Hocus Pocus

Published on by Gehad Gamal

Before the Arab Spring, we thought there were no individuals in the Middle East.

This was the prologue of a book about the Middle East before and after revolutions. This sentence was nothing but the reality. We are not the luckiest on earth, except those in North Korea, as we can emigrate to another country. Ironically, North Koreans are more welcome than Arabs and receive more sympathy. There are a lot of similarities between both of them; tyranny, isolation, and the tainted blood. The more you grow up, the better you learn how to shoo to not get caught. Blurting a word out may cost you a soul.

Isolation does not require fences because ignorance is a great castle to cram those who do not understand what is different. It is a win-win situation for both sides. One side can easily have the upper hand, whilst the other one gets satisfied with pennies as their world is limited.

My people do not know that word “ambition“. They always say “little is better than nothing”. They are not aware of moving up the ladder because they were born poor, therefore they have to be so until they pass away. The same theory of ranking in North Korea.

Once I had a conversation with a friend talking about harassment in Egypt. Egyptians have a good ranking in watching pornography. I replied that human beings always look for catharsis. The majority are unemployed, and if you are jobless, so you will be unable to marry. Job is your dignity, your own crutch, and manhood. Even though, salaries are meagre in Egypt, they represent safety as they are permanent even after the provider’s death.

We are not individuals. I mean not as humanistic as you are. You are first class citizens and we are Scapegoats. You have been invaded once, then you have decided to avenge and invade many countries as you would never forget! We are mere statistics getting used to witnessing gory details firsthand.

I am not trying to justify anything. I am another scapegoat belonging to the grassroots without any privilege. There is neither robust education, nor extraordinary talent. I only want to fly away. Maybe I want to be a predator to be able to fare well in this society.

Sorry for disturbing you, but it is only a glimpse and I want to share it with you. Someday, I will have my walled garden, and I promise you that I will share it too!

I highly recommend reading The New Middle East: The World After The Arab Spring book.

For me parliament is a circus, it’s big beard versus small beard, who can be more right-wing than the other, who can be more obsessed with sex and moral values than the other, and who can waste all this time talking about Internet porn and not teaching English in school, whereas the majority of Egyptians’ concerns are unemployment, poverty and security on the streets,’ said the writer and activist Mona Eltahawy.

One of the sentences that described the scene after the Egyptian revolution and encapsulated how Egyptians think and prioritize things. Sex comes first, then we can discuss science and education.

I have a say please!

Educate me well. Therefore, you will be able to curb my animalistic instinct when your actions rage me.

33 thoughts on “Hocus Pocus”

  2. “When the rich rob the poor it’s called business, when the poor fight back it’s called violence” is a perfect quote and can be used universally to sum about how corporations take advantage of the poor for their own profit. I would like to suggest a book written by Matthew Desmond “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.” It is a New York Times best seller. It documents how the closing of factories in the United States and their relocation to other countries absolutely left economic devastation in Midwestern U.S. cities such as Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Many U.S corporations relocated overseas so that they could pay extremely low wages to struggling people in other countries. American workers demanded fair wages; in response corporations simply relocated. Many Americans have been left homeless because wages have not kept up with extreme housing prices. They have been evicted from over-priced apartments or foreclosed on if they do own a home. Businesses have cut back hours, eliminated full-time, and no longer provide benefits. Of course, some businesses still do, but it is becoming rare. Of course, with poverty and homelessness crime has increased. Your article mirrors how similar our concerns are universally: “The majority of Egyptians concerns is unemployment, poverty and security on the streets” can well be said about the majority of Americans (Of course, I cannot speak for the rest of the world). The nagging question is how we can advocate for change in our respective countries. Everyone deserves the dignity of work; everyone deserves housing and security. What are our countries doing to secure this for its people?

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  3. In general you are of course right but neo-liberalism since the early 1990s has made only the rich more richer in the European Union! Poverty is rising and widespread, just one example: nearly 1 million people (including refugees) have no own appartment in Germany. There are of course social and state organized faciilties where they can stay, but a lot of people simply sleep on the streets (even in cold winters).

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  5. Poverty dehumanizes whatever continent you live on. A person very close to me struggles to hold a job, and he suffers many problems including depression as a product. Others seem oblivious and blame him for his problems which is like the rich and the poor worldwide.

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  7. I’m American and we often say that we Americans identify too much with our jobs, that we have no balance between work-life and home-life, so I was interested to read what a job can mean. We are wealthy as a country but that doesn’t mean everyone is a wealthy individual. Fear and anger and a sense of being cheated are found in many places. Despirate people sometimes do terrible things. Thanks for your post

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  10. This is why I do the work I do to shut down the dark powers that rule our world and enslave all humanity. It is time for all to be free.

    Thanks for following my blog.

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  11. That’s a tremendous post Gehad. We are all being squeezed, whether scapegoat, sheep or administrators. Seriously, if the castle of ignorance is to disappear, then money, also, needs to make an exit. Or to be distributed in sufficient abundance so that humans can cease to spend their lives mired in worry. In the sci-fi novels of Iain M Banks, money is a mere historical footnote to a society of abundance and play.
    Please keep up the thought-provoking posts.
    Cheers, Kevin

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  12. So heartfelt yet insightful. I am inspired by your ability to state the unabated truth by simply saying what’s in your heart. Yet you ring true in what you say. In agreement, perhaps the shorten form of your insights may be that “Money is the root of all evil” or “Absolute power leads to absolute corruption.” I believe that Humankind has erred in the world they’ve made. One where wealth is the ultimate power and the rest of us have been divided accordingly. Yet sadly, wealth is not only how the powers to be divide us as a species.
    But by bordered Nations, culture and religion to name a few. Then again subdivided by tribe, class, caste and all forms of ill-conceived nonsensical separations. This since the very beginnings of our history, yet still existing today? Truly this is holding back the unity of our species. Perhaps even a cause for the hate, racism and ill-will that still exists among us even today.
    I do so long for a united world. Equality among our species. Sadly this will most likely not occur in my lifetime. My fear is — it never will!

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  13. Pingback: Hocus Pocus — BRAINCHILD – Truth Troubles

  14. Gehad, every time I visit your site, I am moved by your courage, your passion, your wisdom, and your skill as a writer/reporter. For better or worse, I am an eternal optimist. I DO envision a world marked by true freedom for all. I DO believe the old ways will, must crumble. And I have faith that you and others like you will be leading the way. Be Blessed, dear sister.

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