Interview with Taha.

A foreign Newspaper wants to publish a report about the life in Egypt, So they send a female reporter to interview the common citizen in egypt..when she arrives at Cairo, she picks a random guy and starts her interview:

• Reporter:Hi
• Egyptian:We 3alkom el salam ya 2otta "kitten"!
  
• Reporter:Do u speak English?
• Egyptian:Berfect.
• Reporter:Do u mind if i interview you?
• Egyptian:No, I dont have a mind.
• Reporter:What's your name?
• Egyptian:Taha.
• Reporter:Sex?
• Taha: I love it.
• Reporter: Oh no, I meant male or female?
• Taha (yelling): what do u sink?
• Reporter:It's just for the sake of the report..never mind...male....
• Taha:yas male... And i can brove it any time u want.
• Reporter:No,thanks,I'll take u for ur word...so..how do u find life here in egypt?
• Taha:Egybt..very nice cantry..nice wezar..nice food ..byramidz.
• Reporter:Oh well..beside the weather and the pyramids..what else do u like in ur country?
• Taha: Byramids,nice wezar,nice food
• Reporter:Ok..lets move on..what do u do?
• Taha: I am very well ,sank u
• Reporter:No,I mean do u have a job?
• Taha(looking around him and whispering):Jobat?..no i dont have any (jobat)..lessa mastaba7nash..do u have (job) with u?..we can esmoke it in my car..dont warry about bolice *A job is as you might conclude is hash!
  
• Reprter:Oh my god,DO YOU WORK?
• Taha:Yas yas..Taxi drivar.
• Reporter:What do u think about the traffic problem in Egypt?

• Taha:Very big broblem..very much cars..u see?..but za guvurment is trying to make it bettar..zey did the circle street and za me7war street..and zey make all streets one way so if u go..u cant come back..niahahaha3
• 
  
• Reporter:What about the economic problems in Egypt?
• Taha:I do not undurstand what u say!
• Reporter:I mean..how do u deal with money problems in egypt?
• Taha: No NO NO..egybt very rich cantry...we have alot of cotton..alot of water..and we have byramidz
• Reporter: So do u make a lot of money?
• Taha:No no.. it is not legal to make money..one frend i know make money at home..and he go to brizon..if u make money at home..u can only give it to za banzeena "gas station" man..they take any money"true"
• Reporter: let me rephrase..since Egypt is a rich country.. do you have a lot of money?
• Taha:me?! ..Not alot..but I eat and drink Al7amdulelah "thank God"!
  
• Reporter:Then where does all the money go?
• Taha: Guvurment.
• Reporter:And what does the government do with the money?
• Taha:Zey Build circle street,me7war street and make all streets one way!
• Reporter:well , Ok...Do u vote?
• Taha:What duz zat mean?
• Reporter:Do u choose your president
• Taha:Mubarak?
• Reporter:yes!!
• Taha(nervously): I didnt give my voice..but if I was.. I will give him my voice.
• Reporter:Why him?
• Taha:Because he was an airoplane in za war..he waz za leadar airoplane.
• Reporter:But there are no wars right now
• Taha:But if we have war..u see?...we know we will have a very good airoplane in it.
• Reporter:what about the last 26 years ?
• Taha:I got marry..and have 3ala2 and Amira..and drive taxi!
• Reporter:No, I meant what did Mubarak do for Egypt in the last 26 years?
• Taha:He build circle street,me7war street and make all streets one way!!!!
• Reporter:Thank you very much for your time Mr. Taha.
• Taha:No broblem,only 10 bounds.
• Reporter:I never said I will pay u for this
• Taha: Ok..just give me the (job) then..we smoke ,and make head "get high"!
  
• Reporter:Grrrrrrrr
• Taha:ok ok..need aTaxi?

Unfortunatly true, specially the English part though Egyptians are smarter than that!!! They know they are being robbed every day but they simply stopped doing anything about it!!

choose!

Sitting on my desk studying, I got this phone call from a friend, nothing serious, just the normal chit -chat, I had a pencil in my hand and some paper in front of me, I started painting this meaningless drawing... I am done with the phone, I found that I have a nice outline, maybe I should finish it..... My mother comes in a while to find me working on it, she asks,"what is that?!"
I said I don't know, it's nothing I guess, so she says your nothing looks good, finish it..... So you find me working on it for a while till I realized that I need to go on studying, I leave it and decide to get back to it later......

Later that night, my parents came out from outside, we sat to have dinner"actually I had dinner alone since they already ate", anyway, I finished dinner and thought I can finish my drawing.Went to my room, got the pencil and the paper and started again...

Now this is not why I am writing now... you see, we got into this discussion about educational system in Egypt!!

I have been to many schools, about 5 plus college, they were all dramatically different in so many ways but the comparison we made was between specific two, the last two actually. I spent 3 years in the first one and 4 in the other...

Now, the first one was very much concerned with external activities and I mean by that sports and art work mainly, it had a large library and play grounds and so on... I can say that I spent the most full years of my life there, I can't remember how many art exhibitions I had, the poetry competitions, the sports tournaments etc.

I was an active child, I have to admit, not every one was like that but my point here is that I actually had the space to be one, I had teachers to guide me and I want to acknowledge that I had one hell of a librarian "Ms Shadia", she was in charge of most of the art activities but she was more of my friend who taught me a lot of things....

So far all seems great, so what is the problem?! The educational level!!
I had a range of 96-97% when it came to my total marks! This was not acceptable for my parents, they wanted THE BEST!

I was going to hi-school by then, and hi-school determines what college you end up in and consequently what future you have!! I was set to be a doctor since I can remember, this meant I had to raise my marks to be able to get to the exact college, actually the exact university they wanted!

To sum all, I was moved to another school...

This one had the perfect record of marks and college applicators, superb teachers and most of all, not anyone can get in there, only the top of the top!!

I got in , and it was almost the complete opposite of the first school, very concerned with stuffing information in your head, very ignorant to the artistic creative part of the child's mind!!

4 years I spent there, always studying, always the top of my class, full marks and very well known among all teachers for being the perfect student "there is no bragging here :P, just stating facts".

4 years I barely had any activity other than studying, barely playing any sports or drawing inside my school.... I had to keep all my activities for the summer, and that means almost not reading a couple of books in 9 months!

I qualified for the college I wanted, I am studying there now!



Now the discussion was: is it acceptable that a child is mind set on a particular aspect of his educational life and neglecting all the others??! Do we put our children in a school that we entrust to develop their minds to find that after 11 years of education, I got a copying machine?!
Does qualifying for a decent college mean that a person has a healthy well developed mind??!
If you got to choose between having one of the previously mentioned schools, what would your choice be??!

In Egypt, most of the parents will go for school number 2, a lot of reasons, I am considerate for some of them, I know it is a tough life we are living, if you don't get to be a doctor or an engineer, you won't get a job "as if doctors an engineers do find jobs that easily", there is nothing like a proud parent watching his kid graduate from a nice college and so on!

But are we really willing to let something like that be inflicted on the brain functions of our children?! A kid is a kid, do you want to deprive him from the sweet and innocent joys of life because you are worried about his graduation??!

I say let'em play, let'em live, don't spoil them or leave them without good education but please stop creating generations of copying machines!! We already have loads of young people who were raised this way and end up depressed because they don't have the creative touch in their lives!

I don't say let us all be Mozart or Chopin, but at least let this child when he grows up be able to look back at his childhood days at school and say I had fun while I was learning, not look back and all he would be able to remember is some frowning faces and piles of books stuffed with information no one cares about!

A friend of mine told me that I should ask if anyone sees other options, so I am open to any comments!