Comparisons

why do i keep writing on/being so interested in egyptian strikes?

i donno, but if i think about it, i can find a few reasons... for exemple:

1. emotional reasons:

• i love this country, its people and its culture;
• i know cairo better than rome;
• i've had a great time every time i went there;
• the two most important guys of my life (till now) were egyptians.

2. sociological/historical reasons:

• egypt is the archetype of arab world: a big countrywith a long history to be proud of, but an uncertain future. then, if a pacific revolution will be possible in egypt, it means that all the arab people can stand up against their government and fight for their rights;
• egypt is a country where, in the past few years, a great civil society movement has developed: human rights activists, bloggers, talented youth are all creating and developing projects to rise political awareness among the new generation, so i want to learn something from their experience.

3. comparative reasons:

i find a big amount of similarities between egypt and italy (that's why i also feel half egyptian ;-P). for instance:

• we both have a proud long history of domination over the mediterranean area that make us wonder on the low standars of living we reached in the present days: we are threatened between being the past pharaons and emperors before and our present situation of instability, deprivation and decay;
• we have common ancestors, so we are almost the same family on two different shores of a lake: cleopatra & marco antonio. or (as my friend mashraheya's dad told me once) sophia loren & omar sharif ;-)
• we both have corrupted governments which are just looking for international recognition as democracies, but do not hesitate to menace, arrest and shoot their own citizens (for the italian chapter, see G8 Genova 2001 - i was there);
• there is nothing interesting going on in italy in this moment.

oh, yes, i remeber! there are presidential elections tomorrow...

same shit as usual, then!

Pyjamahedeen

ok, if you have never heard of this word and you don't know the meaning, just check Here

Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

nupe, it will not be Nancy Ajram (as a kind of Arab Marilyn Monroe, if you let my comparison pass...) to sing with her persuasive voice "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak on his 80th birthday on May 4, 2008.

the most unusual (yet not unexpected after 25 years of despotic regime) gift for the Egyptian Sphinx comes from Egyptian web activists, who have launched new mass street protests on the same day to commemorate his birthday.

opposition to President Mubarak has been growing lately with rising prices and stagnating wages adding to public discontent.

"The credibility, legitimacy and the grip of the regime are eroding" said Ibrahim Issa, editor of the independent daily newspaper Al-Dostur, to Reuter.

actually my favourite quote is one from Abdel Wahab el-Messery, an organizer of kefaya movement, who told The New York Times: "The element of fear is there. The people are afraid of the government, but the government is as afraid of the people." (damn if it's true!)

What Goes Around Comes Around

the wheel turns. the wheel of fortune. what goes around comes around. this is what they use to say. then i'm thinking about what i've done to upset the god of karma. i look at myself as an honest, fair, hard-worker girl. i've made a couple of big mistakes and bad actions in my life, but i have the impression i can count them on the fingers of a hand: i was unfaithful to my former boyfriend and i've slept with my friend's boyfriend once. oh, and i've stolen something in a flea market when i was 14.

i don't know if it has to do with the small things of our daily life: i have not left the tips to the waiter at the fast-food, i've stolen a taxi to some pilipinos waiting since longer, i'm rude on the phone when people don't understand what i say.

but i think that all those things are related to the situation i'm in. yesterday (thursday) i've met F. in Marina Mall and she told me that i'm stressed and i really need to relax. of course i'm stressed!
and all those talks about buying designer shoes in an outlet for 500 AED or going to dance in dubai or waterskiing or going to the spa was got on my nerves even more. it's easy being relaxed while earning 6,000 AED without having to think about your rent or your transportation.

for me it's a bit different, let's say is a kind of that old punk slogan. Produce. Consume. Die. and have no time for pleasures.
i don't think i need advices from someone to whom i've taught what living here meant. i still remeber when, after 7 months that i was here alone without seeing my family not even in picture, i "confessed" that i missed my family and that this kind of life was hard and she told me that this means being adults and that i cannot always lean on my family whenever i feel like doing it because it's not mature. and then, after 3 weeks that she came back from italy, she told me: "oh, y' know my parents are coming for easter. i miss my family so much. it's hard working here alone and being so far from your parents…" oh, no, i don't know what you are talking about: i have no feelings.

i feel pity for myself. i mean: i was so lucky that i had all the blessings one could have (and i thank god or his deputy CEO for this). i was born healthy. i was born in a free, rich, democratic western european country. i never had to face poverty, hunger, war, diseases in my life. not directly, i mean. i was born in a middle class family with enough money to provide me with a good education and a more than decent standard of living. i have always had all the moral support of my parents for everything i've done. almost all the people that i've known in 25 years of useless life (especially people older than me) think that i'm very smart and talented.
so now i feel that i'm throwing away all these blessings.
for what? nothing. at least, nothing that worths it.

independence maybe. but independence from what, if my happiness still depends on my family's recognition of my efforts?

Karma, please, give me an answer. What did I do wrong to you?

Looking forward to your kind reply,

Best Regards

Claudia Ciprietti
Life Disappointed

Smell Like Teen Spirit

it's 00.39 and i just came home.
actually not… that's only partially true since i've spent the all day at home hand-washing about 10 kilos of clothes and i went out only at 11.33, after my mum called me. i ate and then i just had a tour to discover the smells of my old days in Abu Dhabi (a kind of life i'm not in anymore).
i'm always amazed at how human mind works: for example, for me smells are as much evocative as sounds and sights (and sometimes even more…). and i don't know if it is related to some kind of childhood experiences or maybe prenatal or maybe even "past lives" we lived and we are not aware of. lately, every time that i go for the italian lesson and i pass by laura's home, where i used to live in my first three months in the emirates, the smell of freshly brewed coffee remind me of those days (even if little changes have undergone in the area, i associate that period to the smell of that coffee).
this evening, i wanted to check if the same would happen for other places. so i walked off to Al Salama Hospital's signal, i turned left on Al Ferdous Street and started to smell the air. nothing. i reached the end of the street and, at Capitol Hotel, i turned left again on Mina Road. still nothing. only the smell of the sea, so similar to the smell of the Adriatic Sea and so different at the same time. the smell of the sea here is somehow less marine than in my place: probably it has to do with the massive urban development the city is facing. skyscrapers. fake islands. harbours. Corniche reshaping. walking with my nose in the air i arrived to the building where my friend jonas used to live… so i turned back not to start being romantic and missing those nice moments i had with him and barbarella. probably the best friends i have had in this place (together with alessia). for sure the healthiest.

i don't know. i don't feel well. i'm tired and fed up.