Failure Of The Elders

 I'm wondering if the army personnel seen using video cameras, filming the peaceful student protestors coming out of Ein Shams University took this new idea or advice from Uncle Sam and his anti-Occupy officers who were almost always geared with handy cams. When you've been yearly taking $ 1.3 billion for the last 30 years, it's quite obvious who's doing the listening in the equation. Pressure is heating up in the streets of Egypt those last few days after a myriad of videos of the army using extreme barbaric violence against young men and women have been shared all over global media. A few females' later testimony, including a doctor, clearly showed how twisted and inhuman the mentality of the USSR state police has reached under the military rule. It was an Interior Ministry characteristic first but somehow SCAF were successful in passing on the sick behavior to the army and forced them to clash with their own people. The whole philosophy and psychology behind "We are above the law and the people should be scared from us" have come to an end after Jan 25 and the fear that has been breeding for decades is miraculously gone forever.

 

Fueled with anger and hope for a better tomorrow, women of Egypt are organizing daily marches condemning the brutality seen lately on the famous video of the girl who got wickedly assaulted with batons and boots while being pulled from her clothes, showing the whole world her upper body in a blue bra. Along with Anti-SCAF chants, they are saying it loud and clear: "The women of Egypt are a red line." A pure and optimistic reminder that those are the descendants of Hoda Shaarawy, the historical feminist who heroically stood against the British rule in Egypt in the early 1900's when the average woman was left uneducated and hidden inside Harems , behind mashrabiyas or under face veils. She also founded and became the first president of the Egyptian Feminist Union in 1923 and publicly removed her veil in Cairo railroad station as a daring act of defiance in that same year.

When the old mentality in power gets terrified as we have all seen during the 18 days succeeding Jan 25, their reactions are slowed down and they get desperate. Recently, the Security Council Of Armed Forces (SCAF) have unusually published 4 Communiqués in just 5 days. Starting with #89 which was an edited footage of a person setting fire to The Institute of Egypt, a research center built by Napoleon Bonaparte 200 years ago which served as a library of rare books and publications, and claiming he is one of the protestors who want to "burn Egypt." Then, they had the guts to add a self production interview with a few teenagers confessing the whole crime on National TV, forgetting to comment about 11 protesters shot in cold blood during the same events! Apparently they were not even smart enough to edit the background sound of another screaming teenage detainee during the same interviews. The 21st century media, Youtube and all the phone cams make lying and deceiving an almost impossible job.

 

The martyrs included Shekh Emad Effat a respectable scholar in Al Azhar, Alaa Abdel Hadi, a medical student in his 5th year and Mohamed Mostafa, an engineering student and a tennis player in the Egyptian national team. SCAF with its full control over its corrupt media have been trying hard to demonize the revolutionaries in order to win the side of the silent majority and they did succeed to a certain extent. Calling anyone who disagrees an "enemy of the state" and accusing them of being funded by outsiders. First with movements like "Kefaya" then with "6th of April" then individually with prominent figures like Alaa El Aswany, Amr Hamzawy, even El Leithy and his driver who was allegedly tortured and forced to confess an imaginary crime. Luckily, they all fought back and the truth can only be hidden for so long.

 

Watching an injured Sheikh's testimony, he said that during the Parliament clashes the armed forces were shouting that they were told to either kill or be killed, making some sense to the extreme cruelty of the violence used. This reminded me of a documentary I watched once about Nazi officers much later after World War II and the interviewer asked: How could you look at a child and just shoot? Wiping a running tear, the old officer said: "We were told that if we don't do this to them (the Jews) they will do this to us." Hitler and his troops conquered the world with this mentality by the way. I'm wondering how many documentaries will our children watch and say: What!? They did all that?! These are the history books of the future and this generation  will never cease. They even replied to the SCAF video with 127 different footage condemning them in crimes against humanity.

 

I also wonder if SCAF acknowledge that every time one of them goes out in public and lies or says a disgraceful comment such as burning the protesters in Hitler's ovens, he automatically becomes a burnt card. Is that why they try different members every time they are forced to make a public statement? Different faces but Pinocchio's nose seems to be a widespread and contagious disease among those 19 grand pa generals. I mean, if the ones who were shamelessly defending themselves in Maspiro with Mona El Shazly and Ibrahim Eissa on TV are different than the one with the finger threat and the latest "Emara" is different than their referendum law wizard, then i'm sure they have a synchronized rotation. I tend to believe that seeing their master of 20 + years toppled and behind bars got them all a little coocoo, especially Tantawy, who has been Mubarak's close aid along with Omar Suleiman (still free as a bird and evilly active behind closed doors) for as long as many of us remember.

 

Just like letting Mubarak stay after the "Camel attack" on Feb. 2nd was totally refused, the whole idea of their "safe exist" is again a very late option. Blood was spilled and there is no turning back from retaliation. Some already believe that without guaranteeing that safe au revoir, they will burn the country to the ground to keep clinging to the power they are holding so dearly. Exactly after 1 year from the day that all Tahrir squares welcomed the army tanks with flowers and friendly chants after the retreat of the broken and expired police forces, all trust in SCAF has gone up in smoke. From day 1, some including myself were against the whole notion that a toppled president has the authority to pass on the power to his own officers under a cancelled constitutional referendum. I'm sure him too was looking for that safe exit and until this day, i think he got it somehow. It just didn't make sense that the same people who were part of the corruption for decades are the ones who will detoxify the nation and take it to the promise land after a revolution that took place to get rid of the old regime; them included! What sane person will ever put himself in jail, knowing that their dark involvement in the debauchery is worth billions and many, many years in prison. Same goes with the police, the ministers, the high officials, the media people and the university deans who all had to get a security check pass from "Amn El Dawla" or the State Security Investigations Service, before they were hired. For everyone had to be controlled in a way or another, they sure did not want any free thinkers.

 

Other signs of this state of drunken confusion towering over the heads of SCAF generals are shown in their following communiqués. One is stating that they are sorry about the latest events involving women. Their old school, military minds cannot confess or even apologize and the whole message has not been accepted by Egyptian women who were already protesting in the streets.

 

The next message from SCAF just 1 day later was the usual scaring tactics and throwing the blame on "foreign hands" and "invisible fingers" who want to destruct and burn Egypt. And finally, 20 hours later, they send yet another senseless message. There was also news about starting the parliament on the 23rd of Jan. Yes, 2 days before just like those Thursday nights when they would come out with a message to weaken the intensity of the Friday million man march or "millioneya." Always too late.

 

Talking about personal vendetta, SCAF have made it impossible to turn a blind eye to their idea of a joke in managing the country, even those who once said let's give Mubarak his last 6 months are smelling the 1-year old crystal clear failure. They have already targeted Sheikhs, women, students, Christians, teenagers and even a few friends of mine, and their haters' list is growing by the day. With 60% of the Egyptian population under the age of 30, I think it's only wise to start digesting that you can never stop young people with a dream, even with all the arms of the world. With January 25th just a few weeks from now, I can only remember the title of the poem by Abdel Rahman El Abnudy: "It's time for you to go, country of old." 

 How late are they going to be this time?

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The Dark Side of Black Friday: Madness of a Lost Society [Documentary]

What you are about to watch in this three-part micro documentary is mainly a byproduct of the work of Edward Bernays, the father of public relations — or modern advertising. The Jewish, Vienna-born man was the nephew of Sigmund Freud and, since the 1930s, has worked with major corporations of manufacturing and advertising, politicians, and the CIA.

Bernays considered the masses to be a bewildered herd driven by dangerous, chaotic, and irrational primitive forces which needed to be guided and contained. As we can see from the zombies in the videos, as well as all around us, the man had his reasons to believe so.

Bernays combined the ideas of Crowd Psychology or Mod Psychology with his uncle’s school of thought. He had a crucial and successful role in manipulating the masses by using their inner desires and fears to engineer public consent. The American citizen was then redefined as a ‘consumer’ and corporate greed was incepted, while Bernays became rich and famous in the process. He was later named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine.

“We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
– Edward Bernays, Propaganda


Much more about the topic, its history, and how it all began can be found in this earlier exposé of mine, Mass Control and The Redefinition of Freedom. Also, more disturbing Black Friday videos can be found on Here.

It is quite ironic that Americans trample each other to buy stuff the very next day they are celebrating being thankful for what they got.  

When I first watched the first part of Madness of a Lost Society I was residing in Canada, so I couldn’t help but compare between both countries in terms of overall health.

Canada is healthier by ranking 33 on a 2007 list of fattest countries, according to Forbes. The US ranks number 1, spending about 147 billion each year to treat obesity. Yes. One can easily spot the difference by taking a walk in the streets or going to the grocery stores.

According to data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of U.S. adults today are overweight or obese; half are afflicted with chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure which can often be prevented with better diets.

Likewise, 17 percent of American children and adolescents aged 2—19 years (or 12.5 million) are obese, compared to only 5 percent in the 1970s. More obesity facts can be found on this Link.


In Canada, obesity rates have also increased since the 1970s. They have doubled, even tripled in some age groups to reach 24 percent for adults, and 12 percent for children (aged 5 to 17). Though according to this Joint Report From The Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institute For Health Information, rates in Canadian children are still at as low as 9 percent.



One of those times we crossed the borders from Canada to Buffalo, N.Y to attend a Roger Waters concert, we went to some casino diner for a quick bite. Due to some bureaucracy by the borders we ended missing the concert. So we thought that since we made it in the U.S, we might as well have dinner and ended up at that casino.

The sizes there were a clear reminder that we were not in Kansas anymore and that Houston does have a problem — of both portions and people.

The next table were three morbidly obese women; small, medium and large, just like the Goldilocks bears. The biggest, calling her papa bear for short, was attached to some breathing apparatus with wheels and had cheesy oily nachos drop on her triple GG breast, which were serving as a bed tray. I’m not sure if she couldn’t feel the dripping or if she had reached a point of no return in not giving a fuck, knowing that we were in a very public place.

Stopping myself from staring too much, I began to wonder if the rest of the bear family didn’t care for the health of their papa or how she looked since them, too, were busy devouring the fatty meals. Or, perhaps the sight was rewarding to their own self esteem. You know, with “I can keep eating as long as I don’t look like her” kind of thought.

It is sincerely hard not to feel bad when seeing such people. But when you think about it, you find it kind of strange to be so unhealthy yet still choose to eat unhealthily. It’s like they get themselves into a self-destructive mode. On the short run, it may be easier, cheaper, and more convenient to eat junk in the United States. But it’s our own health and lives we’re putting at stake here, and choosing the healthy lifestyle will always win at the end.

Then again, you can get some McDonald’s ‘meat’ burger for less than $1 while a small bottle of water costs $2 and a salad costs $5! Do you really think the ones-in-charge want a healthy general population?

This Article may try to answer why fruits and veggies happen to be more expensive than meat.




One of the things that would help Americans greatly is reducing the number of doughnuts shops all over the country. Because, between every doughnut shop and the next there is a doughnut shop.

Another would be introducing healthy meal to kids at school, like Europe and Japan.

Of course, the melted cheese and the temptation were so intense in Buffalo, that we ended up by ordering and feasting on those yummy nachos before heading back to Canada. Year later when I roamed around the States, I realised that the huge portions and the unhealthy eating habits in general is a thing pretty much everywhere. Only when I reached the Westside in Los Angeles have the menus and lifestyle radically changed.


Enjoy the madness.

*Originally published December 2011




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Genius!

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