Salman in Cairo

Just another random night just another random intoxicated conversation.

Miguel for some reason or the other is trying to rate the three of us (me, himself and Kent) along a scale... so hes like okay if the scale of humanity extends from the right to othe left - then Kent is on the absolute right hand side of this scale: Canadian to the core completely politically correct and always spot on about everything. Salman is on the complete left hand of the scale: the craziest out of ALL of us (he was quite excited at this point and crazy was elaborated in many ways that i will not go into here :P; And me (i.e. miguel) im somewhere in the middle...
so:

Salman ---------- Miguel --------- Kent


Now this was his opinion... but if you were to see the three of us a lot of people might agree with this.

BUt thats not the point at all.

The point is that back home... i wouldnt even be considered close to crazy... if i was to rate myself back home to all the other pakistani guys i know in about the same age group i think it would be something like this:

The Rest Of Pakistan ------------------------------ME -----A few people i know

And then, you put me in a room with a Mexican and a Canadian and all of a sudden im the craziest guy in the room.

I love my country.

Posted by Salman at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments  

Iv been here in cairo for about a month now... and during that time a lot has happened... but an interesting realization occured to me in the last few days - let me tell you how.

Well it all starts with a girl named Farzena who has been living with us for the last few days. Shes a new trainee that just arrived from the UK (originally from Bangladesh) and AIESEC is still trying to find her accomodation so the poor girl sleeps on a couple of blankets in my living room. The first day she was here and we were all going to work... shes watching as first miguel gets up an 930 - strolls into the kitchen starts making breakfast in totally no hurry whatsoever. I wake up around 1015 walk around the house a bit then hit the shower... Kent gets up around the same time takes over from miguel in the kitchen and starts cooking his own breakfast. Quarter to 11 were all sitting around the dining table and im like hmm... alright boys and girls im gonna head to the office.

At which point... Farzena promtply noted... your going to the office like THAT?
hahaha i was wearing jeans, a t shirt, and a jacket thrown over... my normal winter college attire. And yes... i was going to go to the office like that - i ALWAYS went to the office like that :P At which point i looked around me... miguel dressed in a tie and shirt just cause he "doesntlike going messy to the office two days in the row... keeps the people guessing" :P Kent who for gods sake even in this WINTER heads to the office in SHORTS and a t shirt... and me dressed as i dress.

As i was leaving the room it kinda hit me - we ARE the most pampered trainees in all of Cairo. All three of us have flexible hours and we basically just TRY to get into the office before 11. All three of us have absolutely no dress code whatsoever. All of us are being compensated by our companies just a tad more then the trainee salary and because of that we live in Mohandiseen - in one of the biggest trainee flats.

Hahahaha... it makes me laugh.

Posted by Salman at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments  

"We were surprised to find a girl in her early twenties who had fainted on the ground, surrounded by a large number of youth who were groping parts of her body and taking off her clothes.

I could not understand, or rather could not absorb, what was happening…the girl got up quickly and tried to run in any direction until she saw a Syrian restaurant called "el Madyafa" or something, and ran into it. The young men surrounded the restaurant and did not leave till one of them shouted, "There's another girl in front of Miami!"

Everyone ran towards Talaat Harb Street again. I found there a girl encircled by hundreds of men who were trying to grope her and rip off her clothes. This time the girl was rescued by a taxi driver who picked her up in his taxi, but the men did not let the taxi pass and they formed a circle around it demanding that she get out of the car until a policeman interfered, raising his baton and beating anyone he saw in front of him."



I wasnt in Cairo for Eid, i was partying in Dahab (a post on that later) - only yesterday did i hear through the grapevine (more specifically Kent) that something like this had been going on during Eid in Downtown Cairo (one of the most busiest areas of cairo). This disturbs me down to my core. Iv heard about people getting harassed here... a know a lot of people who had been harassed and i know that it happens in Pakistan but no where near the frequency that it happens here... and now i read this and it seriously has disturbed me to the extent that i cant think straight. Im not gonna write an opinion piece or anything on this... im dusgusted and disturbed. Full Stop.

For the entire story go HERE

For more links and details and pictures as well... go to Tom's blog HERE

Disgusted. Disturbed.

Posted by Salman at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments