Tag: europe

I used to know this young German EU diplomat back when I worked for the Cairo Times in 2002-3. He was a close friend to some of my Western journalist colleagues, so I used to bump into him in parties, social functions, etc.

The last time I saw him was in spring 2003, shortly after my release from detention following the anti-Iraq war riots in Tahrir Sq. He was then dating a foreign journalist colleague. The woman was freaking out after the riots and the mass round ups of journalists and activists that followed, including people she knew. She was devastated, and decided to leave the country and wanted to see me before she left. He was also leaving Egypt to be posted somewhere else.

So we met, the three of us, in a Zamalek coffee shop and had a chat about the arrests and torture against demonstrators, etc.

The young diplomat told me since the Iraq war broke out, followed by the capital riots, there were “emergency meetings and briefings” that were held in the European Commission Delegation’s in Cairo everyday at 9am to follow up on the situation. Being an Arabic speaker, he was also present in the meetings, briefing his seniors about the latest developments based on his media monitoring as well as his contacts with the rights activists community.

The guy said that he, day after day, submitted reports about the crackdown, torture, riots, and demonstrations directly to his seniors… So what was the reply of his boss?

“Isn’t it nice sometimes to live in a police state,” the young diplomat said quoting his cynical boss. [YES, this is the exact quote, and I remember it well like I remember every single second I spent in that police state’s custody.]

And that’s the wisdom of the story… The regime’s backers are not only in Washington DC. The Europeans as well as the Canadians are directly involved in supporting the Mubarak’s dictatorship. It’s true, every now and then, you’ll hear some “concerns” expressed about “the human rights situation,” but at the end of the day those govts will continue pimping for Mubarak, coz they want stability in Egypt, they want security for Israel, they want the oil to keep flowing from the region, they want the Egyptian Gulag to keep its doors open so that Mubarak’s pigs will continue doing their dirty work… ON ANY EXPENSE!

But it happens that this expense is basically me, and the rest of my fellow Egyptians, who have to live under a dictatorship that enjoys sodomizing detainees, that enjoys assaulting and stripping women naked in the street in broad day light, that enjoys locking up innocents and treats them like animals.

You meet diplomats in conferences, courtrooms, parties held by foreign reporters, etc… And one thing that always amazes me is how they can smile in my face and tell me what a good job bloggers and rights activists are doing in Egypt, while those diplomats are not only serving govts that back the enemy we are fighting, Mubarak, but are themselves part of that policy making process. I understand this blog can be useful for diplomats as it provides info on dissent for their lazy-non-Arabic-speaking asses.. but what I don’t understand is how they can justify it to themselves deep down.. I mean, come on, have some self-respect you fucking liars, coz I think the time has come for Webster to change its definition of a “diplomat” into a “pimp” as nowadays the difference between the two is very hard to recognize…

And for those Egyptian rights activists who think that our salvation can come via the European or Canadian govts, you better fucking wake up! No one is gonna overthrow Mubarak except the Egyptian people.. No one said it’s easy.. No one said it’s a walk in the park.. It’s difficult and will involve sacrifices.. Already many of us have been thru detention and Lazoughly’s torture chambers, but we are still in the political arena, and have not quit and we will not leave until we see Mubarak, Suzi, Jimmi, and Alaa on the same boat, plane (or even better one of our ferries) that will ship those hypocrite diplomats out of the country.