A Bank or a Flee Market?!?!

Yesterday, I had to go to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to disburse a cheque... A bonus I took for preparing a number of workshops and seminars the last month. And because I am an employee in the office of one of the ministers, I get to disburse my bonus from the government's major bank, the CBE. I also happen to be a client of a private/commercial banks in Egypt, and going to the CBE and seeing the wide gap and difference was a cause of a culture shock to me.

HOW ON EARTH is this considered a Bank? A financial institution to serve the public? Why the poor and needy are treated that way?

It is not a bank... It is a flee market... People are illiterate; all they know is that they have a cheque allowing them peanuts every month from what they refer to as "Sadat's pension"... And supposedly those peanuts are the income of a family of 5 to 12 people...

I had to stand in the women's queue and wait for my turn to come... Most of them are illiterate and they keep pushing and pushing although there is no where to go, but they all want to make their transactions fast and leave... However, the bank employees are so slow and so inconsiderate.... They treat people like a herd of animals not humans... The bank was so crowded that I couldn’t breathe... and people in the queue stick to you as if we are in the metro... Moreover, one of the ladies gave the security guy some money for her to stand on the front of the queue and not have to wait for a turn because the queues are endless... And you can stay forever for your turn to come... Not just that, there are no chairs to wait, although there were many elders who cannot stand for such a long time... There was endless noise were people where calling out on each other with very loud voices and people fighting over their turn or people having problems with their transactions...

I had a problem myself... They wrote my name wrong on the cheque... Even writing 4 names is a hassle to them... A request they cannot perform right...

The population has to stop accepting the mess they are living in... We have to revolt...
7asby ALLAH wa ne3ma el wakeel...

يا الله يا ذا الجلال والإكرام

الحمد لله

الحمد لله رب العالمين
الحمد لله

اللهم انك عفو تحب العفو فعفو عنا

اللهم استرني فوق الأرض وتحت الأرض ويوم العرض عليك يا رب العالمين

اللهم استرنا بسترك الجميل

اللهم اهدنا إلى الصراط المستقيم

اللهم اكفنا بحلالك عن حرامك وطاعتك عن معصيتك وفضلك عن من سواك

اللهم إنى أسألك العتق من النار

ربنا لا تؤاخذنا إن نسينا أو أخطأنا ربنا ولا تحمل علينا اسراً كما حملته على الذين من قبلنا ربنا ولا تحملنا ما لا طاقة لنا به وأعفو عنا واغفر لنا وارحمنا أنت مولانا فانصرنا على القوم الكافرين

استغفر الله العظيم

To My Best Friend... Thank You!

I seriously dont know how to start... I need to thank you for the last 8 years...

Thank you for the laughs, the never ending laughs that we always have together...

Thank you for the very long and warm conversations of ours...

Thank you for allowing me to have some you & me time...

Thank you for understanding whatever I say and never getting me wrong...

Thank you for making me listen to your stories and making me share a part of your life...

Thank you for supporting me and making me feel special...

Thank you for giving me advice when I need it and never letting me fall...

Thank you for tolerating my tears and my worries...

Thank you for encouraging me to read and appreciate knowldge...

Thank you for many things... Alot more than words can ever describe...

Thank you for being my best friend and please be my best friend forever...

The Air-Conditioned Bus

My brother had an accident driving my car... He ruined the car and I actually have to pay thousands of pounds to buy a new door, new lights, new everything basically... I was so frustrated that I actually cried hearing the news... But anyways, thats not the point...

When I dont have the car, I usually take the air-conditioned bus (which we Egyptians call either the CTA or "el mokayaf")... So I took it this morning and for the first time I realised how Dirty and Ugly it is... Firstly, it wasnt conditioned.. Although I paid the 2 pounds which is the conditioning fee, I didnt get any air conditioning and actually the windows of the bus were opened...

And the bus was full of university students who are 4 to 7 years younger than I am... All cheerful and excited... And I was wondering "why the hell are you guys so happy?"... The bus was filthy dirty... All dusty to an extent I've never seen before.. Im not trying to be an elitest or anything... I'm used to taking the bus, the metro, and cabs.. But this particular bus was disgusting!!! I could not stop thinking of Why would people ruin things this way? Why do people destroy the means of their transportation? Why do they write on the chairs? Why dont they clean the bus every once in a while? why is it that crapy?

Are we a dirty culture? supposedly cleanliness is something we learn from childhood? Dont all people bathe and wear clean clothes? Why are all people smelly in the morning while going to work? Again I'm not trying to be elitest or accuse my country of being bad like most of the people do... Actually most of my friends hate the country and wish they'd be able to leave it... But I dont... I just love it... But why are the people like that?

Who is the one to be blamed for all the uncleanliness we suffer from? Is it the government? the education system? The people themselves? Or is it because we suffer from many problems that cleanliness is the last thing we can think of?

I have no idea what is wrong...

L.I.F.E

What is life all about?

You grow up knowing that it is tough... That you need to work hard to reach something? but what is that something?!?!

They oblige us to study hard for half our life.. and not just any half, the best part of our lives we spent studying and studying nonesense to gain not knowledge, but a number... A percentage figure that decides on my whole future... The rest of my life...

You dont have a choice but study.. And when you graduate, you have to look for the job that would earn you enough money to be able to live in the continuously inflating life... where prices rise every second and you can't complain... All you have to do is work... Wake up every single day early in the morning and obey some nonesense demands from managers who do nothing but demand stuff that are much lower than your skills... But what can you do but obey to be able to survive...

And you save up to buy an appartment, a car, and all the luxuries that you dream of every night, and that urge you to wake up every morning and do the same stupid things...

And when you finally get all what you wanted, you die... And leave everything behind... You just leave the life you've been working so hard for... You leave it behind and go to another...

Then what is the purpose of it? Why do we do all this effort? Why do we live it when it will end anyway? Why is it there anyways?? Why is it full of heartbreaks, problems, worries, and guilt??

For us to work for whats coming after it? For us to appreciate what we would have after it is over... For us to work for the life to come... For us to be thankful, patient, and pious...

I am tired of it and in the same time so damn afraid that it would end all of a sudden...