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Let us consider the options...

First of all the Head of the Peoples' Assembly Dr.Fathi Sorour will constitutionally succeed Mr. Mubarak till the 'next president' takes office, be he of civilian or military background. Of the likely and unlikely candidates, these are my personal favorite scenarios- if out of nothing else, then for the 'patient nature' ofc the peoples of Egypt

1. Gamal Mubarak: The son furthers a career of investments- In my opinion Gamal is a great candidate to succeed his father in a progressive move to continue Egypt's pro-dictate policy. Having grow up in a household privy to the intricacies of the ongoings of policy-making is a distinct advantage. If he should choose to be a good guy no one would be able to pull more off for Egypt.

2. Omar Soleiman: Ghost acquires a body- The mystery miracle-worker, head of secret service and harbinger of peace between warring factions amongst the descendants of Abraham, Omar Soleiman is the perfect candidate for furthering the interests of corporate interests, especially American, in the region.

3. Amr Moussa: Folk hero dethroned- To this day Amr Moussa holds value in the hearts of Egyptians if not Arabs in general. His extradition to handle the 'honorary' hem of the Arab League has done more to hurt his illustrious career and exemplary stands than Shaaban's song. 

The possibility of an unknown Army general or influential 'middleman' gaining power is also at hand, though its prospects would be harder to sell to the Egyptian people- who are 'patient in nature', but not stupid. And still in the end the saying goes 'Anything is possible in Egypt'.

zzz

 

 

 

Though the sun  may be rising the breeze heavenly and the planets in bloom

The flower arches away from me

She will not sway in my arms

Her fears and analytical ways a wall between us

 

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And when you arrive holding your sign calculated words fall in a heap that says im nervous

Do my words make you nervous

Do you hate my angles and lines

Tell me what makes you nervous

That I may kill it in me… or revere it

 

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Tell me the way to your very own heart

That I may paint it in water

Weave sunrays

and leave this at your door

 

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Could it be that such love can flow inside of me?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyday People:

Lara Baladi, Image collector & Mixed-Media Artist

 

 

Lara Baladi was born in Lebanon to a Lebanese family that had lived in Egypt to witness the first days of the revolution before returning to Lebanon where Lara was born. The family then returned to Egypt with the start of the civil war. They then chose to go to France where they lived. Lara took leave to study in London then returned to Paris with her newfound love for photography and art. But it would be years later in Cairo, the city where she lives, that she would have one of her first significant exhibitions. The third in the fresh history of the townhouse gallery of contemporary art, ‘4 women’ would showcase the works of 4 artists living in Cairo; Huda Lutfi, Sabah Naeem, Dina Ghareeb and Lara Baladi.

 

 

 

What about photography drew you to take it up as a profession?

 

What first attracted me to photography was the way things or situations cold be fascinating but when photographed, they became flat. The challenge then was how to keep in the photograph, and even go beyond it, that thing which was fascinating about life.

 

Why the big collages?

 

I moved to a different kind of practice due to the lack of technical possibilities in Cairo, which led me to make all these big collages; big pieces that use a multitude of images rather than enlarge an image and work on perfecting the technique.

 

Photography is a powerful tool of expression, how can one maximize the resonance of the image within the audience?

 

Photography holds many different possibilities, and different people work at a different pace. The results depend on the practice and the person. Some people are obsessive, spontaneous or conceptual, stage images, etc. It is a very personal choice and a continuous process. By continuously working, one’s work, language continuously evolves and deepens.

 

The work itself reveals its limits and opens new creative doors. Inside existing works, the seeds for the next works are already present. In the end, all the works are related in the same kind of way Russian dolls are contained in one another. What matters is to continue the search, to ‘peel the onion’.

 

When you work away from commercial constraints and more towards Art you have much more space and freedom to elaborate a discourse. Usually these works are more personal, more reflective, more conceptual and also manage to keep all these personal qualities one puts in the process without losing integrity along the way.

 

If art is a language.. What dialects are not spoken in Egypt?

 

In Egypt, press articles about artists and art exhibitions are rarely able to look at art productions from a larger perspective and to contextualize them within the larger International Art world.

There is a fairly big community of artists in Egypt but there is no criticism of art, no discourse around art or very little. People who produce art in Egypt often need to exhibit in other countries before their work is noticed or analyzed in a professional way.

 

What else does the cultural scene in Egypt lack?

 

Freedom obviously. The essential element: freedom of expression. There is a very clear impossibility to do certain works or talk about certain subjects here.  A lot of my works which were and still are influenced by this environment, talk about certain subjects in metaphorical ways or ways that are not confrontational. Having to always work in those limitations and managing to get your point across can be challenging but on the long run very limiting and oppressive. It unfortunately tends to push creative forces outside the country instead.

 

Interests in artists?

 

Less and less I am interested in seeing one piece of work. I am more interested in seeing the continuity of the work in one artist’s life and understanding how that work falls into their own process of research. It’s almost like a chemical laboratory where the chemist will make his experiments until he finds a formula. I think artists work in that way in the sense that they take elements from their environment, their knowledge, their experiences and they transform them into something else, into work of art.

 

Latest project?

 

The last work I did was a commission for Images of the Middle East in Denmark. It was 20 projections on 20 screens along one kilometer of sea shore. It was something I was working on in the summer when the war started in Lebanon. I shifted a little in terms of the direction I was working on. I was obsessed like most of us with the news, following the course of the events and the number of deaths increasing everyday.

The images I used were the accumulation of icons from the West to the Middle East, from Christianity, Hinduism to Islam, from consumerism to Art, from past to present.  They were ‘unfolding’ like a sketch book, notes and metaphors across the sea, looking back at September 2001 to the world we live in today -in appearance simplistic (the global effect) but in reality extremely complex.

 

The popular appealing surface of the images was a way for the viewer into something entertaining. Yet, underneath that familiar surface, questions were raised and at times unsettling.

 

 

Heroes ?

 

Everybody and nobody. I think there are heroes everywhere in our daily lives.  We can all be heroes in our own life depending on the way we manage life challenges.

 

 

 

 

Re eVolutionZ

 

 

 

From the pain come the dream
From the dream come the vision
From the vision come the people
From the people come the power
From this power come the change

                                                                       

                                                                           - Fourteen Black Paintings. Peter Gabriel

 

Different revolutions are happening to us all. Revolutions have something to do with how we choose to handle everything we know, coupled with our constant thrive to understand that which we do not know.

It’s really the inner re-evolutions going on inside and around us all the time. It’s about knowing what you want. It’s not settling for less. And if such a reality would not exist, then it is also our ability to create that reality, by taking back our right to dream and building the monuments in time that we would like to see.

 

Us.

 

And it’s never too late.

 

The peoples’ mind has been voiced.

The wheels are set in motion…

 

 

*******

 

 

 

 

Part I. The Music

 

Location : Cairo Jazz Club

Name     : Ammar Dajani

Notes    : still dim, no smoke, not a soul to be seen.

           [oriental chilled music almost inaudible].

 

 

There have been times when all musicians could do in Egypt is dream. I guess a few dreamers took it upon themselves to help make it come true. For others.

 

 

Your name ?

 

Ammar.. It’s what I go by. Ammar Dajani if you want I’ll give you the spelling later..

 

Is what we’re witnessing in the music scene a revolution?

 

I don’t think it’s a revolution. It’s an evolution. It’s been happening for a while. Where we are now is a result of kaza [several] stages.. plateaus of maturity; we reach a certain level, we stay there for a while and then we grow again. All that’s happening is that the scene has reached a level that’s a lot more visible. It has grown both in size of the events hosted, and more importantly in terms of audience. It’s been growing for five or six years. So if this is a climax of sorts, then it is only one of many to come. This is not the end, not the revolution. This is just bigger, better, faster than we’ve seen happen. Like SOS last time, you’re talking about 15,000 people as opposed to 2 or 300 in a club or even a thousand in Sawy. But it’s the beginning of a new level or stage.

 

But don’t you think that this stage comes with an abundance of rich sounds, that have not been seen in Egypt for a while, and that’s contributing to this visibility?

 

All I’m saying is that this has been going on for 5 or 6 years, which is a short time. But bands have been getting together, the older bands are reaching higher levels of maturity, the younger bands have something to see, to aspire to.. 5 or 6 years ago no one wanted to be like anyone because there was nobody to see. Now the younger musicians see more established bands like Eftekasat, Wust El Balad and they finally have someone to want to be like.

 

Like we say , we’re not the heroes, the music is the hero. I can tell you about how we got involved with the jazz club, that‘ll explain a few things. It started out with 3 partners that took over in 2001.

[Waiter serves soup]

So you’re gonna have me and my soup on tape.

Well the jazz club was around since ‘97 and was owned and operated by a man called Nicha, a major name in the nightlife business and a good friend of ours. So when Nicha came to leave the jazz club, he knew we were looking for a venue, so he told us to take over from him instead of reinventing the wheel. We took it in 2001, closed for a couple of months, totally revamped, and opened the place, Alex, Akram and I.

Thing is Akram and I are musicians, we play music- I don’t want to get anal about the definition of a musician... We wanted to provide a space. A space we didn’t have when we were growing up when we could have done more with the music had there been the space. We wanted to make sure a space was available to musicians that have something to say . So we were able to provide a stage where they can explore their musicianship.

 

.. Nothing packaged ?

 

Yes. And we worked with a lot of bands like Wust El Balad, I’m just using it as an example because they’re the biggest now. So when they first started out, I don’t think this should be in print, they won’t like me saying this probably but, we had a few empty nights, nobody knew them. But we still stuck around, still stuck it out with them, kept booking them till things picked up. Now they’re like.. The biggest thing.

It wasn’t just a passive space that we provided, it was an active space. Because we were musicians, audience and club owners. We had a sort of foot on stage and a foot in amongst the audience. This helped us better understand this relationship; helped us provide the right audience with the right band. And it helped us give the bands real feedback on what the audience thought. Not only in terms of if they liked it or not- it’s not background music for people as they’re having dinner, the people are here for the band. We never imposed any limitations, only helped direct the flow. In fact our only criteria for choosing bands has always been quality, not style or otherwise. Even the kind of music we cannot have on our stage, like freestyle jazz, we try and sponsor n other venues, as we did with the townhouse. Then there was ‘The Mangroovy Sensation’ a festival in Nabq, Sinai where we helped book the bands. Thus being in the center of the live music scene we’d get contacted by people for parties, or weddings even, as we knew all the bands, and through us we helped get them gigs, and that was really it- to get the bands working, getting the bands playing more often. It’s as simple as that. There’s a certain level of maturity you have to reach, there are may levels of maturity that you have to go through, in anything, in life, the same is true of music. So there is this basic level where you work your ass off as a musician and then you know you can carry your own space. That was lacking in this country, coz there simply wasn’t enough gigs. As soon as you step out of the commercial scene or pop scene, there’s nothing. Or rather used to be, but now choices are available.

 

 

 

 

 

Part II. Visual Logos

 

Location : Karim Francis Gallery, Downtown.

Name     : Karim Francis.

Notes    : Karim’s office, [surrounded by a vivid

           panorama of Egypt’s contemporary art scene].

 

 

There are those of us who are deemed crazy, simply because we dare to abide by a certain set of codes that places us in a position to potenti-ate change, no matter how intimidating the opposing flow may be.

 

Part A. Then And Now: A take 

 

The gallery opened in ‘95, coz I had the space.  And at a time there was a need for spaces and shows, so I said let’s give it a try and it worked. Then in 2000 I opened in Zamalek, then in front of the AUC, then I used a lot of restaurants and spaces to hold shows. The idea was to familiarize people with the arts, not in a gallery space, but in a public space.

 

Do you think we have more people getting interested in the arts?

 

Yes some people are getting interested, and it’s growing, but it’s not yet something. It’s positive. If I compare these times to the time when I first opened the gallery; today we have an audience, people that come, buyers, people that are interested. Before it used to be that the artists would come and no one would show up except his friends and my friends. At that point there was no real public interest in the arts. And step by step, it’s growing. Like they say you go to the mountain, the mountain doesn’t come to you; so I took the art to the restaurants, to the streets, to the people, and the question of them taking that step to come to the gallery, that’s another story completely… 

The more you have spaces, venues, the more you have a chance to influence the public and culture. You need places where the artists feel at ease. Not like they’re being used. They need where they feel that you’re standing by them, a place to call home. And that’s what’s lacking here.

 re available.23..

 

 

 

Part B. ‘Nitaq’ [reach]: an eye-opener.

 

Beyond existing horizons

 

 

Speaking of taking it to the streets and to the people, you cam up with Nitaq, care to give us of what it was like in retrospect?

 

The basic idea was to do something for the millennium, a visual art plan that was to take place between the galleries; an attempt to use the millennium to attract public eye to the galleries as a common conscious effort on the galleries part. It was also an attempt to redeem the reputation downtown receives for being a baladi, crowded area. Sure if you go through at 2 in the afternoon, it’s hell, but come 4/5 you can move around, park, live your life. Many people live in downtown, I live in downtown. The other thing was to try to exhibit contemporary art in old buildings, to try and bring that contrast into play as well. The idea was to have the seven arts including architecture, as in old buildings, hosting modern, contemporary art. It began with visual arts, but it quickly evolved as we started thinking about ways of drawing people in; so music, since I know a lot of musicians. We used to host a lot of musicians and poetry readings on a weekly basis, in order to bring people in or develop a public. Music as a form of art is the form that attracts the most people, [in comparison to visual arts].

The Greek club wanted in a way to start promoting arts, so when the festival came, I proposed the idea of using their space for musical performances, and they encouraged it and that helped bring in the people. 10 days of ongoing events in the festival brings in everyone, from prince to riff raff. We had a few incidents of harassment or fights, but with almost anybody and every body there. That was part of the package. But there’s an upside to that, though it was over a thousand people packed into the Greek club for the final night, and though for deciding to go to the bathroom it took me over half an hour to get back to the sound- equipment, Gerard was playing and to him it was the most surreal performance he has ever managed in Cairo. It was something about the mix of different people that were there sharing the experience.

Nitaq accomplished 10 percent of what I had projected.

 

..But it was a positive step, and in many respects a forward and successful one. It was like something on the tip of everyone’s tongue.. And you went ahead and said it.

 

 

Part C. ‘Occidentalism’: West through Eastern eyes.

 

Life after Death

 

 

Wherever we look nowadays, it seems death and destruction, persecution of minorities and ethnic groups, poverty, hunger and looming destruction hang in the air. It has almost become part of our daily dose of sustenance. We almost seem to need it to propel ourselves in our respective lives. Every now and then, one or many shall take a moment to reflect, to understand, to process, create and elevate common consciousness on a certain topic or argument. This attempt to shift opinions and events is in the end, a point of view, open to debate and discussion. But even in that respect it will have fulfilled its purpose. The discourse is the real focal point.

 

 

…….

 

 

 

Occidentalism..

 “An idea that I was approached to do in Spain a couple of years back. I didn’t find enough material at the time, and I thought that it was an important subject that cannot be rushed. The idea stayed with me, and due to what’s going on in the middle east, and the fact that it does not already exist, I decided it might be the time to do something like this. In the same respect that AlJazeera is a point of view, why not voice ours. So I loved the idea, and I talked to the artists and they loved the idea. And with all the enthusiasm, the artists’ and mine, I decided to go for it last March. Then it was  a question of looking for the funds, and then I managed to find them, and now it’s on. A lot of preparations are going into it. Because it’s a commissioned work, and a collective work. I made a point of meeting with the artists individually and in groups to try and best bring out what the collective vision is that contains the individual standpoints on the west.”

 

The artists’ coming together for this project, this unity, will surely benefit this event. But more stands to be gained by their unity in terms of evolving and furthering their art.

 

“Twenty local artists representing the contemporary Egyptian art scene have been commissioned to create works of art surrounding the present-day theme of Occidentalism, or the West in Egyptian Eyes.

The objective of the exhibition, which is to be held in May 13th 2007, is to transmit and communicate current Egyptian visions on the theme, raise questions regarding ambiguous complexities in the socio-cultural rapport between East and West, which will later tour the west in 2008.

Our general objective is to contribute to the dialogue between cultures and civilizations, which currently stands fragile, unify the Egyptian art scene, and provide a platform for the expansion and recognition of emerging and prominent artists in the Egyptian pantheon.”        

                                                           - Occidentalism Concept Brief.

Participating Artists ;
Adel El Siwi, Amal Kenawy, Hani Rashed, Hazem El Mestikawy, Hazem Taha Hussein, Heba Farid, Hisham El Zeiny, Huda Lutfy, Islam Zahr, Khaled Hafez, Lara Baladi, Mahmoud Refaat, Mohamed Abla, Mohamed Taman, Nader Sadek, Nermine El Ansary, Sabah Naim, Shady El Noshokaty, Sherif El Azama, Wael Shawky, amongst others.

This event is funded by the European Union.

 

Moments…

 

 

The paths of all who have come before lay the tracks for the future, heroes be they or villains, and ultimately every one is a bit of both. To choose which way to go is an inner formula bubbling within us as we speak. The push and pull effect of circumstance, selfishness or selflessness as we go through our days, is the cornerstone of our well-being . We can use our experiences and choices to propel ourselves higher or allow them to lead us down the spiral to a situation where things look pretty dim. And even then we truly have a choice, where to go..

 

Where do you wanna go from here …?

 

 

*****

 

 

Maria Golia

Writer

Author. Cairo: City of Sand

Columnist. Daily Star of Lebanon

 

 

 

 

I’m a writer. I’ve lived in Egypt for a long time before that I travelled. I was managing a performance arts center in Texas. I have been an expat for most of my life. Arrived in 1981, left in 1985. Came back in 1992.

Egypt has changed tamaman [totally] since the 80s. Cairo more specifically was still a magical place. There was half as many people, the hash market was thriving. Everyone was spying on everyone else. It was delightful.

It was still [partially] isolated from this western culture of time and money, it was still innocent somehow prior to the assassination of Sadat.

Following the assassination of Sadat things started to change really fast. And when I came back in the 90s there was this whole thing with liberalization, “economic reform” business, which opened the flood gates to all sorts of trash basically, or this western style of development, [resulting in] this veneer of wellbeing as everything is getting worse and worse.

The 80s were more honest somehow. Tab3an [of course] there was corruption, of course people didn’t have it all, but it was honest, more upfront. Now of course the government tries to disguise what it’s doing with all this great rhetoric; ..reform and open market, as people are starving to death.

For one thing the very next-day to Sadat’s assassination, there was a tank in the market-place in Batniyya, and a big crackdown on the hash dealers, but at the same time heroin started hitting the streets in a big way which had never happened before and this totally changed the face of the city. Hashish was one little thing that people could allow themselves, a small pleasure, a recreation. When that was substituted by heroin, you started getting more violence. There was this great uncertainty surrounding Mubarak, and then things seemed to spiral from then on. I think the population [increase] had a lot to do with it. At some point things must have become unmanageable.

In the beginning when I first came here, I’d lived in Europe [Paris, Rome], and tab3an I’m American, Cairo was just so different. It seemed to have all the pluses of a city; in terms of being cosmopolitan, all sorts of strange things going on at all hours of the day or night… But it didn’t have any of the drawbacks; it was perfectly safe, the people were just in an amazingly good mood. There was this idea of mazagg [lucid wellbeing], and people really had mazagg.

There was no McDonalds, no fancy shmancy stuff. Of course there were rich people, but they always did their thing over there [gestures a circle in the back], but there never seemed to be that many of them. Really what was happening was with the people, and the people were fun, and curious, and open- just very pleasant to be with, and very welcoming and again there was this safety that was just fantastic. I’ve been mugged, stalked, robbed, and God knows what else in all sorts of beautiful first world cities, but never in Cairo.

 

I got my boob grabbed for the first time for the first time in 2002, and I actually sat down and wrote about it. Because I was so shocked. It was just 3 kids in broad daylight, I was dressed like a nun and walking when one of them grabbed my boob. The one who grabbed me turned and ran really fast, so I turned to the ones who were there and I started hitting them with my empty shopping bag, shouting stuff like ‘yekhrebeitku’ [woe unto your homes], and ‘go tell your friend’… I didn’t know what I wanted them to tell him, but I was hitting them for his sake. What amazed me was that people just stood and watched. This would have never happened before. Before the shop owners would have ‘yeshteku’ [filed a complaint], or beat them up themselves. My theory at the time was that it was post 9/11, tourism was down, everything was pretty much shit, the intifada was escalating, unemployment was very high…  There was this general sensation that things were not going well. This wasn’t just about getting my boob grabbed, kids were being more nasty, shop-keepers were ruder- all these forms of rudeness, to me it seemed that people were trying to acquire a false illusion of strength in their ordinary conduct. Imposing themselves in such a way gave them the feeling that they had some power over their lives, which in reality they don’t. And since then it’s gotten worse. In the old days if some guy wanted to flirt with you, they’d sing you a song, the most insulting thing about it would be if it were out of tune, or they’d call you a ghazal. Now it’s “you’re a cunt, you’re a this, or a that, fuck me..” etc. etc. there has been a general descent in the literary content of the average flirtation. Its powerlessness, frustration, it’s hard to get married, let alone have sex. People don’t work, they have no entertainment, they have energy with no place to put it. Plus the state itself is abusing women. It’s beating them up at demonstrations, in police interrogations, May 25th… the state is not setting an example for respecting women, at the same time religious authorities are always dealing with absurd fatwas that make women out to be a threat to peoples’ religious well-being, rather than promoting women in society. You’ve got it from all sides, the state setting a bad example, religious authorities demonizing women, plus the people themselves are in deep shit. There’s a lot of pent up frustration and women, perceivably, are the weakest link in society. What amazes me is that this shit doesn’t happen everyday, [this spontaneous mob scene, sexual harassments of downtown], or that it hasn’t happened before. We can look forward to more of this spontaneous venting.

Its being hungry in many, many ways. Let’s face it, life is really hard and you’re in the situation where the people in power have no idea how hard it is. Somebody like me, or somebody like you doesn’t have any idea how hard it is, you have more insight obviously, but even the people living in the worst conditions in Downtown Cairo are a thousand times better off than anyone living 2kms away in any direction, be it imbaba, shubra… the shanty town situation is horrendous. People are walking through garbage that comes up to their ankles. I mean life is dehumanizing for so many people, that its amazing to me that it still holds together this well. I think people should be congratulated on a daily basis for everyday they get through without killing either somebody else or themselves.

Another thing about the assaults, and the general deterioration of society, is the role of the Emergency Law which has been in place since Sadat died. This means that kids today 20 year olds, grew up in the absence of any basic human rights, in the absence of due process, [someone that’s suspected is innocent until proven guilty. and has to be tried in a normal court of law, not a military court of law]. Today you can be swept-off the street at anytime for any reason, the state reserves the right to do that. ‘No reason‘, that’s the biggest reason why people get arrested here, that’s the most popular one. The police too have been dehumanized, they’re as much a victim in this situation as anyone else, and they’re just victimizing others. It’s like an abused children sort of situation. So what you have with this emergency law situation is that people are much less likely to help each other when there is an incident because they don’t want to have to go to a police station. When you deny people their basic rights, they become alienated from the system, that is to say they wanna stay as far away as possible from the system, that provides nothing but pain, as they can. When that happens in society you get the feeling that society is not worth protecting, and certainly not respecting. So you have this loss of self respect, you have this loss of willingness of people to help one another. It [Emergency Law] has caused a gradual erosion of this normal impulse that people would have to help one another, to keep things more or less straight, because they no longer feel like they belong to anything. The only thing they belong to is the system, that exploits them and has nothing but contempt for them.

Sadat and Nasser were always seen as having an intimate relationship with the people, and maybe Sadat took it too far when he started to feel he was Egypt; saying things like ‘my people, my airplanes, my this, my that..’ , and shortly after he made that speech he got shot, so he went too far. But there was never this sensation with this administration, you never felt that there was any ‘love’ for the people. It’s as simple as that. It’s why this regime is selling the land to foreigners. You see this modern development in Cairo while people are living in shit. There’s no love. There’s no higher value in government that says “we’re here to serve the people.”

There’s no love lost either way, but you have this gradual deterioration within the community of all the qualities that make the community able to somehow function. This is the biggest tragedy, I think- seeing people change to this, because they have to change, they have to survive.

You need leadership, and that’s a very tough one, because leadership or individuality, has not been encouraged in this country for… perhaps ever!  Those who have a natural ability to lead, have to keep their heads down or else get into trouble, unless they want to lead in some religious movement where their energies will be exploited that way. You need enlightened leadership, you need to look at the priorities, and you need love. You need leadership that will have understood what people have gone through or are going through. Leadership that was genuinely interested in lifting their suffering, and prosecuting corruption. This would just be a start, then you’d need national projects where people could get involved, that people would feel were worthwhile to give their life to, be it the educational system, be it cleaning the place the fuck up, or environmental projects. Egypt should be leading an international effort to preserve the waters of the Nile. This could be a project young people could get behind. Then they can contribute to make sure that their children are able to drink water not so far down the line. These are the real pressing environmental concerns that don’t even enter the rhetoric yet. In a desert country, with a small amount of land, and determined amount of water, these are the most pressing limits to growth yet nobody’s paying attention to them. But that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, unless I am elected president.

 

………..

 

 

 

The book is non-fiction, Cairo: City of Sand. I was fortunate to have a London publisher who allowed me to approach in any way I wished. I decided to do it in a third person way. I knew that ‘I’ would be very present in it without making it a first person book. I wanted to put into this book everything that had amazed, troubled, thrilled, mystified me really, in the years I’d lived in Cairo. It was a chance for me to download what I felt was so remarkable about the city, not just positive things, but obviously also remarkably awful things too. This book was a chance to pay tribute to the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He arrived in Egypt as one of the lucky few, out of 15,000 people waiting, that managed to make it across the Rafah passageway in the three hours that they allowed it open…

“Some were throwing their babies over the fence to relatives or strangers positioned on the Egyptian side, in hopes of making it to them themselves. Some left everything behind and just held on to their passports, to stand a better chance of crossing”, pictured Mr. Riyadh El Tahrawi, a multi-talented officer of the Palestinian Authority.

 

Mr. Riyadh is the president of The National Arts and Culture Institute in Palestine. He is a writer/director  who’s presented many plays, most famous of which is, the Ide’ot Ahranot shunned; Al Af’aa [the snake].  He is also a poet, cinematographer, former daily columnist and currently an officer with the Palestinian authority and Fateh movement.

 

Mr. Riyadh is staying at a downtown hotel, “I’ve always seen Egypt to be my home away from home, at least here we find sympathizers, other places Arabs accuse us of selling out our homeland. Did the south Lebanese sell out their homes, when they escaped the carnage?” he begins, “I try to come here as often as I can. Sometimes it’s not easy living in Gaza, Egypt is usually our refuge”.

 

“When one is staying at his brother’s house he is very self aware, trying as a guest to be light and welcome. In my opinion, home is where you feel safe enough to take your shoes off to rest, because as a refugee you are always on the run. Imagine being a refugee, having nowhere to call home”.

 

Riyadh Al Tahrawi’s struggle with the Israeli policies started at a fairly young age; “at 16 and a half I was already embarked on a journey in Israeli detention camps, that will span over 7 years. When I was first arrested, for rioting, I was interrogated for 7 months. They sat us on miniature stools, with our hands tied behind our backs and 2 or  3 bags over our heads to keep us in a constant darkness. They tried their best in every conceivable manner to drive fear into us, break us, humiliate us, drive us crazy, but what they don’t realize is that they only made us more adamant to stand our ground and not let go of our land. They squeezed our testicles, pushed bic tubes up our urethras, even blasted Beethoven in our ears at the times we were left alone in an attempt to totally detach us from reality, so we can’t even hear ourselves think”…

 

“I didn’t notice it at first, but we each had a piece of paper stuck to our backs denoting the amount of time dedicated to certain torture methods, a schedule so to speak. Like it would say, three days of questioning, then maybe a couple of weeks in the forn, [literally translates to oven] a 1 meter by 80 centimeter holding cell with no windows, then 10 days of standing still, then God knows how long of what, then something else, and so on. They were so methodical about it”.

 

“During one prison riot, they were targeting ringleaders and the man next to me was told to step down, he refused and opened his shirt exposing his chest in protest- he fell. I ran to him trying to do anything to help, I was warned, then shot, 3times, the first right above my heart, the next two, one in each foot. All three injured were later taken to hospital, though the dum-dums are still in me, I was the only one that made it.”

 

“I have no idea how the world can allow the Israeli’s to abuse us in such a way, then portray us as the terrorists. They give us sudden phone calls telling us that we have 15 minutes to evacuate our houses, so we scramble with the family and children to a safe distance outside the house, and true enough 15 minutes later the house is in ruins, whether it be an F-16, an Apache or one of their marine pieces or even an artillery shell. But you see that’s not really the problem; after a while some genius thought up having an automated system to place several phone calls each night, so everyone would abandon their homes and then the 15 minutes would pass, then the 2^nd 15 minutes, and nothing would happen. And you end up with people that are stranded outside their homes, paces away, for days, even weeks seeing their homes yet unable to live in them. Out of approximately every 10 calls, one is not a joke- but you could never tell which one.”

 

“We live in a big prison in Gaza. To the north you have the wall, the south Rafah and the border, the east their defense army, west their marine shells. One big prison. I was with a friend at the Zamalek club, and I saw the children playing with bicycles, toys and running around playing games like hide and seek. In Gaza the children would be getting pieces of wood and fashioning them into make-believe rifles, a piece of cloth and stones and sand would become a utility belt or one full of explosives, they run around playing Arabs and Israelis- their equivalent of hide and seek. They would take these toys with them wherever they went, even to bed, in an attempt to feel safe. Give them colored pencils and automatically they start drawing a house in ruins, dead people, blood, tanks, people throwing stones and women crying. No one loves to die, but we have to die to live- even the children arrive at that conclusion”.

 

“Imagine a dissected homeland, like having an army post between  Dokki and Mohandiseen, one between Mohandiseen and Agouza, another before Zamalek and so forth. No one can pass from one area to the next. 3 million people segregated into little spaces. We can’t even take our kids to the beach, the whole world saw what happened to Huda Ghallya, the little girl who went with her family to the beach and played a little distance from where they were sat. The navy shelled the family, in a moment she lost her mother, her father, her two brothers, 4and 7, only she survived. She ran around like crazy screaming, shouting, throwing sand on her head and the cameraman who happened to be there got all that. But unlike her and Mohamed el Durra, what about all the moments when you don’t have a cameraman there?”

 

“The stories are endless, like Dalal El Maghribiya, who after pulling off her suicidal bombing was sentenced to 4 consecutive life sentences and is now stored in some forensic box till her time is up. She’s not the only one; they have the remains in the coolers with a sign on the door stating ‘name of saboteur and time of release’. They’re dead for God’s sake, how can one do that?”

 

“You can see it very clearly in the mothers who lose their children as martyrs; one minute they’re beyzaghratu [wagging their tongues], a custom in celebrations, the next they’re screaming and crying and putting sand over their heads, then yezaghratu again”…

 

“The Israelis have instilled in us a culture of death. Every house in Gaza has either a shaheed [martyr] or a prisoner or a debilitated person. How else would children face tanks with stones? Some of their army can’t even take the policies their government tries to enforce. A lot of them are admitted to psychiatric hospitals, some even sue the government; they’re the 2^nd best trained soldiers in the world in warfare and you send them to bomb defenseless women and children?”

 

“I try to lighten things up in my home, so I watch strike TV or any other channel that is not conflict related, but as soon as I leave they switch to Al Jazeera or Al Arabiya and watch the sad reality of close places that we cannot reach. They sit there crying, and this happens in every house in Gaza”.

 

 

Published in Ego Vol. 6 - Violence Issue Sep 06

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alf alf mabrouk... : ) "

 

GOLDEN TAURO: “EYE OF THE SUN” DI IBRAHIM EL BATOUT (EGITTO)

 

Last month I wrote a piece for Alter Ego magazine that featured the Egyptian movie Ain Shams by director Ibrahim El Batout. I am proud that Ain Shams has claimed the best film award in Taormina International film festival. Way to go Ibrahim! And with many more..

Following is the transcript of the SMS from Ibrahim:

“Alf mabrouk Ein Shams won The BEST Film award in Taormina film fest in Italy. Without you nothing would have been possible.”

Mabruk.

Ain Shams as seen through the eyes of an independent artist.

 

Perhaps they are independent since they wander through their souls looking to unveil the key to true freedom of speech. And artists because they teach their personal truths through weaving public displays of beauty, or that which is beautiful in their eyes?

 

In a time where formula-based entertainment has become an almost global staple, more and more learned minds are making the transition back to independent production. This is a new breed of independent artists who are not 'independent' simply because they lack the cash to back their work; they more importantly refuse the hold of money in placing limits to their imaginations.

 

All around the world, artists and filmmakers are coming to terms with the fact that with the burden of assuming the reigns of production, they take a crucial step towards ensuring they say what they want to say in the way they choose to say it. According to their respective budgets of course.

 

One can try to understand the appeal of having nothing and then making something beautiful out of it.

 

"I'd just like to say that I'm rarely proud, but I am very proud [of Ain Shams]. The only professionals on the set were the DOP and myself, all the rest were first-timers. All kids from Ain Shams, coming in with their “What do you need done? Just push these buttons and do this and that ? sure!” And without any background, or knowledge they worked by my side, and got [the gist of] it in no time, in no time really. It kind of opened my eyes to the real potential we have in this country and that is not used. In the end for a group of kids to manage a production that gets funded and blown up to 35mm and shown in festivals. To me it's like a miracle… proves to me that despite all the shit we're living in and facing everyday, we have a strong will to survive and an ability to work through it, shares El Batout. “Then add to that the equation of making the film; no permits, no [ministry of] interior, no censorship, no khara. In the end this was the problem that was created… Yet to my surprise every journalist who saw the movie backed it, irrelevant of their party background; Nasserites, Wafdis, NDPs, or even people in the ministry of culture, they all backed the film by saying 'we need to find a way so these films can be made …and shown."

 

“So I had to think of a story that fit the place…” reiterates El Batout. An invitation by one of the actors, Mohamed Abdel Fattah, to use his Cairo neighborhood of Ain Shams as the movie location, in addition to El Batout’s faith in young actress Hanan and an idea to involve her in a project, were behind the birth of the pleasant character of Shams, and the story that ensues. “…I needed something that can fit Hanan & Ain Shams and then we had our story,” says director Ibrahim El Batout.

 

The commotion over Ibrahim El Batout's movie Ain Shams was over the accusation of having been 'made in the dark'. That is to say without going through declared channels to register, monitor, issue permits, and provide supervision and protection during the filming.

That is why in festivals Ain Shams’ entry applications claim it a Moroccan production. Morocco did reward Ain Shams with a grant that in fact funded the transfer from digital format to 35mm. El Batout however, is still labeling it an 'Egyptian movie'.

 

One thing that sets El Batout apart from other directors is his experience as a war zone cameraman. El Batout has worked in 12 different war zones, and presented both sides of the same issue at times i.e., portraying the atrocities in Iraq by Americans, while in another instant considering the angle that presents them as heroes. He has walked the corridors of hospitals filled with the dead and wounded, and interviewed doctors and soldiers. His weathered stance derives from the balance of all previous experiences, and presents itself with a documentary-style filming and an unfolding of the story that misses no cue whilst maintaining its simplistic elements of telling it. The symbolism used throughout the movie so tastefully and in ample measure keeps the ostentatiousness of melodrama at bay, and delivers hard emotional blows with the pleasantness of a warm desert breeze.

 

“War zone experiences have shaped me personally in every sense; emotionally, professionally. I can either try to deny it and let it grow [fester] …, or try to channel it into something that could be of use to me or to anyone,” says El Batout.

“When I had spent some time in Iraq, I started imagining how unsurprising it would be if I wake up one morning to find American tanks blocking passage across Qasr el Nil bridge. These are just the hallucinations you get after spending one day too many in Iraq.” As to why the plight of Arab Iraq and not maybe Palestine; “To me Palestine is a comical issue… Iraq is something we have all contributed to and the results are immediately there for us to examine…” explains El Batout as he starts talking about the movie itself.

 

“In Ain Shams you have a very clichéd plot that can easily turn it into a melodrama; a little girl who gets sick and dies, her father is a poor man who works for a rich guy. It’s a very boring story. The trick is how one can work with this and make it into something else. In cinema it’s not what you tell, it’s how you tell it,” says El Batout.

 

The female characters in the movie are strong and well rounded, and are portrayed with a compassion you do not often see in Egyptian films. Whether it is a woman in Iraq losing her daughter to symptoms brought on by depleted Uranium or in Egypt to police brutality, cancer, or the ever-increasing cost of living, the loss is the same. In many of them a hint of the Mother Mary figure shines through. They love and care for their own as they watch them suffer. Asked of his sympathy towards their plight, EL Batout responds with a very personal story. “In retrospect I think this recurring theme is a reflection of what I myself have lived through. When my son was eight years old my wife passed away. She was ill, and went through many surgeries, and with every surgery I felt we were losing her a bit more. It was as if she went to her grave bit by bit… In Ain Shams I feel I have reversed the story, instead of an 8 year old watching his mother die, the child dies as the mother watches. I believe this captures the moment… the feelings of my own experience were raised in me by the story of Ain Shams and have found their way onto the screen,” undoubtedly creating a more powerful visual experience.

 

The Mary-figure, as per the movie, also applies to different models within our society, El Batout says. “It’s an honest portrayal of the status quo; the government pressures the ministry of interior, who in turn comes down hard on the people, the people then abuse the Sudanese or the weakest elements amongst themselves. Even in the framework of each family, oppression is apparent and often women are the victims. Women and children, they are the weakest links in the chain.”

 

Ain Shams’ current status: cleared by censorship, “we need a piece of paper that declares it a Moroccan movie, and my producer is working on it now, and that should facilitate being in the market by June 5^th.”

 

As for future projects and upcoming releases, keep an eye out for El Batout’s newest endeavors; a joint project of undisclosed subject matter other than it’s a joint effort involving two other reputed filmmakers, and of course the silver screen adaptation of the now best-selling Arabic book ‘¼Gram’; “I’m enthusiastic about the project not because ¼ Gram is a great piece of literature, but more so because it breaks through the mould we have been conditioned to perpetuate. For the first time comes a story about addiction written from an addicts point of view, which in itself pushed lines that no one imagined existed. Thus the craze to buy the book that followed.”

 

In Egypt a camera can get you arrested in 5 minutes flat, according to El Batout, “I just need them to leave me alone to work. I don’t care about funding. I can make a film that costs nothing. Just give filmmakers the chance to go down to the street and shoot, without ending up in prison and your camera confiscated. It’s not about funding at all, it’s about unleashing freedom of speech for filmmakers. I knew these problems would ensue before I shot the first frame.” To El Batout  Ain Shams was a conscious and ground-breaking choice.

 

“Otherwise you go through the motions; censorship where you are delighted to see your script is good for something as it functions as a serving platter for basterma sandwiches, then the ministry of interior, and back to censorship where the question of being recognized by the cinematographers’ syndicate is waiting for you. Not being a graduate of cinema school means you can’t produce your movie unless you pay LE 150,000.” Quite valid concerns for all artists that do not have the diverse resources of large production houses.

 

“My aim was to help filmmakers produce their movies without all the hassle concerning movie-making nowadays. I do not object to the current system that allows movie release in Egypt, and let’s call it system A. But just like there is a system A, there should be alternate systems governing producing of movies such as B, C, D etc. I do not mind passing through censorship if I want to show my movie in Egypt. But if I’m tackling a controversial subject I certainly do not wish to have the movie shredded by censorship first. For some movies I just won’t do it.” Concludes ‘the independent’ El Batout.

 

 

 

 

 

Independent is not a label of quality. Ains Shams is a noteworthy movie that many people would pay money to see, exiting the theaters grateful for the chance of being in contact with such a personal experience. A system should be in place that allows for works of quality an opportunity to be presented to the masses. A chance for them to palate and criticize independent efforts; leaving the final choice of whether something should or should not be within their sphere, to the most valid critics—the people. Not censorship.

 

 

I consume this sunset on the sea, the mountains and wind,

The stars promising to shine, the moon here to witness the sunset as well

I drink the waves, the ebb and flow of the moment trickling

Down the inside of me, it lights me up

It dances and sways and blossoms with life

The butterflies spread with their rays of color

The petals part for the honey to flow as the music

Is wild as virgin nature, soothing as the gentle breeze

New Year for a New Faith

 

As the moon raced to fullness, the Muslim world rejoiced the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Falling on March 20 this year, his birth happened 1438 years ago, in ‘Aam al fil [the year of the elephant].

 

Sunset March 20 also signaled the start of the Persian and Bahá'í Nayruz or Naw ruz, [new year], which is celebrated on the 21st and coincides with the vernal equinox. Announcing spring, it marks the point where night and day are balanced, before the days start growing longer.

 

Bahá'ís believe this symbolizes the day God created the world according to Qor'anic verse 7:54- 'Khalaq Alsamawwati wa Alardha fi sittati Ayyam thumma Astawa 'Ala Al 'Arsh' [He created the heavens and earth in six days then equated (himself) upon the throne].

 

It also symbolizes a new and fresh start to a blessed year, as Persians, Zoroastrians, Phrygians, Gnostics, and Egyptians have celebrated over time. Mother's day, anyone?

 

This March 21st also happened to be Good Friday, the day Jesus is said to have died on the cross. People all over the world¹ celebrated in remembrance of his journey to Golgotha with symbols of sacrifice, the cross, death, and resurrection.

 

All of this was perfectly timed with the sun signaling a new season of growth and budding opportunity. From this conglomerate of celebrations for different faiths, we bring you the story of one: the Bahá'í.

 

The story of Baha'is starts in 1844 with the appearance of Sayyed Ali Mohamed known as the ' Báb ' [or Gate] in Shiraz, Persia. The Báb is said to have spoken of the coming of someone who bears a new faith that will further on the spiritual path undertaken by Adam and his messenger sons including Abraham, Moses, Jesus & Muhammad. Though never explicitly named, Baha'is have taken the esoteric signs to point to Hadrat Bahá'u'lláh as the bringer of the new faith. On one occasion it is said that the Bab sent to Bahá'u'lláh a letter containing 360 derivatives of the root of the word 'Bahaa' [meaning "glory" or "splendor"].

 

 

******

 

About the Bahá'ís (from www.bahai.org)

 

"The Bahá'í Faith is the youngest of the world's independent religions. Its founder, Bahá'u'lláh (1817-1892), is regarded by Bahá'ís as the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad."

“The central theme of Bahá'u'lláh's message is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for its unification in one global society. God, Bahá'u'lláh said, has set in motion historical forces that are breaking down traditional barriers of race, class, creed, and nation and that will, in time, give birth to a universal civilization. The principal challenge facing the peoples of the earth is to accept the fact of their oneness and to assist the processes of unification.

“Among the measures which the Bahá'í community advocates as contributions to world unity are a federation of nations, an international auxiliary language, the coordination of the world's economy, a universal system of education, a code of human rights for all peoples, an integrated mechanism for global communication, and a universal system of currency, weights and measures."

 

New Days

 

 

 

We all react to things according to the way we've been conditioned. Sometimes we can feel strongly enough about something to be able to overcome our conditioning.

 

 

"People here react differently to Bahá'ís. In my first job, when my boss found out that I was Bahá'í, he decided to grant me all my religious holidays as paid vacations. There are people here who do not define themselves by creed, color or religion," says Shady.

This is in the private sector, where granting paid holidays is left to the discretion of the business owner. But in the public sector, with the government not acknowledging the existence of the Bahá'í faith, Bahá'ís then take these days off unpaid. "Right now I am self-employed,” adds Shady, “so I no longer have to report to someone to approve which days I can or can't take off. My employees have come to learn our calendar and the significance of each festive date.”

 

"There are nine days in the Bahá'í year that we take off, the Nayruz or Naw ruz [Farsi for 'New Day'], is the first of them as the first day of the Bahá'í calendar.”

 

Originally a Zoroastrian celebration, the Naw ruz is celebrated by all Iranians no matter what their faith. This tradition carries on to this day, commemorated on March 21 by placing seven things that symbolize 'life' (such as a fish, an egg, green sprouts) in the house. This is said to help invoke positive energies, growth, and prosperity for the coming year. A fresh new cycle, a rebirth: a New Day.

 

Bahá'ís mainly follow the solar and not lunar calendar. Shady explains that the Bahá'í year "consists of 19 months, each made up of 19 days. This gives us 361 days, which leaves four days each year or five on a leap year. We call these days Ayyam al há' [Days of the há'] ³.

 

"Ayyam al há' precede the final 19-day month of our year, the month of ‘Ola [high station]. This is our month of fasting, beginning March 2 and ending March 20. The four or five days before fasting are spent in festivities, charity work, and visiting one another.”

 

Each period in the Bahá'í year has a certain significance. The Naw ruz is both the end of a long spiritual period consisting of Ayyam al há' and fasting of Al Ola, as well as the beginning of a new cycle. The preceding period is meant to boost you spiritually and launch you through the new year.

 

"Then there are the Days of Ridwan, starting April 21 and lasting twelve days. These are in commemoration of Bahá'u’llah’s public announcement of the Bahá'í faith. This happened while Bahá'u’llah was in exile from Iran, in the Sulaymaniyyah Gardens outside Baghdad. Hadrat Bahá'ullah and his followers had set up their tents in these Gardens, and during those twelve days he pronounced that he was the one alluded to as 'the awaited one' in the prophecies of the Báb. Of these twelve we celebrate the first, the last, and the 9th day… Also during the Ridwan feast, elections for the local and central [national] spiritual assemblies are carried out every year, and every five years for the appointments of the House of Justice.

 

"We then have another four days in celebration of the birth of 'the harbinger', the Báb, and the memory of his martyrdom; the birth of the messenger, Bahá'u’llah, and the remembering of his passing.” These birthdates are the only dates that Bahá'ís celebrate according to the Hijri calendar⁴. This is to ensure that the birthdays are not separated, so they can be celebrated at the same time.

 

 

"This leaves one day in our holy calendar, which is the day of the passing of Hadrat ‘Abdul- Bahá', Bahá'u’llah's son and successor as 'Guardian of the Faith'. These are just the days we take off. There are other days that we revere and hold in high regard. In the Bahá'í faith, we believe the day ends when the sun sets, making Nayruz from sunset of March 20 till sunset March 21."

 

***** 

 

 

Words of Faith

 

 

 

 

The words of Bahá'u’llah and ‘Abdul-Bahá' are sometimes read as prayers. "Their words address a great many topics, so we have prayers for healing, prayers for certain milestones in one's life. We believe if these words are said in the correct spiritual frame, or with the correct intention, then they will have physical repercussions on the known world.”

 

Shady explains that Bahá'ís "are not trying to imply that these are his words. They are words of revelation. What God reveals to his messengers happens on a spiritual plane, which does not need the physical texture of words. Words are used to communicate what was revealed on a spiritual plane and share it on a physical one.”

 

All Bahá'u’llah's writings have been made into books such as his letters to monarchs, tablets explaining faith. His tablet 'The Seven Valleys' describes the 7 pitfalls of the self on the journey from doubt to certainty. The only person permitted to explain Hadrat Bahá'u’llah's words was his son ‘Abdul-Bahá'. The 'Guardianship of the Faith' alone, [that is the day-to-day management, as well as furthering the faith without affecting its principles], was passed from ‘Abdul-Bahá' to his grandson, Shoghi Effendi. Shoghi Effendi is not seen to have explained the text in Abdul Bahaa's passing though he is accredited with adding functionality to the principles of Bahá'u’llah, and ‘Abdul-Bahá''s theories. He was 'the' pioneer in putting their plans for the Baha'i faith into action.

 

The laws of the Bahá'í faith are all contained within the Kitab Al Aqdas [most sacred book], which is left open to individual interpretation; there are no ‘priests’ in this religion. “We are not permitted to declare anyone better than anyone else, or that someone is of higher religious statute,” says Shady, “because we believe that we all have the inherent quality to find God independently.”

 

*****

 

Egyptian Baha'i

 

 

 

Shady on himself: "Both identities complement each other. I am fully Egyptian, and enjoy my Egyptian culture, as well as fully Bahá'í. Being Bahá'í should not conflict with any other identity. We are Egyptians, we don't have to dress in a special way, or have special names to be Bahá'ís. All over the world, Bahá'ís celebrate this diversity. It demonstrates how the whole world can coexist and achieve unity. Among the International Bahá'í community I am Egyptian, and amongst Egyptians I am a Bahá'í, like any Christian or Muslim.

 

"Being an Egyptian Bahá'í is difficult on two levels. The government: because we can't get our civil rights. The people: because I have to defend myself and my faith everyday. I feel that people need to try to understand and learn more about the Bahá'í faith. I want Egyptians to try to get to know the reality of the faith.

 

"We are waiting for the final court ruling regarding our ID cards. Many say that officials no longer want to escalate the ID /registration crisis. So all we have to do is wait to see the result… We hope that it is only a matter of time.

 

"Egypt is in the center of the world. Historically Egypt always had a major part to play. And now you'll find Egypt is the heart of Sunni Islam, and Iran is the heart of Shi'a Islam. These are the two hearts of Islam. They are looked upon as examples. What happens in Egypt is recognized by many places in the Arab world. So if we are accepted in Egypt we will also be accepted in the Arab world.

 

"Egypt is going through major changes; whether political, social, economic. I feel I understand why all these things are happening. This is part of the change that will happen to the whole world. And Egypt is part of this world. This ongoing change is what Bahá'ís believe to be the evolution of global citizenship, and is simultaneous with a shift in world enlightenment and tolerance.”

                                                                                                                                             

"With all the events happening I feel I am part of [the making of] history. These stories will be told in the future.” And the final court ruling on their legal existence will determine how this chapter ends.

 

 

 

 

1 Eastern Easter is coming up in April.

 

2 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá enjoyed influential status amongst Egypt's elite due to his close friendship with the revered Sheikh Mustafa Abdo.

 

3 The Haa 'H' is the 5^th letter of the alphabet and the number 5 is the maximum number of days for Ayyam Al Haa when it corresponds to a leap year. And based on the numerological significance of Arabic letters, the Baa and the Haa [first 2 letters in Bahaa], hold special mathematical and spiritual value.

 4 This is done as to not separate the births of the Báb and Bahá'u’llah as they fall on 1^st and 2^nd of the Hijri month of Muharram, respectively. Bahaa'u Allah himself has said of this, 'as we were twin signs in life, we shall remain so in memory'

Article on Gaza Seige published in Sep 2006...

Now I rise from my stupor.

A cloud of haze still lingers before my sight..

But I know it- I am awake

The art of remaining in a coma

Is

Precisely that.

It is not without effort that one cages themselves within a coma. Allowing the senses to speak the day,

Louder, louder, and louder still,

Their truths falling unto deaf ears,  

A void of pseudo-non-recognition.

 

All in favor of the perpetuation of this vegetative state raise your hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now drop dead.

 

Now is the time to come clean.

Dust off the remaining ashes of times that consumed us.

We are on the rise.

Fly.

 

Fuck You.

You ain't shit.

The cold rushes that came without you

Are my friends now

What else could you possibly have to say

To me

Except lies

Fanciful or full of fact

I ain't interested

For im no Caesar

And youre no Brutus.

Me no Popeye

You no Olive Oil

 

 

 

Endymion, I will not be

For you hold not Lucifera's light

And he called unto the Lord..

 

How can it please you to see those that tend to your light fallen to dungeons of despair ?

 

Silence.

 

I am only interested in those who can climb out.

my first real break since feb.. sinai.. now that im returning for the first time since Oct 14th 2005.. may be as well that i lay the past to rest.. good or bad is not a question really.. in the end.. its all good..

; )

 

i

2.00 am

25.04.07

hadn't seen maru for some time.. marwan is like a brother from a diff. mother sort of situation..always a pleasure.. came and checked out my new place and offered help and furniture..lol.. like i said bro.. had a coffee at adels and we were headed to nasr city.. but decided to attack any fastfood joint in downtown first.. when i chance upon my good friend ibrahim in Tahrir square's roundabout filming.. with a woman next to him flailing an explanation to an 2ameen shorta, while poiting at a permit to film he was examining in his hand. we turned back, parked and took some photos detailing how many 2ameen shortas it takes to decipher a permit.. apparently the number stands at 3.. ibrahim batout will be releasing his new feature film [his second] soon.. be on the lookout.. if ithaki [his first] and his numerous awards as a jounalistic camera man in warzones are any testimony... should be a good one..

i