By: Ahmed ELNAHAS – Montopoli September 29th 2013.
………,,,,,,,yyyyyyyydrghòlrguhgytjm,,mnhyytttrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I know it
doesn’t mean a thing, but it’s the only way by which my cat expresses its
solidarity and support for my writings: by stepping on the key board, imitating
my single digit picking, while I clean my eyeglasses before writing.. Usually I
erase its input, yet today I decided not to.. Maybe it has something to do with
the subject, I don’t know.. This cat has the natural gift of making me smile
and sometimes laugh especially when I’m going through difficult times and tense
moments.. Just like today.
I woke up
this morning submerged deep an awkward state of mind very close to a bad mood,
though I had a good night sleep.. After my usual light breakfast, consisted mainly
by a couple of Kamut bread toasts to accompany a measure of Illy coffee brew
dumped in a glass of warm Soya milk followed by a peach fruit; I was able to
identify the reason of my gloomy start.. It is in somehow related to that
rascal Bruno Vespa and his late night programme
on the main Italian state TV channel RAI UNO.
As he is
a confirmed devoted servile fan to Silvio Berlusconi, and in his desperate
maneuver to set pressure on the Senate before the expected vote on Berlusconi’s
decadence as a Senator, he used all what’s in his might to argue the Supreme
Court’s final and irrevocable verdict sentencing Berlusconi to 7 years in
prison and to ban him from any public office or function for 5 years following
the confirmation of his guilt in Financial Fraud and Tax Evasion.
I spent
some time after the programme discussing with my wife on
how fragile the Italian Democratic System has become throughout the past 20
years, and relaying this fact to the rise of Berlusconi and the methods by
which he stormed into Italy’s political arena since 1992, with the only
objective to enhance his own interests and to protect himself and his financial
empire and business web from the reach of the law; as he knew quit well that
all his success, if we could name it as such, is founded upon an interminable
chain of illegalities.
The last
thought exchanged between both of us before going into sleep was that she felt
as if that was her September 11th!
Probably
I slept with that thought comfortably lying in my sub-conscience to slowly work
its way to demolish my serenity and peace of mind by which I woke a bit
grumpy..
It wasn’t
before noon, when I was sipping my second cup of coffee, that I identified the true
reason disturbing my mood.. I had several September 11.. Yes indeed.. Not just
one but many 911s each of which one by one had their share in shaking my
existence and marking my culture so deep as to shape my character into what it
has become now..
July 23rd
1952: the Military Coup falsely acclaimed
as the people’s revolution.. Because actions are measured not by their
intentions but by their end results.. The military action announced its
intention to overturn a ‘Corrupt’ multi parties political system and establish
democracy and social justice; so
·
it suspended a century long democratic experience
since Nubar Pasha founded the first Egyptian Parliament; a parliament that
passed laws ruling our daily lives till this very moment;
·
it manipulated a solid Juridical and Legislative
experience matured over more than twenty centuries by what became known as “The Massacre of the Jurisdiction”;
·
it intimidated the intellectuals once by the
accusations of Communism, once by that of Islamism, or just by being
anti-revolutionaries; bringing thousands of teachers, professors, politicians,
clergies, journalists, and artists under arrest without trials, all in the name
of the “Collective Good”;
·
it systematically destroyed thousands of years of
agricultural experience through wrong and corrupt policies for irrigation and
cultivation by the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides
of doubtful origins without knowing their impact on the entire food chain and upon
human health;
·
it actually denied “Meritocracy”
as a criterion to hold public functions
favouring “Parentocracy”
or “Trustocracy” (please forgive and allow me the terms);
and that became in time the main qualifying edge for any job even for a street
cleaner post.. Holding a recommendation became better and stronger than a PHD..
Isn’t that what the 1952 young Free Officers raised hell to obliterate as they
have repeatedly educated us by shoving their famous “Six Objectives” down our
throats?
·
it ventured in foreign campaigns in support of African
revolutions and Regional wars financing rebellions here and there to substitute
the established colonial democracies by corruptible local dictatorships;
·
it claimed that the ignorance, untrustworthy counseling
and superficiality characterising the
ruling of Khedives Tewfik and Said brought foreign
debts and invited colonialism! Well after 60 years we still can’t free
ourselves from the grasp of foreign debts and economic colonialism due the
miscalculations and ignorance added to the corruption all of which have
arrogantly mismanaged the country in a sequel episodes of blunt authoritarian
rule.
The misdeeds
list is long, but the end result after 59 years was a poorer population, a
shrunken middle class, a Corrupt political system, an unbearable National Debt,
a profound decay in the systems of education, health care, and social justice;
along with an unprecedented absence of values.. No.. Not even that.. Because
all through Egypt’s ancient and modern history, common sense and moral values
have always prevailed.. Until that day in July back in 1952.
August
23rd 1965: the death of ELNAHAS
Pasha (notorious statesman, Prime Minister, co-founder and later on absolute leader
of Al Wafd Party from 1929 till 1952) after 11 years
in house arrest, serving a life sentence issued by the special revolutionary court
days after Nasser set aside Naguib and took over. Despite that his funeral was testified
his overwhelming popularity as millions participated in thundering silence.
June the
5th 1967 : waking up from the deep coma
inflicted in all of us by the systematic media bombardment of propaganda lies,
that turned us into a multitude of hypnotised sheering
fans, was the cultural shock quaking the roots of my social and political
beliefs.. A shock that contained all the “Mourning
Phases” in one: ANGER.
July 1968:
The year that marked the birth of the
Hippy movement in the United States protesting against the war in Vietnam; the
protests in France, and soon after spreading all of Europe like a bush fire,
against social injustice and claiming women rights; ours were the protests
against the big lie, and like many of my peers, we protested in universities
all over the country and in thousands we got arrested and deported for a few
months to ‘unknown destinations’ to be subject to various psychological and
physical torture techniques.. I believe that this part of my life marked the
disbelief in our identity and the complete mistrust in the entire system.. So
my silent rebellious acceptance adopted the worst form of indifference
manifested, through various other mundane activities, by drinking, smoking,
forming pop and jazz bands to entertain many other indifferent partners of the
silent majority. It was a very bad and sad moment that made me question and revise all my priorities.. From that experience
on I decided to regain my curiosity and my critical sense to know more and know
better.
November
17th 1997: Or the day of the Luxor’s
west bank massacre.. It was 8 o’clock in the morning, I have just finished my
morning tour of the Hotel I managed then, and while reviewing in my office some
figures and forecasts the news came.. Without a second thought I took the hotel
bus and went to the west bank to get my hotel’s guests scattered there even before
their agents do, and once got them all secured inside the Hotel and the head
count turned alright, as well as that of our colleagues and collaborators; I
started reflecting on the very meaning of what’s been just consumed.. A
senseless cruel and savage criminal act of terrorism just took the lives of 80
innocent persons, identifying an enormous security breach to unveil the
fragility and incompetence of our country’s several intelligence agencies and their
poor security measures and techniques.
It was
not only another blow to my beliefs in that corrupt system, concentrated only
on ensuring the safe continuity of the Ruler not the safety and security of the
Ruled; but as well it was another candle light glowing inside the tunnel to
show me how short sighted the tourism policies were.. And still are by the way,
but that can dealt with in another full chapter not only a paragraph in an
article.
July 25th
2005: bombs in South Sinai (idem as the previous date).
January
25th 2011: the people’s spontaneous revolution
methodically lost to the Muslim Brotherhood.. Ever since the 1968 ‘unrests’,
social boiling never stopped to burst out its steam in many ways.. The last was
this one.. As all the precedents. Also this one was brainless.. It just burst
in the absence of the ‘poets’.. That’s why the Brotherhood took the bell and
held the lead of the flock, and by the time the people realised
the gravity of the damage inflicted and the dangers awaiting to overwhelm their
lives, even then the intellectuals were absent and unprepared too.. They were
busy debating a series of trivialities chained one after the other on purpose
by those concerned with the ‘Throne’ and the ‘Safe’.
June 30th
2013: Only 23 days were left to commemorate
the 61st year of the 1952 Coup, when another Military Coup, and
because we don’t like to call things by their names, it was also falsely
acclaimed and cheerfully applauded as the “Corrective
Revolution”.. And it brought us back to square 1. Meaning that we may have
lost sixty years of our lives in vain! Only we became poorer, more ignorant,
unemployed, heavily indebted, and much undisciplined.
The only promising
event was that of January 25th 2011 which could’ve produced a
glimmer of hope.. A feeling that couldn’t last long and soon vanished.. That’s
why I decided to consider all of these 911s as some “Dreams To Remember” every now and then so as never to forget,
because I believe that all memories can bring a smile.. Bitter or sweet, a
smile is a smile.. Better than a tear! No?
Pass On The Word.
PS: My apologies Otis for borrowing your song title
for my article.. Thank you and rest in peace.
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