The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Tahrir Square
In the mid 1970s a movie called, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” became a hit in America, not because of the actors, script or the producer. It was a way the American youths were telling everyone, we simply don’t care. The movie was an American miniature Woodstock inside a movie theater without the rain.
The movie ticket costs one dollar and you don’t really understand the purpose of the acts in the movie. It is a movie, which you don’t tell your parents that you have seen it. The cast is full of very different characters, but when you watch it, you have to imitate what the actors do in the movie. Among my classmates, I watched it the least number of times; I only watched it 20 times! And this is exactly the number of gathering of Egyptians at Tahrir Square. Just like the movie, I still don’t understand what the Egyptian masses want?
The movie reminds me of the Egyptians at Tahrir Square. You see the Egyptian masses jumping to the left if they are from the Muslim Brotherhood or taking a step to the right if they are against the Muslim Brotherhood. But, at the end of the day everyone at Tahrir Square will put his hands on his hips. And with the confusion about the new constitution, all Egyptians will end up doing the time warp again and again. So, is there an end to the Egyptian version of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”? It doesn’t seem events in Egypt will end soon.
The Egyptian picture show has 90 million people in the cast and each one of them has a different opinion. Time is fleeting and the government needs to keep the situation under control. Egypt and Egyptians can do it and can return to the international arena much stronger. They have done it in the past and they can do it now.
Before I wrote the article, I have asked many Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia if they ever heard of an American engineer named Frank Shuman? Only one Egyptian engineer named Emad Youssef who had been in the Kingdom for more than 30 years recognized the name of this American engineer.
The story of Frank Shuman is not well known to many Egyptians. Some science historians say that he built the first generator using solar energy in 1911. The place of this generator was built at Alma’adi area of Cairo, Egypt. This solar energy generator site is only 4 miles from Tahrir Square.
So, Egyptians were exposed to the possible use of solar energy more than 100 years ago. In other word, they have seen a technology that can produce electricity using the sunrays at a time when many countries didn’t even hear about electricity and almost lighted the world with new technology more than a hundred years ago.
Egypt was like a candle that lighted the path for many countries in the area. But, nowadays, Egypt became a candle in the wind — very strong wind.
Egypt is a country that was ahead in its political, financial, education, health care systems. Egypt knew Western style elections and had a Parliament with diverse political parties. And until recently, Egypt was the center of political gravity. It is a rich country with many diverse sources of income.
It has the pyramids, the Nile River, the Suez Canal, fertile land and many intelligent people. So, why would a country like Egypt be in need of an outside financial assistance or become under the mercy of the World Bank for US 4 billion loan. Most likely, Egyptians don’t know their own riches. For the past 3000 years, Egypt and Egyptians taught the world and helped the world in science, commerce and administration skills. Egypt and the Egyptians helped everybody, but failed to help themselves.
When the Egyptians rose against former President Hosni Mubarak, they were in Tahrir Square demanding a change, a change for the better. The whole world was with them and respected their demands. And at the end of the day, they were able to be ruled by an elected civilian government and civilian president after 60 years of military rule which started in 1952 with general Mohammed Najib, Gamal Abdul Nasser, Anwar Saddat and Hosni Mubarak. But, it turned out that they switched from military rule to Muslim Brotherhood rule which was waiting for this moment for the past 80 years. Now, the Muslim Brotherhood in control, so what is next for the Egyptians?
Egypt is a country that has to set its priority according to the need of its people. There are issues which have to be addressed and solved in order to get Egypt back to its days of glory.
The Egyptian rate of population growth is very serious matter. And most important, the majority of the population is living in three major cities. The health care, education and social equality have to be at the top of the list of priorities. Egypt has no time to see its own people divided. Unity among Egyptians is very important step to get Egypt back on track. The Egyptian people deserve better standards of living and better democratic system.
To this day, many people don’t know the outcome of the constitution “Yes-No” vote. And no matter what the outcome is, all Egyptian officials must put their personal interests aside and should start building a new Egypt. Also, more attention should be paid to areas that had been forgotten by time. An example is Sinai. It is a vast land which is underutilized for many years. It can be a tourist spot instead of being a terrorist breeding ground. Two projects can turn the Sinai Peninsula to a tourist paradise. One is a state of the art highway and the other is diverting some of the Nile River water to the Sinai desert. Simply put, Egyptians can’t jump to the right and step to the left forever.
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