Today the Egyptian revolution of January 25th achieved a major success.. Seba'i Ahmed Seba'i Chief Coroner most famous for his role in fabricating a fake death report on the case that ignited the fire of change in Egypt aka Khaled Saeed's death has been FIRED & will be undergoing investigations.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the purpose of this post.. I merely wanted to have the news archived in my blog somehow.. anyway..
A couple of days ago a friend who hasn't seen me in 4 months (since I left Egypt last December & just got back) what I thought of Egypt NOW (having missed the revolution on the ground and 2 months of post).
I was shocked to have absolutely nothing to say.. Its an extremely strange feeling! Although everything has changed still nothing has changed. I know this sounds like I just puffed whatever it is Qazzafi puffs but no I swear I'm sober..
I do have some observations though:
- Politics is the IT thing now.. gone are the days of following football/fashion/sushi or even Star academy.. now everyone is a know it all when it comes to politics. I can totally understand given the graveness of the situation, I mean history is being made right now so people are entitled to have their say, but I dunno, I left Egypt with almost everyone being an airhead of sorts, political awareness was minimal and now its like a broken pipe! Even my 10 year old cousin is starting to want to know more about Khaled Saeed and what his story was & what Mubarak has done wrong and all that..!! Fascinating change of ideologies.. from a child who's life rotates around Justin Bieber into a child with Khaled Saeed's picture on her phone!
- The exodus of Facebook users to the world of Twitter where everyone labels themselves "Activist" in their bios. I'm not sure how I feel about everyone all of a sudden becoming an "activist" but I'm pretty sure I hate the fact that Twitter is the new Facebook. Because on twitter ever since the revolution non political tweets are deemed unacceptable by many.. why do you want to impose what you want to read on my personal space? I mean if you think I'm too silly just don't follow me but don't make me feel bad about living my life like a normal person.
- Labels & usage of terms that never existed pre-jan 25. We all know that some terms only surfaced during the revolution such as "agendat, qella mondasa, shabab el thawra, shabab 25, 7ezb el kanaba, e2telaf, bezda, etc..." but when we start using them as a matter of fact terminology in our every day life in serious conversations I personally start to worry. For instance, I was abroad during the revolution but I did my part from where I am, whether it was attending rallies, raising awareness about the situation, speaking to the media or simply staying up for 3 days straight 2 tweet abt it 2 whomever would listen in the world... so what does it mean when someone says to me in all seriousness "enti msh mn shabab el sawra" No really what does that mean? Who are shabab el sawra? what defines them or decides who they are? Just like I need to know meen homa el qella el mondasa? What did the Egyptian media controlled by the ex regime mean if we were to define this term?
- Sexual harassment has reasonably decreased. At least in my experience over the past 2 weeks. I am not sure if this is to be contributed to the revolution and the fact that people care more about one another or if I'm no longer harassment material.. But I must say I felt perfectly safe walking down the street.. there were rare incidents of verbal harassments, mostly idiots gawking but this to me is a major change worthy of a mention. Maybe soon enough there will be no gawkers and everyone will mind their own business!
- There is a general cheerful atmosphere hovering above Cairo. I hope I dont jinx it by blogging about it but I couldn't help but notice it. I've made a point to speak to as many people on the street as I could and everyone seemed hopeful about what is to come next and wanting to contribute to a better Egypt. Even a young homeless on the street said he thinks Mubarak's downfall will help his life somehow! When I left Egypt the general attitude (through my entire life) was that we're all in deep shit, el balad ray7a fi dahya, khalas masr entahet and we were all just waiting to die! (Not so dramatically but you get the point). Now I must say I am impressed.. When I visited Tahrir during the Workers Day protests of May 1st, I talked to a few protesters all who stressed on their willingness to give their hearts and souls into helping the country come out of its 30 years long coma. Before hand you would've never seen such honesty and dedication in their eyes.
- This to me is the most important of all observations.. the propagation of Graffiti art around the streets of Cairo. Magnificent!! There has been so much talent and potential in SO MANY Egyptians hiding behind the walls of tyranny but now that Egypt took the shackles off those artists took their paint brushes out and oh my goodness it is mind boggling. I took the liberty to roam around Zamalek and pin point some of those art works.. U'll be looking at some of them in a few seconds.
These are a 100% personal observations, you may agree or disagree but always feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section!
مصر يامه يا بهية يا أم طرحة و جلابية
الزمان شاب و إنت شابة هو رايح و إنتي جاية
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