Taher and Nezar Campaign Poster

By: Nada Yasser

Taher Motaz-Bellah  won by a majority vote of 52.5% during the Student Union (SU) presidential elections at the American University in Cairo (AUC) on May 3^rd.

There was low turn out to the event that would decide the next Student Union president for the next two semesters. Students stood in line at their respective polling stations and presented their Student ID to submit their votes for the elections.

Judicial Court members, Farid El-Sehrawy and Hedayat Selim told the Independent:

“The electoral process went smoothly this year due to a thorough and comprehensive electoral code. It was drafted by the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission, which contains representatives from the student senate and the court. There were a few violations, which resulted in minor deductions in the vote count for certain candidates.”

The results of the elections came as a surprise to many.

“We were expecting a run-off between the two highest candidates, but Taher earned a simple majority vote,” commented Selim and El-Sehrawy

This show of confidence had many members of the AUC community optimistic that change may happen at AUC.

“Thank you for … your support, but now is not the time for congratulations, the time for them are in a year, so that we could have done something,” said Motaz-Bellah.

Many people are not as optimistic about the election of an SU president from the Black Camp, due to the incident involving Hesham Shafiq a few semesters ago. Shafiq was impeached by the senate and voted to be dismissed by the student body.

“I’m not against Taher… The fact that he wants to transfer the revolution from the square to the institutions,” commented Salma AlBarkouky, one of the campaigners of candidate Aly Zeineldin.

“He [Motaz-Bellah ] is supported by a camp that already has too much power,” added AlBarkouky

“Anyone holding the position naturally makes some mistakes, and now we must learn from all the mistakes in the past, not just those of Hesham Shafiq… Its only natural

Photo by Ahmed Issawy

April 6^th, AUC’s selected talents made it to the final show of the annual Student Union Talent Show in an all-day-long performance at AUC New Cairo Campus’ plaza.

The show, which started at around 4 pm, featured 15 finalists selected from a huge variety of solo singers, rock bands, instrumental performers, stand-up comedians, poets and many other talents who have signed up for this year’s competition; in addition to the junior talents, AUC Talent Show has been recruiting for three years now.

“This year’s theme is fire and ice!” Roba Riad, the Talent Show general manager, explained the slogan on the crew T-shirts ‘Ice or flame, your step towards fame’. “Whatever you do, whatever your talent is, the Talent Show is here to bring everyone together!” Roba added.

This year, the 1^st prize went to the newborn band ‘The Cassettes’ who consider this talent show to be their first major performance. ‘The Cassettes’ consists of four members, Mahmoud, Amy, Maged and Karim who have been performing for only six months. “I was at an open mike night one day and I saw Amy performing. I thought she has an amazing voice [Sic], and I had to work out a project with her.” Mahmoud Kamel, rhythm guitar and backing vocalist, explained how their band started. ‘The Cassettes’ are planning to record their first original song soon.

The 2^nd prize went to Hassan Ramzy for his solo performance. Hassan has been performing at open mike events and some small acoustic nights. He has participated a few times in the Talent Show. Last year, Hassan got the 3^rd prize.

The 3^rd prize this year went to the band ‘Faking It’, who was also among last year’s winners. Although setting up their performance and doing their sound checks took quite a long time during the show, once ‘Faking It’ members started playing their songs, their energy immediately engaged the crowd. ‘Faking It’ has been performing since 2006. “We started off playing covers, just so that the audience will start to know us, and then after we felt like we got a wide fan base, we decided that we should write our own music. And Ever since, we’ve been writing originals and playing them at shows,” Mahmoud, who’s also the lead singer of ‘Faking It’, talked about the band status.

This year’s judges added some extra flavor to the night. Lina, Yara, Mickey and Safi from Nile FM were evaluating the performances of AUC talents during the final show. Lina was also the MC of last year’s show and, according to Roba who has been involved in the Talent Show for four years now, “her presence on stage was great, and people loved her.” Roba also believes that the Nile FM crew gave the performers very constructive comments that could actually help them improve.

The event was supposed to start at 3 pm, after completing all sound checks in the morning. However, the crew had some problems bringing in some of the equipment; therefore, the sound checks were delayed, and the event started more than an hour late. At the end of the day, the crew was satisfied with the big turnout. “For me, the event was perfect. The audience filled the whole plaza; the sponsors were very happy with the turnout… The judges also looked pleased with the performances during the show. It’s normal to have some ups and downs during any event, but all in all, it went well,” Roba explained.

AUC talent show is about bringing underground talents and giving them a chance to be heard and appreciated. Dolly Farid, one of the performers at the final show, expressed her admiration of the Talent Show mission. “I hope that arts become more appreciated in this country… The quality of people that we’ve had tonight was amazing. This is a treasure we have in this country, and it’s not for the elite. Music and art is something that everyone understands. It needs to be appreciated more.” Dolly concluded that she hopes more universities would implement similar projects, and more people would be encouraged to go on stage and show themselves to the world. “We are not perfect, but we took a chance, and this is how you get better [Sic].”

Photo Courtesy of Nour Refaat

“Why? What will you end up doing in your life?” This is a statement that many students of the Performance and Visual Arts department can relate to. Many have grown up in societies where art, theatre and music are considered quite a fantastic time killer, but not exactly career paths. Nour Refaat, known to everyone simply as Nousha, defies that stereotype.  She is a 20 year old theatre major and art minor, who, at such a young age, managed to have her career started as a freelance, on-demand artist, selling her entire collection last summer. Moreover, she’s currently the lead female role of AUC’s main stage theatre production ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, Nurse Ratched and the assistant set designer of the play.

If you catch Nousha having a break from her busy schedule, you’ll probably see her with a little black notebook, just scribbling. Those scribbles end up being some of the most eccentric pieces of art! Nousha got her first set of paints from her grandfather when she was one and a half. Ever since then, she has been hooked on painting and drawing. Her grandfather, who is a retired general and an artist, was the gene holder for Nousha’s artistic side. They even share the same artistic thumb. “I grew up in an environment where it was okay to do what I love”, she added.

Photo Courtesy of Nour Refaat

During the summer of her freshmen year, Nousha got a gig working as an on-demand artist. Last summer, however, what started out as a gig, became a flourishing career. “I really wanted to make money last summer because I was broke and couldn’t do anything. I’m not one to exactly ask for money, a lot of money at least, from my parents. I mean, they’ve given me enough already”. She sold her first collection to her aunts, who spread the word that there was a new, talented on-demand artist in town. This is quite an exciting job, but you must be full-heartedly in love with it. The process that goes into making a painting is tedious. “I do some preliminary drawings first, then finalized sketches and color schemes. Once that is done, I actually start working on the actual paintings”, Nousha explained.

It really is amazing how an artist can translate and adapt his talents. Nousha used to play the cello, piano and guitar. However, due to an injury in the ligaments that she faced a couple of years ago, she cannot play anymore. What did she do? “I’m insane about music” she said, “I listen to one song and put in on repeat and make a painting out of it. I just love anything to do with creativity and expression.”

Nousha has always been in love with theatre, but she didn’t actually become involved in AUC theatre productions until her sophomore year. She had no intention of auditioning for a play, but it took none other than The Laila Saad to convince her to audition for ‘the Odd Couple’, and she got cast. “The whole process was exhilarating. I enjoyed it, every bit of it.” She got bitten by the stage bug. Currently, her role in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is Nurse Ratched. The play is set in a psychiatric ward, and Nurse Ratched is the warden of the asylum. As Nousha describes her, “she is judge, jury and executioner”. She’s probably the most multifaceted character in this play. Nousha took it one step further by marrying both art and theatre in her influence in the set design.

Our nation might be a long way from accepting art, theatre, music, and creative writing as career paths that are worth nurturing, but it hasn’t always been like that. Until now, we are affected by remarkable musicians and singers such as Um Kolthoum, Farid el Atrash and Shadia. Naguib Mahfouz managed to influence the entire literary world. Yes, the Egyptian community is getting the artiness back; however, it’s not enough to just keep it alive, as Nousha describes it. She said that there needs to be that extra push; “getting rid of censorship to begin with. There should be freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Every human being has the right to it,” she concluded.

Photo by Marwan Abdel-Moniem

The American University in Cairo’s annual Cairo Science Festival organized a screening of “Einstein’s Big Idea” on Thursday April 26. This science festival highlighted the importance of women in forming and applying Einstein’s E=MC² equation.

The docudrama highlights both the history of scientific discovery surrounding the theory of relativity, alongside the personal drama that affected these discoveries. These discoveries include Michael Faraday’s discovery of electromagnetic fields, Antoine Lavoisier’s discovery, alongside his wife, that mass is never lost, and Emilie du Chatelet’s falsification of Newton’s theory on falling objects.

The docudrama shows how Albert Einstein’s theory later combined Faraday’s E for energy, Lavoisier and his wife Marrie-Anne’s M for mass, and Du Chatalet’s squared speed in C². Later, the application of such a formula was demonstrated through Lise Meisner’s work on uranium; it led to her conclusion that splitting an atom would release large amounts of energy.

“What we have seen is the history of scientific development as it happened, and when we read or teach books, we take results out without its personal and the human context [Sic],” said assistant professor of space astrophysics Dr. Alaa Ibrahim, who coordinated this event.

Dr. Ibrahim then elaborated that the drama within the documentary was essential in exposing the circumstances surrounding such scientific discoveries; it is a good way to expose science by means of “popular culture”. “In TV and press, we do not see science in a language that is directed to the popular culture,” added Dr. Ibrahim.

Abdelrahman Al Gammal, studying biotechnology at Cairo University, commented, “we learn these things in textbooks, but I never got to understand this much about the equation… [Through drama] I got to understand how they think and how we can think like them.”

Although the turnout at this event was very low, Dr. Ibrahim still remains hopeful to reach out to more people, as other events under the Cairo Science festival have.

It is truly an art to speak without saying anything, ask any United Nations member. To give a 10 minute speech without expressing a single opinion or stance is really a talent that hopefully one will never learn. We all enjoy listening to ourselves speak aimlessly and for hours, but it seems that others do not, and when you raise your hand in a debate to give a comment that sounds like it came from the Security Council’s press release, people tend to find it annoying. Contrary to popular belief, it is totally acceptable to hold an opinion, that for lack of a better word, will piss people off.

(If your opinions happen to be racist, or ever so slightly orientalist, you can always blame it on neocolonialism, its a real thing.) Every time we start our sentences with phrases like “I am not a feminist, but…”, “I don’t want to judge, but…”  “No offense, but…”,we weaken our arguments and cheapen our opinions. If you have researched and thoroughly thought out your opinion then you do have the right to be a feminist, the right to judge and the right to offend. Within reason of course, I am not advocating the right to be racist or sexist. I am however advocating the right to hold opinions that differ to mainstream discourse. We’ve all experienced the name calling, if you express an opinion that differentiates a women from a door mat, you must  be a man-hater, criticize the Muslim brotherhood and you are anti-Islam, criticize the West and you hate America. It might not be true, but we can all admit to have done it at some point. When someone criticizes you or something you believe in, it is far easier to question the person than the opinion. Offering an opinion is like falling into a trap, either you say nothing at all, which will lead to the questioning of your mental capabilities, or you say something that will inevitably disagree with someone. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t say it. This goes beyond freedom of speech, into freedom of thought.  Being called opinionated is never a compliment, but perhaps it should be.

A few weeks ago, Professor Timothy Garton Ash from Oxford University paid the American University in Cairo a visit. He introduced a project that his team and him have been working on called “the Free Speech Debate.”

The initiative is a website (freespeechdebate.com) comprised of ten principles on freedom of speech and expression, and the basic tenants that accompany them. The principles offer a way to challenge impediments that hinder or curtail free speech through a global dialogue characterized by respect, civility and a desire to liberate human creativity. In addition to the ten fundamental principles that are open to criticism and additions, there are a number of case studies and articles that offer a glaring insight into the hurdles free speech encounters in today’s interconnected world. The website is as holistic as it can be in presenting itself as a platform for a constructive debate on free speech and the manner by which ‘we’ as human beings within this interconnected world can come to live with difference, speak openly about it and use our different cultural dialectics to challenge the barriers that are imposed on us by law (for democratic societies can fail at free speech too), cultural norms, or even worse, the State.

Amongst all these principles, one stands out as epitomizing a problem revolutionary Egypt faces today; it is a problem that we have been exposed to in our modern history since the inception of the military regime in 1952. The tenth principle states, “we must be free to challenge all limits to free expression justified on such grounds as national security, public order and morality.” These ‘grounds’ are very much alive in Egypt.

Egyptians live in a state of affairs (governance and social order) that regards information as dangerous, liable to cause subversion to state sponsored rhetoric and potentially destructive to the status- quo. However, by challenging this official discourse we catalyze the battle on the front of freedom of expression in the Egyptian regime. Egyptians need to be free not just to impart, but receive information to build an atmosphere of civic engagement and public scrutiny. To the Egyptian Armed Forces, this sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

The Egyptian Military State is a de facto and de jure state. It sees the emancipation of discussions on political economy and history, to say the least, as potential threats to its monstrous hold over its power base- the economic empire that it has at its helm. If these discussions don’t conform to the nationalist patriotic discourse, then legally broad provisions will penalize those who dare speak against the prevailing economic and political taboos.

The legal system is embedded with laws that punish people who speak out against the military establishment, which is their perceived version of public order and morality. These static taboos recur perennially in the Egyptian Penal Code. What is worse yet remains in the type of ‘free discussion’ the SCAF wants to promote, one that respects the status quo and doesn’t seriously challenge their ‘ordre publique’. Moreover, those who are in the SCAF allege to know best, in a father son relationship model, what this elusive public order is, and are in a position that permits them to define and manipulate it.

Case in point, on military matters, the Egyptian penal code, article 85 subsection 3: “defense secrets include: ‘news and information related to the armed forces, formations, movements, equipment, food supply, its members, and generally all that would incur prejudice to the military and strategic affairs unless written permission of the General Command of the armed forces is given to publish.”

Article 184 is a serious bone of contention; it stipulates that “insulting or defaming parliament’s lower or upper house, the military, the courts, the authorities and the general interests” is liable to imprisonment (without mention of the term of the sentence) and a fine between five to ten thousand Egyptian Pounds. Disregarding the fact that there is the word “authorities” flagrantly thrown into the legal clause, we come to the conclusion that we live in a military and patriarchal state that is not conducive to any sort of public debate on most matters that would allow Egypt to flourish and develop.

Why should the military’s “food supply” or “its members” be an issue of national security in times of peace? Does the stability of Egypt depend on the psychological wellbeing of SCAF’s members from criticism, or rather its citizens? Why would the investigation of budget sheets of military enterprises producing consumer goods, or working conditions in macaroni and bottled water factories, be considered a threat to national security? The questions are many but the answer is simple.

The exercise of freedom of speech and the desire to participate in the policy making process of the country may be subject to restriction on the grounds of national security if a legitimate explanation is given to prove imminent threat or danger. A legitimate threat means that the government, or SCAF in this scenario, can demonstrate on legal grounds who is threatening us, why this threat is considered to be so, and enlighten the people as to how long restrictions will be in place. The burden of this demonstration lies ultimately with them. Furthermore, it is the people’s right to demand justifications for the curtailment of their inherent rights, provided that the law is unambiguous on what a ‘legitimate’ threat is and would be readily accessible to all. Incidentally, none of those restrictions are justifiable when it comes to most of the armed forces’ economic enterprises (E.g. Land monopolies, factories for consumer goods, construction industries, port-facilities, etc.). They are, according to Egyptian Military expert and scholar Robert Springborg, “not subject to financial oversight by the Central Auditing Organization.”

There is corroborative evidence, by military historians and economists such as Robert Springborg, Khaled Fahmy and Zeinab Abu El Magd, which allows us to fathom the extent of the Military’s vast monopoly over Egypt’s resources. Moreover, in the mind of a general, whatever is done with those resources and commercial enterprises is none of the Egyptian citizen’s concern or speculation. In historical matters, much of the Egyptian archives are controlled by this military ethos; in fact, most of Egypt’s modern historiography, generally concerning military episodes, is written through the lens of British and Israeli archives, not Egypt’s own.

The point is not to make a polemical argument around the terms of freedom of expression and national security. To proceed in that fashion, it can be mentioned that there is a penultimate international legal document called the Johannesburg Principles that elaborates how freedom of expression should be regulated in light of national security. However, doing so would further estrange us from our local battle. While these principles may serve as a yardstick to measure how far or close we are from achieving victory, they cannot serve as a basis of argumentation against the military junta; only citizen based initiatives and broad consensus over civic engagement can.

‘We’, Egyptian citizens, must be allowed to construct a culture of criticism over the policies and politics of how our country is run; exclusion from such an undertaking would aggravate rather than improve socio-economic and political conditions. This culture would be fostered by academic, scientific and artistic professions, and rendered more potent by a courageous and hard-hitting media environment. The powers of the military censor can only go so far if there is considerable pressure by concerned citizens and the media to open up all of their taboos to public scrutiny and debate.

Ideally then, the goal would be to convince Egypt’s generals to relinquish their hold over Egypt’s progress and heritage by sending them the message that it is because ‘we’ Egyptian citizens care about national security and the development of Egypt, that we want to be able to open their information monopoly on the economy, politics and heritage to debate and public scrutiny- and not be denounced as foreign agents in the process.

The phrase “down with military rule” does not just embody a desire for justice and transparency over what the generals have perpetrated during the transitional phase, it also epitomizes a whole paradigm of demands that would existentially question all that had prevailed in Egypt before January 25. Since politics is the relationship between ruler and ruled, all issues pertaining to the lives of the people are up for debate and criticism, granting people the right to participate in the decision making process of Egypt, rebel when they are not included and consequently, demand structural change.

“Egyptians must cease to believe that politics are the special field of the ruler,” said Al Tahtawi in the 1850’s. This country is not SCAF’s; it’s ours, and all decisions made concerning its development and progress are ours as well. The culture of obedience and subservience to authority is rampant and embedded in all aspects of life, politics, family, society and religion. By breaking free from this hierarchical absoluteness, the revolution’s Geist would be proud; Egypt would never be the same again.

AHMED NAGUIN SM EDITOR

Every now and then, I come up with crazy theories like other human beings. This time, I decided to share one of my theories with you. I believe innovators have something in common. I also believe lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and things of similar effect, have played crucial roles in creating most of the great things around us. The aim of this article is not to encourage you to do LSD. However, it is more of an attempt to try and make you see the world in a different way because that, I believe, is the way to become a disruptor of industries and an innovator.

I bet you already know who Steve Jobs is before I even introduce him. He was the founder of Apple, and among other things, he was fond of LSD.  All of this information is available in the recent biography written by Walter Isaccson; clearly, I’m not making anything up. There was one quote by Jobs himself that stopped me: “taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin.” In the same book, Bono, the famous musician, said that “the people who invented the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because they saw differently.”

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd) were two of the most famous Arab scientists, philosophers, theologians and astronomers. Both men had their own unique perspectives on Islam. They did not believe in following the common interpretations regarding their religion, and life in general. Therefore, they decided to take a deeper dive in everything they dealt with.

Bill Hicks was a well-known stand-up comedian and musician. Other comedians voted for him as number 13 on the list of “The Top 20 Greatest Comedy Acts Ever.” Comedians such as Russell Brand find him to be an inspiration. He had a very interesting take on drugs: “see, I think drugs have done some good things for us. If you don’t think drugs have done good things for us, then do me a favor. Go home tonight and take all of your records, tapes and all your CD’s and burn them.”

My point here is clear and simple; I’m no advocate of drugs, alcohol, or joining a weird – or not so weird – religious clan. However, I’m an advocate of looking at things differently. Whether they were high on drugs or choosing to go through different spiritual experiences, most of the innovators we know thought differently of the world around us. Let us not be fans of the status quo; we can be innovators, disruptors of arts, of cultures, and industries. It just means that we might take a different road than the others, or go for extra miles, but it’s worth it.

Always keep in mind, “stay hungry … stay foolish.”

Photo by Marwan Abdel-Moniem

Q: A lot of people know Ramy Serry the race car driver who succeeded in Egypt and the Arab region at large; however, no one how you reached that success; so, how did it happen?

A: It all started with loving cars just like any kid and playing some games with my family; my parents would ask me about types of cars when we were driving around the streets while living in Saudi Arabia. It all started rather simply then it evolved with video games and I felt that is possible to do in reality the things I do in the games.

Of course, at first I doubted if the physics of the games would be identical to those in reality and so I wanted to try it out and when I did, it was exactly the same.

Q: How was this experience? When was the first time you drove a car?

A: I was 13 years old and I was in a deserted area with my father’s car; he was with me, that was the first time I go through the experience. If the issue was one in which my family understood this matter from the beginning, I would have started driving at age 7. But, they did not know that I wanted to be a race car driver.

Q: A lot of people fear for their children getting involved into risky sports like car racing; what do you think of this and did it affect you?

A: That was not necessarily the case with me; my family is full of athletes; so, the matter was not one about risk taking. It was actually about how to deal with the idea of race car driving because it was not a widespread sport in Egypt; so, there was always a question about what to do if I wanted to pursue it. My family did not have much of an answer for this question especially that during that time when I was about 18 years old, the Internet had just started in Egypt and my family had no idea about how to help me.

Q: Did you have any other hobbies?

A: Yes, I was a swimming champion and I also played tennis well among other things; swimming though was the only one that was taken seriously because tennis was just a hobby as well as basketball and football as a goal keeper. However, none of these hobbies were treated as having potential to turn into a profession.

Q: When did you start hearing about races in Egypt like Auto Cross?

A: When I was in school about 16 years old and the boys had nothing to talk about other than the likes of Nasser Abou Heif, Samir Fawzy, and others. I just wanted to watch them in person; so, I started following Auto Cross taking place at the airport. And when I watch Moataz Atef for the first time, I fell in love with the sport and I just wanted to be like him.

Q: How did you think about becoming like those? How did you get your first car?

A: First, you have to have a car to start and my father did not quite understand what I wanted to do exactly. But, like any father he wanted to surprise and said “let’s go buy you a car”. I did not want anything in the car except a strong motor, a driving seat, and a steering wheel; nothing else mattered to me. So, we went down to a car dealership and my father found a brand new Opel Corsa and told me that this is my surprise. I told him that I was not interested in it and I just want to race; but, he did not want to get me a fast car as he feared for me. I did not have any other option and of course this car was better than no car at all. I started fixing things up regular things like the rims, the stereo system, and other stuff.

Q: When did you enter your first race?

A: As soon as I got back from the States.

Q: You travelled to the States for university education as soon as you finished high school; was racing on your mind then? Did you want it to be your future?

A: During those days, I wanted to be in Egypt and race; however, my family did not agree and so, I went to the States and I met up with some of my friends from my days in Saudi Arabia. Yet, my thoughts were fixated on Egypt and I used to talk with my brother over the phone a lot about the latest news about races, drivers, and cars. I stayed there for two years; but, I just could not take it. So, I came back to Egypt and entered my first race in 2000.

Q: You mentioned that your role models are Nasser Abou Heif and Moataz Atef. Those two have major accomplishments in Auto Cross especially Abou Heif who has a record of 18 championships while we do not see your name up there in records; yet, when we ask people about Auto Cross, they all mention your name. Why is that? And do you focus more on the “show”?

A: This comes down first to my driving style and technique, which people like to watch; but, that does not mean that I do not win races. I lack the necessary consistency especially as I travel outside Egypt a lot and sometimes, I am hooked up with a project that I am focused on so I would skip a race here or there. Yet – and I thank God for that, when I enter a timed race, I perform well and win; but, I do not have the consistency of those champions.

Q: Everything was going alright until 2005; what happened that year?

A: The airport accident happened; it is a well-known accident in which two drivers were racing and one of them stirred off course and hit the crowds watching with his Ford Mustang killing 6 and injuring 12; then, ran away. My name came up in the investigation as the other driver’s car looked like my silver BMW although the numbers on the plates were quite different. And so, I was arrested and spent 34 days in jail especially, after the authorities fabricated a case given the ongoing media and general public’s pressure in which they claimed that I organized the race.

But, it was an experience; an experience from which I learnt a lot.

Q: How did that experience change you?

A: The experience put me on the right track; when I sat alone, I felt a sense of serenity and I got close to God, which allowed to clearly perceive my reality. My father helped me in staying positive especially with his psychology background as he was specialized in crisis management and behavioral training. The whole issue ended when the Qatari was arrested and confirmed that he does not know me.

Q: What did you do after that? You travelled to Bahrain?

A: After 6 months, I wanted to try building a race track for Egypt; but, there was not much interest especially on the part of government officials. I later found out that they did not want to come close to motor sports as they required manufacturing things that they did not want to manufacture at the time. And so, I travelled to Bahrain and wanted to find a job there somewhere close to the race track so that I could learn the motor sports industry.

Unfortunately, there were no vacancies; however, I found a job in a specialized motor sports magazine especially as I had realized during my time in jail that I have a talent for writing in both English and Arabic. Within 3 months, I was managing the magazine and from there, I started to know how the industry is run and I travelled for test drives in Germany and Dubia. I, also, met leading figures including Jensen Button, David Coulthard and Ron Dennis executive chairman of McLaren Automotive.

Q: You went there with a dream to become a Formula 1 driver; what did you find out?

A: I realized that you can enter Formula 1 races at that age; first, you have got to have money since a starting Formula 1 driver has to pay a team to join it; so, it is not just about talent. So, I wanted to go through the experience to know whether I would be passionate about circuit driving like I am passionate about rallies and drifting so that I may decide whether I want to pursue it or not. I entered a Formula 1 BMW race and I performed well; however, I knew that I was not all that passionate about circuit driving. So, I continued working for the magazine and I came back to Egypt and started by own magazine.

Heba Bahnassy COPY EDITOR

Jesus’ golden rule in the Sermon on the Mount was to treat people how we wanted to be treated. How many of us are really doing that? The more I deal with people, the more I find myself confused with their nature. I am shocked to find that people, in general, no longer take into consideration others’ feelings. Lately, I have heard numerous complaints of how people are constantly changing, to the worse; they put, above all, their own benefits and disregard everyone else.  On their way to getting what is in their own benefit, they can step on anyone. Therefore, people end up getting hurt. Why would you build something on fake or stolen ground?

What’s happening today is contrary to what used to happen in the old days; what I used to hear from older family members is that if your neighbor needed help, everyone would have been there helping. How many of us these days even speak to our neighbors? Family and friends used to have very close unbreakable ties. Look at how they are now; friends and family are jealous and, as I have stated earlier, the sick minded of them, will do anything to sabotage you. It’s unbelievable how time can change attitude.

If we cannot keep our relationships pure, then this is a bad sign for all of us. Truly, we must try to be less fake, less hateful , more honest and accepting of the people around us.

Yasmine Nagaty OPINIONS EDITOR

Last year, I wrote an opinion entitled “Down with the Salafis”, outlining the reasons I discredit Salafism. A year later, as we continue to accumulate many more stories to add to the cutting of ears, it is important to be aware of the dynamics of this movement.

I continue, like most of us at AUC, to oppose the Salafist movement in Egypt as a religious political party. After the engaging events surrounding presidential candidate Abu Ismail’s eligibility, it is only safe to conclude that an alleged Islamist movement does not have to be credited just because it is based on a religion that may be deemed to those it appeals to, as perfect. I will disregard for a minute, my position on Islamic governance generally and the manner in which Salafism ought to be rejected in consideration of their position on various issues such as Coptic rights. Even to Muslims, an Islamist who claims religiosity and then is proved to be a systematic liar has no place as their representative.

Of course double standards are characteristic of every tenant of society, so it is really no surprise that the very man who has claimed the revolution as sinful is the very man high jacking it. Much can be said about Abu Ismail. However, I am more concerned with us as general Egyptians than with political leaders. This leads me to add one observation about Salafis a year on from the revolution.

Although many of you, like I, may have had heated clashes with one Salafi or another, I have also learned that many are open and willing to listen to alternative points of view. I had a long conversation with a Salafi taxi driver who was open to listening to my argument regarding why Abu Ismail ought not become Egypt’s next president.

And as against Salafism as I am, I do not believe in fascistic eradication of the movement. I hold extreme opinions on Salafis who transgress legal and ethical standards of behavior. Therefore, I have not and will not tolerate a Salafi who gives himself/herself the right to judge my manner of dress, for instance. What we can tolerate is a Salafi who, despite having radically different stances, is open and sensible to different points of view.

This is the essence of democracy. A common criticism of anti-Salafists is that they advocate democracy while demeaning Islamists. This is not always true and it is in fact wrong to demean an ideology if you are not willing to converse and interact with its advocates. Criticism is a responsibility and before any ideology or movement could be criticized, it is only reasonable that you are tolerant of its voices before you can oppose them.