Live at Time of Posting – Atlantic Council – The Economic Decline of Egypt after the 2011 Uprising – YouTube
15 Wednesday Jun 2016
Tag Archives: Egypt
With Egyptian Naima Nas – One Question – One Good Answer
17 Sunday Jan 2016
Tags
change, conservative values, cultural change, cultural politics, Egypt, el-Sisi, modern Egypt, Naima Nas, state leadership
The big one which explaining to those many millions who still think changes are easy to bring — just raise our minimum wage and reduce the prices! It is not that simple and reeducating them will take time, reducing dependency on the state will take time, and getting them to stop throwing trash outside their homes will take time. But the religious preachers will have to come on board and help in the brain “write” to counter the past 50-80 years of brainwash. That is the tough one, but that is an internal matter that concerns Egyptians and no one else.
BackChannels:
What things (changes, conditions, policies, results) most produce hope in Egypt?
Naima Nas:
For as long as I can remember there have been (policies and changes and plans, etcetera ) but the one thing that has always been missing is autonomy en masse. The average citizen needs to be independent and resourceful, not just the hundred or so officials in office.
The good news is there are a lot of such citizens — possibly half the population.
There are the people who take advantage of reforms in any field and comply with laws that ensure improvements. If more schools are available and the law says everyone must stay in school till a certain age, they make sure their children go to school and do their homework and learn well, regardless of how difficult, and move up the ladder. I was born in a family like that . Policies or even magic potions have to be cooperated with not just set.
It may surprise you to learn that there have always been laws in Egypt addressing every area that needs addressing. The laws are all there, they just need to be applied to everyone without exception. That has always been the obstacle. That is the first thing that mesmerised me about Europe when I first stepped on the continent. It does not matter what or how trivial or grave the discrepancy, everyone answers to someone.
But to apply that to the chaos that is Egypt -pulled from pillar to post for years – is to start at the top and work down. Which is exactly what Sisi ‘s logic appears to be and the reason why I unreservedly support the man in his quest.
I’ll list one or two things as examples.
1. Understanding that it is impossible to have democracy or anything remotely resembling a fair government when the ruling elite are theocratic . So the “Islamic for Muslims only president” had to go, pronto! And no one cares how legitimate were the elections that put him there. He lost his legitimacy when the plan to throw Egypt under the Sinai terror bus became clear. And no one was waiting for paperwork!
2. Now we all — or almost all — agree on what we don’t want and what we really wish for, so let us make these laws visible! Starting with swift action against corruption. From the top down. That is the hardest thing to do. Because we all have a time when we wish we can speed up a process any which way .
3. Leading by example. So as he (el-Sisi) goes on records extending his hand in peace and sealing it with representatives on official level to boot. So can we — the average citizens . No one is too controversial by attending church or a synagogue and having Christian and Jewish best friends as many of us have done for years. Now it is definitely not a novelty to be tolerant and open minded because, look, the president has long been doing that.
Finally
4. The big one which explaining to those many millions who still think changes are easy to bring — just raise our minimum wage and reduce the prices! It is not that simple and reeducating them will take time, reducing dependency on the state will take time, and getting them to stop throwing trash outside their homes will take time. But the religious preachers will have to come on board and help in the brain “write” to counter the past 50-80 years of brainwash. That is the tough one, but that is an internal matter that concerns Egyptians and no one else.
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“RIP Dear Yesteryear” – Guest Post by Naima Nas
27 Friday Mar 2015
We start by lightening the load on our children’s minds, allowing them objectivity rather than indoctrination, and hopefully guiding them to think and plan for a future instead of programming them to perpetually whine over a past long gone.
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Much ado about a little something again, as the Egyptian education authorities pokes a hornet nest.
Buzzzzzzzzzzz!
It goes with the usual hysteria! But is it merited? Well, if “the preservation of history” is the only focus and every other detail is blocked out, then yes, there is potentially room for a debate. Otherwise, this is possibly the best news I have heard all week in a sea of bad news, each piece of news a wave sweeping over the last so fast, I barely had time to pop my head up for air.
The latest news?
Restricting the tide of “hero worship” in the language curriculum in Egyptian schools.
The assortment of headlines may have included more sentational wording but that really is the total sum of it! It is not an attempt to obliterate the memory of Salah El Din or Uqba Ibn Nafi. Just restrict their stories to where they belong, in the history class with lessons to learn from their errors as well as triumphs, not the Arabic language/Religious education one usually delivered by the same teacher.
“Bravo!” is what many of us think and I will tell you why.
I personally love languages, all of them, especially my native one Arabic!
Nothing touches my very soul like Arabic.
As a young student, my Arabic teacher, who I am not going to name as I do not wish to be associated with his name now or ever was also my religious education teacher. When the teacher began to adopt very fundamental views on religion, none of us in that class questioned them. Cut a long story short, eventually I announced to my horrified parents that I would be wearing a Burka from then on!
Shorter story still, my father said NO, absolutely NOT.
That really was the total sum of my teenage rebellion quashed by my tyrant father- or so I thought at the time. Oh, I protested and complained for weeks, but that was that, as I never dreamt of disobeying my father at 14/15 I just settled for resenting him for a very long time. It is ok — I’ve grown up since realizing over time how we get so excited at times over our freedom of this, that, or the other, and we should, sometimes! But at times, depending on what is at stake, we should pause and look further, wider, and deeper into what we are about to launch into wars, be it an actual war or just one of words.
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I very much doubt an introduction to Salah El Din is necessary for anyone reading this. Every one knows who he was. And this is too short an article to discuss a man who is possibly the most revered after religious figures. I ll let you do that research into the volumes and volumes of studies at your own leisure. What is relevant to this very short piece is what I believe is the impact of the myth on the whole region, especially during the past 100 years or so. Allow me to quote a few lines from Switching Souls – a book online- that sum this impact: “….. the father of every Arab nation, fancied himself the reincarnation of Salah El Din, the great Muslim warrior who unified the Islamic nation against the undeniable danger of the Crusades. Imperialism became the bastard offspring of the Crusades and Zionism was cast as the devil child of both: who could can resist that?”
I can just picture the shock and horror generated by an Arab, which i proudly am, disputing the greatness of this incomparable Warrior.
Relax I am not disputing anything!
Salah El Din was great and inspirational in every way.
Salah El Din is also dead now and the circumstances that dictated any or all of his actions were never identical to the circumstances throughout the past 100 years, and that is the point: the only common denomination in this operation is in fact Jerusalem. If we are brutally honest, had Jerusalem not been the focal point, he might have remained where he belonged, in the history books relating to the Crusades. By linking the crusades to Western imperialism, religion was dragged into a dispute that had nothing to do with religion to start with.
Yes, I know anti-semitism started that whole chain reaction with the persecution of the Jews, an ethnic group recognised for their religion most of the time, I know!
Still, leaping from that to making the Jewish/Arab conflict a religious one and asserting that the fight for Jerusalem was a religious holy war was, is, and will be the doom of the whole region.
The formula is all wrong and too deadly, and it works only with the mythical figure of the warrior at its centre. So it makes a certain kind of sense to lay that to rest, especially in language classes that by habit often spill into religious education.
It is a tall order compressing all this in a few lines, but I sincerely believe that if we are serious about finding peace for us all in the region, not to mention pulling the plug and the black magic rug from under the feet of every abomination that has sprung from it as a result, then we have absolutely no choice but to start the divorce procedures now: divorce from myths, from forced similarities, from delusions of recapturing a glorious past by dressing up in the heroes costumes. Instead, today, we start by concentrating on freeing young and impressionable minds from the cobwebs left hanging within them, and by founding a stronger basis to their identities than “I used to be great, so great my great, great, grand father used to whoop your great, great grandfather’s butt, you non-Arab, non-Muslim thing ya!”.
We start by lightening the load on our children’s minds, allowing them objectivity rather than indoctrination, and hopefully guiding them to think and plan for a future instead of programming them to perpetually whine over a past long gone.
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An Egyptian Voice – Guest Post by Naima Nas – “To Sisi or not to See”
28 Wednesday May 2014
Posted in Egypt, Middle East, Politics, Regions
Tags
He understands Egypt is about Egyptians first, all Egyptians regardless of their religion or lack of.
And he understands that a war, internally or externally is not what we desire nor need.
These are not his wishes: these are ours, our own desires, despairs, hopes and dreams. What sets him apart is that he can hear and see us.
That is all.
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Egyptian writer Naima Nas describes herself as “An Egyptian absent from Egypt in body but present in heart mind and soul – a daughter of a nation trying to do the right thing at a time when every minute counts.”
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To Sisi or not to See
I wrote this in February in a note titled If I were the boy!
“There is no magic instant fix to al our problems. I have no access to pots of money, nor wands to change it all for the best. So I won’t lie to you. It is not going to get wonderful anytime soon. And unless we buckle up and work together it is not going to get better at all. It is going to be tougher than it ever was because we have wasted more time than we ever should have. And if we do not apply some common sense and let the one industry we can count on be revived and soon, we are in deep trouble.
If you can understand all that, I promise you I will personally see that corruption is tackled wherever it is found. But there will be no sudden magic cure. If this is ok I will run for President.”
Three months later el-Sisi might as well have been reading from my note as he gave his interview.
No I am not a fortune teller.
But It is not rocket science.
Every Egyptian with any level of awareness that is not eclipsed by religious fanaticism knows this. How to address the problems realistically is the question. The fanatic, the bitter, and the even some very noble revolutionaries whose vision has been blurred with the heightened state of revolt will refute some or all of this. But let us be honest and realistic: a state of permanent revolt is not sustainable physically, psychologically nor financially.
Reality must catch on at some point.
And right now the reality is: it is time to get our head above water or drown. Sanity dictates that a population that is increasing alarmingly as you read this must pause and reconsider its resources. A nation with such impact politically and strategically must regain its balance, not only for its own sake and the sake of those living in it but also for the sake of everyone around it.
I am going to be blunt and it will please no one.
The last government kept its popularity by pretending to be the saving warrior of a foreign cause.
The truth is sane Egyptians have one primary demand of the president and the government, past, present or future. Serve Egypt first. Friends of Egypt are dear especially those who stand by Egypt and we cherish them all but we serve Egypt first. Sisi understands that because he is tuned in, he sees and hears us all and that is what we want.
Serve Egypt and Egyptians as a priority above all other priorities.
Thirty years of wars did not serve Egypt, Sadat understood that, he served Egypt and paid for it with his life. 30 more years of exploitation of the whole nation did not serve Egypt and we are done with those who ignored that.
A single year in power made it absolutely clear that the government did not understand how to serve the nation.
We did not need more religion, we are plenty religious and always have been.
We did not need more Burkas on TV or less Ballet.
We did not need more nightmarish existence for women prowled upon by the socially and sexually frustrated beasts. We did not need to consider lowering the marriage age to 9 for girls while men in their late twenties have no hope in hell of finding a source of income to sustain a wife. Not even one who is a grown up and can work!
Most of all we did not need a blind eye to the training camps for terror on our soil. And all this proved with no doubt that the government was out of touch with the nation’s needs, a nation in which a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, and by poverty I do not mean no meat and no bottled water: I mean not even stale bread and no running water.
Now we have a candidate who understands what we need, he is listening and acting upon it. He has been doing so first as a quiet soldier of Egypt and now as potentially a leader of the nation. He understands we have no money to waste and the next two years will be tough, but if we all get on with it then in two years we’ll see signs of improvement.
He understands Egypt is about Egyptians first, all Egyptians regardless of their religion or lack of.
And he understands that a war, internally or externally is not what we desire nor need.
These are not his wishes: these are ours, our own desires, despairs, hopes and dreams. What sets him apart is that he can hear and see us.
That is all.
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Guest Blog by Naima Nas – Revolutionary Egypt Today
02 Friday May 2014
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Had the military in all its might been out there to punish or kill, the death toll would have been in the hundreds of thousands, period!
That is really all anyone needs to understand.
After weeks of pleading with the Morsi’s supporters to call it a day and join in as a possible element of the proposed solution to prevent a repeat of Syria ever taking place in Egypt, it all fell on deaf ears.
Egyptian writer Naima Nas had caught me in a stupid lie this morning on Facebook: a buddy in New Zealand had posted on the site a photograph of a half naked man being dragged through the streets with his ankles tied and hitched behind a motorbike in some godforsaken middle eastern context. Someone had drawn with a red pen a circle around the motorbike rider’s face and assigned the image to counterrevolutionary barbarism during the Second Egyptian Revolution, that which brought down President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood regime.
The message implicit in the promotion of the picture: the biker was the kind of bad dude apprehended by the Egyptian military and placed on the receiving end of recent mass death penalty decisions summarily doled out by Egyptian courts.
One problem: the photograph appears to have originated with an Hamas-oriented biker gang in relation to the execution of half a dozen persons suspected of spying for Israel (to see the series, web search “man dragged by motorbike, Gaza”).
I apologized for my too rapid “view-like-share” routine on Facebook that inadvertently promoted propaganda.
Apology accepted.
Here in the new neojournalism of the blogosphere, both informal pass-along and more considered analysis rely on mediated data — not what the writer-blogger-tweeter saw happen in the street, but what he saw of a recording of what happened in the street.
The difference between “being there” and almost being there through media is immense.
With observations like that in mind, I offered Ms. Nas, an Egyptian writing today from the United Kingdom, space on BackChannels. She knows her homeland, and while she may travel from it at times, it remains where she lives.
The latest a few hours ago dated from August 17 last year, so I suggested an update on the revolution to repair the revolution. The rapidly supplied response follows (edited heavily for look, lightly for voice, and otherwise left alone), and I’ve included an excerpt from the August piece as well.
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So What is Going on Now in Egypt?
by Naima Nas May 2, 2014 ______The disagreement between Egyptians as pro coup and anti coup intensifies.
It was not a coup but anyway! The human right activists despair. The number of suspects guilty or otherwise increases. The world leaders sway between support and condemnation. Etc, etc etc!
The only common denominator in all this, are the Egyptians whose lives are getting worse than terrible: the poor street vendors who just want to get through the day with enough to feed their children; the parents who are terrified to send their children to school in areas that have turned into a circus; the old pensioners who can’t afford to be knocked down in a crowd; and the women who are scared silly of being any where near a crowd.
I won’t bore you with what the reality of living in Egypt through hard times means and I will be very brief.
Yes, the intervention of the military in July was not an approved democratic procedure.
Yes, mature and real democracies have a process in place as an alternative to a strong group taking control. No, that was not an option in Egypt in July. And no, the military did not impose the situation.
The majority of Egyptians had had enough and needed the protection,from one another other if needs be.
And the military is the only one we trust with such a mission.
Had the military in all its might been out there to punish or kill, the death toll would have been in the hundreds of thousands, period!
That is really all anyone needs to understand.
After weeks of pleading with the Morsi’s supporters to call it a day and join in as possible element of the proposed solution to prevent a repeat of Syria ever taking place in Egypt, it all fell on deaf ears. With a nation paralised from the neck down there really was no option but to enforce an end of the weeks-long stand still.
The rest really is commentary, each tragic day leading to another.
We can spend hours listing who did what, when, to whom, and how, but that would be a waste of time.
The short version is this: it needs to stop.
The country needs to start functioning again, recover, and rebuild.
That requires a strong and trusted leadership that can inspire everyone.
No, I did not wish the presidency on the Sisi.
It is not a gift, it is an all consuming burden. Yes, we did beg him to take it on and thank God he did agree. You dont have to like him, you dont have to agree with me either, but you should understand that is/will be our choice.
Yes there are many people who do not agree with that; however, whatever the reason for disagreement is, the view is limited.
It is only with a bird’s eye view that Egypt can make sense — and the bird’s eye view is simply this: we cannot afford a civil war; we cannot afford another non-productive day; and we cannot afford the tailor made reports designed to shock the world over the “human rights” of one person when it suits, ignoring the human right of millions in the blind spot.
Negative!
Sorry!
So what now?
Well it is exams season, so how about the students go home and study something, the unemployed pick up a brush and clean something, the skilled, pick up a tool and fix something, and the rest of us will see if we can ask for amnesty for all whose hands are not still dripping with blood.
We need to get back on track, not with more protests but with work.
Egyptians have a lot of work to do, and none of it will be done in a permanent state of revolution.
It is simply not sustainable.
It is time to stop shouting and start doing.
And that is what is going on in Egypt.
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Excerpt from “What is Going On In Egypt?” Naima Nas, August 17, 2013
. . . . Millions –actual millions- of Egyptians were in the streets on the 30th of June 2013 effectively putting an end to the existing government.
–“That is not very democratic”
–“They are not allowed to do that” many decreed.
Well guess what?
They, the Egyptian People, did it!
They exercised their right to take back the power they surrendered via an election box, sealed it with an even larger number authorizing a new representative, and in doing so they added a brand new chapter to the book on democracy, a chapter the west is still debating whether or not it should be added.
Take your time there is no rush!
Now the paradox: we the Egyptians were –subconsciously at least- inspired by a tiny detail the government relied upon when attempting to rule, a very small point in Islamic/Eastern Law.
Now you are really confused!?
Let me explain: the same principle that forbids revolt against a fair and just ruler does permit the refusal to obey if the majority agrees he is neither fair nor just. The majority of Egyptians are Muslims who have understood that on a very deep level. And here is the icing on this exquisite cake. Amongst that majority there is a significant minority that is not Muslim yet still very Eastern and very Egyptian possibly even more Egyptian: our Coptic brothers. Their lives were not getting any better under that farcical performance, nor was it going to, so they hardly needed convincing. The outcome was possibly the most democratic action in a modern nation, as you have never seen before.
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Egypt – “All They Understand is Force” – Wrong!
27 Thursday Mar 2014
Five-hundred-and-twenty-nine death sentences.
All at once.
That’s the guillotine, 18th Century.
That’s not America, not Egypt (God willing), not democracy, not compassion, not justice.
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The mass sentencing underscored the severity of an ongoing campaign by Egypt’s military-backed leaders to silence opposition, eight months after a military coup ousted Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected leader.
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This blog is not about to promote the Muslim Brotherhood.
Moreover, given the violence attending Egypt’s post-Mubarak turmoil and the Brotherhood designs that have necessitated the initiation of military intervention in Egyptian politics on behalf of tens of millions of brotherhood-disappointed Egyptians, this is not to rail against strong measures.
However, the mass sentencing signals a backwardness similar to the Brotherhood’s, albeit one more suited to the Napoleonic Era than the Dark Ages, but still merciless and barbaric in concept.
Come forward, Egypt.
Arrest, charge, and try; perhaps imprison in the Guantanamo way until I / you / we know a little more than we do today about psycholinguistics, belief, self-concept, and both political and social pathology.
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Yesterday in Israel’s Arutz Sheva, a headline ran, “U.S. Warns Egypt Against Executing Brotherhood Supporters” and went on to quote State Department official Marie Hart as saying, “The imposition of the death penalty for 529 defendants after a two-day summary proceeding cannot be reconciled with Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law, and its implementation of these sentences, as I said, would be unconscionable.”
True.
It is understood here that criminality lives in the heart before it expresses itself in the streets, and that the political criminality promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood, which cloaked in religion deals itself such levers and sticks as it believes provided to them for acquiring wealth and sadistic power over others, calls for preventive measures (a Jew does not have to make such a case where modern Egyptians have so well stated their own position disfavoring the Brotherhood’s ugly agenda for all but itself).
As long as the United States maintains Guantanamo, it hasn’t much call for demanding Egypt afford decisive trials for all suspects; however, again, the same makes a case for long-term political detention involving those who indeed have been strongly associated with the harboring of murderous ambitions.
Nix the plus-500 death sentences, maintain the warrants, and perhaps as Jacob wrestled with God, wrestle with Islam until common decency, goodness, and conscience prevail — and if that fails, let’s just move on but have greater faith, greater investment, in ideals and virtues attending the better humanity of humanity.
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Happy New Year, Egypt, and May It Be A Happier Year Than Last
01 Wednesday Jan 2014
Group of delusion and Terrorism – YouTube – 36:04 – Posted 8/17/2013
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The Egyptian army will help secure a January referendum on an amended version of the country’s 2012 constitution, a military spokesman said Tuesday . . . . Several Islamist groups, who denounce Morsi’s removal by the army as an unconstitutional military coup, have already announced their intention to boycott the poll.
Egypt army preparing for constitution referendum | Middle East | World Bulletin – 12/31/2013.
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Egyptian Armed Forces – Facebook
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It appears Egypt’s Armed Forces have committed themselves to marching into the future.
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CAIRO—Egyptian authorities charged ousted President Mohammed Morsi with treason, espionage, and sponsoring terrorism, alleging he collaborated with Iran and allied militant groups to destabilize the country.
Egypt’s Morsi Charged With Treason, Could Face Death Penalty – WSJ.com – 12/18/2013.
Former Egyptian President may talk back to power, but he is out of power, and it’s doubtful that Egypt’s army will ever again roll over when confronted by Islamic militancy.
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Unlike Arab states that lack a well-established historical identity, Egypt has long been the bellwether of the Arab and Islamic world, and observing where it goes from here could provide a possible framework for where things could go elsewhere.
Person of the year in regional affairs: Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi | JPost | Israel News – 12/31/2013.
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Welcome back, Egypt, to the present, 2014.
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Voice of the Copts — Morsi Cut a Deal with Al Qaeda
03 Sunday Nov 2013
. . . judges dismissed by Morsi and now reinstated will be presented with tape recordings of Morsi’s discussions with Aymen Al Zawahiri of Al Qaeda.
These will show Morsi requesting the terrorist’s support. Morsi’s negotiation with the Al Qaeda leader delays application of the Iran and Taliban models for Egypt until a more receptive time and, in return for Al Zawahiri’s favor, the President agrees to immediately enforce Sharia law and release five thousand jailed terrorist-jihadists, including Aymen’s brother, Mohammed.
VoiceOfTheCopts.org – Egypt’s trial: true justice will reveal Morsi’s alliances – 11/2/2013.
Related: Egypt on high alert as Mohamed Morsi trial threatens to revive civil unrest | World news | theguardian.com – 11/3/2013: “Egypt’s former president Mohamed Morsi plans to reject the authority of a court due to try him on Monday, in what could be his first public appearance since being deposed and hidden in a secret location in July.”
Related: Trial resumes for Egyptian former President Hosni Mubarak – CNN.com – 10/20/2013.
Apparently, Egypt will have for news fodder two presidents on trial this month.
Ashraf Ramelah, writing for Voice of the Copts, suggests Mubarak’s trial will end sometime next week.
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