My People's Blog

Divorce

Yes, now there are many divorces.  It's always about money.  A lot of times, the woman says the family needs more money and he can't make more so he walks away.  -24 year old woman.

Seeing Pigeons Pray

To reduce pollution, the Egyptian government decreed that taxis older than 1989 be replaced by new ones and has set up financing so that cab drivers, who exhaust themselves to make a scant living, can pay for the new cars.

Nice for those with replaceable models, but what those whose cars aren't old enough to qualify for the replacement financing?  Won't they lose a lot of business to a new air-conditioned Toyota?

Amal asks her driver:  "Aren't the drivers of the old cab losing out?"

"With all due respect to you madam, and meaning no offense, it is God above and only Him who determines what I earn. By the time we die, from the top of our hair to the tips of our toes, God provides us with what we need.  El hamdu illah, thanks be to God."

"El hamdu illah, thanks be to God," Amal chorused.

"How God works is a very deep thing.  I admire the Imam Mahmoud, may he rest in peace.  He was a man of knowledge and scientists and men of knowledge walk in the footsteps of the prophet.

I have a video of this Imam describing nature and living things.He puts a microscope into a beehive and  shows how the world works.  Every bee has a job: soldiers, workers, feeders.  Each one has a place. And they all praise God."

He turned his head to look into my eyes.

"The bees dance and put their heads to the ground. 'El hamdu illah,' they say. " He crooked his finger up and down in a pecking motion.  "So do the pigeons and other birds.  Every living creature gives thanks to God."

How we are different from other Arab peoples

I wish people would understand that we are not just Arab.  Egypt has so many cultures within it.  Not that we are just Muslim, but Coptic also. That we have a very strong Mediterranean influence from Romans times to today; that French culture has made a lasting impact on our country - as well as Nubian, Sudanese and other African cultures.  And then our long, deep agricultural base  makes our people different from Arab people who were primarily merchants or nomads.

Mosaic artists

Egypt: In Our Keeping

I wish people understood how much we care about our cultural heritage.  Yes we have a tourist business, but most of us are not cynical about it.  Instead, we feel we have great treasures and we are their stewards; as if all this is in our keeping for the rest of humankind.

I think also of how tolerant Egyptians are - of one another, of people who are different from us, even of things that are done to us - although, as you can imagine, this is not always the best thing.

Finally, I hope that people will begin to see that, in spite of its great poverty, Egypt has many highly-educated, experienced and talented people who are contributing to the betterment of their country and the world.

Architect

 

Barak Obama, Peace and Security

Peace and security are the most important things in this life.  I think Barak Obama will be a great president who will help us get these things.

I watched America with George Bush and I saw them protest against his policies.  That was good.  But when America killed a head of state (Saddam Hussein) with such disrespect; that shouldn't have been done.

Gas Station attendant

Muslim Brotherhood makes sense

The Egyptian worker has always been oppressed. Bribery everywhere. But there should never be extremism like the Mahallah [weavers] workers' strike. When they burn schools, we pay for it. When the ambulances have to take people away, we pay for it.

The only one who made sense on Laila Shazli’s TV interview last night was the guy from the MB [Muslim Brotherhood]. The NDP [ruling National Democratic Party] people are all bought. They put them in their positions. It’s all about money.

If anyone even knows some one in the MB, the government puts him in jail. People support the Brotherhood, but not openly. The MB does good works. They have good morals. They could take over the country if the people stood behind them. But the people are scared—and cowardly. But people will have enough soon.

55 year old taxicab driver with bad back, married with 5 children, two of whom are daughters of marriageable age .

If people explode

December 10, 2008

There are demonstrations in Tahrir Square (Cairo) and inside Cairo University. [The people who went on strike] were local. They were not hired thugs. They were frustrated workers.

People are not able to eat.

Some prices have gone up 100%, some 120%.  People can’t afford to live. Can you believe that I’ve worked 20 years in the government and only get LE320? I have a bachelor’s degree. I tried teaching in a school but I only made LE150. Add that to the LE320 and what do you get? Everyone has to work more than one job.

The government oppresses us. No one is as patient as Egyptians but if people explode, the government will  never be able to contain them. So they want to keep us too busy to worry about politics. But if they want to do that, at least let us eat. At least a foreign occupation lets people eat.

 Anyone who can leave the country should.

Yes, we are good people but just go to any government office and you’ll see how we’re treated. A few years ago a man threw an explosive into the square. The ambulances took the injured foreigners to a fancy hospital and the Egyptians to a lousy one.

They think they can handle the situation—keep people in line. But not having food---we never heard of that before in Egypt. I wish there were demonstrations in the whole country—from here to Alexandria. All over.

I honored the strike [April, 2008] even though they warned us that anyone who didn’t go to work would be punished.

-49 year old taxicab driver, married with 2 daughters of marriage age.

Economic humiliation

My wife shouldn't have to stand in line five hours for subsidized bread;  especially when there's all this pushing and shoving.   But she has to.  The price of food's gone up 50% percent; basics up 100%.

This is just another way the government oppresses us and humiliates us.

After all, it's their job to keep prices reasonable.

Restaurant worker 

Making alQaeda

Everything changed since 9/11.  I don't believe that the attack was made by Americans on Americans, like a lot of people here say, just so they would have an excuse to go into Iraq.  But alQaeda was created by American policies;  by supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.  The Americans should have known they would not want to give up power.  No one does.
Restaurant worker

Our globe

There shouldn't even be countries.  I believe we should come together as humans and take care of ourselves together.
-Cabbie