Demonstration in Tahrir

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i wish i had something to say that is far away from war and suffering.
i wish i was millions away from this world that seem so embarissing.
what is gone to the world? what happened to the people?
i couldn't watch tv cos changing channels didn't change the news.
even where i am, there was a bomb. i didn't hear explosion, but sure it was a reminder of what the world had turned to.
i don't care what happens next, cos this world is not worthy to live in. life is not like movies where at the end everything ends happily. no, this is not the real world. maybe i was too naive, to believe in those dreams till now, maybe i was too blind to see, or i wanted to believe what i wanted to see. i had dreams, i had hopes, i was living in a child's world.

thought

the hardest thing is to let go not cos u hate but cos u love

first impressions on Karachi

well.. this time i'm in Asia, not Africa. i'm in Karachi, Pakistan.
Karachi is a city by the sea, the weather is hot (like egypt) but more humid. it is very crowded, population in pakistan is around 150 millions.
driving is worse than in egypt (never thought there are worst drivers than egyptians until i arrived here).
there are a lot of motorcycles, toc toc, and very colorful microbus (will try to catch in photo).
people are trying to be friendly but the problem is that not a lot talk english.. even my driver, doesn't know english very much (i thought first i'm not used to the accent of the pakistanis, but i discovered than he doesn't know english at all, just few words hotel, office...)
it is the only country i visited where they put a camera right in front of you in the airport when stamping the passport at the checkout.

Food specialities:

Attieké: it grains of Manioc cooked like couscous (equivalent to rice)
Foutou: (i don’t know how it is done or what is it exactly but also replacement of rice)
Deje: kind of juice, made of yogurt, seeds of wheet. (Very sweet).
Tchep: method to cook rice
Alloco: fried banana

Notes:
Ivorians like spices a lot.
Also they eat a lot fish and meat.
There are some Lebanese restaurants (Lebanese are everywhere in African countries in general).

Akwaba (welcome)

i'm back to egypt after a month in Abidjan (biggest city in Côte d'Ivoire).
i decided to make a different coverage about my trip, it will not be just writing what i did or see, but about small things that touched me in a way or other.

i stayed overall 1 month (2 weeks extra). i didn't have much time to go around and discover the country cos i had a lot of work to do, but i tried as much as i can to talk about different issues with ivorians (mostly with Adam my driver).

well, i think i'll continue later, not really in mood now.

hi from abidjan

i'm currently in cote d'ivoire for work. i don't have time to post, i'll post about my trip when back in cairo after 10 days
so take care till then

back

it has been a while since i wrote anything due to work and life.. but here i am. i don't talk about what everybody talks about these days... not cos i don't have something to say but cos i just feel that i want to think about other things, and cos i guess that u can find discussions about all that.

never mind, i'll just write what i wanted to say today in my post :)

i was confronted to 2 persons today that made me surprised in their behavior. the 1st person, was an officer. these guys are usually poor, and in my opinion, they suffer too. he was, with 2 others, at the door of the embassy of Ivory Coast. i wanted to enter, so he showed me the way, cos to enter, u have to go in the garden around the building till u arrive to the stairs.
after i finished and i came down, i found him and showed me the way out. i thought that he did it cos he wanted to take tips (i usually don't like those situations) so i took 1LE out of my pocket but he refused (now i was embarrassed).

the 2nd person was a taxi driver. i took a taxi from Tahrir Square to Zamalek. just after i entered he said to discuss the fair saying that petrol prices are higher (in egypt they are not going up, they just made a new more expensive type of petrol but the old types still the same). he wanted a big price compared to the distance (he asked for what i would pay to go from Tahrir to Heliopolis). and i wanted to pay half what he asked for. anyway, i payed him more than i was intending to do, but he didn't like it and asked for more. i just wanted to say that maybe i won't deal with him again, but treating customers like this, will make them to dislike him.
just after that situation; i thought about the 1st guy, and the differences between the 2 situations and the 2 people.

3 explosions + holiday + sinai

does it ring bells?

i can't express what i feel. what is that world? explosions every where, people killed any time.. for what???

looking for nothing

after working almost 24 hours a day (i only slept one hour last night, or i should say this morning), all i want is to have a time off and do NOTHING.
i don't know what i'll do the next few days, fortunatly it is vacation, so i'll take maybe a day or two not to think about the rest of the work to be done.
all i want to do is sleep, say sorry if the last few days i was not so nice with people, and enjoy the nothing and stay away from my pc.
i guess it is time to go and sleeeeeeep and enjoy no one wakes me up, (not my mom, not the alarm)
by the way, in the case i sleep till tuesday (ya reit), Happy Easter and Happy Sham El Nassim.

song

L'hymne à l'amour by Edith Piaf (1949)

Le ciel bleu sur nous peut s'effondrer
Et la terre peut bien s'écrouler
Peu m'importe si tu m'aimes
Je me fous du monde entier
Tant qu'l'amour inond'ra mes matins
Tant que mon corps frémira sous tes mains
Peu m'importe les problèmes
Mon amour puisque tu m'aimes

J'irais jusqu'au bout du monde
Je me ferais teindre en blonde
Si tu me le demandais
J'irais décrocher la lune
J'irais voler la fortune
Si tu me le demandais

Je renierais ma patrie
Je renierais mes amis
Si tu me le demandais
On peut bien rire de moi
Je ferais n'importe quoi
Si tu me le demandais

Si un jour la vie t'arrache à moi
Si tu meurs que tu sois loin de moi
Peu m'importe si tu m'aimes
Car moi je mourrais aussi
Nous aurons pour nous l'éternité
Dans le bleu de toute l'immensité
Dans le ciel plus de problèmes
Mon amour crois-tu qu'on s'aime
Dieu réunit ceux qui s'aiment

advise

try to benefit from the moment of happiness cos they are getting rare in this world

not in mood

not in mood to blog anything these days, so please accept my silence.

why falling?

I like to know about languages and stories behind words or sentences.
today, on my home from work, there was a lot of traffic so we took more time than the usual. a strange thought crossed my mind. the saying "falling in love" is the same in english, arabic and french. (usually expressions differ from one language to another).
i was thinking, why the verb "falling"? well, i believe that it is inapropiate cos when someone is in love, he is not falling but he is going on the opposit way, as if on a high cloud in the sky, so that he doesn't see what's under him. when you are in love, you are feeling like flying away from everything but not falling at all :).
also people say that when you love, you are free. i believe that it is not that totally true cos you could be liberated but still there are new bounds in your life (even if nice bounds), the simplest thing is that when you are in love, you are not alone, there is the other person, so as much as there is freedom, as much as that you become more attached.

msn beda2y

my friends and me were in a place with very loud music so that we couldn't hear our conversations very good... so this was the solution :)
it was really fun.

few days ago i was faced with the question why i created my blog?
i couldn't find a specific answer to that question at that time, but i guess i discovered the answer when i checked some of what i wrote during the last year. i discovered what is life about. it is about the little things we see or feel, but without sharing all that, we lose something of it.

looking back to the past year, i feel i'm older (not just adding a number to my age), but older with all the experiences i had, the good and the bad.
i know that i changed a lot, i'm not the same person as i was.

sometimes i feel so happy, sometimes i feel so bad, but i learned that friends are there all the time, u just have to trust them, i hope i'll be able to do it and break the walls around me.

Graduation

prayer

let's pray for peace and for all the people suffering in the world.
time goes by but the feelings never die.
it may take a year or two, or even five, but there is still hope alive.
so when you go to sleep tonight, say a prayer to end the fights.

surprising scene

few days ago, i was in a taxi in dokki and the street was a little crowded, so we were moving with moderate speed. we crossed by a woman, in a wheel chair, opening the driver's door to enter.
i was happy to see that. i know that there are not a lot of facilities for the disabled (almost inexistant) so i was suprised and at the same time i was excited about it so i'm sharing this with u cos instead of her disability + the lack of facilities in the country, she was able to drive a car. if i saw the same woman in another country, i wouldn't be as much surprised as to c her in cairo.

30 September 1945

This is an extract from the journal of Dr. Michihiko Hyachiya, a Japenese doctor who was in Hiroshima when the 1st atomic bomb in the world was dropped, the 6th of august 1945.
in his journal, he writes about what he felt, what he observed (it was the 1st time to see such symptoms for radiation, they didn't know what was it at first), as a doctor and as a survivor.
this is extract is a converstion between the doctor and an american soldier who was visiting the hospital, after the japense emperor had announced the defeat and americans began to arrive in the city.

30 September 1945
... one of them standing near the window said suddenly,
- and you what do you think about the bombardement?
- i am buddhist i answered, and since childhood i was taught to resign. I lost myhome and my health but i consider myself a lucky man because my life and my wife's were preserved.
- i can't share your sentiments, said the young american soldier. in your place, i think i would make a lawsuit to the responsible country.
He was still there for a moment, contemplating the ruins before leaving.
Longtime afterwards, i had the feeling hearing him saying: "making a lawsuit to the country... making a lawsuit..."
i had the feeling that that these words will remain incomprehensible forever.

P.S. i translate this from french
it was published in Science & Vie no 1055 August 2005