If it were a man ,................

If the poverty were a man , I would kill him

Ali Ibn Abi Talab

really wise words from a great wise man ,it makes you feel  how poverty is so bad that even Ali Ibn Abi Talab wanted to kill him if it were a man , sure the world would have been a better place if that had happened !!

It is not only the proverb of Ali Ibn Abi Talab that shows how horrible poverty is , in fact we got our own collection of Egyptian folk proverbs that describes how bitter poverty is

"If poverty comes from the door , Loves jumps from the window"

still I always remember Ibn Abi Talab's proverb every time I hear or I read about the humiliation many Egyptians are suffering from because of the poverty

The poverty rate in Egypt is exceeding in a very fearful rate , those who are living under the poverty line are exceeding every year , the fearful thing is that it is happening too fast , it is one of the achievements of 26 years of Mubarak rule I am afraid

It is now too common to hear and read that a woman sold her children for some sum money

It is now too common to hear and read that some young men sold their organs to get some small sum of money , for God Sake Egypt became to a hot spot for Kidney trade

It is now too common to hear and read that some  young men committed suicide whether by throwing themselves to the Nile or the Sea , in fact now whole families have the joined the club , I can not forget this tragic accident where a whole family a father and his two daughters ended their own lives because they were broke after their land was stolen in the country side and they could not return it back spending every penny on useless cases and lawyers !!

It is now too common to hear and read that young men began to sell their bodies to old foreign tourist ladies , it is a huge problem no one wants to speak about because the fear that will affect our tourism ,but we must speak about it ,it is the same as the old problem of poor Egyptians girls who marry rich gulf men for summer vacation ,it is the same thing ,some thinks that it is nothing and they are just men who fool old ladies ,well still it is a problem and these young men won't fool these old ladies if they are not in a desperate need for money

The new fashion which makes  me so sorry and angry is that young men now are working as belly dancers to escape from poverty and unemployment by degrading their manhood ,wearing belly dancers suites and shaking their butts forgetting that they are men , forgetting their dignity

I was shocked when I read about them and believed it was individual case ,one or two but then I found there are several young men in Cairo and Alexandria who are taking the same path , I won't talk about their sexuality but I am talking about the principal itself , look I may sound old traditions girl but like any Egyptian I refuse this

The fearful thing is that the Egyptian society ,some of its members do not see that this wrong and the proof is that these young men still are working and even are doing numbers in the weddings instead of female belly dancers just like Mr. "Shakira" who made appearance in "Ein Magazine"

I won't speak about how this became the hot dish for the Gulf and Lebanese press in the lifestyle ,gossip women silly magazines ,it kills me like it would kill any other Egypt

Of course these young men got more issues in their personalities than poverty and unemployment ,and surely there is something wrong in how they were brought up but still this did not exist in Egypt from 10 years ago ,this is not the Egypt I know , I was raised on

And where are the government and the president from all this ?? I do not know they are just giving the same old promises in the old statements in the same old speeches that people got sick from hearing them over and over

How many times per year does President Mubarak say that those who got limited income are his number one priority ?? same thing for all the prime ministers in his era !! Please if you are Egyptian like me answer me

already tell me who are those the regime considered with "limited income" because I don't see any improvements for the real "limited income" people , on the contrary in Egypt people are either getting poorer or getting rich and in between the middle class seemed to be from the endangered species that is needed to be put in a national preserve away !!!

Look do not expect this government or this regime to feel with people's agony as long as they live in the ivory towers in their palaces and resorts , I am not a leftist or a communist but this is a reality , naked truth , they do not even try to communicate with those sufferers ,they are enjoying themselves ,the power they got , when the President or any VIP visits a poor place , you will find the government sending its men to clean the poor streets , decorate these streets with flowers pots and hide the old buildings that sooner or later are going to fall down with red tents of Khaimaya !! I had seen this by my own eyes ,they are hiding those poor people as if those big VIPs do not know that those people exist in Egypt !!

These regime men are not like Caliph Omar Ibn Khatab who was a white man turned in to a brawn man from eating oil in one of the years Arabia suffered from a terrible draught ,he did not have a piece of bread in his home and this is not an overestimation from the Muslim historians , of course there is a huge difference between Ibn Khatab  and the pharaohs of their time !!

Image source : El-Shabab monthly magazine

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