Of course they are.. Stands to reason after decades of forced-behavior that at some point we will all unanimously decide to crawl back into our holes.
They’re trying to spin so many stories to get you to forget what it felt like in the beginning.. in Tahrir… What it tasted like.. Freedom.
While all the while… Distract.. Sidetrack.. Divide & Conquer..
A simple formula that works time and again on us Egyptians. If the message is decorated with enough attractive words, Egyptians will follow any ‘cause’ mindlessly for a while.
Economy, sectarianism, security, with the Council? Against the Council? Yes? No? et cetera.. et cetera to the end of the endless list of non-sensicals that we are bombarded with without due fact-checking or corroboration, only to weave through our lines, dividing us, like cracks in an earthquake. Either cause we’re tired, either coz we no longer believe it possible.. as the dark has once again begun to usurp the light, or cause they found out how to get us to get scared again.
Little explosions in the media, like Trojan horses are used to distract your free line of thinking, block thought and occupy it, and coat poisonous objectives:
To the extent of using God and Absolute Truth in arguments as if speaker holds a franchise and is ‘God’s voice’ sent to us mortals
The rise of the media-borne SAFC-inspired notion that getting the wheels of industry & the economy turning is threatened by legitimate demands and calls to prosecute the corrupt and purge bodies and institutions from those parasites
Delay in implementing a systemic methodology of assessing corruption and dealing with its remains, allowing for this randomness in prosecution and creating escape routes for the corrupt that have the ability to put on the cloak of the revolution
A media still far from objectivity and balance with elements still clearly pursuing an agenda that attempts to preserve and polish and sympathize with the cancer-like corrupt symbols of the old regime
Sectarian incidents and this production of looming fear of clashes between Salafis and Copts
Delays in tracking smuggled funds and embezzled sums allowing for their safe transfer and reducing chances of Egyptians ever seeing that money again or anyone being indicted over them
Distract.. Sidetrack.. Divide & Conquer.. A simple formula that works time and again on us Egyptians.
We have to stop lunging randomly and learn to focus our energies in a systematic way, to actually achieve documented steps, for a long-term plan to emerge, as we build steps upon steps upon..
Seems us Egyptians by default are always looking for a Pharoah to place on a pedestal of divinity, or a devil to blame for all their failures, guilt and shame- all in an attempt to escape carrying any responsibility of our own, or facing any situation or ourselves.
Mubarak’s corruption was indescribable; under his late rule Egypt rose amongst the countries with cancer prevalence through radiation-poisoned food and dumps in secret sites all over Egypt. Egyptians started getting kidney failure from the water, which in some places became closer to sewage, even though Egypt is historically known to be ‘the Gift of the Nile’. Appalling education, health services, pensions, employment rates, wages, rights, justice, and the list is endless…
He managed in 30 years to instill a sense of individualism, a selfish bible for Egyptians to live by, with every line written in the blood of the oppressed and the tears of the victimized.
This individualism, or amplified dog-eat-dog driving philosophy, was there at the core of governance and thus translated in turn into all the little details in our lives, from ministers stealing billions and millions of acres of the land our grandfathers died freeing, down to those that would cut you off on the road, even though the path ahead of them is blocked, just so no one gets served before they do, down to the clerk demanding a bribe, all the way down to the poor folks throwing elbows and fighting for their lives to get on that bus… it’s the law of the jungle that they tried to have us live by.. Scarcity & Survival & How Low You’re Willing to Go… the law of the jungle that we naturally gravitated away from when given our freedom and liberty to choose in Tahrir.
SAFC doing some 'explaining'...
Egypt since Jan25 has been at a tug-of-war against the pillars of corruption remaining from the old regime. Every time the righteous inch the flag on the rope a notch closer towards the Egypt we dream of, those who hold the strings burn another card, another mask falls, and the distance to the day where every institution and body in Egypt will purge and rid itself of the cancerous, gets shorter. It is important to start with all the positions of power that hold a great deal of influence over the general population’s lives and livelihoods. Like the judiciary, the police, the Prosecutor General’s office, the Forensic medicine Authority. And anyone else that is involved with representing or defending or making a judgment in people’s rights or ongoing court cases.
State media and the media in general has to both be transparent and trust-worthy and respectful of people’s intelligence and demands, and not just an authoritarian mouthpiece now serving the SAFC instead of Mubarak.
As it is unimaginable that if left to the corrupt, that these bodies would be expected to dish out justice when they are a part of the corrupt team opposing the people.
Let’s take the police for example..
Why is there a rise again in the number of ‘police victims’?! Is it actually possible to turn this security arm around and believe that it can embrace another faith than the one they’ve been brought up on all their lives? Even the kids who are in the Police Academy now, the trouble they went through, the bribes to get in, all these kids ever grew up dreaming of was becoming like those corrupt cops, with unquestioned authority and irreproachable actions and words! I don’t believe it is hard to find out who the ‘good’ cops are.. it’s just that the collective leadership doesn’t want to.. What are they going to do with a ½ a million or more terminated cops?
But unless we face facts, the corrupt cops will slip an act of vendetta here or there against anything it feels injurious to their umm pride, or reminiscent of the days of the thawra. Or worse still, they would destroy any hopes of cleaning up this principal security arm.
Can the army not physically train ½ a million unemployed Law graduates to incrementally substitute the cops terminated? Of course the ultimate message to drive home in the training would be to respect human rights and change the face of this security arm as well as its heart.
And I say face before heart, because right now the people need to feel that the police are partners in the revolution and not some foe, as some cops still clearly think, and they need that to translate to their everyday lives- so no rudeness or arbitrary arrests, or torture-to-deaths.. Because the face is seen and sensed while the heart may still remain obscured.
Hell why stop there? Why not open up a forum to suggestions to improve the efficiency and image of Police? Instituting a monitoring body over precincts? Giving police heroes leading roles? Amnesty for those who have a real change of heart and spill the beans on all the forms of corruption they encountered in their days?
Why the hell is the interim government [primarily concerned with plugging holes and making sure nothing falls apart and that institutions function smoothly] announcing the highest budget in Egypt’s history??! Why is Minister Radwan accepting Billions left, right and center? Does he not understand the destructive effects of interest and debt? Why start off our New Egypt with DEBT? In fact, more debt to exponenti-ate the existing one such that a nation can never climb out of this hole and has to constantly provide more concessions: privatizing its successful national industries, abolishing tariffs on international products such that they can compete with [and totally substitute] local products in the name of ‘free trade’, then basically from there everything goes to shit.. education, healthcare, all services- unless of course you exist above the line of poverty in the ‘elite’ 10% that ‘own’ the rest..
Why is Finance Minister Radwan trying to find a way to ‘legitimize’ the sanadeeq khasa [private chests] that were a swindle by government sectors and accounted for round 80% of Egypt’s income and yet were divided privately amongst government officials without ever being entered into the state budget? If this sanadeeq khasa system isn’t brought down [even on principle alone] then the probability that the same swindlers that used to manage these boxes/chests to the benefit of the ‘few’ will simply continue to do so. Eliminate this farce and if you need to ‘swindle’ us poor Egyptians out of more money then at least create a transparent system whereby we feel that our money is contributing to the wellbeing of all Egyptians, and such chests should have extremely strict guidelines to avoid history repeating itself.
Why is Spain allowing Hussein Salem to PULL A MUBARAK?
Why was the ruling that Mubarak and his wife’s name be removed from public institutions overturned?
Why is the SAFC trying to produce a legislation to ‘REGULATE’ media, including digital media and blogs and online presence. Is it possible that if someone writes a status update that rubs the SAFC the wrong way, then they would be called in by the Military Prosecutor? Why are yet more journalists being summoned by the Military Prosecutor again to face and answer to charges concerning freedom of speech?!
Why are SS officers slowly being reintroduced to previous positions of power?!
Another thing I wonder about sometimes in the wake of this ‘digital revolution’, is why hasn’t some techi made an online forum, a virtual Tahrir, where professors in every sector can teach people their rights and responsibilities? Quench their thirst? Else don’t blame anybody for returning to the bad habits they’ve been taught..
Why are we surprised that slowly everything is starting to look and feel the same? We breathed clean air for some days but we didn’t put all that oxygen to the best use yet.
But there’s always hope.. and as the saying goes.. Anything is possible in Egypt…
We Deserve Better ! Believe It !
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