Toes Story

This toe is on display at the Cairo Museum and is a serious contender to the title of the oldest practical prosthesis. The actual holder of that title is the Roman Capua Leg that does not exist any more as it was destroyed in an air raid during world war II.


Out of Patriotic reasons I believe that it is actually 700 years older than the lost leg. Nonetheless, I also believe that Ancient Egyptians were quite advanced in the scientific field of medicine, after all there was a quite a long period in history where Egyptians had discovered and were using quite extensively mummification. On the other hand, I am not sure that they were the only ones to do so. I suppose that China and India were also quite advanced in those fields much before Europe and white skin supremacy was at the time the New World Order.

Often I wonder, if the Greeks were a civilizational power (same as US today) or just ignorant barbaric hoards of bandits who pillaged and plundered their peaceful neighbors, same as the Roman who eventually took over definitely were. The same stands actually for all the Empires built by our amazingly crude human race.

Utter Madness

From time immemorial building big was perceived as positive steps for humanity as a whole. Most advanced techniques and hard working underpaid labor were used extensively in order to build ever more gigantic ... However when a whole town is to be put into one building in one small city... this is utter madness.
More Pollution, more carbon prints for those who will live or work there.... Actually , it does not need to be so, a couple of floors could be dedicated to the recycling of trash, another for the batteries needed to save the energy that could be gathered by solar panels that would replace the windows I suppose that on 160 floors there must be a lot of those ... the rest of the surfaces being covered by the wind power gathering micro windmills that would continue gather power during the nights. I suppose that in this case the shareholders could even make money just by selling their extra electricity... in Europe, actually in Germany, the government started encouraging by lending money specifically for structural changes to home produce clean energy and promises to buy the extra produced by the individual houses.

In the case of the yet to be finished biggest building now in Dubai expected to reach up to 800 meters, I doubt that is the case.

Swan Song

"The Swan Song" is also a fairly new novel by Mekkawi Said only available in Arabic for the moment, but should soon be translated as it is the kind of literature that appeals to foreign publishers, and globalized culture. It is a well written book and describes the events that lead to the conscious decision of getting out through suicide by a Cairene middle age man disappointed by the present as a way to find the lost treasures of his past. It does not discuss the metaphysical side of the decision but it describes what leads him into the final decision. The anti hero narrator acknowledges "Lately, I started feeling they are surrounding me everywhere. I even started dreaming of them. Whenever, I walk around, either in downtown that I love so much and that I know well, or where I was born and bred the Pyramids area, or even in El Hussein area that I love so much, and all I see is foreigners. All I overhear is different languages but no Arabic.
They always meet me face to face... nobody by my side , nobody behind me... while they are crowded lines of them filling my horizon".
After many events involving memories of a horny and successful movie producer and of his death induced by the appalling way he is treated by his recently turned Islamic fundamentalist son, memories of a money making trip to the Gulf states with a friend and of the loss of his first love due to a one in a million kind of accident, the details of torrid affairs with a girl from Upper Egypt who had been raped by her uncle, and a "foreign researcher" that makes him work (according to the hero) for ends of her own, and those of his friend with a Korean who soon dies of breast cancer, the trip into ordinary madness his friend embarks upon as a result, and many more, he ends by stepping into the vacuum while sucking on a cocktail of medicinal drugs. "The street expands to the horizon it is overcrowded with humans, animals and soulless creatures. I can hear their breathing, and even their moves as they move out to let me through without once looking at me or moving towards me, I start seeing a white stretch of vacuum and at the other side I see many people waving at me, there is Youssef Helmy and his martyred son, my mother and Julia, Hend and Samantha. When I finally step into the stretch of vacuum everything stops and I can not see or hear anything".

The story discusses the many frustrations of a few generations of Egyptians, those born from the early forties to to the late sixties, inspired by some personal experiences of the author and by few "mediatized affairs" that probably influenced a way or another any of those.
But even without the keys to the symbols of the tale, it should still be an enjoyable, compelling and worthy read.

Indignity

How can anyone do that to anyone? I thought this kind of behavior had disappeared from our modern world. I never could find any logic to it. But it strikes me as even less understandable when it is performed by a group who had to suffer this same indignities less than a hundred years ago. I really cannot understand.

Facebooking

Facebook is flourishing in Egypt. For the very few who are not familiar to the phenomenon Facebook is just a social networking internet site. Maybe you heard about Myspace (I am registered on it however I haven't checked it for a long time), Bebo, or friendster. They all do more or less the same , they help you keep up with friends and also to make new virtual ones.Strange it never happened with myspace, or the once very popular Hi5 or many other of those networking sites, I used to just mark all invitations as junk. Don't know what attracted me into Facebook. Reconnecting with people one has not seen for long is often a pleasure. But this involves a lot of catching up to do. Moreover having found myself administrating 2 groups it takes also time to check out what happens in those. After adding Brigitte Bardot as my friend, I fell in the trap and now I am kind of addicted to this social networking thing. Maybe that explains my slower rate of posting on this blog. But that is not the only reason.. the truth is I am kind of slightly disappointed with the relative failure of this blog to attract readers or comments, on the other hand news are not inspiring me too much anymore, maybe I should try another news provider than the BBC, but I believe it is the least biased news source one can get, you find examples of US police unexplainable brutality, (is it so unexplainable? within the contest of the Terror fight that has been predicted by UK officials to last up to 15 more years ... it might not be, after all this 70 years old odd looking white female could be grimed and be a Jihadi or even Ben Laden himself whom we all imagine would not have the time nor the cultural background to water a lawn)
In the meantime, Prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that claimed more than 220 lives . But on the other hand Federer did it and wrapped a fifth Wimbledon title during that same week end. So let's wrap it up too with this cute song...dedicated by the Iraqis to the pacifying and peaceful forces that are finishing up the job officially terminated on May 1st 2003. Mesdames et Messieurs, I introduce you to Joe Dassin's Ca ne va pas changer le monde que tu changes de maison, il va continuer le monde et il aura bien raison.

If you feel like you
Watch funny lip synchronization and the tacky video clip production of the song

Have a nice day!

7/7/7

Well the hour clicked and we now know... I had already mentioned this story. For some strange reason, the pyramids at Guizeh have been disqualified by not entering the contest as it seems that some Egyptians have strongly disapproved and settled for an honorary place within the new wonders instead of putting their National Treasure into jeopardy . well they are not at all in my list. Nor is it I suppose on the list of many others. Wonders are very personal things. I sometimes wonder in front of a badly cooked meal. I seriously do.
I am sorry if I seem as I am letting go of this blog. But I am kind of getting through a phase when I cannot finish writing anything I start... maybe that's what they call a writer's block... the thing is though I am no writer. Strange. Here is another wonder for you, if the badly cooked meal won't do. Keep tuned! my next post will elaborate.

In the mean time I wish to extend my 100 million congratulations for the 100 million clickers (I suspect there are much less than that) that voted, The winners of the contest, although I wonder (That's the third and last one today) why Abu Simbel was not listed, the 70,000 US couples that tied the knot, the 1 million and a half couple across the world (completely unofficial estimate) that did the same, and finally to you .

NB For those who wonder what happened to my votes and how much did they bring on eBay, I have to say I was too busy surfing the BBC coverage of Wimbledon to bother.