Mirages, Unicorns and Exit Doors...
Monday, May 30, 2005
The Accommodation Quest
We are expecting 20 Salaam trainees, plus another 6 or 7 trainees to come into Egypt. The maximum we ever had in the past was something like 12 or 13 so this is definitely is a record breaker!!!
Its always great to have so many trainees coming in but then the worst part about it all is the race for finding affordable accommodation whose owners would not mind having guys and girls stay within the same walls.
During this most recent race, I confirmed my discovery of the newest AIESEC Egypt talent...Adham...Adham got a floor from one of the colonial villas of Garden City...with 5 huge rooms, accommodating the minumum of 10 people...With the rent of the floor we also get the roof which does have a pretty amazing view of the green, quiet and historic area...The place is simply amazing...I would just rent it out for my own pleasure and live there alone...unfortunately I dont earn enough yet...
Well...lucky Salaamers...
Will try and get pictures of this amazing place up here at some point...
¶ 2:35 PM 15 Comments
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Bowman, Luly and Askoura have done this test so I was intrigued to try it out...
It says that I was more liberal but then some of the questions I was really undecided...next to the fact that such few questions will not be the best measure...
Your Political Profile
Overall: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal
Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Fiscal Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal
Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Defense and Crime: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal
The 25th of May Bridge or maybe the 25th of May Satellite City...
On the 25th of May, Egypt has chosen to democracy...the Egyptians have chosen to build their future now...
Over and over...you hear such statements in the government controlled and owned Egyptian media...
Though I see the problems with the constitutional ammendment and was in disagreement with the criteria it set for presidential candiates, however, watching and hearing about the happening of that sad day was what got me really wound up...
NDP demonstrators beating up the Kefaya movement demonstrators...
lack of control in polling stations leading to the possibility of one voter actually voting more than once in different polling stations, AlWafd writers managed to vote in 6 different stations in the same district...
Cairo Streets covered in banners saying "YES to Mubarak", again portraying how so many people do not really understand what is going on and what this constitutional ammendment is really about...
Last and most important were the results of the referrendum...53% turned up (many are very skeptical about this number, including myself) and 82.8% said yes to the constitutional ammendment...a number that is definitely lower than the usual 98 or 99% BUT is it really 82.8% or is it lower?? Especially that many of the intellectuals of Egypt have went down to the polling stations on that hot May day...
However...the media goes on to chant about the victory and success of the day...I will not be amazed if they announce the building of a bridge or a city and naming it the 25th of May (like the 6th of October, 15th of May and the 10th of Ramadan...did I miss any of those legendary dates??)
The End of a Chapter...Tom Gara has left the House...
Was at the airport this morning with Aly and Soad to see someone off...
This someone was Tom Gara... our NCP...
For the first time ever did I have tears welling up in my eyes for someone traveling away...I looked at Aly and could see his tears as well...
Why did we have tears for Tom leaving?
Well, because we had what we may call some of of the best days ever because of Tom...we had the good days of fun and the bad days when we stood together to make sure that even if shit happened that AIESEC in Egypt would go on being strong and sustainable...
Some moments I will never forget, will probably mean nothing to you but they definitely mean loads to us:
At the airport again...Tom walks out to be greeted by a couple of AAST Cairo guys who start fighting infront of him scaring his wits out...Tom was shaking so they stopped and told him that they were playing a prank on him...but then again the big white guy did not stop shaking and asked for a cigarette...Too intense for his first Middle Eastern experience...
Tom running after Sanaa trying to touch her and take away her "Arab female innocence" (note: sarcasm)...she swearing in her Moroccan English accent "Fuck you...Tawm"...
NLDS when we had our first conference as a team of 3 people, a team that only had a few days to put together the biggest national conference of the year...a conference that in the end turned to be one of the best ever...Once the conference was announced closed by the chair...we hugged all three of us...a hug I will never forget...a hug of friendship, trust, respect and shared reality...
Numerous phone calls with Tom calling and asking me to talk to the random guy who knocked on the office door and who does not speak a word on English (Tom did not manage to learn that much of the Arabic language either)...will never forget when he called me to tell me to talk to, in his words, "the peasant in the suit"...
Our numerous calls to arrange for a lunch date at Maroosh for a shawerma and a shisha...or the nights out in Limousine...The High school Banddar in the very beginning of the term, we decided that we will not go there as often coz we cant stand the CAC kids infesting the place...our first experience in seeing a shisha getting broken at Le Café... Or him taking us to Tornado's to try out this kick ass shisha that he discovered with Trent, and then we would start pointing out who was a Gulf Arab and who was obviously a prostitute...
IPM, MIS, NATCO, MENA meeting, Ballah, Sharm, NPM, Chili's, Khan Khalili, Maadi, Java....All places that remind us of the great guy who was our boss...
Tom wasnt just someone we had fun time with but he was someone we learned out of...he was someone who always made us feel like we can do anything and everything...he always believed in us...in me...if not for him, I wouldnt have been where I am now..leading AIESEC in Egypt and so many initiatives...
An important and beautiful chapter in our lives and in the history of AIESEC Egypt has ended...Tom Gara has left the Egyptian House...he heads to the International one...representing Australia, Ireland and definitely us in Egypt...
Tom Gara... Thank you...you have changed our lives!!! The void you leave behind will definitely not be filled by anyone else...its too big of a void physically ;) and in every other way...
I dont think I am that good on being emotional using words so simply...
Tom... You have left the house but not the hearts...
Tom...
Shokran...
(P.S. As usual Tom was about to lose his phone when he left it at the metal detectors and walked away...we all just cracked up...If he makes you cry and laugh at the same time then he is Tom Gara...) ¶ 4:03 PM 0 Comments
This someone was Tom Gara... our NCP...
For the first time ever did I have tears welling up in my eyes for someone traveling away...I looked at Aly and could see his tears as well...
Why did we have tears for Tom leaving?
Well, because we had what we may call some of of the best days ever because of Tom...we had the good days of fun and the bad days when we stood together to make sure that even if shit happened that AIESEC in Egypt would go on being strong and sustainable...
Some moments I will never forget, will probably mean nothing to you but they definitely mean loads to us:
At the airport again...Tom walks out to be greeted by a couple of AAST Cairo guys who start fighting infront of him scaring his wits out...Tom was shaking so they stopped and told him that they were playing a prank on him...but then again the big white guy did not stop shaking and asked for a cigarette...Too intense for his first Middle Eastern experience...
Tom running after Sanaa trying to touch her and take away her "Arab female innocence" (note: sarcasm)...she swearing in her Moroccan English accent "Fuck you...Tawm"...
NLDS when we had our first conference as a team of 3 people, a team that only had a few days to put together the biggest national conference of the year...a conference that in the end turned to be one of the best ever...Once the conference was announced closed by the chair...we hugged all three of us...a hug I will never forget...a hug of friendship, trust, respect and shared reality...
Numerous phone calls with Tom calling and asking me to talk to the random guy who knocked on the office door and who does not speak a word on English (Tom did not manage to learn that much of the Arabic language either)...will never forget when he called me to tell me to talk to, in his words, "the peasant in the suit"...
Our numerous calls to arrange for a lunch date at Maroosh for a shawerma and a shisha...or the nights out in Limousine...The High school Banddar in the very beginning of the term, we decided that we will not go there as often coz we cant stand the CAC kids infesting the place...our first experience in seeing a shisha getting broken at Le Café... Or him taking us to Tornado's to try out this kick ass shisha that he discovered with Trent, and then we would start pointing out who was a Gulf Arab and who was obviously a prostitute...
IPM, MIS, NATCO, MENA meeting, Ballah, Sharm, NPM, Chili's, Khan Khalili, Maadi, Java....All places that remind us of the great guy who was our boss...
Tom wasnt just someone we had fun time with but he was someone we learned out of...he was someone who always made us feel like we can do anything and everything...he always believed in us...in me...if not for him, I wouldnt have been where I am now..leading AIESEC in Egypt and so many initiatives...
An important and beautiful chapter in our lives and in the history of AIESEC Egypt has ended...Tom Gara has left the Egyptian House...he heads to the International one...representing Australia, Ireland and definitely us in Egypt...
Tom Gara... Thank you...you have changed our lives!!! The void you leave behind will definitely not be filled by anyone else...its too big of a void physically ;) and in every other way...
I dont think I am that good on being emotional using words so simply...
Tom... You have left the house but not the hearts...
Tom...
Shokran...
(P.S. As usual Tom was about to lose his phone when he left it at the metal detectors and walked away...we all just cracked up...If he makes you cry and laugh at the same time then he is Tom Gara...) ¶ 4:03 PM 0 Comments
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Finally...Kuwaiti women get what they deserve...
Living in Kuwait...it was common knowledge that the women played a big role in running Kuwait, they were running it from their homes, offices, cars, under their 3abayat (black body cover) or from under their pairs of jeans and sleeveless tops...They were the ones who went on the streets demonstrating during the Iraqi invasion in August 1990 while many of the men where at home scared...
Out of my experience with my Kuwaiti women...they are generally smarter, more mature and definitely more ambitious...
However, only yesterday did they get the recognition for being an active part of the Kuwaiti society (in my opinion, the most active)...now they can vote and run at the next parliamentary elections in 2 years time...They have been trying to get their rights for decades to be only supported by the Prince of Kuwait in the year 1999 but since then the law was voted against for a few times, the latest of which was March 2005...
To get it voted in, the government had to adjust the law to:
"a Kuwaiti woman, voting and running for political office, should do so while fully adhering to the dictates of Islamic Sharia"
This was so the people who fall in the middle between the liberal direction and the Fundmentalist one would vote for the law...the voting came out to be 35 in favour, 23 against and one abstention...
I see some alarm signals though...what does the second phrase in the law really mean??
Its a good step all the same...
Yesterday...Kuwait managed to conquer the Fundmentalist Islamists...However, managed to conquer them through democracy and not by rounding them up and putting them in jail...Hope Egypt can learn a thing or two from this other tiny Gulf-state I call home...
Out of my experience with my Kuwaiti women...they are generally smarter, more mature and definitely more ambitious...
However, only yesterday did they get the recognition for being an active part of the Kuwaiti society (in my opinion, the most active)...now they can vote and run at the next parliamentary elections in 2 years time...They have been trying to get their rights for decades to be only supported by the Prince of Kuwait in the year 1999 but since then the law was voted against for a few times, the latest of which was March 2005...
To get it voted in, the government had to adjust the law to:
"a Kuwaiti woman, voting and running for political office, should do so while fully adhering to the dictates of Islamic Sharia"
This was so the people who fall in the middle between the liberal direction and the Fundmentalist one would vote for the law...the voting came out to be 35 in favour, 23 against and one abstention...
I see some alarm signals though...what does the second phrase in the law really mean??
Its a good step all the same...
Yesterday...Kuwait managed to conquer the Fundmentalist Islamists...However, managed to conquer them through democracy and not by rounding them up and putting them in jail...Hope Egypt can learn a thing or two from this other tiny Gulf-state I call home...
Mabrook ya Hareem El Deera El Kuwaitiya
Dr. Soad Al-Sabah, a poet and a member from the Royal Family kissing the Prime Minister's forehead...though a relative, it is still not acceptable by Kuwaiti standards...She is really happy!!
¶ 5:41 PM 5 Comments
