So, i've been back to the USA now for about a month, was in Egypt from Aug 28th-Sept 29th.
Let me get started by saying Egypt is great and i LOVE IT..10% was clean and organized but i'm gonna talk about the other 90% of the country now.
WOW! Poor Egypt, its people treat it like SHIT!...IF Egypt was a person she would ask "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?"
The Garbage, all over, people just throw their garbage and litter in the street without even thinking twice...and people around them don't say a word about it.
When i asked a few people why they do this, they said "you must be from out of town" i said "NO, I'm Egyptian, aren't you, why do you do this to your country?" They had no answer.
The beautiful Medeterraean sea, in Alexandria, i feel bad for it, You can see what the Governer of ALEX (now head of all governers in egypt) has done to the city, he realy tried to do alot, but still people just have no respect for their surroundings..Sidi Bishr beach was done up nicely but on the beach itself there was garbage everwhere. If you want to goto a nice beach in Alex, you have to goto MONTAZA..Anywhere nice in Egypt it seems you have to goto a PRIVATE place, because 90% of the public treat other places like SHIT!
It was nice how they expanded the cournish road to 4 lanes now, BUT the crossing tunnels are too far apart, so every day people are crossing 8 lanes of highspeed traffic, daily people die on the cournishe..
And don't get me started on the Rail-Way station, it was disgusting, specially when riding from Alex and going into Cairo,i couldn't believe the garbage, i even said "are we entering Cairo or a DUMP" people got offended, but you know what, they act offended and like they care, but their actions sure don't show that!!
The driving is rediculous, people just have NO RESPECT for traffic laws, the RED LIGHT means nothing to them, they have to have a police at every light so people may obey. and the sad thing is that the police at the light are just young kids from the country side who get no respect from the public to begin with, and THEY HATE THEIR JOB (they are moganadeen, as in the Army and are forced to do this job) Even the OFFICERS aren't paid well at all, so therefore they accept bribes and never do their job to the fullest, but you can't blame them, they need to feed their families!
Why can't people there even stand in line? i can't believe such a simple thing is hard to do, i went to buy some sandwiches, and people were all over trying to pay, i asked where the line was and ofcourse they said "you must not be from here" :(
I was walking on the Nile cournishe in Cairo and eating Corn, after i finished i asked a man selling something on the side if he had a wastebasket for me to throw the stem in, he said "the nile, throw it in the nile" i said "NO THANKS, i'm egyptian i don't polutte my NILE" ofcourse he thought i was crazy, but this just shows you how much people don't care or are so unaware ....
My aunt heads Nile TV, and i tried to talk to her about some of these things and she just told me thats EGYPT and thats how it is! While at the TV building (goverment owned television ofcourse) i met an Anchor from BBC news his name was Robert Buttler, he was there training Egyptian news people, he is retired as a TV anchor and is now a consultant. Him and I and my Aunt went to lunch and discussed a few things about Egypt, he was a great guy,and he said Egypt needed people such as myself to try and make a change... if your reading this Robert, it was a pleaure meeting you.
I ask myself What Happened? and the answer lies in GAMAL ABD-ELNASER, that man had good intentions but he DESTROYED our economy and led us to many fruitless wars where thouands of Egyptians were killed for NOTHING! the THAWRA (revolution) was the downfall of Egypt, you may say King Farouk was a bad man but NO, he wan't good but he wasn't Bad either, during his time Egypt was clean, and fashionable and a cosmopolitan place, just look at the movies from the 1940's and you will see how beautiful and different Egypt was then, and how the people even talked and acted different! My grandmother told me during Farouk, the Rich gave alot to the poor, and everyone took care of one another for the benefit of the country! I'm sure many of you wont' agree with me about Gamal Abd Elnasser but hey, LOOK AT THE FACTS!
I asked a taxi driver in Alex, why do people treat Egypt like this< he had a great answer he said "look at us, look at me, this 1965 piece of shit taxi to buy is LE35,000, ($5,000) , i couldn't beleive it, a car like that shouldn't be worth more than $200, he told me how bad the economy was, and how the goverment just takes bribes and does'nt care about the LOWER class of the population, he said look at how we live, then he said "IF EGYPT WAS ON FIRE I WOULDN'T PEE ON IT TO SAVE IT"...i kind of got his point, the goverment has abandoned its people, they make everything so complicated and hard on the poor people.. and the people have no love for their country because of that!
I couldn't believe how many women now dawn the HIJAB, it was never like this before, i'm muslim but i think Hijab is a choice not a solid part of Islam..Now most of the women are wearing the Hijab, and they are mostly wearing it because of social pressure not because of Religious beliefs..Remmber the beautiful Egyptian classy women such as Om Kalthoum and so on, they didn't dawn the hijab and they were well respected and loved by all...Listen if your gonna wear the HIJAB but tight jeans and makeup then WHY?
I am not just gonna sit back and critisize Egypt while i'm living it up in the USA, i'm gonna try and make a change, all the good minds are leaving EGYPT, we need to go back and make a change..I'm going to try and save some money here and in 5 years go back and make a change!! WHY? Because i LOVE MY COUNTRY! The Egyptian people have such good hearts...dirty, clean, rich or poor they have GOOD HEARTS!
Now, there were also beautiful places in Egypt, such as Sharm El Sheikh, beautiful and clean, i had a great time there, also in ALEX there were very nice and clean places, they cleaned up alot, and in cairo as well...What i'm trying to say i guess is Egypt is UGLY and BEAUTIFUL at the same time!! To go somewhere nice, you had to pay or have a membership it seemed like, and you had to pay alot, some of the nice clubs cost me LE150 just to get in, such as the HardRock and Pacha in Sharm El Sheikh..
HERE ARE SOME VIDEOS
VIDEO LINK TO MY TRIP
8 comments:
It would take an incredible amount of effort to bring 70 million people to order.
Okay so I finally get confirmation that almost EVERYONE in egypt is donning the hijab. When I asked my father in Port Said ( I know ) if it was true he replies " No , you canw ear hijab if you want to" He didn't answer my question.
Haven't been to egypt in 6 years and I miss it like crazy, but its posts like these ( great post tho) that make me not go back. I have never visited Sharm, is it really that great? Is it really that expensive like everyone says?
By the way, you are a hottie :)
Eid Mubarak :)
egypt Chick, Not ALL women wear hijab, dont' MISUNDERSTAND ME, i'm say many CHOOSE to, just as social pressure...EGYPT is BEAUTIFUL, like i said UGLY AND BEAUTIFUL..
SHARM is GREAT WATCH THE VIDEO hun...
ps: Thanks for the compliment.. ;)
Thanks for all the great info. I was in Egypt in April and will be returning in January. I will be going to Alex this time, so I really appreciated the videos. I am not egyptian, and had never been there before, I was born in New York. So you might think I would be used to trash in the streets, but I was shocked by what I saw in Egypt. So - let me know when you are ready to go back and straighten things out there. I'll go with you if I'm not already there! STOP THE STUPIDITY! And I was surprised to see the emergence of the niqab. I had not expected to see that in Egypt. It frightened me a little, actually.(Just found your blog recently, so I'm not a long time reader. But I'm looking forward to more!)
The videos are very cool. I'm going to link you to some friends so they'll know Egypt has some serious coolness.
Sorry to hear about the 90% you speak of...sounds like they've lost hope. When I read the Egyptian bloggers (SM, BP, et al)and they write about what Egypt was like only a few decades ago - cosmopolitan and modern, it makes me sad. If you can go back and make a difference, good.
Again, excellent videos! Did you edit those yourself?
I was in Egypt too this year- In July actually for an international conference.After a 13 year absence and I can relate to everything you say about how it's changed. The last time I lived in Cairo was in the early 90's when I was doing my BA at the AUC.
Going back after what is a relatively short time of a decade or so, I was struck by how much had changed. But beneath all the chaos of Cairo, the old buildings were still there smiling at me like toothless old men. I just had to look harder.
I'm glad you bring up the growing proliferation of the hijab and the niqab there. Everywhere I went I was asked why I don't wear it as women dressed in the tightest of jeans and shirts strolled by swaying their hips back and forth and people crowded around televisions perched on shelves played Haifa Wahbi's latest video clip. What a contradiction Egypt is!
In a crowded shopping centre a woman in a niqab rudely pushed past me with her trolley. I asked my Mum why the women here were wearing niqab. She replied "they think they're beautiful and they need to hide their faces" I had to laugh!
Did you take public transport anywhere? That was what i found really sad. I took a bus one night from Alex to Agami. Everybody was pushing and screaming- men, women, children. I couldn't take it anymore so I stood on the second step of the bus and yelled at everyone. I held the men back with my left arm- pushing against them, while helping the women and children board with my right hand. I launched into a long tirade about how the men of Egypt had lost their respect, how they were supposed to be 'gaadaan', how the country would never advance as long as people continued to behave that way. I fancied myself a bit of a Huda Shaarawi as I stood there in my uncovered hair and bare arms. No doubt they all thought I was magnoona!
I promptly ended my long speech with "And that is why I am not married to an Egyptian" Turned around and got into the bus and told the bus driver to drive as all the passengers stared at me in silent disbelief!
At least I'll have something to tell my grandkids!
hey after reading your blog it was quiet interesting for me to see your views, especially the ones that criticze egypt now,,, which i am totally for...
could you imagine the sum of money that could be saved up on curroption and be sent to refurbishing the old buildins, and paying to good sanatation companies...
i lived in egypt, cairo for five years during my university days ( i am egyptian) i had a really good experiance and with all its "shit" i fell in love with it... but then again it was because egypt has a "clicky" society where if you want to go out to the nice decent places and go to the nice posh clubs you got to be in the scene and luckily i was..
i see the egyptian governmant trying to do something but its trying to help the upper class and by doing that, they are assuming the upper class will create business that would create jobs...
i am actually for that idea.. i am anti mubarak but i am not anti-nazif, rachid rachid, and so forth of that,
That's a funny read. Abdel Nasser destroyed the country? Farouk kept it "clean and fashionable"?
Dude. I am against Nasser's policies, but this was just hilarious. Farouk's Egypt wasn't clean and fashionable... unless by Egypt you mean the 1% of it composing of the palaces and royal facilities. The rest of the country wasnt in the picture. It was buried. There was no infrastructure. No minimal wages. No source of power/electricity... nothing. The people had no voice and no power, and the resources were drained with its people exploited. Nasser brought the rest of the dirty country to focus, and built a real country out of it. Just because 99% of the country was invisible doesn't mean it didn't exist. What did people breathe before Oxygen was discovered?
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