It was heart-warming to watch the joy and elation of the Egyptians and the rest of the Arab world for the success of Egypt in winning the Africa cup. On every TV talk show, in every coffee shop or restaurant in the Arab world the burning subject on every lip was the Africa Cup and the brilliant show the Egyptian team put on and from my heart I congratulate them. It is wonderful that an Arab can still win something and that there is still one event all Arabs can stand behind without any argument or bickering and demonstrate to the world that as a people they can close ranks standing together tall. Yes, it was a wonderful moment full of thrill and delight capable of making the Arabs forget all the miseries that encircle them and the interminable tragedy of which they are permanent actors. It is a great moment to watch a player dance so graciously with a ball playfully kicking, then catching, then finally scoring. It gave a very uplifting feeling to be a witness to such a performance. It was enough to remove from our tormented mind all that Iraqis are suffering at the hands of the American occupation and its very willing coalition. Yes, the Africa Cup was an ecstatic moment, which might have made us forget about the starving Palestinians caught between an unforgiving enemy and an unhelpful friend. All the horrors of our world were drowned by the sounds of excitement shutting out the dire state to which the Arab world has sunk into.
But I transgress when I should remember that we did win the Africa Cup. Let us reminisce bringing back the best moments of the football match culminating into the unforgettable image of the wonderful Egyptian team holding that precious cup in their hands.
Let us concentrate on what we can win; let us be realists, assessing our abilities correctly with a cold eye, not running after pipe dreams such as winning back Palestine back from the Israelis or God forbid liberating Iraq from the American occupation and let's not even imagine an Arab world free of all Western domination in all its form - be physical or mental, an Arab world free to choose its policies and decide what is in its best interest, an Arab world free to administer its resources and wealth for the benefit of its people. Can we dream that we have the capability and resource of intelligence and ability to elevate our people from ignorance and poverty?
No, Arabs who have chosen to resist and die as the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas are but foolish dreamers willing to stand up to a barbarous empire for such an elusive thing as "honor" and "freedom". These are the Arabs who would rather die than live as slaves - though well fed and safe - in a world chosen for them by their masters in Washington.
I ask the Arabs who roared for the Egyptian players at the Africa Cup: Are you willing to risk it and imagine that we are capable of winning something far greater than a mere football match, something more precious than life itself?
I'm betting on the Arabs who want more from life than just a safe patch of grass to live on like cows eating and sleeping. I'm betting on the Arabs who have given their lives and the ones who are still willing to give it up for liberty and dignity. I aspire to those few who are fighting every day by body and soul so that we can make an Arab world independent from the dictates of the West, a place where we are the masters of our fate regardless of what this fate might hold for us. I bet on the Arabs who are willing to make mistakes as long as they are our mistake and not to be the victims of Western mistakes starting from colonialism and ending with the American invasion of Iraq. I'm betting on the few Arabs who still consider the blood of one Arab spilt more precious than all the treasure in the world and for whom the injured dignity of an Arab is not up for negotiation. History has always been written by the few though read by the rest. It is said that bad things happen because good people do nothing in the Arab world. We can say bad things happen because most people are watching football games.
— Reem Al Faisal is a Saudi photographer. She is based in Jeddah.
