The Fortune Teller

I used to pass by this lady, and she always tried to show me my fortune. For years I have ignored her; as I don’t believe that anyone could predict the future or tell fortunes. Only Allah most gracious and most merciful knews what the future holds for us.

Today, I passed by her at the same place, and I almost completely ignored her, but then I returned back and called for her saying “Hey, lady!!” She noticed me calling and she came to me. I said “I've never done this before and I don’t believe in it all together, but show me what you've got”.  She said “Open your hands honey”, so, I did. She put a small bracelet made of tiny beautiful seashells in my hand, and asked “What’s your name honey?” I gave it to her. Then she said “You are stubborn and you has been struggling for the last three years, but you have a kind heart, and you like to help people.” I was shocked!! “How did you know?!” I asked her. Then I told myself “I don’t believe in this! what am I doing?! She probably says the same thing to everybody!” Then she said “Close your hand and blow in it three times.” So, I did, although I thought it was crazy. “You dream of a nice car. Did you get it?” She asked. “No, not yet, but almost everyone dream of almost the same thing” I replied. “Places far away you want to visit but did you?” She asked.  I said “No, but everybody wants that too!” Then she said “You feel that you want to be in some better place”. “I’m happy where I am really El hamdo lellah (i.e. Thank God)”. “You are a grateful person and thankful to Allah” she said. “You’re going to have a great fortune by the end of February, and great things lays ahead of you” She added. I said “In Sha’allah (If Allah is willing)”. Then she asked me to put what I've got (meaning money of course) in my hands with the seashell bracelet. She put some sand from the ground in my hand and told me to blow in it three times, while closing my hands tightly and see if the sand is still there! And it wasn't. May be it fell because of the blowing!

She could have really known those things by mere coincidence, though I think it’s completely crazy, but sometimes in life we need to do something crazy; something out of ordinary, out of our characters. Just because we are searching for hope; for someone to tell us that we are on the right path, that we will realize our dreams one day. We feel happy when a stranger tells us that our future holds a great fortune. May be if our friends tell us the same things we think to ourselves “They just say so because they are our friends and they are simply complementing us”. Strange how we sometimes think; believing in what a complete stranger tells us and not believing our close friends and family members.

We are somehow intrigued by the mysterious; the magical world that lies only in our deepest imaginations. We want to live in the land of dreams and we seek the imaginary truths behind the facts. We work hard to break the walls of reality to fly into the skies of our dreams.

At the end, I choose to believe that something good is going to happen by the end of February, not because a fortuneteller told me so, but because I’ll work hard to make it happen …

Alaa Eldeen Fahmy (From a place between reality & Dreams)

22-Jan-12 1:56:01 AM

What Happens to People Who Love Egypt Today!!

Well, it’s really sad and ugly that after the revolution of 25^th Jan people can’t live in Egypt peacefully and can’t enjoy freedom of thought or get a decent living, thanks to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (i.e. SCAF), who are basically sucking the life out of anybody who loves and cares about this country and protects the corrupt ex-president and his family and friends!!!

Sign in Tahrir Sq. on 18 Nov asking to Free Alaa Abd El-Fattah;
 young Egyptian Activist who has been falsely put in Military Prison 

Anyway, I’m not going to go into criticizing the SCAF and its continuously failing ways in managing the country and responding to the demands of the revolution for a decent living, freedom, and democracy, because a lot of people have already wrote about that and continually writing about that from all around the world. I’m going to highlight something different, based on my personal experience. So, here it goes.

After 25 Jan Americans in Egypt with a Tourism Visa had to renew their visa every month. A few Americans I know who were working here in Cairo and couldn’t get a work permit (As a lot of employers here hire foreigners illegally and don’t give them a work permit, even some governmental organization does that !!), left Egypt because it’s a burden to keep going every month to Tahrir Compound (AKA: Mogama’a Tahrir) to renew their Tourism Visa.

iCare

iCare Technology

Long ago in a place called earth, where there were no machines, only living creatures created by Allah (The most Gracious the most merciful) humans lived in harmony with their surrounding environment. The air was great, so fresh and energetic with the scent of lilies, roses and tulips; especially at spring. Water was pure and spread life in everything it touches.

As humanity developed life on this placed called earth became much faster and faster. In order for Humans to keep up with the fast pace of life they developed machines, machines that cut trees to make wooden houses, machines to cut the grass and make it look uniform, machines to move them from a place to another at the speed of life.

These machines has used a lot of energy resources on earth and caused a lot of destruction to the environment. A number of people noticed the harm their machines were doing to the environment, and they decided to find solutions to decrease or remove this harm. So, they began using machines called computers and reducing their use of papers to reduce killing of trees. They also, used recycling machines to keep earth resources much longer, and decrease pollution caused by burning  waste. They also, started using renewable sources like solar energy from the sun. They started creating hybrid cars that uses less petroleum. They started using technologies out of their care for the environment, the “iCare Technology”.

They worked on this technology simply because they care about the environment and the lives of future generation of humans that are living in this environment. Sadly, this “iCare Technology” isn’t adapted widely in this place called earth. So, earth’s environment is dying slowly because of this “idon-t-care behavior” of lots of humans living in it.

Each and every one of us should be prosecuted for the crime of killing earth; every time we throw trash on the streets, every time we throw stuff in the river Nile, every time we use our car unnecessarily to go to some place only meters away, every time we throw stuff out of our car’s windows carelessly.