Out of the same uterus, the
good, the bad, and the in-between-them are born… for the same reasons, there
are multiple points of view that sometimes differ and also oppose… as quietness
that some interpret as calmness and acceptance adopting the rule saying “silence
is a sign of acceptance”, some others interpret it as the calm before a
ferocious storm… as there is big difference between quietness and silence… it
is enough to say that the only thing expected after quietness is talking… but
as to what expected after quietness, it is movement… this movement ranges from
just nodding to violence that may reach its maximum limit.
Some beings have the ability to
predict what comes after quietness as some animals, birds, and even insects
keep sending out voices and go on moving to the extent that they may jump from closed
places or those near the water prior to earthquakes… also in the human beings’
kingdom, there are people who have the ability to predict what follows
quietness… here, I do not mean those who had knowledge from the Scripture and who
can go through time and place… I also do not talk about those who have the
sense of intuition and knowledge of astrology… I mean those armed with two powerful
weapons… the first is good conscience and trained alert mind… the second is
knowledge or you can say it is the scientific braid interweaved with history,
sociology, social psychology, and politics.
My late great friend Mr. Kamel
Zoheiri was armed in a way or another with those two weapons… prior to January
2011, he used to say “I can smell smoke and death hanging over Egypt”… he also
used to say that he was afraid corruption might have reached the backbone of
the country and infected it with cancer.
At this point, I may need to
make a necessary clarification… that is, I do not use “double meaning” language
to hint at the current situation… I also do not mean to evade responsibility
and hence jump off the boat which I chose to be aboard and devoted my effort –
which is the most I can do – for it to remain resilient against the fierce
winds that were in many times adverse to the course of the boat.
However, as I said in a previous
article titled “intellectuals having no greed”, every part of the political phases
has its necessities and priorities and hence its methods and tools… those who
pay no attention but to their own benefits may get surprised to find that the decision
taker or makers are going towards reproducing features of past eras which they
thought or believed they were gone forever, but if they gave themselves a
chance to think out of their limited circle of interests, they would have known
that there are some humans who are programmable like a machine… you can use it
as long as you know how it works, and if it is outdated and more effective and
efficient models were invented, then it shall be replaced… however, there are
other human beings who are unable to be operated by buttons like a machine.
Back to the necessity to read
quietness… the reading that depends on those two weapons I mentioned before…
again, they are good conscience and trained alert mind, along with the braid of
history, sociology, social psychology, and politics.
Relatively long ago, it was said
that the Egyptian people look like the Nile… it floods and deluges or it goes
low and mean while people do not expect either this or that… and so the
Egyptians were keen to follow the movement of the water in the river starting
from where the rains drop over the Abyssinia plateau and along the course of
the river in Ethiopia, Sudan, then to Egypt.
For this reason and to take
their precautions against the surprise of the devastating flood or the parching
drought, the Egyptians – like all living nations situated around rivers – built
dams, reservoirs, barrages, and locks… and irrigation became a practical branch
of science taught in faculties of engineering with researchers being granted academic
degrees of PhD and higher in it.
From river and irrigation to
humans and society, we discover that dams, reservoirs, barrages, and locks are the
authorities that we should separate between them, the institutions that should
be above individuals, constitution, laws, citizenship, and human rights. Otherwise,
the social and political movements will keep floating stray with no banks to
land on or goals to achieve… and then, chaos will be the outcome of the
revolution and veneers will replace true essence in the forefront.
We can read the course of
quietness if we can detect with great accuracy the situation of authorities,
role of institutions, effectiveness of the constitution and law, and how much
citizenship and human rights are fulfilled, not in the sense, style, and
practices of those who make money out of such thing… but as it is known
according to terms of humanity… specially, the right of man in security,
stability, work, and entertainment… also, the right of those killed while
defending the security of their country against terrorism in specific.
We can predict the amount of the
pent-up energy the society has as long as there are no channels to deploy such
energy and turn it into something useful to the nation as a whole… here, the
difference is big between a fever hitting the social body due to pent-up energy
that had no outlet to vent out… and a fever that comes due to action, vividity,
and productive movement.
We can also evaluate the situation
if we detected how much the powers backing the current regime are still clinged
to their situations and if such supporting powers grew bigger or dwindled.
Translated into English by:
Dalia Elnaggar
This
article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on August 17, 2017.
To see
the original article, go to:
#alahram
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt
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