Ben’s Cookies

Went to the AUC (American University in Cairo) campus today and discovered a store called Ben’s cookies

White chocolate chunk cookie: The most divine thing I had ever tasted.

In other news: apparently it is very “fashionable” to be patriotic right now. Half the students are wearing red, black and white, most are carrying flags and have their faces painted etc. You’d think we were going to war. Actually, scratch that. Even if we were going to war I don’t think we would be praying as hard (Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat are all in on the campaign asking people to pray), feeling so patriotic, and spending our savings to go travel and support the troops.

Banner in AUC: "The night will be red (bloody?) oh Green Algerians.'

 

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The Pharaohs

Ok, so I’ll admit it.

I cheered just as hard as anyone when we scored that goal in the last two minutes. After we’d all just basically given up all hope, that goal just shocked us all. I screamed until I was hoarse. And I’m not even a football fan. I don’t even know the names of all the players. I only watch if it’s a qualifier or a final or something.

Honestly, what a rollercoaster match. A goal in the first two minutes, and a goal in the last two extra minutes of injury time. And two goals from the Algerian side that were inside our goal but kicked out. Absolutely unbelievable. It couldn’t have been more perfect if it was a movie. As El-Koshary (Egypt’s amazing version of The Onion) tells us, that’s “concrete evidence that prayer works!“

I’d opted out of going to the stadium at the request of my parents (and honestly, I just wasn’t up to the hours of waiting and hours to get out in the midst of men gone crazy) but after the match my friends I cruised the streets. I inhaled so much Raid and Perosol bug spray–basically what people do is spray it and light it to create fire. Crazy.

It’s amazing to see us all so united and happy, it really is. No matter how cynical I may be, the emotion gets to you. The power of emotion is unbelievable–imagine if we could channel it all into something else.

(Watch more videos of the celebrations here).

And the crazy thing is that we haven’t even qualified for the world cup! Now we’re just tied. We still have another match to play on Wednesday in Sudan. If we win, we will reach the World Cup for the first time in 20 years and only the third time in our history. I don’t think I can deal with the tension again.

Ok, so happiness aside, here are my two cents:

I get that football gives Egyptians something to be happy about. It disillusions us into thinking that we are still great. Gives us pride in ourselves which we severely lack.

But to commercialize religion and patriotism and bottle it in ads to make money? Disgusting much?

To be 63 years old and fall from a fourth floor balcony and die because you were trying to fix your satellite to watch the game?!

To stand in line for hours and hours shouting “we want tickets! we want tickets!” but not the same when we had a bread crisis and people stood in line for hours to get bread only not to find it?

The amount of heartfelt prayer going on. Have we prayed that hard for Gaza? Just watch the people going Ameen:

Amber adeeb crying on TV?

To get so hyped up on emotion that’s invested and poured out over football? (See a roundup of everything leading up to the game, including killing owls and attacking the Algerian bus here).

And I can’t get over the hatred invoked between the two countries. Even if we’d lost, Algeria, an Arab country, would have played. Kudos to Ahmed Mekki, a famous half-Algerian, half-Egyptian actor and singer, for his song telling us to “Wake up!” (Watch it here and read the lyrics here). How tactless is going to celebrate in front of the Algerian embassy?

I’m so happy we won. I’m glad we found a common hope to unite under. But what does it say about us when we say we only unite for a sport? When we only feel patriotic when there’s a game?

Sportsmanship is honorable and is about representing your country, but shouldn’t be the only venue where you express love for the country, this love being subject to the score! Cheer for Egypt, but that should be a reflection of deeper rooted patriotism and pride that inspires service to the country and compassion for its people, things that are rarely felt with the same intensity as a goal, not pursued as passionately as a goal and not mourned so bitterly as a goal. w nader lamma 7ad bey2oul 3aleiha ya Rab.

I just wish we could unite this way–all Arabs–for something truly worthwhile. Think of what we could accomplish.

Egypt vs. Algeria

The world has gone crazy.

I cannot believe how the only thing anyone can discuss right now is the football match between Egypt and Algeria on the 14th of November. I was having dinner in Makani in Mohandesin tonight (that’s a sushi restaurant) and it was all decked out in flags! Guys in the streets are already selling flags at every corner. The cover of Campus Magazine is the historic penalty shot of 1989. Persil’s ad invokes the “prayers of mothers.” Coca Cola has a kick ass ad reminding us of 1989 that even managed to make me feel patriotic (over football). Even Hitler is all worked up over the game. Ditto the Troy people. And Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

I get it. If we win, then we get to play in the World Cup. Great.

But what really kills me? The Mobinil radio ad campaign entreating all 80 million Egyptians to gather at 7:25pm, 5 minutes before the match starts so we can all pray together. To go “ya rab.” Because if we all pray together, we’ll all win.

That’s why we’re all going to pray?!! Not because of the social, economic, political problems this country suffers from, but because of a game??!!!!!

Let’s just hope God ignores the prayers of those nasty Algerians.

In any case: GO EGYPT!!