During
certain historical circumstances – I believe they are already known for people
of knowledge – patriotism and also treason turn into points of view and liberty
of expressing one’s opinion. Such circumstances are usually described as times
of deterioration that some wish they never end
and even feel sorry that our country works hard to put an end to such times to
set off towards freedom and progress.
You see
those people feeling bitter of concepts, ideas and practices witnessed by
nations during their historical development, especially in times of seeking
liberation from the old colonialism and standing against the new colonialism…
also during times of broad social classes rising from the abyss of social injustice
and underdevelopment. You also see and hear those people feeling disgusted that
the poor may reach high ranks in education and occupy elite positions.
What is more
astonishing is that one can see and hear them feeling nostalgic over certain eras
which they claim their parents and grandparents were icons and figures then,
and that what prevailed of occupation, social injustice and underdevelopment in
such times were nothing but the common reality and God’s rules.
It happened
that I was sitting to a table in a social club where many respected people and
also many of those who call themselves businessmen and descendants of Pashas go
there. Before continuing, I would like to confirm that I do not mean that all
belonging to such bunch are so, nor do I judge others. I also do not grant or
deny warrants of patriotism and humane commitment, as there are some whose
ancestors came to Egypt and became Egyptians, and who accumulated fortunes of
financial, real estate and land possessions and occupied prestigious positions
and who proved to be genuine examples of national commitment, elite ethics and
humane nobility. In this article, I talk about those representing cases of
extreme intellectual and political oddity.
I was
sitting to a table – as per the place geography – near to other tables where a
mix of those who use the word “business” in defining themselves, and those
so-called “elite” people who found the chance in such circumstances of deterioration
to practice patriotism as a point of view, and as a result, they have no
concrete definition of treason in their glossary.
Their voices
became louder and some words scattered to reach my ears despite my nose. I
heard them commenting over “Al Mamarr” movie which did not appeal to
them as, first, it led to the Israelis being “upset” and “thank God that things
are settled down now… and there is peace and co-existence, and we hoped for
more specially that the Arab countries came to their senses and started having
relations with Israel in public”…
The words
between quotations are not mine; it is an excerpt of what I heard by chance at
that night. After this came the comments saying: “Yeah… it is okay to have
movies talking about patriotism, but they must be processed in a way that does
not make people remember the slogans and talking of Nasser and the communists”!
Afterwards followed
the phrases that I believe represent the manifestation of such issue of “treason
and patriotism as points of view”! as one of them puffed out his cigarette smoke
and coughed for his voice to become clear saying in slang language what could
be interpreted in press language to the following: “We are peoples and nations which
are said to be – and is certain – the seed of underdevelopment and tyranny. We
are governed by concepts, traditions and ideas where lazy dependency is
misunderstood to be believing in God’s fate and so on… that is why we deserve
what we are in right now… we deserved to be occupied by the respected invaders
since the times of Persians, Greeks, Romans, and after them the French and the British.
I wish
Israel had entered Cairo and ruled us… it could have been possible that we have
no problems of water, desert, underdevelopment in education, health services,
irrigation and others… peoples are like individuals throughout their life time,
as there are some who remain minors dwelling in their childhood, or others who
become so old that they become incapable of taking control of their lives… and
so, they assign guardians for them during the childhood time and also during
their aging…
In both
cases, there are others controlling their lives, decisions and fortunes…
therefore, it was better for us if the Jews stayed and Israel took command of sovereignty
over the whole region… and so, the movie includes a relapse to the times of
populism talk that led to all the disasters we have”!
This is how
they think, as the rest of their talk was to practically confirm such gibberish
of treason, as some of them talked of himself seeking assistance from the
Israelis in agriculture, and some spoke of that agreement regarding accepting
the Egyptian products of textiles provided that they contain a percentage of an
Israeli component… to the rest of that twisted way of thinking!
They were
appalled and disturbed by the success of “Al Mamarr” movie; the idea,
direction, acting and massive broad welcome by all Egyptian people of different
social classes, ages, professions and geographical areas.
There were
more and more disturbed of the determination to repeat this experiment by
producing similar movies tackling the epics of this people and its armed forces
and paying
tribute to the ones who did their best for the
benefit of the military service; workers, peasants, engineers, doctors,
technicians and others… even the criminals abstained from committing their
crimes feeling ashamed!
As to those
we are talking about, they have no glimpse of feeling ashamed.
Translated
by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on October 17, 2019.
To see the original Arabic article, go to:
[1] Al Mamarr:
transliteration for the Arabic word الممر
which means the passage in English. This is the name of an Egyptian drama movie
tackling the time of the 1967 war.
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