tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59071880591045557162024-03-05T07:43:06.047+02:00Balcony LifeCross-cultural living, Egypt, and raising boysEmily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-61464236923325223102015-11-30T22:29:00.000+02:002015-11-30T22:31:47.213+02:00The ball that lost its bounce<div style="text-align: left;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPO3zjI0wpiFC0hzuxDD10VrEnybf55jGQNXs1ahRIWCLXPtX1AfAE6QI5AqILC5zbC5B0EZwFWrBzAGtnDiPZndhqXVdX1rv1tgZnEowvEUKP5QTpyxqkeOpvR3HB7ty52FRXxcT6LjE/s1600/small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPO3zjI0wpiFC0hzuxDD10VrEnybf55jGQNXs1ahRIWCLXPtX1AfAE6QI5AqILC5zbC5B0EZwFWrBzAGtnDiPZndhqXVdX1rv1tgZnEowvEUKP5QTpyxqkeOpvR3HB7ty52FRXxcT6LjE/s320/small.jpg" width="287" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In Egypt, the disparity between the haves and the have-nots is so great
that it is easy for small moments to hold big lessons.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Last evening (also known as ‘afternoon’ in Egypt), the boys are I were
on our way to the club for Ziad’s basketball training. Nazar, who was coming along <span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">to shoot hoops,</span> wanted to stop at
the local tyre shop on the way to pump up his ball, which was slightly deflated
and had lost much of its bounce. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">We weaved our way through the streets towards the tyre shop, Nazar bobbing
happily along with a couple of pounds in his pocket to give as a tip to the man
who would dispense the air. Arriving only to find the shop closed for the day,
disappointment immediately took hold as Nazar realized that he would now be
stuck with a sub-par ball for the night. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">There were only a few seconds to turn this around before disgruntlement
set in. “It doesn’t matter,” I told him. “You can just practice your shooting
tonight.”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“But I still have to dribble the ball up to the net,” he
grumbled.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Sometimes in life you just have to make do,” I said. “Maybe Captain
Islam (the coach) can pump it up for you when we get there.”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His shoulders hunched over as he shuffled along in discontent. “I don’t
know if he has the thing to stick in the ball to pump it up.”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Well maybe you can use one of the club’s balls for tonight.”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Their balls aren't very good. Now I'll have nothing to do while Ziad's
training.” He wasn't sure who to blame but it was clear a large dose of
grumpiness would be upon us momentarily.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Look,” I told him, “this is a less-than-optimal situation, but there’s
nothing we can do about it tonight. Maybe this happened to remind you to be
patient. You have a great ball and we’ll put air in it tomorrow. You only have
to use a flat ball for one night. Some of the kids always have to use a ball
that isn't as good as yours. Plus, you have lots of people who love you. And
lots of people who you love. You have a full tummy. You have a great life.” </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He took a few seconds to think about it. “I am pretty lucky. I can just
practice my layups tonight.” </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">A couple more seconds of thinking and then, “Can I keep the two pounds to
buy something?”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Sure. See, something good has come out of it. Just remember that you
are luckier that 99% of kids in Egypt. Always try and look at the big picture.”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“It’s actually good that this happened,” he said “because now I have two
extra pounds to spend at the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kushk</i>.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">And his bounce was back.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span></div>
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<![endif]-->Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-88125760977554937982014-06-16T11:25:00.004+03:002014-06-16T12:01:49.597+03:00"My overseas connection" by Nazar<br />
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My 8-year old son, Nazar, also spoke in the regional Multicultural Public Speaking competition. He talked about his connection to Egypt, including his friends and some of the things he loves about it.</span></i><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Today I would like to
talk about my overseas connection.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Many people in
Australia are from other countries. For example, me! Well, half of me. One half of me is from
Australia and the other half is from Egypt. Egypt is a country in Africa.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The main language in
Egypt is Arabic. My brother and I always
speak Arabic with our dad, no matter where we are. One Egyptian word is “Iziak”.
That means “hello”.</span></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">There are so many
awesome things I love about Egypt. For
example, the people are really generous. They are also very funny and are experts at
making jokes. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">My best friends in
Cairo are Zeinab and Mohamed. They don’t
have a lot of money. They live in the garage of the building next door. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">They are so kind and
happy, even though they don’t have a proper house to live in. We hang out together a
lot. They are fantastic at inventing new games. One fun game we invented is a type of
hide-and-seek, where we hide in the trees. It’s called Hide and Tree.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Kids in Egypt also love
to play soccer in the street. We all meet in the park outside our house after
school. On the weekends, we sometimes
play until 11 o’clock at night!</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Sometimes we get two
pounds from our grandparents and go to the kooshk to buy chips and chocolate. A
kooshk is a very small corner shop that stays open until about 1 o’clock in the
morning!</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">There are also some
really nasty kids in our street. They
love to pick fights with all the other kids and cause problems – just for fun. They have heaps of
money. They prove that having money doesn’t make you better than anyone. And money doesn’t make
you a better person. Because they have heaps of money and they’re bullies. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Kids like Zeinab and
Mohamed prove that being a good person isn’t about how much money you have. Because
they don’t have that much money and they’re fantastic.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">If scientists are ever
able to make a time machine, I would travel back to Ancient Egypt because I
want to find out how the pharaohs built the pyramids. We can learn a lot about
ourselves from our past.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">A lot of people in this
school think that Egypt is just desert, mud huts by the River Nile and people
riding camels in the street. But they are just
stereotypes. Egypt has much more than those things.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Egypt has cars, trucks,
buses, trains, roads, apartments, parks, theme parks, I phones, I pads, schools,
malls, shops, airports, markets and cities. It just goes on and on and on.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Do you still think the
same about Egypt now? </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span></div>
Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-23739301225946872542014-06-14T13:38:00.000+03:002014-06-14T13:57:04.591+03:00Ziad's speech on stereotypes<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><i>My 11-year-old son, Ziad, spoke about stereotypes in the regional Multicultural Public Speaking competition. I'm very thankful to have a boy who is able to think for himself and come to his own conclusions about people:</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">I’d like to talk to you
today about stereotypes. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">There are stereotypes
all over the world. For example, all b</span><span style="line-height: 150%;">oys are
messy and all girls are fussy about their hair. These are both common gender stereotypes. But what is a stereotype exactly?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">A stereotype is an
oversimplified image of a particular type of person. It’s a commonly held view about a group of
people, such as a nationality, a social group, or a religion. Stereotypes are often incorrect or offensive. They can be positive or negative.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">For example:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21.6pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">·<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">All Italians are good cooks.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21.6pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">·<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">All Muslims are terrorists.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21.6pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">·<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">All black people are great basketball
players.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21.6pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">·<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">All French people are romantic.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21.6pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">·<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="line-height: 150%;">All men like cars.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21.6pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">·<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="line-height: 150%;">All policemen eat donuts - which I know is not true,
because my dad works with the police and he doesn’t eat donuts. Well, not that
I know of.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 21.6pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">People who believe in
stereotypes tend to believe what the internet or the media tells them, or what
other people tell them based on their experience, which is often wrong or twisted.
For example, if I have a Chinese friend who is fantastic at maths, I might
think that ALL Chinese people are fantastic at maths.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Stereotypes are wrong
because they make a judgement based on appearance, not on what a person is really
like inside. For example, maybe you
meet an American at some point in your life. And you don’t want to be friends with them
because you have heard that all Americans are loud and annoying. You may have
met the person who could have been your best friend or partner for life. But because you judged them by a stereotype,
you missed that chance. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Stereotyping is not
only hurtful, it is also wrong. It can cause
bullying from a young age. It can also lead people to live lives driven by hate.
And it can cause the victims of
stereotypes to be driven by fear.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">One way we can stop
stereotyping is to help people realize that deep down we are all the same. And, at the same time, we are all different.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Stereotyping puts
people from a particular group under one label that doesn’t apply to all of
them. And probably not even most of
them. Stereotypes are based on misconceptions. They come from a gap in
knowledge or a fear of something that is not properly understood. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">They leave no room for
individuality. The problem with
stereotypes is they assume that groups of people are naturally likely to behave
in a certain way. They pigeonhole all people
into one personality trait.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Going back to the
examples, I would like to make some points about why people should not
stereotype. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The first stereotype: All Italians are good cooks. I’m sure they are not ALL good cooks. They have many other talents. For starters, Leonardo da Vinci was a famous
Italian painter and Christopher Columbus was a great explorer. They were both Italian.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The second stereotype: All Muslims are terrorists. Well, obviously not ALL, because I am Muslim
and do I look like a terrorist? Come on
– I don’t even have a beard!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The third stereotype: All black people are great basketball players.
Here are some examples to prove this is
not true. Nelson Mandela, a famous
freedom activist. Usain Bolt, the
fastest man in the world. Martin Luther King Junior, a great example of a man
who fought for the rights of people who happened to have dark skin.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">To wrap it up it, I believe that stereotypes
are wrong. Everyone should try to do all
they can to stop stereotypes forever. We
all have our part to play in making this happen, starting with ourselves. We
should respect our own minds and think for ourselves. We should judge people only
on their personality, how they act and how they treat us.</span></span></div>
Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-21078969994972632802013-04-11T07:46:00.000+02:002013-04-11T07:46:21.963+02:00Egypt is a journey<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3B7IbebnkaUC9r1qgigP6uj3wevKSP22OttA6dOJDxKW9_h4cmaUY80TOiw1IREjSfAYdFOC3SV8unF64pEcIiJyAk5YopruvfUvp3UAw_bYnF2kZgL5NRFfRGz0G3bfXQswwPF20g-U/s1600/P1000133.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3B7IbebnkaUC9r1qgigP6uj3wevKSP22OttA6dOJDxKW9_h4cmaUY80TOiw1IREjSfAYdFOC3SV8unF64pEcIiJyAk5YopruvfUvp3UAw_bYnF2kZgL5NRFfRGz0G3bfXQswwPF20g-U/s320/P1000133.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">“<i>I can’t imagine why anyone would be sad to leave Egypt
these days</i>,”</b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;"> someone said to me.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Well, I'll tell you why. It’s sad because Egypt is a journey, not a destination. It’s
a place that reveals itself slowly over a long, long time. It is found in the
details, in the minutiae of everyday life, hanging in the air waiting to be
walked through so it can seep slowly through your skin and into your heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">It’s in the calloused hands of the butcher as he prepares
your meat. It’s in the rising fury of an argument that reaches a swift crescendo
before evaporating into nothing. It’s in the smoke wafting around the <i>dora
mashwy</i> carts. It’s in the boys who walk with their arms draped around each
other and the girls who link arms with their friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">It’s in the voices of the people, who all talk at once and
over the top of each other and yet still manage to generate a sequential conversation
out of the jumble of words. It’s in the play of the <i>bawab</i>’s children who
can invent really good games on the spot (or so I’m told by my kids).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">It's in the scent of the stifling, polluted air that hits you in the face when you step beyond the glass enclosure of the airport.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">It’s in the dust that settles in your skin and hair and in
the dirt under your fingernails. It’s in the tone of voice of the taxi drivers
when they talk about their love for their country, even when she’s at her most unlovable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">It’s in the constant little frustrations when you’re there
and the longing for it when you’re somewhere else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Egypt is like a sweet, fleshy pomegranate that
you have to tear open with your bare hands. It's an intertwining mess of tart, white, unsavoury pith and glistening scarlet juice pods that burst with sweetness if you
have the nerve to take a bite—the sweetness that you'll miss out on if you worry
about getting the juice on your clean shirt.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-47102109408178360022013-03-08T13:49:00.001+02:002013-03-09T10:40:19.831+02:00Collecting treasures in Cairo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The
other day, the boys and I were going for a long walk, just for the fun of it,
which is something of an anomaly in Cairo. At least that's how it started
out. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">And then, shortly after we started,
they decided it was also going to be a treasure collecting expedition.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Being
still of the age where certain scraps of discarded paraphernalia are considered
things of great consequence, they decided to amass as many bottle tops as they
could. Every few steps they spied another one, and the challenge was on to find
one they didn’t already have. The most valuable were those they had to get down
on their hands and knees to dig out with a stick, followed closely by the ones
covered in rust, which were considered antique and therefore priceless. After
two blocks their pockets were full and we had to stop at a kiosk to get a
couple of plastic bags to hold the loot. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">When we
finally got home a couple of hours later, we had a bucketful of bottle tops,
which we soaked in detergent and dried off. The second leg of entertainment then
followed by lining them up according to colour and brand. Four hours of merriment
and not a penny spent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">This is the Cairo equivalent of collecting seashells. My 7-year-old told me it
was the second best day of his life, succeeded only by the day he went to
Jambaroo, a local water park in Australia. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Egypt, the land where small joys can be found
in the dust.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><br /></span></div>
Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-21736785248228441052013-03-07T10:47:00.001+02:002013-05-13T05:44:16.186+02:00Egypt is the place...<br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 150%;">People constantly ask me, “…but why do you love Egypt so much?” And it’s a question I’ve always had trouble answering, because I never really knew why. It was not something to be put into words; it was a feeling. But over time, the reasons have crystallized in my mind and I will tell you exactly why I love it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">There
are a million little reasons, a million little moments, and the sum of their
parts make up the whole. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">I love it because of the sense of community that is
ever-present in a country of 90+ million people where, even when I didn’t know
a soul, I felt as though I belonged. Because if my car breaks down there will
be a handful of people pushing it to give it a clutch start without even having
to be asked. Because the fruit seller tore open a pomegranate with his hands to
show me how to eat it. Because the young guy in the kiosk offered my son his <i>hawawshi</i>
sandwich when he randomly commented how much he loves <i>hawawshi</i>. Because
the parents in the park invited my boys to play ball with their children and
then insisted that they keep the ball at the end of the game. Because my boys now
know what it means when someone has a white heart. Because when I told the
waiter in a café that I need my coffee really strong and really hot, he tapped
under each eye to say, “<i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Min
einaya</span></i>”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Because when my children give someone with nothing a couple
of pounds they receive heartfelt blessings for God’s protection. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Because being
a mother is not only enough, it is revered. Because every time I speak to
anyone they wish me peace. Because every time I talk to someone on the phone
they ask if I need anything. Because when I order </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">shay bilaban</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> in a
coffee shop they heat the milk for me. Because when I speak Arabic with an
accent the taxi driver asks if I’m Lebanese. Because here I learnt that sometimes
bad things happen to prevent something worse from happening. Because I left a
jacket I loved in a taxi and was told that it happened because somebody else
really needed that jacket much more than I did. Because my boys have learnt
that the </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">bawab’s</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> kids are often kinder and more polite than the kids who
have everything. Because here I finally worked out how to reconcile the
concepts of fate and freewill. Because the little things can mean everything. Because
being in Egypt makes me see life in its proper perspective. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Because Egypt is
the place where I feel more like myself than anywhere else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-9722144543884450632013-03-05T18:28:00.000+02:002013-03-10T00:53:39.575+02:00Balcony life<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwkNLscJ4xo6P4m4EOcgWao-wMSaZCmZiy9QgTUiNu1j9BT4k2scCMnKZtmSJMqVFudWcWDkddpa3dW7CMmcCjFO-WZX_6tPIUUEn2tBmGzNkCb75xqzxT7qO9ro5wQMfnJOagXXtL5zU/s1600/4-CC8717BD-2464392-800b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwkNLscJ4xo6P4m4EOcgWao-wMSaZCmZiy9QgTUiNu1j9BT4k2scCMnKZtmSJMqVFudWcWDkddpa3dW7CMmcCjFO-WZX_6tPIUUEn2tBmGzNkCb75xqzxT7qO9ro5wQMfnJOagXXtL5zU/s320/4-CC8717BD-2464392-800b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">It’s early March and every now and then a midday
breeze drifts across the balcony. My first coffee of the day is disappearing
quickly down my throat, sipped from one of the new glass mugs I bought
yesterday from El Tawhid wa el Nour (the Egyptian equivalent of Target or
K-Mart; not a fancy people place, but we love it).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You can hear a microcosm of life from Egyptian
balconies, especially if they’re on the lower floors of the building. The
voices of children playing. Radio music wafting past somewhat statically, with
Abdel Halim and Fayza Ahmed interspersed with Wust El Balad and Mohamed
Fouad, depending in which direction you turn your ears. The <i>bikya</i> man
buying unwanted household items, the <i>aysh</i> man selling bread, the <i>ghazl
el banat</i> man selling fairy floss, men and women selling vegetables on the
corner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sitting here, it’s easy to imagine that things have
changed for the better, that the people are happy, that the forces in power are
bettering the country day by day, minute by minute, propelled by a deep love of
their country and their people. And then reality returns and the picture is not
what it should be two years after the revolution. The hope that was here even a
year ago is almost gone, if there is any left at all, and the little that is
left hangs by a thread. Many who were struggling for change just want to leave;
to get on with their lives in a place where they count for something, where
their daily struggles and daily contributions count for something. But who can
leave, and who should have to?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The call to prayer cuts through the air, a constant
reminder of the presence of something greater than yourself in this country
that seems to have been abandoned by God. I keep trying to reassure myself
that, as it says in the Qur’an, ‘Everything is written’ and there is some kind
of beautiful plan in store for Egypt that will in due course come to fruition;
that the fabric of this country will be woven into what it should be by the
people, who deserve to have their vision for it materialized. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I wonder how those of my parents’ and grandparents’
generations feel. The ones who knew Egypt when she was free—or at least free by
comparison to what she is now. When cosmopolitan was the norm and every day
held a little romance, a little poetry. When she was <i>Om el Donya </i>personified.
And I can’t imagine the sadness they must feel, knowing what once was and
seeing what now is. Knowing what has been lost and wondering if it will ever be
found. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sitting on the balcony, it is not difficult to
imagine. And if it can be imagined, it can happen, isn’t that what they say?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-69370799696430043512012-11-14T10:58:00.000+02:002012-11-15T00:26:35.816+02:00Halfway to being a man<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">I
always thought the whole double digits thing was a bit overrated. But then
today – and I’m still not sure how it happened – my little boy turned ten.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">People try to warn you about it. When you have a newborn baby, everybody tilts their
head knowingly and tells you to “savour this time” because “it’ll be gone in a
flash”. Don’t blink, because “they grow up so quickly”. But when you’re waist
deep in nappies and <i>Play</i></span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> School</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> you can’t possibly see how that could
apply to you. And then your baby turns ten. And you </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">start</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> to believe it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Last
year, when he turned nine, I thought, G<i>ood grief,</i> <i>my little person is
halfway to being an official grown-up!</i> At least in Australia and Egypt. That was
enough to give me pause, but easy enough to brush over. And now he’s ten. In
one year, he’s gone from being half an official grown-up to half a fully-fledged
young adult. He’s halfway to being waist deep in a university degree. Or an apprenticeship.
Or possibly his second gap year. Whatever path he chooses, he’ll be entrenched in
adulthood. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The
odds are high that he’ll be out of my house and living elsewhere. And that’s a
sobering thought. A thought that brings a lump to my throat and makes my chest
constrict a little. A thought that causes my mind to flood with questions. <i>Have
I been a good enough mother? Am I raising him well enough? Am I enjoying my
time with him enough? Do I sweat the small stuff too much?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">He’s
at the age where I can see glimpses of the man he is on his way to becoming.
The man I hope he will be. It’s infused in everything he does. It’s in the way
he moves. The way he tilts his head. The way he expresses his opinions. The way
he treats others. And yet, for now, he’s still a little boy. For now, but not
for much longer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">We
have our children for such a short time, in the big scheme of things, before we
have to release them into the world. So now, with ten barging its way in
through the front door without even knocking, each moment feels more weighted
with significance. Every action seems more like a chance to impact this boy who
is on the fast track to manhood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">But
for today, I’m not going to think about it. I’m just going to read to him for a
bit longer when he asks me to, as he always does when it’s time for lights out.
Because one day, all too soon, he won’t ask any more. Because today, he’s still
just my little boy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-15551147541155557732012-05-21T07:08:00.000+02:002013-06-14T07:10:06.448+02:00Raising Muslim boys<br />
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<b style="line-height: 12.75pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">STORY and PHOTO: Katrina Condie</span></b>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">MAKING IT WORK: </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Australian woman Emily Richardson married an Egyptian Muslim man 11
years ago and the couple are now raising their two sons to be “respectful and
accepting of other people’s beliefs”, splitting their lives between the bustling
metropolis of Cairo and a pristine beach hamlet on the South Coast of NSW.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Raising Aussie
Muslim boys </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">to ‘be part of
the solution’</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<h4>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>“Our
similarities are much greater </b><b></b></i></span><br />
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">than our
differences… </span></i></b></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>
</i></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b></b></i></span><br />
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">if more people </span></i></b></b></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>
</b><b></b></i></span>
<br />
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">could get
into that mental space </span></i></b></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>
</i></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b></b></i></span><br />
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b></b></i></span></b><br />
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b><b><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">the world would be much better for it.”</span></i></b></b></b></div>
<b><b>
</b></b></div>
<b>
</b></div>
</h4>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b style="line-height: 12.75pt;"><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRoman,Bold';"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 12.75pt;">Emily
Richardson didn’t know how her parents would react when she rang to tell them
she was getting married.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">It wasn’t
the fact that she was on the other side of the world, or that she was marrying
an Egyptian man - it was that he was Muslim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Emily
grew up on a farm in New South Wales, Australia, where she, her three brothers
and their parents attended the local Presbyterian service every Sunday and said
grace before dinner each night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">With a
strong Scottish heritage, Emily’s upbringing was far from multicultural,
attending an Anglican high school and an all-girls Christian school in Sydney.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">In fact, she
had no idea about the Middle East and no exposure to Islam. “I had absolutely
no understanding of the culture and it wasn’t really on my radar. There was no
frame of reference for me.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">The stereotypical
perception of the Islamic religion – bearded men and oppressed women - fuelled
Emily’s trepidation in telling her parents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">But, as
it turned out, the family was supportive of her decision and they were
interested in learning more about Muslim beliefs and customs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">"I
thought mum and dad might freak out - maybe they did and just didn’t say
anything," Emily said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0cm 0cm 16.2pt;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="line-height: 12.75pt;">"I’m
sure they had many reservations about the situation, stemming from the fact
that they knew little about the culture and </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">hadn't</span><span style="line-height: 12.75pt;"> met Ahmed, but I </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">didn't</span><span style="line-height: 12.75pt;"> doubt
that they’d be supportive of us and welcome him into the family, which they
did."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0cm 0cm 16.2pt;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="line-height: 12.75pt;">Some of
Emily’s friends </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">weren't</span><span style="line-height: 12.75pt;"> so supportive, warning her she was making a huge
mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">"I
did have a couple of friends who were very concerned that I was getting into a
situation that would backfire badly for me," she said. "One friend
was horrified and tried to talk me out of it."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">They had
met two years earlier when Ahmed spotted Emily through the crowd at a rooftop
party in Cairo, where she had just taken up a position teaching English in
1999. "As legend has it, he saw me from across the other side of the roof
and decided we had to meet," she laughed. "He was very open and
friendly - and very funny. We were great friends and had a very easy relationship
from day one."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">A few
weeks after meeting, Ahmed took Emily to meet his family. They warmly welcomed
the Australian woman who was still finding her feet in a foreign land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0cm 0cm 16.2pt;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="line-height: 12.75pt;">“His
family were very accepting of me,” she said. “They knew I'd been raised in a Christian environment and as Christians and Muslims believe
in the one God, it </span><span style="line-height: 17px;">wasn't</span><span style="line-height: 12.75pt;"> a problem.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“I’m sure
his family had some concerns about the cultural differences at first, but they
realized pretty quickly that Ahmed was serious about me and they got on with
getting to know me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“They are
all very open-minded and easygoing. Now I feel just like one of the family.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">It was a
similar story when Ahmed came to Australia and met Emily’s parents and brothers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">The
couple spoke early on about children and how they would be raised. “It’s very,
very important to have all the big discussions prior to marriage,” she said. “What
religion the children will be and what the expectations of both partners are.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Now
living with two young sons, Ziad and Nazar, in Australia, with her parents and one
brother just around the corner, Emily and Ahmed are lapping up the Aussie laidback
lifestyle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“Ahmed
loves it here,” Emily said. “We spend a lot of time at the beach and going for
long walks. Ahmed is a great dad and does a lot with the boys.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">But every
day she’s in Australia, walking on a deserted pristine beach, surrounded by
bushland - a life that many would give their right arm for - Emily is dreaming
of being back in Cairo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Egypt has
dug its claws in deep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">The
family spends about three or four months a year in Heliopolis, a middle class
suburb of Cairo. “When I’m there, I feel like I'm in the centre of the universe,
and when I’m away, I can’t wait to go back,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“I like
it here, in Australia, but it just doesn’t touch me like Egypt does - the
smells, the activity - all your senses are bombarded. It’s so vibrant,
pulsating and exhausting and life is lived in the moment. I love the whole
Egyptian culture, the music, language, the food. You walk outside and there are
kids playing soccer in the street, men selling bread, men selling fairy floss,
women selling vegetables on the corner. Even if you’re completely alone, you
feel a part of the community around you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">She said
the boys thrive on being exposed to the culture and the language. “Nazar loves
all the stray cats in Egypt and Ziad loves going to the markets,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“They see
extreme poverty and interact with kids who are dirt poor and kids who are very
well off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“They see
that money doesn’t make a good person, through their interaction with these
children and the dynamics in their little group of friends and acquaintances -
life for the majority of people in Egypt is a struggle.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Emily
said many Westerners still have a distorted view of the Middle East, its people
and its culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">She said
the people there have an “almost magnetic quality” about them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“Egyptians
possess a certain indefinable quality that is really difficult to describe -
even in their darkest moments, of which there have been many in the last ten
years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;"> “And the Egyptian sense of humour is
unbeatable - Egyptians are hilarious.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Despite the
common belief that Muslim men who marry foreign women demand their wives
convert to Islam, Emily explained that, “It’s expected that the children will
be Muslim but other than that no real conversion of beliefs is expected - although
it differs depending on the socioeconomic status of the family, and most
families would greatly hope that the woman would adopt their beliefs for her
own sake.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">She said
at no time was she asked to convert to Islam and she is not required to wear a headscarf
while in Egypt - expect when entering a mosque.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“There is
a definite stereotype about not only women who convert to Islam, but all Muslim
women being dominated and subservient,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“Of
course there are many cases where this is true, but in my experience it is in no way the norm,”
Emily explained.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“It
usually stems, in my opinion, from a certain interpretation of the Qur’an by a certain
type of man that in no way represents the moderate Muslim man - at least none that I know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“Historically,
Muslim woman have had more rights for far longer than women in the West, if the
religion is followed correctly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“The
right to vote and the right to own property are two that spring to mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“My own
mother-in-law, for example, was a lawyer who worked her whole life until she
retired a couple of years ago.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Prior to
commencing work in Cairo, Emily had back-packed through Egypt five years
earlier while travelling with a friend. She had no idea what the country would
be like, but was instantly drawn to the place and its people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Looking
back, she said she feels “almost embarrassed” about the way she used to think. “When
I think about when I was growing up and in college, I didn’t know what Islam
was and had very little exposure to multiculturalism. I feel like I was quite judgmental
about a lot of things without really understanding them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“I don’t
know where the ideas came from, or why I thought that way. I just did.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Emily
believes many people throughout the world still think like that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“There is
a lot of bias against Muslims and Arabs,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“Some of
the things I read and see in the media just leave me shaking my head because
they are so inaccurate and so overgeneralized.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“I can’t
relate them at all to the people I know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“It makes
me sad more than anything because I know this culture and it is amazing, rich
and multi-faceted.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Now
living in a small town, where they are the only Egyptian family and the boys
are the only Muslim students at their school, Emily said it is important for
her and Ahmed to raise their children without bias and with an understanding
and acceptance of other people’s beliefs, religion and customs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“We try
to instil in them that other people have different beliefs and that’s okay
because everyone is free to choose and follow what is in their heart,” she
said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“My kids being
accepting and open-minded is one of the most important things to me and it’s
something we often talk about with the boys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“There
are so many stereotypes out there that are just wrong, so it’s important to me
that my boys be part of the solution - and not part of the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“I want
them to understand that they’re in a position where they’re representing their
Egyptian culture when they’re here in Australia and their Australian culture
when they’re in Egypt and that people will judge others based on their behaviour.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“Our sons know that they are Muslim and they
know that their grandparents in Australia are Christian,” Emily said. “They
also know that we all believe in the same one God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“They
know that the main difference is that in Islam Jesus is a prophet, while
Christians believe that he is the son of God.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">The
family still celebrates Christmas and Easter together, though as non-religious celebrations, and if they are in
Egypt at the time they are more “low key affairs”. They also observe Ramadan,
when Ahmed and Emily fast, and celebrate the two Eids (Islamic festivals).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Emily is
this month celebrating becoming an Egyptian citizen. “I have felt Egyptian for
so long anyway that it’s nice that it’s now official,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">With a
brother-in-law jailed for a year for speaking out against the military, the
political system is a subject close to Emily’s heart and she is pleased she
will have the right to vote in future presidential elections.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“Egyptians
have been oppressed by the ruling regime for over 30 years, with little freedom
of speech and terrible human rights abuses,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“There’s
an ongoing struggle to meet the demands of last year’s revolution, but there
are so many factors at play, so much corruption and so many people trying to
protect themselves that it seems not much has changed yet. But we still have
faith…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">She said,
contrary to widespread belief and “media hype” many ordinary Muslims and
Christians live harmoniously in the suburbs of Egypt. “Most Egyptian Muslims I
know have Christian friends, and vice versa,” she said. “I don’t see the divide
as being on the street level but something that is exacerbated higher up.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Emily
believes a solution will be found to the problems being faced by Egyptians and
she also feels if people in general were more accepting and respectful of
others’ beliefs, the world would be a better place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">She said
her cross-cultural relationship was a “microcosm of the larger picture.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“I am
very into East-West relations and bridging the gap, so to speak. And with
relationships such as ours, you quickly realize that our similarities are much
great than our differences,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“And it’s
such a simple realization that more people would have if they were exposed to
‘the other side’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“The
bottom line is that we’re all people, we all care about the same basic things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“If more
people could get into that mental space the world would be much better for it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Emily’s
“addiction” to Egypt inspired her first novel called <i>The Nile is a Road</i>,
which has been published in Egypt and will soon be available in Australia.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">It’s
the story of two foreign girls who travel to Cairo together. They only plan to
stay a week and see the pyramids. However, once there they meet and befriend
some local men and find that they don’t want to leave.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.2pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">“The
book is about their experiences in Cairo and the effect the people have on
them, with a lot of cultural references and anecdotes,” Emily said. “Cairo is
filled with so many stories that I knew I would set my first book there. I love
Egypt so much that I want to tell everyone about it and I hope that my book
does this.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-45078906056704791682011-12-06T21:12:00.000+02:002011-12-06T21:12:21.863+02:00Moments: HawawshiThis is the sort of thing I love about Cairo: You're out for an afternoon walk. Feeling a little thirsty, you stop at the nearest kiosk to buy a bottle of water, only to be overcome with the most amazing and unmistakable aroma drifting towards you from inside. Your first thought is proven correct as you see the young guy sitting behind the counter opening the silver foil covering his <i>hawawshi</i>, the steam rushing out. <br />
<br />
<i>Hawawshi</i> is just one of those things that is so good (unless you're a vegetarian, in which case take no heed) that it can't really be adequately described. It's made from <i>baladi</i> bread, Egypt's version of pita bread (but much better) stuffed with spicy minced meat, brushed with oil, wrapped in aluminium foil and baked for about half an hour. <br />
<br />
Being a <i>hawawshi</i> enthusiast, I was compelled to comment how beautiful the smell was and ask him if it was from a good shop (fellow <i>hawawshi</i> people having instilled in me the importance of verifying the quality of <i>hawawshi</i> establishments, which are prone to using questionable meat), thinking we could stop by and pick some up on our way home. He immediately picked it up and held it out to me to take. I refused. He insisted, waving it towards me. I thanked him and refused again. <br />
<br />
Then, from beside me, my son's voice chimed in. "Aah, is that <i>hawawshi</i>?" The young man behind the counter smiled down at him as he tore his lunch down the middle and thrust half of it into the hands of my son, who didn't hesitate in accepting it and the kindness with which it was given. <br />
<br />
As we continued our walk, the aroma of the <i>hawawshi</i> and the ripple effects of this man's generosity followed us down the street.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-55879144496356075252011-09-17T12:16:00.004+02:002011-09-19T10:23:41.858+02:00Egypt. The same but different.Flying into Cairo this time—the first since the Revolution—felt a little different than flying into Cairo typically does. To begin with, the airport was very hushed, with a notable absence of men approaching with oversized trolleys insisting we needed assistance with our luggage. Happily, I took possession of a trolley and attended to my own luggage without anyone saying anything or trying to muscle in.<br />
<br />
While not venturing too far beyond my local neighbourhood this first week, initial impressions were quick to form. And in my world first impressions count for a lot.<br />
<br />
It’s often the little touches that make the biggest impact. The things you don’t notice or brush over when they are there typically leave the most gaping holes when they’re gone. (Bearing in mind that not all gaping holes are bad things.) <br />
<br />
While aware of the possibly scientifically illogical nature of it, what struck me immediately is that the air seems cleaner. And yet, there it is. Cleaner, fresher air. It feels easier to breathe in Cairo than before.<br />
<br />
And so it is also with the traffic, which is the same but different somehow in a way my finger can’t quite place itself on. Not as intensely frustrating perhaps? A feeling that even if things are moving at a snail's pace they are, in fact, actually moving and the destination is both visible and reachable? <br />
<br />
While it’s tempting to say that the heat is oppressive, that would be a little impertinent considering Cairo is now on the tail end of summer and actually a couple of weeks into autumn. Along with the fact that talking about the weather is dull and the general population is already aware that Egypt is a hot place for a large chunk of the year. Suffice to say that the heat is currently just a little prickly if one is walking out and about in the middle of the day. <br />
<br />
Optimism hangs so much more lightly in the air than despair. And today, a cool breeze weaves its way intermittently through the hot sky.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-76294492973821878132011-03-01T11:31:00.005+02:002011-03-03T14:59:27.220+02:00Oh, how the rhetoric about Egypt has changed!A thought ran like a loop through my mind for years as I watched Egypt’s immeasurable potential sink further and further into despondency with the passing of time: <i><b>Egypt should be the best country in the world.</b></i> And not because of its pivotal geographical location, the Pyramids, the Red Sea, the history, the Nile, the Suez Canal or the abundance of other fabulous things the country has to offer – although they certainly play a part – but because of the best thing about Egypt. The people. Egypt has always been about the people, who have a very particular, largely indefinable quality. <br />
<br />
For a long time now, there have been echoes of the same tedious rhetoric: Egyptian people are too apathetic, too demoralized, too afraid, too lacking in hope to ever rise up against oppression. But on January 25, the people did rise up, the people broke through their fear, the people persisted, united and triumphed – and they did it peacefully. Because of this they have become an inspiration for people everywhere. This revolution has proven so many people wrong and has swept away decades, if not centuries, of stereotypes and bigoted perceptions about the Middle East and Arabs... at least for those who are willing to listen with open ears. At the same time it has set an incredible example for the world to follow. Cheesy as it may sound, because of 18 days in Egypt, there is renewed hope for all of humanity.<br />
<br />
There are no pithy little phrases that could adequately describe what Egypt could now become, now that the sum of her unified voices has been unleashed. <br />
<br />
Nobody is under the illusion that reconstructing Egypt will be a walk in the park. Obviously the post-revolution road ahead will be filled with many stones. But the thought running through my head has changed. <i>Should</i> has been replaced with <i>will</i>.<i> <br />
<br />
<b>Egypt will be the best country in the world.</b></i> Because of the people.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-51730225610553325912011-01-28T11:29:00.005+02:002011-01-28T13:31:50.033+02:00Egypt will not be silenced!The silence is eerily deafening. Barely anyone from Egypt is online, with all ISPs having been shut down except one – Noor – apparently because that’s the one used by the stock exchange and some banks. Mobile phone services are erratic at best. <br />
<br />
A whole country has been wiped off the Internet map as Hosni Mubarak and his regime try to silence a nation and isolate them from communication with the outside world. Clearly, it’s also to shield their ongoing crimes against humanity - and quite possibly intended massacre - from the eyes of the world. <br />
<br />
Today is the fourth day Egyptians have protested across the country against the barbaric, corrupt regime that has been in power uncontested for almost 30 years. Further protests are coming in a couple of hours, after Friday prayers at 1:00pm Egypt time. Reports from eyewitnesses on twitter say plainclothes police/thugs are dowsing cars and public squares with petrol, presumably in order to set them on fire during the protests and blame protesters, thus giving them an excuse to attack them. Or, perhaps – God forbid – to set the public areas aflame once they’re filled with people. <br />
<br />
It's also reported that the regime's thugs are also out in large numbers armed with knives and baseball bats.<br />
<br />
Contrary to popular public opinion in the US and other countries, these protests are not being led by the Muslim Brotherhood (although some members of the MB are reported to be protesting as individuals) or, in fact, by any single group. They are being powered by the people, by individual Egyptians who have had enough. <br />
<br />
Do whatever you can to support them and let the world know they’re being heard. <br />
<br />
Only God knows what will happen in Egypt over the coming hours and days. But to all of Egypt and all Egyptians… your white heart is beating loudly and we can hear you.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-48667712803063022972010-11-03T06:34:00.004+02:002010-11-03T12:18:27.476+02:00A whole lot of hullabaloo about nothingIt’s been interesting watching the hullabaloo in the media surrounding Lauren Booth’s recent conversion to Islam. <br /><br />She’s been criticized, disparaged, condemned and laughed at for her decision, her motives and sanity questioned ad nauseam. And yet, only she – and God, if you’re that way inclined – knows what her motives are. It’s really nobody else’s business. She has said she experienced spiritual enlightenment while in Iran… surely it’s a little repellant for people to believe they have the right to question this. And why is it so hard for people to swallow? <br /><br />In contrast, her brother-in-law Tony Blair’s official conversion to Catholicism soon after leaving office was widely reported in the media in a rather matter-of-fact manner, with gentle, almost lilting references to his “spiritual journey”. And yet Lauren Booth’s spiritual journey, it seems, does not deserve the same respect from much of the world’s media, with derisive comments and “analysis” of her actions being bandied around more liberally than chicken salt on hot chips. <br /><br />Some Lilliputian journalists and their readers have been at best sarcastic and at worst gratuitously vitriolic in their response to her announcement. It’s more than a little irritating and, quite frankly, insulting to any woman who has ever felt strongly about something that others may not agree with or understand. <br /><br />One comment that summed it up was from a guy who asked: “Why is this front page headline news? I’ve just cooked lunch. Does that count as headline news?”<br /><br />I don’t know much about Lauren Booth. Maybe she is as batty as some people are saying. Maybe she does crave media attention. Or maybe she’s just telling the truth as she sees it. But this is all beside the point. The danger lies not in her conversion to Islam, but in people’s reaction to it, because fear coupled with lack of knowledge and empathy is a perilous road on which to travel.<br /><br />As a mother, I am tempted to say that I would be far more worried about leaving my children with a Catholic priest than with a swarthy bearded man or a headscarf-wearing woman who speaks Arabic. But that would just be stereotyping Catholic priests – and we all know it’s wrong to do that.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-4176522913334866642010-10-20T15:14:00.013+02:002010-10-21T12:17:22.982+02:00Give our children the space to be who they are"<span style="font-style:italic;">We are raised on comparison;<br />Our education is based on it;<br />So is our culture.<br />So we struggle to be someone other than who we are.</span>"<br /> (J. Krishnamurti)<br /><br />I worry about sending my kids to school. I worry for many reasons. The other night at dinner I asked them, “What did you learn today?” My pre-schooler told me that he learnt that the moon was made of rocks, which he picked up from God knows where, but he picked it up, which suitably impressed me. My school-aged son, who is in year 2, told me, “You know, I don’t really learn anything new at school.” Which kind of got me thinking, <span style="font-style:italic;">What is he getting from school?</span> Is school a vehicle for knowledge or is it just dumbing kids down?<br /><br />I’ve always been of the mindset that the main purpose of the modern education system is to produce a workforce; cogs in the wheel of society to keep it functioning; mice on a treadmill to maintain the status quo. <br /><br />Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” How that quote tears at a parent’s heartstrings! And I have to ask myself, <span style="font-style:italic;">What role does formal education play in this loss of artistic expression and imagination?</span><br /><br />It often feels as though I have to counter what my 7-year-old picks up at school with the truth, particularly when it comes to the question of peer pressure and the desire to appear ‘cool’. Why do second graders feel the need to be ‘cool’? And what is ‘cool’ anyway? We all went through it. Everyone wants to fit in at school, and so beliefs and self-perceptions are moulded around this insidious principle without realization, to the detriment of individuality and self-awareness.<br /><br />“Mama,” he recently asked me, “what are girls’ germs?” Where does one start with such a question? And so I told him that I’m a girl and he likes me. His cousins are girls and he likes them. His grandma and his teta are girls and he likes them. Girls are people just like boys – what’s not to like? He pondered this for a minute before concluding that he would inform his friends of this fact. Which he did, and now most of them agree that ‘girls’ germs’ don’t actually exist. Just in the same way he suddenly mysteriously didn’t want to hold my hand when approaching school. “You know,” I told him, “most of the boys here love holding their mum’s hand. They just think that it’s not cool. But you should do what you want to do.” And now he holds my hand again.<br /><br />He also doodles around the edges of his homework. But this is not considered ‘appropriate’. But why not? I like the doodling. I don't like the fact that I'm expected to tell him it's not 'appropriate'.<br /><br />In grade 1 he got put in the remedial reading group. He’s always been an excellent reader, and when I prodded the teacher for an explanation, she confessed that he was put in this group to make up the numbers for government funding. Hmm. I guess because he has an ethnic-sounding name.<br /><br />In grade 1, my nephew was chastised by his teacher for humming tunes at his desk because “It might disrupt the other children.” Very sad.<br /><br />Let’s give our children the space to be who they are. Even in school.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-70192774118152389042010-06-21T12:50:00.007+03:002011-03-01T11:16:46.598+02:00When silence is deafeningFriends in Australia and the US have been asking me what has been going on in Egypt the last couple of weeks. Who is Khaled Said? What is this situation about? What happened to him? What’s going on?<br />
<br />
Khaled Said is a 28-year-old Egyptian man who was brutally beaten to death by two plain clothes policemen in broad daylight in Alexandria on June 6, for no explicable reason. There have since been huge demonstrations – the most effective, powerful and heart-wrenching being the silent protest in Alexandria last Friday – and Khaled has become a martyr and an icon for change in Egypt, particularly for the movement against regime-sanctioned police brutality, which is routine. Of course there are countless others who have met the same fate, but this case has outraged the public and received widespread attention because it was in broad daylight and not behind the walls of a police station. There have been extremely graphic before-and-after photos of Khaled circulated that are impossible to ignore.<br />
<br />
An Egyptian friend Shady explains the situation in more detail:<br />
“The facts are that Khaled was brutally killed in the middle of the street by two plain clothes police informants (death/torture squads). They literally executed him by smashing his head into pieces (broken skull) in the middle of the street. They banged his head into the floor numerous times until his face became totally deformed. To make things worse, instead of bringing the killers to justice, the police have fabricated all sorts of absurd, illogical lies about Khaled (such as claiming that his smashed skull was a result of him falling off the bed while being transported to the ambulance!), which no one believes as the pictures and witnesses blatantly refute this. Furthermore, the corrupt system has utilized all state-controlled media to unleash a smear campaign against the poor victim, claiming he was a drug dealer. And finally, it's brutally cracking down on all demonstrations to try to silence any resistance. <br />
<br />
“There are two stories about why he was killed: (1) He asked to be treated with respect; (2) He was about to expose cops who were dealing in drugs (there’s a video on the net showing this) and it’s claimed that the killers are in the video. The one sure thing is that there's a massive cover-up story.<br />
<br />
“You might wonder why the police are doing this. The reason is to maintain their brutal image so as to terrorize people against showing any resistance to the regime. And they can never let any one of the police go to trial at any cost, even if they murder people. <br />
<br />
“The regime is stealing taxes from people to fund the police, whose job is to protect the regime at any cost. Hence, those who are supposed to protect us are actually killing us, with support that reaches all the way to the Head of State. Hence, the police have ended up being the biggest mafia gang in the whole country.”<br />
<br />
Last Friday 18 June – in a stroke of brilliantly conceived and implemented activism – Egyptian men, women, teenagers and children dressed in black and stood in silence for one hour along the corniche in Alexandria and Cairo demonstrating their fury at the government for the brutal killing of Khaled and countless others like him. They stood in silence, some praying with outstretched hands, some reading the Qur’an, some reading the Bible… and they stood a few feet apart so as to circumvent the law against public demonstrations and avoid the identification of any ringleaders or organisers. <br />
<br />
As Shady said:<br />
“This was a truly innovative technique as the previous demonstrations were brutally knocked down by the police mafia. The police have the 'dirty jobs' squad... plain clothes squads who kidnap and beat the demonstration leaders. This time the demonstration was spread out across kilometres, which made it very difficult for the police to stop them. This is a Ghandi-style type of demonstration!” <br />
<br />
And another Egyptian friend Ramy said:<br />
“I always thought this is the way to demonstrate, not with violence or hate slogans. This is the way it must be done, and this is the way you grab the world’s attention... not with violence and not by screaming and creating hate slogans. I’m sure the next one will be even more successful. The nation has started to have a PULSE after thirty long years of sleep.” <br />
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When my Australian friend Mandy read about and saw photos of the silent demonstration in Alexandria, she said: <br />
“This is awesome – it's a pity more people in Australia and around the world aren't more aware of it and showing their support for such a huge moment in history! I had a dinner party last night and told them all.”<br />
<br />
I hope everyone outside of Egypt is talking about this at dinner by the end of the week.<br />
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There is another silent demonstration planned for this Friday 25 June, apparently to be led by Mohammed ElBaradei. Let’s hope the international media gets behind it and the countries that finance the government stop looking the other way. <br />
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And, finally, a quote from Shady: <br />
“A minuscule feat of resistance can trigger a ripple effect of epic proportions. The initial spark that unleashed the whole civil rights movement in the USA in the 1960s started when a black lady refused to give her seat to a white lady. In the end, this led to the freedom of the black people. Never underestimate your action, no matter how small... a single word can be as sharp as a sword.”<br />
<br />
The domino effect, which starts with one gentle little push, is unstoppable.<br />
<br />
God bless Egypt.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-70389155669724872782010-03-26T16:17:00.002+02:002010-03-26T16:20:17.236+02:00A world gone madGiven the overabundance of conspiracy theories generally abounding throughout Egypt, I was rather surprised recently, while exiting the country through Cairo airport, to have an encounter that made the rest of the world look like it’s gone bonkers.<br /><br />The boys and I were going through passport control – a place where one is generally conditioned to act as responsibly and sensibly as possible in order to avoid the flaring up of any prickly situations. Spying the official stamp through the glass, four-year-old Nazar asked the officer if he could stamp his hand. <br /><br />In a beautifully fortuitous misunderstanding, the officer told Nazar, “Sure, just come in through this little door,” and stood up to let him into the booth. Hardly believing his good fortune, Nazar scurried inside, closely followed by his brother. Once inside, the officer gave Nazar the stamp and helped him stamp our three passports. He chatted to him, asked him his name, showed him how to hold the stamp, and guided his little hand as he stamped our passports. I was pretty much gobsmacked at this blatant toleration – in fact, encouragement – of such unregulated, spontaneous behaviour!<br /><br />And the best part…? The security guards and police looking on with pleasure, smiling, seeing the situation for what it was, rather than what it wasn’t. <br /><br />While the rest of the world is tying itself in knots and falling over itself to follow the ‘rules’, it is a relief to experience a moment where kids can just be kids. Where a four-year-old climbing into a passport booth to try out a stamp is actually okay, and not a cause for a national security alert. <br /><br />The world has gone a little mad. And so I ask myself: Where does one draw the line between security and inanity? Between cautious and ludicrous? Funnily enough, it is clearly drawn in a Cairo airport passport control booth!Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-13197458452452472322010-03-01T00:23:00.005+02:002010-03-01T00:36:26.845+02:00Soul-shardsA while ago, I was talking to my sister-in-law Gwen about Egypt. She, like many others, was trying to get to the bottom of its magnetic pull on me. We talked in circles… actually more like figure 8s or overlapping squiggly lines… and came to no palpable conclusions.<br /><br />Sure, it’s the people, the culture, the atmosphere, the music, etc etc… I could go on all day. But why is the pull there? Where does it come from? And why is it so indefinable?<br /> <br />Then she told me about soul-shards, which I still don’t fully understand despite googling it numerous times. The concept was conceived by mathematician Douglas Hofstadter in his book, <span style="font-style:italic;">I am a Strange Loop</span>, where he talks about a day he saw his mother grieving over a photo of his recently dead father, lamenting that the photo had no meaning, that it was just a useless piece of flat paper with dark spots on it. He instinctively disagreed with his mother, and used the analogy of Frederic Chopin’s piano sheet music to tell her how he felt in an attempt to bring her a tiny degree of comfort:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">In the living room we have a book of the Chopin études for piano. All of its pages are just pieces of paper with dark marks on them, just as two dimensional and flat and foldable as the photograph of Dad – and yet, think of the powerful effect that they have had on people all over the world for 150 years now. Thanks to those black marks on those flat sheets of paper, untold thousands of people have collectively spent millions of hours moving their fingers over the keyboards of pianos in complicated patterns, producing sounds that give them indescribable pleasure and a sense of great meaning. Those pianists in turn have conveyed to many millions of listeners, including you and me, the profound emotions that churned in Frederic Chopin's heart, thus affording all of us some partial access to Chopin's interiority – to the experience of living inside the head, or rather the soul, of Frederic Chopin. The marks on those sheets of paper are no less than soul-shards – scattered remnants of the shattered soul of Frederic Chopin. Each of those strange geometries of notes has a unique power to bring back to life, inside our brains, some tiny fragment of the internal experiences of another human being – his sufferings, his joys, his deeper passions and tensions – and we thereby know, at least in part, what it was like to be that human being, and many people feel intense love for him.</span> <br /> <br />Why are we drawn to certain music, certain people, certain places? Why do some places make us feel alive and uplifted, while others leave us unaffected or even numb? Why do some things tear at our hearts and never let go? Maybe there’s something to this soul-shard theory, and if so then Egypt has sprinkled her soul-shards over me with reckless abandon. I think they must be in the Nile water.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-48314895796385891422010-02-18T16:22:00.005+02:002010-02-18T20:41:52.612+02:00Beauty in povertyI think of Veruca Salt from <span style="font-style:italic;">Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</span>. No matter what her parents gave her, it was never enough. She always wanted more; she was always looking for the next thing, the next toy, the next pet, the next ‘high’. She never took even one moment to be grateful for what she had – and she had a lot! Pretty much anything she asked for. <br /><br />And even though she was an outwardly pretty little girl, she was truly ugly. Insufferably obnoxious, and petulant to the point of being aggressive. All through no fault of her own – I mean, if you’re conditioned to be an ungrateful wretch since birth, there’s little hope of you being anything else. <br /><br />In an ironic and beautifully synchronous twist, I just read an article about Suri Cruise, who was spotted boarding a helicopter in Jamaica carrying a new $900 designer handbag (just what every 3-year-old needs!), a drop in the ocean of her alleged $3.5 million wardrobe. At the end of the article, the following question is posed and readers are invited to have their say in an online forum: <span style="font-style:italic;">Do you think Suri Cruise is over-indulged by her parents?</span> What a ludicrous question. Is it really necessary to have an online forum to determine something that is blatantly obvious!? The answer is YES!<br /><br />There is such poverty consciousness in the West. To a ridiculous extent. People living in million-dollar homes, running multiple cars, buying designer clothes and iPhones, who actually think they <span style="font-style:italic;">have to be careful with money</span>. People who think they need to tighten their belts. Here’s an idea: don’t tighten your belts; tighten your expectations. Downsize a little. Take off the mask you’re wearing and stop trying to get stuff just because everyone else has it. Stop trying to be someone you’re not just for the sake of appearances. Nobody really gives a toss anyway. Really. It’s like when you go to a gym class and you worry if your legs look too fat or your bum looks too big: nobody is looking at you! Everybody else is only worrying about how they look!<br /><br />When I was a child, we lived down the road from the local postman. He only had two children who weren’t, as I recall, any larger than normal. And yet, he built a MANSION to live in. Not a house, not even a large house, but a MANSION. Two stories. Several living rooms. Superfluous bedrooms. It was truly absurd. And for what? All I can think is that someone has to clean that house, and I’m glad it’s not me. <br /><br />When I think of all this, I see a certain beauty in poverty. And while those who are up to their necks in it would no doubt disagree, there is beauty in poverty because there are fewer masks. Who can be bothered donning a mask when they need to get the next meal on the table? Who has time for pretense when their children are hungry? Who will go to the trouble of wearing a mask if they are truly happy, truly sure of who they are? <br /><br />When you have no expectations, the simple things mean a lot – and there is a very specific kind of beauty and honesty in that. I’d much rather hang out with Charlie than Veruca.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-17897109529556544892010-02-11T23:38:00.008+02:002010-02-12T00:35:43.150+02:00God is GodMany many years ago, the first time I stepped foot in Cairo, I met someone called Ibrahim. He wore a suit and tie, had a shortly clipped beard and moustache and, with his precise enunciation of every English word, sounded more Indian than Egyptian. He was one of those people who had the ability to talk at length about any subject even if he knew next to nothing about it – a skill that is even more impressive in a language that is not your first. He would speak to anyone for hours on end about any number of things and his English, along with his grooming, was impeccable. On top of that, he was the only local I had met who was not a chain-smoker. He was well travelled, perceptive and had many things to say that were worth hearing.<br /><br />And then there was his friend Medhat, who was like a roll of sticky tape whose end could never be found. Such a peculiar soul. So many different people rolled into one body. <br /><br />The day I met Medhat, I had been sitting in Amira Coffee Shop (which no longer exists) deeply engrossed in conversation with Ibrahim who, although I had met him only the day before, already considered himself to be in my inner circle of friends. That’s what it’s like in Egypt… strangers in the morning, close friends by evening.<br /> <br />“Medhat,” said Ibrahim as he introduced us, “can read your palm.” So I shrugged and held out my hand. Medhat called over the waiter and asked for a pen, which he used to scrutinize my hand without having to touch it and possibly cause offence. <br /> <br />More than two hours passed before Medhat dropped his pen and declared he had finished. "You are an open book to me. You think you have secrets, but I see everything. I see thoughts you do not even realize you are having." Okay.<br /> <br />Talking about life and fate and choices, our conversation soon steered towards their religious beliefs. Medhat and Ibrahim wove their words together as though they were one person, finishing each other's sentences with ease, each picking up the other's explanations and elaborating on them. <br /><br />The cornerstone of their life, they said, is their unquestioned belief in one God. For them this was not just a belief but an undeniable fact. Alternatives were never pondered. "Christians use the word God, Jews use the word Yahveh, Muslims use the word Allah," said Ibrahim. "They are just three different words for the same being." <br /><br />Just as water is still water whether you call it water, maya, agua, eau or something else. It doesn’t change what it is. Water is water. And God is God.<br /><br />“God,” said Ibrahim, “is still the same God, no matter what name you use, no matter what religion you follow." <br /><br />I asked them many questions, and for each one they had a detailed and eloquent answer. “Islam,” Medhat stressed, “is not just a religion. It is a way of life. If you accept that you also accept that Allah controls the fate of the universe and everything in it.” <br /><br />“So there’s no freedom of choice?” I asked. Maybe this helped explain the general <span style="font-style:italic;">laissez-faire</span> attitude I had seen around me.<br /><br />“Everything that will happen is already written,” said Ibrahim. “But people are still free to make their own choices.” <br /><br />This reminds me of a conversation I had with my friend Adora a few days ago, about how difficult it is to marry these two concepts of pre-destiny and free choice together. We came to the conclusion that perhaps it could be that while the destination is already written, the journey you take to get there is your free will and depends on the choices and decisions you make along the way.<br /><br />Growing up, Islam had always seemed so complicated and inaccessible; a strangely cultish religion that had no point of familiarity for me. Years later, when I met these people, I realized that the source of my impressions had been nothing more than a knowledge gap.<br /> <br />The more they told me, the more I understood the way my new friends lived their lives. When you see Paradise and Hell as tangible places and know to your core that the true rewards come after death, it’s not difficult to forfeit a little in this life. The promise of no earthly limitations for eternity makes any restrictions during the physical years seem a small price to pay. And yet around me I still witnessed a sense of general restlessness and frustration. The belief that fate is decided for you in advance by a force that surrounds you, watches you and, it seems, inhabits your very soul, seemed to often manifest as a lack of purpose and searching for anything else. <br /><br />But obviously I was seeing them through my eyes - and it made me wonder how I was viewed through theirs.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-22966540385311344622010-02-02T17:15:00.003+02:002010-02-02T17:21:47.767+02:00Strong arms to steady him<span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">“The spirit of a boy is too great for just a family to contain, and his horizons are wider than a family can provide for. By mid-teens, a boy wants to leap into his future – but there must be a place for him to leap to, and strong arms to steady him. This means building community links in order to help boys. In many ways, the women’s movement has dehumanized men, reduced them to stereotypical two-dimensional caricatures. If we want good men for the future, we must start with the boys."</span></span></span> (Steve Biddulph, Raising Boys)<br /><br />Another noteworthy day of dichotomous extremes for me in Cairo yesterday. It started with an interesting conversation with a taxi driver who randomly asked me if I got hassled a lot as a foreign woman in Cairo. <br /><br />I had to laugh, and told him that this phenomenon is not exclusive to Cairo. Go to any city in the world and you’ll find a carbon copy of the same thing. That I actually feel safer in Cairo than any other city in the world that I’ve lived in or visited.<br /><br />I told him that yes, sometimes I get hassled, but over the years you develop some sense of how to avoid it, such as wearing dark sunglasses, not catching people’s eye, not being too friendly (how sad is that?), looking like you have a destination to get to. He told me that men like to look at women, that it’s hard not to if they’re right in front of you, that it’s human nature, but that it becomes a problem when it goes beyond an automatic glance when someone or something inadvertently enters your field of vision. And he’s right. It is human nature, and women look at men just as men look at women. Just as one would glance at anything interesting or attractive or unusual that they come across. Unless people walk around with blindfolds on, it’s kind of hard to avoid. But as he said, a look and a leer are two entirely different things.<br /> <br />Later in the day, I took a stroll down the street with my kids to celebrate Egypt’s nail-biting victory in the African Cup. They wanted to wave flags and shout “<span style="font-style:italic;">Masr</span>!” (Egypt) at the top of their lungs. So we bought flags, waved them, felt the excitement, said “<span style="font-style:italic;">mabrook</span>” (congratulations) to a few people and then headed home. Crossing the street, we passed by a group of mostly teenage boys, a few older, and they slapped the kids’ hands happily. It was all fine until one of them grabbed me and I swung around and shouted, but there was no way of knowing which one of them it was. I snatched the kids’ hands and kept walking, with one or two of the group saying to me, “We’re sorry, we’re really sorry” and “Who did that? Who touched her?” I guess in the end it doesn’t matter—it generally only takes one person to brand a group. I got home, incensed, infuriated, ropeable. But appreciative of those who had stood up for me and apologized.<br /><br />And I thought, <span style="font-style:italic;">That’s going to be my boys. They’re going to be among the ones who protect women and show them respect and know right from wrong. The ones who don’t follow the pack mentality and think that disrespecting any women is okay. </span>Because the people in their lives will make sure of it.<br /><br />Some fortunate boys learn through osmosis, from being around good men who treat women as they should be treated. Some are just lucky to be born with an ingrained sense of what is right. But either way, boys need to be taught right from wrong when it comes to how to treat people, especially girls and women. Parents, and anyone else who is around boys, need to take every opportunity to reinforce this and bolster boys’ integrity and self-pride so they don’t feel the urge to verbally or physically take their frustrations out on the first unsuspecting female who crosses their path.<br /> <br />Boys the world over have, in many ways, been kind of overlooked. They are often expected to be ‘men’ too early, before they are ready for it, and when they are ready for it, they don’t know how; they are often conditioned to repress their emotions, to hold back their tears when they feel sad. But little boys are just as delicate a creature as little girls, and they need just as much nurturing.<br /><br />It can be a fine line between growing into a good man and growing into one of the others, and all boys walk this tightrope. There are lots of good men out there, and they are what little boys need as role models and mentors to make sure they become one of the good ones.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-82147856207099928522010-01-24T18:22:00.004+02:002014-10-05T15:57:25.793+02:00Questions about Egypt: Part 3<span style="font-weight: bold;">(18) Tell me something I don't know about Cairo that I haven't asked you yet!</span><br />
Cairo is all about the people. Even though it has changed dramatically, even in just the last ten years, there will always be something indefinable about Egyptians. I’m not even sure what it is, because, well, it’s indefinable; it’s something you have to experience locally. There is a lot of unhappiness here these days, with the state of the government, the economy, the widespread suffering. And it’s noticeable in the people, who don’t have the same level of joie de vivre that they have had in the past. But even with all of this, there is still a certain level of fervour in the way life is lived that I haven’t experienced anywhere else. Egypt has been through a lot, but she always bounces back, and she will this time too.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">(19) Are the boys speaking mainly Arabic or English?</span><br />
They are definitely speaking more Arabic. They really only speak English at home with me and Arabic with everyone else, including their school friends, street friends, shopkeepers, grandparents and taxi drivers. I discourage them from speaking English whenever I can… it’s not like they need the practice. They frequently translate for me when people speak too quickly for me to catch the details of what they are saying. I often speak Arabic with the kids when we are out because I have found it makes things a little easier as a foreign woman if men know that you aren’t a ‘new arrival’ in the country and have some understanding of the culture.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">(20) What is the standard of living there?</span><br />
It is extremely varied. There are people living in abject poverty and others at the opposite end of the spectrum who are filthy rich. There is a lot of money in Egypt, but unfortunately it doesn’t get shared around fairly, for various reasons, well one major reason… but I won’t get into politics because I really don’t know much about it. But there is no balance at all. Sometimes I will be in the middle of negotiating with a taxi driver about my fare… Foreigners always get charged more (which seems fair enough), as do women (which is definitely not fair) …Anyway, there have been times when I have been in the midst of protesting if a taxi driver asks for more money (because that’s the habit one defaults to here), when I think, <span style="font-style: italic;">What are you doing? This is nothing to you, this five pounds.</span> And it could be everything to him.<br />
<br />
Because of the culture, there is also no welfare system in place to assist those with nothing, except bread subsidies, and even those have been under threat. The welfare system as we know it just doesn’t exist in Egypt, because it is expected that people will be taken care of by their families; there is a very intricate system outlined in Islam about this which is supposed to be followed here. <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">(21) What are the boys enjoying most about being back in Cairo?</span><br />
Well, Nazar would say the overabundance of cats in the streets—he’s in cat heaven, even though he’s not allowed to touch them. Not that my prohibition is much of a deterrent for him. Ziad would say the Pyramids and going to Khan al-Khalili markets. <br />
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Some other things they enjoy: Having many other kids in the building to play with; going to the small grocery store right next door on their own to buy things; being able to walk to school; hailing taxis, saying where we want to go, and paying the fare at the end; the amazingly sweet oranges; <span style="font-style: italic;">aish baladi</span> (Egyptian bread similar to whole wheat pita but much rougher and much tastier); <span style="font-style: italic;">ghazl banat</span> (fairy floss bought from a man who walks the streets with his cart).<br />
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But really I think what they love the most is the interactive existence they have here. They fraternize with everyone, from the men in the shop next door, to the neighbours and <span style="font-style: italic;">bawab’s</span> (doorman’s) kids. <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">(22) What is something new that you've experienced this trip?</span><br />
Well, the joy of pomegranates, as evidenced by my previous post. And having the vegetable seller chopping up the vegetables for me into little cubes to make <span style="font-style: italic;">torli</span>, which is a tomato-based vegetable casserole type of dish made with potato, carrot, onion, zucchini, and probably any other vegetable you happen to have on hand. That was a delightful, time-saving discovery for me that kept me happy for two days. And the other thing I have noticed—and perhaps the most satisfying for me—is that because my Arabic has improved, I am able to catch more of the local humour. Not all of it—there’s still a lot that flies straight over my heard—but definitely more of it!<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">(23) What is the thing they most want to do when they're not in school?</span><br />
We really just hang out. They will often play with their new friends in the neighbourhood which I encourage because they can learn ‘street Arabic’. It’s great to see them with their little friends, slapping their hands and putting their arms around each other. Men and boys here are not afraid to show affection for each other and it’s usual for them to walk down the street holding hands or with their arms slung around each other, something that would obviously raise eyebrows in the West. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">(24) <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Are you able to get out of Cairo for breaks and if so, how often can you do this?</span></span></span><br />
In theory, yes, it is quite easy to get out of Cairo for the weekend or a few days. There are many places to go, depending what you like to do. There’s Alexandria just a couple of hours away by train, the North Coast, Suez, the Sinai... Geographically, Egypt is in the centre of the world, so many places are accessible outside the country as well, if one has the time, the money and the inclination to travel further, especially to Europe, Afria or the rest of the Middle East.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">(25) Is there a lot of "Can so-and-so come over after school?" or is this not a cultural thing?</span><br />
No, this doesn’t happen at all, at least not in my experience.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">(26) What typically Australian thing are the boys missing?</span><br />
They adapt fairly easily between Cairo and Sydney now, so aren’t missing much. They sometimes miss their Australian friends… and when we are in Australia they miss their Egyptian friends!Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-59740352756944211132010-01-23T15:06:00.003+02:002010-01-23T17:42:03.020+02:00The joy of pomegranatesPomegranates (<span style="font-style:italic;">romaan</span>) are one of the joys of life. I really don’t know why I’d never tried them before. The juice, yes, but never the whole fruit. I guess they seemed a little difficult to navigate. But a couple of months ago I was at the fruit seller and spied a mound of pomegranates. I pointed to the box and asked the fruit seller if they were nice to eat. “Aaah, <span style="font-style:italic;">helw, helw</span>,” he said (beautiful). So I picked one up, turned it between my hands, and asked him how to eat it. <br /><br />He took it from me and split it open easily, ripping it apart with his bare hands, holding one half and handing me the other. He showed me how to bend the flesh back to make the seeds pop up so they could be effortlessly fished out and eaten. He brought the pomegranate up to his mouth and took a bite. I had expected a verbal explanation, not a theatrical demonstration. So I did as he had done, first bending back the flesh to expose the seeds and then, feeling a little self-conscious and awkward with him eagerly watching me, took a tentative bite. The seeds burst between my teeth as I slowly bit into them, and I thought I would die of pleasure. The sensation was exhilarating! <span style="font-style:italic;">How have I never experienced this before?</span> I wondered. My God, this is amazing! All my bashfulness vanished and I took another bite, even better than the first, with the fruit seller standing by with a huge grin on his face.<br /><br />Life just seems a little different with pomegranates in it.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-62293791262566272782010-01-17T15:58:00.004+02:002010-01-17T16:26:28.678+02:00The Moments<span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">El ganna taht akdam al omahat. Mish bi balash.</span><span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">(Heaven lives under the feet of the mother. We don’t get it for nothing.)</span><br /><br />A lot of the joy of Egypt for me is in the moments. They pass so quickly, but they are what stick in my mind, and over the years have become a beautiful, intricate tapestry filled with vibrant colours, words, sounds and, most strikingly, people. <br /><br />A couple of months ago, I was waiting with my two small boys at a <span style="font-style:italic;">forn</span> (bakery) on Sharia el Nozha in Masr Gedeeda for the mini pizzas I’d ordered for my son’s birthday party to come out of the oven. The boys were not in the mood to stand patiently that day and, after about fifteen minutes, all hell began to break loose. The mayhem began slowly, with the usual running around and inability to sit still, and soon led to them running through the restaurant next door and climbing the rickety staircase up into the eating area. With the restaurant owners laughing and saying “<span style="font-style:italic;">Siibhom, siibhom, masfish moshkila.</span>” (Leave them, leave them, it’s no problem.) I knew that threatening the boys with the wrath of someone else’s authority wasn’t going to cut it this time. “<span style="font-style:italic;">La’a di moshkila kibeera,</span>” I told them, as the boys ran towards the big open window that overlooked the street below. “<span style="font-style:italic;">Homma mish waladeen, homma erdeen.</span>” (No, it’s a big problem, they are not boys, they are monkeys.) After much coaxing, I managed to drag them back downstairs to the forn, where I instructed them, in my most authoritative tone, to sit calmly until the pizzas were ready. Turning my back for a minute to go and check when my order would be ready, I heard shrieks of excitement coming from the boys, who had taken off their shoes and were using them as missiles to throw into the air at each other to catch. They coupled this with rolling in the street in an effort to make themselves as filthy as possible. I just closed my eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and said “<span style="font-style:italic;">Erhamooni ba’a</span>” to myself (have mercy on me).<br /><br />A woman dressed head-to-toe in black was sitting in the street with her teenage daughter, selling lettuce and other salad leaves. She had witnessed the pandemonium unfold and, smiling at me in solidarity, just said, “<span style="font-style:italic;">Malesh, malesh</span>.” (Never mind)<br /> <br />But the pearl of this whole incident only came to me two days ago, two months to the day later. I was passing by the same forn again. The same woman was there, sitting in the same spot, selling her vegetables. She smiled at me and we exchanged greetings. She looked at the boys, who on this day were not rolling in the dirt, but were being unusually calm. She remembered them from that day two months earlier, and said, “<span style="font-style:italic;">El ganna taht akdam al omahat. Mish bi balash.</span>” (Heaven lives under the feet of the mother. We don’t get it for nothing.) I’ve read those words many times before, at least the first part, and have always loved them. But hearing them said to me directly, in the flesh, from another mother, gave them a whole new meaning, a whole new depth. It was a feeling of solidarity, of unity, of sisterhood. “<span style="font-style:italic;">3andik inteen</span>,” she added, “<span style="font-style:italic;">3andee tamanya!</span>” (You have two. I have eight!) So I guess with eight children, her place in heaven is very secure.<br /><br />I am grateful now that the boys were so naughty that day, grateful that they made me so crazy that I wanted to tear my hair out in despair. Because if they had been good, if they had behaved themselves, I wouldn’t have had the gift of this woman’s beautiful, touching words that will stay with me forever.Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5907188059104555716.post-192675112533591552009-11-29T18:31:00.007+02:002010-11-16T02:31:29.872+02:00Meat comes from a cow! (Or a sheep)<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Georgia","serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-AU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">With the Islamic feast of Eid al Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice) upon us, there has been a lot of talk in the media and comments about the practice of slaughtering animals, with some people erroneously calling it “barbaric”, </span></span></span><span style="line-height:115%;Georgia","serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-AU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“inhumane” and “cruel”. The animals are slaughtered to celebrate </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:115%;Georgia","serif"; color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">God's substitution of a ram for Ibrahim’s (Abraham's) son, and the meat distributed between family, friends and the poor.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Despite common misconceptions by many people, the animals are not just killed for the sake of it and then left to rot. In fact it is </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">haram </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(forbidden) in Islam to wantonly waste food.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:115%;Georgia","serif"; color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We, like many people in Cairo, had animals on the ground floor of our apartment block for several days leading up to the first day of Eid, when they are traditionally slaughtered. Just a few sheep and a couple of cows. My two boys, aged four and seven, spent a couple of days patting them, feeding them, even giving one or two of them names. So as the time when they would be killed grew ever nearer, I wondered how the scene would unfold. Of course the boys were a little sad and tried to convince the neighbors who had bought the animals not to kill them. Then, on the morning of the first day of the Eid, when the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">gazzar</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> (butcher) came to do his task, a long discussion unfolded because he considered one of the lambs too young for slaughtering. The boys were thrilled with this unexpected development, especially as the lamb in question had been named ‘Blackie’ and had somehow maneuvered a special place into their hearts. ‘Blackie’ was finally taken away and replaced with a larger lamb.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:115%;Georgia","serif"; color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When the time came for the animals to be killed, I took the boys inside our flat, very reluctantly on their part. Despite these lambs and cows being their “pets”, they still wanted to watch the ritual killing, the youngest one saying, “I want to watch them go up to God.” But no, I didn’t think it was something they should see at such a young age. However…</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:115%;Georgia","serif"; color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">…after all the animals had been killed (a mistaken assumption on my part) and the boys were again playing outside, apparently another cow was produced. I don’t know if I overlooked it or if it was a late addition, but either way, the boys witnessed the slitting of its throat, and whatever followed, at the back of our building. My oldest was a little sad and cried for a few minutes because he had considered it his ‘pet’, while my youngest was not perturbed at all, merely fascinated by the whole procedure, which he related it to me in all its gory detail after it was over. Now, the next day, they are completely unruffled by the experience and talk about it quite matter-of-factly.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:115%;Georgia","serif"; color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The people who speak with abhorrence about the practice of slaughtering animals for Eid al Adha need to remember that they are killed to be eaten, just as animals in other countries are killed in abattoirs, and just as thousands of turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations – the only difference is that here, it is done out in the open and not behind closed doors. And th</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">e children know where their meat comes from - and it’s not a Styrofoam tray in the supermarket.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>Emily Richardsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258987696816790132noreply@blogger.com5