Fire of Anatolia ... and where is the egyptian fire???

Twinkling stars and half moon shining on the pyramids and then the amazing sound of Turkey... yes I got a ticket for Fire of Anatolia and the setting was right in front of the pyramids and the sphinx on the right. It couldn’t have been any better place for such an amazing dance. Oeznur (my Turkish friend from Heilbronn) and I went along with the beat and even had a little traditional dance at the end.

But once again I noticed that the Egyptian crowd is one of the worst audiences to perform for. They just don’t honor the event. I mean, they do turn up with their little dimands hanging everywhere and high heels and 2h blow-dried hair, but they come in half an hour late, talk on the mobile, leave in the middle of the last scene and then their clapping is appalling. Damn, I think I would never want to perform in front of such a boring crowd. Well, we made up for them and were screaming from the top of our lungs. Gosh was it cold. Grrrrr... so I kept on screaming, clapping and dancing to keep me nice and warm.

Tomorrow is a major day for Egypt as there is the voting on a constitutional referendum which can have a major effect on the democracy in the country. Mubarak is trying to push this referendum under the excuse of fighting the terrorism (this excuse seems to be the only valid one that is used and abused worldwide).

Thus he is trying not to let parties founded upon religion be politically active. Furthermore the constitutional referendum would enable the government to violate civil liberties in the name of national security. Which of course is a huge scandal considering that violation and arbitrary already are a major problem of this state. In addition, and this is in my opinion the most ridiculous, the legislation would also allow the president to bypass traditional courts and to refer terror suspects to military tribunals whose rulings cannot be appealed. Plus judges would no longer supervise the elections in the country. come on - I mean we all know this is no democratic country, but this just boosts it all. Actually what is most frightening to me, is to see that the intellectual people I know, don’t even know about this referendum, or decide that they don’t want to know about it. Which in the consequence leads to the fact that actually nobody I know will go and participate in one of the most important human rights - which is voting.

Over and over again I get frustrated about how ignorant Egyptians are. I mean, they always talk as if they want their country to improve and criticise it all, but then when it comes to the most simple action that can be taken from the grass route level (and not the policy level that one of us could never reach) they don’t even fulfil their task as Egyptian citizen. Maybe it is education - well actually I think for sure it is education as for Germany we are educated to go and vote and use and raise our voice. Even if one is frustrated, I don’t think it is an excuse to say I won’t go and vote. That is the point where one should stand up and say at least I voted so I fulfilled my duty. At least one tried. But no. Even with 30 years most people have never voted. oh and then the best excuse: I don’t have an ID, so I can’t vote. And yeah. I actually don’t know where to get the ID from? Come on - there were presidential elections last year oh - no it’s even the year before. At that stage one should have already woken up and said that one wants to have a voice/vote.

This country is sleeping and consuming only and then topping it by complaining. Like in the Fire of Anatolia show, I go, listen, enjoy, and get up without doing my duty as an audience, which is as simple as clapping to thank the performers. In stead you only hear people complain on how cold it was.

Come on - get a grip. Do something for your country and at least vote. Where else do you think the changes will come from if you don’t even put in a little effort?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17758821/site/newsweek/page/2/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/egypt/story/0,,2038649,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

Back from dahab

6:05 Arrival somewhere under a bridge in Cairo. Back in the town full of noise and emissions... oh boy was it nice, 8h away from this mega city - lying on the beach with the Sinai mountains in the background, breathe in fresh air, swim in freezing cold water and then shivering in the sun... ohhh wanna go back...

Well instead of heading back to peaceful Dahab, I will just change my clothes and head right into the old part of Cairo, full of people and some hidden treasure buildings. There is a tour around the Islamic area of Cairo organised by the MIU (university I used to go to here). Well and u don’t think I will hang around home recovering from an 8h night bus, do you??? No way... of out I go exploring more from this crazy city...

Once I get the pics from öznur, I will post them on the blog so you can get all jealous ;o)

Kiss kiss

Update

Well, carneval is over, my prof. has been here, we conducted all the scheduled interviews, I am exhausted from work, stoped partying, vegetating on the couch, and planning my trip to Dahab...

as you can see there was a lot going on the last month... I was wondering why i didnt update the blog... and decided that I was just too exhausted to write anything. But now that people are demanding an update from me... guess I should start writing again.

The last month was quite an up and down... My internship is exhausting me more than I imagined it would. Its not that the work is too demanding but I guess it is related to the working environment. My colleagues are really nice, but its difficult coz the space is very limited, and I dont have my own work space. Furthermore I feel that there is some negative spirit in the air and people are very stressed. And that has quite an effect on me. Last week I came to the decision that I need a break, and hopefully I will get it this weekend. I am planning to go to the Sinai - more precise Dahab. Looks like we will also be quite a group of people. Should be fun.

Oh just to complete the update... two weeks ago my prof. came to Cairo, to serve as moderator in the planning process of my programme, as well as Bettina Koester, who arrived for the interviews that I organised. these interviews are supposed to serve as research material for the project related to "Trust in german-arabic cooperations". Very interesting. I accompanied bettina to some interviews and must say that they were utmost interesting.

Trust ... what a word... its actually fascinating to think about it. How do I build up trust? well for me I came to the conclusion that I am a person who trusts a lot. And i dont wanna miss this trust. But the interviews showed nicely that germans who are of older age, seem to be more trustwrothy than younger guys. And I think that that is actually related to the fact that young professionals who come here for a specific mission, do not recognise the importance of personal relationships, and trust creating rituals. They rely more on contracts then on their opposite person.

Ups... see this is what happens ... once u get into a project u are stuck to it... but its really interesting and i cant wait to see what the result of the research is.

Soooo... guess I wrote more than enough. I shall add a pic of dahab so that u know where i am gonna spend the weekend.

Enjoy your weekend too...