Death of a Businessman

I'm against capital punishment, and even more so with fishy cases like that of the guy who killed Layla Ghoufran's daughter and most recently Hisham Talaat Moustafa. The problem with such cases is that it's obvious there is something wrong with them, something doesn't add up and that presents what is referred to as reasonable doubt. 

The fact that there is reasonable doubt is enough to set someone free, and perhaps I'm not even asking that, only asking that he not be put to death. One of the many problems with the death sentence is that humans can make mistakes. We've heard non fictitious accounts of people being locked up for decades and then found to be free. It also gives room to malice. An unfair judge may put someone to death on purpose, the allowance of a death sentence gives power over life which man shouldn't have. Oddly enough the same people who advocate the death sentence may be against abortion. 

Sanctity of life, it's a phrase that's so overused to the point that its meaning may be diluted but the word sanctity is very powerful and I find it more spiritual than it is physical. But the spiritual world can have no meaning if it can't make its way to the physical world in one way or the other. I find it hard to imagine that both the murderer and the one who incited the murder should get the same sentence. Plus of course the details surrounding the case point to some kind of foul play or set up. Ever watched a movie where someone is being set up? The evidence is very powerful, very strong that it seems almost too easy. 

The man who killed took every positive step to ensure that he would be caught, despite the fact that he is ex police, how come? In any case, even if these are just delusions, it seems vicious and unfair to take away someone's life. I suppose the death penalty serves as something to deter people from committing such a crime. 

The world is such a jungle, it's worse, it is a place where people do evil things without necessity. The fact that people can do wrong in the world is something that I can accept, but that the law or what is supposed to be right is failing is something which we must not accept. It is our duty to try to reach perfection in our constitution and laws despite knowing for sure that we will not reach. But knowing that we will fall short is no excuse not to try our best. 

The death of a businessman reflects an extremity that is so characteristic of our country. In Egypt so many bad deeds go unpunished and when the law is implemented, it can take an extreme of being implemented with too much viciousness according to the whim of those entrusted with its implementation. We're extremists in our lethargy and in our viciousness. We turn a blind eye to many evils and when it comes to punishing, we kill even if there isn't enough proof and we burry alive those poor pigs who have done us no harm.  

Passiveness and aggression co-exist within the fabric of our society. It has seeped through like a sly venom, and I'm afraid flushing it out will be a monumental task that no one has begun.

Street Life

On the Paradox of Freedom

The amount of freedom we have is directly proportional the amount of privacy we have for our actions. This means that the more the people that are present simultaneously to experience our action, the less the freedom we have to act as we wish. It goes to say that the more the increase in population, the less likely we are to have privacy and the less likely we will be able to experience freedom in what we do. 

We know that by copulating or reproducing, we cause the population to grow. So the more we copulate, the more the chances of pregnancy and childbirth. The more we have the freedom to copulate the more the chances of a population growth. 

So now I'm faced with a paradox, freedom is inversely proportional to freedom to copulate. In other words, the more we have freedom to copulate, the less freedom we will have in the future.

But how can this be true if freedom to copulate is a subset of freedom? Could it be that there is a quota of freedom that should be used after which it will be depleted? Could it be that we should actually be wise in how much freedom we should use?

There must be something wrong with my reasoning.

Regret and Guilt

In my life I've regretted some of the right I did, but never felt guilty about it.  I haven't regretted so much the wrong I did, but more often than not I've felt guilty about it.

The Only Way to Live

There's nothing here for me,
I found that my desires do not mean a thing,
with all the pain they bring.

I know I long for life,
but the more I strive,
the more death I find.

The only way to live is to die,
and only then will I experience life,
I have nothing to give,
and that is why perhaps 

I have everything to take.

There's nowhere left to go,
save the only place I should,
The place I've been looking for,
but never understood.

To go inside myself,
and find out what I am,
find out what's been lost,
find the inner man.

I've spent so many years,
bounded by my fears,
and now I finally learnt,
what I should have done,

but after I've found out what I know,
I realize... I comprehend my true fate,
I am to pass this knowledge on,
because for me,
it's become too late.

The Weight of the World

Too many hopes are riding on one man's shoulders and to be certain the weight of these hopes will crush him or at least crush those who have chosen to put their hopes there. But perhaps he asked for it when he campaigned for change, he asked people to rest their hopes on him, to bet on him, to vote for change. He didn't really comprehend what he was asking, or perhaps he comprehended but thought he could do it, or perhaps he was too successful in getting what he asked for. But the weight of this world's burdens will crush him. No man can live up to these expectations, there's too much that has gone wrong with the world for one man to change it all even if that man occupies the most powerful position in the world. The quality of hope has changed, it has become a hope that something decent starts changing in the world, but the world is not a place for decent things to happen. There's too much evil, there's too much hate and it's easier to destroy than to build. 

With the kind of expectations that people have, he has no choice but to disappoint, not because he had the world fooled and that his hidden agenda was sinister, but because he is a good man and it takes more than being that to eradicate evil. Do I make it sound too simplistic like a superhero comic? Well, when it comes down to it, after all the shades of gray are attributed to their respective black and whites, it's approximated to this kind of simplicity.

A video I watched addressed to Obama triggered these thoughts. The letter to Obama relayed through video by an Israeli human rights activist was roughly save us Obama from the evil we inflict on palestinians and save us from our aching conscience. The video recalled Obama's promises to save the world, and they were calling him in to live up to these promises;  save us from our acts, save us from our sins. She asked him to stop how complacent the IDF soldiers felt while killing young children, to stop the inhumane treatment of Palestinians, to end the terror inflicted on palestinians by Israel. The woman in her letter said that she prayed for Obama to win even though she didn't believe in God. In a way, with her letter she was praying to Obama. How many of us want to send out a letter or video to someone out there to change the way we live? I would suppose that most people on the globe would want to send out a letter entitled Dear Obama, or Dear Mubarak, or Dear Qadafi even. The reason we don't send out to the latter two is because we're certain they won't listen, or perhaps we don't send out to others because we know they won't be able to do anything even if they wanted to.

The world has replaced the prayer to an all powerful God, to human beings who can hardly live up to their promises, who can only try to change the world and most likely will fail. The world says it doesn't need God anymore, but strip the world of the facade they believe in called a system and a government and you will see how much they need God. The ongoing prayers to other humans who control their fate is strong evidence that there is a need for God even in the presence of a government and rules. Who do you turn to when the law has failed you? When your leaders have failed you? When humans have failed you? When the world has failed you?

That woman in the video has chosen to turn to Obama, a man who has promised with words what we all want to see happen. He has promised that the most powerful man will be all that we wish him to be. But even if he did live up to his word, can he answer all prayers?

I'm not saying that God answers all our prayers, or that God must exist just because man has failed. I know many people who at some point in their life felt no need for God. I'm just saying that the need for God is real in a world gone wrong, when all the systems that man has made could not protect him. The need to thank someone, the need to call out for someone, the need to find someone to help you through the hard times, because I imagine it would be very lonely when all men as well as spirits have forsaken you. I see many lonely people, trying to find someone to call out for. They call out on people that will probably never be able to help, like another Obama who is probably too busy failing others he has already promised to make yet another promise. 

Late Party

I realized one thing that night. All hopes and wishes change with time. It's not only that they might change as one changes, but even when they're the same, they're different when they actually happen.

A few nights back I was invited to a birthday. The birthday boy was still in college turning 21, and needless to say, most of those that were invited were of the same age. I didn't know the birthday boy nor almost all the other young (mostly AUC) crowd.

I entered a fine old building. It was a fabulous building with an extremely high ceiling, but with excellent paint that gave the impression it hadn't aged. Yet its age seeped through the fine ornaments and extreme detail that had been perfected during its architecture and construction. It looked new but it wasn't modern, the floors were of dark colors, as if a sepia filter had been applied to them, but without traces of dust. I took my time observing the little details plastered all around, walking slowly towards and away from the elevator, and taking my time to look around before I rang the bell.

I felt very comfortable with the building, in a way it matched my essence; seemingly young yet old and classical at the same time. As soon as I entered however, things changed. The ceilings were still high, and the interior decoration was still classical with well placed touches of modernity yet despite my expectations of the crowd's age range, I still couldn't help but be taken aback by their young faces. It's not that they were exceptionally young, well, I did expect them to look older, but I just suddenly remembered that this is probably how I and my friends looked like back in college. That sudden memory took me back then, and I remembered how different my experience was of that age.

In a way I sort of envied them. They were a group of guys and girls who knew each other well, having fun at a party. I never had that, not the huge mixed group, not those parties. During my college days, I'd have been happy just to have been talking to a girl. To have a party like this was to my young self very remote and closer to a dream that I had fantasized about. I know I sound like a loser this way, but it's the truth of my experience. I knew friends of mine who were a part of groups like these, but I and other friends were seldom invited. We had trouble getting into night clubs where the stupid couples only rule was enforced, but even worse, our greatest fantasy was a venerated house party.

Anyway, as soon as I saw them, I was filled with Nostalgia towards my long gone youth and smiled heartily at theirs, but more than this, a gripping thought took hold of me. I thought how I would have loved to have been at a party like this when I was their age. It's not that I hadn't been to a house party after that, I went to many and went to clubs and met so many different people and groups and girls. It's just that at this moment, I wanted to be their age. I wanted to travel back in time and be that age and have this party. Their faces brought back the young me, who hadn't experienced all of this. I remember once when I was very young, I met a friend walking down the street with a group of his friends, they were going over to his house to hang out. One of the girls was very nice to me, and it blew me away. She stopped me and said something nice, something that made me feel I was part of the group. I think she might have even blown me a kiss too. I would have done anything to have been invited. I traveled in time and brought back the young boy who wanted all of this.


I became very aware of a thought that slapped me across my face; no matter what I do I cannot be that boy and I cannot experience this party even if it was everything I had hoped for. The one thing that changed is me, time has changed me and I cannot be that person once again. Once time has passed, the chance is gone. It didn't matter that I looked as young as they were and no one really noticed how out of place I really was. It didn't really make a difference that I could wing it or fake it, inside I felt old. I suppose that's how Benjamin Button felt as an old man, the experience of the years wrinkling his soul even though his face was smooth. I did try telling some of them that I dropped out, and that I didn't study anymore and they bought it cause of how young I looked, but this kind of acceptance lead me nowhere close to comfort. Later that night, as I was finally going home, I looked at my face reflected in the elevator mirror, and I saw the lines that were made with age. If they had looked deeper into my face, they'd have seen my age and asked what I did for a living.

I realized the fragility of the moment, that moment which so casually passes us by. It's broken when we don't seize it, and it's broken when we seek it at the wrong time. I recognized the passing of time, and I recognized the change that time can bring about. This isn't some sermon about seizing the moment and milking it for what it's worth. This is about the loss of moments and the hope for some that will never come and others that could never come. Sometimes moments, like answers, come a bit too late, and when they do, they don't mean the same.

Maybe there is a Zen message being sent to me after all. Seek the right things at the right time or something, don't look too far ahead or too far behind, dream for the closest moment, and let your old fantasies live on as memories that never were and give room to new ones.

I really don't think there really is a message. I think I experienced a moment. It was a moment like a window to the past. I enjoyed what fun I could amass being around young people. Perhaps that's why life in the past was more fun, not because one was carefree, but because one had more young people to hang out with.

More Death in Venice

I'm reminded by passionate friends who seek chaos:

"For to passion, as to crime, the assured everyday order and stability of things is not opportune, and any weakening of the civil structure, any chaos and disaster afflicting the world, must be welcome to it, as offering a vague hope of turning such circumstances to its advantage."

Thomas Mann - Death in Venice

Once more, words or reviews cannot do justice to beauty:

"He was more beautiful than words can express, and Ashenbach felt the painful awareness that language can only praise sensuous beauty but not reproduce it."

Thomas Mann - Death in Venice

Strangers Passing in the Street

"Nothing is stranger, more delicate, than the relationship between people who know each other only by sight – who encounter and observe each other daily, even hourly, and yet are compelled by the constraint of convention or by their own temperament to keep up the pretence of being indifferent strangers , neither greeting nor speaking to each other. Between them is an uneasy and overstimulated curiosity, the nervous excitement of an unsatisfied, unnaturally suppressed need to know and to communicate; and above all, too, a kind of strained respect. For man loves and respects his fellow man for as long as he is not in a position to evaluate him, and desire is born of defective knowledge."

Thomas Mann - Death in Venice

On Trying

It's amazing how so many people are discouraged from something because they believe they can't. And why do they believe they can't do it? Because they haven't tried it. And why don't they try it, because they believe they can't do it. So many people have fallen prisoners to their own minds. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those who believes you can do anything if you put your mind to it, but I believe that you can never really find out what you can do till you've given it a shot. 

All my childhood and teenage memories revolve around that similar feeling of not believing I can, but my experiences have been different. I was surrounded by two people who managed to change my ideas about myself and others. 

The first of which was my mother, who always told me two things. First that I had to try anything before deciding whether I could do something or not and second that I have to practice anything before deciding whether I could be good at it. Every time I would go up to my mother and tell her that I really loved something but didn't know if I could do it she would tell me to try. She kept telling me that my knowledge was without basis if I didn't have the experience to back it up, and so I should try; look for what I want to do and try it. Every time I went up to her and told her I enjoyed something but didn't know if I would be any good at it, she would tell me to practice. I found out through experience that we're sometimes limited by our own conception of ourselves and that it would cost us almost nothing to find out what we were capable of. In years to come, I would tell my mother advice on how to do things. She would tell me that she can't. I told her the same things she had been telling me all my life, you need to try first before saying that you can't. 

The other person to influence me but in a different manner was my father. My father is a difficult role model to emulate. He is confident, charismatic and very daring. Those who know me know very well how daring and confident I usually am, but I'm nowhere close to where my father's at. I lack his sense of humour (as is evident) and his ability to invent solutions to complex situations on the fly. As a child I was daring, but every time I hesitated about doing something slightly risky, my father would be there for me, telling me to go ahead, explaining the risks and how they can be avoided. He always pushed me to test my limits. He encouraged me to be adventurous but not wreckless. I remember once wanting to jump from the top of an anchored yacht into the deep sea that surrounded it. The yacht's roof was considerably high. I said I wanted to do it, but because so many people were against it and pointed out the danger, I hesitated despite my father's encouragement. I stared into the sea hoping to work up the nerve. My father came up next to me and said it wasn't that difficult and jumped in, just like that without any warning. I wasn't the only one that followed, many got encouraged to jump in the same manner. I learnt that sometimes people don't do things because they haven't seen anyone do it before. I learned to weigh the risks instead of being wreckless but not let my caution interfere with my adventure.

Whenever anyone tells me that they can't do a certain something, I ask for their experience with it, and how often they've tried and how much they've lost. I don't accept that people understand their own limitations without trying. I know that humans are capable of so much as is evident by the test of circumstances. Some people are tried by life, even without trying. In many cases they discover they were capable of so much more, so much more.

Taken

Spoiler warning: If you're one of the 3 people who read these posts, then it's better if you have either seen the movie or do not intend on seeing it. 

On another note, I really recommend this movie, it's very intense, if it's a choice between reading and watching, don't read at all.

Taken is a gripping movie. The word gripping has been overused and is now benign. The truth is that gripping is a very intense word, and if that word has not been overused so much it would have sufficed to have left things with the very first sentence. The intensity of this picture is in how quick everything happens. You can feel that there's not a second to lose. You feel the tension; you feel engulfed by the events. It's gripping. It grips your attention and your emotions.

 

When I had finished watching Taken, I didn't know what it was that left me mesmerized. Sure enough it was an action flick, like many others. The plot didn't particularly stand out. If anything it was predictable save for a few interesting investigative techniques. The real power of this movie was just how raw it was. It was raw, unadulterated and authentic. Liam Neeson gives one of his best performances ever with an intensity and authenticity that captivates you, perfectly portraying a character that walked in on the movie rather than have been created by a script; Subtle, deliberate, strong and vulnerable.

 

I hate giving away plots but it's useless not to. Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a loving father who has left the business of being a 'preventer' to live close to his daughter. A 'preventer' of course is just another form of spy who prevents bad things from happening with 'special skills acquired over the years'. He is sincere in his love for his daughter whom he had been away from for years on account of his job.

 

The movie starts with realism to those unfilmed years after a hero of other movies decides he had neglected his family long enough and has to make it up to them. He is not in the state of despair and hopelessness, and neither is everything like a fairy tale. His daughter loves him, but he cannot manage to be close to her. Time fractured their relationship and not in the usual way where the only feelings were that of bitterness. It was a little better and a little sadder, the feelings were poisoned by pleasant distance. The daughter chose remoteness and amiability rather than closeness and love. There was little else Bryan could do but accept that. His image as a down and out father is heart breaking. His love is subtle, silent, reserved and practical. There is nothing in the world he wouldn't do, he would give up what he loves best, and he would change his attitude and he did. It seems that he will never tire from making it up to her.

 

But Bryan isn't just a father; he's a 'preventer'. That's why he manages to remain calm and talk to his daughter giving her instructions as she is being taken. He is a man who has seen the world, he deals with the event of his daughter being taken as a doctor would deal with a patient being brought in, to him this is the life he knows. This is perhaps why he is reserved and calm in his love for his child, able to take different forms of rejection. That is what the real world has taught him. His daughter asks if his job was the reason he was paranoid, he replies that it is the reason he is more aware. He is aware of world that's evil and dangerous and yet the true balance in his character was his concurrent awareness of values like friendship and love. He has not lost faith in the world, but he is wary of its ways.

 

That same character finds himself in an impossible situation of having to save his daughter with all his strength and all his skills. This is where the movie excels actually. The words in the script don't try too hard. There is no debate about what he's feeling or what he's doing. He is someone determined to get his daughter back. The movie does not waste a second to debate morals or ethics, despite how intricate they are to the movie and to real life. In fact, the questions that this movie could pose if you caught your breath were about the intricacies of life. There are no pauses. Bryan mercilessly hunts down those who have kidnapped his daughter. It's all very simple, he investigates and he kills all those he has to within the 96 hour window he has to find her.

 

But Bryan is no superman. He's lucky, but not completely unbeatable. He is prepared, determined and ruthless. He does not spend time negotiating, he does not pause to think. He is a man used to killing, his emotion exists but does not interfere with him going about his tasks. There is a mention to Rambo in the beginning of the film because of his ability to take on anything thrown at him. Yet the killings are not absurd or humorous like in a Schwarzenegger movie, they are real and serious, there is no remoteness in them. His perseverance and dedication is beyond words.His true ability is to be able to think straight under the most extreme pressure. The whole movie bears witness to this.

 

Perhaps one of the most shocking scene is when he is with his old friend and his wife during dinner. He asks him if he is complicit and involved with turning a blind eye to all the human trafficking. His friend doesn't really care for Bryan's daughter. At this point Bryan uses his gun to shoot his friend's wife in the arm; a sudden and shocking action that catches everyone off guard, the viewer, the friend and even the wife. The next one will be between her eyes he warns. Bryan is not bluffing, he is not a good guy threatening to kill to get information. We do not imagine that he will not do it. He will kill her, there is no moral question, no hesitation. There is no idleness in his threat. The drive to find his daughter is so compelling that you can only think about this much later, perhaps after the movie has ended. The values of family, corruption, business and the world are so well entwined without the attempt to make a statement. It is enough to observe and weigh things out, the director never giving us eloquent thoughts to think about but purely intense circumstances.

 

I write this take on the movie without much analysis, just jotting down my reactions to a very intense movie that gave me more joy to feel than analyze. 

We Really Need To Get People To Dinner - Erdogan Not Hungry

The world's bias has become blatant. This was evident at the World Economic Forum in Davos during a debate about Gaza. As is known, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan left the debate and alluded that he may never return. This was of course after he was told there was no time for him to respond to Mr. Peres of Israel, who had 25 minutes to talk. Erdogan said that talked only half as much and that and that he wanted a chance to respond.

 

The moderator in his wisdom had a reason for the insignificant Gaza debate to end without response, "We really do need to get people to dinner," he said.

 

Dinner is more important than silly responses to the infallible Israel. I don't know what Erdogan was thinking, the moderator is right. If he had allowed Erdogan to respond, he would have been anti-semitic. Well done moderator, you displayed a sense of fairness that the whole world agrees to. I thought moderators should be impartial, but I know now that being biased is the true way to moderate. In any case, shame on Erdogan for walking away rather than just take the beating silently like Gaza.

 

Is it me, or does it seem that the world is becoming very subjective when it comes to dealing with the Israeli problem. It has become like religion even to the atheists of the west, it's a topic that cannot be approached. It has become a Holocaust, its facts never questioned.

 

Does the world realize how stupid it is? Does BBC realize how its viewed now? It has completely sold out, and I'm not sure how its viewers can trust it again. I mean, every time I hear a piece of news, or not hear it, I'll be wondering if it's Israeli pressure, or some other kind of pressure we can't see.

 

A policeman in Iceland blew up someone's house. When asked why he did it, he said Hamas was shooting at him from the house. Hamas appears to be a perfect excuse for Israel now. Shoot the schools, it was Khamaas, shoot the children, it was Khamaas. As much as I despite Hamas, it was the closest thing to a democratic election. Israel doesn't like a democracy that doesn't suit it. They say that you can't elect a terrorist government, but that's how they were elected, and I don't see a difference. Maybe having a uniform gives you the right to be a legal terrorist, Hamas should invest some of that money coming as aid and use it to buy uniforms, but that won't really matter much. The world doesn't care about the truth, it cares about Israel.

 

Erdogan did the right thing by walking away. A moderator unfit to moderate needs to be walked out on. He must have been hungry to be thinking of dinner. Does he realize what a fool he's been? I really think he should have been concerned with getting food to the victims in Gaza rather than his guests.

 

Just like the corrupt make their way to the top in Egypt, the violent reach the top of the chain in Israel. The Turkish PM is deemed a hero in his country, but he's not a hero. He's someone who chose to do something about the bias. He chose to walk away. I do believe that this is the only dignified thing to do. It's as simple as walking away.

 

The rest of the world doesn't have the dignity to do that. Israel with its powerful lobby and relentless media has subdued a world we thought was strong. But somewhere within Israel, a strong sense of guilt is palpable within its own people. The saddest part is that there's more hope for Israelis to join the cause for peace, than there is for Arabs to agree on anything. Arabs also use this method of walking out on conferences, but there's no dignity there.

 

 

A Difference Observed

The real difference between Arab terrorists and Western terrorists is that the former don't have powerful governments to hide behind and use to inflict the acts of terror.

Ideas Worth Discarding

I have an idea, it may be a crazy one, but most great ones are. The problem with our government is the 'us and them' effect. Those who object to it, object to it fully and unconditionally. Those who are for it are hypocrites and never criticize it. The fact of the matter is that the government shuts up anyone who criticizes it because it can, and I suppose it does. It shuts up the rest who want to kiss ass by giving them money to do it, but it isn't real. The real victims are the honest people working in the government. Granted they are a handful, but I think they deserve our support. 

Let's face it, the government with its brutal police has a grip of steel that cannot be shaken. The government is there to stay and we have to do something about it. I was once told by a friend that the power of the press comes from the effect that everyone's looking at you and possibly giving you that look of condemnation such that life becomes miserable. Like if you're going to a party, everyone brings you shame by bringing up the same piece of information and you have to deal with and so on. In order to get praise instead of condemnation, you try fixing things and then maybe, just maybe you get people off your back at least. 

The power of protests and press is the power of headache, at which point the victim tries to find medicine to ease its pain. If you're in the right, you can probably have enough power to shake it off, but when you know you're wrong, you're in a Raskolnikov situation. 

I say we use that power, but here's the crazy bit. In order to make our protests more heard, let's give positive feedback to what good that has been done. I know it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but there are probably certain things that really stand out. For starters, there is an army facility that provides first class service, I mean, it's the real deal, you take a number, sit in an air conditioned room with a cafeteria, wait for your turn, find out where within the processes your papers are and even the estimated time before you're served.  Now that deserves support and approval. I suppose there are many other things done by good people that deserve this sort of recognition.

I will call the new gathering an 'Approval', this way we can really be able to comment on what happens around us. Sometimes we need to agree and protest in order to keep the balance. I don't want to suck up to the government or anything of that sort, I'd like to be objective. For example, I'd like to approve of having no foreign expert monitor our borders, and I want to protest as well about our government selling its soul to America. It's only logical to support anything against selling our soul.

Anyway, it's a crazy idea, but I thought I'd let it out and be laughed at. I for one would have ripped it apart if I read it somewhere and I'd call its initiator a hypocritical or sentimental fool. I'm sure that the government will smile when it is praised like it always does, and arrest the protestors when they protest as it always does. But I can't help but think, what would people do when they see an approval that has not been paid for, something from within protestors who just want to be objective?  Will it make a difference for people to get uncontrived affection that hasn't been bought?

If we approve certain things, will our protests be heard a little better? I haven't studied political science to find out if this was tried or would work but I think that if it were possible, it would have been done. I suppose that such ideas belong inside the head.

But the real reason I thought about this is that within the last few weeks, I've been told that Egypt was better than other places. Yes it was better than the gulf where no one is allowed to speak up and there was less hope of democracy. It was better with its free internet that was being fought through media and police rather than by complete restriction (probably because they can’t afford the proxies and the hassle). It was better than dictatorships where half the citizens police the rest. It's better than many other places for a lot of other reasons, but the real shame, the real shame is that it could have been much better. 

I still don't know what it would take to turn things around. We're balanced at the edge of great things but also at the edge of doom. I would rather the whole system changed, the whole corrupt rule. But the web is too sticky too well weaved to take down. I'm just thinking, but just like my good ideas, bad ones like these won't make a difference.