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| A paint by Evelin Ashamallah depicting Sandouq ed-Donia (a machine where young children used to see through to see photos telling stories recounted by the man holding this machine) |
At Rosetta Nile branch where the river
is widest, I saw the whirlpool several times. I have no idea why people living
at our vicinity; in the area extending between Kafr ez-Zayiat and Desouk, call
it Shemia as they always say “beware of Shemia or it will suck
you down”. That was before the High Dam was built when water color used to turn
from the stagnant grey silt to the energetically-moving reddish alluvium
signing the beginning of the flood. That reddish color then gets denser to near
brown. The biggest whirlpool I saw was in the stretch of water where sailboats used
to ferry people, luggage and animals from the eastern bank at Mahallet Diyai to
the western bank of the river near Shubrakhiet!
I saw one that was swirling a giant
buffalo and sucking it down. The buffalo tried to escape but in vain. Its owner
– a young man – took off el-Rawassa or the noose, which they used to
knot around animals’ neck and get it tied to one of its ears to drag them, to
let it bath and swim in the river, but later kept yelling “help me… people…
help”!
Whirlpools used to range from the size
capable of sucking down a boat down to hand-size eddies. Every whirlpool
attracts the junk grass floating over water setting out a fine swishing sound.
They may be able to bring a dead body that got rotten to the surface and then
you hear people calling on the dead body saying “you who seek burial… head
toward land”!
Our folks used to warn us at that time
of getting close to water not even in small lakes and especially if we were
tempted by floating red dates or sycamore figs to take
off our clothes and go into the waters. The warning was really frightening as
they believed Genies used to mutate into such kinds of fruits – fruits of the
season – to kidnap children, boys in particular, for they dare to talk off
their clothes.
After all this time and long age that
exceeded 70, I can still see the whirlpool in all sizes. I still see the red
dates and Sycamore figs and quickly take off and dive or hesitate fearing the
unknown destiny. The current-time blood-red-colored flood is still running.
However, this time, it’s not rich in alluvium coming from mountains of Ethiopia
to accumulate a fertile soil that goes 30 meters deep in Delta, but rather red
due to blood spelled by our sons working in military and police and others
dying in accidents over level crossings, roads, or deep in the sea.
Such whirlpools try not to let us go
away from swirling endlessly cutting any hope of finding a rescue rope we can
grab to reach land. Some of these whirlpools are microscopic where you can do
nothing but spinning with no way out. Examples for such case are endless but
you can see them if you follow what is written and published whether in newspapers
or on social media outlets. It has turned into a black hole sucking all comets
and even galaxies that get near to it, like the case right now on both the
vertical and horizontal levels, socially and politically, on the domestic level
and the regional and international ones. The only common thing among all
Egyptians is that we are all sucked into that black hole concerning any matter,
starting from axioms and what is supposed to be established truths and
realities to all that is variable in this world, without any intention to reach
a compromise or meet half way. In this regard, I always mention our enemy;
Israel where political opponents rival and hate. However, they all unite over
one target; that is their state’s strength, cohesion and superiority over its
neighbors… in knowledge, scientific applications, military weapons, economic
and media weapons, … etc.
Sometimes one tries to resist such
current-time whirlpools by recalling his childhood and youth memories, our
villages and cities’ old time accounts, or by talking about more diverse fields
related to our Egyptian identity and composition. In this regard, I saw an
article of Newton[1]
telling his account of the honey collected by bees in his family’s
orange-cultivated fields. As if he wanted – as I understood – to get away from
exhausting daily politics issues in the narrow meaning of the word since
politics is like culture has two scopes; one limited and other unlimited.
Since we’re talking about swirling in
whirlpools and black holes, it’s likely that we may talk about other kind of
swirling; that is planets orbiting stars where distance separating planet and
star controls gravity, temperature, and possibility of having life as per
strict nature laws that may lead to universal disasters if broken. Such
orbiting has affected people’s life as well especially their worship rituals as
some assume this spinning movement goes from the level of electrons to
galaxies, and hence orbiting Kaaba was inseparable of the micro and macro
unlimited cosmic constellations… I wonder if these lines have succeeded in
ending our swirling in the flood of political disputes that became vulgar and
boring, or is it just a failed attempt to escape?!!
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article
was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on May 25, 2016.
To see the
Arabic article, go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt
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