I always believed our society suffers severe psychological problems...
And the diagnosis can never be short of a collective form of split personality disorder. And as any other system, we have defense mechanisms to help us cope, like denial, repression, and projection.
This year in Marina (Marina in my view is a phenomena that teaches us a lot about Egypt if observed well) a new pole emerged pulling the social contradiction pool wider. In Marina, a place where bikinis and burqas go literally hand in hand, where the paths of the poorest and richest of Egypt cross, a resort that some have called a consequence of bribery and corruption in gov't realms, sometimes symbolizes a magnifying glass on this frustrated and godforsaken society...
Especially after the 'resort' became less exclusive to the highest elites and its doors were open to poorer people. I don't know but it just amazes me because in Marina it's a different circumstance, it's the Summer, so you can observe the cultural and social as well as the economic gaps of contradictions and paradoxes even more... Anyways... This year billboards like those in the photo appear to have sprung up everywhere in Marina.
Observing this leads me to the following conclusions:
1. We, Egyptians, in the past few years attained new levels and forms of Freedom of Expression in a very capitalistic and commercial sense. These billboards are obviously costly and are payed for by someone to promote religion on the beaches of Marina and some of them are placed right in front of the Sakkara and Drinkies liquor shops.
2. This kind of Freedom of Expression unveiled a lot of social, ideological, and cultural contradictions in our society. This is because practically anyone can now successfully mobilize interest groups, affect public opinion, and communicate practically any type of message through a zillion different media available, which generally speaking is a positive thing.
3. The advertiser in this case has specified a very particular target audience. At first some may view this a positive thing for someone to allocate money just to help spread a positive spiritual message. But we must look deeper. The first question that comes to my mind is "If you're so keen on reforming morals... Why make this ad in English? Why exclude on obvious purpose a huge portion of the Marina population?... If this person wanted to merely remind people of God... Why didn't he make the ad in Arabic?
Because they're targeting a specific group... the exclusively English speaking population of Marina, the mostly higher class people, are the target audience of this ad... And this means that the advertiser assumes that it is only those people who need to be reminded of God...
And this means that he or she hold two assumptions as truth. 1. That the higher class is morally corrupt 2. The lower classes do not need moral guidance (or social reform) as virtue of being poor... What? Am I reading too much into this? I doubt... but maybe
The second and opposite interesting phenomenon is a new means used to practice the oldest profession. Online 'Escort Services' available in Cairo Egypt. Rates of different agencies and independents are posted on these sites, ranging from $100 and 2700LE per hour (300Euros) to 10,000LE per night. Different profiles of girls who'll be in Cairo for a designated period of time constitute a menu of mainly Russian and East European girls.
I couldn't believe it at first so I instantly sent a text message to a Cairo mob number posted by one of the agencies asking to rent 2 girls for 3 hours. Within seconds I get a reply saying only 1 girl is availabe and 'incall'. I replied asking 'Where?' and the answer was 'Fairmont Heliopolis Hotel'.... Tribute to our Tourism Police regulations that forbid unmarried people from staying together in Hotel rooms... but hookers are OK??
NO! That's business.
Not only that... but in a time of economic crisis one of the few industries 'ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW TALENT'... and they're investing in recruiting. I always knew that prostitution hubs exist everywhere. But this, to me, is new and not OK. I just believe that this in Egypt is worth examining especially to the backdrop of Billboards reading "REMEMBER ALLAH", court orders deciding to bar porn sites, while everyday girls get sexually harassed in the street, and Swinger's Clubs are being hunted down on Facebook.
By the way. Prostitution was legal in Egypt pre 1952... and working girls had to get a medical check up and a 'license' to practice... Hash was legal too. Now these things are not legal but ever so much more common than when they were.
I am so concerned at this moment by what is foreshadowed. When we, Egyptians, started possessing a few forms of Freedom of expression and access to information is this how we use it? When we get hold of new technologies do we only use them for our demise? So can the gov't say we don't deserve freedom? I don't know exactly if there's even a specific point I'm trying to make through this post. But I know one thing.
The contradictions and the gaps in our society are by no means only economic.
We are ideologically, culturally, and socially messed up.... Summer 2009 just yields new examples of how.
ISIS
