Saturday, March 31, 2007

Rural power


I opened the Arabist and found a link to this great blog...But I am baffled by the writer R’s attraction to it: "Reminds me of Muhammed Mustajab’s characters for those who know his stuff: violent, pompous, dishonest, idle rural types... it’s super."

If this is your definition of the rural type, then on whose behalf exactly are you campaigning in the struggle for the Egyptian people's rights? I am sorry for my occasional criticisms at The Arabist (and can imagine how they can be an irritation and a nuisance from a commenter such as myself), and your journalistic sacrifices that aren't frequently made by others (foremost by myself) in this area are appreciated; but I can't help but notice the general pattern by which Egyptians are viewed there: according to them (and according to many, if not most, of the Egyptian demonstration-frequenting types to be fair) we are servile, apathetic, have bad (not to mention bastardized) food and now this. Again, what is the point in your work then? Even the Egyptian Sandmonkey (briefly, I hope) lost all hope in his Endgame post; and the reception to its negativity from the aforementioned crowd, if you had noticed, was enthusiastic!

I believe the writer of el Hag's blog is laughing affectionately with the rural type and not at them; there's a big difference between the two. At least that is my impression.

I hope el Hag abu-Gamal keeps up his great literary work, but the servile and cowardly Egyptian in me cautions him to focus on the good humour, and not divert it in the future to reckless bravado of the proud and free industrial folk.

2 comments:

الأستاذ جمال بيه said...

once again. Some one who is angry with circumstances in Egypt comes and relate my blog to Egyptian affairs. how many times should I repeat it to make you guys understand this simple fact. We are a virtual independant ezba with no link to any other ezba in the universe.

Hamallawy might mean the satire in Mustajab's masterpieces is felt in some of our posts with the variety of emotions, actions and jargons. don't get him wrongly man.

Seneferu said...

يا ألف نهار أبيض؛ هاتى الشربات يا بت!

The blog post in the Arabist was funny and well written, but this sentence threw me off as I explained here...but more importantly it introduced me to your excellency's independent ezba, and my reaction caused fakhamtak to visit my humble abode; what more can a citizen of a friendly nation ask for?:-) How can I apply for a visa?(For the record I didn't know it was Hossam who wrote the piece.)