The Egyptian elections

I woke up early-ish this morning, to make my way to Cairo's Down Town to meet my freind and Arabic teacher in one of the many ahwas (cafes) that were dotted around the centre.

T took my camera with me, just in case I saw something unusual, it was after all a significiant day in Egypt's history!

On the way to the metro I saw a huge desert-yellow tank gliding along the street, with soldiers wearning bright red hats standing out from the top. It resembled a strange parade, of soldiers surrounded by the usual hustle and bustle of Cairo's Shubra Street.

When I returned from my lesson, I went with my aunt to the polling station. My aunt had already been, to take my gran to vote, and she told me that there had been minibuses shipping poor farmers and labourers to the polling station. These people were all voting for Ahmed Shafik or Amr Mouusa - both men from the previous regime.

These men have many things going for them, and have the biggest chance of winning. Egyptians that are afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power, are likely to vote for them. Egyptians that are convinced that the country has descended into chaos since the revolution and those that were not aware of the atrocities that the previous regime committed, are likely to vote for them. Egyptians who benefitted from the previous regime, are likely to vote for them.

Even if they do not win legitimately, many believe that the army generals who currently make up the transitional government, will see to it that they are in power.

We will see what happens on Friday when the results are announced.

The day before the Egyptian elections - a day of family fights

Yesterday was the kind of day that happens once every five years in normal, quite households that do not suffer from hypertension, melodrama and severe mood swings. In my family it happens at least once a month.

Yesterday our house was up in flames (almost a literal description if I had been allowed to do what I threatened to do), people were crying, screaming from the deepest part of their being and of course, slapping their faces with great frequency and gusto.

Yesterday my uncle was due to fly to the Gabon, where he works for 3 months on and off on a ship. Yesterday my gran was feeling very agitated and had wound herself up tightly, ready to release all of her tension on whoever was unlucky enough to get in her way.

The result of this tension was that my aunt started to rip her hair out and pack her bags, swearing to take her children and move anywhere else. My uncle (not the one travelling) ended up getting into a fight with the neighbours in the street and just managed to stop himself from whacking them round the head with a large metal stick.

These events were spurred on from a single sentence my gran (who was anxiously waiting to get to the airport, wanting to get there 5 hours before we needed to be there) said to both my aunt and my uncle. That was "If you don't want to take him to the airport he can get a taxi". BANG, the fire had been lit, and everything that happened after only set to anger it more.

In the end we managed to get my uncle to the airport (albeit to the wrong terminal because he hadn't taken the liberty to actually check his ticket before we left) and he got on his flight.

On the way back, my cousin called my aunt, panic in her voice. She had heard a lot of commotion in the street in front of us and went to see what had happened. 3 people had been shot dead by passing security forces, and their bodies had been left in the street for long enough for most of our neighboorhood to see them. Apparently they had been a group of hooligans trying to rob a shop, so they were stopped in their tracks by their security forces.

It's difficult to believe anything you hear here. It seems as though you cannot get an unbiased account of anything - evereything that happens is tightly bound in conspiracy, politics and strong unfounded beliefs.

In fact, yesterday I was thinking to myself how inadequate I felt that I didn't know much about Egyptian history. Then I said to myself, but how can I be sure that what I read online or in history books is the actual truth? How can bwe believe any history that we hear? During Mubarak's reign, history taught at schools in Egypt had been 'modified' to teach innocent minds that Mubarak had countless significant achievements under his belt, that were all either fake or done before his time.

How do we know what is actually true? Ever?

This thought made me feel a bit depressed. I have now decided to just learn from any source I can, but also not to forget the source that I learned it from, instead of blindly believing anything that interested me. In short, yesterday I decided that I would stop being GULLIBLE.

QNET

So, I have recently had a very detailed introduction into the illustrious world of QNET. A business I had not heard anything about until I made my way to Egypt this year.

The basic principle of the business is that there are some expensive products for sale, in return for a theoretical part of the business. When you buy one of these products (which includes a 'chi pendant' one that supposedly improves your health, various holidays and a $600 water filter (price not verified)) then you are part of the network, of the business.

If you wish to earn money in the business it is your responsibility to 'spread the word' about the company and try to recruit as many people as you can. These people will be 'underneath you', on the business tree.

One of my ex-students and a business partner of hers, gave me a very detailed introduction to the business, that lasted 2-and-a-half hours. My ex-student then took me to one of the weekly gatherings in Nasr City, in a very grand hotel.

This gathering consisted of around 500 QNET-ers, gathered into a beautiful ballroom, four floors under ground level of the Inter Continental hotel in Nasr City. The main speaker was a man called Khalid, who my friend told me was the person who brought QNET to Egypt, and subsequently has made millions upon millions of dollars (allegedly).

This man spoke for an entire hour. He was a tall, elegantly-clad young man, who spoke in a precise, measured way. The only problem I had is that during the entire hour I think he said only 5 minutes worth of content. He must have repeated the word 'belief' 500 times.

These weekly meetings are a QNET initiative to help motivate and encourage their employees, so that they go into the world and 'chew it up vigorously' (translated directly from Arabic which is why it sounds awkward and wrong).

I have to admit, there was a hell of a lot of positive energy bouncing around in that majestic hall. There was loud, uplifting music, cheering from the audience, and a standing salute to the 'top dogs' of the QNET Egypt company as they came on stage.

I really started to think that this was a religion, or cult of some sort. I then began to imagine that this was how the first religious missionaries converted people to join their religion. If you can convince yourself to truly believe in something, then that alone can be powerful enough to make others believe in it as well.

Khalid, the boss-guy, said:
'You must believe in yourself, you must believe in QNET and you must believe in your team to succeed.'

It is this belief that makes anything possible. Khalid really had me convinced - I could very well make someone part from anything between $400 and $5000, for a product that they may not necessarily want, by promising them that if they work hard in the business they will 'learn tons about themselves', 'earn tons of money' and 'join a dynamic, young network that will motivate them to excel in all and any walks of life'.

Anything, I realized after today's meeting, can be sold to anyone, if you believe in it strongly enough, and you know which strings to pull on the person you are trying to sell to.

Anyway, for me it's not money that I want at the moment, but the personal development opportunities that this project seems to promise. But actually, above that what I really wanted was something to believe in. I feel I have been sufficiently westernized and liberalized in the sense that I no longer have any rock-solid institutionalized beliefs that I can honestly make myself believe in. I thought of QNET as my opportunity to re-gain these beliefs, no matter how superficial they may be.

I kept thinking and going backwards and forwards, umming and ahhing. My friend had planted a seed-idea into my mind, and it was ferociously attacking my thoughts from all sides. I was constantly combating it with negatives, draw backs and side effects.

I finally said to her that it was not the right time for me to join. I want to learn Arabic and solely focus my attention on that. She warned me about the 'cost of delay'. Delaying entry into QNET meant less money could be made. In my mind delaying entry into QNET meant less stress and worry on my behalf.

I think I have been thoroughly convinced by this project, but the time is not quite right.

*I would like to make an amendment to the above - I believe that QNET is an excellent brain-washing concept that plays on the human traits of greed, self-improvement and belonging to a group. In all of these senses QNET is a brilliant concept. Absolutely ingenious. But I've decided to stay out of it. I think that's best.

Post-lasik

So, it's now six days on after I've had lasik, and thank God, everything seems fine and dandy. My vision is getting steadily better, sharper and more in focus, and the 'halo effect' at night is getting less pronounced.

On the day of the operation I wasn't actually all that scared. A few days before however, I had managed to terrify myself after I saw a video of this crazy American who had developed 'dry eye disease' after the operation and now apparently has to use his eye drops at least 70 times a day - and that's on his good days.

My thoughts spiralled in into the depths of anxiety, as I began to convince myself that I was going to faint during the operation, and thus result in my subsequent blindness.

It is not unusual for me to faint if I so much as imagine myself going through a traumatic experience, so actually going through one must surely be much worse!

Earlier this year I was reading a book called 'Slave'. It was set in a small Nubian village that was pillaged by an invading Islamic group that kidnapped the children and sold them as slaves. There was one part of the book where the main character was undergoing 'cutting' at the hands of a vicious village woman. The description seemed so graphic that I had to put the book down and take a few breaths.

When I regained my composure I said to myself 'Come on, man up Amira, and finish the book!'
I continued reading, and the next thing I knew I had hit  my flopped like a wet fish onto the bed in front of me, and fainted. A few seconds passed and I managed to crawl into my sister's bedroom. I reached my hand out to her and uttered 'Yvonne, I...' then went ahead and fainted once more on her floor. This time for a few minutes.

When I came round again I was as pale as the dead, sweating copiously and completely numb. My sister, not knowing what else to do, called the ambulance and we were taken to hospital. After three hours in hospital, the doc had informed me that I had experience vasovagal fainting, which is usually caused by seeing something gruesome - not just reading about it!

Anyway, after that experience I figured that it was highly probable that when I was lying back on the surgeon's table, with the sound of something cutting at my eye, followed by the smell of my burning cornea, that I could faint. Luckily I didn't :)

My doctor, was fantastic, incredibly intelligent, kind and caring. I am really glad my friend recommended him to me, and I would recommend anyone to get their Lasik done in Egypt - it's not as risky as it may sound.