Even now, I don’t think I can really talk about it coherently. It’s overwhelming.

In only 18 days, between January 25th and February 11th, one man’s 30-year rule came to an end, all because of Egyptian solidarity and steadfastness. A leader-less revolution, orchestrated solely by Egyptian youth aided by technology and social media. More just kept on coming.

No one thought he would step down, up until the moment he did, and even after that. I woke up on Feb. 12th 2011 thinking it must have been a joke. He couldn’t have possibly left. It makes absolutely no sense. But he had. Mohammad Hosni Mubarak is gone from Egypt. No longer will this country be ruled by a Mubarak. His son Gamal would not be his successor.

The world can’t even begin to conceive what this means to Egyptians. Most Egyptians at least.

Even though Egypt saw unprecedented solidarity over the past few weeks, it also saw division. Some people believed he should remain in power until the presidential elections in September of this year. Others however, professed pro-Mubarak sentiments. Facebook profile pictures and statuses, tweets, and even demonstrations.

But right now, this is of  no real weight or substance. Mubarak is gone, but Egypt remains, its slate wiped clean. Everyone must contribute, regardless of political opinion.

I don’t mean to be poetic when I say that it is up to us now to create a new Egypt. We might have gotten rid of the dictator, but we still haven’t brought down dictatorship. Mubarak stepping down and the army taking control is one step forward, but it is not the end. The entire system needs to be reworked, or else we’ve accomplished nothing.

The supposed interim government is the cabinet appointed by the ex-president, and it’s scheduled to remain in control of the country’s affairs until the September elections. Not the most ideal plan of action seeing as the cabinet’s demise had been one of the protesters’ demands, but a situation I personally believe people could potentially live with if it’s only temporary.

Yet, it still makes me feel uneasy, the fact the old regime’s relics are expected to redraft the constitution. The people demanded the entire system collapse, not just the president and parliament. Now I just have to wait for what (or who) comes next, someone who must know from the get-go the seat does not belong to him, someone who truly believes in the change we would like to see happen. The consequences will be grave otherwise.

Egyptians now know the power of determination and they will not stand quiet if they feel they are being hoodwinked. In that, I have faith.

Shot with an ipod camera, so quality’s a bit low. Attempting to upload video footage.

When I wake up in the morning, I usually have a plan formulated in my head. It doesn’t necessarily have to be concrete, but I know that in my mind I want to accomplish a certain list of things. I expect my day to be a certain way.

Today I woke up knowing I would be spending the day out with a person who has come to be a very good friend of mine. I didn’t exactly know what we were doing. The only plan we’d made was that we were going to play it by ear. We had free time on our hands, and we wanted to have a good ‘a bien tot.’

It’s days like these, when you don’t really know where your feet are going to take you, that sometimes end up being the ones you will always remember. You didn’t do anything particularly special; got a haircut, ate some crepes and french fries and milkshake, walked about, talked music and politics, etc… But somehow you know that a day like that will always be with you, to remind you that sometimes you need to breathe, stop thinking, and just go with it.

The next few days are going to be extremely hectic. Between last-minute shopping for extra luggage (and a few other things!) and packing up an entire apartment after 6 months of living in it, I doubt I will have anytime for a break, especially not one like today’s.

I’m hardly a positive thinker, or a person who smiles a lot, but I think that finally I’ve found my cure. I don’t intend to let it go.

So, a word of advice to anyone who happens to stumble upon this (or for no one in particular): take a break every once in a while. Not just a break from school or studying or work, but a break from your life, from your brain, from your routine, and from everything that haves you living your life in constant tension. Even if it’s a day, or just a few hours, it could change the way you do things when you get back to them.

Today was my final day in the classrooms of Sciences Po, Paris. I sat my last exam, the EU as an International Actor, where I answered three questions: two short ones on the EU’s Counter-Terrorism Policy and the Lisbon Treaty, and a short essay on a the Union’s reaction to the civil war and breakdown of the former Yugoslavia.

Six months ago, I would not have been able to tell you. I probably still can’t. The EU is not my domain. Not at all. The professor wasn’t really much help either. Every week during the two-hour lecture she would go on and on about the EU’s “perry ferry” (a.k.a periphery), this treaty and that treaty, the results, the consequences, the rectification, etc… None of it would stick.

I could never memorize all the dates and names, only a few stuck with me: Maastricht 1991–when the EU’s CFSP was first developed, Amsterdam 1997-creation of the CFSP High Representative post, the Barcelona Process 1995–the development of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, Helsinki 1999–Cyprus becomes a candidate for accession. Of course we talked about Oslo and Madrid, but they’re not exactly new to me, so they don’t count.

Of course, during the exam everything evaporated. Who knows how I filled up four pages with information about Europe.

So, after the longest semester of my life, after learning about Europe, the EU, the history of Jewish people, geography’s abstract nature, political islam–as taught by the ‘west,’ the conflict between intelligence and “democracy,” I can safely and sincerely say I am glad to be going back to Egypt.

It was one hell of an experience. I learned that there’s so much I still need to learn, so much that I don’t know… and I’m not just talking about academics, or the classroom. Life, this year, was not easy and not kind. In many ways, this was the worst year of my life, the most difficult. But in a way every year is.

I’ve come through though, and I’m ready for what comes next.

Last night watching a news report on the parliamentary elections really just made me laugh. I don’t understand how members of the National Democratic Party (NDP) have the nerve to stand up on a podium and say the elections are not rigged when the country’s entire political system is. When has the NDP not been in power? How am I supposed to believe that not at least three quarters of those who vote in our glorious elections have not been paid to do so?

I’m no Aristotle, and I’m not the first, nor will I be the last to comment and ask questions about the state of things. What I am though, is a very dissatisfied Egyptian.

For years now the political elite have been manipulating and controlling the Egyptian population. Most Egyptians are deliberately kept uneducated, unaware, and poor. The guys who have the power like things just the way they are.

Our politicians like to claim we are a “developing” state on its way to a better place. But, we still import our wheat and apples, we still have poor medical services (except for those who can pay of course), our public schools and public education system are still severely underdeveloped, and the unemployment rates are sky-high. Those are just a few of our problems. If I were to go on, I would never stop.

So who’s to fix all of this? Where is that person, that leader, interested in fixing the country’s long history of corruption in order to turn the situation around? and is it even possible to battle corruption and make a change? Corruption runs deeper than we think. Would we be able to live without the wasta and the kousa?

Being in Europe is not new to me, even though living here is not quite the same as being a tourist. Yet there is something very familiar about all of it. I miss my friends and family but I am not as homesick as I thought I would be, and I am not suffering, or getting depressed in any way. On the contrary, I feel much more peaceful and relaxed, more so than I’d been in a very long time. Living in Cairo is definitely a bigger challenge.

Also, living in the heart of Paris surely makes everything much more interesting. Just walking around you see and feel the history, art, and culture of this celebrated city.  There is so much to see and so much to do.

I came across a traditional Egyptian ‘Ahwa the other day when I was walking down my street. It made me smile. Of course I was power-walking and had to get home because I had a ton of readings to do. I did not go back. My mission now is to walk there again and attempt to write a story about this quaint little place.

courtesy of terragalleria.com

There is a great story there. Hopefully, when I get all my exposés done at the end of this month, I will have more time for exploration and may be even a little reporting.

For now, I am content with going to school in St. Germain de Prés, and slaving away at the Sciences Po library in Rue St. Guillame, attempting to get all my school work done.

Photo taken by me!

Today is the second day of Eid al Fitr, a Muslim celebration commemorating the end of Ramadan.

Ramadan is a Muslim holy month, dedicated to fasting till sundown and extensive prayers. It is also a month of spiritual awakening, a full 30 days that people are required to make the best out of in order to get closer to God, get to know their religion better, and become more peaceful and at ease with the world.

In a larger context, Ramadan is meant to teach people self-control and self-discipline. People are supposed to restrain their wants, whether those wants are food and drink before the sun goes down or the intense need to curse someone for whatever reason. Without anything to eat or drink (or smoke for more than half of the Egyptian population) during the day most people suffer from what I like to call, the bad mood syndrome, which makes keeping one’s temper in check all the more difficult.

Going out before iftar (first meal of the day at sundown in Ramadan) can be quite difficult in Egypt. Tempers run high, already-bad drivers get even worse, and the streets are full of angry individuals waiting for the sun to set. I guess this all makes fasting sound like a tedious job, doesn’t it?

There’s no denying it, fasting is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and still do every year. No Muslim on this earth will ever tell you that it’s an easy task (except maybe the incredibly pious type). Yet, the feeling of gratification you get when have that first sip of water is something no words can describe. The feeling that once again you’ve gone through another day, that you’ve held back until that specific moment makes your brain repeatedly scream, “I did it!”

Ramadan is also about people sharing their meals everyday.  Even the less fortunate can break their fasts at any of the hundreds and thousands of ma’edat rahman that offer free iftar for any passerby, simply because everyone should have something to eat, and no one should eat alone in Ramadan.

Eid, or the feast, is meant to end those 30 days, and in most Arab countries (Egypt included) is a time for families to come together and share another set of traditions that vary from one region to the other. I can only speak of those I’ve come to witness in Egypt; baking and eating kahk (eid cookies), buying new clothes to wear, and the younger members of the family getting their eideya from their seniors. As a child, the clothes and eideya were my favorite traditions… for obvious reasons. The latter you see is a sum of money that grandfathers, grandmothers, parents, and some aunts and uncles give children as a present.

So this time of year in the Arab world is about spiritual re-awakening, and the sharing of culture and tradition with family, friends, and loved ones. It is not a time of religious fanaticism, terrorism, or whatever else it is called by those who do not really understand it.

This year, I’m celebrating the end of Ramadan and the Eid in Paris. I guess this made all those feelings come gushing out. For the first time in my life I’m not celebrating Eid among family and friends. I’m in a place where the cultural manifestations of this occasion are non-existent.

I was unable to complain about how badly I need a cup of coffee during those long days of fasting, and no one to say, “yeah, me too.”

I’ve deleted all my old posts for no apparent reason, except for the fact that my old entries–although genuine–were part of a class project. It really does not make much sense for me to keep them, although I did particularly like the two entries on Afghanistan and Women’s rights… they were from the heart.

I wonder if the two could be connected somehow? –Errant thought–

I think Afghanistan would be an excellent place to explore several women’s rights issues… and controversial debates. On the one hand they’ve got women participating in the political domain, and on the other, they have women walking down the streets covered in burqas. Some of the women behind desks are fighting against this full-body cover, while most of those donning it claim it’s a perfect safety device, and would not take it off if you paid them!

There’s no space for that in this post though. Plus, the issue deserves its own well-thought out and well-written entry. So many things do.