absurd reality mixture

…things are developing to the worse at the moment. Although it feels somehow different than in January. The tension in the City is not as high as then and life is going on quite normal. Even in the discussions on campus the latest development is not a big topic but among foreign colleges.

A few kilometres from here are people fighting and also dying. But life goes on in the rest of the Cairo as nothing special would happen. Special perverted is this on facebook, where news about Midan Tahrir mix with news about private cooking habits and the latest movies. But… anyway…that’s is – this is the real world.

Military ones again explains that they would protect the revolution. At the same moment there are Videos on the Internet which show like military dressed people beating up other people. And once again it is the foreign hand which sparks the protests, as a military genaral announced today.

This time there is no Mubarak. It is a confrontation between the military council and the people on Midan Tahrir. And we will see, how it goes.

Posted in Diary, on the road...cairo | Leave a comment

back in Cairo…and everything is different…

…and back in a completely different world. The students are suspended from university due to accusations that a few would act in an offensice way against figures in relation to the university or its establishment itself. The teaching is suspended for one week since Saturday. Each party accuses the other one of false accusations without going into details. A Video on Youtube showing a masked man throwing a gas canister towards the gates of the GUC has been removed today upon accusations, that the Video does not show the truth but was staged. The University buildings are almost empty and only the staff is there, wondering, what an university without students is about.

Most probably the open questions are just postponed and not solved. So we have to wait for next week, to see, what will happen. Some german professors who are affiliated with the GUC were quoted saying that special situation need special treatment. The question is, if they would use the same words in relation to their german students at an university in Germany. Once again it is difficult to decide, how to deal with the situation.

Posted in Diary, Work | Leave a comment

China 2…

once again a perfect and amazing and very busy time… we will come again!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

the magic weapon fear

If you own something, you might loose it. And if you need something, it might happen that you don’t get it. If you want to live, it might happen, that you die. If you want to be respected, you might find yourself in the position of the clown. All these things might happen, but normally they do not happen. Everything is in our head. We fear. We are afraid of.

To be afraid is something, we cannot stand for a longer term. One of the basic needs is maybe safety. Perceived safety. So we need a solution. Stricter laws, a might behind everything, a reason, a final solution.

Make people fear something and they will almost do everything. A positive side effect is, that these people won’t use their brain because it is switched of in a state of emergency.

But behind us, there are some people which use their brains in a very smart way. And sometimes these people use fear as a weapon to achieve something. And the tool fear is transported with, are rumors. And rumors spread like explosion, a nasty virus which affects our brains and our souls. The virus always affects a huge amount of people and therefore it is that difficult to kill it. Discipline and strict brain use might help. Education alone won’t help as the worldwide use of the weapon fear shows.

Posted in observations generally | Leave a comment

religion… is just the tool…

Once again everything is focusing on downtown Cairo. The other areas of Cairo are quiet so far. And at the moment I do not think that the incidents this night will cause any sectarian strife. Many rumors are flooding the streets and at the moment nobody can say who started the fight. Each involved party blames the other and the government blames a mysterious “third party” without defining it.

In the end it will support the military to extend the state of emergency and to keep the power. And most western states as well as Israel will support this supposingly because it might also help to stabilize the region; In a shortterm thinking construct. And we have to keep in mind that Mubarak also was from the military and that he guaranteed peace with Israel. Free and open elections could bring a government, which maybe could cancel all peace treatys with Israel. And this is something, many states are afraid of. Also democracy has to stick to the rules of the big game.

 

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/2011101072623285752.html

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/503553

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/23749/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-general-prosecution-starts-investigating-Mas.aspx

Posted in Diary, observations generally | Leave a comment

white and black desert

Posted in Diary | Leave a comment

first year

yesterday it was my first year in Cairo. This year was stuffed with a million different impressions and, as I wrote in my Facebook page, a lot of joy among a million other perceptions.
The whole country changed without changing anything. So far. Also a kind of magic. And magic is maybe needed to bring all this to a good end. Everything flows… we will see… anyway.
And I also survieved the regularly repeated HIV-test. My second one in one year. Nice. All my colleges had to pass this test… and we are asking ourselves what might happen, once HIV is found… we expect something like “pack it, wrap it, ship it” … It is just offensive and discriminating.
The start in my second year was not the best one… but this leaves some space for improvement. Also good!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

what a game…?

It started with “Flagman”:
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/488985

in between military and police did nothing to prevent this:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/09/201199225334494935.html

with the result of this:

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/494653

and now everything is, at it was before… including emergency law, military trials and detention on the fly…
nothing to add.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

set back…

Looks like a fake game. The israeli Embassy was stormed by angry, and not very smart, egyptians. The ambassador and his family as well as the staff of the embassy fled to Israel. Military and police stood beside the happening without to interfere. A few days ago Flagman climed the building and was rewarded for it buy the governor. The answer of the israeli government was, hm, quite polite compared with other incidents.

And, what do we have now? the emergency law is back and the revolution is drawn in the mud. And western media descibed the same people which were called revolutionary from one moment to the other as a mob. The peace treaty as well as all the other treatys are no longer in question, says the information minister.

Things can change. Only the questions remains, who was behind all of this?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

in hell…

From time to time my beloved wife decides to go shopping. But not in the grand mall right around, for sure, but Downtown. The place with one billion people on one square meter. Without counting the cars and the motocycles and the buses and the sellers and the animals…
Yesterday there was such a day. We went downtown to look for cloth.
First step was the metro. The train was stuffed with people and had roughly estimated around 50 degree inside. Normally there are fans in the waggon, but ours did not work. So we were completely wet on arriving our station.
I thought it cannot be worse. So wrong. It can!
The billion people brought their friends and their family and all of them wanted to sell or to buy something exactly at the place, they were standing by coincidence or divine fate.
If someone needs a research field to examine the chaos theory, welcome to Midan Attaba in direction of Al Azhar. But in all this chaos people manage to find their way without loosing their live or bumping in someone else all the time. Everything is in motion and everyone finds his way. A hundred different sounds, fragrances, surfaces, challenges, the fast moving delivery boys with their vehicles made of steel, the sellers packed with goods so they can not see anything while walking, the calling of the imam from the mosque right behind us, the ancient lady with her sister wrapped in the Burka in front of us who want to climb a meter high pavewalk, the young boy who wants to show us the best goods we have ever seen, the barking of the cars, in a hundred different voices and melodies. And this happens not one after one in real live, it all happens at the same time!
And in this we are trying to find our way through, to focus on our final destination. Sure, there is no destinaton here in Cairo, it is not to look for something but to find something, more accidentally or by devine advice.
And finally we really found something. As always. And we survived. Kind of magic.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment