blog.akef.org

How many times have you asked for directions in on the streets of Cairo and people tell you different things…one tells you to go left…another tells you go right…they basically tell you totally different directions. It seems that people think its wrong to say I don’t know. One of the things we lack in Egypt is admitting that we have a problem.
For example, if you asked a few years ago about the problem of AIDS in Egypt…it was heavily deined…AIDS isn’t a problem…its nearly non-existent…and now…awareness is increasing about it…and oh hey…AIDS is a problem..
I think it is very important that we admit our problems and work on solving them…and not waste time on denying them.
We should admit problems like poverty…AIDS…DRUGS…economy…CORRUPTION…worsening morals…

Have a nice day

When I get to think about streets in Cairo, several thoughts come to mind…
The rules are there…however most of them are not implemented.
From what I saw in Cairo it is considered ok to cross a red traffic light as long as there’s no policeman to give you a ticket…WRONG
Left and right signals aren’t used by a lot of the cars where changing lanes…WRONG
2 lane streets (which sometimes have clear lines that indicate its a 2 lane street) are often turned (by the drivers) into a 3 lane street and the cars end up having less than 50 cm between them…WRONG
If you’re ticketed for any violation that could range from parking where you’re not supposed to crossing a red traffic, in the mjaority cases you could bribe the officer in broad daylight and the ticket is cleared….onsite bribery….WRONG
When you try to be a good driver and try to abide by the rules and say stop at certain traffic lights…you get noisy horns from everywhere…WRONG
Most drivers don’t understand that the left lane is for people who’re going at a faster speed…WRONG
There’re many cars on the streets of Cairo that’re in pretty shape…no brake lights…disgusting exhumes…WRONG
There’s no clear to resolve conflicts in case of an accident…WRONG

How these problems are to be resolved…well…
1-set harsh measures on people who give or accept bribes.
2-increase awareness of the rules.
3-install cameras at traffic lights (at least start by the major ones).
4-enforce the rules.

Lets hope things get better..oh yeah I forgot..pedestrians…I guess I should cover this issue in another post.

Regards,
Akef

According to:
this article
It seems that the Egyptian authorities are planning to build a fench all around Sharm for security reasons.
As soon as I read about the fence, I remember the wall that Israel is building for security reasons too.
I could imagine what lead the Egyptian authorities to think about the fence, they want to have full control on who goes in and who goes out of Sharm. But Egypt has other major tourist spots, so are they going to build fences around them too? Let me see…Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan, AbuSimbel, the pyramids, the egyptian museum, etc. The list goes on and on.
But here’s what I think, the Egyptian government isn’t treating the source of the problem, they are trying to have a quick solution which probably won’t solve the problem.
What is the source of the problem…well…many things that I know and even more that I don’t…anyways I might try to talk about this in the future.

Forgot to talk about something in Syria, many of the restaurants has a special section for families. Since I lived in Saudi Arabia for quiet a while, I’m kind of used to family sections. However I thought that it was interesting. We don’t have family sections in Egypt.

Cheers!

40,000 people. This is the number of people in your family, your extended family, your extended family’s family, all your friends, and all of your friends’ families. Now this is a really big number of people. To get a picture of how many 40,000 is, if the Cairo soccer stadium is full, 40,000 is one half of the stadium. Thats a lot. Really a lot. Now this the confirmed number of deaths in Pakistan that happened when the earthquake shook that part of the world.
It got me thinking, if something like this happened in Cairo what will happen(The one that happened in Pakistan was a stronger earthquake compared to the ones we had in the nineties)? How will people react? How will the government react? Is Cairo ready for this? We hear of scandals about new buildings that collapse due to cheating in building materials. Now some of these buildings fall by themselves. Imagine if we have an earthquake on the scale of the one that happened in Pakistan what’s going to happen to Cairo? I’d like to have a look at the disaster recovery plans…if they exist.

While we’re on the topic of numbers of people, in one day the following happens:
24,000 die of starvation
6,000 children are killed by diarrhea
the list goes on
.
.

What kind of world is this? Its a very wierd world. We’ve 24,000 people dying because they don’t have food to eat and there’re others who could sleep in tears because he got an 80% in some exam or her boyfriend dumped her or depressed because the cat’s not eating. What kind of world is this? I think this is time the human being starts to prioritize the importance of things. Anyways…my ideas about the issue are kind of mixed up..maybe I’ll talk about it in future posts.

And for the people who died in Pakistan, Allahoma 2e’3fer Lahom, Allahoma 2er7amhom, Allahoma Thabethom 3end Asso2al

Good night.

As far as I understand Byblos(known the locals as Jbail) is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. We’re talking about BC! Now that is old…very old. They traded with the ancient Egyptians.
The main site has lots and lots of ruins, and it really requires quite a big imagination to picture how things were more than 2000 years ago. I guess how ruined a ruin is, is directly proportional to its age (is this sentence proper English?).
A picture of the ruins:

When I retire, if there’s one place I want to chill in would be this:

Cheers!

Saida’s a coastal town south of Beirut, Lebanon. Following are some pictures…
Saida’s sea castle:

A felafel shop where I had a very very tasty felafel sandwich:

And a restaurant which has a wondeful view, it was called Saida resthouse, its an ottoman building that was restored. Its location by the sea is superb:

Cheers!

Following are the pictures of a really spectacular mosque, the Ummayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria. Enjoy!

The before last I was in Palmyra. As I previously mentioned its one of the most important (if not the most important) sites in Syria. It has a whole civilization that was around the first couple of centuries AD. The ruins over there are very nice. If you go to syria, I consider Palmyra to be a must visit site.
After watching sunset from on top of a mountain (where a castle was located), I took the pullman bus back to Damascus. This time there was a bus for a company called Sultan, it was fine.
Checked into the hotel, went out for dinner and went to an internet cafe. Went back to the hotel and called it a night.
Woke up in the morning, went to the Egyptair office where I confirmed my plane ticket. Went to have breakfast at my favourite mana2eesh place in Syria which is located near Hegaz train station. It was time for a little bit more shopping, so I went to Medhat Pasha st., bought a few things then went to the Ummayyad mosque. Its a very spectacular mosque, really beautiful designs. And the Syrian government is continuously renovating the mosque and keeping it very clean. I understand it is the most important mosque in Syria. Pictures coming soon Insha2Allah.
Went back to the hotel, dropped off what I bought and went out for lunch at a shawerma shop called Abu Elabd. It specializes in meat shawerma, it was NICE…really nice…
Went back to the hotel and took off to the airport. Damascus airport is very clean, and it took me less than 20 mins to finish luggage checkin and passports, I think thats a records for me on an international flight.
Now I’m back to the hustle and bustle. Back to the pollution and the over population. I will miss Lebanon, and I miss Syria. Back to the routine life of an employee. I’ll miss having a very new adventure every day. I’ll miss making last minute decisions where I”ll be heading. I’ll miss the good weather (the one at the time I was visiting). But I’m back to my family and friends. I don’t know when I’ll be travelling next, but lets hope that is sooner than later.
I’ll post some of the pictures ASAP.

Happy Ramadan we kol sana wentom tayebeen.

Cheers!