Where It All Began

I recall the first time I ever engaged in activist blogging. I've always sought a revolutionary outlet to express my political views. My first exposure to blogging was actually on facebook. 

It was the winter of 06/07 and I was visiting family in Istanbul. I had been on facebook for only a couple of weeks then and was amazed by the virtual freedom of expression that facebook offered, but I found it to be more of a social scene than a political one. What I really sought was a democratic platform of expression that would allow my revolutionary views to flourish. This type of blogging offers that. Anyways, back to the story: So I was fiddling around with facebook, I happened to stumble upon a group titled Absolut Cairo. Now I'm guessing that the title of this blog is merely a play of words to replicate Absolut Vodka. I think that the Cairo Tower in the background even represents a vodka bottle. In a word, I don't think the creator of the group expected the group to transform into a platform for political discussion, but it was prompted with the notion behind the group's description, which is "In 1925, Cairo was the cleanest city in the whole world. Today it is one of the top 20 polluted cities worldwide. [To be specific, it is the second most polluted in the world]. Corruption is everywhere. Let's all try to make Cairo one of the best cities again as it used to be." 

I believe this message prompted most of the group's members to question what they can do to contribute to help fulfill the message's aspirations. Subsequent to contemplation, members begun expressing themselves one by one. I hope to document this historical moment in my blogging experience by shedding light on the dialogue that took place and that inspired to me to blog to this day. The discussion begun as follows:

-Omar EL Badrawy (Egypt)
First, thanks Ahmed for the group...It's a great idea I hope it would help...I get really angry whenever i think of what this country had become pollution speaking, cleanliness speaking and most certainly politicaly speaking, It all comes down to corruption i think...Anyways i hope this group make a difference...
Salma Mousallem (McGill)
I think this group can make a difference but i think we all need to take initiative. i mean even if its just in terms of littering.....a large portion of people in egypt litter..and what are we doing about it? i think word of mouth is a great way of reducing it, i dont let people litter when they are in the car with me, throwing things out the window is not the way to get rid of trash. i dont mean to be harsh, and i dont mean to embrass people, but the fact of the matter is, that cairo is becoming less attractive.
Tony Menias (Chicago, IL)
It's the people in this country man...the only word for them is ignorant...The government is screwin everyone over...I don't think anything will change
Omar EL Badrawy (Egypt)
I'm with you man...I think Egypt has more to think about than littering and trash...If you read newspapers pro & anti government for maybe 2 weeks you will feel how deep in shit we are and how huge the problem is...
Mohamed Imam (AUC Egypt)
I think that the core of all the problems in Egypt is because of the free governmental education, it's a disaster and it produces out masses of ignorant people who canno't use computers, understand science of even good in any kind of hand work
Salma Mousallem (McGill)
First of all, I think that no one is going to get anywhere by being passive. After all, we are the youth of egypt and that's where change begins. Second of all, i think if this is group is to have a purpose it should be how to make egypt cleaner environment as stated in the description. While free university state sponsored education may create problems, it by no means creates ignornant people. Regardless, i dont see how this relates to the effects of pollution, and its dangers? Yes Egypt has an abundance of problems, corruption, politics, the whole thing...but is that what we are discussing here? I really think we should brainstorm over solutions over how to make egypt cleanier. instead of looking at the causes, we should look at alternatives and make a difference! because we can!
Hany Bassiouny (HKU)
hey.. I also wanna add my voice in thanking mohamed for starting this group.
what's more important though is exactly what salma is saying.. we cld all very easily just add this as a group, talk a lot, and check what other ppl r saying every once in a while when we're bored.. just like every other group..
or we cld do smthg..
I'll add a new topic on this forum (called 'This is how we do it.'), n put up some ideas on how we can move forward n get smthg done.. for those interested in getting Cairo moving, take a look n lets see if we can do this.
Ahmed Khairat (AUC Egypt)
okay...yh egypt has problems: free EDU, the unsanatary conditions of many areas, poverty, pollution, over population, weak economy market, huge gap btwn the rich and poor, i could go on forever...However, i believe that there is one MAIN problem at the core of all these and it is: CORRUPTION. corruption is destroying egypt leading to all the aforementioned problems...The leaders of the nation (those in responsible governmental positions) are not paying attention to the problems, they are ignoring them, while concentrating on how much money they can steal from the government. Egypt lacks the fund to improve its current situation because the CORRUPT officials take the countries fucking money...If change is to be observed, then the current government must be flushed (yes, completely flushed out )and a new more liberal modern, SP (secular progressive )representative government, and adequately educated government should be established...In addition, (no more space, continue l8r)
In response to Salma Mousallem: B4 we can look at the alternatives, we must comprehend the problems of EGYPT and attempt to identify any patterns so that we can more easily and more efficient come up with alternative resolutions that will solve these problems. Thus, i URGE every1 here to commit a post for one problem and if ppl would like to elaborate on a prior post about a particular problem plz do, but try to describe as many problems as possible so we can achieve our goal of resolutions
Omar EL Badrawy (Egypt)
Ahmed Khairat...man u took the words out of my mouth...thanks for saving me some typing time...if i may add corruption is like fungus, it can ruin everything around it...the flushing should start with the (mekhaleleen) politicians, the ones that have been in office for more than 10 years, and we have a lot of those and they are rotten to the very core and spreading their germs all over the place u can almost smell it in the air...
Yaseen Kafafi (Egypt)
this is a response to those addressing free governmental education (on university levels) as a problem. first of all we should be clear on one thing. is it the concept of free education thats wrong? or is it the way that it is carried out thats wrong? because the concept, in my opinion, is non negotiable in terms of right or wrong. plus i should bring to your attention that a significant percentage of the students at cairo university are still having problems paying the fees today. and when the fees got jacked up a while back, the students revolted and demanded their rights. my point is that the tuition fees + textbooks (which should both be free) are an obstacle enough as is. i would also like to add (and this i knw from personal experience) that some of the best and most talented professors at cairo university could not have gotten to where they are today if it werent for free education.
now im not saying that cairo uni is top notch, but what i am saying is that making the students pay thousand of pounds a year in order to generate some cash flow into the university is definitely not the answer. yes i agree, the problem with cairo university is the lack of funds. but that's because the the intended source is not there anymore. and THAT is the problem. believe me there are professors there who are doing everything in their power to aid the system, but there's only so much they can do. i just want to stress on the fact that public AND private universities should not be profit oriented. another point i'd like to discuss is the fact that private universities are not fulfulling their intended purpose. let me explain, from what i understand is that private unis were established in order to fund and develope itself. meaning, students pay their tuition and in return facilities are provided and so on.
but where do the professors come from? they are either foreign or professors from public universities, and not regualr professors, usually the best. there is no doubt that that approach is incredibly wrong. what i meant when i said that private unis should develope themselves, i meant that graduating students should be encouraged to continue their studies. the uni should send them abroad or locally to achieve their masters and phd degrees and hence reacquire them as professors. also a very important factor which is not in consideration, is that it must be a requirement and a necessity that every year a certian amount of scientific researche papers are produced by the uni and published worldwide. that is another source of income! this will encourage the industry to also supply funds for patents and researche papers. it is pretty obvious that in egypt as a country, we lack that connection between the industry and academia which is essential and extremely beneficial for everyone.
im interested in what everyone thinks about my comments. after all this should be a real group and not just another name on the list..
Mohamed Imam (AUC Egypt)
The problem about free education is in the teachers, they get a very very low salary, so they dont teach students what they are really supposed to know ( school wise not university wise ), students end up taking private lessons, their parents - who are from middle lower and lower classes - get screwed because they have to pay a lot in these private lessons, another point, students waste a lot of time in prvt lessons after school time (which probably they escape from and go to smoke or play street football or follow girls in streets)... I think if the education was for a higher price, say 1000 a year (which is actually the average amount paid in all private lessons allover all of the subjects) teachers might get a higher salary and teach them BE ZEMMA Shewaia, then students would have time to actually study and play sports, and corruption between teachers will decrease to at least half, and thats what I think...
& by the way yaseen, when a scientific research is published the government pays something like 70 or 80 LE as a reward :) which is ironic
Tarek Hegazy (AUC Egypt)
There is no educational system in Egypt. Schools are overcrowded, curriculums are way behind, teachers are less than qualified & their salaries only come next to nothing....its kinda absurd some kids even go to high school without properly spelling their names correctly...the key to the rise of nations is education...I won't get into the public/private education dilemma cause its too tricky, mainly cause Egypt has one of the lowest literacy rates worldwide, specially for females..Anyway, guess a good suggestion to eliminate illiteracy might be the introduction of some sort of community service instead of the regular military service where you can teach 10 people alphabet and the basics of math instead of the current service.. guess the annual number of newly recruited soldiers is pretty high, this way we might reduce our illiteracy rate, which is very important if this country would ever have a chance to make it?
Ahmed Khairat (AUC Egypt)
tarek hegazy...i agree with portions of your argument; however, there are some flaws, which must be addressed...First of all, i don't think that Egypt has the lowest literacy rate in the world...Your suggestion for community service is excellent and quite optimistic; however, again refering to my idea of a central problem, there is tooooo much corruption for this to occur. The conservative lazy government would not like to experiment and try this new community service plan. In addition, after a short period the community service program would become corrupt with ppl getting wastas (connections) to get out of serving. Furthermore, who do u think would lead this organization? Unders what ministry do you think it would fall under? - Would it fall under the out-dated, conservative idiotic and (may I add) pointless and unbeneficial, Ministry of Education? Moving on, your idea is more of a twig of hope instead of a branch of hope..What is mean is:
tarek hegazy (part 2): what i mean is that there are more important topics to be considered before your plan is to be discussed. If and only if the egyptian government can imrpove, your plan is feasable, but it will take alot of time...Back to the literacy rate, i think (too lazy to research) that Egypt's literacy rate is higher than other 3rd world countries: african countries, some Asian countries, and maybe other Arab nations, i urge you to find it out and post it on the wall...I would just like to state that i have nothing against your plan and i believe that it is partially true...By any chance are you related to Taha Hegazy in American International School?
-Mostafa Allam
Yo... Khairat... I don't believe refering to the gov. as "lazy" and "corrupt" is very appropriate, considering that we are who we are because of the government. Furthermore, I believe your parents and mine, as gov. agents, are contributing to the improvement of Egypt's government abroad. So as long as they and others like them endeavor, I assure you that it could be the gov. that could lead to a top-down, trickle down improvement effect.
Tarek Hegazy (AUC Egypt)
Dear khairat, thanx for ur comments, anyway, I said egypt has one of the lowest literacy rates & not the lowest one, I just checked the UN list and it says Egypt is in the 151st place with 55.6% literacy rate... Yemen is the only arab country below us at the 157th position....which is another clear message to anyone still living the myth of egyptian superiority over arabs or even african nations...its really sad how much we've fallen behind:)
Hany Bassiouny (HKU)
talk is cheap.. instead of complain about the government why don't u go work for it n make it change! y do u expect someone else to do it for u?
Amr Bassiouny (Egypt)
Thank you Hany, these have been my words for a while (read the note on my site). Stop complaining, go join the Hizb el Watani (or brotherhood if you're into that) and start participating (policy-making/politics).

OR

You can sacrifice a high-paying job in a foreign country (referring to those who work) and work day in and day out doing government work and helping to implement the policies created by the hizb (public administration, and the policies are actually quite good now).

Until you start doing that, as Hany said, talk is cheap.

To say something about education funding...Recently (a few months ago) the PM added 100LE to the salary of each teacher. Considering we have about 1,000,000 teachers in Egypt, that's 1,000,000,000 EXTRA Egyptian pounds spent per MONTH to pay for teachers' salaries. Can you begin to realize how much money we're talking about here?

Now considering that we have serious issues with housing and water, which is more important? Giving ppl clean water to drink, or spend billions every month to teach the kids? The questions won't be easy if you're sitting on the chair, and the decisions will never make everybody happy.
Malak, take it from somebody who actually works with these people you speak of, most of them are taking serious action now, more than you can imagine.

As for your last point, if you ever go to maglis il sha3b (the lower house of the parliment) you will see what kind of people our people elect. It is the most depressing thing about the gov't, and they are the worst part of it. They are uneducated, greedy, have no manners, and unfortunately actually represent the people! I speak out of experience and every time I go to parliment i get depressed and leave. Democracy isn't the answer when it comes to uneducated developing countries. Uneducated people will elect uneducated leaders.

I want you to take a look at the countries of SE Asia and see what they did without democracy. China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and so on.

-Tarek Hegazy (AUC Egypt)
Too bad this wall has turned into a place for promoting the so called (hizb) ideas instead of saying something useful ....its even worse some ppl r denouncing democracy in the 21st century as if we have real meritocracy in Egypt... this is really funny...oh god plz help me, am just a poor little blogger..don't wanna turn into youtube material soon....

Ahmed Khairat (AUC Egypt)
Hany, you previously stated that our, as in the group's, "talk was cheap"...First of all, i believe that is completely wrong. We are attempting to brainstorm, discuse, and analyze, the current problems and their solutions. Some of us are still in university and high school, so all we can do is brainstorm...Being that your the one of the anti-"cheap talk" what do you want us to do on this facebook group???? It is up to the current young (30+) educated UNcorrupted men & women of egypt to attempt to reform the government and its officials...Thus, i believe calling our discussion cheap is completely unacceptable and uncalled for...

Tarek Hegazy (AUC Egypt)
ah, you mentioned malaysia and SE Asia...u say they made it without democracy... what about us then? did we have democracy? HELL NO.... then lets try it for a change...guess some nations made it with it already.... these ppl tried for so looooooong already.... anyway, I prefer reading GOMHOREYA NEWSPAPER, it might have more legitimate arguments denouncing democracy and promoting the current TEHCNOLOGICAL government, enough said ;)

Mostafa Allam
I think people should wake up and realize that it is not only the domestic problems that have caused Egypt's decline, but give the country a break considering it is placed in the region with the world's longest on going conflict that involves mainly economic interests (namely, oil) and ideological clashes (Zionism vs. Arabism and (Democracy vs. Authoritarianism) and (Secularism vs. Rule-by-religion). I don't think its feasible for everyone to pinpoint the problems at domestic problems and say they are the sole culprit of the problem. Enlighten yourself, raise awareness, know what you are talking about from an intellectual perspective, and then take action. Don't just complain because Egypt isn't ideal for your selfish needs, but investigate how Egypt could be improved for the common good.

Hany Bassiouny (HKU)
Ahmed.. when i said talk is cheap.. I'm not pointing a finger at u directly.. my pt is general at everyone who's complaining n not doing anything about it.. we know the problems, we've discussed n brainstormed them a million times.. yet we do it again.. that's never gonna get us anywhere.. (obviously it still has to be done, though it shld'nt be the ONLY thing being done).. that's my pt.
Salma.. i deleted it.. i still believe that's the best way to see something happen.. I thought this group wanted to do smthg.. but it appears that it's become a forum to complain about corruption, flawed government policies, and why we're not like the rest of the world. frankly, I hear enough complaints on the street as it is.

Dina Makram-Ebeid (LSE)
Well I've 2 simple comments. 1- u don't ve to be 30+ to make a difference. In fact, if u look at history, from France in 1968, to student protests in Iran in 1999, to U.S student activism against the vietnam war , even to Egypt at different times...it was YOUNG PEOPLE, who rallied, called 4 things, named & shamed their governments, & undertook all sorts of activism. Some were creative, it's not just about demonstrating. They were playing music, organizing concerts, writing, doing films, publishing...everything. So basically, yes, u don't ve a job that can influence decision making but u ve the enthusiasm of the youth & u have less costs 2 bare. 2- Nothing makes me enraged more than Middle/Upper class Egyptians who keep on talking about change as if it'll happen alone. Well change is the responsibility of each & every one of us who is "protected", who has an exit. And if Egypt doesn't change it's because me & u r not doing anything abt it & ve decided to become observers!!

Amr Bassiouny (Egypt)
Tarek Higazy, I am not here to promote anybody, I'm here to give you the insight which I have gained recently working in this field to help you understand how this government works and what you can do to help. I am in the gov't now, and tommorow (literally) I will go join the hizb. Don't fight the system, it won't get you or your ideas anywhere but will only create resistance, work with it. Learn to use it in your favor and create something good out of it.

There is potential for both extremes in this gov't, so I hope we can start putting more of the good and less of the bad.
@ Yaseen

I beleive in this country and I beleive that change is at bay and that this is the time things will get better. I won't sit on the side and remain a spectator. I beleive in this country, and I beleive in my ability to influence its direction. Right or wrong, I'll take the many risks involved and do what I can. Sombody has to do the work, there's no use waiting till somebody comes to do it for me...I'll do it myself.

As for our beautiful cairo, the best time is actually imo sunny friday mornings, before the prayer. Just go driving or take a walk anywhere in Cairo and you just can enjoy a traffic-less, empty, clean cairo. It's my favorite time for a joy-ride in my car :-)

-Mostafa Allam
I think that there has been a lot of dispute concerning the purpose of this group. Some have argued that talk is cheap and that we should go out there and take action. Others have argued that it is beyond our capability to take such action. I think that we should compile the excellent remarks that pinpoint the Egypt's problems, brainstorm to solve them, and express our ideas in a social contract binds people and their elected government through a code of conduct that stipulates what each party has to do. So lets come up with ideas of what we citizens have to do in our daily lives. As a starting point, I say that each member comes up with a few obligations that citizens and gov. officials should respect in his conduct in a letter that we can compile this into a manual for social governance. I believe that this project is the true intellectual enlightenment that Egypt needs at this point.

-Amr Bassiouny (Egypt)
@Mostafa
Manual for social governorance? Are you proposing to completely renew our legislative, executive and judiciary codes and laws (including all the legal codes), as well as create new systems for each part of the gov't? Do you have any idea how big that could be, and how much experience/knowledge you need to even begin doing it?
Find those who will listen...

-Minardos Metri (New York, NY)
im here to listen....... whats up with the political reform talks of Egypt lol. Why do I sense a rebellion and revolution, in order for Egypt to abdicate its current constituencies and replace their old systems of legal precedings with new ones ?

-Amr Bassiouny (Egypt)
Alright well, if any of u really think that writing a new social contract will do anything...I'll personally send it to gamal mubarak or the PM or somebody big and you'll realize that you wasted your time doing it. So go ahead and I'm in with u, but don't say I didn't warn you.


-Mostafa Allam
@Amr. I believe that you misunderstood the intentions of what I proposed to be a “social manual.? I am not changing anything, I am just proposing a code of ethics, which we have obviously lost. Essentially, what are laws made for? For the betterment of society. We need the moral that makes people’s behavior carry the spirit of the law. There are societies where the individuals behavior manifests the law. There are societies where people where people need the law to guide their behavior. There are societies which have no respect for law and see laws made to be broken. We have to decide which society we want to be.
Also Amr, you mentioned that such a project would require a vast amount of knowledge and expertise. As member of such distinguished academic institutions worldwide, we have opportunities and responsibilities that others do not have, so we should be able to make a difference in our way, even if we don’t have all of the experience and knowledge that you might think. The worst thing that is happening in our country now is the indifference among people. I believe debating and criticism is what will stimulate our progress.
What I was talking about was a manual, and not the law. When you buy a device, you obtain a manual of how to use it. It does not necessary mean that you need to change the system. What I am proposing is a practical way to avoid arguments and talking and get to specifics by looking into ourselves as citizens so that the government could know our exact demands.
Egypt at this point is going through a process of labor in which Egypt is looking for a new order to be born so this is our opportunity to be part of the solution, not the problem. Even if such a project is a waste of time and energy, I am willing to exert all of that is in my power to see such reform. Our society is filled with hidden goodness. This society that build such an ancient civilization. We must pull our true potential. Others have made it. Today, it doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor, big or small, all that matters is that you follow the prescription for success. Look at Singapore, UAE, Qatar, and even China with 1.3 billion are able to succeed in a matter of one generation . We should not lose our will to make it. Because if there is a will there is a way.
Karim Khalil (Egypt)
no matter how corrupt, polluted or just plain fucked this country might be, it can be solved, its been done throughout history in much worse situations where nations have rebuilt themselves from absolutely nothing...believing that it is possible is a step, but when you have the entire population saying fuck it cant be done, its the governments fault...you're doing as much harm as the politicians, by not doing even the slightest effort...we can change, it wont be easy, but a country full of apathetic people has no hope...

-Mohamed Imam
every citizen can easily have a million or half a million, yesterday I was standing infront of my cousin's place with some friends and then a guy passed by asking for the place of a restaurant that shut down like 4 or 5 years ago, I asked him who are you? he told me that he is a representative from the Taxation place... after a chat I knew from him that they collect yearly on average 30 billion Egyptian pounds :) now divide this number on 80 million citizens just one time and lets see how this country is going to be like :)

-Hany Bassiouny (HKU)
@mohamed imam..
just to correct u.. seems u were seriously misinformed, n the tax collector doesn't know what he's talking about.. the actual numbers are.. Pre-new tax law: 500million collected.. n post-new tax law: 3.5billion.. the problem is that people used to bribe the tax collectors.. but now they can't cause tax collectors have to sign on every paper they approve, n cld face long prison sentences if an auditor discovers anything wrong.. so definitely no where near the 30billion.
also.. if ur idea of making ppl better off is just giving them the money, i think it wld fail in a day.. then how do u invest in infrastructure? water stations? roads? sanitation? paying wages? subsidies? education? healthcare? etc etc etc etc// obviously the money isn't even enough to cover those.. u want them to give it away??
I'm a believer in the saying "give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day.. teach a man how to fish, he'll eat for the rest of his life"..
so the pt of giving ppl the money is out of the question.. u might as well burn it.
so when u reduce subsidies on gasoline to channel it to education n healthcare.. STOP COMPLAINING.. ppl only look at the bad side n completely forget there's another side to it.. electricity bill got higher, water bill, phone bill, etc etc.. that's cause the more u use these utilities the more they become a luxury.. so it's wise to not waste the government's money (YOUR MONEY) on these things, n re-allocate them to public education n healthcare so that the ppl who need it the most actually see it.. to make our country a better n safer place for everyone.
I'm also a big supporter on imposing more taxes on tobacco n alcohol.. especially sheesha.
what ur saying is right.. but ur missing smthg.. what do u think subsidies are?
plus.. if u see the president's program for this term, u'll see (and this is for a fact taking place) that the ministry of housing is giving grants of upto LE15,000 to low-income people (priority to fresh grads) buying appartments in new cities (such as 6 October, sherouk, obour, S.Zayed, 10 Ramadan, etc etc).. n also offering easy payment schemes.. this is all a way of giving it to them wisely so they can use it in the future for whatever investment they like.
u may argue that 15,000 is not enough.. but nothing will ever be enough.. n there's a million other things ppl need too.. so u cld either give LE15,000 to say 1mn ppl, or give LE100,000 to 200,000ppl, or give LE1mn to 10,000 ppl.. money doesn't come out of thin air.. so u need to see if u wld rather give more money to less ppl, or less money to more ppl.. it's a real issue being faced, so u have to think about it.

Now the blog has 1,073 posts, but the substance of the political dicussion has everything but died. I have compiled this dialogue as evidence that there is a professional dialogue among Egypt's youth and that revolutionary ideas are bubbling. I've always had the vision of compiling these thoughts into some sort of social manual to hand to some government official so that the government could get some fresh perspectives on how to run the country. Although the debate has died down, I believe that this is an ideal snapshot of a healthy dialogue of different perspectives. Unfortunately, I have not seen anything it like it since, but all we can do is pray for a deja vu!