Sunday, November 18, 2007

Your wish is my command


Remember Aladdin? The one who found a wonderlamp, rubbed the dust of it and freed the Gennie?
The Gennie was grateful to Aladdin and said...YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND, upon which Aladdin was granted three wishes.
I always wondered -and i am not just being sarcastic- what if Aladdin wished that the Gennie became his slave? or at least fulfill all his wishes not just three??
How would the Gennie have reacted? Would he have accused Aladdin of being greedy and called the whole thing off? Would he stick to his word?
Now seriosuly, three wishes is a bit stingy don't you think? Come on he freed the guy after all these years of being trapped in a dirty lamp...i think Aladdin deserved more than just three wishes.
Now if i were in Aladdin's slippers i would have played it safely after all three is better than winding up with nothing.
My first wish would have been for my parents to be happy.They are the best.They sacrificed their happiness to satisfy me.Nothing they will spare to keep me happy.I am blessed to have such loving parents and really wish them utmost happiness.
My second wish(and notice how am trying to be cunning here) is that my friends and i live happy ever after with the partners of our dreams.
My 3rd wish goes for my country i really wish that Egypt becomes a better place, that it prospers again that i can go back and be with my parents and friends.
The 1st two wishes are doable but the 3rd i think is far fetched.
Anyway, whether doable or far fetched sadly there is no Gennie to fulfill instant dreams.
We can always pray that things get better and thx God our Allah is generous and mighty you can demand a zillion things not only three.
Although we don't get them on the spot and sometimes we never do but still i belive that whatever is given to us is the very best.
One more thing Mr.Gennie would you please grant me one bonus wish?
That one would go to Mme Souad the nasty representative of my landlord?would you please turn her into a monkey?and this one comes from all the inhabitants of Burj Omar...pleaaaaaaaaz

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Interview with Vampire...


A vampire is a fictionary being that has been bitten by another vampire and was thus provided immortality.
According to the original tale, he was a Transilvanian Count who was captured as a child by the Turks, was taught by them ruthless fighting methods and then later on fought against their invasion of his country.
During his imprisonment he also learned the dark secrets of black magic, came across some formula and became immortal.He lives till now(according to the tale).
Till recent i believed in the existence of vampires and was really reading and watching vampire stories/movies with great interest.
It was until two years back when my friend ele said to me sarcastically in her cute italian accent:
O Rubi surely you don't believe that this is true.At that time i was reading"The Historian" one of my all time favourite books about vampires.
She and my mother then made fun of me and for a moment i felt very naive.
Well ofcourse he's fiction.Immortality is only for God.
But as a contradiction to this theory there is our beloved modern age vampire.Count Mubarak.
This thought came to me while watching him on TV the other day.Could he be the one???
The ancient Count Dracula, the Prince of Darkness??
Well one thing for sure, he is Emperor of Darkness not simply a prince.
The guy should have been dead ages ago, yet he is still alive..
His scarry blank eyes, decaying skin and paleness make him good blood-sucking material.
His personality and evil are value added ofcourse.
Anyway that's just a silly thought; ofcourse he is not a vampire..but indeed a brutal blood sucker and unfortunately not with his enemies.
He refuses to abide to the simple rules of nature.
I guess he has nothing on his mind to trouble him, he leads a beautiful
worry free life unlike his miserable "subjects"..So why shouldnt he live long? Frankly, I would in his shoes.
Not making death wishes here, but wouldn't life be much better without him?
Not necessarily, however we could still use some fresh air, but hopefully not coming from the same direction.
We had our share of darkness Count.Kefaya.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Hard Luck Red Champs


It's strange how many habits, characteristics and opinions change in you when you live abroad.

You also discover stuff you were not aware of in Egypt.

To start with i was never interested in football. Though I always called myself ahlaweya, fact is I had nothing to do with Ahly nor Zamalek nor any other team.

My biggest achievement in the football field was watching worldcup to cheer for the italian team/players to be more specific.

Today was the finals of the African cup.Ahli played against some tunisian team, that much i knew.So I was overtaken by strong national patriotic feelings and decided to support Ahli and not at home but in public.

I felt the need to be amongst other Egyptians; weired thing that i don't think i felt before.

I love to be amongst friends but Egyptians in general? Completely new.

So this is some major change in habits and feelings.

I wore my red T-shirt and went to a coffee shop with a friend, asked the waiter to put on ART sports 3. Whenever a new group of Egyptians entered the place my confidence and joy grew. I swear i am not being poetic this is exactly how I felt.

I wanted Ahli to win this game..not just to brag but I wanted Egyptians to be happy; football is not just a game or leisure where I come from it is orientation, national pride and lots of other stuff that i am really not aware of because i am girl i guess and was never a football fan.

Back to the game, I have to say that it was a thrilling feeling how we were all cheering at the same time, swearing at the referee, all the booos and aaaahs.

To my disappointment Tunis won, very frustrating feeling that wouldn't have bothered me before.

But the bigger disappointment was seeing UAE Nationals celebrating at the end of the game; ofcourse it's a free country it's really up to them whome to support.

But the thing is they are not into football, and not particularly fond of Tunisians, so the only explanation was that they celebrated our defeat not Tunis' victory.

That i found awfully weired and disappointing, unanimous cheering and hugging at the end of the game??Why, what on earth did we do to deserve this attitude from their part?

I have to say that this was even more disturbing than the result of the game...and i really regretted supporting their team against Oman in the Gulf tournement.


Friday, November 2, 2007

Sorry!


Today, i saw a mighty Heart, a movie starring Angelina Jolie.Didn't know the story before i took the decision to see this movie, i wish i did though...because i deffinetely would have decided to go home and watch something more meaningful.
It's about two american journalists Mariane starring Angelina Jolie and her husband Danny who were covering the war against terrorism in Afganistan, then went to Pakistan were the nice, friendly, peace loving, truth searching American jew got kidnapped by Muslims, fanatics.(Surprise surprise)
Anyway don't want to bore you with further details,this movie shows-for what seems like eternity-a very filthy and poor Pakistan (it might be the case i don't know never been there)and a pakistani intelligence, CIA etc...searching for Danny.
The kidnappers, the terrorists, the muslims, the fanatics who kidnapped the nice American fella captured him to put pressure on USA to release prisoners held in US prisons or at least treat them with dignety( Is this too much to ask ???)
The movie did not come as a shock to me, could figure out the direction right from the start.
The usual manipulation in order to twist the truths is not new to Hollywood.
So the message stands very clear.We bad them good..ok this we have been living with for quite some time...but i kept wondering who is the target customer(forgive my vocabulary i come from a marketing environment) for this movie?
Is it the americans?mmmmaybe...the rest of the world? Us?...i really don't know but doubtful!
Doubtful because or rather although Hollywood has great film industry and they are the masters, they make terrific movies meant only to send hidden messages...but this particular message was not conveyed to us ...sorry but we were not fooled this time!
The regular viewer would have sympathized with Danny and his preignant wife, sorry guys we did NOT.
We contributed sadly to your profit but you did not contribute to our minds.
We could not care less whether he would die, don't want to go as far as to say we wished for it.
I am not a fanatic non of us watching this movie was.But when the wife screamed when she knew about the loss of her husband it meant nothing to us.Sorry!
Then again how do you expect us to sympathize with you? Is an american life more precious to us than an Arab life?
He is a father to be.Oh yeah? at least he is not a kid shot on the street .
None of us forgets Mohamed El Dorra the innocent child who was shot with his father nor do we forget the corps of the Palistinian and Iraqi children whome we see daily on television.
Should we feel sorry for his wife?What about the mothers who lose their children, see them killed and captured before their own eyes..
Sorry Uncle Sam but i think you are asking for too much.
Soo sorry, sorry because we reached this stage...but you drove us there.
We are not fanatics, we love Seinfeld, David Schwimmer etc...
We are not ruthless, we cried when Patrick Swayze was shot in Ghost, when Leo was freezing in the sea...
but we cannot mourne an american hostage while zillions are tortured humilated by you at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.
Sorry!