Friday, April 08, 2005

The Arab Spring

has definetely arrived. The Spring in Egypt is the worst season of the year. Dusty winds, lousy khamaseen, just terrible weather that you can hardly breath. One spring, I tried to use a breathing mask while sleeping, but didn't really work. No flowers blossom in our Spring, they start dying after the winter and before the dead heat of the summer. Today is just a small example of the lousy Spring weather in Egypt. Terrible weather, couldn't do my exercise at the club, can hardly breath. Yesterday, was just an example of the political Arab Spring. Innocent dead people murdered for no apparent reason whatsoever. Murderous bastards who are going straight to hell via the divine express lane.

A nail bomb exploding in the Mousky area (one of the most crowded areas of Cairo) on a Thursday afternoon, and the dumb ass murderer killing himself in the process. What could be next, I wonder.

I'm sorry if I dehumanize this. It is a terrible act of terror, it is inexcusable, and it is absolutely unjustifiable. And really, the hell with tourism, I didn't care for it anyways, and I hate to hear people crying over it, as if it is the problem we're facing!! I just cannot figure the reason of this blast one bit. Try to think like a terrorist even, and I still can't get it. Who does this sick act serve exactly?!

Here are the usual suspects:
1) The Islamic militants
2) An individual act
3) The regime
4) Israel
5) The U.S.

1) By Islamic militants, I ofcourse don't mean the conservative Muslims, they are not supposed to be militants. The Muslims Brotherhood are not a violent group, and if for any crazy reason they went out of their minds to do this, it would end any tiny bit of sympathy they may have in an instance, would end any objective they might be working for, and that would be it for them in Egypt. The Jama'a Islameyya have denounced violence a few years ago, could they be feeling nostalgic? maybe. AlQaeda may want to show their presence in Masr ElMahrousa, and seeing how screwed up their minds are, they may actually be thinking that way. If so, I'd like to see Zawahri come visit his family here in Cairo, and see what Egyptians will do to him.

2) An individual act? This is the first thing that our smart government comes up with everytime something like this happens. See today's Ahram newspaper, "Prime Minister and Minister of Interior asserts that its an individual act"! huh, how the hell did you know that already. Five minutes after the blast, they claim its an individual act, then they sweep the area detaining thousands of innocent people!

3) The regime? some people are starting to pass this idea around. A friend just told me that he's sure its the regime! Come on. How merciless and bloody can they be?! Is this what they need to crack down even more on the Islamists, show the world that opening the door for democracy is not the solution in our neighborhood, and prove that the way they've been ruling is the right way to do it. A bit far fetched if you ask me. They are villains, but that's just stretching it too much.

4 & 5) If all else doesn't make sense, then blame it on Israel or/and the U.S. Not that its out of their way to do something similar. I'm sure that soon enough I'll hear a theory that might make some sense. I just don't have one now, and let's not start by blaming them please.

I just don't know who the hell could do such a thing, and how the hell this could be serving the sick interests of anyone out there. All I know is that the Arab Spring has certainly arrived.


--
I tried to hold myself from writing about this, because my other topic is actually more interesting, but have to say my 2 cents worth here.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate to seem like I'm towing the government line, but I can't see how it could be anything but a one-off freak incident, and all the signs point to that: if this was organised, the human loss was pathetically low, not even worth the risk. If this was something motivated by the regime, it would never have happened in El Mosky or El Khan - they are far too critical for the local tourism industry, they would've wanted it somewhere else: important, but non-critical. If it was the US/Israel, it would've taken a different form, mosh baladi keda ya3ni, da shoghl sabakeen.

Now, if this was some deranged young man, destitute and desperate...makes sense to me.

Adrian said...

It seems that it is harder for me to think that it was just one man than an extremist group, but I see how it could just be one person.

These attacks happen so often that I think we're conditioned to expect that they are the act of some organization with a twisted world view and no moral or ethical grounding. Of course it could be one person. What is a group if not made up of a bunch of like-minded individuals?

Twosret said...

I have a question off topic. Is there is a reason why all Egyptian blogs (the many I'm aware of)ignored the death of John Paul II and his funeral?

I mean for pete's sake the man recognized Palestine, was against the Iraq war, visited ME countries and gave recognition to Islam and middle easterns.

I'm just wondering?!

T.

Anonymous said...

Tworset: The pope refused to apologize to the Muslim for the massacres committed by the crusades but issued an official apology to the Jews because of the Holocaust although the vatican was not responsible.
I dont see why we should be grateful for the rest of the stuff you mentioned. He didnt recognize Palestine when did he do that? He even REFUSED to visit Salah El-Din's tomb.
In any case, I dont think his death was deliberatly ignored by egyptian blogs but as you realise blogs usually express things that affect or move their authors, the vatican and the pope might not have that effect on egyptian bloggers.

Anonymous said...

Twosret, I respect the man, and so do many Egyptians I believe (except TIC maybe?!). I think the coverage of the funeral was respectful too on all the Arab media. I certainly didn't deliberatly ignore his death, I just have nothing different to add. But I certainly mourn him, and I feel your sadness.

Twosret said...

TIC,

I think you need to read more on the Pope position towards Palestine and his mission in general. I think you are missing the core message of the Pope.

The arabs always miss their PR chances when Jews just hop on the wagon and make sure their cause is attached to every prominant figure. The Jews did it in his life and was smart enough and the Arabs didn't even try to take advantage of very tolerant great man to support them.

Since blogs are considered an alternative venue for news, I think the educated arab bloggers are missing out on PR that the arab lacks very much.

Bloggers are free to write whatever they want. My post was just a humble observation.

T.

Anonymous said...

Mohamed, I NEVER said I didnt respect the Pope.
I have respect for any man of religion who works hard to promote his faith for a better mankind. I was only noting why the Pope's death might not have moved egyptian bloggers- it is legitimate to state facts which is what I did. I'm certainly not particularly thrilled about the Pople's refusal to apologise for the crusades and for massacring Muslims. But that does not mean I don't respect the man or followers of his faith.
I would also point out the shortcomigns of the current Al-Azhar sheikh if he died and saw a post asking "why aren't Australian blogs commenting on the sheikh's death?" for example.

Twosret said...

Mohamed,

Sorry didn't mean to offend anyone here but I go bizerk when I see how they used this man in the media here to serve the Jewish cause.

They have Levin we have Yassa, they have the holocaust we have Jenin, Sabra and Shatila etc.... I'm glad he visited Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan.

Sorry for being off topic.

T.

Anonymous said...

Twosret, on the contrary, thank you for bringing that up. You didn't offend anyone. As I said Twosret, unfortunately I have nothing different to say about the man, but I sure mourn him. But here's an offer for you. If you can write something about the Pope's death, I'll grant you a post on my blog (if you like).

TIC, don't get jumpy, I didn't say you were disrespectful, I was just asking. Thanks for clarifying your position.

Anonymous said...

Allah yer7amo.

Anonymous said...

Twosret WTF??

how about doiung a little bit of research first,
http://superluli.nomadlife.org/2005/04/what-is-this-week-of-dead.aspx
http://shexworld.blogspot.com/2005/04/may-angels-welcome-you.html
http://adreamtofly.blogspot.com/2005/04/when-world-cried.html
http://ensankhorda.blogspot.com/2005/04/may-18-1920april-2-2005_03.html
http://egyptianeye.blogspot.com/2005/04/blog-post.html
http://kadim.blogspot.com/2005/04/blog-post.html

Mohammed said...

and ramy's post:
http://beyondnormal.blogspot.com/2005/04/1.html

Anonymous said...

Alaa-

Come on mate, you practically eat the aggregator :)

R said...

Hehe..
Mohammed just said it. I just wrote it down..
today although I really started the thing before his death.

John Paul II was really someone to remember; but I wouldn't say that he was ignored. Did our president attend his funeral?
I was surprised to see Khatami, King Abdullah and many Khaligi guys...

Add to these Rayhane Najib from Morocco (linked in my blog)...

Twosret said...

"Alaa said...
Twosret WTF??"

I can reply to you but I won't stoop down to your level.

Mohamed,

If you notice when Ramy posted his topic and when I posted my message you will know that Ramy wrote at 5:00pm midwest time which was almost five hours after I posted here. I checked Ramy's before posting.
I said clearly on my first post (the one I'm aware of) some people here are obviously blind . I have a life and I don't read ALL blogs but the ones I picked to bookmark are the ones I respect and like very much even if I disagree with them.
I can see clearly some direct and indirect anger and hostility towards my post.

Ramy,

I haven't read your post yet but glad you wrote something. I bet you it is longer than one line and a picture.

Hellme,

Whatever!

Anonymous said...

Twosret...

Huh? What was that for? I meant it - allah yer7amo fe3lan.

I'm going to go crawl back to my digital hole...

R said...

Cool down everybody :)

Twosret, I think what angered you is afterall the "WTF" posted by Alaa.

I still can interpret it as "Why too fast"? :)

SO.. there is no problem- stay positive.

Everybody, notice that TWOSRET is a feminine name.. Old Egyptian queen (thanks to Google that helps my ignorance)- And Twosret, you're very famous: your profile is the second on Google!

I think the language angered her, but, cool down. It's a good reason to use the manalaa aggregator. It's one of the greatest things that happened to Egyptian bloggers thanks to Alaa.

Now we are talking about a Bloggers syndicate!