Student of Life & Love

Tai Chi Life Lessons

2014-03-14T14:39:00.000+02:00

Q: Three birds on a tree. One decides to fly. How many birds are left?

A: Three.

Q: How come?

A: Because decisions are not enough for something to happen. The bird has to take “action” after taking a decision.

A few weeks ago I decided to learn Tai Chi and I took action. I attended a few lessons and I’ll continue doing it enshallah (God Willing) not only because of its health benefits, but also, because doing it, for a relatively very short time, taught me great lessons in life.

Here are the lessons…

Breathe

In Tai Chi we learn to take deep breaths. We deeply inhale letting air fill our lungs and slowly exhale releasing the stress.

Sometimes, during training, I would get excessively focused on getting the moves right and I forget to breathe correctly. This usually leads to, me losing my breath and becoming exhausted.

There are many times in my life when I focus on something and I forget to breathe. I want everything to be perfect. So, I overwork and overload myself. Then eventually I break down.

We all need to breathe… balance our lives… Inhale then exhale or we will start Choking.

Relax. Take it easy, and move slowly

Slow moves are the core of Tai Chi. It takes really strong and steady muscles in addition to great physical balance to be able to move slowly. This doesn’t come easily it takes some time, and lots of practice and exercise.

To be honest I'm still struggling to slow down my moves, and my mentor tells me “Relax. Take it easy and move slowly”, but hopefully with continuous practice and muscle stretching exercises I’ll be able to do it.

Most of my life I've been “The Crisis Management Guy”. At work and in my family life when there is something urgent and important that needed to be done, they’d come to me. I think and act fast and, in most cases, things work out ok, but other times it becomes a disaster.

Being always in a rush and doing things while not well prepared causes a lot of stress.

I believe if we took enough time to prepare and moved things slowly and steadily our lives would be a whole lot better. This doesn't come easily, and needs practice.

Always face forward

In Tai Chi, like any other sport, we need to face forward. We need to see where we are going, not look below or behind. If we don’t look where we are going, we lose balance and accidents happen.

Sometimes, I looked at my legs to see if I'm doing the moves right. Other times I was thinking of the past moves I did, and ask myself “Did I do it right?”.

My mentor taught me to visualize my moves, in my mind, and always face forward.

In life we do the same mistake. We look below and loose balance. We think about the past too much and let it ruin our future.

Focus… Don’t think… Free your mind

How many times to we keep thinking and can’t stop our mind from running a whole movie of events?! How many times have we lost our sleep, because of all that?

I guess most of us have been through this many times.

In Tai Chi coordinating your hand, legs, breathe, and posture, needs your whole brain focused. We need to let go of any movie running in our minds. We need to focus on the slow Zen-like music, or think about nature.

Let our body flow slowly like an air breeze carrying a young green leaf, moving it high to the sky, swirling it slowly and landing it peacefully to the ground.

Free our minds from worries, and distractions. Don’t worry about making mistakes. Don’t think about our life challenges. Just let our bodies move naturally and let go of tension and stress.

Practice Makes Perfect

This takes a lot of practice. After a while your body develops its own memory and does everything by itself. These moves are stored in your nerves and muscle memories. It becomes natural, like when you learned to drive your bicycle or your car, you do it without thinking.

In life everything needs practice and patience. We need to work hard, repeat, hold –on, don’t give up, and eventually things work out… Then you become a master a teacher.

At the end remember:

“When you are a teacher, never stop learning. Be a student. "

By Alaa El-deen E. Fahmy

Yes.. I knew

2014-03-09T00:09:00.005+02:00

Yes.. I knew

Yes, I knew you were there just in front of me.

Yes, I knew you were looking at me.

Yes, I remember how we used to be.

Yes, I forgive you for what you did unintentionally.

A Photo I took
of the Egyptian Band Cairokee playing at City Stars Mall

Yes, I am now free.

Yes, you were right to remind me..

that holding on to the past isn't for me

I never let the past hold me

Thanks for reminding me

Yes, I walked away intentionally

Yes, I am free

27 Feb 2014

By Alaa Fahmy

I was inspired the words of this poem on 27 February after Cairokee's Concert at City Stars Mall.

Great Band , you should check them out if you don't already know them.

Thanks for letting go

2014-02-22T16:12:00.002+02:00

“Excessive caution destroys the soul and the heart, because living is an act of courage, and an act of courage is always an act of love” - Manuscript found in Accra

An unhealthy Relationship

Letting go of an unhealthy relationship is an act of courage and an act of love. It is love of life, and faith in Allah (Most gracious most merciful).

Not all of us have the courage to let go of an unhealthy relationship. We like to believe in our ability to fix things and make things work perfectly. We are afraid to admit to ourselves that despite everything we did it still isn’t getting any better. We bear the unbearable in hope that we can make it work. We like to believe that everything will be alright, that we made the right choices.

The Explosion

We push ourselves and bear beyond our limits. We believe in our ability to heal this relationship and make it healthy. We make sacrifices, and then we suddenly explode destroying our relationship.

Then we wake up to realize that this relationship wasn’t meant to be. We just didn’t have enough courage to admit to ourselves. We were too much cautious and we destroyed our hearts and souls in this process.

Trust is better

“Trust is better than love. You may not trust who you love, but you’ll always love who you trust” Ahmed Shukairy

Mutual trust is the most important base in a solid relationship. If there is no mutual trust to build on a relationship it will easily fail. Love is not enough.

Trust means that I believe in you. I believe that you are telling me the truth, that you are 100% honest with me. It also, means that there are no walls between us. It means that you understand why I am acting this way and know the intentions behind them. Intentions are clear, communicated clearly, without fear or hidden agendas.

Fear is a Hidden Agenda

Fear is a force that attracts sad and bad events. What you fear something and think about it, it will eventually be your reality. We need to break our fear patterns and live with hope rather than fear. We cannot build a relationship with excessive caution out of fear of breaking up!

Thanks

Sometimes, although we didn’t have enough courage to end an unhealthy relationship, Allah sends a guardian angel to set you free.

Thanks to Allah (Most gracious and most merciful), and to all my courageous guardian angels who light my life and set me free.

The End

Every end is a new begging. I wish you all great beginnings, and happy endings. Most importantly, I wish you all peace and love.

Superheroes & Tai Chi

2014-02-14T18:06:00.001+02:00

I was asked to prepare a 6 minutes presentation about any topic as part of a diploma I am doing. I decided to ask my friends on Facebook about topics that might be interesting. Most of them was interested in motivation and managing stress.

It’s really hard these days to stay in a positive mood, and remain motivated with all the challenges we are facing today in Egypt. Prices are getting higher but no raise in salaries to cover that increase. A lot of people lost their Jobs, lost their loved ones and many lost their lives since the revolution of 25^th of Jan. Life in Egypt these days have become very stressful.

The Superhero

In difficult times a person who can control himself to stay positive and motivate others is a “Superhero”. That’s the topic I decided to make my presentation about.

Superheroes rise in difficult times inspire and give hope. I was going to talk about Superhero characters like: Superman, Spiderman, Batman, The Hulk, Iron Man …etc.

I was going to talk about what makes them heroes…

1-How they were all given an opportunity and they made use of that opportunity to become superheroes. For example:

Superman was born on the planet Krypton a planet with a tougher environment than Earth. So, he is a normal being there at Krypton but he has superpowers here on Earth. He worked hard and practised a lot to learn how to focus and control his powers.

Batman was born to a rich and famous family. This allowed him access to new technologies and gadgets to make him Batman. He practice martial arts daily and do exercises to be able to protect Gotham City.

Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive spider that gave him his ability. He also, worked hard and practised how to control and use his ability and developed special gadgets that allowed him to release spider web from his hands.

We are all provided by opportunities and we have a choice to work on ourselves and make use of these opportunities and be heroes or let them pass and be ordinary.

2- How they are all seen as weird or different, but they are actually extraordinary.

3- How they all have weakness and imperfections but that is what makes them so great. In spite of those weaknesses they inspire us. (For Example: Superman’s weakness is Kryptonite and Luis Lane his love.)

I was going to end the topic by saying

“We all are superheroes some way or another… We have ability to help others, do good and make a difference in this world. We just need to make use of the opportunities we have, work hard, and know our Superpowers (i.e. our abilities)”.

At the end I did a presentation about Tai Chi J

TAI CHI

After watching an action movie on TV I realized that Tai Chi was a better topic for my 6 minutes presentation, because I can use activities like Tai Chi moves and people can actually practice something they can use in everyday’s life.

Not a lot of people, in Egypt, know about Tai Chi.

Tai Chi is a form of Chinese meditation, and martial arts. It combines harmony, balance, relieving stress with self-defence.

When using Tai Chi to defend ourselves we use the opponent’s weight and energy to defeat him. We step out of our opponent’s way and let him fall, by simple moves. We use his own actions against him to win.

In a way Tai Chi is a sport for superheroes.

The presentation went great. People enjoyed the moves and felt the positive energy it brings to them. It was fun.

At the end I decided to search for a Tai Chi mentor to teach me…

The Fortune Teller

2012-01-22T02:14:00.000+02:00

I used to pass by this lady, and she always tried to show me my fortune. For years I have ignored her; as I don’t believe that anyone could predict the future or tell fortunes. Only Allah most gracious and most merciful knews what the future holds for us.

Today, I passed by her at the same place, and I almost completely ignored her, but then I returned back and called for her saying “Hey, lady!!” She noticed me calling and she came to me. I said “I've never done this before and I don’t believe in it all together, but show me what you've got”. She said “Open your hands honey”, so, I did. She put a small bracelet made of tiny beautiful seashells in my hand, and asked “What’s your name honey?” I gave it to her. Then she said “You are stubborn and you has been struggling for the last three years, but you have a kind heart, and you like to help people.” I was shocked!! “How did you know?!” I asked her. Then I told myself “I don’t believe in this! what am I doing?! She probably says the same thing to everybody!” Then she said “Close your hand and blow in it three times.” So, I did, although I thought it was crazy. “You dream of a nice car. Did you get it?” She asked. “No, not yet, but almost everyone dream of almost the same thing” I replied. “Places far away you want to visit but did you?” She asked. I said “No, but everybody wants that too!” Then she said “You feel that you want to be in some better place”. “I’m happy where I am really El hamdo lellah (i.e. Thank God)”. “You are a grateful person and thankful to Allah” she said. “You’re going to have a great fortune by the end of February, and great things lays ahead of you” She added. I said “In Sha’allah (If Allah is willing)”. Then she asked me to put what I've got (meaning money of course) in my hands with the seashell bracelet. She put some sand from the ground in my hand and told me to blow in it three times, while closing my hands tightly and see if the sand is still there! And it wasn't. May be it fell because of the blowing!

She could have really known those things by mere coincidence, though I think it’s completely crazy, but sometimes in life we need to do something crazy; something out of ordinary, out of our characters. Just because we are searching for hope; for someone to tell us that we are on the right path, that we will realize our dreams one day. We feel happy when a stranger tells us that our future holds a great fortune. May be if our friends tell us the same things we think to ourselves “They just say so because they are our friends and they are simply complementing us”. Strange how we sometimes think; believing in what a complete stranger tells us and not believing our close friends and family members.

We are somehow intrigued by the mysterious; the magical world that lies only in our deepest imaginations. We want to live in the land of dreams and we seek the imaginary truths behind the facts. We work hard to break the walls of reality to fly into the skies of our dreams.

At the end, I choose to believe that something good is going to happen by the end of February, not because a fortuneteller told me so, but because I’ll work hard to make it happen …

Alaa Eldeen Fahmy (From a place between reality & Dreams)

22-Jan-12 1:56:01 AM

What Happens to People Who Love Egypt Today!!

2011-12-06T01:29:00.004+02:00

Well, it’s really sad and ugly that after the revolution of 25^th Jan people can’t live in Egypt peacefully and can’t enjoy freedom of thought or get a decent living, thanks to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (i.e. SCAF), who are basically sucking the life out of anybody who loves and cares about this country and protects the corrupt ex-president and his family and friends!!!

Sign in Tahrir Sq. on 18 Nov asking to Free Alaa Abd El-Fattah;
young Egyptian Activist who has been falsely put in Military Prison

Anyway, I’m not going to go into criticizing the SCAF and its continuously failing ways in managing the country and responding to the demands of the revolution for a decent living, freedom, and democracy, because a lot of people have already wrote about that and continually writing about that from all around the world. I’m going to highlight something different, based on my personal experience. So, here it goes.

After 25 Jan Americans in Egypt with a Tourism Visa had to renew their visa every month. A few Americans I know who were working here in Cairo and couldn’t get a work permit (As a lot of employers here hire foreigners illegally and don’t give them a work permit, even some governmental organization does that !!), left Egypt because it’s a burden to keep going every month to Tahrir Compound (AKA: Mogama’a Tahrir) to renew their Tourism Visa.

An American friend wanted to go to renew her Visa at Tahrir and after the recent events there and the killing of revolutionists at Mohamed Mahmoud Street by police forces, the place wasn’t safe for foreigners or even Egyptians with a foreign nationality. A lot of Egyptians with foreign nationality who loves Egypt and came back to see and document what’s happening in Egypt has been captured and sometimes even tortured; like the Columnist and public speaker Mona Eltahawy; who had been beaten and both her hands broken by the police forces just because she was at Tahrir taking photos with her camera !! There were three young foreign AUC students who were captured and accused of Spying, just because they heard about what’s going on in Tahrir and wanted to witness history in the making!!! So, I offered to go with her to avoid any trouble that could possibly happen.

Thursday 1^st of December

American Embassy at Garden City Cairo

At the street leading to the Embassy a Military solider asked “Where are you going?” I answered “I’m taking her to the American Embassy” motioning towards my friend. He was very friendly; he let us in and gave us directions to the Embassy.

In front of the Embassy was a huge crowd of hundreds of people and I thought it was a protest or something, but my friend told me that was the usual crowd and those are Egyptians applying for Green cards or Visas. As we came close I found that they were standing in a very very long line! I wondered; did they completely lose faith in Egypt becoming a better country and decided to go to the US?! Did they lose the faith in positive change?! Or was it a plan B incase the country fails to rise up after all this corruption before and after 25 Jan?! Or were they just going there to the US to get an MD or a PhD and return?! Or was just a short Vacation?! Maybe it was all that, and maybe not.

It took my friend less than 15 minutes and she returned with her new passport. Then we walked towards the Tahrir Complex (AKA: Mogama’a Tahrir) to get her Visa renewed.

Tahrir Complex at Tahrir Square

On entering the Tahrir Square there was a line of young people checking the IDs of people entering Tahrir Square to assure the safety of protestors and prevent armed people or intruders from entering. I told them I’m entering the Mogama’a with my friend and they let us in. The Mohammed Mahmoud Street violence has stopped a few days ago so, the situation at Tahrir Square was calm, with a few protestors camping there and in front of the Ministry Council Building (Magles El Wozar’a) and a few Street Hawkers; selling foods and drinks to people at Tahrir.

Inside the Mogama’a, the place seemed less crowded than usual. It was relatively empty compared to its usual state; may be because not everybody knows that it’s still working despite the revolution and recent events at Mohamed Mahmoud Street.

We kept searching for the place to get the Visa and finally we got there. My friend filled an application and there was a sign saying Non-Arabian Countries above a glass window; and when we approached I noticed the lady behind it spoke to foreign people in Egyptian!! She actually didn’t speak a word in English, and she motioned with her hand to a guy standing in the hallway who spoke English! When people went to that guy he told them what to do. Anyway, we spoke to the guy and he wrote on my friend’s application paper asking the lady to grant my friend a one month Visa; which is the maximum time for a Tourism Visa these days in Egypt after the revolution! The lady behind the window kept saying in Egyptian “Why does she want to stay here in Egypt?!” I told her “She’s a Teacher and she’s working here”. She said she needs to get a work permit “I told her not all schools or organizations in Egypt provide people with a work permit”. “That’s not my problem” she answered. She was too aggressive and refused even to listen to me and she said “No, I’ll not give her a Visa! Why is she here?”

Well, at the end we didn’t get the Visa for my friend that day. Why? Because some smart person decided that all foreign people who loves this country or try to visit it and stay for more than one month may be suspects of spying or plotting to destroy the safety of the country ?! Then we wonder what happened to tourism in this country!! And why on earth put a person who doesn’t peak English at the Non-Arab countries window, to deal with foreigners who wants to get a Visa?!

My friend suggested that may be because it’s hard for Egyptians to get the American Visa, the Egyptians are trying to make it hard on Americans to stay in Egypt. I told her I don’t believe so! I like to believe that Egypt has been always a country that welcomes all people from all around the world.

So, why is my American friend here in Egypt? Well, she’s been living here in Egypt for the last 7 years and she loves Egypt. She thinks that people here are very helpful and friendly. She’s a simple person who plays a musical instrument (The bassoon), she used to be working at for a consulting company in Mohandiseen, and currently she is working as an English Teacher. My friend once said; a few months after the 25 Jan revolution, “I still think Egypt is safe now....there is still more violence in the US than in Egypt”. She loves it here in Egypt and that’s why she was living here for the last 7 years.

They wander what happened to the Economy and what happens to Tourism and they blame it on the protestors and revolutionists at Tahrir!!

"Once upon a time we will tell our children
about our Glory"...

There are lots of people who truly care about this country. A lot of them Dream of a better Egypt. A lot of them doesn’t like what the current government led by the SCAF is doing to it. A lot of them got in Military Jails like Alaa Abd El-Fattah, and Maikel Nabil and some of them have been killed like Khalid Saeed and Mina Daniel or lost their eyes, like lots of young people who were shot at recent violence at Mohamed Mahmoud Street caused by the corrupt police forces!! And some of them are being attacked and accused of spying!!

So, basically that’s what happens to people who care about and love Egypt today!

While the people who were and still are destroying Egypt are left alone without punishment or even a just trial?!

That’s Why The Revolution Still Continues…

iCare

2011-09-27T01:14:00.000+02:00

iCare Technology

Long ago in a place called earth, where there were no machines, only living creatures created by Allah (The most Gracious the most merciful) humans lived in harmony with their surrounding environment. The air was great, so fresh and energetic with the scent of lilies, roses and tulips; especially at spring. Water was pure and spread life in everything it touches.

As humanity developed life on this placed called earth became much faster and faster. In order for Humans to keep up with the fast pace of life they developed machines, machines that cut trees to make wooden houses, machines to cut the grass and make it look uniform, machines to move them from a place to another at the speed of life.

These machines has used a lot of energy resources on earth and caused a lot of destruction to the environment. A number of people noticed the harm their machines were doing to the environment, and they decided to find solutions to decrease or remove this harm. So, they began using machines called computers and reducing their use of papers to reduce killing of trees. They also, used recycling machines to keep earth resources much longer, and decrease pollution caused by burning waste. They also, started using renewable sources like solar energy from the sun. They started creating hybrid cars that uses less petroleum. They started using technologies out of their care for the environment, the “iCare Technology”.

They worked on this technology simply because they care about the environment and the lives of future generation of humans that are living in this environment. Sadly, this “iCare Technology” isn’t adapted widely in this place called earth. So, earth’s environment is dying slowly because of this “idon-t-care behavior” of lots of humans living in it.

Each and every one of us should be prosecuted for the crime of killing earth; every time we throw trash on the streets, every time we throw stuff in the river Nile, every time we use our car unnecessarily to go to some place only meters away, every time we throw stuff out of our car’s windows carelessly.

iCare Attitude

The same happens in human relations. The less we care the number we get, until we become stone cold. The world is getting darker because of the increasing number of numb people who don’t give a damn! Still there are a few people who truly care. Those people spread life around the world; they spread light around the world. They make life richer and deeper. They give meaning to life. They do it because they feel happy doing it; they feel happy making others happy. They don’t want anything in return. Those are the people with “iCare Attitude”. In each of our hearts there is a struggle between “idon-t-care” and “iCare Attitude”. Sometimes, we get weak and ask ourselves “Why should I care, they don’t care so why should I?”. Well, the way I see it, caring makes the world a better place, for everybody; including you. It’s ok to take a short break from the ”iCare Attitude”, but keep it short, and don’t slide into being one of the people who increase the darkness of the world.

I’m thankful to Allah that I’m blessed by friends who live life “iCare Style” and hope they remain so, and hope that Allah grant me the ability to remain one of the people who are always trying to adapt and spread the “iCare Attitude”….

iCare makes your world more colorful and idon-t-care, makes the world darker… it’s your choice … it’s your life.

Important Note

Never use the iCare Attitude with people who harm you, demoralize you, and treat you bad, because obviously they are making you darker and darker. The best thing to do with those people is to keep distance from them, and in some cases push them away or they’ll push you to your darker “idon-t-care” side of yourself.

So, at the end I want you all to smile, be happy… make people around you happy and spread the “iCare Attitude” …

Alaa El deen Fahmy

Image in this post has been brought to you by AF Designs

A letter to someone I thought I knew

2011-07-04T02:49:00.000+02:00

I'm sorry that when they remember me they blame you that you let me go

I understand because this happens with me too

I feel what you are going through

I'm sorry that some of the things I said turned out to be right, I hate that sometimes I'm painfully right, and I sometimes wished I was wrong

I'm sorry for the pain I caused you without meaning to

I'm sorry for the memories I left for you
Hope you look back at them as something pleasant you've been through
, rather than memories of someone who didn’t care enough about you

, and never answered when you asked him "How are you?"
The truth is I truly cared for you

I'm sorry but I never let the past ruin my present, and hoped you did so too

I'm sorry you didn't believe in yourself as much as I do

I'm sorry you are a person I thought I knew, and sadly this wasn’t true

, but most importantly I'm sorry you didn’t know “Who are you?”

I hope you know...I pray for you.

Alaa El deen Fahmy

Note: The photo in this post is original and propriety of the Author.

Great Hopes...

2011-06-14T23:39:00.000+02:00

My birthday was a few days ago and although, I was too busy with all my work and the final exam for my masters, I still was so happy to know that there are lots of family, and good friends who cared enough to greet me, send me presents, and prepare a surprise party for me that eventually was cancelled because I didn’t feel that I should be celebrating this year.

Every year that passes by I review my last year's list of resolutions, and goals. I realize that some of the goals were achieved, I thank Allah for that, and then I make a new list of goals and resolutions. This ritual started in the last couple of years at collage after reading about the importance of “goal setting” and making a “personal mission statement”.

Some may find this ritual neurotic; some may say I'm over-managing and some may argue that I have oversized dreams. For the people who knows me well, they know that I never really give a damn for what people say or think about me as long as I believe that I'm doing what's right for me, and that what I'm doing is doing no harm to anyone.

I had a deep sense that I knew where I was going, what I wanted out of life and how to get there. I believed that I had to remain good, keep the faith, work hard and be patient.

I remember in 2008 when I left working at a big international company and went to work at a community pharmacy for half the salary. I left the company because, I felt that working there wasn't the right thing for me and the future at this company wasn't what I wanted. I took a temporary job at a community pharmacy, I never though a “temporary job” could last for 7 months! I really enjoyed working there and made good relations with lots of customers and people regarded me as a trusted friend. I acted as the Manager and managed almost everything even getting medication from suppliers to the pharmacy. I got a lot of interviews, but I rejected most of the offers, not because of the salary (which in most cases higher than my salary at the community pharmacy back then), I rejected those offers because I believed I would be taking a step back and it wouldn’t add anything and wouldn’t lead me to the path I'm searching for. I used the extra time in the pharmacy when there were no customers to study French and read books. I learned a lot, I never lost vision of where I wanted to be. I went to all interviews even of companies that weren't known to me, because I believed that sometimes opportunities may be found in the most unexpected places.

One day I got a phone call. It was a job interview at a fancy hotel. The interviewing company's name wasn't familiar. I decided to go, as I had nothing to loose. I ended up getting the job. It was a national company that was an agent for a multinational Japanese medical devices company. I felt that this is the place for me and this is the path I wanted. I felt that all the waiting and job searching has come to a successful end, the future can only get better from here. That was true until the few last months of 2010.

Things never stay the same. Today, I'm sad to say that I, for some reason, don't know where I want to go from here. I have no list of goals or resolutions this year.

My only goal for this year is to find the “List of Goals”, to rediscover my path. I still have great hopes, and believe that Allah will guide me to find that list, but for the time being I’ll just enjoy the simple things in life and live like there is no tomorrow.

This was a year full of events …

· This is the year I got engaged.

· The year I also, agreed with my ex-fiancée that it’s better for both of us to separate.

· The year I met a good number of new people who eventually became very close friends. The year I also, strengthened relationship with friends who weren’t very close, and now are more like family to me.

· The year I got promoted and then quit my job only to return to it a few months later with a small raise.

· The Year I started this Blog; the idea of this Blog was suggested by one of my new good friends.

· The year we; the Free Egyptians, said our word and defeated a tyrant. I was one of the blessed ones who witnessed it from the very beginning.

Last year was the year of “The Found Treasure”… this year is the year of “Great Hopes”… these are great hopes for a better future for me; by finding my “List of Goals” and great hope for Egypt and the Egyptians by finding their place among the great countries of the world…

The Unforgettable

2011-06-12T23:21:00.002+02:00

I am reading a book called “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” by Mitch Albom. It’s an imaginary fable about a man who dies and meets people in heaven that affected, and touched his path in life. Each of them teaches him a lesson about his life and helps him understand better about his life.

I believe that in life we meet people who change our lives in some way; they change the way we think, help us somehow, make scarifies for our sake, or guide us through difficult times. Some may have shared part of our lives. Others we may have only met once in our lives, but they had a great effect on it. I believe we should keep our eyes open to such people, reflect on how they touched our lives and changed it forever. No matter how much life spins and how much time passes by, we must never forget the lessons we learned from them, we must never forget them.

For those are the “Unforgettable”.

I’m lucky to have met a few of those “Unforgettable” along my humble journey in life, even thou I may not know where some of them are or whatever happened to them, all I know is that I’ll never forget them…

Be Aware Of Transference

2011-05-19T00:19:00.002+02:00

Sometimes in life we meet people who remind us of someone we knew; a grandmother that we loved, a caring mother, a father who provided us with safety, a special someone we loved, but things didn’t went as planned with that loved one. Sometimes that person who reminds us of the people we cared about in the past don’t even share any feature of those people he reminded us of. So, how did he or she do so?!

We as humans (i.e. emotional beings), tend to get attracted to people who are caring, people who listen empathically to our stories and try to help us with our troubles. It’s human nature. We tend to get attached to people who share us our moments of joy or sadness, even if we didn’t really know much about them. We relate to them we direct our emotions towards them.

We so much crave for someone to fill our empty space left by our loved ones from our past. We keep searching for someone or something we think might be the answer to our feeling of emptiness; someone or something that can fill that emotional void within us.

Sometimes we meet people who share features of our loved ones from our past. They say some phrases that our loved ones from the past used to say, they make similar gestures, they sometimes may resemble their voices, they may even remind us of some experiences we experienced with our loved ones from our past. That word “the past” has its magical effect. We are too much attached to our past, even if sometimes we don’t even know it. We keep fishing in our past trying to remember that old class mate from school who we were attracted to, but never really got to know, the girl from collage we used to like, but got our hearts broken, the guy who broke our hearts when we opened our hearts to them, and cared about them only to discover he didn’t really care that much. We sometimes see shadows of them in people we meet. We let our past take too much of our present and block us from realizing our bright future.

Why does all this happen?!

The answer is “Transference”!

Early in his career Sigmund Freud confronted a strange problem. Many of his female patients were falling in love with him. He though he knew what was happening, encouraged by Freud the patient would delve into her childhood; which of course was the source of her illness or neuroses. She would talk about her relationship with her father, her earliest experiences of tenderness and love and also, of neglect and abandonment. The process would stir up powerful emotions and memories; in a way she would be transported back into her childhood intensifying this effect was the fact that Freud himself said little and made himself a little cold and distant although he seemed to be caring, in other words, quit like the traditional father figure. Meanwhile, the patient was lying on a couch in a helpless or massive position, so the situation duplicated the roles of parent and child. Eventually she would begin to direct some of the confused emotion she was dealing with toward Freud himself. Unaware of what was happening she would relate to him as to her father. She would regress and fall in love. Freud would call this phenomenon Transference and it would be an active part of his therapy. ⁽¹⁾

So, what is Transference?

It’s a phenomenon in psychoanalysis that can be defined as follows:

· It is the unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another.

· It’s the redirection of feelings and desires especially those retained from childhood towards a new object (or person).

· It’s the reproduction of emotions relating to repressed experiences, especially of childhood, and substitution of another person…for the original object of the repressed impulses. ⁽²⁾

The Good Side of Transference

This happens when we transfer positive emotions towards people who deserve these emotions. For instance a girl who transfers feeling of love and admiration she used to have for her loving father towards her caring husband, a guy attracted to a young caring girl who reminded him of his loving grandmother in the way she cared about him.

This good side of transference is fortified by discovering new born emotions added to the already transferred emotion. For example the man, who is attracted to a young girl because she reminded him of his loving grandmother, may develop a new emotion of respect for the way she handles herself in social gathering and this may fortify the overall positive emotions directed towards her. So, he not only love her because she reminds him of his grandmother he also, loves her because she has a specific trait unique to her.

The Dark Side of Transference

This self-destruction side of transference has two forms.

First, when we direct negative emotions towards people who doesn’t deserve these negative emotions. For example when a girl who didn’t like her father, transfers feelings of hate towards her caring husband who reminds her of her father in the way he eats or drinks. She begins imagining that her husband is as bad as her father who left her mother when she was young. She imagines that just because he eats or drinks in the same manner as her father or likes the same food he might abandon her as her father abandoned her mother. She tries to prove her fears to be true. She searches his pockets and scroll on his cell phone contact list, trying to find something that proves he’s cheating on her and he would some day leave her. She’s trapped in the box of hate to her father and she’s torturing her caring husband with no logical reasons.

Second, when we direct positive feelings towards people who doesn’t deserve these positive emotions. This is the most common form in my modest opinion. That’s one of the reasons why we might see a lot of kind women attracted to abusive men or why we see women attracted to men who are kind but don’t want a serious relationship with them. In this case the woman transfers positive emotions towards the guy, but the guy doesn’t care; may be he’s just not that into her or may be he’s just not looking for a serious relationship, either way he doesn’t deserve these positive emotions. This guy may remind her of someone in her past, may be a father, or a loved one from the past; someone she cared about too much but things didn’t go too well, or someone she cared about but passed away in an accident and she keeps searching for him in everyone she meets. Trying to fill the void left by a loved one may end up in a bigger void and an emotional scar that may take time to heal.

Why Am I Writing This?!

Well, I’m trying to raise awareness of this psychological phenomenon, to use the positive side of transference to our advantage and avoid its dark side. I’m trying to make people much aware of their emotions and have more control over them.

Ironically, life isn’t that simple! We can’t easily know who deserve our positive emotions, and sometimes we may fall for the wrong people anyway. We transfer feeling from our past without even knowing it. We search for people who remind us of people in our past… “The Past”, “The good old days” …we can’t have enough of them, do we?!

References:-

1) Art of Seduction Audio book by Robert Green.

2) Wikipedia – open online encyclopedia.

3) My personal views and opinions.

Friday of Rage: 28 Jan 2011, Cairo

2011-05-09T22:07:00.001+02:00

I Wanted To, but I Couldn't

The protests against the corrupt government that ignited on the 25^th of Jan were about to pass almost unnoticed. Almost all of us, Egyptians, were keen on showing the whole world the magnitude of the situation in our beloved country, Egypt. We were not going to give up until drastic positive changes happen. There were tens of thousands of people still there, sitting and even sleeping, overnight at the Tahrir square (i.e. liberation square) at down town Cairo. The official Egyptian TV and media kept giving false information; saying that the protests have been stopped. I really wanted to participate in the peaceful protest on Friday 28^th of Jan, but I had a take-home exam/case study that was going to be sent to me by e-mail on the same day; it was part of my Masters in Business program. So, I decided that I can not join these protests. Little did I know about what fait had for me.

They Forced Me to Join It

I woke up that Friday, and after a few hours all forms of communication has been cutout, only a few cable phone lines have been left working. So, I couldn't access my e-mail to download my take-home/case study exam. I went to the Masged (i.e. A holly place where Muslims pray); right next to my home and prayed Al-Goma prayer (i.e. Friday’s Prayer), and after the prayers, I saw a lot of people gathered for the protests. I had noting to do at that moment; as the internet was cutout and I couldn’t download my exam from my e-mail. I got more worried about what the rotten police forces and the corrupt government might do to the protestors, and what would be the result of such brutal actions, would we ever live in peace in Egypt again? Would they have it in them to kill all those tens of thousands of unarmed peaceful protestors?! All those questions came rushing in my mind. I decided that I want to be there when anything happens to those protestors. It would be better if we were more people; power in numbers. So, I decided to join the protests. I went up home to wear my shoes, as I went to Al-Goma prayer wearing slippers. My younger sister stood at the door blocking my way out. She was worried. She told me “It’s not safe, and you don’t know what might happen!!, and father said to keep out of trouble”, I ended up going anyway. I knew that the right thing to do is going there and join the protestors wherever they are going. Their act of cutting all forms of communication has forced people to go out of there homes in rage to join the protest and to protect the people who were already protesting in the streets. This is what President Sadat has called “Political Stupidity”.

Breaking the Fear Barrier

We have been living in fear for a very long time, and we have to speak up and stand up for our rights. After 25^th Jan, my fear of participating in protests has been broken. The large numbers of young, honest, decent, well-educated, and cultured people that was gathered there on 25 Jan gave me hope, and made me feel safe. They couldn’t possibly put all those tens of thousands of people in jail and if they do, their families will tell the world what happened. I remembered the story of young Khalid El Saeed; who was murdered by the police, at Alexandria, without a reason, and how his family showed the whole world this brutal act and stood up to condemn such acts, and protests ignited everywhere on such brutal acts done by the dishonest people working in our police (there is a good number of honest people in our police, I personally have some honest friends who are working in the police, but sadly the most powerful are the corrupt people in our police force. That’s what you get when you have a corrupt government).

They were very peaceful protests. It first started by calling people to join the protests while walking in small streets in my neighborhood. Then Shouting things like “The people want to drop the government”, “Freedom, liberty, and social justice”, “Gamal Tell you father that the people hate you”, “We are not Opposition or Ekhwan (Islamic brotherhood), and we are all the Egyptians ”and“ Peaceful protest”.

The Journey to Freedom

A lot of people from Nastr City; where I live, gathered for the protests. Then it grew as we marched along Nasr Road and Salah Salem Road. People polled into the protest; gathering to express their demands. There was no violence at all. Some, less educated people was attempting to throw rocks, but the people around them stopped them before they do so, urging them to keep the protests peaceful.

When we came across Abbaseya Square we gave the police officers, standing there, bottles of water to drink, we shook their hands telling them we are all Egyptians and we all are together in making Egypt a better country. Then we continued marching towards Tahrir square. Tens of thousands of people were moving from everywhere in Egypt towards Tahrir square; the symbol of liberty. They had one message to tell the whole world “We are Egyptians and we want our Human Rights, we had enough of Mubarak, he needs to leave us”. They were not going to leave Tahrir square unless Mobarak leaves his position as President.

While I was walking in the protest I saw a police officer taking off his official police uniform; he threw his dark police sweater to the ground saying “Damn the police”. Some of the police officers showed support to the protests; they saluted us and sometimes even joined in shouting our demands, but they didn’t march with us; as this would threaten their authority. Even the honest police officers believed in this protests, and they too had enough of their corrupt leaders. Those were mainly police forces that were in Nasr City and along Salah Salem Road and Abbaseya square. Their main job was to secure the safety of the protest and direct the protests. Sadly the police forces at Ramsis square and Tahrir square had a different job!!

When I arrived at Ramsis square everything was peaceful. The police forces were forming a wall to prevent people to reach Tahhrir square. Then after a while they started throwing gas bombs. Some people knew what these bombs are, and they covered there noses and took precautions, but others didn’t know. The people who didn’t know these gas bombs are less educated people who never participated in any political protests, they panicked and thought it was poisonous gases, and some even fainted. Still people didn’t back down. They were determined to join the rest of the people at Tahrir square. So, the police used rubber bullets to shoot on the protestors. Some got wounded, and some fainted to the ground from the increasing clouds of gas bombs. I saw a young boy carrying a little girl and running out of the clouds of gas. People fainting and being carried out, others were rushing in towards the police. Then suddenly we heard a very laud sound, they said that people attacked the police truck. Then I saw it was on fire. You don’t expect to shoot people and throw gases on them and they would stand doing nothing!!

I met a friend there at Ramsis square; a friend I didn't meet since two years ago!! It was a pleasant surprise. His eyes were red because of the clouds of gas bombs. We stayed together resisting the clouds of gas. We were joined by another friend later on. We fixed a gathering point where we would gather if we lost each other, as all communications were cut off and we could not use our mobile phones to contact each other if we got lost in the crowds.

We kept trying to move towards Tarir square, but the police resisted us, using more gas bombs. My friends and me ran and got lost in the panicking crowds. So, we met each other at the meeting point; we agreed upon. We caught our breath a little. I noticed beside me a man lying on the ground trying to catch his breath and people gathered around him. So, I told them to stay away from him, give him a chance to breath and made sure he’s ok. My friend noticed that the man standing next to him was waving his cigarette smoke near him and told him to keep it away. Then I left him and told everybody to leave to give him a chance to breath and I stood far watching. He was ok, he recollected him self and stood up again, and a man supported him while walking as he had some minor injury on his leg.

After a while I noticed that the front line of police has been broken and some people started running towards Tahrir square and police forces started following them and beating people with their clubs. My friends and I ran away, and we took shield behind a building in a narrow alley. Then we ran into a Masged El Fat-h (Masged is a holy place of prayer for Muslims), and took shelter there. The police forces were throwing tear gas bombs on the garden of the Masged and the gases where diffusing into the place of prayer!! Those people have no respect for anything!! They’ve gone completely crazy. We stayed there until Al Maghreb Prayer (Prayer of Sunset). During our stay we were all praying that Allah (God most gracious most merciful) would save this country and remove the corruption. We heard people screaming, explosions, gun shots. We didn’t know if this was live gun shots or just sound shots to cause fear. Later we discovered that it was a mixture of both! How could an Egyptian police officer kill his brothers and sisters the Egyptians!! I guess this is what they’ve been training for all the time. At Maghreb prayer the Imam (Person who leads the Prayer in the Masged), prayed a lot to Allah to remove this could that’s upon us, to grant Egypt safety and its people victory.

After the prayer we stayed a little while, hearing the loud noises, and smelling a mixture of smoke and tear gasses. Then one of my two friends decided to go home, because his legs were hurting from all the walking and Running from Nasr City to Ramsis square, and his eyes were red because of the gases. The other friend wanted to stay, he didn’t want to return early and leave the crowd. He believed that it would be shameful if he returned to his wife and little kid early leaving the crowds to go on with the battle without him. I didn’t know what to do. Should I stay and join the crowds? Or should I leave? I decided to go with my friend who was in pain and had red eyes and help him with the journey home.

The Journey Back Home

We were going to take Ramsis street back to Nasr City, but I though it wasn’t safe since there may be police forces there. So, we took the side roads and alleys. While we were walking we encountered a crowd of people running and we didn’t know why they were running. So, we took another road away from the people who were running just in case there were police running after those crowds. We went into narrow alleys and at the end we arrived at a wide road. There were a coffee shop and the TV was on, it was a satellite Arabian channel and it was showing the fires, and smoke in Egypt. There was a news bar and the lower part of the screen stating that the curfew has started in Egypt since 6 PM. It was about 7:30 PM and I didn't seem to feel that there was actually a curfew!! We continued walking; we couldn’t find any taxi, or bus, only very few cars passing. My friend suggested calling for people in those cars to help us. That didn’t work as in this road there wasn’t much cars anyway. Suddenly a truck appeared and the man called for people to take a rid in exchange for 3 pounds to Rabaa Adaweya Square. There was an older man with his younger daughter. They joined us in our ride in the truck. They too had been walking in the protests. The man had some bread and insisted we should have a bit, so we eventually did. We had bottles of water and we shared it with the people in the truck. The older man was smiling, he believed that what’s happening is going to change thing in Egypt for the better.

Reflections

Back on the 28^th of January, when I was marching amongst millions of honest Egyptians, I felt that this is not an ordinary day. This was the day Egyptians has broken the barrier of fear and has finally united to move together towards realizing a dream, shouting against all forms of corruption. I believe, as well as many others, that this day was the true beginning of the End of corruption. It was the breaking point.

A great part of this was actually written on 1^st of February 2011, but I didn’t post it then for diplomatic & political reasons. I post it today to remind us of the positive spirit of the revolution and the sacrifices some of us made to give us all a chance to realize the dream of a better Egypt. To remind us of the importance of working together united, forgetting our differences, and facing all obstacles along our path to realizing out Egyptian Dream.

“Because they know our power when we are united they try to break us apart, but we won’t let them”

I Am Liberal

2011-03-22T01:10:00.002+02:00

The Referendum (El Estef-ta’a)

A couple of days ago were our Egyptian referendum. The 1^st fruit of freedom, the great gift granted to us; Egyptians by the revolution of the 25^th of Jan. All Egyptian citizens can now express their opinions freely, and each person’s voice matters.

People gathered in very long lines to vote all around Egypt (Line of about 18 Million Egyptians). A lot said “Yes” to the modifications on the constitution, and also, a reasonable number said “No”. I was one of the people who said “No” to these modifications.

I was glad to spend about two and a half hours standing in line to express my voice freely. People were very friendly, and cooperative. The hours seemed to pass quickly as I chatted with the people standing with me in line. I was glad to meet some friends who came later and passed to say hi, then went to the end of the line.

People with differing opinions stood together with one common goal; a better future for our beloved country

People standing in a very long line to vote on referendum

I was really touched when I saw an old lady looking for her husband and a young girl helped her, she said “Bless you youngsters of this country” then she looked at me and the young men with me in line and said “ Thank you, you gave us back our dignity, you made our votes matter… This is the first time I vote in anything in my entire life…Thank you”.

The people who said “No” had valid reasons to say “No”; reasons they believed will help build a better future for

Egypt

. The people who said “Yes” also, believed they had good reasons to say “Yes” and build a better future for

Egypt

A few people said that people who said “No” are Liberal. They believe that the word “Liberal” is a synonym with “Atheist”!! Their opinion is based on the fact that if we rejected the modifications made to the constitution and pushed to make a whole new constitution and this may affect the part of the constitution that says that Egypt is an Islamic country.

The funny thing is that at the end the constitution will be changed weather we say “No” or “Yes”. So, people worrying about the later scenario are worrying for the wrong reasons. The Council of our Armed Forces (i.e people ruling Egypt in this period) stated that these modifications are only going to be used for preparation of People’s Council and Presidential Elections.

I don’t believe that people should say “Yes” out of fear of “No” or say “No” out of fear of “Yes”. I also, don’t believe people should use religion to force people make opinions about such matters. Some extremists accused people who said “No” of being Atheists (To them Liberals = Atheists). I believe we should base our opinions on logical scientific and historically based reasons.

Why did I say “No”?

I said “No” for logical reasons. I believe it’s not logical to make People’s council’s elections twice (one before presidential elections and another after we choose the president). Only a few people are going to be willing to be working for a short time in a Temporary People’s council. The second reason is that it’s not logical to modify the constitution and then make a new one after appointing the president. We should just make a new one and then use it. I believe that saying “Yes” takes us to a longer and less efficient road to democracy, but at the end both ways leads to democracy, and a better future for

Egypt

. This is not my opinion alone; it’s the opinion of a good number of political scientists who studied history of lots of nations, opinions of the Egyptian Judges’ Club. Well known Egyptian political figures like Mohamed Al Barady, and Amr Mosa also, said “No”.

Those people who said “No” are truly liberal, but not Atheists. So, what does liberal means?

According to the online Oxford Dictionary the word “Liberal” means:

· Willing to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas.

· Favourable to or respectful of individual rights and freedom.

· (Of education) concerned with broadening a person's general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training.

So, basically the essence of being Liberal is true freedom of thought and respecting other people’s ideas, and opinions. This is a core concept in our Islamic teachings; accepting our differences, and living together in harmony and peace regardless of our differing opinions, beliefs and values. In the days of our prophet Mohammed (PUBH), he used to consult with his followers “Wa Shawerhom fel Amr” (i.e. And take their consultations). Islam also, teaches us to respect our differences and learn form them. Islam has spread all over the world trough trading and by respectable Islamic manners those Islamic traders presented; these respectable manners that unites all people regardless of race, or beliefs. So, in this essence liberal = Islamic.

The Results

At the end the majority said “Yes” (77 % of the 18 million voters said yes). So, we have to respect the decision of the majority, even if we don’t agree, we have to accept the consequences of that decision, and work for a better future; this is true democracy.

There were few reports and videos on facebook & the media about people who were trying to push people to say “Yes” using religion. There are lots of people who were easily convinced by such acts.

We have a long way to go before being mature politically, but we have started an amazingly …. 18 million people voting on the referendum, in a very organized and very respectable manner. That’s what makes me very optimistic about the future of Egypt… We are able to express ourselves freely in a civilized way, and respect our differences.

At the end I say a very big “No” for using fear and religion to influence people’s opinions, and a very big “Yes” to unity of our nation and a better future for our beloved Egypt.

(This is a free discussion topic, if anybody wants to express their opinions about it, feel free to do so)

The Corruption Within

2011-02-24T01:53:00.003+02:00

I woke up and after a short while I was having my morning cup of tea while reading the newspaper. There was an article about how the new temporary government is going to give compensation to families of the martyrs of the Egyptian revolution; those heroes who gave their lives to the freedom of this country, who gave their lives in order for us to live in an Egypt free of corruption, and oppression. Those pure people who died in order for Egypt to live…. The article stated that their families will receive 50 thousand Egyptian pounds and a monthly payment of 1500 Egyptian pounds. “That’s good amount money” I thought to myself, but I don’t think it would compensate for their loss. What really would compensate for their losses is getting the people responsible for their death behind bars and eventually executed. Anyway, I finished my cup of tea and went to my work. I was going on sales visits in Asr Ainy Hospital (A well reputed Teaching Hospital in Cairo).

After a few visits I decided to go see where the people wounded from the revolution where being kept. I asked some of the young doctors and they showed me the way. I went into a hallway with lots of what seems to be patients’ wards. There was a horrible smell, mixed with the smell of blood. Suddenly there was a guy talking in a very aggressive, high tone.

The voice was very close. I arrived at on of the wards to see a doctor standing and a man shouting to his face. People gathered around the door of the ward. Things were getting tense and I interfered.

· “Calm down sir, and the doctor will do everything he can” I said.

· “I’ll never do what he wants me to do” The doctor said. The guy lost control and got more aggressive. People held him from behind to stop him from harming the doctor.

· I asked the doctor with a low voice; so the guy doesn’t hear what I was saying “What does he want you to do doctor?”.

· “He wants me to state in the papers that his brother died in the days of the revolution…His brother died months before the revolution. I can never do something like that!!” He said. Apparently, he wanted to benefit from the compensation offered by the government, while he has no right to do so.

· At that moment the man seemed to hold his temper and the people who were holding him left him. I talked calmly to the man “If you have a right, you’ll get it sir”.

· “Right?! What right you are speaking about … My brother died in this room because we didn’t have money to pay for the treatment!!” He said aggressively. Then he reached for his pocket and a gun appeared in his hand. At that moment I was between the doctor and the man. People tried to stop him from behind, but there was a gun shot. Suddenly, everything went black in front of my eyes and fell…

I fell and hit the floor. I rose up… I was in a state of shock… I put my hands on my chest and there was nothing there…no blood, nothing! I realized that this was all a nightmare, and I was on my bedroom’s floor. Thank Allah!! (God)

(15 minutes latter)

I was drinking my cup of tea. I was thinking about the nightmare I just had. I realized we’ve been living in corruption for a long time, and it won’t just disappear overnight. Corruption has its roots spread all around this country. People don’t give their trust easily. They just want what they want now!! That guy had no money for him and his family to live and wanted to benefit from his brother’s death, even if it was illegal. He had no faith that things would eventually get better and he’ll get his rights. Corruption was carved within his heart. We have a long way to go before we can remove the corruption within.

I opened the newspaper and there was an article with the title “A doctor at Asr Ainy Hospital threatened to forge signatures on papers of revolution's martyrs”…

(30 minutes latter)

I drove my car across a big group of young people wearing T-shirts with “We love

Egypt

” written on it. They were cleaning the streets and repainting the pavements. They seem like the kind of kids you see playing video games, surfing the internet, and never cleaning their rooms when their mothers asked, yet they were there cleaning the streets. The skies were blue, and the air felt cleaner… There was hope in the air…

Removing the roots of corruption within will take time…but there is always hope

(note: this is an imaginary story, based on true events)

Alaa El Deen Esmail M. Fahmy

How Corruption is Built

2011-02-08T00:43:00.002+02:00

This is a story a neighbor of mine told me while we were guarding the neighborhood, after the police disappeared mysteriously leaving us prey for criminals that were mysteriously let out of their prisons all around Egypt. This guy is an entrepreneur and he has his own company. He participated in the events of 25 Jan and 28 Jan, although he needs nothing more out of life, he was there purely because, as all of us Egyptians, he had a dream of a better Egypt. It’s a short story of how corruption is built into communities, and it’s a fictional story, but carries great meanings.

There was a guy working in a government position and he was suspected to be an agent working with a foreign government that doesn’t want Egypt to be a great country. The Egyptian Intelligence Agency was following him for years and didn’t find anything suspicious in his actions. The only suspicious thing was great amounts of money being transferred to his bank account. They didn’t know what was the thing he was doing in exchange for all this money and they kept on his tail to see if he’s doing anything that would jeopardize the safety of Egypt. At the end they decided to arrest him, interrogate him and get him to confess. After interrogation this was his confession:

“They told me to keep working for the government and they’ll get me promoted and when I choose employees to work with me, I would evaluate the applicants and choose the worst person for the Job. That’s all I had to do, in exchange for the money”

After reflecting on this story, I could say that ... Here in

Egypt

we have a great pool of brilliant talent and genius minds. Those great minds and brilliant talents usually leave the country, because they don’t get what they deserve. They are sometimes attacked, even if they offer their services for free. They don’t want us to be a great country. They want us, the youth of this country, to believe that we are worthless and useless and even if we are brilliant we won’t function in our beloved country, because of the corrupt systems built into it. That’s why we should say “No!” we can be, and we will be. We will not let you build corruption into this system anymore.

25 Jan had shown us all the greatness within the people of this country, and we will stop this corruption InShallah (If Allah may will)

Egyptian and always 100% Proud

Alaa El Deen Esmail Fahmy

My Journey in Cairo 25 Jan 2011

2011-01-26T03:01:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I was asking a friend to tell me “What is the worst trait about me?” or “What is the most annoying thing about me?”. I do this every once in a while to increase myself awareness and see myself from other people’s eyes. The answer was:

“You think a lot, and take only very few actions and sometimes even take no action at all”.

At first I wasn’t convinced since my friend wasn’t able to mention a specific situation where I didn’t take action, while I should have taken action. Then I remembered that someone told me something similar, in the past few months, that’s why I decided to consider improving myself in that aspect, and take more actions, rather than only thinking, writing, and giving speeches.

Today is 25 Jan; the Egyptian Police national day; it’s a national holiday. There was all that fuss about protests that was going to be happening today, protests showing disapproval of bad living standards caused by the rotten government. This situation was ignited by the resent protests and violent acts happening in Tunis that pushed Bin Aly; their president to leave the country.

On facebook there were two different directions on where those “Peaceful Protests” should be organized. Some said it would be smart to hold such protests in small alleys in poor places, because this would prevent the police forces from interfering with these protests, and if they try to do so, the poor people suffering severely from low standards of living, caused by the rotten government, will stop them! Others recommended performing the “Peaceful Protests” in wide areas and main squares in the country (as usually done in most countries of the world).

I decided to have a walk down the street and see if there is anything really going on. I walked along Tyaran St. until I reached Rabaa Adaweya square. There was no sight of any protests. There were two big police force trucks and a small police pickup truck. They were only there for precaution; just in case something happens. I continued walking along Nasr Road towards 6^th of October Bridge. Still there was no sign of protests, only a few blue police pickup trucks (El Box, as it’s known here in Egypt) and a few police cars on sides of the road. I noticed a solider at The Memorial (i.e. Kabr El Gondy El Mag’hol or El Nasb el Tezkary), that was strangely dressed in red!! May be he thinks it’s Valentine’s Day or something!! Or may be he though himself a soldier in UK at the service of the Queen. Anyway, it was a funny scene; a soldier dressed in red marching with obscenely wide footsteps, as if he was just cut out of an animated cartoon series.

The streets were generally less crowded than usual; traffic was going smoother than we are used to, in Cairo, even in the rush hours. People were mostly afraid to go out, or they may have even travelled outside the city to enjoy the day off.

Public transport from
Ghamra to Tahrir 1 Pound

I got a message from a friend on my mobile phone warning me to keep out of Mostafa Mahmoud’s square and Game’at El Dowal square as there are about 5000 protesters there and the roads are blocked. “Oh, so that’s where I should go” I thought to myself. Then I got a phone call from a friend and after that call I decided to go to Tahrir square, at downtown Cairo. He told me there is a media blackout, no mention of anything happening, the online websites that were preparing for the events have been blocked, and honest online newspapers have been blocked. He said that his friend says the action is at Tahrir square. I decided to go and see things by myself. I walked along Ramses St. from Nasr City until Ghamra. I noticed a good number of poor people sleeping on the side walks, a lot of wire cables just lying on the ground naked, a lot of walls have been pissed on; with the disgusting smell of urine filling the air around them, and no public bathroom in sight. A lot of Garbage thrown along the streets, with no recycle bin or waste basket in sight. I noticed there were a very few number of waste baskets hanging on light poles near the Electricity Company at Ramsis St. near Abbaseya square. I was afraid of being late and missing all the action, so I took a bus and I paid 1 Egyptian pound. “Only 1 pound” I thought to myself. Seems that some things are still reasonable in the country; that’s what I thought. Later I discovered something different!!

Police forces gathered at Tahrir

I arrived at Tahrir square, and I noticed a very long line of police forces along the side of the road. They were fully prepared. There was a long line of huge blue police trucks, police cars and ambulances.

Ambulance at Tahrir

There were brave people shouting their protests loudly, not caring about the consequences; they believe they can change things for the better or even die trying. Others were confused between fear and bravery; they wore masks to hid there faces and shouted in the protests. Some were only there silently watching what’s happening as if they were watching things on a TV screen and they weren’t actually there. There were foreigners; as this place is located amongst tourist attractions and grand hotels. They were witnessing the events; some of them even taking photos. A few were alternating between silent fear, and courageous protesting.

Maghreb Prayer in Tahrir sq.
during protests

The police forces surrounded the area blocking all the streets leading to the square except the one leading to Abdul Menem Reyad Sq. There were thousands of people gathered. They were shouting “Freedom… democracy…Social justice”, and shouting against the rotten government. They held signs “Enough”, “We will stay here until Mubarak Resign”. All people of Egypt were united, Muslims, Christians, highly-educated, and less-educated. We were all together, trying to get our message heard. When Al Maghreb (i.e. Sunset) prayer was announced by the Masgeds near by, people gathered to pray together in the streets, and gardens at the square.

Strangely there were people carrying cardboard boxes, selling drinks to protesters; Pepsi, Coca-cola, juice and mineral water!! Mineral water was the best selling of these.

All wireless communications in the area were blocked, so nobody could call anyone or access the internet. They also, let a few police officers dress as civilians and go amongst the crowds. The police forces tried to separate the gathering of people and force them outside Tahrir square using gas bombs, but the people only ran to avoid the bombs only to return as they were.

A gas bomb dropped about 10 meters away from me. People ran back. I stayed standing there taking photos, and the gas reached me; I started feeling irritation in my eyes and nose. I started dropping tears, and I suddenly found myself left behind. Everybody ran and I was there in the cloud of gas, I held my breath and took out a tissue and hold it up on my nose and ran back. People were shouting, “don’t put water on your eyes”, and “don’t rub your eyes”. The gas smelled like the sulphur we used in chemistry labs, back in school.

There was no sign of media coverage. There were people taking videos and photos using mobiles and digital video cameras, but none of them had any broadcasting networks’ logos, or newspapers’ logos. Maybe, they were there, but not using their logos, as some people said that they were given strict orders not to broadcast or publish anything about what is going to happen.

I knew latter at home that Egyptian TV stations have been avoiding anything related to these protests. They talked about the situation at Lebanon, the Palestine negotiations, and some gorilla at the zoo at Sidney!! However, a foreign friend told me that their TV stations at UK have been talking about what’s happening in

Egypt

I decided to leave, as I got a little tired. I still wanted to see what’s happening, so I walked to Ramsis square. While walking I saw people protesting in front of “The Court of Cassation” (i.e. Mah-kamet Al-Nakd). Police was surrounding them in order to keep them from causing any violence, and to keep things under control. There was an ambulance there too just in case it’s needed.

I continued my walk till I reached Ramsis square. There was nothing at the square itself, but at the street under the bridge near it, was a group of protesters walking also, followed by police forces behind them. An interesting thing happened. A young girl (about 16), started shouting at an older boy (about 22); who was carrying a box of toys and some balloons and she ran behind him and stared hitting him. She shouted “You son of a whore, I didn’t sell anything!! Where is my money? After all this work!!” she hit him, and the balloons popped, and the box almost fell from his hand. People held the young girl to keep her from hitting the guy!! The police just moved ahead as if they were blind and deaf, they followed the protest, as they should follow their orders. Usually, police run after those sellers because selling on the streets is illegal!!

I walked and walked and walked… Seeing the poor people of Egypt walking down the streets, trying to get through the day peacefully, an old man said “Sir!”. “Yes!” I said. “Can I have 1 pound to take the Metro home”. So, I wandered how an old man, who looks very respectable can’t afford a 1 pound trip to his home!! So, it’s not only about transportation costs, it’s the whole system.

Egyptians today are protesting their right to have their normal human rights. The right to a shelter; people shouldn’t be sleeping on the streets, the right to have a decent well paying Jobs; to be able to buy food for their children, pay bills, and ride a bus for 1 pound. They were protesting the right to have clean air to breath, and clean water to drink, the right to have a waste basket or recycle bin to throw their rubbish in, and keep their neighborhoods clean, the right to say “No” and the right to say “Yes’ to whoever they choose to be a president for this country.

So, yeah… I think a lot and I write a lot, and, to me, this is taking action, because today, there were only few people to think and write.

I believe thinking is more important that action, and thinking is an action. What this country needs is thinking, because a lot of actions taken today were made without the right type of thinking and that’s why our traffic is a disaster, and our economy is failing, and our people are not properly educated.

What makes nations excel and develop is “Thinking” or “Strategic Thinking”, and we sure need a lot of it.

So yeah … I like to think a lot before taking action, and I’m happy about that. Hope people, in this country, do the same.

Thinking is what separates our actions from the actions of the gorillas at Sidney’s Zoo, and we need a lot of it before taking actions we may regret afterwards

Alaa El-deen Esmail

(Your News Reporter for Today)

Almost Flat Tire

2011-01-11T17:18:00.000+02:00

While I was entering my car I noticed that one of my car’s tires was almost flat. I just have inflated it three days ago, and now it’s deflated! For the past couple of months, I’ve been visiting the car service station to inflate the exact same tire time after another. I knew that it needed to be fixed, but I didn’t fix it. I really don’t know why!! May be, I was caught up in the thick of thin things; convincing myself that I’m too busy to fix it, or may be I was just getting used to it that way, or may be I was just too lazy to fix it. The thing is that fixing it only takes 10 to 15 minutes!! Then it will save me all the time wasted on going to inflate it at the service station time after time.

Everywhere I go with that “almost flat” tire; people driving next to me keep pointing and saying “Hay! Your tire is flat!” and I go like “Yeah… I know, thanks”, and then I do absolutely nothing about it. I just simply leave it for a while, until I feel that it’s not safe to leave it like this anymore, then go to the nearest car service station and inflate it again!! Then cycle starts all over again.

I realized that, sometimes, I’m like that “almost flat” tire; I have a hole in me that needs to be fixed. I keep convincing myself that I’m ok, while the truth is that I’m not. That hole will not just magically disappear no matter how much I inflated the tire, it’ll still deflate again and it may eventually go completely flat. Denial will not solve anything… I should find where do the problem lies, so I can move on to fixing it, and get on with life.

I also, realized that there are lots of things in life that are, in a way ,like that almost flat tire; a failing educational system, an unhealthy relationship, an unhealthy life habit, and an unsatisfying career path. All those things will continue to deflate and fail if we keep using them in the same way, we seriously need to fix them, before they completely go flat on the ground, leaving us standing there without being able to move forward; seeing time goes by while we remain frozen.

We shouldn’t do the same exact thing time after another, when we know that it’s not going to work, because we tried it before and it still didn’t work. However, we should not give up; we simply should accept the fact that it’s not meant to be done in that way, and search for some other of doing it.

When you inflate it, many times and it still doesn’t work… admit that it needs to be fixed and fix it or find a new one that works, don’t waste your time trying to inflate it again.

A flat tire holds us back, and keeps us from moving forward. If we ignore it for a long while it may cause us serious accidents in our lives, we should, inspect our life’s tires every once in a while, fix them, and keep moving forward.

Now, I’m going to fix the tire and I think you all should do the same…

Alaa El deen Esmail Fahmy

They Won’t Break Us

2011-01-03T13:48:00.000+02:00

Someone Who hate Us … Ignited a fire of hatred between us

Thinking they could separate Us

We won’t let them Break Us

Bombs, Bombs… Ashes, Blood, and Tears.

The smoke of hate grew to fill the sky.

Cries, prayers, and Hymns, fill the skies above the seas.

Bottles, rocks, and pieces of wood, thrown into the air.

We should not fight each other in despair.

We should look around to see; who wants to break us apart.

Who wants to put a wound in our hearts?!

We will stand up together and won’t let him break us.

Hand in Hand until eternity… the way it was since the beginning of our history.

Alaa El deen Fahmy

This poem is dedicated to all families of people died or got injured during the Bombings of Alexandria in New Year 2011. It’s a reminder that we; Egyptians no matter what religion we believe in, are always united, and we condemn any form of terrorism, because terrorism has no religion.

Window Shopping

2011-01-01T10:22:00.000+02:00

What Is Window Shopping?

According to Wikipedia "Window shopping" is an activity that shoppers engage in by browsing shops with no intent to purchase, possibly just to pass the time between other activities, or to plan a later purchase.

Dictionary.com states that “Window Shopping” is a verb meaning:

1. To look at articles in the windows of stores without making any purchases.

2. To examine or evaluate merchandise for possible purchase, use, etc.

Why Am I Writing This?

Apparently a good number of girls and young women living in this country regard “arranged marriage” to be window shopping, I don’t blame them, but I don’t say they are completely right, as I know a reasonable number of good and happily married couples whose marriages were arranged for.

A girl feels like she is some kind of Mannequin displayed on the façade of some shop at a shopping mall, where potential suitors pass by looking through the window seeing her, then decide to take her or leave her. In many cases this image is not so far from the fact. She feels it’s a degrading, insulting, and emotionally painful activity, where acceptance is mainly based on physical appearance. A good number of girls reject the whole idea of arranged marriage. A few of them freak out if they found themselves blindly involved in such an arrangement to meet a potential suitor.

Some guys also, share this point of view; feeling that they too are displayed from a narrow window and they too are judged based on their physical appearances, and first impressions.

So, for the most part, people who are involved in arranged marriage meetings usually end up saying something like:

“He (or she) is not my type” (Can a person really tell from the first meeting, or second or third even!!)

“He’s not romantic enough” (Of course, in the first meeting it’s not always easy to tell if a person is romantic or not!! Unless he shows it by talking about some of his hobbies that a girl might find romantic, like talking about scenes from a romantic movie he liked, or talking about nature, and his dreams of travelling to some place where sea, mountains and green horizons meet, or something of that sort)

“She’s not pretty” or “She’s pretty, but she’s not smart enough. I need a smart girl who can get along in this world, and take responsibility of our home while I’m gone to work” or “She’s too smart for me, and she seems controlling. I need a simple girl.” (Sometimes, the same guy can say those contradictory statements about different girls he meets in arranged meeting!! We don’t even know what we want anymore!!)

“He’s a little aggressive didn’t you see how he was moving his foot!!” or “Who does he think himself? He can’t judge me and tell me what to wear and what not to wear. He’s a freak!! We only met today and he wants to control what I wear!!” or “He seems too sweet, I need a strong man, who can stand up for himself and me...Take control”(The guy or girl at the first meeting usually acts nice, so the “too sweet guy” may not seem too sweet after all.)

“He’s fat” (The girl saying a guy is fat may also be fat herself!!)

Physical appearances and first impressions are not enough to build a life time commitment like marriage. Sometimes a girl rejecting a guy for being too aggressive or to controlling falls deeply in love with the most aggressive guy she have ever met, and may even marry him!! Also, the guy complaining about a girl being not smart goes on to marry a pretty airhead!!

Why Do This Happen?!

Because, for the most part, in such situations, people don’t say what they mean and people don’t mean what they say. It’s not like you can go tell a person “I don’t want to get married this way”. So, when they are confronted with such situation, and they just want to escape it, they simply say anything that may seem illogical sometimes.

Also, most people don’t know what they want; they seem to want contradictory things “I need a strong man who takes control” and a few days later “I need a sweet caring man, who doesn’t control me and consider my point of view”. They may also, have this unrealistic dream of finding superman or wonder-woman who is perfect in everything imaginable way, and which apparently doesn't exist in real life. So, when they are confronted with someone not as charming, they just reject the whole idea, and try to escape.

There is, also, the fantasy of people engaging in a love story and falling in love, then getting married. The media (TV, movies), have created this fantasy. The story of a boy meeting girl, dating, falling in love and eventually getting married. Which may not be acceptable, and even forbidden in most of our Egyptian cultures (Egyptians living in Egypt now have more than one culture depending on where they grew-up other than Egypt and according to different geographical areas within Egypt, for example people living in Aswan differ in their culture and values from Egyptians living in Alexandria, also, Egyptians who grew up in the US have different culture and values than Egyptians who grew up in Arabian Gulf countries). Apparently, the word forbidden has its magical alluring feeling about it. The more it’s forbidden the more people crave it, its human nature. That’s why, today in our society, we see a lot of girls and boys holding hands, cuddling, and even kissing at cinemas, cafés, and in cars, with no ring on their fingers; to indicate they’re in any type of “official relationship”.

An important reason is the way people act during such meetings. People tend to go into interrogations. The groom-to-be feels like he’s a suspect in condemned of the crime of stealing their daughter! The same may be also, for the bride-to-be. Sometimes, the meeting takes the form of someone simply stating a list of facts about him, in the most plain and boring way.

I believe that when the situation is insulting, and emotionally painful, it’s so on both parties; men and women.

So, they just simply reject the whole idea of an “arranged marriage”, which according to their view is equal to loveless marriage.

So, What Exactly Is An Arranged Marriage?

According to Wikipedia “An arranged marriage is one in which by someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world, including Europe. Today, arranged marriage is largely practiced in South Asia, and the Middle East and East Asia to some extent. Other groups that practice this custom include the Unification Church. It should not be confused with the practice of forced marriage. Arranged marriages are usually seen in Indian, traditional European and African cultures, especially among royalty, and are usually decided by the parents or an older family member. The match could be selected by parents, a matchmaking agent, matrimonial site, or a trusted third party. In many communities, priests or religious leaders as well as relatives or family friends play a major role in matchmaking.”

So, on the contrary of what some people might think it’s not something exclusive to the Arab world, it’s something that’s happening all around the word.

Arranged Marriage is common even in western societies, like aristocrats and royal families of Europe; for example, the marriage of the Prince Charles to Diana Spencer was arranged by Queen Elizabeth; since she screened several women and assessed their potential to be his wife. It’s a way to keep their royal family royal!

Arranged Marriage isn't forced marriage. Some parents make it so, but it actually isn’t supposed to be that way. Forced Marriage is a loveless marriage, which is a completely different thing.

Arranged Marriage is not a loveless marriage. Love ignites between people who have met, liked each other, and felt happy being together. Arranged marriage give people a chance to find that love.

Arranged marriages are more enduring (statistics shows a 5-7% divorce rate for arranged marriages versus the US average of 50%).

That’s why it’s a practice encouraged by almost all religious beliefs.

What an arranged marriage does is provide two people the opportunity to meet. This first meeting may be the beginning of a very beautiful relationship, or the most painful experience a person could go through or nothing at all. This depends on how people act and think in that meeting.

I believe for this opportunity to become a beginning of a very beautiful relationship, both parties and their families should be honest about themselves and not pretend or act something they are not. A lot of arranged marriage meetings fail because, later it was discovered that someone wasn’t honest.

I also, encourage the parents not to talk about their sons and daughters, and let them talk for themselves. I believe most parents in Egypt today have grown away from their sons and daughters, due to their busy crowded lives, so their knowledge of their sons and daughters is very superficial. Also, sons and daughter have grown away from their parents, because they like to spend more time with friends or browse the internet or play some video game rather than to spend quality time with family. So, it’s probably best to let them speak about themselves privately. Sometimes parents of the groom-to-be talk about him, and thus giving the bride-to-be and her parents the impression that he’s “his Mamma’s boy” or “his Baba’s Boy”. I believe that, during these meetings, the parents should talk to the other parents about themselves and general issues to let the other parents have a good idea of who they are, and let the couple-to-be speak together about general issues and themselves.

Arranged marriages may also, be arranged by friends. This removes most of the tension, as people of the same generation act freely and more naturally than with parents around. The chances to show the natural true self is more than incase of family meetings.

When the couple-to-be are honest and natural in presenting themselves, without any tension, or acting, it’s easy to decide wither to go on or not.

If there is acceptance between the couple, it’s advised not to rush into things, and to give the couple more time to get to know each other. Jumping straight into marriage may cause a lot of emotional pain, regret and even lawsuits.

If there is no acceptance between the couple-to-be then the couples are not to be.

I believe people should view “Arranged Marriage” as a chance to meet people, and see different types of people. We may meet people who are just too silly; making us laugh (Please do that when they are gone, don’t laugh to their faces!!), and some are good people, but not good for us, may be for someone else, but may be one of them would turn out to be the right person.

At the end if you find the right person, it doesn’t matter how you met, wither it was at a family gathering, at an arranged marriage meeting between friends or family, or even while window shopping at the mall!!

Expiration Date

Our society has this amazing and somewhat irritating habit of pushing people to get married.

I say amazing because; it’s good for a society to have married people to suppress the incidence of crimes like harassment, prostitution, and rape. It’s also, good for individuals to feel safe, and satisfied emotionally and physiologically.

I say it’s somewhat irritating because, it’s not a good thing that parents push their sons and daughters into a doomed marriage just because they want to become grandparents and see their sons and daughter become fathers and mothers. They seem to believe there is some sort of “expiration date” for marriage. Like if you didn't get married before a certain age you’re expired as a human being!! You’re no longer useful!!

There are a lot of great people in our human history that never got married. People like: Joan of Arc (1412-1431); at age 17 she led the victorious French troops in the Battle of Orleans, James Buchanan, Jr. (1791-1868); 15^th president of the USA, and Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603); during her reign England became a substantial power in Europe, defeating

Spain

’s Armada and spreading English influence around the world.

This doesn't mean I’m encouraging you to boycott marriage. (Although, it seems like a reasonable idea given that the planet is getting crowded and we don’t need to give birth to more people!!). I’m merely saying that it’s ok to be single, nothing wrong with that, and it’s not reasonable to rush into a miserable married life just because your expiry date is coming close. There is no expiry date for marriage. There is only an expiry date for having healthy kids, but that’s a completely different issue, because a lot of young healthy couple may not be able to have kids for medical reasons, and after all children are, like anything else, a gift from Allah (God).

I believe that as we grew older our chances of meeting new people decrease, so it’s the best idea to take the opportunity provided to us by arranged marriage. We shouldn’t close all doors and windows upon ourselves and wish that a miracle will happen.

At the end I want to say:

“When you go next time for window shopping, remember to be the one outside looking in, not the one trapped inside”

I’m opening the “window” for discussion to this article. I can’t wait to hear from you all.

Note: All Photos shown in this article has been collected from other sites by the author and modified by computer software programs.

The Found Treasure

2010-12-22T15:03:00.000+02:00

I was reading my diary, and I stumbled across some interesting things I wrote back at the beginning of this year. This part was entitled “A Walk Through My Memories” it was basically memories of 2009 I had during walking to have my hair cut at the Barber Shop near home! They were really not very happy memories, but I learned a lot from them. Here are some excerpts straight from my Diary:

“I believe it's very important to remember the painful experience a person goes through because these are the experiences that teach us facts about life. It's the hard way to learn, but the most effective and time standing way.

I went walking down the street. I haven't walked down that street for so long. In the last few months all I did was rush into my car and drive. This time I decided to slow down and simply walk down the street, even if it wasn’t that much of a walk, as the Barber Shop is only a few blocks away.

I was enjoying the winter spirit, when people wear heavy clothes to keep warm, couples walking closely to warm each other, people at a gift shop buying presents for their loved ones.

As I passed them by, I remembered a lot of happy and sad moments that passed away last year. I remembered how someone managed to penetrate her way into my heart, just to rip it out afterwards. How I was living in a dream of happiness, caring and respect, only to wake up discovering hidden facts, and half-truths. How I decided to give her a chance to be a friend, after it didn’t work out between us, but she refused to take that chance. Could people who were really soulmates become just friends? I still remember her voice in the phone. The hours we spent together on phone, the time we spent together studying. The day I went with her to that Burger restaurant near her home, that day I felt things would be just perfect. “She is one of the good ones” I thought back then. Nobody knows what could have happened if she had been honest with me. It just was not meant to be. She gave me the courage to express what I felt towards her without hesitation, gave me the courage to meet her father and speak to him, let him know who I am. It was a great night, that day I met her father. I though things would go alright. That's all in the past now. A life time relationship can never be built on lies or half-truths.”

After this part in my diary there is a part where I wish her good luck, and pray that she’d be better off. Then there is a part where I write about how she positively changed me. Then the important part below:

“I would like to call 2009 the year of "The lost Hearts". I hope that when this year ends I'll call it the year of "The Found Treasure" or something. I'm too busy lately, and I can't seem to find anytime to find anything. I hope the situation gets better through the year.”

Reading this part of my diary, I wondered if the year 2010 was, as I thought it would be, the year of “The Found Treasure”.

I reflected on the year 2010 with all the memories I could recreate in my imagination, images of pleasant memories came to mind:

Al-Khalifa tower- Dubai

· My trip to Dubai with all the glamour, gift haunting, and site seeing.

· Meeting the most wonderful girl, and helping her, only to discover she doesn’t speak English well! It didn’t really matter, I was glad to help, anyway. That was on my trip to Sharm El Sheik.

· An evening with friends at a restaurant, and movies; where we laughed, joked and got to know each other better.

· The Trip to Al-Ain Sokhna; it was hilarious. We had a lot of laughs.

Beach at Ain Shokna road, Egypt

· A group Iftar with my friends, when we also, celebrated the birthday of one of my very close friends, and visited the Citadel; my first time to visit it.

· A series of walks in old Islamic Cairo with all the fascinating thoughts it carries.

View at Ibn Tulun Masged
Cairo

· Going to International Bowling Center; to have fun with friends. With all the competitiveness and hilarious photography.

· Horse riding trip at the Pyramids, where the horse refuses to run like a normal horse and insists on walking and spiting around for no apparent reason. A funny horse really!!

· Flashes of Jazz concerts at Citadel, and old Egypt. My visit to Indian Embassy with all the Indian food, and music.

· Going out with non-Egyptian friends at Zamalek, hanging out at a café exchanging ideas, Ice cream, and eating at Dessouki (Not a glamorous restaurant; just a very down to earth simple and pleasant one).

· Flashes from weddings, engagements, and funerals of friends and relatives. A chance to meet relatives and get updated on where they are in life. Share happiness, and sadness.

· Flashes from my first engagement. I was really glad that almost all my close relatives came. Also, the after-engagement party; where almost all my friends, living in Egypt, came, even old friends from school; who I haven’t seen for ages!

I realized how blessed I am, El-hamdo Lellah (Thank God). The year 2010 was truly the year of “The Found Treasure”, not because I found the girl I want to live the rest of my life with; I actually did not, but because I meet a lot of very interesting people who eventually became my good friends, and because I enjoyed a lot of fascinating experiences this year. Sometimes, we go in search for something and end up finding something else; that we didn’t know that we needed.

Even the sad, painful moments of this year, were parts of my Found Treasure, because they have inspired me to widen-up my circle of friends, get exposed to more points of view and eventually inspired the ideas in this blog.

Great pieces of art, music and novels were created by the raging passion under the skin of people who were in pain. Think about that; the Mona Lisa with her mysterious smile painted by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, the other artist famous for all his great paintings Vincent Willem van Gogh; he suffered anxiety, he cut his own ear off and drew himself with one ear cut off and strapped by a piece of cloth! The great writer Earnest Hemingway; who wrote one of my favorite books “Old Man and The Sea”, he suffered unbearable physical as well as emotional pain, and eventually shot himself!, the French singer Édith Piaf, who sang very fascinating songs like “la vie en Rose”, suffer a lot of pain starting with her childhood, and died of liver cancer. Also, a lot of new ideas in our modern life were inspired by such pain. Watch the movie “Social Network”, and you may get a glimpse of what I mean.

It is because of sadness and pain do we create.

A musical folkloric performance at Citadel, Cairo

I used to say “Forget the sad past, and don’t worry much about the future, live only in the present”… Now, I believe we should always “Live the present, but never forget to reflect on the past; to capture the lessons it holds and pave the way for a better future”. We must also, remember to “Never let the past destroy our future”.

I’m glad to say that the year of “The Found Treasure” is almost over. I hope you all have found your treasures this year, and hope you find more next year.

As for me, I decided not to search for any treasures during 2011, instead I’ll just keep my eyes open while moving around, may be I’ll find a treasure that I wasn’t searching for!

Happy New Year everybody…

Note: All photos and images in this Post are original, and have been captured by the camera of the author, then modified using computer software.

Places … Sadness …Happiness

2010-12-19T18:16:00.000+02:00

As I walked into the funeral of my very close friend's mother, I noticed my friend and his father shaking hands with the visitors and accepting their condolences. I walked to them shook their hands warmly, hugged my friend and gave them my deepest condolences. Then I sat inside the hall of occasions that was attached to the Masged where the funeral was held (I choose this word “Masged” as the word “Mosque” means mosquito in some languages and is found to be offensive to the nature of such holy places).

While sitting there amongst friends I realized that at this exact same hall, two months ago, I was here to attend the celebration of marriage of one of my relatives (Katb El-ketab; The authentication of Marriage process in a registry book; this is carried out by a Sheik in a Masged’s hall of occasions or at home, or sometimes in some hotel's hall of ceremonies. This is followed by the Marriage ceremony on another day or sometimes on the same day of Katb el-ketab).

The same places where we celebrate happiness are also, where we grieve. I let my imagination go astray. I thought of Egypt's Masgeds, Churches, and the Pyramids. All those places along the years have stood and remained, until today and for more years to come, celebrating both happiness and melancholy. Happiness; when people are sacredly bond by marriage, when babies are newly born, when a Hijri or a Christ year ends and another begins, when the time of feast and prayer is due. Grieving in melancholy; when people died years ago in war, and when someone close to us leaves us in this world with all its challenges. The death of one is the dead of all and the life of one is the life of all. We should always remember those people; remember the great things they did, the legacy they left behind, we should also, pass on the story of the great people who died in order for us to live. We should know that the death of someone or something is the birth of someone or something else. With every end comes a new beginning.

I was pulled out of my world of imagination by the service man offering coffee and tea. I took a cup of tea and thanked him. I noticed the Sheikh reciting a verse from the Holy Koran. The verse states “(27) (To the righteous soul will be said :) "O (thou) soul, in (complete) rest and satisfaction! (28) Come back thou to thy Lord, well pleased (thyself), and well-pleasing unto Him! (29) Enter thou, then, among My devotees! (30) Yea, enter thou My Heaven!” (Surah 89. Al-Fajr (The Dawn, Daybreak) Translated by Yusuf Ali).

We are all here in this life as visitors, we will eventually come back to thy Lord; Allah. This is a message for us to remember that we should let our visit in this world be pleasant; help others who are in need, draw a smile on faces you meet, and be there with people in their sad moments to give support, pray and thank thy Lord; Allah for all the bounties he has granted us.

We should make the most out of this life, and prepare to leave this world with a calm smile. We should also, remember that our loved ones are there with thy Lord; Allah, and they want us to be ok, and pray for them. It’s ok to be sad for a while, it’s a natural thing. It’s not even healthy to keep all this sadness inside and not expressing it, not shedding a tear, but we must never let our lives be lived in sadness, and let sadness affect our lives negatively.

Be like all those places (Masgeds, Churches, and Halls), embracing both sadness and happiness along the years, remaining solid, but never forgetting to learn the lessons these moments carry within.

Alaa El-deen Esmail Fahmy Sunday, December 19, 2010

This is my first online official Blog, and it’s dedicated specially to my Friend Morad Ezzat; may his life be full of happiness and May peace and blessings be upon his Mother’s soul.

P.S: The Photos Above has been captured by the author the second photo is of El Ghory’s Market (Wekalet El-Ghory) at Islamic Cairo it was a place for shopping, but today a place for holding cultural events and art performances.