Tuesday 27 November 2012

Limping Aside


A Country Divided:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/20/video-michael-petrou-on-egypt/







BiLdeRWeLteN (facebook)
                                                                                                                                    Yes, Egypt may appear to have a limp these days ~ tied to crutches, conditions and economic decline but still it keeps its spirit finely tuned, soaring above all adversity.
المرسم المصرى
It's enabled to do so simply because of its diversity, the firm roots embedded in its history. The nation clings on with tooth and nail to its rights as a people who come together organically rather than through policies that attempt to ordain and declare where they have originally come from. 
صوت مصر الحقيقي

The many occuring incidents taking place in everyday life, the rife abuse on every scale may be construed as self-sabotage. Thuggery of non-determinable sources would appear instrumental in tainting the attitudes of people with tactics of scare-mongery bouncing off all walls. However, nobody can determine the source of  transgression with any certitude for all may not be what it seems. When perpetrators are clad in overall disguise who is to say what party they belong to? Impersonators or representatives?

Either way, there is no denying that when children's plaits are cut off and grown women's personal space is thwarted one factor is rife: hatred~ 
If acts rising from distorted religious fanaticism they can be nothing other than attempts to castrate, threatening our little freedoms in their most basic form. 
If, on the other hand, acts attempting to smear a religious party then there can be no doubt they belong to politically motivated undercurrents; perhaps even to an old regime hovering still and reluctant to give in to any other especially its foremost adversary. 

Persecution existed before the revolution, the MB were severely hounded and incarcerated for their beliefs. Persecution continues to exist~ on all sides now. 
Tolerance levels are shot. 

But freedom of faith and its practices are inbuilt concepts 

~Egyptian ethos cannot evaporate without a trace. 

Can we as a nation bear in mind that tolerance, by definition, cannot be one-sided or discrimnatory?

Old customs of Sharee3a are organically blended into the country's protection laws and are not new to Egypt so that this would not appear to be the focal point of new controversy. No religion can be enforced upon any individual whatever the laws of the land may dictate without dire consequences. Furthermore, enforcement of Islam specifically, can only do one thing: change the sublimity of its very message; a believer is guided to the light within faith and a freedom from the darkness of negativity and cynicsim. 

There can be no coercion. 

When ultimate political powers are added to the mix of religious zeal the fear is that there may be no turning back.

   The orange party is yet to be launched as far as i can make out ~ it may begin to stand on its own and take some direction or at least allow for negotiations of power to take place. 

We had a revolution, we have a revolution, all we can  hope for is that the country's 180% turn does not become a full 360%~ which many now would appear to find preferable. 
For then, the whole shebang could have been for nothing.

However one thing is for sure, Egypt will never be the same again.
Awake it will remain.

Thursday 8 November 2012

Freedom to Reflect

from Facebook 'English jokes for Arabs'


EGYPT AND THE WORLD 

etched on the horizon





Handsome, talented and full of promise
Egypt's youth today
RADICALLY good-natured, peace-loving and humourous
FUNDAMENTALLY free-spirited
EXTREMELY expressive
With always a little more to say

Individual identity, linked or separate from nationalism but always a step closer to the Universal.

Arab Autumn not Fall
 Peaceful Revolutions  Facebook:المرسم المصرى





Revolution Graffiti جداريات الثورة

Zamalek Cairo
http://blog.vandalog.com/2011/07/revolutionary-street-art-and-graffiti-in-egypt/ 
Photo by Maggie Osama

"Contemporary art in Egypt has been overwhelmingly influenced by the media since September 11, 2001, a shift that has only been intensified with the recent uprising in Egypt. The media’s focus on a Western construct of what it means to be Middle Eastern has put pressure on artists who are struggling to retain their individual identity, disregarding what the media dictates as stereotypical Arab art."
Read more:
http://www.aucegypt.edu/newsatauc/Pages/story.aspx?eid=943
“The current curriculum teaches artists to take Egyptian heritage and make it contemporary with new mediums,” he said. “As an educator, I see this as a very superficial depiction of what it means to be Egyptian. Not every piece of art needs to reflect where we have been as a society; it isn’t original.”

“Graffiti has become a language to address immediate and sudden feelings,” said El Noshokaty. “The energy from the street is projected on the walls in a way that is uniquely interactive, as anyone can add to it or erase it. This is a strong artistic statement that is contemporary at its very core.” 
Shady El Noshokaty

Graffiti in Egypt and Tunisia has been used as a popular form of expression during the revolution in the respective countries. (File photo)
No vandalism. No weapons. Just art.

At least that is the way revolutionaries who use public spaces see it. 
 By Arfad Al Janabi
Al Arabiya Dubai
read more: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/23/178749.html