Sunday, November 2, 2008

On Leaving

Disclaimer: This will not be subtle, I'll leave subtlety for another post!

I couldn't help noticing how leaving the country is rapidly becoming a goal for almost every young egyptian.
Almost 70% of the people I know who are still in Egypt, have sent their CVs to friends abroad for consideration.

Everybody has either thought of leaving, or tried to leave, or in fact did leave.
That obviously means, that this subject became the bread and butter of social gatherings.

Yesterday, one of the people I respect, said to me that in all cases, the things we miss in Egypt aren't there anymore.
The example he drove was one I had already heard before...
"If you pass by the Church, for example, you'll find nobody hanging out there"

(I apologize for the example, but due to a miscalculated administrative desicion, that resulted in the launch of a nation-wide marketing campaign, Churches in Egypt were turned into Social Clubs as well as Houses of Worship!)

Now I had heard that exact same statement three times before, but this time there was a very important difference.
This time, the man who said it (as well as I) was sitting in a mall in Abu Dhabi, instead of on a car parked in front of that Church!
And then something hit me... a scene from an animated motion picture, WALL-E!

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

That scene in "WALL-E" where the Captain of the Axiom looks at the plant in the shoe, and tells it that it's okay, all it needed was a little care... then glances back at the computer screen showing what planet Earth had become... And makes up his mind to head back home immediately.

SPOILERS END

Of course there's nobody hanging out around our Church these days, they all left!
What do you expect? We've all abandoned ship!
Of course it's a mess! And of course it won't get any better over the years!

This is not a call to Egyptians to come back and clean up the dump that used to be their home, or die trying.
This is just a demonstration of the cause-and-effect relations that helped get us where we are.

What you take out of it is really very much up to you, don't blame it on me.


4 comments:

  1. ''the things we miss in Egypt aren't there anymore.''

    ghalat ghalat ghalat ghalat ghalat!!!!!!

    how come people miss it then?!

    I just realized this sounded very.. blindly opinionated keda, but I'll still have it in my comment, because it's part of how I feel about this issue

    Actually what you once told me about how it wouldn't matter whether you're here or abroad when it falls to pieces, I thought about it.. I don't think so. I think it would matter.

    It's like saying it wouldn't matter if you're there with your mother when she dies, she'll be dead anyway fa mosh hatez3al

    I don't know, that's just a rambling, I really don't know

    I've got more than motives to dream about/pursure something like leaving, but I just can't picture my life in some huge building clean city with a lot of.. nas aganeb keda mesh shabahna

    that maybe racist/biased aw 7aga keda

    again, I don't know, I'm rambling

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your ramblings sometimes have very powerful statements hidden in the middle.
    You're right, it would matter where we are when it falls to pieces. And the example you gave was excellent.
    When I said it didn't matter, I meant that as far as safety and security go, it won't help much if I'm outside Egypt when it crashes.
    So yes, we better be there, especially that it seems as if she's not just peacefully passing away, it's more like she's losing her reason and her soul.

    As for racism, that's funny because you should see how people here are REALLY racist, and they claim to live in a cosmopolitan city!

    ReplyDelete
  3. how sad !!!
    ''the things we miss in Egypt aren't there anymore.''

    "there" doesn't equal "Egypt"
    "There" equals "inside us "

    'the things we miss in Egypt aren't inside us anymore"

    with the current situation of full deterioration ," fasaad " and despair..it is really easy to hate her

    ReplyDelete
  4. FW, the problem is that the situation won't get any better on its own. & anyway, a difficult but puposeful life must be better than a relatively easier but aimless one, or so I feel.

    ReplyDelete