My Journey in Cairo 25 Jan 2011

A few days ago I was asking a friend to tell me “What is the worst trait about me?” or “What is the most annoying thing about me?”. I do this every once in a while to increase myself awareness and see myself from other people’s eyes. The answer was:

“You think a lot, and take only very few actions and sometimes even take no action at all”.

At first I wasn’t convinced since my friend wasn’t able to mention a specific situation where I didn’t take action, while I should have taken action. Then I remembered that someone told me something similar, in the past few months, that’s why I decided to consider improving myself in that aspect, and take more actions, rather than only thinking, writing, and giving speeches.

Today is 25 Jan; the Egyptian Police national day; it’s a national holiday. There was all that fuss about protests that was going to be happening today, protests showing disapproval of bad living standards caused by the rotten government. This situation was ignited by the resent protests and violent acts happening in Tunis that pushed Bin Aly; their president to leave the country.

On facebook there were two different directions on where those “Peaceful Protests” should be organized. Some said it would be smart to hold such protests in small alleys in poor places, because this would prevent the police forces from interfering with these protests, and if they try to do so, the poor people suffering severely from low standards of living, caused by the rotten government, will stop them! Others recommended performing the “Peaceful Protests” in wide areas and main squares in the country (as usually done in most countries of the world).

Almost Flat Tire

While I was entering my car I noticed that one of my car’s tires was almost flat. I just have inflated it three days ago, and now it’s deflated! For the past couple of months, I’ve been visiting the car service station to inflate the exact same tire time after another. I knew that it needed to be fixed, but I didn’t fix it. I really don’t know why!! May be, I was caught up in the thick of thin things; convincing myself that I’m too busy to fix it, or may be I was just getting used to it that way, or may be I was just too lazy to fix it. The thing is that fixing it only takes 10 to 15 minutes!! Then it will save me all the time wasted on going to inflate it at the service station time after time.

 

Everywhere I go with that “almost flat” tire; people driving next to me keep pointing and saying “Hay! Your tire is flat!” and I go like “Yeah… I know, thanks”, and then I do absolutely nothing about it. I just simply leave it for a while, until I feel that it’s not safe to leave it like this anymore, then go to the nearest car service station and inflate it again!! Then cycle starts all over again.

I realized that, sometimes, I’m like that “almost flat” tire; I have a hole in me that needs to be fixed. I keep convincing myself that I’m ok, while the truth is that I’m not. That hole will not just magically disappear no matter how much I inflated the tire, it’ll still deflate again and it may eventually go completely flat. Denial will not solve anything… I should find where do the problem lies, so I can move on to fixing it, and get on with life.

I also, realized that there are lots of things in life that are, in a way ,like that almost flat tire; a failing educational system, an unhealthy relationship, an unhealthy life habit, and an unsatisfying career path. All those things will continue to deflate and fail if we keep using them in the same way, we seriously need to fix them, before they completely go flat on the ground, leaving us standing there without being able to move forward; seeing time goes by while we remain frozen.

We shouldn’t do the same exact thing time after another, when we know that it’s not going to work, because we tried it before and it still didn’t work. However, we should not give up; we simply should accept the fact that it’s not meant to be done in that way, and search for some other of doing it.

When you inflate it, many times and it still doesn’t work… admit that it needs to be fixed and fix it or find a new one that works, don’t waste your time trying to inflate it again.

A flat tire holds us back, and keeps us from moving forward. If we ignore it for a long while it may cause us serious accidents in our lives, we should, inspect our life’s tires every once in a while, fix them, and keep moving forward.

Now, I’m going to fix the tire and I think you all should do the same…

Alaa El deen Esmail Fahmy 

They Won’t Break Us

Someone Who hate Us … Ignited a fire of hatred between us

Thinking they could separate Us

We won’t let them Break Us

Bombs, Bombs… Ashes, Blood, and Tears.

The smoke of hate grew to fill the sky.

Cries, prayers, and Hymns, fill the skies above the seas.

Bottles, rocks, and pieces of wood, thrown into the air.

We should not fight each other in despair.

We should look around to see; who wants to break us apart.

Who wants to put a wound in our hearts?!

We will stand up together and won’t let him break us.

Hand in Hand until eternity… the way it was since the beginning of our history.

Alaa El deen Fahmy

This poem is dedicated to all families of people died or got injured during the Bombings of Alexandria in New Year 2011. It’s a reminder that we; Egyptians no matter what religion we believe in, are always united, and we condemn any form of terrorism, because terrorism has no religion.