11.18.09
وأكرهها وألعن أبوها بعشق زي الداء
So, I think it’s about time to talk…
I am so disappointed… not only for the fact that we did not make it to the World Cup Finals… and not only because of all this “mahzala”, if I may call it so, that surrounded the previous 2 matches, be it from Egyptians who kept saying nothing but BS regarding Algeria, or be it the strange attitude of Algerians towards Egyptians living in their country and the unbelievable lies and lack of ethics in their press and media…
But what disappointed me today more was what I heard from several Egyptians about our football team after the match ended… all at once people started putting all their anger and frustrations on the team, calling them names, and calling Egypt names at times…
Well… I must say that I cannot tolerate this in Egyptians… the rule of “3ash el malek… mat el malek” is awful begad… this team has brought the only happiness we ever had throughout the past 4 years… and we cannot just call them names just because they did not make it to the world cup finals… look back and remember the happiness you felt in the 2006 and 2008 African victories… look back and remember how you felt losing at the last second from Brazil 4-3 and winning over Italy the world’s champion 1-0… success cannot go forever… the slope must go down so as to go up again… yes I am extremely disappointed, and my blood pressure is 160… but this is life… and this is what sports is about… and I will not hate my country and go calling it names just because the national team did not make it to the world cup finals… Masr akbar men keda…
And now that it’s all over… I only pray that we can unite in the same way that happened during the last few weeks… but may be for something more real, more useful and beneficial to Masr… and as a dear friend told me today… “I wonder about the rate by which the FB users will remove the Flag of Egypt from their profile…”… to these I say… it’s never about the national team… it’s about Masr, your country…
We bardo Masr om el Donya!
Rehab!
على اسم مصر التاريخ يقدر يقول ما شاء
أنا مصر عندي أحب وأجمل الأشياء
باحبها وهيّ مالكه الأرض شرق وغرب
وباحبها وهيّ مرمية جريحة حرب
باحبها بعنف وبرقة وعلى استحياء
وأكرهها وألعن أبوها بعشق زي الداء
وأسيبها وأطفش في درب وتبقى هيّ ف درب
وتلتفت تلاقيني جنبها في الكرب
والنبض ينفض عروقي بألف نغمة وضرب
على اسم مصر
أنا مصر عندي أحب وأجمل الأشياء
باحبها وهيّ مالكه الأرض شرق وغرب
وباحبها وهيّ مرمية جريحة حرب
باحبها بعنف وبرقة وعلى استحياء
وأكرهها وألعن أبوها بعشق زي الداء
وأسيبها وأطفش في درب وتبقى هيّ ف درب
وتلتفت تلاقيني جنبها في الكرب
والنبض ينفض عروقي بألف نغمة وضرب
على اسم مصر
11.11.09
عشرون عاماً بعد السقوط… و النصر
من الصعب أن تصدق أن عشرون عاماً قد مروا حقاً على سقوط سور برلين العظيم… كثير ممن شهد السقوط يجزم أنها كانت من أكثر اللحظات تأثيراً في العالم بأسره على مدار القرن العشرين… إن التاسع من نوفمبر 1989… يوم لا ينسى في تاريخ ألمانيا وفي تاريخ العالم الحديث…يوم لم يأت موحداً لألمانيا فقط، وإنما واضعاً حداً للشيوعية والحرب الباردة على السواء…
و اليوم، في 9 نوفمبر 2009، بعد عقدين من سقوط الحائط، إجتمع الملايين للإحتفال بذكرى السقوط والنصر… إجتمعوا معاً لتذكر ما كان يمثل لهم الحائط من معاناة… ذلك الجدار الذي سجن نصف مدينة… نصف بلد… نصف قارة… نصف عالم… لمدة تقترب من ثلث قرن من الزمان…
لا أستطيع تخيل إحساس من شاهد السقوط الحقيقي للحائط وهو يرى من أمام ناظريه ألف قطعة دومينو عملاقة تم وضعها يوم الإحتفال ممثلة للجدار و ممتدة من موقع كان يعرف سابقاً بإسم نقطة تفتيش شارلي إلى مبنى البرلمان (Reichstag)… و كأن الزمن يعود إلى الوراء ليعيد التاريخ نفسه، وفي لحظة مهيبة، سقطت الألف قطعة بالتتابع…
قد لا أستطيع أن أنقل مدى تأثري بذلك المشهد، فأنا لا أذكر مشهد سقوط الحائط الأصلي… ولكن… لطالما مثل حائط برلين بالنسبة لي لغزاً عجيباً… فدائماً ما كنت أتساءل كيف لبلد أن تقسم بين عشية وضحاها بهذا الشكل… كيف أكون أنا من قاطني مصر الجديدة وأهلي من قاطني الهرم مثلاً ولا أستطيع أن أذهب لزيارتهم بدون تصاريح وأوراق…إلخ… كيف لأبناء أسرة واحدة ووطن واحد أن يتم التفرقة بينهم بهذا الشكل…
كلما أفكر في ذلك الأمر أتذكر جملة مريد البرغوثي في بداية رائعته “رأيت رام الله”:
“ها أنا أمشي بحقيبتي الصغيرة على الجسر، الذي لا يزيد طوله عن بضعة أمتار من الخشب، وثلاثين عاماً من الغربة… كيف إستطاعت هذه القطعة الخشبية الداكنة أن تقصي أمة بأكملها عن أحلامها؟ أن تمنع أجيالاً بأكملها من تناول قهوتها في بيوتٍ كانت لها؟”
إن التاريخ يعيد نفسه هاهنا، ولكن… “مين يسمع”!
رحاب رجائي
ملحوظة:
كنت قد كتبت من قبل حقائق عن الحائط نفسه ومقتطفات من ذكريات بعض ممن عاشوا ذلك العهد…
http://sleeplessrou.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/the-night-the-wall-came-down/
http://sleeplessrou.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/die-mauer-ist-gefallen/
11.07.09
إضحك… الصورة تطلع حلوة
قد تكون هذه أول مرة أكتب خاطرة عن فيلم باللغة العربية… ولكني لم أتمالك نفسي أمام تلك الشخصية الفلسفية الحالمة التي تسمى “سيد غريب”… إنه الرائع أبداً و دائماً أحمد ذكي في دور الأب الذي تحوى أسرته الصغيرة على ثلاثة أجيال متمثلة في الجدة (سناء جميل) و الإبنة (منى ذكي) و الأب متمثلاً في شخصه…
أعشق أداء أحمد ذكي لهذا الدور… أحب جداً اللقطات الأولى للفيلم في محاولاته البحث عن الإبتسامة في الوجوه التي يقوم بتصويرها… إنه لا يأخذ التصوير مهنة… إنها متعة و شغف… هو لا يصور… هو يعمل على أن تأتي عدسة كاميرته بصورة أجمل حتى من الواقع… إنه ذلك البعد الجوهري في الشخصية… الذي يجعل ذات الشخص الذي يرسم الضحكة على شفاه زبائنه يمر بمواقف تراجيدية تمس مشاعرك في لحظات…
“إضحك… الصورة تطلع حلوة” هو واحد من تلك الأفلام الحالمة التي لا تملك إلا أن تترك إبتسامتك تطفو بسلام على وجهك من مشهد البداية حتى مشهد النهاية وسط أداء سلس ورائع لكل أبطاله بداية بأحمد ذكي مروراً بليلى علوي ونهاية بالقديرة جداً سناء جميل… هو واحد من أفلامي المفضلة جداً والذي لا أمل من مشاهدته أبداً…
وزي ما أحمد ذكي قال: “الصورة لما بتبقى وحشة بنقطعها وبنرميها… والصورة لما بتبقى حلوة بنحتفظ بيها لأنها بتفكرنا بأجمل لحظات عمرنا…”
يا رب تبقى صورنا كلها حلوة…
رحاب رجائي
10.31.09
… and he’s gone!
The great Egyptian intellectual and author Dr. Mustafa Mahmoud passed away today at the age of 88 after a long struggle with diseases…
Generations were raised on his “Al3elm Wal Eman” TV program… his philosophy and thoughts enlightened the way for many, and his books as much as they were controversial at times, were deep and full of passion!
May he rest in peace, and may God rest his soul…
Rehab!
10.30.09
A Genius in the Family…
I just finished watching one amazing movie for the first time… a movie that its tag line says: “The true story of two sisters who shared a passion, a madness and a man!”… I’m talking about “Hilary and Jackie” movie that was based on the book “A Genius in the Family”…
The movie tells the tragic story of the brilliant British concert cellist “Jacqueline Du Pré” and her sister “Hilary”… the movie starts normally, then out of nowhere takes you from one sister’s perspective to the other’s, until finally getting them together at its heartbreaking end…
Starting a musical path together, Jacqueline’s early talent was obvious and she took her way into international concerts almost about everywhere, while her sister Hilary, after some time, chooses a normal life by getting married and having children… Jacqueline carries on in her musical achievements then married Daniel Barenboim, the Argentinean Jewish pianist and conductor, who brought together one of the most beautiful and fruitful relationships in music, it is said… However, even with all her successfulness and fame Jackie never seemed to have achieved the happiness of the ordinary life Hilary had… It is then Hilary’s, don’t know if it can be called devotion or what, to her sister that caused them to take some rather radical actions in their lives…
After which, the flow of the movie starts facing us with the real tragedy Jackie faced, when it was discovered that she’s suffering from Multiple sclerosis (MS), where the body’s immune response attacks a person’s central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), leading to demyelination. This sadly lead to cutting her brilliant career real short at the age of 28, leaving her suffering from its consequences, until eventually leading to her death at the age of 42 in 1987…
The bond and competition between the 2 sisters was amazing… their characters’ development was very well built… the portrayal of the musical genius of Jackie was superb by “Emily Watson” especially with the complexity of Jackie’s character which needed a real broad range of emotions… The direction of the movie was awesome, and the very rich soundtrack couldn’t be any better…
“Hilary and Jackie” is an exceptionally well done character study of two real life sisters… I’m just glad I came across it today, thanks to “Nady el Cinema”!
Lovely weekend,
Rou…
Rou…
10.27.09
Vatican… The Holy See!
Since the moment we reached Rome, I had nothing on my mind except the Vatican visit, where I would finally get to see the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel… and when we had our tour on day one in Rome, and passed by the Vatican city from outside, I was about to jump from the bus and run into it…
Città del Vaticano; the world’s smallest independent nation and the spiritual center for the world’s Catholics…
Hearing a lot about its endless queue, we made sure to be there as early as we could to give ourselves enough time for touring both St. Peter Basilica and the Vatican museums…
Entering the Vatican, you are at once hit by the view of the magnificent St Peter’s Basilica and its beautiful Michelangelo-designed dome… walking into the St Peter square you can’t but enjoy the surrounding of semicircular colonnades with an obelisk standing in the centre of the square (as usual)…
Standing in a long but fast-moving queue, we finally reached the St. Peter’s Basilica, which is basically one of the largest churches in the world, and where you cannot enter unless properly dressed with no bare knees or shoulders…
Inside the church, besides enjoying the beauty of its inner sides, you get to see the Papal Swiss Guard everywhere around you, with their very famous traditional uniforms… Reaching the top of the Basilica, you get to enjoy a lovely view of the surroundings…
To reach the Vatican museums, you have to get back to the St. Peter square, move in another direction, stand in an even longer queue, till you finally enter the largest museum complex in the world… what can I say about a place that has over 1400 rooms with such astonishing amount of arts including great Renaissance works, 4 rooms of Raphael works, and the amazing Sistine Chapel…
Walking into the four “Stanze di Raffaello” or “Raphael’s rooms”, I couldn’t but remember Camel’s presentation and consequently search for Raphael’s face in every painting… until finally standing infront of his “School of Athens”, taking as many photos as I can to Ibn Rushd at its left side… then completing the tour till finally reaching the Sistine Chapel…
I can’t really describe what I felt entering it… I mean… it’s amazingly beautiful… Since you enter and till you leave it, your eyes do not see except beauty all around…
Painted in a period a bit more than 4 years, the very famous ceiling looks incredibly awesome from below… as if you’re lying into a painting book… with the central scenes depicting creation and the story of Noah… You get your eyes off the ceiling only to dig into the amazing colors of the Last Judgment decorating the altar wall, and you can’t but wonder what kind of a man was Michelangelo!
For my own bad luck and disappointments, photography was not allowed inside the Sistine Chapel, I was only able to take one photo before the guards said it’s not allowed…
We finally ended our tour; not wanting to leave actually… then stayed for a while in a lovely terrace with a view on one of the Vatican gardens… then finally leaves the beautiful small holy city… The Vatican… and carry on with the rest of our days in Rome…
So, I guess this was the last in this series… I hope I wasn’t very boring… 
Rou…
10.25.09
Roma… the pleasant but not-so-gorgeous ancient city…
When we were first planning to the trip, our plan was to have it including Rome, Florence, and Venice… France was not in the plan at all… but for some “unknown” reason at that time, we failed to get an interview date through the Italian Embassy, and ended up having an appointment with the French one… and when we finally got our Visa, we were warned that sometimes (rare times) it is not really preferred to enter Italy directly while your schengen is through another European country… not wanting to take any risk, this left us with only one option, which is to include Paris in the trip, and hence forsake one of the other 3 cities of Italy… and so it was, and we let go of the dream of going to the open museum that Florence presents (I still wish to go there someday)…
Well… I love Italy… or let me rephrase… I used to adore Italy… Now I only… like it…
I was so much looking forward to seeing one of the founding and most powerful cities of the western civilizations… Rome… the city that has a history of more than 2 thousand years… the center of the Roman Empire… I was anticipating a breath of glorious history in every street… a scent of the ancient, medieval, renaissance, and even baroque eras in the good old city…
However, what I have seen was not much impressing… I would say that I was a bit disappointed… not that it’s an ugly place… no it wasn’t tab3an… but… something was missing… it’s not as beautiful as it appears in photos… not as stunning as my expectations for her were… I know that there are 2 main factors for my feeling… one of which was the fact that I have reached Rome after I had already fallen in love with the splendor of Paris, and Paris has this ability of erasing whatever you see afterwards… and the other is the fact that Italians are so much like Egyptians… their attitude… their disorganization… their loud voice… their way of dealing with each other and with tourists… they are even similar to Egyptians in terms of disrespect to traffic signs, especially the ones for pedestrian crossing … Drivers take “ghoraz” and “beyeksaro 3ala ba3d” , while their taxi drivers do not use fare… We even saw tissues seller at a stop light road intersection while on our way to Fiumicino airport…
In addition, I noticed that Rome is full of Egyptians, but funny enough that the category of Egyptians who are living there makes you wonder if their stay there is legal, or they are simply amongst those who perform illegal immigration… something that made me realize why it was almost impossible to get a visa interview through the Italian Embassy… seems they have had enough of us…
Anyways, aside from people’s attitude in Rome (both Italians and Egyptians), I wasn’t much impressed by many of what I have seen, the only place that really really captured my heart was the holy Vatican (but this is another post)…
But, believe it or not, I wasn’t much impressed, for instance, by one of the largest amphitheatres ever built in the Roman Empire and one of the greatest symbols of Rome… I’m talking about the “Colosseum”… I don’t know why I felt it’s not taken care of… just like we do with our great monuments… Same goes for the very famous “Spanish steps” and the “Trinita dei Monti” that were extremely crowded and not that clean to an extent that prevents you from enjoying its supposed beauty… this feeling invaded me lots of times while watching other sites in Rome only with the exception of its ancient part and historic center, which I believe is a UNESCO world heritage site…
However I must say that there was a good side of the story too…
Walking around in some of Roma’s famous streets that are beautifully covered with amazing trees from both sideways, and strolling around in its beautiful squares that are often – if not always – decorated with obelisks such as “Piazza Navona”, “Piazza di Spagna”, “Piazza del Popolo”, and “Piazza Venezia” was one good exposure to the ancient city, that gives you the opportunity to foretaste some of its hidden beauty…
Staring long at the largest Baroque fountain in Rome; the magnificent Fontana di Trevi, and following its traditional legend of throwing a coin into the fountain with my right hand over my left shoulder as an assurance of a safe return to it was another good experience that helped in giving me the taste of Rome as it looks like in my dreams…
Spending some aimless time in the very famous “Villa Borghese”, which is one of the notable green spaces and Public Parks in Rome, was a good choice… The park is huge and greenery is everywhere, and the view from its top terrace to the square below it was quite amazing…
What I felt is that… Rome… is a pleasant city… but its people are not as beautiful as its glory… It so much reminded me of Cairo in terms of the fact that it can be a LOT better than how it looks like…
That was for Roma… As for the amazing Vatican… this is another story…
Rou…
10.24.09
Venizia, the City of Water!
Spread over 118 small islands lies the beautiful floating city of Venice…
What a unique charm this city has… it’s in nowhere else but Venice that your taxi or shuttle bus is basically a boat… there’s nowhere else on earth that you get this feeling of relaxation and see nature in its basic form…
A boat ride in the canal grande that is connecting the islands is quite amazing; with all these buildings around you and with the view of “Bridge of Sighs”… till you finally have a full view of the beautiful “Madonna della Salute”…
Getting off the shuttle bus (boat) and walking our way into the amazing and open space of “Palazzo dei Dogi”, till you find yourself standing still infront of the charm of the “Basilica S. Marco”… Talking the stairs to its terrace, not only you are giving yourself the chance to take an amazing view on the surrounding square, but even feeling the glory while standing beneath the horses that were once a replica of the triumphal quandiga captured in Constantinople in 1204 and carried to Venice as a trophy…
A Gondola in the narrow (& smelly) canals is an experience in itself moving between the old beautiful and colorful buildings, with the gondola man telling numerous stories about the history of the city that once upon a time was an independent nation… stories about Marco Polo… and about… Casanova…
Peacefulness and Uniqueness are the keywords in Venice… The beautiful city amazingly gives you this inner peace feeling…
Even though for some reason Venice seemed more like a village to me than a city… a big village that even though I can’t possibly live (as of really live) there, but one can’t deny that out of all the places you can go, Bella Venizia remains the most unique one… It is a must see place at least once in a lifetime… a place that you probably won’t ever see again anywhere else…
We spent only one day in Venice… a day that couldn’t end in a much beautiful way than the amazing greenery scenes and sunrise from my window train heading from Venice to the ancient living city of Rome…
See you in Rome… next post…
Rou…
10.23.09
Europe Train Experiences!
When we took the decision of making our trip including both France and Italy, I was so much excited about the idea of travelling across Europe via train; of the idea of seeing all this greenery and charming nature of Europe…
I have experienced 2 extremes train trips, both very interesting though…
Since we had a very tight schedule and couldn’t afford losing time in reserving tickets when we arrive, so we chose to reserve our train tickets from Paris to Venice and from Venice to Rome through a famous Travel Agency in Egypt that had branches worldwide… and to make things more convenient since we knew our 3 days in Paris were going to be extremely exhausting, so we chose to reserve a 3-beds cabinet for the 13 hours trip to Venice… while for the 5 hours trip to Rome, we reserved normal seats…
And so we arrived Paris having everything well planned and doing nothing in the 3 days except running from one place to another, and enjoying every single minute, only to arrive to the train station by the end of the third day almost dead from exhaustion, seeking nothing more than a long deep sleep…
But, how naïve our thinking was…
Because, sadly, we ended up spending one of the worst nights we could ever think of… as the cabinet we were seeking was like a small jail, with about 2 meters length, and less than 2 meters width… with 3 beds above each others filling almost 2 thirds of the room with a very small distance separating each, that makes it impossible for anyone to sit on the bed without having her head hit in the edge of the bed above… and what made things worse, is that the third bed was almost impossible to reach, and was so close to the roof of the cabinet with lights directly above it, making it similar to a grave, more than a bed…
So, we ended up, exchanging the other 2 usable beds and the floor, and then, later on, sharing the beds until in some way or another the night passed safely…
Even though this was one of the toughest nights ever, but deep inside I know that the memory of it will remain forever, and the laughters we shared that day will stay as an unforgettable mark of this trip to the 3 of us…
On the other hand, my second encounter with trains in this trip was, believe it or not, awesome… the ride from Venice to Rome was unbelievably beautiful, with very comfortable seats, and an amazing sunrise scene through the breathtaking greenery of the Italian countryside, making the 5 hours pass as if they were 5 minutes…
What I couldn’t really understand was the 180 degree difference between the 2 trains… and how can a seat be more comfortable than a cabinet with beds…
So, in all cases, I ended up with many lessons learned from this trip, one of which was, never to reserve a train ticket online, or through an agency… you can always have time to do it yourself when you reach your destination…
That was for the train experiences… As for Venice, Rome, and the Vatican… that’s in other posts…
Rou…
10.22.09
Parisian Reflections II
I am simply overwhelmed with the amount of beauty I have seen in 3 days… Too much charm for my poor soul to take… my unfortunate soul that is accustomed to smoky sad Cairo…
I have heard a lot about Paris before I go, and I must confess that I wasn’t much impressed during my first day, mostly because of the airport experience and having almost half a day lost because of this…
But, let me tell you that a stroll on the calm flowing “River Seine”, a look at the breathtaking “Notre Dame de Paris”, a walk in the “Place de l’Étoile” reaching “L’Arc de Triomphe” then the “Avenue des Champs-Élysées”, a glimpse at the “Louvre” infinite amazing rooms, a walk through its amazing surroundings till the famous “Concorde”, a hike up to the charming “Basilique du Sacré-Coeur” and viewing the good old city from above, or down to the nightlife of “Pigalle” and the “Moulin Rouge” scene, a slow walk in the magical old streets of “Montmartre” with the talented French painters all around you, a view of the “Sainte-Chapelle” or the outstanding “Hôtel de Ville”, a glimpse at “Eiffel Tower” and the bridges across the Seine at night, a coffee break at a French café in an anonymous Parisian street, or a glimpse at the peaceful doves moving around you everywhere… can take your breath away in a second, in every way this word might mean…
There’s nothing like walking around aimlessly in the streets of Paris… Nothing like its cold breeze hitting your face, while listening to the famous sound of accordion coming from everywhere around you…
Even for fun… I mean… I can’t really remember when was the last time I felt I am happily enjoying being a kid as I did the moment I entered Paris Disneyland Resort… I felt I am a part of a magical world beyond the real one we live in… where everything is pinky and musical… where you can easily feel you’re Jasmine waiting for Aladdin’s magical carpet ride…
It’s as if Paris gives you the ability to keep your smile all the time… Puts you in an excessive happiness state of mind if I may call it so…
However, Paris’ amusing charisma was not only in its monuments and architecture… the charm of Paris is about the whole life style… its simple beauty… It’s as if you leave a part of you in Paris when you leave it… may be with a promise to return back someday…
Leaving it, the only thoughts on my mind were how much of charm it left me in…
I deserve to see beauty instead of ugliness…
I deserve to breathe fresh air instead of smoke…
I deserve to look around and see spaces, not necessarily greenery, but spaces instead of ugly buildings everywhere…
I deserve to live in Paris…
Rou…
