A diver in his 20s in Marsa Alam: I hear you are a communist. What is communism? My father, may God bless his soul, whenever we got into a fight, used to shout “Yalla ya ibn el-kalb ya shoyou’i! (Go away, you communist son of a dog!)”
Me: In your case, communism means that you and other divers will get to run the diving center, vote on all decisions related to your workplace, without a boss who owns but doesn’t work.
Diver: That doesn’t sound bad.
Me: Moreover, you’ll get free medical insurance and decent housing. And if you have kids, their education will be for free. And those police check points on the road, that keep stopping and searching you as if you were in the West Bank, will disappear.
Diver: Sounds really great! So why did my father use “communist” as an insult?
Me: What did your father do for a living?
Diver: He was Mukhabarat.