Questions That Might Kill You

Questions That Might Kill You

It's been over a year, since the Arab uprising started. There are still questions unanswered, there are questions that we might never actually find answers for. But we're still looking. And like we've always been told: It's not the answer that makes you smart but the question.

I'm not sure this post will make things look better nor will make me, personally, feel better. But the questions are a must and are glued in my mind. I'll first start with the 5 whys that will lead to this post

1. Why are there still people who believe that revolutionaries are a threat to the society? Because a happy slave doesn't know he's enslaved.
2. Why are there still slaves? Because the State Tv is still broadcasting the same old shit.
3. Why is the State Tv still broadcasting lies? Back to question one + Because it's easy to manipulate developing countries.
4. Why is it easy to manipulate these countries? Because their dictators are born and raised by the filthy minds of the sick world rulers, who are nothing but slaves of money. Which leads us to a point where we can say that we're all slaves, but to the wrong object/person.
5. Why are dictators raised by world rulers? Because as human beings, we need guidelines before we grow rich/successful. And to be that there must be a rule model. And role models never die. Which means evil will always exist as an element of life just like its opposite.

Now:

• Why do idiots/slaves/dictators never know they're that idiot/enslaved/stupid?
• Does the verb "dictate" have anything to do with the noun "dictator"?
• Why does the poor have to be handcuffed in jail while dictators walk like they're going on a field trip?
• Does Mubarak move in a helicopter because he's a pilot? If yes, then I wanna be a parachute woman!
• What's the point behind never having enough?
• Why haven't we attempted occupying Maspero until now? (State tv owned building)
• Why hasn't the economy recovered since the revolution but the couple of days when the internet connection and phone connections were blocked, the economy was perfect?
• Does the manipulated know he's being manipulated? If so, then does the manipulator also knows when he's manipulated? (Colorblind theory, I guess never)
• What's with procrastination? No no, I mean the filthy kind of procrastination. I guess governments too suffer from it, not just the average citizen.
• Why does the coward judge without being in the scene? Other than being a coward I mean.
• Why do we read the same questions but never the same answers?
• Where has "moderate" gone?
• Why do words never end, yet silence is stronger?
• Based on the previous question: If writers write because they want us to know we're stronger than that, why wouldn't writers not write?
• And, if silence works with everything, wouldn't the world be a beautiful place if everyone just shut up?

Cuase I'll do.

The Five [Egyptian] Stages of Grief

The Five [Egyptian] Stages of Grief

If you're familiar with psychology studies, those words are not new to you.

Briefly, Kubler-Ross model, or better known as the five stages of grief, is basically a model of coping with death, from the denial stage to the acceptance stage.

The five stages are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. And to be quite frank here, this model is applicable in our everyday life, though on different levels and scales.

For the past few days I have been meaning to dedicate this blog to some politics, basically to vent some thoughts and reflections and to apply what I know in psychology on the Egyptian society and what we have become in those past few months, or maybe the whole year since the overthrown dictator.

So, let's try to apply this model on the developments of the revolution and the consequences and so on. Let's take for example the ongoing and the never-ending, in my personal view, clashes that happened in the 25th of Feb, 9th of March, 8th of April, 15th of May, 28th of June, 23rd of July, 1st and 3rd of August, 9th of September, 5th and 9th of October, 19th of November and last but probably not least the 16th of December.

Let's start:

1. Denial: At first when the Police and CSF withdrew from the streets and the army took to the streets to (protect) people, everyone was happy; and you can't really blame people because everyone thought nothing would be worse than Hosni. So when the Army first attacked protesters on the 25th of Feb, everyone denied its happening and here was the first uses of the word thugs to justify any inhumane acts.
2. Anger: Moving to the 9th of March when the disastrous issue of the virginity tests took place and everyone was angry and furious. And later on when only one courageous lady decided to speak up and defend her rights and sue whoever gave orders and/or did this. Not to mention the ongoing detaining of civilians and throwing them in military prisons. Which never stopped to this day.
3. Bargaining: Now let's make a deal, we'll appoint Kamal El Ganzoury as a new Prime minister so you people can go home and we'd get this whole thing over with so everyone can sleep at night- despite the innocents' questions about the blood of the martyrs and the beating of the protesters and detainees. Ganzoury is appointed, old people are satisfied because they thought like Shafeek and Sharaf, Ganzoury too should take his chances and we shall wait for him to do an action. [But nothing new ever took place]
4. Depression: We're close; we've injected the nation with so much depression that hope is almost vanishing and everyone is starting to just whine about their personal experiences and sufferings since this revolution started, but no one is happy because at least now we have a voice. This seems to be coming to an end anyways. Let's just sit home and weep for the martyrs and the economical conditions of the country, and wait. I'm obliged to mention here that when the internet and phone services were cut off, the government made a huge move that caused it the loss of millions of dollars, if not billions. None of the ignorant ever remembers this.
5. Acceptance: We've made it, by the end of 2011 everyone at home, specifically those who never bothered to go out and join the sit-ins in Tahrir or even the protests, everyone accepted Ganzoury, Tanwaty, the army, SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces). I mean, what can we do? It's just 6 months and we'll have our own president finally, the one that we will vote for, the one that we will choose. Yeah right, because we're dreaming. Let's just accept this and go home.

Of capitalism and 'Money'

Of capitalism and 'Money'

(Excuse me for the long post)

The generation of our parents, this generation of the 40's and 50's is mostly a generation that experienced a hard time with capitalism and the effort to earn their living. And by that I do not mean that the rate of consumerism was high, yes, people needed to consume, but mostly we'll find that the means of luxury were very, very simple; a gum with less than one piaster, a small ball to play in the streets - if there was balls in the first place.

Money to them meant nothing more than something not very essential, so long as they are blessed with the gift of life and don't need more than their basic needs, which are already there..kind of. Life was simple. People were less of consumerists and more of human beings.
Those are the people who grew up to have the clash with our generation, that of the 80's and 90's. Technology played the essential role for consumerism, first personal computers and phones, then laptops, smartphones, iPods and iPads. Being technology freaks was the companies' aim to rise with consumerism and the abuse of simple minds. You accepted it, I accepted it, we all did, unwittingly and defeated. It has become essential to use technology to be able to keep one's pace with the world, and even with work, which is the main capitalistic world, you cannot have a job without "Computer skills", and anything of that sort.

Back to parents and us: what I want to say here (Don't mind that I usually go off track and forget my main points!) is that this non-consumerist generation-our parents-has become, to us, some sort of tight-fisted society, while to us consumerism means to keep yourself updated with the rest of the world.
We are the money wasters and they are the tight-fisted. And nothing comes in between to pacify or save this gap.

What Capitalism does here, other than enslavement, is that it indirectly or even directly broadens this gap between us, and inside the same generation of ours. We're not equal, basic life needs to us are not basic life needs to our parents or to the poor. The more money we got, the bigger these basics are, and the bigger the basics are, the less aware we are of the poor. That's what Capitalism wants. That's what the governments want. And that's how exactly it is going.

I'm currently reading-almost done though-"Utopia" for Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq, and despite the fact that this novel is way more disgusting that I thought, and way darker than I imagined (I really had struggles at the middle and even thought of not finishing it), the novel describes exactly the course of the present into the future. I can't say nor want to believe it will be really like that, but after all the rich are already building their own colonies, the poor is dying yet still want to believe one of this new generation will revolt and save the planet. And we all wait.

On a final note, I loudly admit I'm an iPhone user and I'm a consumerist like we all are. But the point is to not dwell and to spend some time in being humans rather than money-wasters.
Think about it.

Socialism [HBBC]

Socialism [HBBC]

Meet the members here.
Topic by Windswept dreams AKA Noor El-Terk.

Disclaimer: I'm not a socialist. Not a communist. And definitely not a capitalist. I'm a part of the society, part of capitalism, yes, but never was pro. A mere human being, can't I be?

A few days ago I tweeted that what I got from the concept of Socialism was that it's the opposite of Capitalism (don't worry, I'm the one who got it wrong).
Out of nowhere, I got this reply:


Then I came across this: "Capitalism and communism stand at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this: The communist, seeing the rich man and his fine home, says: 'No man should have so much.' The capitalist, seeing the same thing, says: 'All men should have as much.' "–Phelps Adams

So, I asked the person to explain more, I got this:


And finally, a nice definition of Capitalism:


I've been roaming all week long between websites about Capitalism, Communism and Socialism. To be honest, I'm all against any political or economical system, but unfortunately I have to know about anything, even bullshit systems.
So here we go:

• Capitalism: is generally defined as the economic system where the means of production are privately owned, operated for profit from investment, and in competitive markets.

• Communism: is a social, political and economic movement that aims at the establishment of a classless and stateless communist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production.

• Socialism: is an economic system in which the means of production are commonly owned and controlled cooperatively; or a political philosophy advocating such a system.
  

What makes the capitalist is the economic relationship between the people who work and the people who own the workplaces. Under capitalism those are two different groups. Under socialism they are one and the same.
We all know that Capitalist systems are the enslavement systems, which is why it's the dominating system globally.

Socialism, however, according to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: believed the consciousness of those who earn a wage or salary (the "working class" in the broadest Marxist sense) would be molded by their "conditions" of "wage-slavery", leading to a tendency to seek their freedom or "emancipation" by throwing off the capitalist ownership of society. Conditions determine consciousness and ending the role of the capitalist class leads eventually to a classless society in which the state would wither away.

Now I'm more confused than ever. I'll just go read the other perspectives!