Be careful what you label as ‘politics’.  Your Spring is not only about political aspirations. Your uprisings are comprised of people from different socio-economic and religious backgrounds — with very few exceptions. The people demanded the falldown of the regime. But remember, they didn’t want these regimes go down due to conflicts in political philosophies. It’s much bigger than that. They wanted their basic human rights.

Their right to express what’s on their minds without worrying about facing a destiny like Khalid Sai’d's; their right to earn decent minimum wages; their right to live in a country where state-of-emergency is not the ‘default’; their right not to be subject to police brutality anywhere, anytime; their right to find affordable bread; their right to know that their vote (if any) actually counts; their right to fight illegal detention; their right to live in a society where the executive, legal and judicial authorities don’t overlap; their right to enjoy a fair distribution of wealth and not blatant corruption and association of money and power; their right to contribute in how their country is being managed; their right not to worry that their 13 year old kid might be detained, tortured then murdered for joining a peaceful protest like Hamza Al-Khatib; etc.

And the list grows longer, as more problems emerged.. propagation of corruption, decline in scientific research, decline in quality of education, etc.

So much potential.. So little achieved.

It wasn’t long before the region was shaking off the damage of long years of exploitative colonialism, when it found itself stuck with tyrants backed-up by powerful sources for decades & decades &.. decades.. (& one more for Qaddafi).

The average Arab citizen, faced with all these external and internal obstacles, found him/herself  struggling through the day to make a decent living in midst of all the corruption. Development in relatively more luxurious domains (such as scientific research) naturally came to a halt. A region in which one of the greatest civilizations humanity has known had prospered one day, now became a region of widespread poverty, illiteracy and corruption.

Anything but Siyasa ya Basha.

MOREVER, that same average Arab was made to believe that getting involved with the government and/or politics, means eventually getting oneself into trouble. Out of fear of torture, prison or any form of bahdala, the struggling Arab would prefer to be quiet.. than silenced forever. S/He’d rather focus instead on finding a second job to afford the kids’ private tutoring (which is now necessary in Egypt to make it through elementary school).

I believe it’s partially because of these reasons that the phrase “don’t get involved in politics” has been taken out of it’s original context, gradually, to be used in any context that involved the words government, president, country’s regime, protests,.. and therefore, naturally: revolution. Of course that doesn’t rule out the fact that many Arabs with high intellect had a decent level of political awareness (we’ve seen many of them during the current spring), but I still believe that a more significant portion didn’t.

“Eh Fy Amal”..

For decades Arabs had lost hope in experiencing change, until courageous Tunisian men and women proved us wrong. Followed by millions of Egyptian protesters who took it to the streets, and insisted on demanding change until they got it. The chain effect propagated to other countries too; in a very rare scene, the average Arab citizen felt that he/she is no longer.. average (or should I say, below average?). Change became possible — dreams became doable.

Still detached?

We’re witnessing the beginning of a new era in the history of the Arab world. Some Arabs are more fortunate than others that they were/are able to directly contribute to the change happening in their countries. Some of them are still demonstrating the most amazing images of courage and bravery, protesting despite live ammunition aimed at them by forces like Bashar’s or Qaddafi’s.

Some of us are thousands of miles away. Maybe it’s distance that’s causing detachment from events in the Arabic region, and maybe, it’s the same old “seebna min hal siyasa”..  Again, I hope you come to realize that this isn’t about Siyasa. This isn’t about politics.

Not detached.. rather against?

At times like this.. if you find yourself opposing one revolution or another, out of either:

• Avoiding trouble
• Sectarian bias
• Fear of the unknown; Fear of instability
• You’re privileged by the existing regime
• All of the above?
• None of the above — other reasons..

Then I suggest you give it another thought?

This is a true chance for every Arab to do something that maybe sounds a bit untraditional…   THINK FOR YOURSELF!

Don’t let your sect define who you support. Don’t let your traditional loyalty to some *royal* family make you completely indifferent to the blood shed on their hands. Just because you were brought up with a picture of some president hanging on the walls in your house, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t question whether that loyalty is morally justified given what they’ve been doing to your people. Just because your family was privileged by the ruling (or ex-ruling) party doesn’t mean they deserve your support.

Think for yourself. If not now, then when? The region is changing. Arabs are changing. This is a chance for the whole region to step up and shake off decades of tyranny. Are you supporting the right people?  Are you supporting the right system; are your reasons sensible?  If you’re thinking benefits, fear of unknown, financial stability, then you’re missing the big picture. You’re missing the potential for real change.

Don’t stand on the wrong side of history.

But also, don’t sit back and watch, or label what’s happening as *politics*.  This is not just politics, this is the beginning of a very important chapter in the story of the Arab world..

This is the Arab Spring.

كلنا خالد سعــــــيد.. كلنا حمزة الخطــــيب.. بـــل كلنا محمد بوعزيزي

Just use the starter: “So, where are you from?”, despite actually being able to guess the answer to that, 99% of the time.. oh yeah, seriously (at least for someone who has lived in the Middleast long enough; I have negligible failure rates in telling a Masry from a Khaliji from a Falasteeny or a Soory). Anyways, no matter where they’re from, they’re either from an Arabic country that had a revolution, is living a revolution, or is expected to have a revolution.

Yummy falafel sandwich (aka Tamiyah in Egypt)

I decided to try out my first falafel (طعمية بالمصري..فلافل بالشاميّ) sandwich here in Toronto.  ”Where are you from?”, asked me the friendly lady at the restaurant. We spent few minutes talking about the Egyptian revolution. I asked her back the same question, turns out she’s from Yemen. We spent another few minutes discussing the events in Yemen that day. The same is repeating almost everywhere.  Middleast revolutions are reshaping the region. Something we’ve been waiting for, for decades. Some Arabs here might be less enthusiastic about this change, having spent most of their lives, if not all of it, distant from the Middleast.. unlike myself.  Many of whom I’ve spoken to were quite morally engaged & excited about the change taking place in the middleast, not only in their homelands, but anywhere in the region. I find the Arabic unity and harmony very inspiring.  

I’m watching Aljazeera TV online as I write this post.  Updates on the revolution aftermath in Egypt.   Before that, were news from Misurata, Libya. And before that, were updates from Ta’iz, Yemen.  No matter where you are, sincere Arabs seeking liberty, my middleastern heart beats for you.

So where am I from? .. The Middleast, indeed.

أنا بنت الشرق الأوســــــط  

Copyright: Unknown.

….when their brains were thinking outside the dark box that mubarak’s regime enforced on them for 30 yrs, their hearts were fully engaged in a revolution that showed the world the most inspiring images of courage, creativity, faith, compassion, and of course, an amazing sense of humor.   I think Egyptians took ‘thinking outside the box’ to a whole new level.

On Feb 11th, 2011, the people of Egypt wrote an amazing chapter in history.    Never before have I been this much proud of being an Egyptian.

الشعب العظيم….أسقط النظام

قالوا إذا الشعبُ يوماً أرادَ الحياة..

فلا بدّ أن يستجيب القدرْ.

قلنا..

وإن لمْ يردْ؟

قالوا وأنّى لهُ؟

وبالأمس القريب..

كانَ “يومُ غضبْ”!

في ساحة التحرير..

من كل ركنٍ بعيدٍ،

جاء الشعبُ، وللحقّ انتفضْ.

يطلب الحرية..

يريدُ اسقاطَ النظام..

بعد أن تجبّر في الأرضِ أعواماً..

فعاش الشعبُ في كبَدْ!

أما كانتْ بالأمسِ، “جمعة غضبْ”؟

في ساحة التحرير..

سجدت الجباه..

وخفضت الأصوات..

وخشعتْ القلوبُ لله وبكتْ؟

قلنا..

وإن لمْ يردْ؟

وإنْ شنّ عليهِ النظامُ حرباً..

بعد يومِ الغضبْ؟

فأرسل البلطجيّة..

وفرسانَ الخيلِ والجمال

فسالَ الدمُ في ساحة التحرير..

وتسلّل في النفوسِ عَتبْ؟

قالوا..

ولمَ العتبْ؟

ألم يكنْ الشعب يريدُ الحياةَ؟

ألم يرفض العنفَ مراراً..

وبالسِّلمِ رَغِبْ؟

قلنا..

لقدْ بثّ النظامُ سمومَهُ..

فأوهمَ الشعبَ أنّ ساحة التحرير…

لعِبْ!!

وأنّ طلب الحريّة..

شَغَبْ !!

قالوا.. ما لشعب الكنانةِ..

أن يصدّق هذا الكذبْ.

أما كان بالأمس

“جمعة الرحيلٍ”

وبالغَدِ صُمودٌ..وجَلَدْ؟

قلنا..

ان شاء الله يكونْ.

حتّى وإن طالَ الأمدْ.

فالشعب إذا لمْ يرد الحياة يوماً..

فلا خيرَ فيها.. ولا سَعَدْ!

كتب في 5 فبراير 2011

Excuse me I know I’m not very articulate, but here’s an attempt to explain reality to those who don’t understand it. Apologies in advance for typos, grammatical mistakes etc. I haven’t proofread this.

First refuting the promises:

1. He wont run for another term.You are all accepting this as if Mubarak has a proven record of honesty, and he does deliver on his promises. Mubarak in 1981 said he will only stay in power for 2 terms, and we call saw how this turned out to be. We have seen the regime sending out a few hundred people in pro-Mubarak demonstrations, not to mention the tens of celebrities etc. who were saying all those nice things about Mubarak. Giving the regime 7 months to regroup and plan, don’t you think for example they can’t manage to create a massive large scale pro Mubarak campaign asking him to re-run leaving him “with no choice” but to re-run for another term? If I could think of such a cheap an easy plot, I’m sure Mubarak has at least a dozen of those up his sleeve.What happened to the rest of demands regarding elections? Judicial supervision, the right to vote for Egyptians abroad, voting using your ID (raqam qawmy) to avoid fraud, international and civil society organizations supervision?Again there was no mention of Gamal Mubarak not running for president, but more on that later.
2. Looking into court appeals regarding electoral fraudLooking into those appeals would mean the re-election of many many seats (under no guarantees that the re-election would be fair [read next point about article 88 of the constitution]), plus the large number of appeals basically means the parliament is not legitimate and the proper course of action would have been dissolving the parliament entirely.
3. Constitutional changes.Mubarak promised to ask the parliament to change articles 76, and 77 of the Egyptian constitution. 76 is the article regulating the conditions required to be a presidential candidate, 77 says the president serves a 6 years term with no limit on how many times he can be re-elected. He did not mention anything about article 88 which regulates supervision over the electoral process of the parliament, which means there will be NO guarantee they will be fair and fraud free.

What has Mubarak left out in his speech:

1. Emergency law is still effective, which means oppression, brutality, arrests, and torture will continue. How can you have any hope for fair democratic elections under emergency law where the police have absolute power?
2. Internet is still not working, no talks of lifting censorship.
3. No talks of allowing freedom of speech, freedom to create political parties, freedom to participate in politics without the risk of getting arrested. FYI to start a political party you need the government’s permission. How do you expect democracy to come out of this?
4. He said he will put anyone responsible for corruption to trial right? What about putting the police who killed 300+ to trial? What about members of NDP who are the most corrupt businessmen/politicians in the country. Do you think he’ll put those to trial? Think again.
5. He didn’t even take responsibility for anything that went wrong in the last 30 years. Not even his condolences to the martyrs who have fallen in this revolution.

Why should Mubarak leave now and not a day later?

1. He can’t be trusted, and we can’t believe a word he says. He’s a murderer and a criminal with a 30 years criminal record, and the blood of thousands on his hands.
2. Every day he stays in power, not only are his cronies stealing every dime and every inch of this country, but we’re giving the regime a chance to regroup and get their shit together, and if not Mubarak, or Gamal Mubarak, I’m sure we’ll get someone even worse from within the regime.
3. Egypt will see the worst 9 months of its history in terms of oppression, arrests, and torture from now till September (and after that). Rest assured the regime (with or without Mubarak), will stop at nothing to stay in power. He has given no real guarantees whatsoever that the situation will improve. None. Not even regarding Emergency law.
4. You should NOT believe that there are any good people in the new cabinet Mubarak recently assigned. No good honest man would work for a criminal and a murderer, especially not in this war cabinet. Many honest Egyptians along the years have declined positions in Mubarak’s governments.
5. If protesting stops now, it will never start again. At least not in those numbers, and thus creating no real pressure. And while giving the police a chance to regroup and reinforce their lines, expect more police brutality, and expect more deaths.
6. Most importantly, 300+ haven’t sacrificed their lives, so we’d settle for some lame ass promises with no guarantees, and risk all this going to waste. They wanted Mubarak gone, and the least we can do is honor their will and keep going until Mubarak, and the rest of the regime are gone. Not in 9 months, but now.

My answer to the following claims:

“But the country is already in a state of chaos. Lets stop protesting so we can have some security and stability”

Don’t be fooled, this state of chaos is mostly intentional. With the economy reaching almost a complete halt, and lack of security on the streets etc, Mubarak made sure you’d eat up whatever he throws at you. Would you rather be ruled by a corrupt and criminal regime for another 9 months (at least), or go through “chaos” for another week, two, or a month until the regime has fallen?

Don’t let the blood of our martyrs go to waste. We’ve seen countries rise from the ashes of war, we’ve seen countries rise from the devastation of nuclear bombs. We can most DEFINITELY pull through for another couple of weeks. And once we have democracy, once we have freedom, once we get rid corruption, when 100% of our money goes into the country and not into the pockets of corrupt politicians and businessmen, we’ll rebuilt this country in no time. What are a few years of struggle in a the history of a free and proud nation?

“If Mubarak leaves now, who’s gonna be president? ElBaradei can’t be president!! With no one in power we’ll be in a spiral of chaos and havoc etc”

This is by far the most naive argument. Do you know what happens if the president has health problems? Do you know what happens if the president resigns? Do you know what happens if the president dissolves the government and resigns? Do you know what happens if the president dies? Do you know how an interim government works? Do you know what your constitution says? No. So any opinion you have on the matter is naive and based on emotion and not facts nor political understanding.

The constitution as it is tailored at the moment, puts on obstacles making it hard to proceed if Mubarak resigns at the moment. In other words the constitution obviously doesn’t account for the coup d’etat scenario. You can read articles 82, 84, and 189 to understand what I’m talking about it.

However the scenario we want is:

1. the ousting of the regime entirely: President, government, and parliament.
2. Establishing an interim (transitional) government representing everyone across the spectrum, chosen by the people, to make the necessary constitutional changes and prepare for fair democratic elections in 6 months while providing the necessary guarantees. There are lots and lots of names who can fill this interim government but everyone is concerned about the president of that transitional government, and to those I say: a) Enough with the centralization of power. Its seems we can’t think out of the one-man-ruling-the-country box. b) We are a country of 80 million people. Any honest decent Egyptian, who isn’t part of the current regime, could be the head of this interim government. c) Whats wrong with ElBaradei? If you know anything about me I’m not exactly a fan of his, but we just need an honest man, who knows the necessary processes, constitutional changes and legislative changes required to establish the basis for democracy. I wouldn’t want ElBaradei or any of the current opposition leaders to be president for a full term, but ElBaradei has what it takes to put down the ground work for fair and democratic elections after 6 months. Some people say he’s too “soft” to handle the tough reality of Egypt, well you have to keep in mind a leader is only as strong as his supporters, so whichever whoever leader the people stand behind will have the necessary strength to lead this transitional phase. The circumstances of an interim government are different from a normal government. Think of it as a committee temporarily running the country with the primary focus being elections in 6 months.Finally given 6 months of political freedom, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, no emergency law, and with constitutional and legislative changes, not only will we have one strong candidate for presidency, we’ll have dozens.

For the reasons above, our goal should be: keep going until we overthrow the regime completely. And if you’re bothered by the chaos, remember that the more people protesting, the faster the regime will fall and the chaos will be over. And once the regime has fallen, we should dedicate all of our efforts to make sure we choose a proper interim government that really represents the people, and everything will go smoothly from there, and the future of Egypt will be brighter than ever before.

Be strong, keep pushing, no compromises, don’t forget what they have done, we all know what they will do. The revolution has to go on so the lives of 300+ martyrs, and the blood of thousands other free Egyptians wouldn’t go to waste.

Don’t be naive. Its time to think politics and not just revolution. True freedom has a price and all of us should be willing to pay it.

حرية وكرامة – كن مع الثورة

وأنّى لنورِ اللهِ أنْ يُهدى إليَّ……وفي القَلبِ سَقمٌ، والغَفْلةُ دَائِي؟

Or don’t call me at all.

After all, I don’t miss you.

I cherish our memories,

but I don’t miss you.

Don’t judge me.  Just answer me.

How did your company, inspire me?

how did your words, enlighten me?

have you ever challenged my mind;

had it up all night,

prospering,  comprehending,

or thinking of solutions,

to a nation so left behind

or how that reflects, on you and me?

Have you ever nurtured my soul?

enriched my spirituality,

took me one step closer to decent levels of serenity?

Don’t blame me because I don’t miss you.

Just give me a good reason,  to miss you.

Tell me what I learned from you.

Show me,

how the lack of your company,  harms me.

Surely, you being there, sometimes helped me.

But with all sincerity, I still don’t miss you.

Seriously.

Give me better, stronger reasons to miss you.

Take my address, and send me,

a box of  blueberry muffins

maybe then, just maybe,

I’ll have one good reason,

to miss you.

So anyways.. we’re done with master’s. Kuwait University has officially issued our graduation certifices – a year later. What next?

There seems to be a common confusion among master’s degree holders.

To Academics, or To Not Academics..

Between pursuing an academic oriented career, such as working on a Phd degree and/or working in research jobs, and, working in the industry, which in our case translates to: developers, programmers, web administrators, system administrators, network administrators, database administrators, or, perhaps heading to a management oriented career, etc.

I’ve discussed this topic with many friends of mine over the past year. Clearly each decision encloses a number of pros & cons. Which of these pros do you like more, and which cons are you willing to undertake for one choice more than the other, is not the only factor on which you make such a decision, but it’s an important one.

Academia vs Football

Checklist..

I’ve compiled this humble checklist that might shed some light on the matter, of course take notice that these points are stemmed from my own personal experience and may not apply to many industry jobs/academia circumstances.

A. Questions More Related to Academia..

1. Do you enjoy researching a topic of your interest (for 25 years :p)?
2. You might find yourself going in-depth into theoretical issues, are you OK with that? Or are you seeking real-time applications development only?  (maybe not applicable for all areas of interest)
3. Do you like having to work within a unified theme (aka area of interest), or would you prefer a career that might possibly transition you from one area to another, according to market need, as long as you’re learning a new technology?
4. Which imposes the question: in terms of learning new things, would you rather learn a new technology or a new way to improve the underlying algorithm complexity of some process out there?
5. Are you a good reader – don’t mind reading lengthy papers?
6. Do you acquire good writing skills or find yourself willing to do that, and don’t mind writing lengthy reports/papers/articles/proposals, etc?  (sometimes applies for industry though)
7. Are you in favor of individual-work or group-work? OK, I know that research involves group-work but overall I think it involves lot more individuality than does industry.
8. Would you rather spend your weekends writing the first few lines of a paper introduction or go out and have fun with friends?  :P
9. Do you have good teaching skills? Do you not resent the idea of having to teach one day, besides researching?
10. Does research inspire you?  Does Google Scholar mean anything to you? Does the hard work of other researchers out there strongly motivate you and inspire you to become a part of a real, huge, worldwide research community?
11. Do you have a life?  Like do you really really need to go to the gym or go out with friends? Or can you give that up for the upcoming..say..35 years?
12. 

B. Questions More Related to Industria (within IT)…

1. Do you find yourself capable of handling the IT tension? For example, are you the type that panics easily if the system crashed? & How do you handle bugs?  Especially your own?
2. Is your mind-set fit to absorb IT architectures/frameworks?
3. Do you find yourself eager to learn more about what you’re doing; expand your knowledge in the line of development that you’ve undertaken, or does it bore you easily?  Do you think that switching to another line of career might help?
4. Do you like dealing with IT people: managers, co-workers, trainees, CEOs, admins, DBAs?  OK Sorry let me rephrase that: Are you capable of dealing with them, or would you prefer to be working in a research lab where your audience are somehow more limited..
5. Do you see yourself where you are, 10 years from now? Do you have a well studied plan to advance in the hierarchy of IT jobs: perhaps a team leader, then a project manager, etc?
6. Do you see yourself regretting not joining the line of Academics, 5 years from now?
7. Are you comfortable working in IT?
8. Do you like cheese?
9. If Donald Duck and Robin Hood had a fight, who would win?
10. Are you still reading these questions? I ran out of them and I’m just saying anything..

I think the most important question of all can be the following.. Where do you see yourself excelling more? In which area will you be more capable of serving the world, your nation, yourself, better?  What is it out there that triggers your hidden talents and pushes you to work at your optimum levels?

Please, if you have any other questions in mind that might help, do raise them here. I know a lot of people, including myself, who will appreciate it!