between Building a case, and Distroying another..
For more than thirty years, I was hard activist on Arabic Unity.. Was not an ethnic drive, but geopolitical and Cultural one.. Today, I watch the concept falling apart because of 90 minutes Football game; which was successfully monopolized and driven but many hands.. Bitterly enough, that the leading force for that proposed cultural unity, are the gear for its destruction.. Yet, need to salute the Algerian Media, who utilized the incident to promote for their own purpose: Maghreb Unity..!!
I had spent few hours browsing the web sites; which are intentionally created; following the hysterical football battle between Algeria and Egypt for the world cup 2010 bid.. Not only unprecedented amount of emotions and energy revolutionized, which would change the landscape of both countries, but also; lots of irrationality, hatred and awfulness that would mark history.. I believe the coming weeks would witness much more, as the Eygpt’s Mubark spoke firmly on protecting national pride and dignity against whoever breaches.. On the other hand, formal Algerian channels had played calm, allowing its private media to respond.. Meanwhile, FIFA had fined Egypt on earlier incident in Cairo against an Algerian player, as Common Egyptians are wishing actions against Allergies despite no complaints are legalized..
Regretfully, the amount of anger hysteria is growing fast in Cairo, while victory celebrations had lift minor space for the same among Algerians. The strong calls against Algeria mounted to be against Arabs in general, as a gift for pro-Pharosism lobby in Cairo. Some called to retreat all Egyptians working abroad, another called to deport all Algerians from Egypt, third took it into religious affirmation of Quranic note on Egypt superiority, fourth discussed the Algerian ethnicity, and so on.. Within the chaotic situation in Egypt, a rare and unique celebration of patriotism supersedes everything else; which uniquely drove the government to follow, not to control or guide as how things used to be. Many symptoms of government lost-control were observed, while funny tactics of crises management were advised to lead the chaos not to confront it..
The significance of the issues shows a repeated scenario of famous revolutions, when the intellectual elites followed the commons and justify their hysterical demands. Business leaders who are investing about $ 20 billion in Algeria started to announce actions of pulling out, the famous Egyptian entertainment league denounced any activities in Algeria, high quality posters were created and circulated in massive logistic operations, voluntary and unknown continuous feed was supplied for heating-up the public anger, a minister announced possible deploy of armed units to protect abroad citizens, Mubarak’s son publicly cursed Algerians, and so on.. Shocking enough, that high profile decision makers had joined the hysterical commons and comments. Fortunately, fewer academics had joined the madness; so far.. Some loyal Nasserists, who fought the regime in favor of Arab-unity and solidarity in the past, had amazingly joined the frenzy..
Potentials of agent hands and minds behind this escalation is not overruled, as other critical and serious issues had been temporarily shelved. The regular Sharm Elsheikh economic forum had been moved to Morocco, deadlocks of Gaza issue had widely hurt regime’s influence, deteriorated inter-Arabic relations affected flow of investments, open and loud condemnation of ill-governance spread all over the sectors, crack between social layers had grown enough to hurdle crossing dreams, cyber activists been encouraged after beating Husni in the UNESCO bid, modeling Iranian campaigns against a much tighter regime had encouraged repetition, the annual black smoke cloud above Cairo is helplessly growing, and many more.. Notably, while the tight and deteriorated living conditions are soaring in Egypt, it is not the same in Algeria, as commons still enjoy oil and gas revenues in more socialist approaches, despite the common political corruption, rising living costs and complex fundamentalist threats; which both countries shares..
There are few cultural notes, which triggered the latest chaos, as well as any previous confrontations between Egyptians and their Arabic speaking league.. Many of both sides do not understand the hostile situations that suddenly blow whenever an Egyptian-Arab competition takes place.. However, my own observations had brought the following conclusions:
Most Arabs are hot-tempered, Bedouin-mannered and extended-family people; believing in these social features which had declined in Egypt due to urbanism, mature bureaucracy and ethnic mixture. This had created a discomfort among Egyptians temporarily or economically migrate to other parts of Arab world, while they have to welcome the petro-dollars to feed Egyptian economy. State of false harmony was widely established..
2. Historical Egyptian prosperity was great magnet for fellow Arabs; which granted Egypt a Big-Brother role since the restoration of Abbasid Caliphate. Such a role is eventually declining with rapid economic and political growth in other Arab countries; which was widely ignored by Egyptian statesmen, leading to the eventual competition on changing roles. A state of patriarchy vs. munity was bitterly created..
3. Modern Media in Egypt was born mighty with rich heritage of theater, cross-border-communications, and significantly-long monarchy. The complexity of media structures, tools, and products were conceived with pro-Arab political projects that created a hidden monster which rules all aspects of Egyptian life. Recipients are powerless with well structured campaigns to exercise government controls and interests. This justifies the alliance between politicians and beneficiaries inside and outside the country. Therefore, reactions of both intellectuals and commons are not necessarily their independent choice, but resultant of complex and scientifically-driven political landscape. A state of totalitarian; occasionally turns fascism vs. enlightenment; occasionally turns democracy..
4. As how agreeable the popularity of Egyptian Slang among Arabic speakers, which was always empowered by both media and modernization, as it creates uncalculated element of confrontations. The same represents the difference between UK Slang and USA one. In Egypt, naming parents is commonly used in different levels of severity to curse someone; which contrarily means forbidden manner among Arabs. While in Egypt; it represents social, economic or political humor or disgrace, it ignites death fight among Arabs.. Adding to an urban value which replaces life-threatening-fight with words-temporary-fight, concluding a situation of risky misunderstanding and awful consequences. A state of mutual epistemic-blindness develops vs. cultural intimacy.
Yet, despite all above; location, population and urbanism of Egypt is critical for Arabic profile, which was always and in complicated manner, targeted by all anti-Arab lobbies in international politics. Arabs represent considerable resources for international economy, which did not diminish by Asian or African potentials due to various geopolitical factors. Therefore, it is well understood that cracking the Arabic solidarity starts by Egypt, as proven in endless occasions along history. Regretfully, Egyptian elites became addicted to miss the lesson, that their own security is not a matter of armed control of the neighbors, but in spreading urbanism and integration with. This is the scheme both Mohammad Ali Basha and Nasser had understood quite well, yet were interested in contrary results..!
