I have a big mouth. For those of you who know me, that’s no surprise. I have a problem keeping it shut. Whether its overeating or overstepping boundaries, my mouth is there. I just can’t help it. I eavesdrop then insert myself into strangers’ conversations to offer my two cents. I meddle in people’s relationships. I just can’t help it. I am my mother.
I am not Egyptian. Well, technically I’m not a real real Egyptian as many people like to remind me. I’ve only married one, gave birth to two, lived here for 14 years, and carry an Egyptian passport. So excuse me if I feel like I have the right to comment on Egyptian politics.
So my fellow Egyptians, these are my two cents.
Something that I have noticed since the day I moved here is how disconnected people are from their reality. We leave our nice homes, wearing our nice clothes, driving our nice cars to our fun clubs. Then we see someone on the street asking for money and think why the hell can’t they just get a job and get off my back? Then we turn the music back up and move on with our lives.
Let me tell you why they can’t get a job.
This man/woman who you consider an eyesore has probably never received anything close to an education or been given a chance by a teacher. He’s also probably spent his whole life trying to make a decent life for himself. Only to be hit in the face with the cruel reality that Egypt is not the land of opportunity. Egypt is the land of nepotism. (Props to old man Hosni) So eventually at sometime in his life he gave up, parked his ass on a corner, and now harasses people in nice cars, wearing their nice clothes to buy a damn pack of tissues.
People need to be given a fair shot at life. They need the chance to start at the same starting line and no head starts. Communism you say? Absolutely not! My bag collection of Prada and Valentino would not have it. But how about something in the middle?
How about demanding our newly elected president do something about education before we demand he doesn’t shut down pubs, clubs and hair salons? How about we all go to Tahrir, Nasr City, or wherever it is we feel heard the most and protest poverty? How about we write letters, call in on the late night news shows and complain? We rock at complaining. Lets do it for the right reasons. Lets put all our petty differences aside and make that our priority. Education. No way around it people. That’s the only way we’ll ever get anywhere. Let’s all stand together and with one voice demand that something is done about our public schools.
WE SAID THIS: We owe it to our children. We owe it to the guy on the corner selling tissues. We owe it to ourselves to pop our bubbles. We must.