Daughter of the Nile

"Daughter of the Nile" by Hassan Heshmat.

I find it ironic that it's the museum of the late sculptor of this powerful statue that fell victim to the crazy rampage of the munaqaba lady who was apparently carrying out the verdict of the strange fatwa that ruled statues idolotrous.

So so sad

Notice how George W. Bush, the Evangelical born-again Christian, feels defeated that he wasn't able to pass on the great Jewish conspiracy against the Christian faith to the mostly Muslim people of Egypt.

The meanings of this drawing are so deep that it should be placed in a museum and stared at for hours to fully grasp its depths.

Hooray, we have foiled "The Plot"!

[Translation courtesy of the Egyptian Onion, I mean...Gazette]

Three Antagonists and What if's

Inspired by Hammouda's interview with Father Matta el Miskeen:

On Heikal

كانت المرة الأولى التى اقابل فيها هيكل..وقد رفعت منه الحرج من التدخين حتى يمتد حوارنا بلا قيود..قلت له إنك قصرت فى توجيه النصح للسادات ولو فعلت لتلافينا الصدام والعصبية..لقد كان السادات يشعر ((بأنك عامل رأسك برأسه))..وقلت لهيكل: ((كفانا استغراق فى الماضى..علينا النظر فى المستقبل..المستقبل عقد من النور يجب أن نراه وهو فى حالة إضاءة)).

Anba Shenouda

إن كليهما – حسب تفسير هيكل فى ((خريف الغضب)) – يمثل ((مدرسة فى الفكر وفى العمل..وفى حين ان الأنبا شنودة..كان يرى ان الكنيسة مؤسسة شاملة مكلفة بأن تقدم حلولآ لكل المشاكل وأجوبة عن كل الأسئلة المتصلة بالدين والدنيا..فإن متى المسكين كان له رأى آخر..هو ان الدين علاقة بين الله وضمير كل فرد..وانه لا ينبغى أن تكون له علاقة بالسياسة)).

On Egos in general...

فيما بعد اعترف السادات لى بأنه استبعد اسمى (من قائمة المرشحين لمنصب البابا) لأنهم قالوا له إننى شيوعى..كانت وشايات من آخرين داخل الكنيسة.

أحسست وأنا أسمع منه ذلك أن لامكان فى جسد هذا الوطن يخلو من أمراض الوشاية..وأورام الحقد.. وأن رجال الدين – الذين نرفعهم الى مستوى أعلى من مستوى البشر – يعانون من نفس الأمراض والأعراض.

Miskeen has now passed and our egos remain...

5th of June: No politics for you, old man

I just watched an interview on Al 3ashera Masa2an with 72 year old Egyptian war veteran Fouad Hegazi as he recounted the story of his capture by Israel as a prisoner of war in 1967, on this annual occasion of the 5th of June.

He described the most horrific conditions that they were living through for the eight months of their capture, but every time he came to speak of the fault of Nasser in all of this, the interviewer Mona el Shazli cut him off and steered the sweet old man's nostalgia back to his days of misery. (Sample of her more important queries: did you have nightmares in that period in the camp? And what kind were they??!)

Am I the only one who finds this woman extremely unprofessional and annoying?

Despite her suspicious attempts to cover up for Nasser, two telling points managed to come out of this wronged soldier's words:

- He expressed in disappointment how it was in their captivity in 1967 the first time for him and all his fellow soldiers to find out that Egypt was defeated in 1956! Of course the Stalinist dictator had been telling the country otherwise all these years.

- Hegazi said that in the beginning of their capture there were Palestinian, Jordanian and other Arab prisoners with them in Camp. However all these other Arab prisoners were released after only one or two weeks, and it was only the Egyptians who were held there in these miserable conditions for eight whole months. Why? Because Nasser refused to sign a prisoner exchange agreement which would swap about 8,000 Egyptian prisoners of war, for 6 Israeli spies that are held in Egypt, as he argued that military prisoners shouldn't be exchanged for civilians or something like that. 'What stupid laws are you talking about when you have hundreds of your generals and soldiers lying in these conditions?', the man rhetorically and bitterly asked.

Of course she cut him off on both these topics when he came to criticize Nasser, instead the camera periodically cut to shots of her incessant humanitarian crying throughout the interview.

Then close to the end as she mentioned there were only 5 more minutes left for the interview, the man asked her with a kind sorrowful smile: "can we talk politics now?"

To this she looked down at her papers almost in self shame as she said something to the effect of: 'no politics, today is for discussing the human side of the story.'

Then as the clock finally struck she expressed the pinnacle of her human side by wishing the teary man a "happy anniversary on this occasion."

She actually said that.

فتحى زغلول

فاكرين تمثيلية قاسم امين؟

اولا أحب أوضح ان انا ماشفتهاش , عشان ماحدش يقول انى بافترى على الناس. لكن الانطباع اللى انا خدته من بعض المشاهد ومن المتفرجين وانا ماشى رايح جى هو انه مصورين السيد فتحى زغلول أخو سعد زغلول فى صورة راجل هزؤ ومصلحجى وعميل للمصالح البريطانية و الخ الخ الخ.

وبعدها بفترة وانا بقرا كتاب (قصة حياتى) للاستاذ أحمد لطفى السيد لقيته كاتب فصل بحاله من كتابه بإسم (عرفت تولستوى و فتحى زغلول). يعنى استاذ الجيل , كما كانوا يسمونه , حاطت فتحى زغلول فى كفة واحدة مع تولستوى.

و ده اللى انا باقصده بالتزوير الناصرى المنظم لتاريخ مصر. وعشان كده انا ما حبتش اتفرج على التمثيلية اللى بتذيعها الحكومة على الناس على ما يبدو من غير اى نوع من الوعى.

كبرَوا الصور واقروا بنفسكم اللى كتبه لطفى السيد عن فتحى زغلول , و عرَفونى لو انا غلطان ولا لأ.

امسك دافنشى

The sad part is that if The Davinci Code weren't banned from screening, riots would have indeed broken out of the churches of Egypt. So in a sad kind of way, I am proud that we Egyptians, our Christians and our Muslims, are still a nation of one.

الشىء المؤسف بجد هو إن لو كان شفرة دافنشى اتعرض , كانت قامت المظاهرات فعلا فى كنايس مصر. عشان كده, فى طريقتا ما انا فخور اننا ,مسلمينا و مسيحيينا, مازلنا شعبا واحد.

فى 1919 توحد الهلال مع الصليب والشعب يهتف لاستقلال مصر. وفى القرن الواحد والعشرين يتظاهر مسلمينا ضد رسومات كارتون و مسيحيينا ضد( بحب السيما)

الجهل والتطرف يحتوينا جميعا

Ignorance encompasses us all.