Waiting for Govot

It's time for a balanced view. There are just too many extreme reactions to Algeria's attacks on Egyptians in Sudan. While it's infuriating, the proper reaction isn't to 'hate' the Algerian people for a variety of reasons. First, hate is a very personal emotion and it can't be applied to Algerians as a whole, secondly, it's not helpful at all or can be quantified and most of all, hate is not an action at all, if you hate the Algerians in your heart then you've become nothing but a bitter imbecile who has just waited for an excuse to use that dark emotion having not been able to apply it where it matters.

And no, we don’t want Alaa Mubarak to be president, one phone call cannot erase all that’s gone wrong, that’s an extreme we have to avoid at all costs. We also can’t kick all the Algerians out like we did with foreigners and Jews at the time of Nasser and look what it cost us, we’d be fools to repeat the same mistakes twice. Not that I mind the action much in my fury, but we cannot set such a dangerous precedent and the fury will soon die down and I already know Algerian individuals who have nothing to do with this.

The reaction must be balanced, because Algerians have hurt more of their countrymen celebrating in Algeria than they have to Egyptians in Sudan. What would we do if they'd killed some Egyptians? (Which I'm sure they would have had they lost) What if it were Algerian fans that had done this to Egyptians rather than cowardly criminals? There are many extremes that would warrant an extreme reaction but this is not one of them.

There are mixed opinions about the facts and the evidences. Many people with little understanding of Egyptians and Algerians have thought that we were quick to exonerate Egypt from any mishaps despite its guilt. I and many friends would be the first to condemn Egypt if it made sense from a logical point of view. We condemn Egypt for being incompetent in providing protection to its citizens. Our ambassadors in either Algeria or Sudan are practically useless as an extension to the government that sent them. But we know that our supporters aren't creative enough to make this up nor are they violent enough to truly wish someone dead. And we know that the Algerians have the worst history of violence and lies. All evidences must be examined with care with all the lies around.

On the one hand people are exaggerating about what happened, on the other some don’t believe anything that happened, but not just because it’s an exaggeration means that it’s not a big thing of its own. But even if some people don’t think it’s worth our efforts we'll always have no value if we don't stand up for our rights, and we really have been squandering those for much too long. What happened in Sudan remains unacceptable.

I think that people's emotional and illogical reactions of hate are due to the implicit realization that our government will do nothing. We have become a weak country; weak in its people, with a weak government that's only strong enough to suppress its own. It’s a government strong enough to oppress its people but too weak to stand up for itself. People hate Algeria because they hate their country and with the impossibility of expressing this against their government they have reflected it on the Algerian people. People are mad, but not at Algeria although they may think they are, they're mad at themselves and at their government. They feel betrayed by the symbol they thought would give them victory, strength and pride. They gave their energy, which is not a small feat by any means, to a flag that hurt them in every way; a flag that lost, got them beaten, got them defeated and got them humiliated. They're mad that the government doesn't care. They didn't care when they sent in the Egyptians without adequate protection and they don't care to give value to the Egyptian life and they won't care for any future failures they or their people encounter. The only thing they care about is staying in power and they are a species that fight one another for that power.

Wouldn’t it be great if the government took the proper action? It would really make a difference, but the government has been so inactive for so long that I doubt it can take a creative action even if it wanted to. People are waiting for the government, but in effect it’s like waiting for Godot.

In any case, this is great news for Israel. And no, I'm not a conspiracy theorist at all and don't have to drag Israel into everything. Today we realize that not one Arab country likes us and that we're so apart in reality. We've done everything to provoke them and anger them and they didn't do much to win our favor either. Each disruption with an Arab country pushes us closer into Israel's bosom, for with them comes economic support. Israel actually wants Egypt to be powerful unlike what the conspiracy theorists say, because it would mean that its only ally in the Middle East would be a strong ally.

I'm not inviting people to hate Israelis, for some are people without a choice of where they were born. I'm not inviting hate at all in any case, I'm inviting resentment. I'm inciting everyone to resent the things that should be resented. I'm hoping for a balanced opinion amidst those moderate few. Let not the anger blind you lest you end up where you don't want to be.

Defeat

The sheer sight of those NDP guys attending the match really got me thinking. Do I really want Egypt to win and for those tyrants to think that they can actually do something good through their corrupt system? Part of me really wanted Egypt to win, but the other part could not really conceive of such a thing happening.

After my last post, I realized that we were destined to lose. I alluded to it and I think it’s the only thing that makes sense. As I was writing what I wrote before, I knew I would also have to write what I write now. I don’t know how to explain it exactly, but according to all my analogies, we had to lose because we don’t know how to keep winning and because it wouldn’t be fair to give people false hope, that they can do one thing right when everything else has gone wrong.

Defeat might sometimes be a good thing. Maybe the people in Algeria were spared, and maybe we now know that we have very few friends in the region, and maybe now people can pay attention to all that’s gone wrong with the country. We don’t deserve to lose, but we should. As a country we should lose, not as an isolated team. They played well, they had the most horrible of luck. Sometimes your best just isn’t good enough, you really need other people’s best too.

It sounds pompous to say that I had a strong feeling we would lose, specially now after we actually did, but I suppose I didn’t really want to jinx it. That hope and energy that I had the first time round wasn’t there anymore, like I didn’t care or didn’t believe, like the spirit died down. I suppose we’re like the seed that lands in the path, we don’t have enough roots.

But if it’s any consolation we were defeated a long time ago and even if we had won we would have been defeated, not for losing a ‘friend’, Algeria, but for having lost ourselves sometime back. We had our chance to say that we’re alive, but we have demonstrated what we do with second chances.

Defeat stings if you put your hopes up high enough. I felt defeated before the match for so many reasons, the spirit died down and victory was intoxicating. Isn’t it safer just not to hope? It is, but I suppose you may get some joy out of it and as CS Lewis says in the movie ‘Shadowlands’, “The pain now is part of the happiness then.” I accept the loss, it’s part of accepting the victory.

To those who were perplexed by the spirit in the street thinking it’s stupid, well they’re spared and they won’t have to listen to my reasons. I’m not going to South Africa and Egyptians won’t be able to unite for any cause even if it’s as silly as football. There’s much sadness in defeat, but luckily in this case, it’s only a game.

We're Alive!

"The best thing about attending the game at the stadium was when people chanted ‘Kaas El A’alam’ just a minute before the goal"- Ahmed ElShentenawy, an Egyptian who flew in from Kuwait to watch the game.

We’re alive, that’s what the game said in the end, we’re not dead yet. We’ve had to battle hard for a chance to live, we’ve had to wait till the forth watch before finding our salvation, but we’re alive. Despite our slim chances of survival and our poor history with the world cup we’re alive. Despite how everything around us is set up to kill us, we’re alive. That’s the message of the game, we’re not dead yet. The 14th of November of 2009 gave us a chance to say that in our game against Algiers that ended with a 2-Nil victory that gives us another chance to enter the world cup.

We live in country that has set us up for failure in everything we do. The talented don’t get their chance to be all they can be, the money goes to the wrong places and pockets and no one really cares about people’s quality of life, or their hopes and dreams and aspirations. We’re in a country that’s been abused for so long and with everything that’s happening, it’s dying a slow and painful death. The word ‘Masr’ or Egypt has been since some time back used in a negative manner. It has come to denote a place you want to leave, you want to get out of, you want to be disassociated with. The only mention of patriotism is fabricated through cheap drama writers who are induced to do so by an oppressive government as propaganda.

Our ancient pharaonic symbols have all been over-used and have long been anchored to mediocrity. The flag with its colors has become depressing to look at, depressing to salute, obligatory in schools as another form of oppression inflicted on us by a tyrannical government. Our hopes are dying and our culture is dying and our dignity is dying. We’re fading away, silently into a darkness, worn down, run into the ground.

But then comes something of a phenomenon, football. It strikes me as odd that this may quite well be the only thing Egyptians have in common, that is the one thing for which we will stand shoulder to shoulder. It’s slightly sad that this may be the only thing we have left and yet with all the sadness of this realization, it’s hopeful that we still have that. We have one thing that brings us together. That is why even though I don’t believe that a football match should be treated with this much excitement, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with people and will get excited and will be part of the whole. Even if you don’t watch or like or care about football, you should stand shoulder to shoulder with your fellows. Don’t you understand? This might be the only thing we have left with one another.

This game mandated by an international body FIFA has fix what the local government has broken, pride in a country. It has given meaning to the word ‘Masr’.. Egypt.. chanted willingly by the people who have been most abused by it. The flags voluntarily hung up everywhere a symbol of a revived faith in a seemingly lost and dying cause. We’re being told by the world that we’re the pharaohs and we don’t seem to mind it now.

We’re in search of hope. We’re in search of hope in something greater than a football match. We’re in search of hope of a common cause, of some kind of collective victory in some kind of salvation from the darkness we’re plummeting into. We are trying to answer a question of whether after all our failures we had hope to survive. We failed in Egypt to beat Zambia and that was the failure we were trying to overcome in this game. It is a bit symbolic of all our failures and this match was to ask if we could overcome our history of failures.

The way people have said ‘Masr’ over the past few days could almost move a mountain. The faith and conviction was beyond words, carried stealthily with the word ‘Masr’ and sent out as so much energy. That’s how we scored twice, each time through this energy and this faith.

At the start of the game, the atmosphere was electric, it was phenomenal, and with all this energy from faith and hope, it drove the ball into the net. It wasn’t Sakka or Treka or Zidan or even Zaki that drove it in, it was that momentous energy. ‘Please God, let us win,’ said everyone in his heart and out loud. Even those who don’t believe in God said that to the energies that be. Let us not die today, give us hope in a future that is seemingly hopeless. We can’t afford to lose hope, not till the final whistle, we have to go down fighting at least.

I had to struggle with myself to keep that hope alive, till the very last second. Do I just accept defeat and spare myself the agony or do I keep fighting even within myself, for keeping faith consumes a lot of energy, it’s not as simple or as easy as giving up or losing faith. I decided not to let go of hope and kept it till the very last second, but I wasn’t the only one. I don’t know how difficult it was for others to keep that hope for a country that is almost destined to lose, that in fact has done so consistently over the years. I don’t know how they all got the energy to do that, while I, considering myself a person full of strength, struggled so damn hard with it. But they did, amidst all the darkness and the hopelessness they did.

In the very final minutes, where most would have been content to leave and say, ‘Forget about this whole damn country, it’s not worth a shit’, when people could have said, ‘It’s the same way always, nothing will ever change’, when people could have thrown the towel in and accepted their failure and their fate, they hung in there. They hung in there just like they have been hanging in there after our life line in Zambia when we scored a goal in a very difficult match; just like they have hung on to the hope before the match with our very slim chance of making that two goal win; just like they stopped criticizing and attacking our players and our coach and keeping the faith in them despite their near impossible mission.

A minute before the goal, the entire stadium chanted ‘Kaas El A’alam’ (The World Cup). In unison they chanted as a reminder to all the players playing on the court that this was our dream, that this is what they were fighting for till the last minute, that these were the last minutes and that victory could be at hand, that we could still play on as long as it wasn’t over, as long as we had a chance to live. How they could have fought with all their might to keep that faith is slightly incomprehensible for we are not the breed of fighters that fights till the end. We’re quick to lose hope and we have a long history to back it up and explain it.

‘Kaas El A’alam’, they chanted, taking every bit of energy to keep up the faith, to believe in the possibility of change. The players, reminded of a dream that has been almost forgotten in the entirety of the second half, rose up again. We have a dream to be part of the world, to compete, to understand that we can live. It was these chants that pushed the ball in, we’re not completely dead, against all odds, we’re alive. Those who were in the stadium were moved by the words before being moved by the goal. They were there, all of them, to remind those who were in a position to give us some sort of life that they should do their best till the very end. They were there to demand of our representatives that they not forget about us and our dreams which should be their dream too. They were there to remind the few who had the power that they were playing for us all, and the few who were in the stadium knew very well that they chanted this not just for the players, but for the 80 million others who were not able to fit in the stadium.

There are far too many emotions to describe but the temporary verdict of this match is that we’re alive. We live to fight another day. I say this before the final match that really determines if our dreams come true because it’s relevant whether we win or lose. We were given a victory out of almost nowhere at the fourth watch and I can't but be thankful. We might lose the next match and not realize our dream, but we’ve conquered the odds nevertheless. If only we can extend this to the next match, and not just our next football match, but our next fight for a better us.

Those that don’t choose to share the value of the word ‘Masr’ on this occasion, miss out on the one thing that currently brings us together. I know it’s not much, it’s a game, it’s a sport, it doesn’t give us much and I understand that there are too many more important impending issues at hand to be concerned with a game, but still, I’d rather have this than nothing at all. I will scream and shout and cry not just for the game, but for the chance to hope and fight and win, and to be able to say we’re alive.

World Cup Trophy Denied Entry - Egypt Pleads Stupidity

In the latest joke, greedy ignorant Egyptian customs officials refused entry to the eminent FIFA World Cup trophy. In the habit of detaining things first and asking questions later, officials detained the FIFA World Cup demanding a sum of 300,000 L.E as customs, implicitly voicing their concern that the FIFA World Cup was being smuggled into the country to be sold to a wealthy Egyptian (noting that the law exempts trophies and medals from customs and taxes). The crisis was finally resolved when someone coming in from the Egyptian Football Association and signing a pledge not to sell the cup in Egypt (despite having a wealthy buyer lined up).

The news is so absurd and so stupid that I can’t even begin to comment on the amount of its sheer idiocy, and I won’t. However, after I had my share of laughter, I was filled with shame. Why are Egyptians becoming so stupid? I’m serious, their IQ is dropping. At first they were implementing the law stupidly and now they’re not even implementing the law, they’re just stupid.

It’s not like this was an isolated incident, to top things off, the opening was a complete disaster. It’s not just that the stupidity private cars were prevented from parking in the designated parking zone within the stadium, and if that weren’t enough, the area surrounding the stadium was a no parking zone too. In the end supporters had to park in something of a desert and walk a couple of kilometers in the sun to get into to their designated entrance gates.

And if you think the story ends here, you underestimate the Egyptian stupidity that I speak of. In all their wisdom, the organizers closed all the gates that the spectators were instructed to use on their tickets save one. All the spectators had to proceed to that gate in order to enter.

In isolation that would have been a scandal, but we’re talking about a disaster here. It follows that even after proceeding to the gate around 30,000 spectators possessing valid tickets were denied entry into the stadium. Furthermore, many who did not purchase tickets were allowed entry through deviant means.

It’s needless to expand by describing the ease through which NDP members and their families got in to watch the match (balad abouhom aslaha).

We were shamed, and right now I’m just thankful we didn’t host the 2010 world cup. By 2010 we will be so stupid that we would tax the trophies and medals and awards and even the Calvin Klein underwear. We’ll be so stupid that we might not even let the players in. We’ll be so stupid that we might put the trophy behind bars, electrocute it and try shoving a stick into it. We’ll be so stupid that it’ll be much more creative and much funnier than anything I can say.

Fair Game

It's fair. It's absolutely fair that we should lose to the USA by three and that the USA should qualify. It's not just fair, but right because of the great many differences between not just the two teams, but the two countries.

How can you expect a country to do something right when everything goes wrong? I mean with Africa, it's okay, because most of the African countries are as messed up as we are or even more, and the mentality is similar, so there's no difference between one underdog and another. But when we're playing against the USA we have to understand that it’s not the American team but the American attitude that’s difficult to defeat.

America is mostly despised but perhaps also loved for the same reasons it is despised, not the least of which is its winning attitude that is so fervidly despised in Europe. But to be honest, America is a comeback junkie, with a great thirst for winning and most of its citizen think they're in a Rocky movie, expecting a comeback at any minute. They believe anything is possible till the last minute, and while they might be wrong sometimes, this attitude enables them to do all that is possible for them to do. In the end they go down fighting. Despite their sometimes annoying positivism, I'd always want an American on my team because the general attitude is not to quit.

In Egypt however, the loss is symptomatic of a country where good things are accidents. Like all accidents that happen in Egypt, even the good ones are plentiful. Did we really think that things were doing things so right so as to actually make it to the second round? No, we’re just a first round kind of people. It's just not right that we should do something contrary to our nature, and unlike matters within the country where doing things the wrong way gives you the greatest rewards, the world does not recognize nor accept this way of life, and for this reason we lose when we don't do things right, as it should be within Egypt.

I'm not one to change my point of view overnight like most people who will suddenly see Egypt's team as having no potential; on the contrary, we played great previously, beating Italy and giving Brazil a run for their money. We have some world class players occasionally and I don’t mean that we have a good player once in a while, but rather a player that does well once in a while. The point I mean to make is that we're consistent in our inconsistency. We're too mercurial (as is evident from FIFA stats) and it’s in our nature to let go once we imagine success. Our standards are so low that we don’t care to keep giving it our best shot. Doing well is not a way of life; it's an activity that we practice once in a while albeit a very long while.

In this game the nature of the countries collided with one another and if there’s one thing we ought to know, it’s that our nature can’t win. A country with talent and history was defeated by a country with less talent and less history but so much more will and enthusiasm. A mentality of losers was aptly beaten by a mentality of winners. A country that lost its ability to resist was beaten by a country that never quits. In short an enslaved country was beaten by a free country.

Is that too much philosophy for a football game? It might be, but I think we don't have enough philosophy to win as much as a football game. If we talk about the concrete reasons, they'll be something as boring as our league is horrible and undisciplined, our players don't train properly, our education is crap and it affects our mentality, our values are screwed up and we value pleasure more than hard work that gives so much more pleasure in the long run, etc.. etc.. The concrete reasons are there, but the problem is that our hopeless philosophies in life are what lead us to these concrete reasons in every field and on every field.

I've said it before and I say it again, it's not that Egypt is so damn hopeless, it's those moments of hope that really make you realize how we could have been. We caught a glimpse, but it all faded away… In the end it appears that this is all we can ever get.

Egypt's FIFA Ranking

Are we the most consistent team or what?!!

Victorious Defeat

Once in a while something happens that takes you by surprise and tells you that you can expect something unexpected from the world. Like the other night when I only had one and a quarter pounds and wanted to take a cab. I asked the cab driver,"How far can this take me?" and he said, "Get in."

He wasn't even the talkative kind, but when I said thanks, he said that he knows I would have done the same, people are there to help one another and he didn't want to take any money; and it wasn't a bad line out of a bad Arabic movie either. I was surprised by this unexpected act of kindness that taught me a bit about a closed mind.

Something happens that takes you by surprise, like Egypt playing a great match against Brazil and leveling the score 3-3 for the greater portion of the second half. But it's not the score that surprised me. It's not that we lost 4-3 only at the very end due to a penalty, but how well Egypt played against Brazil. I really thought that Egypt was playing like the legendary Brazil and Brazil was playing like the historical unremarkable Egypt.

Something happens that catches you off guard, like Abu Treka playing like Kaka, and Kaka struggling to pose a threat against an already lousy Egyptian defense.

Something happens that changes everything, like a referree that changes his decision from a corner to a penalty and brings you back to earth after an unbelievable match.

Part of the beauty of this world is unpredictability. The loss that Egypt incurred tastes very much like victory to all Egyptians, except for the extremely cynical I guess. How would one imagine such a great game from Egypt who lost 3-1 to Algiers last week? That's part of what's great about life, it defies expert opinion. Egyptian football is like drama, always attempting to keep you in suspense. It would be okay if we never won, but it's these intermittent triumphs that I really struggle with, you can never totally give up hope and you're always hanging in a constant state of desparation.

This is how we do it I guess, as with most other aspects of our lives.