Monday, October 23, 2006

Kim Jong Il: Whoopsy daisy

This is so funny:

Report: N. Korea 'sorry' for nuke test

Kim also told the Chinese that "he is sorry about the nuclear test," the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo daily reported, citing a diplomatic source in China. The North Korean leader also raised the possibility the country would return to arms talks.


Why don't I ever get invited to his parties?

هكذا قال هو


.أنا بجد مش عارف أضحك وللا أعمل ايه بظّبت. ناس بتفتى بجد

".فتوى الكلاب فى شروط دخول الرحاب"

:و على صعيداً آخر...هكذا قال هو راخر




On a more serious note, this Mufti really has to go. Either he has fooled many people into thinking he is open minded, or he is open minded about some issues while clearly schizophrenic about others. First he bans statues and now this. This side of him is a wahabi not only in our midst, but at the helm of Egypt's Islamic establishment. The man has to go.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

The critical blog

I'm a little burnt out, and also a little tired of blogging as well. So I thought we can use this time to be productive in something else...

I feel I don't get enough criticism as I should be in this blog. This request will naturally sound odd...but I suspect (and just confirmed one such case while surfing the net) that there must be people out there who disagree or disaprove of what I say, but who rather than express their disagreements with my posts, just silently sulk about it instead. I changed my mind about this idea and deemed it unworthy before, but coming across this random attack gave me a reason to make this space in my blog. Well here is their chance, and my special request actually, for them to let it all out, as I am genuinely interested in hearing what people feel about what I write.


Nevermind. Happy eid:-)

Thursday, October 19, 2006

أفواه و أرانب


I recently saw this great movie called Afwah wa Araneb, starring Faten Hamama who was simply brilliant. Although this was a later film made in 1977, never before had I seen her appear as beautiful as in this one.


The story was nice, and all the actors played their parts very well. Mahmoud Yassin was for once not playing an overly complexed character that casts a depressing shadow in the filmoric atmosphere. And Farid Shawki played this small role as her brother in-law, who, although a drunk who had fraudulently married her off in her absence to a complete stranger without even bothering to notify her, to pay off a debt, was a loveable drunk nonetheless.

And the film was a drama mind you, but one which didn't lose touch with the basic humanity of its characters, even its villains. The village thug, who, hearing of Faten Hamama's arrival after her long absence from the village came at once to collect his prize, in his ignorant brutishness makes the viewers laugh at him as well. Hats off to the director of this masterpiece of Egyptian cinema Henry Barakat, and to the writer and screenwriter Samir Abdel-Azim.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Friday, October 13, 2006

Honesty's a hurtful thing

Or at least it is where I am coming from.

In my last post I tried to construct an argument explaining a misunderstood part of our history, based on which Sadat's whole presidency is sometimes unfairly condemned. And here I am, having a monastic desert father; a man who was practically a living saint, support my argument and say, "They are from God."

...And yet I am still unhappy, or uneasy is the word.

"God is a comic playing to an audience that's afraid to laugh." - Voltaire
[h/t Shahrazad]

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Sadat and his Legacy, 25 Years on...

This is a very important interview given by Jimmy Carter to Newsweek on occasion of the 25th anniversary of Sadat's death. It's a must read.

It's a shame that a former American president should know more about the Egyptian people and their peace treaty than our uber-intellectuals.


* * *

What I am about to say will be met with shocked gasps of horror from certain readers...but I will go ahead and say it anyway:)

You know what...when I think of it now, it gives me chuckles what Sadat did to the uber-intellectuals in September 1981.

Here is a little background to our story...

Basically at the time, the country was in a state of dangerous civil strife; some angry crazy Muslims were up in arms against some angry crazy Christians (I proudly boast of our unity in this mutual way), more than a dozen countries and organizations around the world were out to kill Sadat, all the while the opposition from all directions and uber-intellectuals were ganging up and doing their best in abusing the freedoms they had been given to make a mockery of the president and accuse him of treason. All this while in the background Sadat was pre-occupied with the greater project he had dedicated his presidency to; the Middle East peace process he had launched and the tangible fruition of his work with the completion of Israel's final phase of withdrawal from the rest of Sinai at the very imminent date of April 1982.

You have to understand where Anwar el Sadat was coming from. He inherited a country that was ruled by his military colleague and predecessor with a tyrannical iron fist; a police state of terror where families were too afraid to talk of politics in their own homes. He inaugurated his presidency, as soon as he consolidated his power, by overthrowing this vicious police state and giving Egyptians the freedoms they had been denied throughout Nasser's reign. Yet here we were, ten years later and the country was in this state of chaos at this critical juncture of Egypt's political and territorial history.

After all the achievements he had done in his presidency, and in the middle of its most critical part which he was undergoing now, how do you think this all made him feel?

So in his self-described capacity as the father of the Egyptian village, Sadat said enough is enough; you will rise above your petty differences and Egypt will focus on its existential cause that we are undergoing right now. He was worried that this internal strife would spill over to something more serious that would cause Israel to halt its scheduled handover of the rest of Sinai.

So he had 1500 people from all over the political spectrum arrested; Islamists, Christian fundamentalists, vocal critics of his peace policy (i.e. uber-intellectuals), and even the Pope, whom Sadat regarded as a fanatic for his meddling in politics (and whom Heikal wrote of under the chapter of "Militant Monks", in his book Autumn of Fury), was exiled to his monastery in Wadi el Natroun. Unlike was the going habit of his predecessor however, Sadat ordered for them all to be treated well and planned to release them as Israel completed its withdrawal in April 1982, the year he was looking forward to retire.

In my opinion he planned to tell them, here you go; this is what I did for you. And now I retire in peace. Which is exactly what happened at that same exact date, but with him already gone from the scene. In my opinion he would have released them much sooner than this had he lived, because his objective was exactly to make a statement.

This last act of September may be seen as a little eccentric and grandiose of Sadat, but this statement of his wasn't without its meaning, or lacking humor in its truthfulness which continues to laugh at his opponents everyday. And this may be why the uber-intellectuals continue to hate him more and more with each passing day.

All I can say, looking back in hindsight, is Sadat was right.


sa
In the midst of his army in a parade after the war.

Nota Bene:

Before you make a jump for my throat, make sure you first read the above interview to understand the scope of what Sadat had worked for and achieved in the years leading up to and following Camp David, as opposed to the endless lies and smear campaigns he had been and continues to be subjected to that you may or may not already be familiar with.

Also read what Abouna Matta el Meskeen had to say about the banishment of the Pope:

"I can't say I'm happy, but I am at peace now. Every morning I was expecting news of more bloody collisions. Sadat's actions protect the church and the Copts. They are from God."

Ok, now you go right ahead.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

It's the 6th of October



In memory of all those who fought and lost their lives to liberate the occupied Egyptian lands

And in memory of Sadat who brilliantly led the war against all odds...and sacrificed his life for the peace.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

A massacre so trivially mentioned


"The veterinary centre of Alexandria executes 1771 stray dogs and 450 stray cats. The execution operation was carried out through meals of poisoned kofta and fish."

Somebody please hold the governorate of Alexandria accountable. But if you decide to embark on this dangerous path...be prepared to fend off charges of Zionist meddling in our internal canine and feline affairs, and of being agents of the animal insurgency against our Alexandrian babies, women and old men.

The terrorists are nigh:




(* Everyone knows that the lion of Judah will side with her feline relatives even though a minority of them compared with the dogs was killed.)

(**And notice how the Jewish cat is happily amassing an army of bird flu carriers across the Egyptian border? Enough said.)