Egyptian Tribulations
Shawgi Badri
In June 1971, I was visiting my brother Kamal Ibrahim Badri in Cairo. In the morning, I opened the window and was in Rushdi Street, Building No. 23, in Bab El-Louq district, not far from the famous Abdeen Court. On the street, there was a small cart full of garbage. Amidst the garbage, there was a six-year-old girl rummaging through the it, picking up some things and eating them.
Then I heard a knock on the kitchen door, so I went to open the door and found the garbage man in front of me. Then my aunt, my mother’s sister and wife to my brother Kamal, came. My aunt said to the garbage man: (This is Kamal’s brother and he came yesterday)..
The garbage man said a lot of words and welcomed me as most Egyptians do and said to me, God blessed you and brought you to Egypt. This is the best country -and mother of- the entire world.. My aunt replied: But he lives in Europe.. The man continued, saying: So what!! People go to Europe to make money so they could come back and live in Egypt. There is no place in the world better than Egypt..
Why is it difficult for Egyptians to understand that they aren’t the smartest people, and that Egypt isn’t the best country in the world. Even the garbage man whose daughter lives off the garbage is convinced that he is the happiest person because he lives in Egypt..
A few years ago, the Egyptian team was defeated by the Saudi national team. The Egyptian people revolted, the officials became tense, some heads rolled, the government intervened and officials were expelled. It was a bleak day, worse than the day of their defeat in the war against Israel.
When the journalist Ibrahim Musa Al-Khair, may God have mercy on his soul, asked an Egyptian diplomat about the reason for their anger and intense pain, he stated something along the lines of.. How can the Saudis defeat us! .. We are the ones who taught them.. We taught them everything. We taught them football. We even taught them how to speak. Ibrahim Musa, mercy be upon his soul, laughed and replied: Who taught whom.. The Arabic language isn’t your language.. its the Saudis language. Islam came to you from Saudi Arabia. The Saudis changed you (180) degrees, and you’re still talking about who taught whom. Don’t forget that Saudi Arabia has done Egypt many favors.
The truth is that Egyptians have benefited from Islam more than the Saudis. For hundreds of years there has been an Egyptian reciter, preacher, or Arabic language teacher everywhere in the world, or an imam from Egypt. Egyptians act with complete conviction that they are the people of the Islamic religion and they are the most knowledgeable and aware in regards to Islam.. O God !! Isn’t Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Egypt.
The scales have been turned. Qatar, whose population is less than those on Egyptian trains, holds conferences and discusses the fate of the Arab nation, solves and connects, and Al-Jazeera Channel is superior to all Egyptian satellite channels. The Egyptians think that this is an encroachment on their historical rights, they are the nation that birthed the scientists and intellectuals. No one is superior to them. And they want to stop time in the era of Hatshepsut.
I can’t help but smile whenever I see an Egyptian talking about Alexandria and its greatness. Alexander was a conqueror and a usurper whose armies entered Egypt and wreaked havoc, as all armies in the past did. They plundered, raped and enslaved the Egyptians. The small Macedonian Army grew, and all the riffraff and Janissaries joined in. Is there a country in the world that glorifies and names its second largest city after its usurper ? It is one of Egypt’s ordeals.
Alexander was famous for being one of the biggest homosexuals in the world. Socrates was sentenced to death because he was corrupting the Greek youth, and he was homosexual. Alexander isn’t a rapist, but a homosexual, the most famous homosexual in the world.
The name Cleopatra is given to cigarettes, and to everything, even the palace. Cleopatra has nothing to do with the Egyptians. The Ptolemies, who were Greek, ruled Egypt. They are the remnants of Alexander and they perched on the chest of the Egyptian people, exploiting and enslaving them.
As for Cleopatra -as the Egyptians themselves tell the stories, she presented herself naked to Caesar, and became his mistress. When she gave birth to a son from Caesar, she returned and killed her brother so that he wouldn’t claim the throne alongside her son. Then she became the mistress of the Roman commander Antonio.. And when the Roman armies were approaching her kingdom after the defeat of Antonio, she committed suicide..
I don’t find anything here that calls for pride or indicates greatness. Why is the foreign Cleopatra glorified in Egypt?
We also hear about Queen Shajarat al-Durr who ruled Egypt for days and who is glorified in Egypt. She practiced deception and conspiracy until her rival Umm Ali won over her, killing her by beating her with slippers. She made Umm Ali desert from barley, raisins, sugar and milk, then distributed it to the poor Egyptian people. She decorated the feast with the breasts of Shajarat al-Durr. And until now, Egyptians celebrate Umm Ali and eat that desert.
The name Cairo is associated with Cairo of Al-Mu’izz, and Al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah Al-Fatimi Ghazi, invaded Egypt and was from the Berber. He killed and decimated the Egyptian armies, then claimed that he was the grandson of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and when they asked him about his lineage and ancestry, he took out dinars, scattered them and drew his sword saying this is my lineage.. Cairo bears the name of a usurper and an invader.
Egyptians often repeat the proverb.. (When you believe someone is Moses, they turn out to be the Pharaoh), and the Pharaoh in question is Thutmose. He has a huge statue erected in the middle of Cairo. As soon as you talk to any Egyptian, he will tell you.. We are the most ancient people and we have the oldest civilization.. We are the Pharaohs who built and performed miracles. Our ancestors built the pyramids. And when we reply with, “Man, a while ago you were saying that you are Arabs, and that you are the most honorable of Arabs and that there is no Arabism without Egypt” Well then, explain to us, are you Arabs or Pharaohs? And the response is.. Yes, we are both. And this is an Egyptian ordeal.
Some Egyptians tell you that you are a Kurd who doesn’t understand. They don’t think well of the Kurds. They talk about the Egyptian hero Saladin. While Saladin was a Kurd who had nothing to do with Egypt except that he entered Egypt with an entry visa and a work permit and was a soldier.
As soon as you speak about poetry, they mention Ahmed Shawqi, the Prince of Poets and the best Egyptian poet. We were also convinced that he was Egyptian until we grew up and learned that his parents, one of whom was Turkish and the other Kurdish. When a person is successful, they accept him as Egyptian and don’t give up his Egyptian identity. Like George Abyad, the father of theater.
We have often heard that the film (Ghazl al-Banat ) s humanity’s greatest film ever and that Al-Rihani, the Egyptian actor, is the greatest actor in the world. When we went out and were enlightened about the world, we discovered that the film Ghazl al-Banat was stolen from Hollywood. The story, the direction, and the script. Moreover, Al-Rihani isn’t Egyptian.
In June (1996), I read an interview in Al-Ahram, in which it was said that Egyptian actors are the best actors in the world. The interviewer replies…and Egyptian directors as well.
Egyptians are amused when the Sudanese people are described and ridiculed for being lazy. For decades, jokes were told about Egyptians, and their stupidity. It used to pain us, and we wouldn’t tolerate it, because the Egyptian people are great people, similar to other nations except that they are out of touch.
The Egyptians didn’t protest because the stories are about the Sa’idi Egyptians, and the Egyptians of Cairo participate in mocking and insulting the former, as if they aren’t Egyptians. Indeed, they’re the most manly and generous of Egyptians.
A nation that begs for half of their foodstuffs and live on aid, why do they insist that they’re the greatest nation.. and why do the Egyptians accept this nonsense from their rulers. The simplest thing, in order to fix any situation in the world, is to admit the mistake. Why do Egyptians talk about Egypt as the land of freedoms, the country of democracy and the country of institutions. The problem is that most of the Egyptian people believe in these things.
In my conversation with an Egyptian brother when the residents of the Canal cities were living in Cairo.. he used to tell me.. you can recognize the girls of Port Said by their appearance.. God bless them. They have green eyes and some of them are blond. They are the descendants of the French, my friend. And the Egyptians say this with pride. In reference to Napoleon’s soldiers who occupied Egypt and raped Egyptian women, especially in the Canal Zone more than (200) years ago.
Whenever they mention Port Said, the Egyptians talk about this phenomenon with pride. Is this an inferiority complex towards the Europeans? How can people be proud of the memory of the occupation of their country and the rape of their women.. Isn’t this an ordeal? And if the Congolese had occupied Port Said.. would the Egyptians have spoken about the descendants of the Congolese with such pride ?
