February 1st
Okay after being pretty down yesterday about life in general, today is looking up. I think most of it has to do with the fact that I am finally getting over my cold and that is allowing me to see things in a slightly less depressing manner. I thought about going back and changing what I wrote yesterday in order to sound not so depressing, but it’s how I felt yesterday and I want to keep a track of my feelings here, so I am going to keep it.
Today was a pretty uneventful day. The internet is still down, which means I can’t get on to check my email or communicate with anyone outside of America. However there is one good thing about the ship hitting the wire in the Mediterranean: if it hadn’t happened I would have never learned how the internet functions across the world.
I am starting to get a feel for AUC culture, and what I hear from everybody is that it is nothing like the culture of the rest of Egypt. AUC culture is very Western and I would every wealthy. People who go to AUC have to be rich so you get a lot of people who want to be Western but can’t be. Egypt is a very twisted society as it is on one hand open to the powers of globalization and western media, but at the same time closed as it is in the Egyptian Constitution, that Egypt is an Islamic State. Atheism and all other forms of religion that are not descended from Abraham are banned in Egypt. Seeing a constitution that is written in that language really makes you appreciate the American Constitution.
I am becoming home-sick for America. Not only because I miss sidewalks and things that work well, but I miss being able to understand what is being said around me. I also miss American standards of cleanliness. I miss garbage cans and even the concept of Recycling. They don’t have a recycling system in Egypt. I think they reuse the glass bottles at the soda stands, but you have to return to the glass bottles to these soda stands. Otherwise it gets trashed. I haven’t seen anything for paper or plastic. I now completely understand why George W. Bush refused to sign the Kyoto Accord unless developing nations were brought into it. He is right, global warming and other environmental problems cannot be solved without these countries. Do I think it’s a cop-out by Bush for not doing anything, yes. But is it a valid argument, yes.
I also found out that being in downtown Cairo for the day is the equivalent of smoking 30 cigarettes. How can we except people to live in these kinds of conditions?
No comments:
Post a Comment