Egyptian hospitality

Egypt is after all a nice country with nice people. Regardless of what some of the foreigners living here might say, it's good to be here. A sad but true fact I actually agree with having spent some time here is that unfortunately lot of people are not that smart. But that's the education probably, or as I heard people describing it - the social education. The society "teaches" you certain things and you keep doing that cause it's the "right" way. This includes playing stupid in certain occasions and later on blaming the stupidity on misunderstandings of English or saying that something "got lost in translation".. You know. So probably 90% of the people you will meet here are dumb (or play dumb, whatever it is it has the same effect - you think they're acting dumb). But regardles of the IQ, I find the vast majority to be very friendly to me. 

So now it's time to get back to work. I have some PR stuff to do. But first I have to eat up all the sweets Mr. Ahmed brought me. I asked for "a small cookie for tea, and oh..give me something traditional Egyptian". This is what I got:

Next time I'll ask specifically for ONE piece! And you better keep that sleek and smooth memory of me, cause next time you see me when I'm back from here, I might not be as sleek and smooth anymore... =P

Ciao!

Update: I'm feeling a little dizzy cause of all that sugar, but it turned out that the whole thing was a gift (they didn't accept any money) so I had to eat it up. All of that. E-V-E-R-Y   P-I-E-C-E. Not so LEGEN...wait for it ...DARY! (Season 4 of How I Met Your Mother started this week, go and grab it now!) See ya...

Housefly

I hate houseflies. I can't stand them. They can destroy any situation at any time no matter of your previous mood. Why the hell do they exist anyway? Is that just a proof that there are meaningless things in life? 

Shit they are everywhere. God help me! 

Why can't a smart scientist devote his or her life and invent a substance that efficiently kills all the houseflies in the world? HEEEELP!

Ridiculous thoughts on sleeping

Recently I noticed a change in my behavior, I became what you might call a late-sleeper. Not that I sleep really really long in the morning (or rather day, cause some might not consider the time I get up at as "morning" anymore). Back in the days (whaa?!) I was what Swedish people use to call "ein Morgen Menschen". Though that was a German translation (don't ask me why... it just sounds more cool in German this time, aka "show off some language skills!"). Whatever. The thing is: I sleep late. Occasionally even as late as 1-2 p.m.. And on a daily basis I usually get up at noon. Today I tried to "get up early" as you say... I was out in the kitchen at 10 am but decided I was way to tired, I had work to do later today and hence needed a "fresh" mind (good luck with that boy!), it is too hot outside anyway for going now and besides..it's Ramadan and nobody's gonna be in the offices until later anyway. So... I got back to bed... 

What's wrong with me? Am I dying? 

Screwdrivers and Israel

Egypt is not Europe. I knew it before I came here. But I had no idea how frustrating it can be to leave the Old Continent. 

My hard drive "died" last week. Surprising, cause I put it in only 10 months ago when I installed Leopard, back in November. The reason is probably burned electronics on the drive - something that might have been cause by the damn electric sockets which are not grounded! That would be nice to have here since they turn the electricity on and off all the time (I literally mean like 10 times a day!). Furthermore, I guess that the current isn't really stable and I can see the sudden peaks and falls of the voltage just by having the lights on in the evening. Anyway, my disk died and I needed a new one.

Before I could change the drive however, I needed screw drivers. More specifically a Philips #00 and Torx T8 which are necessary for changing the hard drive in MacBooks. My first guess after speaking with some natives was that I won't get it in Sharm. So I took a trip to Israel. Thought that would be nice. They are civilized, after all..right? 

Maybe they are. Maybe not. I don't know. But I had no luck with finding the screwdrivers in neither Jerusalem or Bethlehem. Probably I just don't know how to look. All the time I ended up in the Arabic parts of the cities by the way... Where are the Jews?!

So no luck here. But the visit in Israel gave me at least some nice photos...

On the Mt. of Olives a mix of tourists and Israeli land forces. Fully equipped... Shit. 

Oh it was soooo bright!

These children reminded me that the summer's over and it's time for school for some! Too bad...

Meat. Lots of meat. Old City in Jerusalem. Wonder if it's kosher?

Something similar in the background.. you see? Must be dangerous to live so close to lots of gold...
Old City in Jerusalem

I found some Jews in the Old City after all. Turned out the city is divided in four quarters: Muslim, Christian, Armenian and Jewish. At least that's the traditional division.  
No in Bethlehem. Looking for screw drivers. 
Bethlehem is a part of the Palestinian Autonomy. No Jews on the streets here. No screw drivers either..unfortunately.

A view from somewhere in Bethlehem.
And the panorama over Old City in Jerusalem from the Mt. of Olives. 

So that's it. Got back to Sharm. Found the screw drivers (at Radio Shack...). Bought an exactly identical hard drive in a computer shop. I got it for 80 euro last year in Sweden. Now I payed 100 euro... Today the same costs about 55 euro in Europe (checked it on the Net). But hell.. what was I supposed to do?

Now thanks to Time Machine (love you!) I'm back and running just where I was! Egypt and technology are however still two very different and incompatible concepts. No Internet at home, cause somebody somehow messed up the telephone cables for the DSL line. And it's Ramadan, so they can't promise it will be fixed anytime soon. 

But still it's 35 degrees and sunshine... At least the life is wonderful! 

Egypt blocking Facebook?

Here's the first of hopefully no more posts about why Egypt actually is a third world country (unfortunately after the recent day's events, I have some more themes for blog posts about why sucks in Egypt).

I hope I'm wrong now, but it seems like the Egyptian government is blocking Facebook. Not a big deal, huh? Maybe not, but it's still narrowing an individuals options for communicating with the surrounding world. Seriously, it is a bigger issue, considering why the persumed block is taking place. According to LA Times:

The reason: In April, one group of young citizens mobilized 80,000 supporters to protest rising food prices. Facebook networking played a crucial role in broadening support and turnout for an April 6 textile workers' strike and protest.

OK, now it seems like an issue. Considering that I have found a few more evidences. All from the end of the summer of 2008, where people presumed it would happen. Now it seems like it has. For political reasons. Great... Hard to believe it but it seems like I'm living in a country where basic human rights are not respected. 

Right now I have been accessing the social network site via different proxy servers available, but it looks like the scripts essential for Facebook get blocked, so I can not even send any messages to people. 

Stay tuned for more reports on human rights in Egypt. Hell yeah... bye!

Update: Btw, I've been off for another reason - my hard drive suddenly decided to end our yearlong collaboration and leave my with a 5 days old Time Machine backup (thanks God for Time Machine!). But it took my a couple of days to find anything that I could replace my dead drive with in this part of world. More on this later!