I always (naively) assumed that a well-balanced, mentally stable human being after climbing up the food chain would not want to inflict the same injustices he/she was previously exposed to on the new fledglings taking his/her place dangling at the bottom.
Turns out there are more mentally unstable people than not. In Other words, (and I don't care how cheesy I sound saying this) be careful kids; it's a jungle out there!
I don't know how to say the following without sounding like a complete asshole but I'll try.
I think it's awesome, amazing and mind-blowing that the Children's Cancer Hospital (57357) is enjoying this tremendous amount of support, both moral and financial.
It sort of bugs me though that a great many other hospitals in Egypt that are just as needy (if not more) are not getting nearly as much attention. It seem that somehow, the massive media campaign aimed at promoting the CCH's efforts has made it more well...fashionable to direct donations there compared to other hospital.s
My own personal experience is limited to El-Demerdash (a.k.a. Ain Shams University Hospital), but I don't think I'm being pessimistic in thinking that it's only one among many hospitals that need serious financial support just to stay afloat.
I go to work every day and I see this crumbling establishment trying to pose as a hospital that receives a ridiculous amount of patients each day complaining from every ailment imaginable under the sun.
As awful and life-shattering as cancer is, there are also many other awful diseases out there that need so much to treat or even to diagnose properly. I've witnessed young residents with my own eyes pay for patient's treatments out of their own pockets and let me tell you, their pockets are by no means deep.
It's not just money either. Blood is more commonly unavailable than not and sometimes it can make all the difference.
So is there anyone out there willing and powerful enough to advertise the needs of other heavily pressured hospitals in Egypt so that all those generous Egyptian philanthropists (and for once, I'm not being sarcastic) can be made aware of other places where their help is badly needed?
Last night, I watched a segment about the "Respect Yourself" or "E7terem Nafsak" anti-sexual harassment campaign by Kelmetna Magazine on "el 3ashera masa2an" show along with millions of other people. It resonated with me as I'm sure it did with many other girls around Egypt particularly since the segment adamantly placed emphasis on the fact that it's not the girl's fault and unlike what people believe, it doesn't simply boil down to the way she's dressed.
So I decided to check out the campaign's facebook group and you'll never guess what I found people arguing about for pages upon pages.
Actually, you probably can
Lo and behold, people were still arguing about clothes and the way girls are dressed.
I'm stunned that so many people are simultaneously naive and hardheaded. Note to the public : covering a girl from head to toe has been done and it doesn't desuade macho-men with inferiority complexes walking through the streets of Cairo from running their mouths and possibly drooling to the extent of needing a bucket tied around their necks (and this has been supported by research).
Before anyone flames me, I'm not advocating that women walk around in the skimpiest of outfits but basically I believe in two things :
a) Regardless of religious beliefs, I don't think it's particularly intelligent of a girl to emphasize her body over everything else she possesses be it intelligence, talent, humor..etc.
b)However, I do believe in personal freedom.
Another reason why the whole clothing issue is so completely redundant to me is that saying a women is "asking for it" by the way she dresses is basically proclaiming that the majority of men in Egypt are decerebrate animals with absolutely no control over their actions who are simply being driven around by their hormones and desires. I find that both lame and unacceptable. Seriously, people have to come up with a better excuse than that.
To further explain my point; let's use the open door analogy Egyptians seem so fond of. We like to say that if a door of a house or a car is left open, surely this will lure a theif.
Well, yeah..except that means that 90% of the Egyptian male population have suddenly become degenerate theives and women (pssst...those are the houses/cars...ooh..and their skimpy clothes are the open doors!) have suddenly become walking targets.
I don't know about you but that's just insulting to both sexes .
I don't want to live in a place where that analogy is an accepted fact that applies to the vast majority of the population especially in this day and age.
You know what the real problem is? It's apathy. As cliche as that sounds, it's the truth. Nobody gives a damn any more. It's just another day and another chick getting hit on by some moron, maybe violently, maybe not. Ho-hum well what's new and what do you expect me to do, lady?
I'd go as far as to say that some people enjoy seeing other people's misery. After all, it makes for awesome small talk!
listening to: Robyn-Bum like you
The expression "Victims of Medical School" 0r "Da7aya Koleyet Teb" has always seemed a bit of an exaggeration to me. Last week though is probably one of those times when it actually applied to some of us!
You see, we take some private lessons in the most absurd places. Specifically, the inner alleys of El-Abbassia. Mind you, I'm not talking about the residential areas there in general, I'm talking about the innermost, darkest, broken-down, suspiciously odoriferous areas surrounding the faculty.
Last Thursday, a random resident driving over a friend's foot while standing in front of the um.."educational center" where we take our lessons, prompted one of our male colleagues to shout something along the lines of "watch it!". After that, apparently all hell broke loose. The man stepped out of the car, people started pouring down from the apartments (still in their sleeping "garments") and pseudo-thugs ready with their retractable pocket-knives started running over from the local all-night cafés. They then proceeded to beat the crap out of every male student who just happened to be standing there. The used their fists, random chairs and a few tables to cause as many bruises as possible along with some ripping of clothes and breaking of glasses for good measure, while the girls were locked in the aforementioned center or fled for safety.
This ended in a dramatic scene where the police drove in after our Professor/Doctor/Tutor drove over to get them.
Then the credits began to roll followed quickly by "THE END".
No, seriously. I'm not making this stuff up.
Let this be a warning to all those who wish to enter medical school : If you thought it was just about the studying, think again kiddies, think again!
Listening to : New Order - Crystal
I love it when Doctors/Professors literally spit out their "pearls of wisdom" at us during rounds. Seriously, the stuff I hear coming from these men's mouths is pure comedy gold.
I remember during my OB&GYN round last month, there was this particular doctor who blew me away. We only saw him twice but he had a particularly profound effect on me during one of those times caused by one of his highly entertaining "pearls.
I'm paraphrasing here, of course but the gist of what he told us one time when we were discussing the value of knowing the patient's and her husband's respective ages was:
"See? Her husband's much older than her. He probably needed someone to serve him. That's what these marriages with significant age differences are usually about. You see, the biggest trap a man can fall into is ending up outliving his wife because then there would be no one to take care of him in his old age. I mean, a woman can serve herself when she's old and on her own but a man still needs taking care of! "
So let me get this straight...
A elderly widower's biggest problem would be the absence of a female "servant" rather than a "companion"? His biggest problem would be the inability to shout "JANE! ME HUNGRY! FEED NOW!" at someone? And an elderly female widow needs nothing because any thing's manageable as long as she can cook and clean after herself despite any decrepitude old age might cause?
This is actually as silly as the notion that a widower should get married as soon as possible because he needs someone to take care of the house while a widow shouldn't because she should stay loyal to her husband's memory and think only of her children.
If this is the biggest trap a guy could fall into, the biggest one a girl could fall into is ending getting hitched to a guy retarded enough to think of her as an investment to keep him comfortable in his old age.
Listening to : God is an Astronaut - Radau
So I had an Obstetrics and Gynecology exam recently. It was one of those exams where they threateningly go "SHIFT!" every 5 minutes (or so they say-- it feels like we shift according to the time it takes a resident to yawn in between well.. shifts). As a result your brain goes into overload and fries itself until it recovers of course right after the exam and you wonder how you could have been such a moron to mess up like that.
So I go in all ready for action. I was going to do all that I could with the patient in the hypothetical 5 minutes that I had. I choose the first relatively high surface I find to begin writing on. I go ahead with the questions and the patient quietly says " Doctor, do you mind my stomach, please?". I look down in horror to realize that the "high surface" I have chosen is the pregnant patient's belly and not a commode of some sort. Then again, you'd think I would find it suspicious that there's a commode sprouting out of the middle of the friggin' bed. *Facepalm*
It gets even worse when she answers one of my questions by saying "this is my tenth pregnancy, I've had nine miscarriages". She then adds with a glare " I hope this one works out!".
Now, where's that dude telling you to shift when you actually need him!?
There's something I can't wrap my head around these days (lol breaking news, I'm sure.); the fact that despite us being in our FINAL year of medical school, my colleagues (particularly the chicks) insist on acting like they're oh-so-embarrassed-to-be there when certain medical terms comes up in conversation. Here I'm referring to stuff that everyone else would understandably be too embarrassed to bring up while having lunch with friends; menstruation, scrotal examination, breast examination..etc.
I can understand people who haven't entered the deathtrap known as medical school going into mini-attacks of convulsions when I talk about unsavory topics like these with them (I'm so sorry Juka!) but seriously, other doctors-to-be (hopefully, someday) acting like I just said an especially heinous curse word is très annoying. Blushing in the middle of a PURELY scientific discussion about the dos and don'ts of the examination of a particularly sensitive area in the body(something we do at least TWICE weekly during our surgical rounds) is almost as bad for a med student as fainting at the sight of blood is. Seriously, you're going to be house officers next year. Unpleasant and often smelly situations will be the NORM.
Toughen the hell up or sit the f*** down, kids!
I despise falsely conjured modesty and hate that educated people choose to adhere to the relic -and in many situations- completely uncalled for behaviors deemed appropriate by their society just for the sake of appearances.
/rant off
One of my favorite songs (and videos) :
The Perfect Drug - Nine Inch Nails ( Lost Highway OST)
Today, while we were driving home, I saw a guy rush by in his car which had the word "DONGEROUS" conspicuously stuck on its rear end.
I mean, if you're gonna go ahead and try to proclaim what a bad-ass you are in such a pathetic, stupid and desperate method, you should at least make sure that said pathetic, stupid and desperate attempt is spelled correctly.
I've always wondered; why is it that when ultra-conservative Muslims become expatriates, they expect to apply their cultural and religious views to everyone around them? Mind you, I'm not just talking about themselves or their families, I'm talking about their new towns, cities, etc. by and large. It just seems odd to me that someone would move to a new place where things may be the complete opposite of what they are used to but still expect life to be exactly the same. Bleh..*shrug*
from Warm Leatherette by the Normal - 1978
Being the great procrastinator I am, I still haven't learned how to drive. I can't really say the prospect seems all that tempting. Riding shotgun while my mother and father drive, I find myself both highly amused and extremely concerned. My mother - who is an excellent driver by all accounts - is especially creative when it comes to shouting insults and making fun of the stupidity of her fellow drivers in a way completely foreign ( and just a wee bit scary) to her usual self. That's the amusing part. The concerning issue is the fact that her nervous system and heart are being kicked repeatedly in their respective asses whenever she sits herself behind that damned steering wheel. I mean, most - if not everything - in Egypt nowadays is apt to bring out the best in your genetic makeup, be it High Blood Pressure, Diabetes or other stress-related conditions you might be predisposed to.
I personally find myself staring fascinated, mouth agape and everything whenever I see the cars criss-crossing randomly through the streets, pushing themselves through any space that will take them. Together with the broken and bumpy roads, the unnecessary (and often inane) traffic barricades and the random car collision, it all paints such an elaborate painting of extreme mental incompetence. It's mah-velous, I tell you!
Also, I believe stupidity in driving is not gender specific. It's true that incompetent female drivers tend to drive a bit too slowly and stick to one side of the road with their hands and teeth (I'll never let go, Jack. Never let go...NO MATTER WHAT!)..so they'll probably have you gritting your teeth and pulling your hair out strand by strand and maybe get the blood boiling just a bit or finally make that aneurysm go *pop*.
However, incompetent male drivers are more likely to crash into you for the simple reason that you dared to exist in their field of vision (you simple, lowly mortal, you). They're also always in a hurry and always need to have one hand perpetually attached to the car-horn the same way an infant needs his goo-goo ( i.e. pacificer, bunny wabbit, peddy bear etc.) to stop crying. Apparently, twice as many accidents are caused by males rather than females (google it). It could be because women usually have their children with them, the fact that men are more aggressive or simply because men just drive around a lot more. Point is, you're more likely to break a limb or worse because of unfortunately being in the same vicinity as a retarded male driver.
In conclusion, whatever morbid worries you might have...you'll (unfortunately) find them on the street of Cairo (because you know you'll eventually have to go there..mwahaha).
Rabena Yostor.
It's amazing how people react to something they're not used to hearing...actually it's amazingly moronic.
Yesterday, I was sitting in the middle of a lesson and my cellphone rang ( I had forgotten to turn it off, as usual). The song I had on was Deep by Nine Inch Nails (one of my favorite bands ever). I had about 300 medical students either staring at me like I'm psychotic or giggling like little school girls who just learned -like omg! - how a baby is made.
I wasn't using the ringtone to make a "statement" but I just use whatever I have on my cellphone, which is naturally, whatever I listen to. O and I'm telling you now, if I ever have Nancy Ajram or Elissa blasting out of my phone at any given moment, you can help me pull the trigger and you don't even have to clean up after me. (No offense to people who like them)
Being the highly perceptive person that I am *snicker*, I've noticed that there's not a single time I've gotten together with my girlfriends without a discussion about weight emerging somehow. No one knows when it starts. No one remembers who starts it. It just ..is ...and it keeps going..and going. It doesn't matter who is what size, everybody hates something about their bodies. Everybody wants something to be smaller, or bigger, or to move up, or to move down, or to disappear altogether. It's amusing how we do all this while sipping drinks or eating desserts that probably contain about a million calories each.
I've always been curious, though. Do guys do that, too?
I've never exactly been a social butterfly. Thing is, it's never really bothered me until recently. Well, until my 22nd birthday a few weeks ago to be exact. I was happy with my tight-knit group of friends , happy with others beyond them being almost completely oblivious to my existence and especially happy believing that I didn't have to put energy into trying to charm ( whatever charm I could muster, of course) people I really couldn't care less for .
I mean if you had to logically choose between a ton of acquaintances you barely know and a small group of good friends, you'd choose the latter, right? Well, I've always believed in that idea and I'm starting to believe that I've been enforcing this rule a bit too strictly. I'm getting older and quickly losing the privilege of being able to deal only with people I like and making myself invisible to others. I'm less than a couple of years away from working and the thought of having to deal with a group of people, most of which I probably won't be all chummy with, scares the hell out of me. The idea of having to put myself out there, scares the hell out of me.
Man, growing up sucks...
*Sigh* ! It's such a pretty day. The breeze is gently blowing making the leaves rustle softly , the birds are singing, the guy next to us is beating the crap out of his wife....
Yeah, that's right. Our next door neighbour, a dentist from a family which is very financially blessed , who has only been married for less than a year (also to a dentist) is currently undertaking the task of making his wife run around the house , screaming for help. Did I mention that she has just had a baby about a week ago?
So what goes through the mind of a supposedly educated young man when he raises his hand to strike his wife? What goes through his parents' minds when they hear about it ? Are they proud of their handiwork? If the two families get together to drag an apology out of him , will he really mean it or will it just happen the next time dinner's not warm enough? Questions, questions...I just hope someone's smart enough and brave enough to tell her to take that kid, run and never look back.
I have an "acquaintance" in college who I considered a good friend in the first 2-3 yrs of college. We even looked a bit alike and most people thought that we were related. There was a distressing issue that she complained to me about during our first yr. Apparently, there was this guy who was always hovering around her. He showed up after she finished her sections, sat near her in lectures, bought her books she didn't ask for and even had the audacity to reproach her for not studying well after seeing her not-so-great grades when our test results were hung up on the wall after every test. She kept telling me that she wished he would just leave her alone and go away but she didn't have the heart to embarrass him. This girl was very delicate with a very low tone of voice (at the time , at least) , so I believed her. I used to encourage her to try and push him away by being harsh while dealing with him and I even offered to speak up for her if we both ran into to him together after one of our sections since most people thought we were cousins anyway. She told me she would handle it somehow but a few weeks later, she came to me horrified. Apparently, this guy was totally convinced that they had something between them to the extent that his elder sister had come to college one day to talk to her and tell her how he was a such a good guy and how much he loved her. She also told her that because they were so young, the engagement would be in the 5th year of college and marriage after they graduated. She told me how she had clearly put her food down and explained to her how it was never going to happen. I still believed her and offered my full support whenever she needed it.Fast forward to our fifth year in college. I noticed him attending our rounds instead of his a little too much. Sitting close to her in lessons one too many times. I warned her that if she didn't put up barriers, that it would happen all over again. She told me simply , " His friends are my friends and my friends are his friends , so it's O.K. now". I didn't like him and I didn't like how she was handling it but who am I to say anything? We drifted apart and even though we had different rounds, I noticed not seeing her recently at all. I asked the others if she was alright or if maybe she was sick but they said that they had seen her in lessons. Yesterday, someone mentioned that she got engaged last week and she was probably just busy. I was surprised and happy for her until a friend of mine told me she had seen the album and that he was with us in the same class in college. I asked her to describe him and lo and behold, she got engaged to her stalker.
See, I hope they get married, live happily ever after and have a truckload of little kids. I'm just really pissed about how she played me for over a year. How she just couldn't stand the attention. I feel like a complete moron whenever I remember how I offered to help her push him away.
I mean, If she enjoyed every minute of his attention and had bigger plans for both of them in the future , why make me think that she hated him ? Why did she feel the need to fool me?
I was just trying to look out for her...
I'm not talking about things that simply "annoy" you, I'm talking about things that elicit a strong desire in you to inflict physical injury, a desire that you have to work very, very hard to contain. Then again, my mother says I'm a violent person by nature...(Not because I enjoyed hurting small animals as a child but because I slam doors a little too hard and open jars a little too aggressively. *sigh*Don't ask)
-In a crowded line towards an exit when someone insists on laying their hands on you as if somehow that's going to propel both of you towards the door any faster. What's especially irritating, is the fact that they're really not important enough to be in such a hurry.
Hey there, strange person behind me...hands to yourself or I'm gonna cut ya! O.K now?
-When you're standing on a bus with a heavy book bag , rocking back and forth in rhythm with the lovely elevations and depressions of our streets and someone sitting down asks you to please stand still because your bag is brushing against his/her shoulder and causing a great deal of annoyance. They usually throw in a grimace of disgust for good measure
How about I just knock you unconscious with my big bad bag, so we can both have a nicer bus trip home, sir? Would that make you any more comfortable?
-If I have trouble doing something with my hands and someone actually pushes my hand away forcefully to do it themselves. I'm not a 2 yr old you moron nor are we living in the stone age, anymore where language was kinda scarce. We can c-o-m-m-u-n-i-c-a-t-e with s-p-e-e-c-h and w-o-r-d-s.
Otherwise, me get very angry of you and me want to smack your face in real bad.
-You can't do (insert anything e.g. be a surgeon) because you're a woman and you'll have a husband and children to keep you busy OR Brilliant statements along the lines of "women are taking all our jobs after graduation, you girls know you'll become housewives eventually". Yes, I'm a girl/woman/chick and being one , I own plenty of high heels. Would you like me to introduce you to their business ends?
-Pimply faced teenagers , wearing a cap glued to their head (that seems to be disintegrating into it's primary components...the cap not their heads...I think) ,who you can hardly see behind their steering wheels and who are always in a hurry to get somewhere. Where the hell are you in such a hurry to? To put out a forest fire? To free Palestine? To save a bunch of orphans from child labour? WHAT!?
If you're a pedestrian, they're fully intent on running you over when you dare to cross the street. If you're a driver , they shine the light in your eyes and insist on somehow passing you because if they're gonna kill themselves in a car accident , then they might as well take you with them!
You just wanna pull 'em them over and just...!#(%()@#....you get what I mean, right?
*Deep Breath*..That felt good.
Silly rabbit.
Ok that was lame…Anyway, moving on.
I’ve previously bitched and moaned about microbuses (MB’s) and metros but I’ve never mentioned terminals before, have I?
Terminals I’ve passed through include : alf maskan, el abbaseya , abd el menem reyad, el marg and maw2af el 3asher. The first 3 aren’t too bad really, they’re positively stylish compared to the last 2 which I only started to know of about 6 months ago when I moved. You see, I moved to a nice house and a nice neighborhood (where the neighbors are separated by a thankfully decent distance) in a “
Maw2af el 3asher is quite amusing really, once you get over the psychological trauma and cultural shock that is. You walk into that place and on your left are people selling fruit, screaming competitively what are apparently cheap prices at the top of their lungs. You walk in a little further and this strange, exotic odor hits you like a wall. You’re not quite sure what it is until you spot what seems to be sort of an open buffet and salad bar on your left. In other words; carts with really tall bucket-like structures filled with things like beans (I think) and old cheese (the “old forgotten at the back of your fridge because you’ve been too much of a lazy ass to pick it up and throw it out for the past year” sort of cheese) each covered with the most flies I’ve ever seen at one time. Would you like some Salmonella with that, sir? Followed by a variety of pickles (Fear not, those come with flies, too!) and those strangely shaped plastic containers filled with liquid licorice and what appears to be milk (again, I’m just guessing). Underneath it all is a smell I’ve found to be existent in every terminal I’ve ever been to (even the stylish ones). The smell you know is there but you’re hoping is not .The smell that conjures up terrifying images in your mind .The smell that turns your stomach and kills your appetite for the week. Yes, it’s the smell that indicates that many wanderers in these here parts have confused this public area for a urinal. Heck, the entire Abbasia square smells like a friggin’ toilet sometimes. Anyways, after you pass through there a few times, you just learn to turn off your lungs for a few seconds and never mind the brain damage.
After that you’re met by the cars, their drivers and the “dangling men”. It’s like an attack of bees. You’re suddenly surrounded by people screaming unintelligible names of places at you all at once and pointing towards those heavenly vehicles of theirs. Is this what it feels like to be a rag doll? And don’t you dare get in an empty MB while another half full MB going to the same destination is standing there! They actually start fighting over the “customer” and their street vocabulaire starts to demonstrate itself in its most extravagant forms.
Damn, I never knew you cared guys! And now I’m a little scared that I do….
As for el Marg, well, I went there at the beginning only when I was trying out all the buses and almost ran towards the metro station once I got there. All I can say is imagine the same “maw2af el 3asher” atmosphere with slightly less of an odor and many more people who look like pickpockets and cut throats. The best description belongs to my father who dropped off a handy man there (and consequently told me never to go there again): It seems like the residents might one day take apart the metro and sell it as spare parts when it pulls into that station.
*Sigh*Truer words have never been spoken, Dad.
I should really start making my posts shorter ….
I’ve come to the conclusion that after a certain number of years, educators (whether teachers or professors) start to fall victim to the ridiculous assumption that just because they’ve seen a lot of "those kids” come and go, they can simply take a look at one of them and tell what they’re all about.
Generalizations, condescendence and even premonitions of what the bleak future of these students holds then ensue.
I don’t get it really, is there a particular elixir they hand out to you when you start teaching that gives you superhuman powers to see into the souls, hearts and minds of all you students? Don’t they realize that individuality and creativity are already weak on their own without their attempts while in a position of influence, to generalize characteristics which can’t possibly apply to every single kid in a classroom and that lumping us into categories that are easy to remember really diminish the possibilities of people reaching their full potential ? Why do they insist on continually drilling into our heads that we’re all “lazy”, “parrots”, “of diminished IQ”, “spoilt”, blah, blah , blah ..etc. etc. etc. since we’re children until we actually believe it and start calling each other the same. If teachers/professors aren’t supposed to give you a chance to show them what you’re truly made of without preconceived notions, who should?
Just last week, a certain dermatology professor decided that a student who showed up late wearing a baseball cap must have been a spoilt professor’s kid who only shows up to rounds when he has the time and really doesn’t have to work hard like everybody else. Well zippidee doo da , why didn’t I think of that when I saw him? I mean since it’s so obvious and everything *snicker*. He actually said all this after the guy left and I’m not sure if he realized that instead of agreeing with him we all thought he was either an (a) manic depressive (b) moron (c) both. Then he proceeded to point out how we’ve all become lazy, students with no goals or motives. Um , yeah….we all give off the exact same vibe I’m sure. So he not only made several completely ridiculous assumptions but actually managed to project himself as an asshole thus losing all respect we had for him. I’m not expecting him to get to know us each intimately but if he doesn’t even make the effort with a few of us then he should just (in the words of the great common man) stick his tongue back in his mouth, shut up and teach.I hardly ever write about anything political because other people do it much better than I ever could. That's why I didn't mention the "constitutional amendments" or the "referendum" or any of this supposed democratic (LOL, yes I know, I know...) bullshit and decided to boycott like many other people considering what a big lousy joke the whole thing was.
Against my own good sense,I watched "el 3ashera masa2an" or "10 p.m" yesterday and didn't know whether to laugh or cry when they were interviewing the voters. My favorite was this one lady who enthusiastically replied to the reporter when asked about her vote : "Yes, I vote Yes!".
The dismayed reporter (who looked like she was about to creep into a dark corner and crawl into the fetal position at the end of the segment) asked her if she knew what the constitution is. "el Dastoor? Dah kowayes!"
.....Uh wenaby da zay el balsam 3al gar7 ya 7aga.....
The reporter then gave it one last shot and asked her if she knew what the amendments were, to which she replied "No, why don't you tell me...".
Some people thought they were voting for the president, others didn't know what the hell they were voting for, some even thought there was a monetary punishment if you didn't vote. I loved how El-Ahram (the headlines of which hit me like a wall this morning) boasted about the amendments being written on the ballots for the voters to remember. Like , that's actually going to make a difference if they're using their thumbs to sign. It also says that the turnout from rural areas was higher than that from urban areas. Well, good golly! I wonder why...
Oh and lookie here friends and neighbours , according to the government, the turnout was 25-27% and the approval rate was about 75%.
According to human rights and independent groups , it was barely around 5%.
I also found this video on youtube that speaks volumes (kudos and respect to its creators) :
Did I ever mention that I sometimes have to ride the Underground Metro/subway sometimes, too? No? Well, now I have.
Ever since we moved 3 months ago to one of the new cities built on the outskirts of Cairo to realize the dream of having a house of our own (we generally dislike um...neighbours) I've come in contact with the metro too!
My mom drops me off in the morning at a Metro station on her way to work and I take it to College. It's very practical actually, 10 mins and I'm there. If I happen to finish around the time my mom gets off work , I take the metro to meet her and I'm microbus-free for that day.
The thing is , just like microbuses have their highly entertaining events which make for great small talk topics , so does the metro.
Today for example, one metro- in the direction of Helwan- broke down. As a result,the next few metros were so congested , it looked like they were about to burst open and spit out the people filling them to their limit. It was totally comical waiting for a car where there was enough space to fit in. The metro cars pass by and you see faces, backs, bags, hands and clothes stuck to windows cartoonishly. When the doors open a bunch of girls pour out screaming (I don't know why they were screaming really but obviously they felt compelled to do so) and trying to pull their bags, hair and veils out with them. I worked up the courage to get into one of the cars and I've never rested my chin on so many strange heads and shoulders in my life. At one station a ..um..heavy-set woman waltzed in and demanded that I make some space. "I wish I could move lady but there's no space" to which she replies "space? Why there's plenty of space!".
O RLY? Then pray tell why am I forced to sniff your hair for the next couple of stations?
It's not an unusual sight to see a shoe or an arm stuck in between one of the doors while I'm on my way out of the station. It takes the conducter a while to notice the screaming but he eventually opens the doors again before he severes a limb. To be honest, it's not really his fault. It seems that some of passengers can't quite grasp the concept of having to move into the empty spaces in the car and away from the door to let someone in before the doors close. It's a complex concept I know.
Then there's that annoying policy of "Nazla? Nazla ? nazla? hah hah hah ? Nazla? " ...I swear that I'm getting off at the next station, honest to God and all his prophets , I promise you from the bottom of my heart that I'm getting off and may God strike me dead if I don't!
....Another "Nazla?" has to be thrown in for good measure though after all those promises are made....
I've noticed something weird about the way people deal with ticket machines. Besides of course suddenly finding a stranger squeezing in with you while you cross because she/he just happened to "forget" buying a ticket. The thing that I've noticed is that despite the fact that about 10 machines are working just fine, people seem to gravitate towards the 2 or 3 crowded ones. Is it because it's hard work checking the screen to see if the machine's working? Is it because the ones being used heavily are more likely actual ticket machines rather than say , a gateway to a parallel dimension (as if anyone would notice) ? Is it just the sweet smell of armpits that makes your day worth living?
Sigh...Questions , Questions.
I always take the ladies' car and on one occasion , this poor schmuck got on just before the doors closed by mistake. This lead to screams of protests : " A man! Men aren't allowed here!" , " We can take him to the police station when the metro stops!" yes ladies, because that poory scared guy is going to kidnap/rape/harrass/kill a car full of screaming vicious hyenas..err women ...then an empty semi-circle formed around him immediately with his back pressed to the door. It was like an invisible force field automatically goes up around any men in the ladies' cars.
And I can't sign off without mentioning the beloved sound of " tick, tick , etshfooo" ..Yes, that's right. You hear that sound and you realize someone is snacking on flax seeds or "lib" right behind your ear. I mean let's be rational, the lady behind me has gotta snack on something right? She has one hand free, a full set of teeth and a long metro ride home, so why shouldn't she spit out those darling little salivated missiles?
Well this post is long enough now and I'm sorry to have bored you if you've made it this far :D .
Bub-bye for now.
