The Bachelors of Egypt is a contemporary novel set in Egypt 2011, with a timeline starting on September 2011, about 8 months after overthrowing the former president Hosny Mubarak. With main focus on characters’ social interactions within the Egyptian society; dialogues, incidents, and unique aspects of the Egyptian culture could all be used to reflect on human lives elsewhere.
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Another book currently available for pre-order:
Modern Egypt:
Within this brief era of enlightenment (2011-2012) all taboos were brought on the tables of discussion. An increasing
appetite for political participation led
to an increasing interest “To Know”, with booming figures of internet usage and
book readership, philosophical approaches and views of historical figures like Socrates,
Plato, Machiavelli, Nietzsche found their place within such discussions,
as highlighted in Philosophical Legacy: The Bachelors of Egypt.
In this article:
2- The Cuban Revolution (1952-1959)
3- Main Revolutionary Incidents in Egypt 2011-2012
4- Are All Revolutions “Good Revolutions”?
5- Back to Egypt
1- An 18 Days-Revolution, Revolutions 101:
Revolutions are indeed a hot topic for global media networks,
usually portrayed as an attractive act of change bringing the hopes for a
better future. The Egyptian revolution of Jan 25th 2011 was
dominating the leading news networks, such as the BBC, CNN, Aljazeera… It was
in fact the most popular incident in modern Egypt.
A series of protests
with a few participants across governorates of Egypt started on January 25th,
2011. Numbers of demonstrators kept increasing, until it reached a peak on
Friday January 28th, also known as “The Friday of Anger”.
Clashes with the
police forces all over the nation have led to their sudden absence, after being
defeated by groups of civilians. People had to gather and protect their own
neighborhoods, while others remained at Tahrir Square in Cairo and other
squares across Egypt protesting against Mohamed Hosny Mubarak’s regime.
On February 11th 2011,
the former president Mubarak was overthrown, or “delegated his authorities to
the Supreme Council of Armed Forces”. The country was completely paralyzed
between Jan 28th 2011, and February 11th of the same
year.
Excessive celebrations
of Egyptians all over the world, and media’s over-glorifying of the 18
days-revolution have led most of its supporters to believe that it was all
over, and they have already won the battle against the regime. In an ironical
unprecedented scene, people were celebrating the success of the revolution after
Mubarak delegated his powers to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF),
despite the fact that all of the SCAF’s generals were appointed by Mubarak
himself, and have been serving in his cabinet for a long period of time.
Over time, many Egyptians
started to realize that getting rid of Mubarak didn’t essentially imply any
changes with his regime, the man left his place at the top of the system, but the
system itself remained… which caused the repetition of “Down with the system”
and “Down with the SCAF” chants within various revolutionary incidents post
Mubarak’s removal.
In chapter 1, Ali
Adel, a media student at TUC was defending his side of an argument by reflecting
on this irony:
“It’s absurd to pick 18 days of
the year and call them a “Revolution”, it takes years to bring a system down;
it’s either a Long Civilian Sit-in that overthrew a president or a Revolution
that we’re currently living within its duration,” Ali Adel, September 2011, The Bachelors
of Egypt.
Books sample available for review:
The Bachelors of Egypt on Amazon
Remarkable Revolutions:
Plenty of revolutions
have influenced the lives of human beings on this planet throughout history, forcing
changes within certain nations that had great impact on people and regimes
within different states. One can’t help but compare “new revolutions” with the
old ones, while using the second group for bench-marking.
2- The Cuban Revolution:
- Led by Fidel Castro, a lawyer back then
- General Batista overthrew the president on March 1952
- After more than a year of preparation, Castro attacked military barracks in Santiago on July 1953
- Castro was defeated, arrested, and sentenced to 15 years of jail time
- General Batista released Castro in 1955, just to show-off his power
- Castro formed a new group of rebels, and was defeated again on December 1956
- Castro fled to Sierra Maestra, Southeast Cuba
- He finally won a “guerrilla war” on January 1959
- Batista was forced to resign and flee the country, when more than 500 of his associates were executed
- Castro announced himself the Prime Minister of Cuba, and eventually became the President
3- Main Revolutionary Incidents in Egypt 2011-2012:
The Supreme Council of
Armed Forces was ruling the country for almost a year and a half, between
February 11th 2011, and June 30th 2012, when the
newly elected president Mohamed Morsy took office, who was also overthrown
after a year of presidency, on June 30th 2013.
- 25 January 2011, the beginning of protests against Mubarak’s regime
- 28 January 2011, the disappearance of police forces, post clashes with citizens, and the beginning of the country’s paralysis phase
- 11 February 2011, Former President Mubarak delegated his authorities to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces
- March 2011, Mubarak was finally declared to face trials, after a few protests
- 8 April 2011, another peaceful sit-in at Tahrir Square was uniquely differentiated, as 15 military soldiers and officers joined the demonstrators’ side, until they were all arrested to face military trials.
- September 2011, military tanks ran over protesters, a significant state of chaos in a demonstration organized by a few Christian Political Activists at the time
- 18 November – 25 November 2011, continuous clashes between military forces and policemen on one side, and protestors on the other, with endless numbers of casualties
- December 2011, another peaceful sit-in, with more civilians dragged on the streets, and more bloodshed
- February 2012, a football game between El-Ahly club and El-Masry club turned into a massacre with more than 75 of “Ultras Ahlawy” fans dead
4- Are All Revolutions "Good Revolutions"?
Revolution
is a term that has maintained its popularity and reputation over the years, a
word that usually stands for hope, justice, and liberty, all combined with its
regular association with economic and societal reforms while restructuring a
“new nation”.
No
one can possibly deny the excitement of most citizens during a revolution, yet the
impact of such revolutions may only be properly analyzed after years.
For
instance, the Cuban revolution successfully ended General Batista’s tyranny,
but after a few years of leading the country, Castro announced himself “The
President for Life”, executing and imprisoning those who dared to oppose him,
while building his own new dictatorship.
Before
winning against the former tyrant, Castro helped inform, educate, and mobilize various
groups of rebels in Cuba’s neighboring countries. At least some of those rebels
believed in “Justice”, or genuinely thought they would be able to make the
world a better place by supporting Castro.
A
lawyer leading groups of regional citizens to overthrow the head of the Cuban
State/ the head of the Cuban Army at the time, could only be called a
“Revolution”, yet substituting a dictator with another doesn’t seem to be worth
the bloodshed during the seven years of combat.
5- Back To Egypt:
As
highlighted in Ali’s quote, it was unrealistic to declare one side victorious after
18 days; especially that the regime’s practices were proven to remain in place,
long after Mubarak’s removal.
When
the next president, Mohamed Morsy was overthrown on July 3rd, 2013,
as a result of the June 30th 2013 revolution, global media and heads
of most of the world’s states perceived it as a military coup, mainly because
Morsy was the first elected president. The Egyptian Government has spent years
trying to convince the world that it was a revolution, and spent fortunes over
global PR agencies campaigns, and various trade agreements with developed
countries to gain international recognition from their governments, and
credibility among the citizens of the same nations.
In
fact, during both revolutions/incidents/or whatever you would like to call them
that occurred on 25 January 2011, and 30 June 2013, the army was the main
player, and its generals were in charge of making the final decisions.
One
of the main factors contributing to the initiation of the first revolution was Mubarak’s
unannounced, unofficial, heavily promoted plan to name his son, Gamal Mubarak the
president of Egypt after him.
The
“Inheritance of Power”
even through means of “elections” was heavily resented by many civilians, and
it was considered a despiteful thought for the army leaders. Simply stated,
Egypt has only been led by military figures since 1953 (excluding Mohamed Morsy
June 2012-June 2013):
- Mohamed Naguib (1953-1954)
- Gamal Abdel Nasser (1954-1970)
- Anwar El-Sadat (1970-1981)
- Mohamed Hosny Mubarak (1981-2011)
- Abdel Fattah El-Sisi (2014-Present)
As a former fighter,
and a military figure, Mubarak was “honorably kicked out”, and was even saluted
for his long years of serving the country, at times of war and
peace by the same military officer who announced that Mubarak delegated his
authority to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces.
On
the other hand, Mohamed Morsy was arrested/kidnapped in 2013; the former
president was kept in an unknown place under the commands of his former minister
of defense, Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, when his authorities were “constitutionally”
transferred to the head of the highest constitutional judicial court in Egypt.
Due
to the global popularity of the term “Revolution”, the state had to work on
persuading the world that it was a “Revolution”, just like the popular Jan 25th
revolution of 2011.
According
to Ali, from The Bachelors of Egypt, you can’t pick 18 days of a year and call
them a “Revolution”, yet, according to many other Egyptians, the country has
witnessed two revolutions in about two years and a half… because we’re awesome,
and we’re used to fascinating the world!
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