Directed by Waleed Zaiter, this is a video interpretation of Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hammad’s “Into Egypt” featuring unforgettable imagery from the revolution and the Arab Spring.
(via Pulse)
[youtube http://youtu.be/2bHB8h4S1XI?]
The Angry Arab : As I read about the poll yesterday (see the post below), I was thinking: I wonder how the Zionist media will twist this. I could not wait. And here it goes. This is the headline of the New York Times about the matter: “Poll Finds Egyptians Full of Hope About the Future“. Ha ha ha and Ha. Are you kidding me? This is the most interesting element in the poll for the Times? Are you kidding us. We know what you care about, and it is not hope about future. And then they report this about the most important finding for Zionist hoodlums: “The poll also found that a majority of Egyptians, 54 percent, want to annul the 1979 peace treaty with Israel that has been a cornerstone of Egyptian foreign policy and the region’s stability. The finding squares with the overwhelming anecdotal evidence that Egyptians feel Israel has not lived up to its commitments in its treatment of the Palestinians.” What? The anecdotal evidence is that Egyptians don’t feel that Israel lived up to its commitment? The EGYPTIAN PEOPLE use language of French diplomats? Who writes such dumb language here? Anecdotal evidence point that Egyptian people hate, despise, and detest the state of Israel and want the full liberation of Palestine. And then they say that the treaty brought “stability” to the region. To whom in the region? To Israel and its war crimes of course. And then the foreign editor of the times adds this: “But more than a third of respondents, 36 percent, favored keeping the treaty, and the poll did not ask the more controversial question of whether Egyptians wanted to sacrifice the three decades of peace they have enjoyed along the border.” This was humorous. First, they take solace from the smaller figure in the poll, and then add disapprovingly that the Egyptians were not asked in the same questions about whether they want to sacrifice peace. They basically want a better survey to ask the Egyptian in this manner: would you support the peace treaty with Israel KNOWING that bombs would fall on your heads if you say no? Thanks for the polling experts of the Times. Without them I would not have understood the demands and aspirations of the Egyptian people.
The previous article
“No dividend emerges for the United States from the political changes that have occurred in Egypt. Favorable ratings of the U.S. remain as low as they have been in recent years, and many Egyptians say they want a less close relationship with America. Israel fares even more poorly. By a 54%-to-36% margin, Egyptians want the peace treaty with that country annulled.
Categories: New Arab Voices
Posted on March 21, 2011 by Amr El Beleidy
Caricature drawn by Sara Abd El Azim during the revolution, Photo: Sara Abd El Azim (Twitter @lujee), http://lewjee.blogspot.com
In the run up to the toppling of the then president Mohamed Hosny Mubarak, his parasitic group in power did their utmost to keep him in place. Government-controlled media took up mass propaganda by fabricating stories and advocating the ex-president’s merits.
The loyalists were using a message they thought would make most people quiet down, a message that had proven effective in the past – the president is your father.
It was a clever card to play, addressing the strong emotional bond between Egyptians and their families. A family in Egypt is widely seen as the building block of society, and its well-being is the number one priority to all its members.
Individuality is accepted so long as it does not harm or shame the family, at which point they have the right to intervene. But who decides what is harmful or shameful? The parents do, and traditionally the father has the last word.
Children are expected to love their parents unconditionally for life. And whether your parents treat you well or not, it’s a given you must learn to accept and deal with. Honour thy father and thy mother.
Kicking your father out of the house brings shame to you before anyone else. The government maintained that kicking the president out of power, in such a dishonourable way, would bring shame to the people. It would be unorthodox behaviour, and the president should stay for our own good.
But ‘I am your father’ is a phrase that could be used to insult. It implies an illicit relationship with the other person’s mother, the most sacred figure in any Egyptian family. Every time this message was repeated, I became furious and was even more determined than before to make the old man leave.
My father was the man sitting next to me as we watched the news on TV, and no one else has a claim to this right. Their message had backfired.
An Egyptian anti-government demonstrator touches a picture of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Tahrir squareFebruary 10, 2011, Photo: Picture alliance / © dpa
There was a clash of realities. The revolutionaries in Tahrir square and throughout the country saw the ex-president as a man who is an employee of the people. They believed his job was to implement the people’s will. He believed his job was to will the people’s implementation.
He saw himself as our father, guiding us, with foresight and wisdom, through the perils of a world we were not ready to face by ourselves just yet. In these thirty years of emergency there was no room for discussion, all must obey. Those who don’t, risk putting us all in danger and must be dealt with accordingly.
In the end, the stronger reality prevailed.
But a revolution was not only happening on the streets, a revolution was and still is taking place in every home.
Almost everyone I’ve spoken to suffered from similar issues to those I had with my parents. My father wanted me to stay in and not take part in the revolution. He did not believe the movement would get anywhere, and thought I was putting myself, our family and the whole country in unnecessary danger.
While I managed to leave home and join the streets, some friends were not able to do the same because their parents stopped them. Others were able to join but only on certain days or for a certain amount of time, depending on family dynamics.
But succeeding in overthrowing the largest symbol of controlling and abusive paternity in the country means that the younger generations have now won a crucial bet against the older ones.
We are not going to accept absolute power over our destinies anymore, whether from outside the house or inside, but I suspect the latter might take more than eighteen days to materialise.
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