On visiting home Pt. I

1) 22.03.08

I had a certain image of myself upon returning to Cairo.

I would be sitting in our garden, a new notebook in hand, sipping cool, freshly- made lemonade from the guy on the 26th of July Street. Surrounded by cats and schoolgirls looking over the fence, I would write, wearing flip-flops made in the Arab Republic of Egypt, documenting the Joys of revisiting the city of my youth after two years of abscence.

Of course, all this is being written in an Internet cafe, but I am happy to report that I managed to fulfill that image. I am also very happy to be able to say that up to now, it has indeed been a great joy to come back here.

Leaving from Tegel, happily using it for my own bit of travelling in stead of picking up or dropping off friends and relations, I soon became aware that the legendary leg space provided by Tuifly planes is limited only by your immagination. A few nigh- yogic contortions led to a comfortable and tenable sitting position. My neighbour, obiously afraid of flying, was unfortunately in no state to think of her comfort.

Landing at three in the morning, I came as close to kissing the ground as I could: I smelt the air, earning me a mamnou3 from an airport attendant, who seemd worried I might seek to escape into the desert from the gangway.

It is heartening to see that, in spite of complaints about the decline of the egyptian character and arab hospitality in general, the guardians at the airport, th limo drivers, bawabiin (doormen) and people on the street will still be happy to wish you 7amdillah bissalaama (welcome home), when they learn that of your long abscence form the country closest to their hearts.

We arrivewd in Zamalek at four in the morning, a time that implies two things:
Cairo traffic, that world- famous clogged pipe of transport, was flowing smoothly for the same reason that there would be no need for immediate expressions of friendliness or gratitude towards all those mentioned above. Most people were asleep.

When the Fagr (dawn prayers) sounded all over the city, we went to bed.

It has to be mentioned that since I left, there has been one major change in the soundscape of the city: the Azaan (call to prayers) has been unified, so that instead of about ten thousand big and small mosques all sounding in a chorous of cacophonic prayer, the call is made by one voice, coming out of every loudspeaker in Cairo, staring at the same time and ending at the same time. Passing by the Azhar mosque later, I thought it a slight pity that they didn't allow this one institution to keep their own Mueizzin, as he was generally pretty good.

We went to bed, perchance to sleep. In Berlin, since two weeks, the weather has been giving us all we love about Berlin winters: Cold, wet, slippery, Cloudy and gray. In fact, hail had fallen they day I left. So the heat was a change, as was the fact that my first thought upon waking was not "Damn, its cold!"

The other thing I had not een prepared for was the polyphony of birds joining the Muezzins in greeting the new day. The birds of Berlin having, for the time being, retreated into silence, the beautiful sound of millions of birds vocalising, though beautiful, proved a welcome, melodious impediment to sleep.

Waking up the next morning (at twelve), I found a ery welcome sight: A clear blue sky, a composition untouched by clouds, with a large yellow sun at the centre of this exquisite tableau.

And upon discovering that someone had taken it upon them to stock the fridge with Gibna Roumy (Cheese, untranslatable), I knew I was truly back.

IGAF: Utopia- Les Jours Meilleurs

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post, titled Dystopia , containing a dark version of the future, a look at the negative outcomes that might crawl out of the COVID-19 crisis. It has, by now been described as "9/11 in slow motion". Someone else broke a golden editorial rule to describe it as "2008 on crack". Media outlets, including Youtube, have warned of the long-term effects of this, on civil rights, labour and employment, surveillance and press freedom. And some, most notably Mr Orban of Hungary, have used this excellent opportunity to pass new, restrictive legislation that concentrates power in their hands. There have been calls for the elusive COVID cure not to be patented. And yet… And yet… It's easy to lose yourself in a media bubble, following the news and media 24/7, following, queuing in line to get into expensive shops, just walking into discount stores and the constant desire for many drinks (preferably with 10 friends or more, in a park

In Taheyya we Trust - How an Egyptian bellydancer found her posthumous stage in Berlin

“You should have winked at her,” Aida said dismissively, as if such a possibility had been imaginable for someone as timid as I was. Tahia Carioca was the most stunning and long-lived of the Arab world’s Eastern dancers (belly-dancers, as they are called today). Edward Said, Farewell to Taheyya My story with Taheyya begins in the summer of 2016, at Bulbuls Café in Görlitzer Str. in Berlin. It ends two blocks down on Wiener Str 17. Bulbuls is a café and art space around my corner that I have grown to like to sit in and drink smoothies (1). He had commissiond us- a crew of Syrian and Egyptian artists, as well as myself, to paint the walls inside the café. El Tenneen (the Dragon) is the one who ended up drawing Sheikh Imam, with the help of Salam Alhassan (known as Salahef/ Turtles) and Sulafa Hijazis (whom we call El Hayya/The Snake’s) beamers’ illumination. The Sheikh sits happily in the place to this day and Crew El-Zoo was born. Tenneen had the adv

Random Browsing gets me a new face.

Two o'clock in the morning is generally a good time to randomly surf the web and the blogs. This lovely lady, known to me only as Wow Legs, points the blogophere in general to this brilliant Manga face creator . Akin to the Simpsonize me Viral effort, this allows you to create a mangaesque face for yourself, using prefab elements that actually work. Hours of fun to be had here. I think this might be how some tv cartoons are made, right down to the script, except that they don't possess the power of a handsome jawline. Just to clarify: This is Wow Legs manga avatar. Generally, I try not to mangafy people I haven't seen in real life. The picture above is something I threw together as a test. UPDATE: I don't know what happened here, but my clarification seems to have caused more damage than good. As my editorial standards prevent me from knowingly misinforming you, I posted the clarification (above) to do exactly that and not mislead the reader. I also wanted to preserve

Caramblogage

Search This Blog