthy of worrying about, it is the future of this country.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Where do we go from here?
Where are we heading people? Isn't it enough that Egypt which used to lead the development in the region and rose the torch of culture for others to follow, is now allowing itself to be dragged in the course of countries of less civilization and retarded thought? Are we now seeking to prove we can go way backwards further than them or what? Do we aim to dig our own way down to the bottom? What's that?! I can't get it!
The Mufti is supposed to be the spiritual compass for Muslims in our country. Now he writes a book that says that drinking Prophet Muhammad's urine was a source for blessing and that his sweat, blood, hair (in short anything which dagaleen consider as attar) are blessed and can be used for this purpose!
Of course many sheikhs have attempted to object to this, saying that they can't find anything in Islamic history of sunnah to backup those claims. But what actually makes me pose those previous questions was that the Mufti's fatwa is not an isolated incident or single attempt. When put in context, we'll find out that what we're really facing here is a process of turning the prophet into a deity (dropping off his human quality).
Before you accuse me of any exaggeration, please take a few minutes to review some recent tendencies which are very smoothly sneaking into our modern Islamic thought and which were never mentioned before. Let's take a look at the qualities that modern sheikhs are attributing to the Prophet. The insistence that Muhammad was a "Man of Miracles" is being stressed by many nowadays.
As any other Muslim, the only miracle that I know of Muhammad delivering to his people was the Qur'an. If anybody knows of something else, please enlighten me. But what we've been hearing recently is that the Prophet could read the future (misinterpretations of stories when the Prophet gave advice and then turned out that he was right. Like the woman who came to ask his advice as to which of her suitors to marry. The Prophet then told her that both her suitors were not good for her and he recommended a third man whom she didn't like. He then insisted that she would reconsider, and when she married him she said she found all the good in him. Such stories aren't originally intended to make us think that the Prophet could foretell the future. He was just a wise man giving sincere advice. But the way such stories are being used nowadays imply that he had supernatural powers.), heal the sick (the unjustified persistence to make Muhammad a doctor is so big nowadays. What is known to be Alteb Alnabawy and curing illnesses using cattle urine is bogus. You find hundreds of books talking about how the Prophet prescribed cures for various illnesses. There are swindlers who make use of this, selling what they claim to be Islamic cures. Many people have died out of such practices and we still can't learn that the Prophet wasn't a doctor. Again, he was just giving advice to sick people at a time where there were no scientific solutions. If I tell you to tie up your head when you have a headache and it worked, does this make me a doctor? He only told people about coventional methods used and tried at this time. If we stopped brushing our teeth and used the wooden brush (sewak) does this protect us against cavities?), exorcise evil spirits (Again this is used by swindlers to claim that a person can be possessed and those who heal by Qur'an. The Prophet used to say certain prayers in order to seek the blessing of God during his day. These prayers were also used to pacify people who face a crisis or who want to remember God in order not to be deviated by the devil. It was a way of bringing peace to those in distress or those who suffer psychologically or mentally.), being holy. (This is the part which the Mufti drew upon. By claiming that anything that happened to be in contact with the Prophet is blessed, he and others are bestowing a holy nature on Muhammad, seeking to elevate him from the human condition. The danger of this notion will be witnessed when it becomes common among the illiterate masses, who went as far as seeking blessing from a tree.)
Finally, attacking the faith of those who find the idea of drinking the urine of the Prophet to be disgusting is a method of terrorism, which aims to stop people from even questioning the ideas that those "respectful" sheikhs are delivering. I honestly don't think this can bring about any good to our nation which is already suffering enough. Terrorizing people in such a way, deforming a religion which is based on logic to make it supernatural, and seeking to remove the human quality off our Prophet, will cause us to enter deeper into our dark ages. But unlike the European dark ages, this will be even fiercer and will witness more victims. My prayer to God is to spare us all that.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Depressed
This is better left without any comment from my side. But ever since I heard about this tragedy, I felt that if I don't let out my rage I could explode at any moment, or even get a heart attack. So, please allow me to use this post to pour out the pain that is tearing my heart since yesterday, when I first learned about the death of Amira, the 11 year old student from Qenna. May she rest in peace, away from the burning sun which took her life in mercy maybe. It's enough what Amira has already suffered from this rotten educational system, that the visit of the minister finally comes to put an end to it all.
Usually when you know about such tragedies it is the official comments which makes you even more furious. That's how I felt while listening to Mr. Medhat Ahmed, Deputy of the ministry of education in Qenna, as he enthusiastically struggles to defend his excellency the minister and seeking to prove that his visit had nothing to do with the death of Amira. His first sentence was "His excellency's plane landed in Qenna at 9:00 am. It took him then 30 mins to reach the school afterwards. The students didn't wait that long, and this girl was already sick and had high temperature." Yaaaaaaaaaaaah.. How can a person be that thick-skinned? How can a human being reach this degree of heartlessness that he doesn't even express any kind of sorrow at the lost innocent soul? How can hypocrisy take over to such extent?
Ba2a kedda? It was the girl's fault? As if she chose to rush out of her school to stand in the sun while she is sick to salute the minister? The only important thing is that his excellency's hands are clean. He didn't kill anyone.
Wallahi if God chose to ease Amira from this life at this moment, then she was murdered once again by this man, who only cares about keeping his chair and proving his loyalty to his minister. And although I don't believe in ghosts, I pray that her ghost will haunt him all his life. As to the minister, he is already murdering our children every day by insisting to be received with qeues of hailers every time his highness decides to visit a school. 3ala ra2y Mr. Medhat Ahmed, "He's not less than his excellency the Governor who has similar receptions every time he visits a town." How can those people sleep at night? I wonder.
After hearing this man speak, the only thing that popped into my mind was Adel Imam saying, "Shafakom allah w3afakom ya ostaz Medhat." As long as people like you exist, we can never have hope in a better future.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Against Sexual Harassment
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Puppets and Puppeteers
I wanna start off with the bizarre actresses who have suddenly chosen to resume their acting careers after they had denounced the job altogether and believed that quitting it was the only right thing to do. Some of them even went as far as announcing that the money they had earned from acting was dirty money, and they engaged into a sort of "money laundry", if I may call it so, by having businesses in Islamic clothing or merely restaurants. Now, they come back one after one to act again on TV series but with their hijab on!
I remember when the CD of Sohair AlBably (the famous Egyptian comedian) launched at the Cairo International Book Fair several years ago. Thousands were gathered in front of computer screens displaying the former actress as she talks about how devilish acting was, and how she was misled throughout her life. She claimed that nothing was better than the humble life away from fame and away from displeasing God (meaning through art). As if 7ad sharabha 7aga asfara 3alashan tmasel! Why can't these people have the courage to own what they did?
I remember the ridiculous series of Sohair Ramzy (an actress who was known for her seductive roles and lack of talent) with her clownish attire, which is supposed to be sharia outfit, talking to a semi-naked girl in one of her scenes. Is that the kind of art that her sheikh approved? As long as she is covered up, it is ok that people will look at the bodies of the actresses sharing the same scenes with her? I seriously can't figure it out! Please help me here.
I'm not against her hijab. I'm not against her coming back to act. I'm not against her sharing scenes with the flirty chick. But what has religion got to do with that? After all she is supposed to be a leader among this group of "purged actresses". Tayeb why do this?!
It is not a coincidence that all of those actresses had no talent whatsoever. They got their fame either from their hot movie scenes or from announcing that they will quit acting for religious reasons. (I don't understand why the media makes this huge propaganda whenever an actress decides to wear the hijab! It's a head scarf for God's sake! Everybody's free to dress the way they like.) Those actresses can not name even a single important role they had played during their whole careers. Their roles with hijab likewise have never added, nor will ever add, anything to art. They are just there for promoting the new look.
I must mention here that opposed to this group, there are wonderful actresses who chose to wear hijab without condemning their jobs or expressing shame of the roles they had acted. There are two excellent examples here: Shadya and Huda Sultan. After a lifelong brilliant acting and singing career, Egyptian star Shadya, had decided to quit and since then she had never spoken to the media or denounced her past career. Whereas, the late star Huda Sultan chose to resume her acting career with her hijab. In all her interviews she refused to be pushed into regretting her past roles. As a matter of fact, she didn't have any ridiculous conditions, and she actually acted some of best roles with the hijab. Her excellent performances in Al Wattad and Arabesque are a clear example. Until her death, Sultan resumed her career with dignity and dedication.
These women of real talent had nothing to be ashamed of cause what they offered was true art. I remember Shadya's song "Take my Hand" (7'od b2eedy) which was a religious song. The sincerity by which she sang it makes you feel she was out of this world, with her beautiful golden hair swaying by her face. Nobody saw anything wrong in it. On the contrary, it was considered one of the most beautiful and touching songs. Now, with fanaticism on the rise, and with the Islamic songs turning into a kind of fashion in modern Arabic music, I can't find a single song as touching as hers. I believe it isn't a coincidence. Using religion as a kind of marketing can never result in anything sincere, no matter how dazzling the outer appearance is. Religion needs a genuine spirit to shine through. But this wave of actresses and singers who are mere puppets in the hands of their puppeteers, whether they be sheikhs or business people, can never accomplish any lasting glory. They will have their time on the screen but time will sweep them as easily as they change their minds.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Factory of Cheaters [Part 2]
For example, if you teach English at a language school, you have to teach not one curriculum, but two. Aywa wallahi two! There is the advanced level of the language school (cause students there learn English since KG1) and there is the curriculum taught at governmental schools. Now, to teach both curricula is absolutely impossible, not only because it is time consuming and pointless, but also because I'll make a jerk out of myself in class. Yesterday I am teaching Shakespeare and today I am teaching "My name is Om Luji"!
Let's move on to the process of examination. You may wonder what I meant by saying that students receive the answers before the questions. Hey, haven't you heard about the wonderful invention of "model answers"? Ahuh.. Yes, for every question there is a model answer that the students are given to memorize in order to write it back onto their answer sheets. It's that simple. And then we grade our own answers, the ones we wrote for the students to memorize. Teftekro momken 2a2ool el2egaba bta3ty we7sha? ady nafsy sefr maslan? Of course our answers are the perfect ones, so all the students do great. Except those who aren't careful enough with spelling or have a weak memory, those might get a bit less. But for sure everybody passes. Wkol sana wento taybeen. W2alf mabrouk. W3o2bal elsana elgayya.
*To be continued bardo..
Thursday, April 26, 2007
An Islam against Islam
The third factor came from the business sector, which used these growing emotions in the Egyptian society and translated them into money, thus re-exporting the product but in a more intensive manner through the media. This sector made use of the popularity of some religious talkers and produced for them TV programs, cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, websites… etc. Sometimes they made their own stars while watching their popularity increase and their sales too. The star doesn't have to be an expert or have any true wisdom, he simply has to have the qualifications which are needed in any star: that is an acceptable appearance and charisma.
One of those shooting stars is Sheikh Khaled El Gindy. He was made popular through a weekly segment in the daily program Al Qahira Al Youm, where every Monday he will answer viewers' religious questions in what is called Rokn Elfatwa (zy rokn elsheesha kedda at coffee shops). I've talked about El Gindy before when he came second on my list of 5 Most Hated People. I therefore won't repeat my opinion of him. But what's new is his most recent fatwa, in which he displayed his usual genius and declared that slave trade is halal and can take place nowadays if the President (walyi el2amr) approves it. Away wallahi kedda!
Shofto elgamal welraw3a? El Gindy comes to say so in the year 2007, after the abolition of slavery and the human rights law and the international agreements concerning POWs, all of this doesn't concern him at all. Elmohem it is Halal and there's nothing wrong in it. All we need now is the approval of the president. Begad 7aga tsharaf ya3ni. Wallahi if I were the president I can use this to raise my popularity and become a Pharaoh, or pass over the presidency to my son even. I would simply say to my citizens, "I will not use my divine right to sell you as slaves."
My friend Egy Anatomist has an excellent post about this issue on his blog. He really said it all, so I need not dwell more upon it here. I just want to say that if this ever happened I would like El Gindy's children to be the first on the market. If this is Islam what is Jahiliyya? I bet that if those people were alive today they wouldn't have said anything like that. Such crazy people like el Gindy are coming up with a different version of Islam, an Islam against Islam. They are deforming our religion and giving it the worst face ever.
Thinking Blogger Award
Now starts the toughest job as I get to pass on the nomination and the tag to the 5 Blogs that make me think. I believe there are many Arabic blogs that are full of thought, but I realize I get to tag those in English. So, here are my 5 in no particular order:
Baheyya: Her political analysis and social insights are simply amazing. Makes me feel we have got a worldclass analyst. Reading her posts really satisfies my urging mind with their informative and professional writing.
Egyptian Chronicles: The kind of effort and dedication she invests in her blog is so inspiring. Zeinobia's coverage of the Egyptian news with her added twist of sincere analysis makes reading her blog a lovely treat. This girl really takes blogging seriously and it paid her back.
Words of a Broken Mirror: In introducing her blog she says, "This is my church. This is where I heal my hurts". And this is truely how you feel when you read her posts. Alina writes with elegance, passion and spontaneity. Her intelligent remarks and wide range of interest makes her a global blogger. Still her concern with the issues in her country, Romania, will carry you there and make you see the beauty she reveals as she tackles its problems with love and sincerity.