Monologues

I love love love those long reflective uninterrupted monologues. Not sure what the mechanism is, but they do something magnificent to my mind. It's like sauntering in the character's mind. Then I start wondering how much could be common between the author and the character? How much could be common between the character and myself? 
The ultimate thrill is when I find the monologue exposing thoughts I always considered bizarre and imagined they were exclusively confined to my disturbed mind. At that moment, I feel like hugging that character. Maybe I'm not that disturbed after all. Or maybe it's simply ok to be disturbed. :)

(Drawing by this talented young doctor >> Emy Elmorshdy)

Sustaina-WHAT?

What does the word sustainability -briefly- mean?

This will only take 2 minutes.. I promise! :)

Climate Change: We.Are.All.Going.To.Die

Hilarious. Hilarious. Hilarious. THANK YOU EDD!

Climate Neutrality

Copied from the UN publication "Kick the Habit".. Spread awareness!

Carbon-neutral, yes – that sounds familiar. But climate? The answer is simple: it is not just carbon dioxide, CO2, that is driving climate change, even if it makes up almost 80 per cent of the climate gases (including contributions from changes in land use) emitted by human activities. Carbon dioxide is the most abundant greenhouse gas we are adding to the atmosphere, but it is not the only one. The international climate change treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, limits the emissions of six main GHGs produced by human activities (see table). The gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorocarbons (PFC), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

The term climate neutrality is used in this book to mean living in a way which produces no net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This should be achieved by reducing your own GHG emissions as much as possible, and using carbon offsets to neutralize the remaining emissions.

Sûk-en-Nahassīn

Recently, I have been travelling through time with a "book-friend" called Peeps at Many Lands: Egypt by R. Talbot Kelly.

The author showed a great deal of astonishment, which made me a very happy reader. With his words, I drew a beautiful picture of a city that I am familiar with (i.e. Cairo) but Oh my foes and Oh my friends, how different the Cairo I know is from the one he is describing!

"And now I must tell you something about the bazaars, which, after the mosques, are the most interesting relics in Cairo, and in many cases quite as old. First, I may say that the word "bazaar" means "bargain," and as in the East a fixed price is unusual, and anything is worth just what can be got for it, making a purchase is generally a matter of patience, and one may often spend days in acquiring some simple article of no particular value. An exception is the trade in copper ware, which is sold by weight, and it is a common practice among the poorer classes to invest their small savings in copper vessels of which they have the benefit, and which can readily be sold again should money be wanted. This trade is carried on in a very picturesque street, called the "Sûk-en-Nahassīn," or street of the coppersmiths, where in tiny little shops 4 or 5 feet square, most of the copper and brass industry of Cairo is carried on. Opening out of this street are other bazaars, many very ancient, and each built for some special trade. So we have the shoemaker's bazaar, the oil, spice, Persian and goldsmith's bazaars, and many others, each different in character, and generally interesting as architecture. The Persian bazaar is now nearly demolished, and the "Khan Khalili," once the centre of the carpet trade, and the most beautiful of all, is now split up into a number of small curio shops, for the people are becoming Europeanized, and the Government, alas! appear to have no interest in the preservation of buildings of great historic interest and beauty."

This is a paragraph in the book, one that disturbed me a lot actually. Look at the underlined phrase. Now I ask: did we ever have a government that knew what it was doing? Did we ever have a government that appreciated this country's treasures? This book was written in the early 20th century and I cannot imagine that the curse of clumsy authorities date back to then. Of course, in the recent times, describing our governments as "clumsy" would be the understatement of the century. You must add corrupt, dictatorial and ignorant... at least!

Will this ever change?

The Hospital Dump

Originally written on October 8th...



I've been a med-student for 2 weeks now. I've enjoyed most of it. However my least favourite part of the day –everyday- was passing from one building to another, because I had to pass by the hospital.

I was surprised to find a huge garbage dump a few metres from the hospital. Why was I surprised? Name a public hospital in Egypt that does not have a dump in front of its doors!

I tried to stay pos

itive!

So this morning, I had this little exam to sit for, and at times like these, my mind traps each and every negative thought found around me and entertains them until they become big bulky mountains of pure misery. But there was a BIG positive thought in front of my eyes. They were removing the dump! Yaaaaay!

I rushed to the examination hall completely sure that by the time I finish the exam, that dump would be history.
Well, I was wrong.
They did remove a lot of the garbage but there was still a lot. It was still smelly and surrounded by a halo of flying insects.. and other things that we can’t see.

Stop and stare!
You’ll find a bunch of cats looking for food in that dump and when they’re full they’ll seek shelter from the burning sun.. right there.. by those patients there.. sitting on the pavement!

And then a taxi drives by.. and honks the horn repeatedly.. then shouts like a wild gorilla.. at a nurse.. who in return shouted back very loudly. The nurse was pushing a wheelchair.. with a person laying with his head dangling back. I think he was unconscious. But that’s ok. I’m pretty sure he can wait in the sun until the taxi driver and the nurse decide to wise up.

These scenes leave me depressed and emotionally exhausted. And perhaps that is why I tried not to give them much thought so that I would enjoy the thrill of the first week in college. But when I visited my preparatory school and spilled everything out between the hands of my favourite teacher and one of the most inspirational people I’ve seen, she guided me to the fact that these scenes might actually make me put the patients into consideration when I’m planning for my future. It won’t be only about how many degrees I get. It would be how much care I give!

I hope that my sensitivity to suffering wouldn't grow so that I would be a failure, nor would it disappear so that I would be cold.

A Muslim .. Converting to Islam (1)

Last Ramadan (yes, that one that went too fast) I watched the stories of a lot of people who converted to Islam. I couldn't help but feel envious. The serenity in their voices and in their smiles made me wonder why am I different? What do they see that I don't? How can they be so sure about things that are hidden "Ghayb"?

People around me have been telling me that anyone coming out from a dark room would appreciate the light more than anyone else. Who ever said that we -Muslims- aren't in a dark room?! We are SO far from the teachings of our religion! It's dark and we're not searching for the light because we're too busy stumbling over each other.

Anyway, I decided to follow in their footsteps and get to know Islam from the beginning. So I started searching for books that introduce Islam. Someone recommended Islam: Religion of Life by AbdulWadood Shalaby. I felt so overwhelmed! The first chapter was about the testimonies (Shahadatayn) and how they should affect real life.. things I never knew and never thought of! Then, I started to get a little bored because the rest of the book was about the stuff that we were taught in primary school. STOP! This way I'm never going to reach my goal .. of having that strong faith. I want to be so convinced by this religion to the degree that I would be 100% sure that even if I hadn't been born a Muslim, I would've converted to Islam.

I tried to forget all I know about my life and my religion. This was the hardest part of it. There were questions.. my heart would skip a beat when I asked myself those questions. Partly because I'm emotional in addition to the instability of thinking in teens, I felt lost!

But then I was saved. Moez Massoud and Fadel Soliman focused this year on the fact that it is ok to question as long as you're open to all the answers and willing to admit the right even if it's against your wish!

I haven't reached where I want to be.. but I'm walking.. or more accurately speaking, crawling!

I need your prayers! :)