but that today is going to be as violent as the previous days, maybe more. Nevertheless there are still the bright sides as well, a clash of realties no drug might be able to evoke the strange delusion…

Nowadays it is often said that it is much more important to provide food than to provide culture. On the first glance this claim sounds quite obvious. But only on the first glance.

The core of each human identity is the brain. The brain needs energy to work, most often provided by food. Food is the tool to keep the brain running. At the same time this brain is the tool to plan how to get food. And to get food is only one task in the overall task schedule, mainly focused on the pure principle of survival. Survival is a very individual task, without any rules of how to achieve this.

This is the moment culture becomes important. Culture regulates and supports the human interaction and defines the context the individual is acting in. Bread keeps the individual running, culture keeps the system running. Without culture the system will collapse and most of the individuals might struggle to find bread.

and structure and common sense and some other things a proper working society would need. Egypt does not make the best impression these days. Police on strike, riots everythere in the country, lack of basic goods, government without direction and opinion and so on. Nevertheless, most of the people I meet and see are not affected by all this at all. As I read on Twitter: They could not care less! Egypt is on the edge and nobody really wonders. This creates as situation there it could be possible that someone with a strong arm just takes over. The situation could not be better and  some people are already calling for this strong arm. If the strong arm would be able to repair the situation is the other question. But it seems to be a quick solution. And this kind of solution has always been very tempting for mankind. Everything seems to be possible at the moment and it will go in some direction anyway. Surely this direction won’t be pointed out by the will of the majority of people but by other players.

Mursi release some new rules which make him somehow untouchable. Not nice and not smart. Nevertheless these rules are needed to ensusure a safe transition until the constitution is ready. The big mistake of Mursi was it, not to include the secular parties in his thinking and decision process. Now the secular parties see their dawn coming and play with the fire of civil war. For me it does not look like people who try to find a solution but more like people who follow up their own ego interests. This is politics. Not only in Egypt.

My second year here in Cairo started a few days ago while I was in China to do some workshops and a lecture. This might be a sign for the future.

Protests started again at the GUC and there are surveillance cameras everywhere. No step can be done without being watched by an artifical eye. Most of the students just want to study and to learn, others just want to have their student union election. Yesterday marks the first day with real clashes between security and some students. The state media reported, that the security attacked students. There seems to be some proof, that this is not true. Nevertheless we can read the report as a sign, that the direction of the storm has changed and that it is now blowing into GUC’s face.

We will see.

I was wrong! The president did his job and the military  seems so be out of charge. Things are developing not too bad and president Morsi confirmed several times that the country is not turning into a theocracy. Space for optimism left.

On the other hand the semester started. Working under special conditions. The story will be told some day, but not here and now. It takes some time to think the things through.

Egypt has a president. Without any power. The parliament is gone as well and the military has all the saying for the upcoming events. Besides of this the German government is prosecuting militant Salafi organisations in Germany. The mixture makes it somehow interesting.

People Downtown are celebrating the victory of Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a peaceful way. At least it seems that he is the winner. Of course not accepted by his opponent Shafik. The final result will be published on Thursday. The military wants to hand over power at the end of June. (Whatever that means under the actual circumstances).

We wait and see.

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

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!