Why did I say so?

This topic will get a lot of oppositions from a lot of people. So bare with me.


Imagine that there is a wide spread annual campaign in Egypt to build a large monument for a famous figure in Egypt. More than 16 million Egyptians participate in it and donate about 8 trillion pounds on it annually. Then; they burn it down. Imagine the amount of money wasted instead of spending it on improving the education or finding solutions to the traffic problem. Imagine the amount of pollution that is spread year by year that made us #1 on the most polluted cities on the planet. Imagine the amount of people that developed lung and brain diseases due to this amount of burning. Imagine that we ARE DOING the same year after year and no one is giving a damn about it. 


Why did I say so? What did I say? A while back I tweeted the following "Smokers are STUPID." And it was like Armageddon. A massive number of smokers started commenting on it and started debating about this matter which in my perspective is not debatable.

Why did I say so? I said so because, a friend of mine was talking to me about how smoking is ruining his life but he can't stop. Then I asked him just like I ask any other smoker; 'انت ليه بتشرب سجاير؟' and of course he answered like any other smoker 'مش عارف.. بس السيجارة بتهاديني'

Why am I against smoking? and why am I writing about it? I am against smoking for so many reasons, it's stupid, lethal, and since smokers don't take into account the health of the people surrounding them who aren't smoking FOR A REASON, I believe it's a bit rude.

Why am I writing about it? I am; for two reasons:

1. I am sick of the amount of smokers that are out there. As I said there are about 16 million smokers in Egypt and about 1.1 billion smokers on the planet. About 34,000 human lives get consumed by smoking annually. Egyptians spend 8 trillion pounds annually on smoking. WHY?
2. I want to deliver my point of view to every smoker that I know hoping that one of them might be convinced and quit.

The WHO (World Health Organization) stated that worldwide, 47 percent of men and 12 percent of women smoke a total of 6 trillion cigarettes a year. I am not going to talk about how deadly smoking is, because I am not talking to some uneducated people. People who are reading this are educated enough to know what they're doing and the consequences of it. You just need to be reminded.

Why can't people stop smoking? Besides all the narcotics and the addictive substance included in each cigarette, people just don't have the will. It's the same case I talked about in a previous post. That we are weak against temptations that we start building thoughts and beliefs in our head that we start acting upon it as if it was the actual truth and start spreading it around. Smoking doesn't keep you calm, it's the addictive substance called 'nicotine' inside it that does. It just like crystal meth or cocaine. And yet a lot of people recover from their addiction to such substances.

A lot of people will not be convinced about what I wrote. But some will; and these are the people that I am writing this post for. So please, STOP SMOKING. It aint that cool. If you can find the will inside you to with no thoughts accept the consequences of smoking then hell you can quit now. 

Please, stop smoking for the sake of the people living and interacting you, for the sake of the children that you are going to raise and don't want them to have internal diseases, and finally, for your own sake. Be there more for the people you love and stop playing with your life as if it was someone else's. It's not only your life you're compromising, so please, stop it.

I didn't mean to make anyone who read this to feel bad, but it's the truth. Face it so as to make a move and do something about it.

This is a video that I know a lot of you have seen, but for the people that haven''t. See what every smoker and consequently non-smoker are ingesting into their bodies.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXbYw3aZe3E

Best Regards,

Why Sushi?

Ok, before I start writing I just want to state that this is not intentioned for people who actually LIKE Sushi.

Sushi? Why Sushi? Why was Sushi chosen to be the coolest invention of our time? Why was Sushi widely spread in Egypt last year although Sushi is the most famous cousin in Japan since 1336? Why NOW?

Sushi, Japanese food, food, protein and carbs, fish and rices. Is it the name that made it so attractive? Is it the fancy, well designed restaurants? Is it? I don't think it is. Here's the thing, every now and then there is this something that provides us with that illusionary perception of coolness. 

In the early 90's the symbol for coolness was Grunge fashion. In the beginning of the new millennium technology gadgets started to be the cool trend followed by a lot of other technological inventions starting camera phones, hi5 and icq accounts till iPhone 4 and BlackBerry phones. All that is acceptable; but FOOD?

Why Sushi? and why now? I think that Sushi was chosen because the amount of people that actually liked Sushi and were eating it at that time were in very small quantities which made them very special, just like anything else, when it's in small quantities it's cool and hip, but when everyone else starts doing it we just shift to the next cool thing. 

The second question, why now? I think Sushi was chosen these days to become the new phenomenon of unconditional coolness simply because there is nothing else interesting plus we are a culture that is ruled by food, we invite people over to eat, we go out and our destination is always a cafe/restaurant and we celebrate our occasions by food.

But how come this time it was food that was the star of the evening? I don't know but it happened. Maybe a totally random chain of events that were very random, perhaps.

At the ending I just want to clarify that this is by no mean an attempt publicize the idea of that Sushi is bad or that Sushi lovers are pretenders. I was just surprised by some facts that I wanted to share with you.

P.S. Waffles are the new Sushi.

السلام عليكم

Why is it that Egypt fell from the top of the pyramid into the dumpster?

Why did I choose this title? Every living Egyptian brag about what our ancestors have done. How they had the most intelligent culture of their time. How they became the leading force of the ancient world. Now, without saying; you can understand why I choose to call it a dumpster. 

Going back to the ancient history of Egypt and looking back at the greatness that this country had and how we are ruining it with our hands is just painful. 

What happened that made Egypt take that declining fall? The more important question is Why can't we recap from such a downfall? 

Simply, I think it's because we don't want to. We don't have it in us. We have adapted to this style of living unwillingly and we are afraid of the change.

Another answer is the almighty famous sentence" هيا البلد خربانا... أنا الي هعدلها يعني؟". It's the non believe of a single act's power. Although there are a lot of single acts in Egypt that are hitting big; take 'One Movement' as an example. Amr Nazeer the creator just had an idea of not throwing anything on the street rather than cleaning up and the garbage will pile up again, and it's going really, really good. A SINGLE ACT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE.

I want to relate to a point that I wrote about in a previous post. We don't have the culture of over achieving, everyone just wants to put the least amount of effort in any kind of activity.

There is a large amount of people who don't do their work efficiently. If the teacher did his job in schools in the best way we would have better and more qualified graduates, or the garbage man if he did his job right we would have cleaner streets, or the street officer if he would pay more attention we won't have these amount of accidents and traffic jams.

In a conclusion, we should not be afraid of change, change is GOOD. We should have faith in single acts and everyone should do his own. Try to over achieve. And every single one of us should do what he's supposed to do in the most perfect way possible. We need to take Egypt out of the dumpster and climb back the Pyramid. It's our responsibility and our duty as we are the last line of hope to this country.


This is merely my opinion, I wish that everyone who would read this post would comment and say how we can make this great country better. Please this might be a start of something big.


Thank you.

Why do people blame social networks?

A few days back I posted the rumor (which I didn’t know it was back then) about Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to shut down Facebook. I was astonished by the amount of people who said that this was brilliant and it would help a lot. I have a BlackBerry phone so I’ve heard everything, I stereotype. I am destroying my social life. It’s an evil device. This post is because I have a theory that it’s not the social networks that should be blamed.

Again; Why do people blame social networks? For instance, Facebook since it’s the most used social network on the planet. Why do people use Facebook? It’s a good communication method… But that’s not the end of the story. People use Facebook because they have a lot of spare time. When people are busy doing something they really like they totally forget about Facebook or any social network. I want every person to think of the thing that he enjoys doing the most and remember a single time that he remembered Facebook while doing that thing. YOU CAN'T.

Social networks are neither bad nor addictive. They are tools, we just abuse them.

Why did some people seem glad when they heard the rumor of Facebook shutting down? Because they can’t find a way to stop using Facebook on their own. They couldn't find the will to stop. Simply put, and I am sorry to say so but most of us are week towards the social networks, simply because they are cool and we are connected all the time.

I am going to take another example. Since it is considered the social network that can ruin our lives in a split of a second, BlackBerry is not bad people. People who keep "BBMing" 24/7 are just abusing the technology. BlackBerry is a device that allows people to be connected everywhere just like WhatsApp which everyone is using with no second thoughts. People say that people stereotype and buy BlackBerry phones, I beg the difference. I think people who say that and on the other hand you find WhatsApp on their phone and has no other reason not to buy a BlackBerry are just stereotyping (Not that I am defending the phone). 

I think as a conclusion, I say we should not blame social networks for our mistakes or excessive use. I am not saying that we should stop using social networks, but if you want to limit your usage don't deactivate your account and re-activate it in a few days, just try to find the will to do it and limit your use.

Peace out.

Why is there a traffic jam at 12 pm everyday?

Ok, so I mentioned this phenomenon in the opening post of my blog. Now I am going to share with you what I have noticed on an average day on my way to college. 


I study in Cairo University and I live in Maadi so there are two ways to go to college; either through Manial or through 'El Ba7r El A3zam' street. The dilemma is they're both terribly jammed up after 9. So I started thinking, Why is it that there are A LOT of people in the streets at such time where everyone should be behind his/her desk?! Then I justified that with that some people don't have a desk job or some have meetings somewhere. But these people are a very limited number of all people in the streets. 


I then related to the unemployment problem. Then I asked myself, WHY is there an unemployment problem? I had two logical answers in mind: 1. There are no enough job opportunities/vacancies. 2. Vacancies are available but the qualifications to fill them are not available.


I then went with the second assumption. Then I asked myself, WHY aren't there enough qualifications? Of course, just like any other Egyptian/Person living Egypt I with no doubt blamed the educational system. Well the fact is after thinking about it more, the educational system is not the only thing that should be blamed. 


A lot of people have the culture or are educated to satisfy for the least. A hand full of people are eager to over achieve. For example, at every final in almost every college there is you would find a student who studies from the book and another who studies notes or some TA's hand notes. I am not saying that notes are bad but they kinda demolish our sense of eagerness to more and more. Most students study to get high grades to get good jobs without paying attention to the point that these courses will be their job in a few years, but all the focus is to get high grades without looking to the quality of learning which leads us to the dilemma of the low qualifications of the Egyptian employee.


Back to the education part, I cannot disagree that the messed up educational system we have has a big hand in what we are facing these days. Today a friend posted that the educational committee of the people committee has criticized a decision taken to spend L.E. 100 million on establishing school libraries. What a thrill. But we cannot blame the government when we still have something to do.


I think at this point I was distracted by something else, perhaps arriving to college. I think what I have concluded is in order for the streets to be empty at 12 pm is to have a good educational system in addition to instilling the habit or the culture of over achieving and not satisfying by the least in everyone we know.


Aloha!

Why 101.

 Why; is a fascinating word. It's really amazing how many decisions can be changed and how many times the world was altered by such a word. It's funny how every person has a different perception about the answer to the word 'Why'.


     That's why I am going to try to show you everything from my eyes and how I analyze situations that happens to me daily to reach conclusions that might leave you puzzled or maybe answer a question you had. I think of my blog as my hypothetical theories/solutions bank. The amount of probabilities and variable answers to a one word called 'Why' is what encouraged me to do this.

• Why did I decide to have a Blog?

   Actually I have been thinking about it for a while and I wasn't that motivated until a couple of my friends started their own; Kareem Helmee (هنا القاهرة) and Aya Ashraf (A discovery of the heart's black holes). Seeing their posts develop encouraged me to start mine, in addition to the relevance of the name of my blogger to my life which will be answered in the following question.

• Why did I decide to call my Blog 'Why'?

   Well I for starters have a lot that accompanies the word 'Why' in my mind. Everywhere I go or every thing I do always encourages a 'why' to pop up. For example everyday on my way to college, I start thinking why is there a traffic jam at 12 pm? Aren't those people supposed to be at work? Why aren't those people at work? And these 'Whys' lead me to a lot of conclusions. Some are true and some I just made up.

This blog will be totally open for people to participate. If anyone wants to participate just send me anything relevant to 'Why' and I'll post it with his/her name on the blog. It doesn't have to be strictly or fully in English, it can be in Arabic or Franko-Arab.

I hope everyone liked the idea. Tune in for the posts and take care for now. 

Aloha.