You're Either With Us or Against Us?!

While scrolling through my twitter timeline, a guy I follow, a hard-core Egyptian leftist, retweeted what I found to be a very offensive tweet. It wasn't offensive in that it was an attack on a certain group of people per se, but it was offensive due to its aggressiveness. A translation of that tweet is below. I will not mention the name of the quote's author because this post isn't about him.

"To my fellow leftists, please don't align yourself with liberals and raise your independent banner if you still have any self-respect"

Now please correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought that politics is the art of compromise. I thought that anyone who's been following politics for a few months in any vibrant democracy would come to realize that fact. To me, politics is about a group of people who, while having a common desire to see their country better, see different ways and ideologies are best at reaching that goal, and in order to decide on what is THE way to fulfill their goal, politicians decide to give a little, take a little.

Now to some people that might sound like you're selling out, that you're giving in, and in a country where the electorate is getting more and more polarized, politicians find it easier to appease their constituents rather than try to sell the idea of compromise. The results when no compromise solution is agreed upon are there for everyone to see. Not only bad for the chances of those politicians getting re-elected, but also bad for a country that is desperate for progress. A prime example of a broken parliament is the US Congress. Almost every single vote on any subject (whether it's related to foreign policy, the economy, education, healthcare, you name it..) has become a routine job where the elected official caucuses with people who have similar political views, and as a bloc they vote Yay or Nay. Party-line votes are a sham, and they're often not the wisest. I thought decision should be decided by thoroughly studying the case at hand and making an informed decision. Silly me.

So how does that bode for Egyptian politics if every political force decided to walk alone, to stay pure? I say they will suffer, and the country would suffer would them. I don't want trickle-down economics, but I don't want socialism either. I don't want normalizing with Israel, but I don't think not working with them to solve the Palestinian struggle is a good idea. Some people think that middle of the road solutions makes everybody a loser. I say it makes everyone a winner. That person you work with who doesn't share your economic philosophy might not work with you on increasing the standard of living for the poor if you're not going to work with him on issues of freedom of speech and women's rights. Politics is not for simpletons. Politics is not for puritans. If you don't want to compromise your "principles", you'll be marginalized, and you'll get farther from your ultimate goal for this country, not closer.

People laughed, and cried, at George W. Bush when he said in his speech to the joint session of Congress on September 20th, 2001  "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." regarding his planned invasion of Afghanistan. To most of the world the statement seemed foolish and reckless. And his decision was obviously not the wisest since this war is now officially the longest in US history.

I sincerely hope Egyptians are spared this sort of mentality and rhetoric.

Rage Against The Elite

 It's April 2008. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are engaged in a fierce battle for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Hillary is way behind in the delegate count and is desperately trying to rally support from white-blue collar Democrats, which is a demographic group that Obama is having difficulty winning over.

Then a recording comes out from a San Fransisco fundraiser that featured Obama as the keynote speaker. He said: "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

To heartland conservative Amercian's, these statements sounded "elitist", and Clinton herself used the e-word that has been used for decades by Republicans against Democrats, from Nixon to Bush 43, to vilify Obama and paint him as an out-of-touch liberal. Long story short, Obama survived the controversy and went on to secure the nomination. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, in Egypt, we keep hearing the word elite (nokhba) and elitist (nokhbawy) a lot these days, and it's used by politicians and political activists of every stripe. But what do these words really mean? According to Merriam-Webster, elite is "a group of persons who by virtue of position or education exercise much power or influence". At first glance, this definition does not sound offensive. In fact, it sounds flattering. So why is it that the word has such a bad reputation?


I believe it's because of our inclination as human beings to find someone who we can blame for all our misfortunes and frustrations in order to deflect criticism from ourselves, and also because the elite, in any society, are always a minority. In short, elites are the punching-bags of society. No one will rise up to defend them because defending a minority, especially one that has power and influence whether by wealth, education or position, won't score you political points or endear the not-so-elite masses.


And this is where we are today in Egypt. Leftists calling economic liberals elite. Liberal calling Muslim Brotherhood leadership elite. Islamists calling secularists elite. No wonder the word has lost all its meaning and has become a symbol of all that is anti-democratic and offensive.


So in today's political landscape, who are the true elitists? Well, it's simple: It's the talking heads on TV. Those, who through the no.1 media tool in Egypt that is Television, have filled the airways with nothing but noise and vitriol. Leftists who shout "elite" are themselves being elitist because they have appointed themselves guardians of the working class. Liberal who shout "elite" are being elitist when they claim that their way is the only way civil liberties will be the norm in Egyptian society. Islamists are being elitist when they take the moral high ground for no reason other than their belief that because of their religion they have all the right answers to solve Egypt's problems.


So here's my appeal to all of them talking heads: We don't want your egos to get in the way of our aspirations. Egyptians have a lot in common, and listening to you people talk in TV it sometimes makes me wonder how we as a people are even able to stand each other.


Being elite isn't bad. Ahmed Zewaill and Farouq el Bazz are elites because of their great scientific minds, and we are damn proud of them.Magdy Yaqoub is elite because he is one of the top surgeons in the world and we are proud of him. And yes, El Baradei, who I still don't support for president up to this point, is elite and we are proud of him.


It's not the elites that are the enemy, it's those who think elite is a dirty word. Elites are our pride and joy. Elites give us hope for a better future and bring out the best in us. Elites are those who inspire their fellow countrymen to be elites themselves. That's not so bad, is it?

First Things First

OK, so this is officially my first post ever. Who am I? I'm just a liberal Egyptian. I've always been into politics, but since politics was dead in Egypt prior to the January 25th revolution, I was merely a spectator. But now there are no taboos in Egyptian society anymore right? Well, no. And that's where this blog comes in.

Egypt is a conservative country. Egyptians are religious, conservative people. One might think, especially someone who is not familiar with MENA (Middle-East and North Africa), that after the revolution we have been liberated from all the shackles that have been holding us back as a country and as a people. Things like religious freedom, tolerance, gender discrimination, ignorance, poverty, religious fanaticism.

Addressing these taboos will be what this blog is about. Everyday there seems to be an new controversy spurring dialogue (or to be more precise, argument and bickering and name-calling). Controversies that are either political, social or economic in nature. What I'll be trying to do in this blog is address these issues from a liberal standpoint.

I believe in liberalism. I believe in its logic and its practicality. Ideologies that are impractical are doomed to fail, because the world has real problems than need real solutions. Most Egyptians don't know what liberalism is, probably due to the fact that the old regime scored political points by labeling liberalism as closet-atheism. That liberals are people who fornicate and drink and party with no regard to cultural norms. This blog will try to give its readers and idea to what liberalism would look like in a conservative society like Egypt's, and try to address everyday problems that we as a people need to solve, rather than sweep under a mat.

Thanks for taking a few minutes of your time to read this opening post. Now let's get to work.