From Alex with love

Date:  Fri, 11 Feb 2011

Subject:  A Letter I sent my Friends in Canada.

Dear all,

Thank you for thinking of us in these difficult and now beautiful times.  The past week has been difficult for all of us.  I dealt with it by trying to keep busy: I polished my mom's silver, brass and by cleaning house as well as taking care of my mother and seeing that she's comfortable.   We get a yearly supply of oranges and grapefruit from my mom's orchard in Behera, that became another chore.  After giving all our friends and neighbors their share, I was making juice daily.  These daily chores kept me sane.

My mom lives in a beautiful apartment building, built by the french architect Auguste Perret.  I always looked at it as one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.  I've often compared the building to Egypt, that it had seen good times filled with beauty and culture and it was now growing old and was neglected.  It took the young facebook generation to restore my faith in the possibility of a new Egypt: the Egypt I was raised in.  This was a new day, a new world for Egypt.  I have faith in a new Egypt.  I have faith in this young generation of Egyptians.  There is no limit to what they can do.  I love a verse from the Koran that says: " If God makes you victorious, no one can overcome you".  I hope this will prove to be their lot.

Forgive my rambling.  This has been a trying time.  I'm glad I have witnessed the dawn of a new day in Egypt before I left.

Thank you again.
All my love,
Nadia

Iron gate

February 2011 upon hearing hard-core criminals were unleashed from jails in Egypt. 

Reflecting upon my good friend's iron gate. Embroiled in legally-related matters, personal circumstances already stretched to the limit ~ now a national crisis on hand to boot.

The weather's grim
The mood is dim
The stars are quashed
Their light snuffed out
The iron gate stands firm

Embroiled in dispute
Lawyers with tape measures

Staring at the void ahead

Promises cheap

Extortionate in compromise
 

Police faces shrivelled in scorn

Jailed within their minds
 

Jet black bars 

Designed to shun
Now a welcoming comfort
A shield from looters and grabbers
Weasles of the night

In the morning it lets us out
It speaks not
But with a silent twang

An iron nudge

Imprints its mark

So when daylight flickers
We know to rush
Back
Before it disappears
Molten
Into its black bars
Of night

An enemy within
An enemy without
 

A dim beckoning light
In endless plight
By a see-through iron gate
Discerning not.

Notable quotes to inspire

From Belle, in the UK

I was very interested to read your post, here we seem so detached from these events. Now the main media have largely moved on, it is vital to keep an awareness of how far peoples' aspirations are being realised - or not.

I recently read about the novelist Alaa Al Aswany, and loved his quote:

 "When you overcome the barrier of fear it is irreversible."
I hope that ‘must’ be true, and the people will not allow the old ways to survive.

And here's another quote from Alaa Al Aswany which is very succinct:

 "The trick now is to institutionalise the values of the revolution."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/20/egyptian-novelist-hails-revolution

Leafy thoughts of hopeful verdancy

'GreenLeaf' reflects:
Right now it feels as if all sorts of vines are being grabbed and swung around by all sorts of players, entangling everything and creating a messy jungle. Or, it seems like we climbed up the beanstalk and found an Ogre. 

Or, on a very different theme: like we opened up Pandora's Box. 

However I still try to retain the high hopes of the fresh green shoots and the promise of the buds. (Remember, Pandora also unleashed Hope).

Still hoping for fruition.