Campus - September!

شكـــرًا لكـــل واحـــد عمـــل حاجـــة كويســـة

SEPTEMBER 2011 CAMPUS888

SECTION

44 Eye Candy

The Gay Section

46 The Call Me When You Get Home Dilemma

Patterns

48 Surviving the Wedding Season50 Trends: Women52 Trends: Men54 The Man Repellers

Balls

56 On Bowling

Screens, Shelves and Speakers

60 The 3D Experiene62 Interview With Ali and Fila64 Self Your Help!

Features

6 The Treaty: Sadat’s Legacy, Or His Biggest Mistake?12 Amr Mostafa: A Moron That Happens To Be Partially Right20 Evolution: It’s Not Only Ape To Man

Bare Naked

21 Who The Hell Is Sandmonkey?

Underscore

28 German Lunacy32 Syria: A Regime on the Brink

Center Stage

34 Carlos Latuff

Opinionated

38 A Man Can Dream42 Twitter: From Revolutionary to Repulsive

In this issue

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ChairmanShady Sherif

Editor-in-Chief Louis Greiss

Creative DirectorLeila Tapozada

Editors Wessam Sherif Yasmine Zohdi

Junior EditorYoussef Saad El Din

Fashion EditorAsma El Husseini

Media ExecutiveZeina El Alfy

Ghada ZayedIsmaeel Khodeir

Financial Manager Ehab A. Aziz

Chief AccountantSherif El Haggar

AccountantAhmed Serag

Office ManagerSylvia Peter

Office Assistants Ibrahim Mansour

Mohamed Eid

IT ManagerAhmed Saher

Production Executive Manager

Sherif MahmoudMahmoud El Araby

Distribution Manager Shazly Eid

Distribution Abdelhamed FathyAshraf RamadanGamal Moustafa

Ramy AfifiRagab Fathy

Aly AfifiAly Fawzy

Waleed GilaniAbdel Aziz Abdel Rahman

Mahmoud Samir

Art DirectorAhmed Saad

Graphic DesignersBassem RaafatNora El Gazzar

Muhammed Abdelaal

Writers & ContributorsAhmed Amin

Ali GhalebEmilie E.

May KamelMohamed Seif

Muhammad RadwanSarah MacRory

Cover CreditsMuhammed Abdelaal

CTP & Printing Sahara Printing Company

Campus Magazine's Address24 Abdelmenim Riyad St.

Mohandiseen Tel: 3749 8730/3 Fax: 3749 8736

[email protected]@core-publications.net

[email protected]@core-publications.net

Heliopolis 69, Adidas(elmarghany), Africana Café C&CO (horeya st), Blue Brry (ard elgolf

) , Café Mo, Cairo International Airport, Chess, , Coffee Roastery, Colors, Compu Me,Cat, Diwan Bookstore, Desire, Einstein,Euro Deli, EveryMans Bookstore,Farah Café , Flower Market, Function, Gelateria Roma Cafe, Gravity, Harris Café, Gudy, Gallery Bel3araby (elnozha st.) ,House café , Hope Flowers, Hot Pink, Khodier, IIPennello Ceramic Café, Kan Zaman

Restauran, Linea, Liquid, , Maestro Music, Makani Cafe, McDonalds, Mobil Mart(elnozha-eldaery), Musicana, Munchies Café, No Name, Nuts @ Nuts,

Occo, Oro Café, Pottery Café,Quicksilver, Ro 8,Schatz Café, Smart Gym, Shell Mart elnozha, STR8 , Spicy, Taurus, TresBon , Up 2 Date, Viking Cafe, Wabi

Sabi, Why, World Gym, Zein Café.

Nasr City 2 Play (City Stars), Adidas(Genina mall-City star), Aroma Lounge (City Stars),

Calvin Klein Jeans, Casper & Gambini’s, Cat,C & Co(city star),Esprit(city star), Farah Café(Genina mall), Glatteria Roma Café(city star), Gudy Kenoz

Restaurant, ISI (City Stars),Legourmet marche café(city star),Madas , McDonalds (Abbas el Akkad), Musicana, My Day cafe, Quicksilver(city center), Renaissance (Wonderland, Genina Mall, Tiba Mall), Ravin ,Spicy (City Center -

Genina Mall) , Virgin Megastore .

Mohandiseen 4Get -Me -Not!, Adidas & Timberland(lebnan st,shehab st-Gezert alarab st), Alcott, Beau jardin café ,Café Mo, Café Nour, Cedars café , C& Co,

Ciccio café , Chess, Cilantro,Mohamed El Sagheer, Miss Coco, Cocolina, Dar albalsam Book store ,Diwan, Eventya Flowers , Harrod, Hot pink,

Laguna Café, L`aroma Cafe, Makani, Marsh Café, McDonalds, Mori suchi , Multi stores, Non bookstore, Oxygen, Pasqua Café’, Quick, Quicksilver,

Renaissance library, Ricky’s Diner, Royal Nails, Reblay , Safari Café, Samia Alouba, Silviana heach (Gezert alarab) Solitaire café , Show Room , Second

Cup Cafe, Spectra café , Spicy, Sports Café , Tommy & Hilfiger , Tornado Cafe, Toscanini café, Café, Volume One, Zarina , zein café . Zee Lounge café .

Downtown & MokattamAUC bookstore, Beymen ,Botry café, CIC (Markaz El Soura El

Mooasra),Cilantro, French Cultural Center, Lehnert & Landrok Bookshop, Main, Maktabet El Balad, McDonalds (Tahrir), Sixteen, Ravin, Cinema

Renaissance (Nile City), Jungle Café,

Dokki Beanos café(maka st), Coffee Roastry(nadi elsaid-maka st), International

Cultural Center, Mr. Joe, Makani café , Momento Café, Orange café, Quick24 , Quick seliver , Retro Café, Renaissance Cairo Sheraton, Spicy, Tabasco

Café(mesdak-oman sq), Zein Café, Zarina .

Zamalek Alakhbar Bookstore, Arabica café, AUC bookstore, Bean bar, Cilantro,

Cocolina , Crave Café, Diwan, Einstein Café, Euro Deli, FDA, 69, Gardenia Flowers, Goal café, Googan Bookstore,Joffrey’s Café, Kodak exepres ,

Latverna Café, L’aubergine, Makani café Medza Luna, Mobil Mart, Mohamed El Sagheer, Mori Sushi, Munchies Café,Oringett café , Pizza Tabasco, Quick

24,Ravin, Romanci Bookshop,Segafredo Cafe , Sequoia Timberland, Zamalek bookshop. Van Gogh Bookshop .

Maadi Adidas(Grand mall),adam bookstore, Arthur Murray, Bakier Stationary,

Bander Café, Benz Café, Books & Books , Beta Bookshop , Renaissance Cinema (Maadi Bander), Beano’s Café (9 st., Grand mall) , Beau Jardin Café, Bookspot, Caj, Campus Euro Deli, Cat, Chilis, Coffee Roastery, Greco Café , Costa Café (9 st.) , Drink Shop, El Shader Café, Dunes Lounge, Emad Beuty

Centre, Ghazala Stationary, Glassdeco, Green Mill, Gudy, Kotob Khan, Makani Cafe, McDonalds, Mediterraneo Restaurants, Quicksilver, Renaissance library, Rigoletto , Samia Alouba, Second cup(9 st.) ,Shell Shop Degla , Show room,

Spectra café ,The Bakiry Café , Temberland , Volume One.

October City Beau jardin café café mo, Melounge café , McDonalds, Maxicana café ,

Morisuchi café Renaissance 6 October , Safary café , Second cup , Shell Shop, Solitaire , Sans soucis café , Traionon café .

Giza & Haram Dar El Shorouk bookshop, Maxicana café ,Polo Shop , Renaissance Cairo

Mall

Alexandria 24Seven Café, Adidas & Timberland (Syria st, City Center), Banna Stationary,

Cilantro (Kafr Abdo, City Center), Coffee Roastery, Costa Café (City Ctr), Deekom, Delight (Gleem – smouha – foud st.), Faces (City Center), Guess (City Center), Magrabi (City Ctr), Mazaya (City Ctr), McDonalds (Miami-Semouha), Quiksilver (City Center), The Sixties café , Tamarin Center, Rapo Gift Shop.

TantaAxon (Saeed Branch , el bahr st.) Pizza station ( tanta club , El Helw st.) La

plato café.


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2011 has brought more world-altering events than those I have witnessed in my 22 years of existing on this planet combined – and there are still four months to go till the end of the year. Dictatorships fell, a prince got married, and the evil terrorist responsible for 9/11 was finally found and killed – 10 years and 4.5 million lost lives later.

There’s a lot more that happened over the course of the past eight months, but there’s no need to list it all here. My point is it’s been one hell of an eventful year. And in the midst of all the noise and the confusion these changes are creating, many people – inevitably bewildered – are relating it all to the prediction that claims 2012 marks the end of the world. But you see, I don’t view this as the world ending at all. In fact, I think the world is waking up. For one, we have finally come to discover our worth and the extent of our capabilities - when Ben Ali fled, Mubarak resigned, Libyan rebels danced in Gaddafi’s compound. And as we are struggling to come to terms with our newfound discoveries, the “West” is in turn discovering us – discovering that the people of the South, of the third world, are in fact people – with the same hopes, dreams and aspirations. And together, we are realizing how interlinked we all are. A young man setting himself on fire in a small Tunisian town sparked a chain of events that went all the way to New York, where Americans are planning to occupy Wall Street on their own Day of Rage on September 17th. And from our own troubles stemmed an unprecedented capacity to sympathize with others, whether close or miles away. With revolutionaries in Yemen, with victims of Japan’s Tsunami, with relatives of those killed in terrorist attacks in Norway, with starving families in Somalia. During the same year, the people of the world are being hit with all kinds of different challenges and rising up to face them, each their own way, but it’s making us all more connected nonetheless.

So no, I don’t see this as humanity’s annus horribilis, but rather a test for humanity…and so far humanity is not letting me down at all. Because humanity is not the governments or the United Nations. Humanity is the people. Humanity is the Syrians standing up for their dignity in the face of bullets and armored tanks, is activists like Vittorio Arrigoni – giving their lives for a cause that is not theirs when they could have spent it lounging in the Italian sun, is traumatized children in Gaza collecting aid for dying kids in Somalia. In his “Pendulum Theory”, Georg Hegel claims that world history repeatedly swings from one extreme to the other. I can’t help pondering this possibility right now, as history unfolds before us – we might very much be on our way to a new status quo.

I was born to find that, in the words of Jerry Maguire, “America sets the tone for the world”. I was born to find Muslims in constant need to defend their belief system. I was born to find Hosni Mubarak president and that I belong to the poor, ignorant, underdeveloped side of the globe. That’s the world I was born to, and I do not find myself particularly attached to it in any way.

Right now it finally seems to be changing, and although the destination remains unknown and the path unclear, I can only feel relieved. Even ecstatic.

Yes, perhaps the world as we know it is in fact nearing its end – but it wasn’t that pleasant anyways, was it?

LET THE WORLD END!

I know things seem a bit bleak for the world right now.

People are being butchered in Syria every day, Israel remains a pain the Middle East’s ass, recent statistics show that nearly 10 million children starve to death every year, and Justin Bieber’s “Baby” is the world’s most viewed video on Youtube. Yes, there’s more than enough to make us despair.


EDITOR’S NOTE ]]


FEATURE]]

Separating fact from hearsayTwo treaties, not one: One of the most widely spread misconceptions about Camp David is that was the birthplace of ONE peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. This is inaccurate, because in fact, Camp David hosted a 13 day negotiation process between Sadat and Begin mediated by Carter, which eventually lead to what is known as the Camp David accords in 1978. This was a framework agreement for peace in the Middle East as a whole, and it was the seed of the widely-debated peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979. It was also the treaty in which Egypt pledged the normalization of relations with Israel in addition to agreeing on the prospect of economic cooperation with Israel, in return for Israel’s full withdrawal from Sinai. The 1979 treaty came to structure peace between the then warring nations.

“2. Signatories shall establish among themselves relationships normal to states at peace with one another. To this end, they should undertake to abide by all the provisions of the U.N. Charter. Steps to be taken in this respect include:

As of late, many have been calling for the cancellation of the Camp David accords signed in the late 70s between Egypt and Israel. These cries for abolishing the peace treaty are not new however. Ever since his return from Camp David, Sadat was faced with large-scale bitter critique and occasional applause. This, of course, was no surprise. Sadat’s visit to Al-Quds in 1977 had already pushed the whole region – governments and people– towards the threshold of a new era, and the accords were just the final nudge. Sadat is now long gone, but the treaty still lives and so do the cries for ending it. But how much do all the cheerers and jeerers out there really know about the treaty?

a. full recognition; b. abolishing economic boycotts;c. guaranteeing that under their jurisdiction the citizens of the other parties shall enjoy the protection of the due process of law.

3. Signatories should explore possibilities for economic development in the context of final peace treaties, with the objective of contributing to the atmosphere of peace, cooperation and friendship which is their common goal”

“The following matters are agreed between the parties:

1. The full exercise of Egyptian sovereignty up to the internationally recognized border between Egypt and mandated Palestine;2. The withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from the Sinai”

So, if you must, blame the mother agreement, the 1978 Camp David Accords.

IsraelHave you even read the Camp David accords?

Peace with

By Wessam Sherif


FEATURE]]

Palestine was included: As mentioned earlier, the initial agreement was for peace in the Middle East as a whole. Accordingly, there was a full segment on the West Bank and Gaza which stated the establishment of a self-governing authority in the West Bank and Gaza. It also tackled potential solutions to the refugee problem, which still remains a thorn in the Palestinian authority’s neck to this day.

“b. Egypt, Israel, and Jordan will agree on the modalities for establishing elected self-governing authority in the West Bank and Gaza. The delegations of Egypt and Jordan may include Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza or other Palestinians as mutually agreed. The parties will negotiate an agreement which will define the powers and responsibilities of the self- governing authority to be exercised in the West Bank and Gaza”

“f. Egypt and Israel will work with each other and with other interested parties to establish agreed procedures for a prompt, just and permanent implementation of the resolution of the refugee problem”

There is an army in Sinai: An argument commonly used by the Anti-Camp David clan is that it “denies Egypt its right to mobilize army forces in Sinai, hence overriding Egyptian sovereignty”. This is a big allegation, because according to the 1979 peace treaty, the Egyptian army is entitled to a hefty presence in the peninsula. In all fairness however, this presence is constricted in a way that guarantees the security of Israel. Security distribution in Sinai is divided into 3 zones: A, B and C, where A includes the biggest army presence but is the farthest from the borders and C includes minimal presence and is right on the borders with Israel. There is also a zone D in Israel, in which the troops are moderately armed.

How the treaty really backfiredBelieve it or not, the lack of a proper army presence in Sinai and normalizing relations with Israel are not why I would deem the treaty as a failure. The amount of incentives Egypt received from the Carter administration in order to finalize the peace negotiations is what really takes the cake for me. Today, not only does Egypt receive the second highest U.S. aid in the world after Israel, it is strongly dependent on that aid. Even more so, most of the aid received from the U.S. is military aid, which has given the U.S., and consequently Israel, leverage over Egyptian foreign policy up to this day. So, when you look at it, it’s not the treaty per se that constitutes the problem, it is how the Egyptian administration dealt with the build up to it behind the scenes. As a matter of fact, the Egyptian administration somewhat took advantage of the treaty against the will of the people. You see, the treaty stated clearly that “signatories should explore the possibilities of economic development”, which is only a suggestion. So, I guess no one forced them towards agricultural cooperation or exporting oil to Israel.

The reaction of the Arab nations as result of this treaty was also one of the reasons why it has become so notorious. It was so notorious in fact, that the help it could have offered the Palestinian cause was overlooked. I won’t go as far as to claim that it could have solved the complex conflict, but I can safely say it would have been a brilliant starting point, a starting point that was actually achieved years later.

Is ending the treaty or modifying it possible?According to international law, yes it is possible, but only based on the consent of the other signatory party, Israel. That being said, I can safely say that ending or modifying this treaty would be synonymous to an act of war, which is a debate for another article.

Thing is, it is very hard to be objective especially with the Arab-Israeli conflict, because it is not merely a territorial conflict; it is religious and a cultural one as well. This in turn makes of every treaty treason and every handshake failure. But to make a proper judgment, not only in regards to Camp David, but regarding the whole conflict, one needs to disregard culture and religion, even if temporarily. I urge you, read both treaties in full, and make up your own mind.

Israel

9

C


PRESS RELEASE

CIC launches: CIC PhotoSchoolOpen Week September 24-28, Courses starting October 16,2011

CIC is hosting an open week starting September 24th, to give the chance to aspirant photographers to try out our new initiative: CIC PhotoSchool, scheduled to launch officially this October. Five tutors will give ‘taster sessions’ of their forthcoming courses, running a one night lesson giving a flavour of their subject

Over the years CIC has taught hundreds of photographers, and now CIC PhotoSchool combines this experience with an expanded programme aimed at taking interested participants from beginner to various possible creative and career paths. It is a unique educational offering to nourish interest in photography and develop technical and critical skills. Carefully strategised curricula sit alongside a range of free workshops and lectures, all taught by a team of highly experienced instructors.

CIC PhotoSchool’s first semester offers the brand new General Photography Introductory Curriculum starting on October 17, a complete package providing two fundamental courses plus an extra class of your choice out of Portrait, Creative Photography, Photoshop for Photographers, Darkroom Techniques, and Producing and Editing a Photo-story. For experienced photographers, CIC Photoschool offers intermediate level courses in Photo-documentary and Photojournalism, Lighting, Architecture and Interior Space Photography.

Also this fall CIC Photoschool plans two more free artist-led creative photography workshops and a programme of lectures from international experts on photography. CIC PhotoSchool’s facilities feature a growing library of photography and art books, a comfortable space for study, and Egypt’s only public-access darkrooms. All this enables the connection to a wide photographic and artistic community. CIC Photoschool is part of Contemporary Image Collective (CIC), an independent non-profit art initiative founded in Cairo in 2004. CIC’s mission spans contemporary art and educational programming that responds to and develops artistic practice, engagement, and discourse. Since its founding, CIC has a special interest in the many roles of the photographic image at large.CIC PhotoSchool is made possible through the generous support of The Ford Foundation, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Egypt, and the Young Arab Theatre Fund.

For further information, and to sign-up for the opening week and for the Curriculum, please write to [email protected] or call 01511738115 from 10am to 6pm Sundays to Thursdays, or visit www.ciccairo.com/ie

Free Running / Red Bull Art of Motion Acrobatic spectacle at Japan’s tallest building Free Runners from eight nations gave thousands of fans plenty to cheer about on July 30th in front of Japan’s tallest building. The historic harbor in front of the Yokohama Tower served as a natural obstacle. Fearless athletes mastered a predetermined course with somersaults, flips and jumps across deep gorges. Free Running icon Jason Paul (GER) triumphed. The global phenomenon Free Running instantly conquered the hearts of Japan with its first visit there since the sport was established in 2007. In front of an enthusiastic audience, the athletes were able to trade the 295.8 meter high building gorges of New York, Los Angeles, Berlin or London with the monumental boulders, anchor systems and ancient stones of Japan’s cultural heritage.

Four jurors evaluated each of the athletes’ runs for flow of movement, creativity, style, technique and difficulty. The course in Yokohama relied entirely on the natural setting. The athletes had to overcome a 10-meter height difference between the start and finish.

Free running is the number 1 sport on YouTube with more than 20 million uploads each year. Red Bull Art of Motion took place for the first time in 2007 in Vienna (Austria).

Venice Film Festival selects the Egyptian Film Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad and The PoliticianThe 68th Venice Film Festival announced the official selection of the Egyptian documentary Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad and The Politician which is Film Clinic’s latest production. The international festival will be kicking off on the 31st August- September 10th 2011. The film revolves around the events that occurred during the Egyptian revolution from three different perspectives that were portrayed in its three different chapters. The first chapter, which is titled The Good, was directed by Tamer Ezzat, the second which is called The Bad was directed by Ayten Ameen whereas the third chapter was directed by Amr Salama and titled The Politician.

The writer and producer Mohamed Hefzy, who is also the founder of Film Clinic, is supervising the film’s production along with Ingredients, WDR, and Amana Creative. Meanwhile Pacha Pictures is the main distributor of the film worldwide and Ingredients Productions is the main distributor in the Middle East.

Mohamed Hefzy elaborated on producing a documentary that discusses the revolution by saying “It originated from those directors who have participated in the Egyptian revolution. It’s only natural that all eyes are directed on post revolution Egypt, which is admired by all. What’s new about Tahrir 2011: The Good The Bad and The Politician is that it expresses the youth’s opinion by the youth themselves and not through anyone else’s perspective”.


FEATURE

Normally I’m very hard to provoke, and it’s even harder to see me angry, but the notorious couple of interviews with the person I can safely dub the “Village Idiot”, the one and only Amr Mostafa, did in fact get to me.To be completely honest, I’m not even the hardcore revolutionary who spent 18 days in Tahrir, and I got really pissed off. So I’m simply unable to imagine what a hardcore revolutionary would feel like!For those of you who missed it, “Einstein” had a couple of insightful points (that everyone else seemed to miss) regarding the revolution and the level of involvement multinational companies had in it. I won’t get into the “e7na asfeen ya rayes” crap, it’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it… just as I am entitled to mine, which is that he’s a dimwitted idiot.

Amr Mostafa: a moron who happens to be partially right!

By Youssef Saad El Din

13

In a nutshell, el “fanan” stated in an interview that the West, manifested in the multinational corporations that operate in Egypt, is the “Criminal Mastermind” behind the revolution. Before jumping to the conclusion that this is complete nonsense, you should know that the man has proof! For instance Coca-Cola’s “125 years of happiness” slogan is referring to Jan. 25th! Pepsi’s slogan “3abar meen adak” is a subliminal message to hit the streets and protest, in addition to Vodafone’s literacy initiative, which is basically ]the West telling us that we’re a bunch of illiterate savages, and they will enlighten us. On a side note, don’t you just love how some people think of the West as one country, rather than an entire hemisphere with numerous countries with different foreign policies?

Now let’s take this step by step, I do know for a fact, and beyond any reasonable doubt that Coca-Cola is not run by “Saruman the White” from Lord of the Rings! So if Saruman is not sitting in Isengard with a crystal ball that tells him the exact date of the revolution, which he could then give to the good folks in marketing and they start the 125 years campaign, then how could they possibly know the date?

Let’s look at it from another angle; perhaps the ‘125’ is actually the number of years Coca-Cola has been in business, seeing that it was introduced in 1886! But that’s just me.

Ever heard of CSR?

Also in some wacky parallel universe, Vodafone’s “evil” literacy initiative could simply be part of a little thing called Corporate Social Responsibility, which exists in each and every single corporation!

However, the fact that Amr Mostafa is a clueless idiot - who for some crazy reason thinks too much of himself- is wrong, doesn’t necessarily mean that big multinational corporations are out there on a quest to save the world.

Most corporations have what is referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility; the way each corporation chooses to implement this policy is different. For example, the aforementioned literacy initiative that Vodafone is sponsoring, Chipsy’s partnership with the World Food Program to take part in the “Food for Education” initiative, in addition to several fast food chains’ (kol combo totlobo beyroo7 meno geneh le whatever charity organization) campaigns.

those charitable initiatives, you can’t help but think “those corporations

this.

they can do some good for the world in the process they will, but not if contradicts with business.

The whole notion of Corporate Social Responsibility simply exists because most, if not all, of these companies are publicly traded companies (they are owned by stockholders) therefore their public image has a direct effect on the price of their shares, in addition to the

on their sales!

Corporations are evil… sometimes

Don’t get me wrong, despite the ulterior motives behind Corporate Social Responsibility, it’s actually a good thing, but on the other hand, there are countless times when huge corporations were faced with nasty scandals. Unfortunately for Amr Mostafa, none of them was as stupid as he claims.

One of the most famous accusations was directed towards one of the biggest beverage companies out there, and no it’s not about an

anniversary campaign, but allegedly, one of its bottling plants in Colombia was tied to “paramilitaries and murderous death squads”, as a part of a program to intimidate trade union leaders.

Another example was when one of the world’s largest corporations working in consumer packaged goods, faced a PR nightmare when it was accused of polluting Fen Holloway River in Florida by dumping millions of gallons of waste water, and allegedly making nearby water wells unsafe to drink from.

A dairy products company, which always promotes its products as nutritious and essential for the growth of kids and infants, has been widely criticized and boycotted for their misleading marketing campaigns on breast milk substitutes, and not properly displaying health warnings on their products.

The whole notion of Corporate Social Responsibility simply exists because most, if not all, of these companies are publicly traded

companies; therefore their public image has a direct effect on the

price of their shares

“ “

Compass Group, the world’s largest contract foodservice company, faced a huge scandal in 2006 when one of its subsidiaries bribed two

provide food for UN peace keeping troops in Liberia.

that ExxonMobil knowingly assisted human rights violations including rape and murder, through employing and providing material support to Indonesian military forces hired by ExxonMobil to provide security to their project in Aceh, Indonesia.

The previous examples prove that corporations are no angels and carry out their Corporate Social Responsibility whenever it’s convenient, but

In retrospect, who can blame them? Don’t forget that at the end of the day these are businesses, not charity organizations. It is in their best interest to make money, and it is in our best interest to keep close tabs to know when a company is actually working for the greater good and when it’s trying to bleed us dry! C

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the writer and are

not necessarily shared by CAMPUS Magazine.

אני רוצה

ana o’reed


We proudly bring you a number of selected tweets about the brilliance that is Amr Mostafa

Amr Mostafa should have his

own talk show, something

like The Jerry Springer

Show. Egypt would LOVE IT!

There are actually people who believe Amr Mostafa. I’m about to cry.

عمرو مصطفى أثبت إن

عنده مقتصرة على حقوق الملكية الفكرية

المفروض لما حد يشوفك يدعي دعاء

دخول الحمام، ده انت ابن و@خة بجد!

عمرو مصطفي يصرح: إعالن شيبسي دياليتس اللي

بيقول الفول السوداني مش هيتبهدل تاني، مؤامرة

للتحريض علي ثوره قادمة السودانفي

Amr Mostafa is Zbider’s brother, rad3een khara men nafs el me3za!

أنا اسمي عمرو مصطفى، وأنا صغير كان المنتج

بتاعي بياخدني في حتة مقطوعة اسمها صوت الفن،

بس انا كعمرو اتبسط

عمرو مصطفى مبدع فعال، قالك الغاز المصرى بيروح

كان اتكلم من سنة بس كان زمانه بقى وزير إعالم

طب بالنسبه العالن بوكسر قطونيل، نحب نعرف رأى

الفنان عمرو مصطفى االهبل

Bt2ool Tiger, ekbar we saytar?! Amr Mostafa haywadeeko wara el shams ya 3omala2!

الى السيد عمرو مصطفى اذا كانت كلمة (يريد) كلمة اسرائيلية فكلمة

(خد) كلمة مصرية اصيلة

Enjoy.

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Evolution:It is not only from ape to man...


FEATURE

21

Evolution:

21

The Beatles

The World Cup Ball


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BARE NAKED

Campus: Up to this moment, many don’t take social media seriously.

Sandmonkey: Ne7med rabena! If people don’t take you seriously, then you’re not a problem for them, and if you’re not a problem for them, then you’re not a target for them.

C: Are you afraid of being a target?

S: Tab3an! This a huge issue, enta betetkalem fe eh?! Being in the public space means that you’re going to have crazy fans and you’re going to have crazy enemies. I mean, I don’t think that Wael Ghoneim ever imagined that his nemesis would be Ahmed Spider! Fame is weird.

C: Have you had your share of crazy enemies?

S: Of course. There are trolls and there are people who only exist just because I exist, but I don’t even acknowledge their existence. The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference, and I have plenty of the latter to go around.

C: There are lots of bloggers out there; do you think they’re all competent enough to give opinions read by many?

S: I’ve discussed bloggers’ responsibility with others a lot, and I’ve heard many respectable people who are supposedly enlightened speak of a “Code of Ethics” and “regulations”. This all means nothing to me, because it aims at creating some sort of behaved speech, while freedom of speech in general includes the right to insult. If you want to start making social media “polite”, then define politeness, define what could be as offensive. I mean “yasqot yasqot 7okm el 3askar” can be defined as offensive!

Moreover, the writer’s effect is not based on the writer only, it is also based on the reader; it is not a one-way stream of information but an interactive medium. It allows people to challenge those who say bullshit, it allows self-correction and it gives people the chance to expose liars. Recently there was a trending hashtag on Twitter called ‘El Mostana3a’ that was dedicated to making fun of a pathological liar on Twitter; Ahmad Abdallah the director and I were on to this person from the very beginning. It’s a public space and these kinds of people are very easily detected.

C: Yes, I agree, there’s still plenty of unfiltered nonsense on Twitter nevertheless.

S: Well, one of the things I discovered about Twitter is that no matter what you write or what you do, someone will be a fan. Kol ensan sees fe wa7ed sees aktar menno thinking “oh my God 3ayez ab2a gamed zayak”, it’s all relative.

The biggest problem is that you don’t choose your followers. Hala Sarhan’s son called me because I made fun of his mom’s billboard; mind you I didn’t make fun of her or her show, I made fun of the board’s design. Anyhow, he went on about how much he likes my tweets and that one day he was showing his mom my account and that’s when she saw my tweet about her and got upset. And then she herself called me and told me that I should be careful of what I say, because on a public space everything I say has an effect and that I might offend my audience. I simply told her that I don’t give a rat’s ass about my audience, because I didn’t ask anybody to follow me; ana gayeb Twitter account a-hess fe 3ala el donya, and people follow!

Who the hell is Sandmonkey?

At first, I really didn’t want to conduct this interview; how do you interview a person who speaks on a daily basis and is heard by over 45 thousand people? I mean what more would he have to say? But on second thought, Twitterati (for lack of a better word) and bloggers are usually very different in reality than they are online. So, I eventually had a chat with the man, and he is hardly the pain the the ass he claims be to in his Twitter bio!

By Wessam Sherif

The most humble man on Twitter...not so much.

25

C: There are some bloggers out there who very well known for their profanity rants, yet they do have plenty of followers, take Wael Abbas, for example.

S: Yes, and people treat him the way they would a clown, no one would ever say that he has proper political opinions, because he doesn’t! All he does is go all-out in opposition and insult everyone, and it’s a very safe position if you ask me. No matter who’s in charge or what era we’re in, he’ll always have the same stance, because it maintains longevity. And many ‘shama7tageya’ like him and some others just follow him for a good laugh every now and then. At the end of the day, he’s a joke and he doesn’t really contribute to anything.

C: What about you, when did you start becoming so big on Twitter?

S: During the revolution. Before the revolution I had around 3000 followers and that was a huge number in Egypt at the time, but during the revolution things went upwards, especially because I had given my account information to a friend of mine who was living abroad and had her tweet for me during the internet cut-off. I realized that they were going to cut communications and I wanted to maintain the news flux, so I paid tons of money for international calls just to give my friend in Jordan the information to tweet.

Also, things were also boosted when I got arrested on February 3rd; because they took my phone and threatened those who called me that they would get arrested as well. Little did they know that one of the people who called was a friend of mine who had really strong media connections, and next thing you know the news of my arrest was on Al Jazeera.

C: Has Twitter always been political to you?

S: Not at all. As a matter of fact, I have discovered that the key to Twitter is negativity! One of those days I was waiting for a friend to pass by and I started off a hashtag called ‘women you don’t date’ and it trended really fast. Then people started a ‘men you don’t date’ hashtag, and sooner than you know it, everyone on Twitter started bringing out their issues on one another! What started out as a funny hashtag became really disturbing very quickly. I discovered that people in Egypt shayleen men ba3d fashkh!

And when you play on class issues things also get out of hand; I once came up with a ‘one of us’ hashtag; people are either one of us, normal, or bee2a. You have no idea how many fights broke out because of it, especially those that had to do with school rankings.

C: Some people treat Twitter like it’s therapy.

S: Well, it does show you the social ills of the society, but actually it is more of a support group. That was especially evident during the revolution; Twitter used to be the place where revolutionaries pat each other on the back, but now it’s all just whining.

C: Someone in your family used to be in the National Democratic Party, am I correct?

S: Yes, my mother.

C: And how was that?

S: It was fun actually, mainly because she didn’t know about Sandmonkey. I had avoided teaching her anything about the internet specifically for that reason; I hid my identity specifically so nobody could use me to attack her politically, she’s still my mom at the end of the day. I also made sure she didn’t know about Sandmonkey 3ashan mesh 3awez zann, and you know how Egyptian mothers are!It was always interesting to get insider information from her, like back in 2005 when I went to center of the NDP electoral campaign and I saw the mass fraud taking place myself!

C: And how’s your relationship with her after the revolution?

S: My mom joined the revolution when I get arrested!

I’ve gotten wedding proposals! There was also

this one girl who came over to Tahrir just to give me a hug, and then she wrote a tweet saying that she

hugged Sandmonkey and now her life is complete!


BARE NAKED

C: You’re known for making always making predictions…

S: We batla3 sa7!!

C: But have you ever predicted something that turned out differently?

S: I regretted falling in the trap of believing that SCAF wants to hand over power and return to their barracks. But lately I’ve been consistently proven right to the extent that many of my friends started thinking that I’m working with the government!

C: On a lighter note, have you ever been approached by girls on Twitter?

S: I’ve gotten wedding proposals! There was also this one girl – she was a big fan – who came over to Tahrir just to give me a hug, and then she wrote a tweet saying that she hugged Sandmonkey and now her life is complete! Fe men da keteer! This is the problem with media and fame.

C: Were you ever tempted by the cyber-tazbeet?

S: Do you think I have time?! I have two failed relationships because of the revolution! Tazbeet takes a lot of effort just for dala3 alone, and I don’t have the time for that! Amidst all the stuff I have to deal with on a daily basis, dinner reservations and what-not have no place at all!You see, I have everything one wants in the worst possible way; I’ve got fame and its derivatives and I can’t enjoy any of this. Besides, I really don’t need a bigger ego!

C: Yes, I was about to ask you that! You’re quite cocky!

S: I’m arrogant! But I’ve been arrogant before the revolution; I’ve been arrogant for seven years! “Micro-celebrity” has been in my Twitter bio since 2007! At this point I should remove the word micro, ana 7atet-ha tawado3! Ana shayef nafsy gamed, we mesh 3ayez 7ad yeshofny

gamed! I’ve also been informed that there’s a condescending tone to my writings, but I don’t intend to, it’s because I write to vent.There’s a notion that you’re not allowed to be yourself once you’re a public figure. Some people are ok with that, some people are whores, and some care too much about their public image, but I’m not. Nevertheless, people shouldn’t confuse the message with the messenger! He who ignores a valuable piece of information just because it was said in a way that is not their liking is an animal!

C: But take Fangary for example, had he spoken in a better tone, his message might have been accepted by people.

S: I’m with you, but I’m not on T.V.! I’m words on a screen, and you can’t control the tone of words on a screen, especially when dealing with a 140 character limit. This is self-expression; it should not be affected or influenced by the outside world. The only allowed interaction is disagreement, critique or approval, but it usually becomes personal because social media is personal.

C: Twitter is currently a part of your identity, what if it fades out in the future?

S: Fe seteen dahya! I’m currently involved with a number of projects that are not Twitter related. It about understanding media; it is not about Twitter per se.

C: I noticed that on you named your V-Blog on El Gomhoreya.TV after your real name, Mahmoud Salem. Are you trying reintroduce yourself to people as Mahmoud instead of Sandmonkey?

S: Well, in a very weird way I’ve created a virtual personality; a lot of people who meet me tell me that I’m completely not what they expected. It’s an interesting experiment, because Sandmonkey is far more known than Mahmoud Salem, but I definitely don’t want to meet someone in 10 years we ye2olly ezayak ya Sandmonkey! C

At this point I should remove the word micro from micro-celebrity in my Twitter bio, ana 7atet-ha tawado3! Ana

shayef nafsy gamed, we mesh 3ayez 7ad yeshofny gamed!

There are those who admire the Germans for their precision and their straight-edged ways. The culture is profoundly efficient (a concept not found amongst the general population of Egypt, or any Mediterranean country for that matter.) Ze Germaaans have contributed a lot to world history, no not only World War II, but World War I kaman!

All joking aside, the country has provided the world with historical figures that can never fade away; some have had a negative effect on the world and others profoundly positive.

Albert Einstein & Adolf Hitler; one is ‘shibh’ German (Hitler’s originally Austrian) and the other was a Jewish German, and both have left large imprints on the pages of history in different ways. However, both are very odd people with fascinating traits that add another dimension to their genius ways (either evil or good).

Bertie, Abo E=mc2

Aside from the fact that the man benefited mankind and the scientific communities in ways that are just plain indescribable, Mr. Einstein was quirky. I’m being kind of course because quirky is a euphemism; some call it weird, others call it eccentric but let’s face the facts; a “normal” genius? No such thing. I mean who has hair like that coupled with the bravado mustache and is deemed “normal”?

Everyone knows what his work has done for the development of

The definitive guide to German lunacy… and brilliance for that matter!

quantum physics and our understanding of light. The real question is: his personality, what was it like? A happy go-lucky German? Really?

Here are some really enlightening facts about ’stein’s life…

Big head: He was born with a massive head, one that had an odd shape apparently (that explains the crazy hair later in life. Probably trying to cover that up). In turn it ruffled the feathers of doctors who examined him. They said that there would be a high chance he wouldn’t be mentally competent. He also spoke slowly until the age of nine, I’m guessing even at that age he was either choosing his words carefully or he was just way too intelligent and wanted to piss people off for fun.

Nah… I’d rather think up E= mc2: He was offered a very specific job, even though he was a high school drop-out (yep, he sure did drop out of school). He was offered to be the second President of Israel in 1952, and he declined the offer on account that he preferred to play with his chalk and blackboard as well as daydream about concepts we could never understand. Seriously though, apparently, he said he had a “lack of both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official function.” One can only wonder what the Middle East conflict would be like today if Einstein had been president for a short while.

Pay homage to the brain: The coroner, Thomas Harvey, who conducted Einstein’s autopsy after he passed in 1955, stole his brain. Without a care in the world he smuggled the genius brain and traveled with it across the United States to show to the people, without family consent. In the late 1990s it was returned to Einstein’s relatives as a gift (Harvey was a weirdo, clearly) and it now sits in a science lab at Princeton University.

Smooth-geek: Bertie was a womanizer. So much so that he had an illegitimate daughter (gasp!). He was getting it on with one of the first females to study physics in Europe, Mileva Marić. Lieserl Einstein was born in 1902, two years before the two got married and no one knows

Hitler and EinsteinBy Sarah Mac Rory


UNDERSCORE ]]

where she went. Talk about a cheeky play-boy and in the early 1900s too!

Uh… I, like, don’t speak German-ish: The nurse who was caring for Einstein in his last days did not speak a word of German and apparently, the icon’s last words were in his native tongue. Lost forever in the abyss. Although I do think it’s quite stupid that she couldn’t even sound out what he said to others who may have understood. Ma3alena mesh mohem.

Flash the opponents, it’ll distract them! Einstein gave his opinion about many things. In fact, one of the most remarkable attributes of this man was his ability to write eloquently. He was what historians would call a Renaissance Man (kinda like Leo Da Vinci). One of his famous opinions was that women should serve in the military, which probably explains the current demographics of the Israeli military. In his 1931 essay ‘The World As I See It’ he writes: “In my opinion, the patriotic women ought to be sent to the front in the next war instead of the men. It would at least be a novelty in this dreary sphere of infinite confusion, and besides—why should not such heroic feelings on the part of the fair sex find a more picturesque outlet than in attacks on a defenseless civilian?” Thanks for the vote of confidence buddy!

Scheiße, forgot again! This widely respected historical figure forgot the most trivial things, such as birthdays (and I’m sure a great deal many more calendar events, maybe even clothing? Glasses? Umbrellas?). He had a reputation for being forgetful when it came to “stuff” he thought non-essential. Who can blame the guy really? He can’t remember birthdays because his brain’s over-loaded with other more important sh*t. Give the guy a break. A lot of people love Einstein for many different reasons; whether for his contribution to the furthering of knowledge, his wicked hairstyle or his famously witty and clever sense of humor. I personally admire his sense of self, so powerful is his confidence in his own abilities that he could get away with saying something so ridiculously pompous as this (please read aloud in a German accent and giggle away):

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”

The Fürher, El Wad A-Dolff

Not only did he single-handedly brainwash an entire people, commit mass genocide and hallucinate about ruling the globe, he also helped foster the desires of perverts everywhere until today! (Read on to know how.) El Ostaz Hitler is the father of sickos. I don’t think he really needs an introduction, because if you don’t know Hitler you’re probably under the age of eight and you shouldn’t be reading this magazine!

Der Führer was a man who thought he could take over the world, create a supreme race of blondes and build the Third Reich into an unstoppable force (an empire of sorts). Needless to say he failed. Certain facts have come to light about this wide-eyed lunatic’s life. And they’re pretty darn intriguing!

Plastic Hole: Hitler ordered his men never to get physically or emotionally involved with foreign females (duh…preserving the Aryan race?). So he invented a plastic doll that may be used as a substitute for pleasure. Yep. Hitler’s the reason why frat-parties in the U.S have blow-up dolls on hand for relief. I wonder if he had one of his own.

Khaloo Adolf: Apparently he didn’t need a blow-up doll. He preferred his niece. Geli, his half-sister’s daughter, was one of his many lovers (I say many because German women were practically throwing themselves at this toothbrush mustached dude.) Geli was dead by the age of 23; the death was recorded as a suicide (walahi momkin) even though most of the evidence points towards a murder (ya tarra meen?).

One Ball: A man with one testicle, who is short, has greasy brown hair, death-blue eyes and a far from cheery disposition; no wonder

he was pissed off at the world (he lost the other testicle in World War I). He was hell-bent on exacting his revenge on the Allied forces that stole his manhood away!

All hail kinky! Not only did our friend have one ball to speak of, he was also full of weird fetishes (another euphemism). Apparently it is recorded that Adolf loved to be peed and poo-ed on during sex, ya3ni mel akher kida el ragel mo3aqad.

“I hate the Jews!!” Kadab ya kheesha! His first love at 16 was a Jewish girl named Stefanie Isak. His obsession with her is well documented. Rejection’s a b*tch but come on, no one inflicts the fury of a break-up or rejection on an entire segment of society!

Sick-Oh: Sure, he’s not mentally stable so being a hypochondriac is the tip of the iceberg with this man. He was convinced that he had unusual diseases and that only he could cure them with even stranger medications. Ya3ni ba3d kol el kalam da, and he still feels as though his problems are mainly physical…

You’re so vaaaaain: Hitler was obsessed with his appearance and often set fashion trends in his time (the ’stache for instance became all the rage!). He refused to let anyone see him naked or bathe and he never took his coat off in public, no matter how blistering hot it was. I’m guessing along with the singular testicle he may have had a third nipple?

Admire me: Man of the year for TIME Magazine in 1938, I don’t think I even need to comment. Ikhss ya TIME! Needless to say, Adolf Hitler may have gone down in history but not as an ordinary bad guy; he wasn’t just evil in the villain-bad-guy-in-comic-books-evil, he was just plain crazy. A narcissistic psychopath determined to get his way.

It’s funny now, looking at it, if Einstein had stayed in Germany Hitler would have owned his ass and where would we be now (in terms of science and what not)? And what if Stefanie had never broken young Adolf’s heart… would he have committed the atrocities he later went on to do? Meen 3aref. C

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This Ramadan, Archimedia hosted Pro Evolution Playstation 3 tournament at their Maadi and Designopolis showrooms from the 13th till the 20th of August. The tournament was sponsored by Coca-Cola Egypt, Tazkarty, WeWood watches, Pluto games, Fatboy Egypt and CircleTie. Crumbs also provided their exquisite cupcakes throughout the tournament.

The first 4 days of the tournament took place at the Maadi showroom at Building 40, Road 12, Maadi, while the final round of the tournament took place at Designopolis Store NK - 176, Designopolis, Km 38, Cairo/Alexandria Desert Road.Team “Real”, made up of Adel Sherif and Ahmed Samir, won first place. They were thrilled to walk away with Bowers & Wilkins iPod dock speaker, Zeppelin Air -courtesy of Archimedia, $250 Archimedia gift voucher and a buggle-up beanbag courtesy of Fatboy Egypt. Team “Real” was also the team with the most goals scored, winning two fashionable, eco-fab watches courtesy of WeWood.

At second place came Mahmoud Hassan’s and Sherif Fouad’s team. As a prize they got Bowers & Wilkins P5 headphones courtesy of Archimedia and $150 Archimedia gift voucher.

The third place team, Kareem Sadek and Mohamed Zohdi, meanwhile won a $100 Archimedia gift voucher.Team “FFC” were the team with the most scored against goals, yet they got a prize as well! Two VIP tickets to Aly & Fila’s Future Sound of Egypt party held on September the 2nd in Sharm El Sheikh to cheer them up, courtesy of Tazkarty. Overall, the tournament was a huge success and the participants couldn’t wait until we hold the next one.

To find out when the next tournaments will be, join Archimedia’s Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/ArchimediaME or follow them on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ArchimediaME. For more info on Archimedia, visit: www.archimedia-me.com.

Archimedia’s Pro-Evolution Ramadan Tournament


SECTION

Little Brother Is Watching You

The most common parallel without exception is the fear factor. The constant feeling that Little Brother Is Watching You (Big Brother died in a car accident in 1994 at which time Bashar was groomed to succeed his father). This sense of paranoia does not stem from some irrational place or conspiracy theory. The Syrian government boasts fourteen different Mukhabarat and security departments. Andrew Ramthell says, “In addition to their crucial role in buttressing Assad’s authoritarian rule, the intelligence services have played major roles in Syria’s foreign affairs.” They are said to be some of the most feared yet most successful security apparatus in the region. TIME magazine reports that Radwan Ziadeh, a Washington-based Syrian dissident and visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University, says “state security (in Syria) is much more brutal than that of Hosni Mubarak, the ousted President of Egypt.”

Indeed, they earned their reputation during the reign of the father, Hafez, with horrible stories of massacres and human rights abuse in places like Tadmor (Palmyra) prison or their role with the military in Hama in 1982.

By Muhammad Radwan

“How do you like living in Syria?”

I had been living abroad for about 10 months in the affluent neighborhood of Mezza in the west of Damascus. The answer to this question always included my admiration of different aspects of the country, but most noteworthy was Syrian love of Egyptians. After answering this question numerous times, it surprised me that almost everyone I talked to had limited knowledge of Syria, its history, geography, and current political climate.

Some people over the age of fifty were exceptions. They would explain their experience in Syria ‘years ago’ with an analogy that I have come to expect. “Syria is like Egypt, but in the ’60s under Abdel Nasser.” Syria is relatively clean in that its streets are noticeably absent of the mounds of gray dust, plastic refuse, and various other forms of rubbish. Damascus has been seeing a sharp rise in automobiles, but the traffic jam experiences of Cairo will not be enjoyed there for many more years ahead. The result is fresh air and no hits of carbon monoxide coming from the diesel truck immediately adjacent to you. In fact, walking the streets of Damascus makes for a pleasant experience, with all kinds of pleasant aromas from the flowers (mainly jasmine) that Syrians plant in their well-kept gardens or verandas.

SYRIA: A REGIME ON THE BRINK

Walls with ears had evolved in Syria as well. After a few weeks there, my colleagues at work

pointed out how the usual street cleaners

would just lounge around all day. They asked me if I really thought they were street cleaners

“

“


UNDERSCORE

Back in Nasser’s time one could only whisper politics, frantically checking the surroundings just in case. Walls with ears had evolved in Syria as well. After a few weeks there, my colleagues at work pointed out how the usual street cleaners would just lounge around all day. They asked me if I really thought they were street cleaners. It seemed everyone in the street was part of this network, like the short stocky man with a moustache selling tea and Nescafe in the park or down the street, or the kiosk owner who was paid regular visits by the authorities. Since the start of the revolution, there have been reports of four times as many street vendors.

Many of those who visited from Egypt would describe the strolls around the beautiful Old City with the amazing architecture from the Ummayid dynasty, the bustling markets with Syrian cashews, or more recently, the ubiquitous cheap Chinese products in the small shops in the Hamadeyya market. And more often that not, they would describe the security detail assigned to accompany them on their strolls. If you had a chance to experience Egypt’s Amn Dawla before the January 25th Revolution forced its disintegration, then the Mukhabarat would be a familiar sight. The guy with a black leather jacket, moustache, black shoes, the cliche look and the conspicuous walk. It wasn’t difficult to know when you were being followed.

The regime and social media

This experience highlighted a very important fact in the early days of the Syrian Revolution. The authorities in Syria had little experience with the ‘new’ technologies. Facebook had been blocked for roughly five years up to February this year. The regime painted its opening as proof of reform and freedom of expression, but everyone knew they finally purchased some Western real-time surveillance technology similar to Egypt’s purchase of Narus.

Since then, the Syrian regime has reacted to Twitter in a way unseen in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen or Bahrain. They have set up multiple accounts, or spambots, to flood the #Syria timeline so that people sharing information would instead be bombarded with trivial facts about the country’s historical sites. Jillian York writes in the Guardian, “These accounts, run by individuals, harassed users but had little effect on the hashtag search. Another set of accounts, however, managed to inundate the #Syria tag. Using a Bahraini company, EGHNA, bots are sending messages – sometimes several a minute – using various Syria-related search terms.” Despite these attempts, some activists at Reflets.info says “The Syrian Internet army’s technical level is quite disastrous” and they vow to expose the mediocrity and full capabilities to the international hacking community.

…And all hell breaks loose

After my one week stint in Syria detention centers, I returned to Egypt to see my family, friends, and fellow Egyptians. I waited a few months to ensure that all the other Egyptians had been released from Syrian jails to explain the details of the torture that took place. I was told if I spoke immediately after my release, those Egyptians might not ever return home, they might become one of the 2000+ who have disappeared since the revolution began in March. I recalled the Syrians confidently explaining the freedom to kill whomever they deemed a threat since Syria’s current political isolation already existed.

Since then, the Shabbiha, or hired guns, have emerged as an informal militia tightly knitted to the regime but guided by the Mukhabarat. Together with the military, they have killed over 2000 people and detained more than 15,000 and created an additional 10,000 refugees in Turkey and Lebanon.

After the Hama killings immediately before Ramadan, Russia capitulated to western pressure and agreed to the UNSC’s small gesture of condemning the Syrian government. Sanctions on key individuals in the president’s circle have already been imposed. The GCC countries have taken the lead and withdrawn their ambassadors in protest. Turkey’s Davutoglu has gradually become less tolerant and increased the pressure. Thousands are said to have deserted from the military refusing orders to kill their countrymen.

Freedom for Syria? Or a regional war?

If the regime continues to massacre its people, the backbone of their support in Damascus and Aleppo will begin to dwindle. Once the country is united with these two major cities, the regime will be at its weakest point.

Which course of action they decide to take from that point is pure speculation, which I will leave to the expert analysts. But if foreign intervention is on the table, old friends such as Iran and Hezbollah might create the stage for a wider regional conflict by aligning militarily with the regime. Let’s hope Assad is not another Qaddafi, choosing to sacrifice innocent countrymen and potentially dragging the whole region into war, and postponing the inevitable.

The Syrian regime has reacted to Twitter in a way unseen in other Arab countries.

They set up multiple accounts, or spambots, to flood the #Syria timeline so

that people sharing information would instead be bombarded with trivial facts

about the country’s historical sites

“ “Meeting the Mukhabarat: My detention

Around mid-March, I saw a tweet about a demonstration on a Friday in support of Deraa which had been protesting the recent death of four civilians. It was from the central Ummayid mosque that I was detained while writing a tweet and[ for having videos of the demonstrations on the same phone. They decided to take me to one of the hundreds of security centers along with about 10 other Syrian men.

Finally, I would meet Mukhabarat in person. Many interrogations occurred during my one week visit. The first day was the most difficult when they offered the deluxe combination of mental and physical torture. An old favorite technique of many Arab Mukhabarat, the falqa, was administered with a stick or rubber hose repeatedly slapped on the bottom of the feet while blindfolded on the ground and hands behind my back. Multiple blows ended in bloody feet that were unfit for standing, walking, and all the other pedal luxuries taken for granted.

After the first welcoming session, they called me and asked me about ‘the Facebook’. I told them there were groups where they could identify and track users, so they scolded me for using a tone they perceived as condescending. Acknowledging their advanced proficiency in the way of Facebook might have crossed my mind, after all, they were Mukhabarat. So when they were dumbfounded at the mention of Twitter I was a little shocked. The western media frenzy around the January 25th Revolution in Egypt was obsessively linked to social media. How are they not aware of this technology? They brought in the “computer engineer” to discuss Twitter even though they had just reassured me that they were very familiar with it. The engineer asked about users’ organizational methods and tools, and I told him there was a follow option, and a reply option. A weak attempt at hiding their bewilderment led to dropping the topic altogether.

C

33

Well, regardless of whether you think he’s overrated or not, Latuff has proven to be the cartoonist who has spoken for the revolution since day one. He is the mind behind Khaled Sa’eed cartoon; the ever-famous depiction of the revolution’s success. Not only was Latuff committed to the revolution though, he was quick and timely!

But despite his devotion that impressed and touched many, as of late, there’s been some controversy around his post-Mubarak cartoons, especially those criticizing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). He was fiercely attacked by many Egyptians especially for a recent cartoon depicting SCAF as a dog making a home of Tahrir.

Seeing the current buzz around Latuff, we had to know more about the Brazilian cartoonist who became an Egyptian superstar. And here’s what he had to say.

Interview by Wessam Sherif and Yasmine Zohdi

The Brazilian who put many Egyptians to shame


CENTER STAGE

Campus: How long have you been a cartoonist? Latuff: I’ve been a professional cartoonist working for Leftist trade-union papers in Brazil since 1990.

C: Are you as famous in Brazil as you currently are in Egypt?L: Unfortunately not; “No man is a prophet in his own country.”

C: What is the reason behind your strong attachment and dedication to the Arab revolutions; and especially the Egyptian Revolution?L: It started with my attachment to the Palestinian cause. I visited the West Bank in 1999, as well as Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon in 2009. What I saw and heard just reinforced my support to Palestinian people against Israeli apartheid. Their struggle is my best inspiration as an artist and human being. That’s how I became more and more interested in Arab affairs; the Palestinian cause opened windows for the Middle East reality. But my cartoons also deal with other social and political issues in Brazil and elsewhere.

C: What’s the incident that drove you to draw your first cartoon for Egypt? L: My interest in Egypt initially stemmed from Mubarak’s support to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, as I was very concerned about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict then. Then last January, I was contacted by some Egyptian activists through Twitter, asking me to make cartoons for the protests planned for January 25th, and that’s when I first felt attached to the Egyptian Revolution.

C: You’ve lately been attacked by a number of Egyptians, why is that? And how did you respond?L: Usually they are supporters of Mubarak, with absurd allegations, claiming that I’m a Zionist/CIA agent interested in causing trouble between the Egyptian people and the army. What’s interesting is that those who accuse me of being a Zionist spy, are the same who support a regime responsible for a deal selling very cheap gas to Israel! After years of making cartoons against USA and Israel, it’s pretty ironic to be called a Zionist by some Egyptians. All I want is to support the Egyptian people’s struggle for freedom through my cartoons. After all, this is why the martyrs sacrificed their lives.

C: Have you actually been to Egypt before? L: Not yet, unfortunately!

C: Do you plan to come and meet your huge fan base? L: Inshaallah; I really want to, but probably not too soon! Due to my cartoons about SCAF, I would probably be arrested on the spot at the airport! C

35

The National Committee for the Control of Viral Hepatitis (NCCVH) held a press conference on occasion of World Hepatitis Day (WHD) observed globally on 28 July. Participants shared the progress achieved in treating hepatitis C via the National Project and emphasized the necessity of aligning government and civil efforts, under the framework of a unified national initiative to raise more resources towards curbing hepatitis C.

“Almost every Egyptian family has been affected by hepatitis C, yet it has not received its fair share of community support and funding remains a severe constraint,” said Dr. Wahid Doss, Dean of the National Liver Institute and Head of the National Committee. “The state allocates a substantial LE 500 million annually for the treatment of hepatitis C, but for the national treatment plan to succeed, it is imperative that the community at large, including civil society organizations, contribute to provide a much-needed additional LE 500 million.”

For more information, please contact Vantage Communications:Yasmine Hamdy | 0197771876 | [email protected] Shamel | 0103606360 | [email protected]

Launches Student Ambassador program in MENAInaugural Google Student Ambassador Program training kicks off in Egypt

As part of Google’s commitment to empower the Middle East and North Africa’s academic community, Google has launched the Google Student Ambassador Program in MENA. The program invites student enrolled in universities across MENA to represent Google on campus and serve tenure of one academic year. The program is aimed at providing knowledge, infrastructure and tools to help develop MENA’s future leaders. For the first-ever MENA Google Student Ambassador Program, more than 866 students applied, from which Google has selected 73 ambassador from 33 universities across the region.

The student ambassadors will be given a week-long training, during which they will explore everything Google and be provided with exclusive insight into Google’s strategies for future programs and services.

“Providing access to knowledge, improving communication, and developing innovative tools to foster freedom of expression are the core components of every Google initiative,” said Wael Fakharany, Country Manager for Google North Africa and Egypt.

As a strong supporter of innovation, Google sees the potential of the Student Ambassador Program as something that will develop universities in the region as well as the technological ecosystem as a whole. In 2010, Google was the fastest growing company in the world with respect to research and development (R&D) expenditure, spending more than US$ 140,000 per employee on R&D annually.

The National Committee for the Control of Viral Hepatitis Calls for Unified Government and Community Efforts to Provide LE 1 Billion

Annually for Hepatitis C Treatment


PRESS RELEASE

Samsung Corporate Football Tournament raises money for Egypt’s 57357 Children’s Cancer Hospital

This Ramadan, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Egypt, a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, inaugurated its second Ramadan football tournament at the Canadian International College (CIC). The tournament which ran from the 5th to the 25th of August had 30 teams from Egyptian companies participating to raise money to support for the Children’s Cancer Hospital - Egypt 57357. Two teams from Samsung also participated in the tournament, highlighting their dedication to supporting the hospital in buying much needed new medical equipment.

“Samsung is constantly looking for ways to give back to the Egyptian community, and what better time than to do so during Ramadan. Given the huge success of last year’s tournament and our desire to continue to support the Children’s Cancer Hospital, hosting the football tournament this year just seemed like the right thing to do. For us at Samsung Egypt, the tournament is also a great chance for us to get out of our offices and interact with other Egyptian companies, and to be able to do that whilst helping sick children, is just great,” said Duke Park, Samsung Egypt General Manager.

Last year Samsung hosted the same tournament, doubling the revenues it generated and donating them to the Children’s Cancer Hospital 75375 in Tanta.

Samsung Gives Back During Ramadan

By Youssef Saad El Din


OPINIONATED]]

(Unlike most of my other articles, this is not a sexist one)

A couple of weeks ago, I spent the weekend in El Ein El Sokhna; my all time favorite vacation place. I know its beaches have a slight tendency towards being “bee2a” during holidays, just as I also know that for some reason el gaw is literally “melaza2”. So why is it my favorite you ask? Well, because I’m as lazy as a sloth and it’s less than an hour drive, so Ein El Sokhna it is.

Anyway, after a weekend of some scarring images of “ladies” wearing 6 piece swimsuits, and families enjoying the view at the beach while consuming actual tabeekh (ma7shy was involved! Who the hell does that anyway?), I packed up, got in the car, and headed home.

You know this extreme feeling of el fasalan? The one that you get when you remember something completely trivial yet unbelievably irritating? Stuff like remembering that you forgot to do your homework, or that you have an extra early lecture the following morning. Well as soon as I crossed the toll station from El Ein El Sokhna into Cairo I got that feeling.

I remembered that at the end of Al Atameya road, there are those evil speed bumps (you won’t get how irritating it is unless you actually know it), so I spent the whole way back complaining about them. Then there they were. Nine nasty, completely and utterly meaningless speed bumps! So I started thinking to myself, why would someone do that? I mean the whole point of a speed bump is to make you reduce your speed, so one will have the same effect of a million, and then I started thinking who would do that? Who is the person you should go to when you have speed bump issues?

But hey, I’m as lazy as a sloth, so of course I didn’t go and dig around to find out the answers to these questions. Instead I did what I do best, I assumed and made baseless judgments!

I assumed that whoever is responsible for the speed bumps, is the same dude responsible for el shaware3 el mekasara. If you think I’m talking about hay2et el toro2 wl kabary then you’re wrong, because that same person is also responsible for the garbage dumps we have in the middle of the streets, for the never-ending horrific traffic,

and more or less most of the crappy stuff that contributes to making Egypt a third world country. What I’m really talking about is el 3ashwa2eya fl ada2.

I’m referring to the mentality of the average Egyptian employee, which mainly manifests in bureaucracy.Bureaucracy is a nightmare for almost everyone I know, I even know several guys who’d rather take a dip in a shark infested beach than run an errand at a bureaucratically-run government institution. However, bureaucracy is not really such a bad thing; it’s all about implementing an organization’s goal in the most efficient possible way, while maintaining a certain degree of order and hierarchy in the process.

The problem, however, lies in how it is carried out. From my very limited experience in working for a relatively big corporation, people tend to lose track of the big picture. If you could imagine for a second that every big institution is like a wall, composed of many bricks, each symbolizing

an employee -- the problem is, employees stop thinking of themselves as part of the wall, and instead become just a brick in the wall. They lose sight of the bigger goal, and their jobs start turning into small meaningless tasks, so magically a mowaten mat7oon 3awez yesref ma3asho turns into “a list of shitty-hard-to-attain- documents” and eventually the man dies abl mayesref ma3asho!

This is not another miserable attempt to say that “el 3eb feena” and “ebtedy benafsak” w el gaw da! It’s more of shedding light on a different part of the same old story. The same guy who complains about how much of a menace it is to get his driving license, is himself another employee in a different sector, making some other man’s life a living hell by doing a crappy job at his own work.

Gloomy traits in Egyptian employees (well it applies to all other nationalities but it’s getting out of hand here) such as procrastination and apathy have to stop at some point, because believe it or not, having a revolution then sitting back and doing everything the same old way won’t change much! If you want to see change, you’ll actually have to do some yourself.

Regardless of all this nonsense about change and bureaucracy, let’s get back to the main point. Will I ever live to see the day where people take responsibility of their actions and remove the nine evil speed bumps at Al Atameya road? I know it’s nearly impossible, but a man can dream…

The same guy who complains about how much of a menace it is to get his driving license, is himself another employee in a different sector, making some other man’s life a living hell by doing a crappy job at his own work

C

39


SECTION

But of course, we couldn’t leave a good thing alone. Facebook, Twitter’s predecessor in popular social media, was raped by the Egyptian public. What was once a great website to keep in touch with people and stalk each other’s pictures and such soon turned into a hellhole of annoying game posts flooding the newsfeed, notifications, friend requests and messages from the underbelly of society (“Moody Habouby” has sent you a friend request along with the message: “Hiiiiii wish to be frend wiz you, enti mortabeta?”). Facebook is now referred to by certain unfortunate souls as “El-Faace” and there are groups with names like “Sharame*t 6 October” where you can get phone numbers and ‘prices’. With the influx of parents, distant acquaintances and work people on your friend list, people are becoming more and more limited with their profiles and hence the fun is dying.

So it makes sense that everyone turned to Twitter. But now the fun with Twitter is starting to die away as well, but for different reasons –THE MAIN REASON BEING THAT IT’S SO FREAKING OBNOXIOUS.

I’m not saying I’m the Messiah of the Twitter world. I tweet random stuff that is of no use to anybody, and I don’t pretend any differently. I’m definitely no Twitter star – I only have 200 something followers – and I mostly do my tweeting from my living room couch while I’m having a drink and watching bad TV. But even with my limited Twitter face-time, I find myself annoyed 99% of the time by what I see. Twitter ba22et 7aga fe3lan bete7ra2 el dam, and here is what makes it so very obnoxious:

•The Political Bandwagon-ers

The great thing about Twitter? That anyone with an opinion can share it. The worst thing about Twitter? THAT ANYONE WITH AN OPINION CAN SHARE IT. Suddenly being political became ‘cool’. Suddenly everyone is a political analyst. If you are a person who has a degree in political science, or work somewhere relevant, then ok, if you have something to say, say it. But if you are an ass-clown who is literally pulling his ignorant opinion out of his ass, then SHUT UP. And the problem with Twitter is that it’s hard to differentiate at first the people worth listening to and the ones eli 3ayzeen yerkabo el thawra w khalas. So you have others who take these people seriously and start re-tweeting, and then voila, you have a timeline full of garbage. This goes for everything: anything revolution-related, Israel/Palestine, London riots, ‘Flagman’ – anytime anything is

From Revolutionary t

to Repulsive in 9 Months FlatEven the most apathetic, least-political souls in the universe (such as myself) have to give credit where credit is due when it comes to Twitter’s hand right before, during and after the revolution. No one can deny that at one point Twitter was everyone’s go-to guide about what was going on and where, and equaled by none. That was all fine and dandy, thank you Twitter.

By Leila Tapozada


happening, you can count on the Political Bandwagon-ers to tweet their little hearts out and defile your timeline.

•The Fakes, Phonies and Full-of-Shit-ers

For some, Twitter is a dual world where you can get all the attention and acceptance that you can’t get in your real life. Every new follower is ointment on the wound of not having a real life follower/friend. But those followers don’t come easy. Some people take Twitter as a science. What do people want to read? What can I do to be funny? What can I do to be re-tweeted? What can I do to be ‘favorited’?

They come up with this blend of self-deprecating humor, an element of FML-ness, and token ‘characteristics’ (the girl who’s obsessed with George Clooney, the guy who’s ‘thing’ is fake boobs, the girl who’s addicted to Twinkies – all things that are created to give an air of originality and ‘oh-my-god-I’m-so-weird-but-isn’t-it-endearing’.) They have the art of #FFs down. They’re the ones who delete their @ replies so their timeline is pristine with only jokes (they might leave a few choice @’s to show that they’re that humorous even in their replies to people, but delete the majority). Now this is all fine until we come to a crucial point – IT’S NOT REAL. Why are people re-tweeting and following some guy or girl who tweets as if they live in New Jersey and all in English just so they can get as many American followers as possible, when they actually live in Medinat Nasr and 98% of their tweets are fabrications just to get followers?

•High School Losers Who Finally Have Their 15 Minutes of Fame

Let’s be honest here. The anonymity of Twitter works in the favor of many. Facebook leaves little to the imagination – you see pictures, you find out what school/university they went to, who their friends are, where they go out and where they work. Twitter only offers you an avatar and a timeline. And God knows that avatars are the most deceiving piece of technology known to man. I don’t think I ever saw some Twitter person in real life and was pleasantly surprised. But I digress. Anyways, in a world where looks matter and society isn’t always kind, the geeks, nerds and social lepers of high school and university are now making a killing on Twitter.

It makes sense – they’re already very attached to their computers. But the problem lies in that with every new follower these ‘losers’ gain, their confidence goes up and they become more and more vocal and self-assured. And trust me, nothing is as bad as revenge of the nerds. They refer to one another in real life by their Twitter handles, they secretly compare follower counts w lel asaf nesyo nafsohom tamaman. This may make me a clique-y bitch, but trust me, the most obnoxious person on your timeline was probably the most socially-downtrodden kid in their class who was finally given a voice that he can use (and abuse).

•The Emotional Vomit-ers

For a girl, I have very limited tolerance for cheesiness or corniness of any kind, unless I’m hormonal and then I really can’t be held responsible for anything I say or do. But in general, the sheer amount of cheesy tweets makes me cringe on a daily basis. I know I shouldn’t make fun of people’s supposed sincerity and feelings, but

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STOP. It’s horrific to the eyes.

And that goes hand-in-hand with emotional vomiting. There’s a difference between tweeting how you feel in general and tweeting EVERY SINGLE FLEETING FEELING AND THOUGHT. Why is my timeline a shrine to your bitterness over your break-up? Why do I need to know you’re contemplating tears of regret while you obsessively flip through pictures on Facebook? Why do I know all the details of how someone felt when she encountered her ex and her inner turmoil? BECAUSE IT’S ALL RIGHT THERE. I’ve actually had a few of my real-life friends get pissed at me because I made fun of their tweets – but come on, Twitter is not your therapist and I shouldn’t have my senses assaulted by your horrendous tweets just because we’re friends and I follow you on Twitter.

Don’t like it? Unfollow wenta sakket

The same friends who yelled at me for making fun of their tweets told me to unfollow them if I didn’t like it so much. And I guess the same could be said about all the people I complained about above; after all, Twitter is a free space to write what you want, and God knows idiots are abundant, so I can either like it or lump it. I already unfollowed most ‘political’ people or chose not to follow certain friends. And it goes both ways, I’m sure many people unfollow me or choose not to because they too find me offensive in some way or another. But really, is it ever as easy as just an unfollow? No matter how much I try to streamline my timeline, annoying shit always finds its way in. And my complaints have been echoed by many it seems, both on Twitter and real-life. So, a recap, about how to make Twitter a little more follow-friendly for all of us:

•Don’t tweet out of your ass, especially politically.•Don’t be fake or spew lies or whore yourself out to gain followers.•Don’t get too cocky about your follower count; it’s going to get you NOWHERE in real life.•Stop emotionally vomiting. Just stop.

That is all. I bid you adieu.C

43

eye candy

Every month features a new theme, so send us your pictures and we will publish them!

Next month’s theme is

Food

C Lubna Nabil

]]


EYE CANDY

Send your pictures to [email protected]

C Lubna Nabil

C Marie Girod

C Mariam Soliman

C Bassem Farag

45

Technology is slowly killing relationshipsBy Ahmed Amin

Why have relationships actually gotten harder and sourer in this day and age of extreme communication?From Facebook to Twitter, SMS text messages to video calls, emails to MSN Messenger, and off course Blackberry Messengers and WhatsApp - with all these tools, one is driven to conclude that now more than ever it’s much easier to maintain a relationship with less effort, less down-time and more “lovey dovey cutie cookie honey bunny time” over these channels of communication that can be utilized to keep you and your partner in a constant state of virtual cuddling.

Unfortunately, it’s not true. This ‘Internet Generation’ has seen the worst in terms of relationship quality, and it all starts with your mobile phone.The main reason for this depreciation in relationship quality is directly proportional to women’s insatiable need for assurance and self-esteem boosts. The more a woman wants to be reassured and patted on the back and told that she’s beautiful and loved at all possible chances, the more she’s likely to be in a bad relationship if both partners are heavy on technology.

They’ve become addicted to the extra attention and affection made possible by technology. That’s when you start getting questions like “Why didn’t you call me today? “Or “Why didn’t you call me these past couple of days?” With the tricky nature of these questions, it’s very hard to get around them without having some sort of problem arise, and I’m not even considering the virtual synonyms like “Why don’t you answer me on MSN or BBM?”

What are you supposed to say? I was bored and decided to spend a couple of days with the guys and I didn’t feel the urge to pointlessly call you and blabber for an hour about your cousin’s engagement party and your dad’s midlife crisis. Humans have this unspoken desire of owning their partner, and this possessiveness translates into trying to be with them all day long and talking to them all the time about everything, and knowing everything about them at any given point in time. It might be cute and all, but it’s not natural and definitely not possible, and for the most part it’s fueled by our insecurities. It’s by no means natural to know everything and everyone and every place your girlfriend has been to today.

I think this is why everywhere I look I see failed or dysfunctional relationships; sure some people are happy but it’s not the way it’s supposed to be.

An excuse for every freakin’ callJust because I have a phone and Facebook and MSN and BBM doesn’t mean that I want to use them 24/7 with you as the number one priority; and with that being said, it doesn’t mean that I’m ungrateful or that I don’t want you or that I’m a prick, on the contrary I’m just being humanly normal!

Life and love have existed long before mobile phones and tweets; while it’s OK to use these tools it’s NOT OK to abuse them. I can totally understand “call me when you get home”, it’s sweet and caring but I can’t totally or even partially understand the ‘wake up call’ where the girlfriend calls the boyfriend or the opposite upon waking up. Then there’s

With all the technological advancements that we are witnessing in this day and age, one is prone to believe that relationships have become easier. Getting in a relationship definitely got easier; just an add on Facebook and a follow on Twitter and few smart funny posts here and there. Then before you know it you’re chatting, and by the end of the chat session (if you’ve gotten some decent amount of game) it’s going to be something along the lines of “lets meet up” and you know how things go on in real life from there.Breaking up or getting out of a relationship definitely got easier as well, just ignore the phone calls and delete her from all your virtual entities and it’s done. One might think that in total, relationships got easier and better because of this age of rapid telecommunication improvement, but it really isn’t true; while getting in and out has become easier, the actual relationship itself has become much tougher.

GAY SECTION]]


Just because I have a phone and Facebook and MSN and BBM doesn’t mean that I want to use them 24/7 with you as the number one priority; and with that being said, it doesn’t mean that I’m ungrateful or that I don’t want you or that I’m a prick, on the contrary I’m just being humanly normal!

the midday “I’m really bored in traffic, I’ll just give you a call”, and then there’s the “what are you doing right now / I’m curious to know what you’re doing without me” call at night, then there’s the “before I sleep” call, and all throughout the day there’s the “something that I need to tell you” call. And my personal favorite: “we’re currently fighting so this is a random phone call whenever something pisses me off, or reminds me of you, or reminds me why I’m pissed off” call. Regardless of how unimportant these calls are in reality, they’re executed like clockwork for many of us in relationships.Those were just some brief excerpts from the GF/BF guidebook to pointless phone calls.

What I’m trying to say is, now we’re living a relationship façade because of the rapid advancement in information technology and we’re not aware of it. Relationships have become duller and people in relationships are fighting more than ever simply because we have opted to carry the relationship with us everywhere and all the time, which includes in bad rush hour traffic and when you’re pissed off because your boss just screwed you over and when you’ve just finished a sour argument with your parents, and when you’ve just discovered that you’ve failed in college. Basically we engage in a relationship in all the times of stress when we should be just chilling with the guys playing some dominoes or poker or whatever. Instead we’re on the phone with our partners that have no idea what we’re going through and we have no idea what they’re going through only to have the stresses and insecurities collide, causing very trivial issues that turn into relationship quicksand.

The need for cyber spaceThis abundance of conversation does more damage to a relationship than good. Sure it’s nice to have someone there when you need them, but what about when you don’t need them? What about when you need to avoid them? What about when you need sometime for yourself? What about when you just don’t feel like talking? What about when you don’t even want to explain why you don’t feel like talking? It’s seemingly impossible to get out of this loop; just because you have the phone it’s assumed by default that you will use it constantly.

Women by nature tend to be possessive and emotional, less logical and analytical, so they often understand the want for less communication as losing interest or as not being loyal. And that’s not how relationships should be, because you’re not really with me if you’re calling me all the time; it’s just virtual reality. You think you are but you’re really only interrupting my true reality with the constant phone calls. While if you call less for a couple of days you’d actually miss the person more and your love for them will grow stronger, as opposed to the very naïve claim of “you didn’t call me because you don’t miss me anymore!”

Men, on the other hand, never take the initiative of limiting virtual communication and increasing face time, because they believe that most of their time can be spent in silence listening to “I’m thinking about you” songs instead of making a pointless call. These phone calls can seem useful but are actually harmful, because of course men are just as possessive and jealous as women, so they never refrain from pointless mobile phone usage.

Cut the cords!My advice to both parties would be to see each other more, talk on the phone less, talk online even less and less, and always know that a relationship can survive and love will grow without the girls calling at 12 am –they have earlier curfews so they get bored earlier- while the guy is most probably out with friends and can’t or doesn’t want to talk because you’re interrupting his bro time. Along with all of the other similar situations where a phone call ruins someone else’s real life moment with real people and puts him in an awkward position because his girlfriend is PMSing.

Phone calls are not making your relationship better, they’re making it shallower and it’s instigating possessiveness. You don’t need to waste time learning about every little boring detail about someone else’s life; you’d be surprised how many of these useless calls are the reasons behind why a relationship fails or not.C

47


SECTION

Season

Survivingthe

WeddingBy Asma El Husseini

PATTERNS ]]


49

1- The dresses to buy:

The affordable yet trendy:

In our trends section we have given you a sample of the best and most affordable dresses out there. With every reader invited to more than two weddings in the upcpming season, you need more dash than cash. With Ego and Beymen having 50% off dresses, some of them are a tad affordable. But we’ve found that Dresscode and Villa Baboushka carry the best variety at very reasonable prices. With both of these stores having new lines added every month, be sure to check them out.

The luxurious and noticeable:

On few occasions one needs to splurge; the wedding of your best friend, your sister’s engagement, your brother’s wedding, etc. With an opportunity to go all out you should head to Red Carpet, a newly opened store in Cairo carrying couture designers like Zuhair Murad, Marchesa and many more. Another great dress store is Bliss. Bliss Red Carpet is located at 4 El Yamany Street, Zamalek.

The couture:

Our famous couture designers Malak El Ezzawy and Yasmine Yeya, always woo us with their collections. If you’re feeling grand and royal, make sure you check their collections out. Malak El Ezzawy: 24 Tharwa street branching from Batal Ahmed Abdelaziz, Mohandeseen.Yasmine Yeya: 010 844 5044 for appointment

The quick fix:

Most of us don’t plan ahead and realize that the wedding season is about to hail upon us. Here is where the talented Jasmin Ramadan comes in. Fresh from London College of Fashion she specializes in jazzing up and quick tailoring of dresses. If you’ve got an old dress and you just adore its material, she’ll revamp and modernize it for you. If you’ve got a dress that you’ve worn too many times Jasmin will show you how you can transform old into new. And if you want a completely new dress Jasmine is also the way to go. Jasmin Ramadan: 0111166961 for appointment.

2- The accessories to wear:

Accessories make up the dress. They are a key ingredient to the entire outfit. Having the right accessory can perfect your look and having the wrong one can do entire damage. With accessories you either go for the simple dress with a bold accessory, or a loud dress with simple accessories. For shoes Zara is a must stop, it’s got an amazing collection with crystals and chiffon bites. With jewelry go for a masterpiece of Azza Fahmy and just blow the crowd away. For bags check out www.style-treasure.com, they’ve got a great variety. Zara: Citystars Phase 2. Azza Fahmy: First Mall, Four Seasons, Giza.

3- The gifts to bring:

Instead of roaming Cairo trying to find the right gift, log on from the luxury of your own air-conditioned/quiet/traffic-free home to www.thegiftery.com. TheGiftery.com is Egypt’s first online gift registry website with the universal concept of having one registry that includes items from different stores. TheGiftery.com also provides wedding lists, an amazing solution for newlyweds who can just pick their favourite items from their laptops. Having a gift list in Egypt started out as a taboo. Now it’s the norm, and TheGiftery.com is the natural evolution to the concept. Wait, it gets better. They have gathered more than 50 stores all over Cairo with same day or next day delivery. Sarah Aclimandos and Karim Atalla, co-founders of TheGiftery.com say, “We mainly started off with home accessories then we thought why stop there. We thought of children and baby accessories along with gourmet hampers, spa vouchers, personal accessories and chocolates to be able to cater to a wider range of gift registries and gift giving ideas. We also have flower shops on our website to send out the message that it’s endless when it comes to online shopping and gift giving especially when you can buy a wide variety of things from one place.”

The whole idea revolves around shopping from stores you already know, but online. Stores whose high standards and credibility are already established. “Going online was mainly to solve a lot of problems we face while shopping like traffic, parking, waiting till the gift is wrapped, then taking the gift and delivering it yourself. Who has time for this these days?” said Sarah. How many times did you go to a wedding and didn’t send a gift and then wish you wouldn’t bump into the couple before you do? How many times did your friends have babies and you remember to send them a gift when the kid is actually almost going to school? How many times do you suddenly remember you’re invited for dinner and the last thing you want to do is stop at a store and buy a gift? This is where TheGiftery.com comes to the rescue.

4- The Bachelorette to plan

For the best friend, the bachelorette is the most important task. Plan the party, order the kinky cake, accessorize and have a blast. The Bachelorette Store is definitely on the check out list. It’s got unique accessories for the bride and groom, with funky bride-to-be shades, robes, flipflops, tiaras and so much more. Make sure you check out their Facebook group: “The Bachelorette Store.”

WEDDING SEASON IS IN FULL SWING, WITH CAIRO’S MUNDANE CONVERSATIONS REVOLVING AROUND THE LISTS OF WEDDINGS THEY’RE INVITED TO. WHETHER YOU’RE THE BRIDE (WHO NEEDS FINAL TIPS), THE BEST FRIEND (WHO WANTS TO HELP OUT THE BRIDE), THE EX (WHO WANTS TO LOOK GORGEOUS) OR JUST A FAR AWAY FRIEND (WHO IS STILL INVITED BECAUSE CAIRO WEDDING THEORY IS: THE MORE THE MERRIER), CAMPUS GIVES YOU BITES TO SURVIVE THIS WEDDING SEASON.

49


PATTERNS

DressWith wedding season

approaching, we all need options! Here are Campus’

choices for this season’s best dresses.

Aldo

Aldo

Karen Millen

Karen Millen

Ego

Ego

Dresscode

Villa Baboushka

Villa Baboushka


PATTERNS

51

Fever!

Karen Millen

Karen Millen

French Connection

Zara

Zara

Zara

Dresscode

Dresscode

Dresscode

Villa Baboushka

Villa Baboushka

Zara

French Connection

Aldo, Karen Millen, Dresscode, Zara and French Connection: Citystars, Phase 2. Villa Baboushka: 31 Ismail Mohamed St., Zamalik. Ego: 46A El Orouba St., Heliopolis.

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SECTION

Get your suits ready for the upcoming wedding season. It’s always easier for guys to dress up because not so many are options needed. This year however, suits have been given a new edge to go along with the new wave of minimalism. Check out the affordable trendy suits that we’ve picked for you.

Suit up!

Beymen

Next

My-wardrobe.com

Next

Massimo Dutti

Massimo Dutti

Zara

H&M

Zara

Ego

Boss

Beymen

Beymen

Massimo Dutti, Zara, H&M, Next and Boss: CitystarsEgo: 46A El Orouba St.,

HeliopolisBeymen: Four Seasons Nile

Plaza, Garden City


PATTERNS


SECTION

In order to be stay on the right track, I coined the exact definition of a Man

Repeller:man·re·pell·er1 [mahn-ree-peller]–noun

Outfitting oneself in a sartorially offensive way that will result in repelling members of the opposite sex. Such garments include but are not limited to harem pants, boyfriend jeans, overalls (see: human repelling), shoulder pads, full length jumpsuits, jewelry that resembles violent weaponry and clogs.

–verb (used without object),-pell·ing, -pell·ed.To commit the act of repelling men:Girl 1: What are you wearing to the party?Girl 2: My sweet lime green drop crotch utility pants!Girl 1: Oh, so we’re man repelling tonight?

*DISCLAIMER: the above conversation is not a dramatization, took place in this room 5 minutes ago.Origin: 2009-10; < repellius (ptp. of repellia to eliminate male attention), equiv. to L repel- (s. of repellix) unattractive, celibate, Paris fashion week, MC Hammer + -repel -ler1 —Related forms

By Emilie E.

YOU’RE PROBABLY WONDERING, WHAT IS A “MAN REPELLER”? WELL, LADIES, IN A FEW SECONDS IT WILL MAKE SENSE AND BRING BACK SOME MEMORIES; THE DAY YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE WEARING THE MOST FASHIONABLE OUTFIT EVER AND THEN YOU STEP OUT ALL CONFIDENT, GET IN THE CAR TO MEET YOUR FIANCÉ OR BOYFRIEND AND ALL OF A SUDDEN HE CRASHES ALL YOUR EFFORTS WITH THE KILLER SENTENCE: “HONEY, DID YOU BORROW YOUR PANTS FROM MC HAMMER?” OR, “HA-HA, VERY FUNNY, NOW GO BACK AND CHANGE”. I KNOW IT HURTS AND I HAVE BEEN THROUGH THAT A MILLION TIMES!

ManRepellers


PATTERNS

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man·re·pell·ant, nounDoes it ring a bell now? I am sure we all at least once in our lives decided to repel the opposite sex with a Man Repeller outfit. Unfortunately, fashion trends are not always kind to us. By following the trends or simply our inspiration of the day, we sometimes end up being unattractive to the straight men community. Actually, it’s high time we raised the question of: “Do we dress to impress or to express ourselves?”

The common belief will say that we dress up to attract the opposite sex as well as to reflect our personalities. However, I think that this is extremely cliché! I do not know about you, but sorry guys, when I get dressed in the morning, my main concern is not how sexy I’ll be!

My main concern is more of comfort, originality and what suits me according to my mood of the day. I love taking risks when it comes to style, whether it repels our male counterparts or not. Guys are way too conservative when it comes to style/fashion; most of them do not want us to be too eccentric (not to bring attention to them and to avoid his friends’ nasty comments on Facebook the next day), high heels are a must (the equation here is: taller+ skinnier= sexier!). Being colorful is highly repelling (again, same problem; too much colors= attention=repeller).

However, it sometimes feels great to stand apart and bring your own style to the table. I highly respect women out there who dress to express, and have “ce petit je ne sais quoi” which make them unique. Being a man repeller has nothing to do with dressing up like a clown; it is just being confident

The Man Repeller list is long, and I did my best to select the most common ones. Just keep in mind that no matter how Man Repellant your outfit is, it’s all about being confident with what you wear.

Top 5 Man Repeller items:

Number 1: Jumpsuit

A jumpsuit was originally exclusively worn by skydivers. Today this garment has found its place in the fashionista’s wardrobe. Why are jumpsuits a Man Repeller? Jumpsuits cover it all, guys believe that they are not flattering enough since it’s a one-piece outfit not emphasizing on women’s curves, or it sometimes reminds them of the one piece pjs that they were forced to wear in their childhood.

Number 2: Harem Pants

Harem pants are also commonly called parachute pants. They are women’s baggy long pants tapered at the ankle with side flaps on the hip. It’s a combo, mixing skirt-like pants and skinny jeans with a loose crotch area. The harem pants’ origins are from India, and are highly appreciated in Arab countries. In the 1980s MC Hammer made them popular in his hit video clip “Can’t Touch This” and since then they’re considered a fashionable item. Why are harem pants a Man Repeller? The same as above; not flattering enough and looks weird, especially when worn with heels. Harem is too eccentric for the male community, especially the pants with the African/ geometric prints.

Number 3: Vintage oversized frame glasses/ sunglasses

Vintage is the new black! A lot of brands are re-visiting their collection from the 70’s and 80’s (best example is Ray Ban). For those of you familiar with the movie “Annie Hall” (Woody Allen, 1977), in the movie Diane Keaton wears these over-sized framed glasses that are absolutely beautiful. This exact type of frame is back on track. For eyewear you cannot avoid the trend. However, it is another Man Repeller! Unfortunately, men see it as a major turn-off making us women looking like cheap secretaries or like geeks. The frames are oversized, so it covers half of our faces and for a man it is a “beauty killer”.

Number 4: Headband Scarf

Another vintage style! (Sadly, fashion has a lack of inspiration lately and borrows all the fashionable items from previous decades). It was very popular in the 60’s (i.e. Grace Kelly). The headband scarf was considered something very classy in the summer season. Made of silk or cotton, they replaced the hats in the 60’s. However, nowadays, headband scarf= big Man Repeller (especially here in Egypt). Men will politely tell you that you look like a cleaning lady (shaghalaa). Lovely, no?

Number 5: Leggings

Last but not least is our best friend, leggings. Coming directly from the 80’s, leggings were worn as leg warmers and they were also worn to exercise by both men and women. For the past five years, leggings have made a massive comeback and became a must-have in any lady’s closet. Commonly worn under a large t-shirt or a skirt, we worship leggings for their comfort. However, leggings are another Man Repeller. Too casual, not always flattering and covering the legs. Men just do not like leggings (or it may just hurt their male ego knowing that at a certain time of history, men too used to wear them).

55

The wannabe sport…By: Ali Ghaleb

Where does one start? The fact that you may literally be obese and still be considered a ‘champion’ automatically knocks it down in the rankings from being a ‘sport’ to being a ‘game’, and a lousy one at that, no matter what its devoted followers would have you believe.

It is, in my humble opinion (and based on my field observations), a game where unhealthy people, who lead sad social lives wear ugly shoes (and for those who take it more seriously, loud, vulgar shirts and hand-braces), go to morbidly-lit hang-outs that smell of feet and stale air conditioning, and literally roll heavy balls at distant pins after walking three-to-four brisk steps; the sad parody of grace and finesse the player imposes on their release of the ball is amusing the same way watching a fat child perform ballet or interpretive dance in a talent show inspires muffled giggles.

The growing tension as the ball rolls somberly down the lane is tangible and you can feel the opposing teams mentally will the ball either into or away from the gutters using Jedi powers they wish they had. The players then wait awkwardly for the “ball retrieval machine” to spew out their favorite ball (god forbid they actually have to walk down the lane to get it). The entire process is then repeated one more time unless the player gets a strike (in case you are lucky enough to be unfamiliar with bowling: a strike is when a player is able to topple all the pins on the first roll).

After this harrowing ordeal of physical and mental exertion, the players return to their uncomfortable, molded plastic seat and wait aimlessly for 3-4 minutes until it is their turn to prove themselves. This then happens 10 more times.

Conclusion: All observations have ultimately led to the conclusion that bowling is a game for people who shun sunlight and open spaces. It is an excuse for the pale basement dwellers to compete meanly and feel the satisfaction of competitive achievement. If you are practitioner of bowling or have loved ones who are, I mean no offence and I am sure you are exceptions. However, do yourselves a favor and go out into the sunlight. Breathe the fresh air. I understand that for some, the seedy fluorescent lighting and the musty smell of socks will be hard to give up, but I strongly recommend you try. If it’s social interaction and conversation you crave, simply sit around in a circle somewhere pleasant and talk. I assure you, anything you do will be more rewarding than bowling.

I recommend visiting a bowling alley with friends one day when you are bored, not to participate in this miserable game, but to observe the people who do. Observe in amazement how seriously some devotees take the entire affair. Scrutinize them as they solemnly inspect the balls before making their final selection. Chuckle as they hop, skip and glide effortlessly to the foul line, before gracefully releasing the ball. Feel the unsettling intensity of their gaze as they follow the ball to its target. You may even witness a fat-jiggling victory dance or celebratory fist-pump following a strike in a particularly close game. It’s just sad.

Supporters of this atrocity will defend it saying things like “it’s a game of beauty and skill”, or “it is a game of form and grace”, even “it is a social game where friends get together and enjoy a light competitive challenge. The slow pace of the game is an excuse to interact and converse”.

I, on the other hand say “bullsh**”.

There are many light competitive activities that far outweigh bowling in any of the positive aspects people claim it holds. You can compete at darts in a social setting without it being the central focus of the entire outing; it is a background game that allows for deep social interaction without pretending to be anything more than it actually is. Golf and croquet require skill, they also involve long walks in the sunshine and fresh air. Billiards has skill, strategy and forward planning involved. Even curling (look it up) has grace, form, skill and strategy involved (it is also played indoors, making it the #1 substitute for the recovering bowler).

C


BALLS]]

السادة الصيادلة، تعلـن شركـة جالكسـو سميثكـالين كونسيومر هيـلث

كـير المحـدودة عن تـوافـر مستحضـري بـانـادولوبـانـادول اكسـترا لدى شركـات التوزيع الكبرى.

تصنيع شركـة اإلسكندريـة لألدويــة والصنـاعــات الكيماويــة بتصريحمن شركـة جالكسـو سميثكـالين كونسيـومـر هيلث كـير المحـدودة، ايـرلنـدا.

PANADOL is a registered trade mark of the GlaxoSmithKline Group of Companies. For full prescribing information please write to GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, PO Box 23816, Dubai, UAE.

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But besides those sales and marketing evil geniuses who squeeze every last drop of profit out of 3D movies, I do have other beef with the whole 3D thing, especially here in Egypt. Indulge me in my rant, if you will:

• Cinema ticket prices have already sky-rocketed over the past few years. So WHY should I pay 40 LE instead of 30 LE for a 3D movie? And that’s besides buying the stupid glasses! Which brings me to my 2nd point:

• In the US for example, if you’re going into a 3D movie, they hand you a pair of glasses as you file into the theatre, and you give them back as you file out. A) they’re for free, and B) hello, recycling! Why should I pay a stupid 23 LE for a pair of glasses that I’m no doubt going to lose only ten minutes upon leaving the cinema?!

• Have you ever taken your glasses off during the movie? There’s practically no difference except that the subtitles are a bit hazy! I paid all that for THIS?

• Some movies are definitely better with 3D: nature documentaries, Avatar, some animated films. But why in the name of God is a movie like Thor in 3D? Meen mostafeed?

• Say I’m already a glasses-wearer; am I going to wear the stupid 3D glasses on top of my regular ones? That’s just obnoxious.

• If I don’t want to buy a pair of 3D glasses every time I go to the movies (and let’s face it – 75% of movies are 3D now), then that means I have to hold on to my original pair of 3D glasses as if it’s an appendage to my wallet – carry it in my purse at all times, or in the glove compartment of my car. Do I not carry enough junk as it is?

• It’s happened before that I dashed into a movie late, only to realize after watching a few minutes of slight blurriness (which first led me to believe my eyesight was screwed, thanks for that), that the movie was in fact 3D (judging by all the red glasses around the theatre). Nobody, not the ticket-seller, not the dude who escorted me in, no stupid sign told me that this was a 3D movie! So I had to miss another ten minutes while I left again in search of those God-forsaken stupid glasses to buy.

But really, ranting aside, my main issue really boils down to this: it’s just not special anymore. 3D used to give certain movies an extra something – but now that all movies, whether good, bad or just very very ugly are in 3D, then it’s just not impressive anymore. By making 3D so universal, they actually really have gone and ruined it.

3D MOVIES TALK ABOUT MILKINGSOMETHING FOR ALL ITS WORTH

3D MOVIES TALK ABOUT MILKINGSOMETHING FOR ALL ITS WORTH

3D MOVIES TALK ABOUT MILKINGSOMETHING FOR ALL ITS WORTHBACK IN THE “GOOD OL’ DAYS” (MEANING A YEAR OR TWO AGO) 3D MOVIES USED TO BE A NOVELTY, SOMETHING ONLY USED FOR REALLY VISUALLY-IMPRESSIVE MOVIES ON VERY LARGE, HIGH-QUALITY SCREENS; SO IT ONLY MADE SENSE THAT WE ALL LOVED IT. BUT NOW 3D HAS BECOME THE EQUIVALENT OF THE MOVIE ‘TITANTIC’ – SOMETHING THAT WAS ORIGINALLY GOOD, UNTIL IT WAS SLAPPED ON EVERY T-SHIRT AND EVERY POSTER AND EVERY SHEBSHEB ZANOUBA IN THE CITY. NOW IT’S JUST ANOTHER CLICHÉ.

By Leila Tapozada


SCREEN, SHELVES& SPEAKERS

]]SCREEN, SHELVES& SPEAKERS

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SCREENS, SHELVES& SPEAKERS

Campus: From breaking through with ‘Eye of Horus’ to your own album releases, what’s changed in terms of the quality of your productions throughout the years?Aly &Fila: We are always learning and developing new skills and tricks in the studios, you can tell the difference to a degree from our early productions up to our productions now.

C: Why don’t you guys collaborate with Arabic artists, especially with the EDM scene (Electronic Dance Music) going commercial? A&F: We are always open to working with anyone, if the quality of the music is good enough we will always take a look at it. We worked on a track with an Iraqi female singer but the result of the collaboration is still not clear.

C: What do you think about the boom in EDM across different genres, good for the business, or is it better to remain an underground scene? A&F: It certainly is good. We see all over the world how different genres of EDM are booming everywhere; from Trance and House to Reggae. This diversification is very healthy for EDM in general.

C: Any specific upcoming projects to look forward to? A&F: We are currently working on our 2nd artist album which will be released in 2012.

Aly & Fila:

Interview by Mohamed Seif

THEY’VE CERTAINLY COME A LONG, LONG WAY. KNOWN FOR THEIR PUMPING BEATS AND MASSIVE UPLIFTING SOUNDS, ALY & FILA (ALY FATHALLA AND FADI WASSEF) HAVE ESTABLISHED THEIR OWN SOUND AND BRAND IN THE EVER BOOMING TRANCE SCENE. FROM RELEASING ALBUMS AND SETTING UP THEIR OWN LABEL TO BREAKING INTO THE DJ MAG TOP 20, THEY’RE SLOWLY BUT SURELY ON THEIR WAY TO CEMENTING THEIR PLACE AMONG THE TRANCE GREATS.

FRESH FROM THEIR GIGS IN IBIZA AND AUSTRALIA, CAMPUS SAT DOWN WITH THE DYNAMIC DUO FOR A LITTLE CHAT, DISCUSSING EVERYTHING FROM THEIR LATEST PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES, THEIR ‘RISING SUN’ ALBUM, THE DJ MAG TOP 100, AND THE MASSIVE FSOE 200 CELEBRATION IN SHARM EL SHEIKH. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MEET ALY & FILA…

C: Voting for the DJ Mag Top 100 started, and Aly & Fila have constantly been moving up the ranks. From being ranked 111 in 2007, to ranking 20th in 2010, where can we expect you to finish this year? A&F: It’s been tremendous. We are very proud of moving up the ranks. Huge thanks goes to all the fans around the world that have supported us over the years. Hopefully we’ll make it even higher this year.

C: The DJ Mag poll has always been questioned for its legitimacy; do you think it gives a fair indication of how good a DJ really is? A&F: There is a lot of debate on this subject, which we will not jump into too much, but looking from the perspective of an artist in the Top 20, it’s safe to say it’s legitimate and gives a fair indication, with artists such as Armin Van Buuren, David Guetta, Tiesto, Deadmau5, and Above & Beyond all featured. The DJ Mag Top 100 poll is also a popularity contest, giving an indication of the DJ’s brand popularity and not just their skills. A Top 20 DJ is likely to get more gigs than a Top 150 DJ, hence its importance.

C: Tell us more about the album – Rising Sun – and how long have you worked on it? A&F: It was our debut album, released in May of 2010. We worked on it for about 1.5 years and were really happy with the end product. The support and reaction it received so far has been really good.

C: How was it collaborating with all these vocalists? A&F: Collaborating with vocalists from all walks of life was so amazing. They were all so great to work with, and they are all different in their own way. Sue McLaren is always surprising while Tiff Lacey has an angelic voice. If the composition is right, she’s never a let-down.

C: What does the album represent to the Aly and Fila brand? A&F: It’s a very diverse album with different styles/genres of trance; from progressive and uplifting to chill-out. We think the message it conveys is that Aly & Fila can be diverse and not just limited to one style of music.

C: Do you think the release of the album and remix pack will play a major role in your DJ Mag ranking this year? A&F: Of course having an album released as well as the remixes for the album is always a great help. It can only be beneficial. The remix album helps revive the album tracks, bringing in different genres to a more appealing fan base. Listeners get to enjoy different takes on original tracks.

Putting Egypt on the Electronic Music Scene



63

C: 200 episodes of ‘Future Sounds of Egypt’, tell us more!A&F: We have nearly reached the 200th episode of our weekly radio show ‘Future Sound of Egypt’. The show is currently being broadcasted in different countries worldwide, as well as on Egypt’s very own NileFM! We are tremendously proud of this and what better way to celebrate than by hosting a BIG party in Egypt.

C: Yeah speaking of which, tell us more about the FSOE (Future Sounds of Egypt) 200 celebration held on the 2nd of September in Sharm El Sheikh. A&F: The celebration will take place at The Echo Temple on Friday 2nd September in Sharm El Sheikh. We are very proud that we are able to host the celebration, big thanks to everyone supporting the event and making it happen.

C: We heard it’s a massive line-up, what can we expect from the celebration? A&F: Plenty of great EDM music from some of the biggest trance artists in the world. We are all very excited about the event!

C: A tricky question, who’s your personal favorite from the line-up including the likes of Roger Shah and John O’Callaghan? A&F: All of them! Seriously though, each one of the artists brings something to the FSOE Recordings family, and each is unique in a way.

C: Why create your own label whilst you can sign your tracks to any of the major players?A&F: We were already releasing tunes on the Armada label for many years, but we wanted to be able to showcase talent from around the world, hence we decided to establish FSOE Recordings. Setting up a label is also about expanding the Aly & Fila brand and having the freedom to release the type of tunes that carry the message we want. It’s always good to have an army of talented producers behind you.

C: How hard was it setting up and running a label?A&F: It was very hard, but we had a lot of help from Andy Prinz at Offshore Music, and we’d like to thank him for that. Running (a label) is quite hectic, from getting the right contacts to promoting the artists and generating income. One of the major sources of income for the label is signing off tracks to EDM compilations. After one year or so we collaborated with Armada Music, who are great to work with and help in promoting the label and the artists signed to them. For more information you can check out www.fsoe-recordings.com and www.armadamusic.com

C: What type of music are you looking for and what kind of talent to sign?A&F: We’re looking for all genres of trance. We have a very diverse range of artists signed to the label and we’re always open to ideas and new musicians breaking through.

People downloading

tracks from illegal sites is the same

as entering a record store and

stealing some vinyls. It’s stealing

“”C: What do you have to say about music piracy?

A&F: People downloading tracks from illegal sites is the same as entering a record store and stealing CDs/vinyls. It’s stealing. C: Don’t you think trance wouldn’t be where it is now if it weren’t for free distribution of music? A&F: We don’t agree with that actually. Trance was so big back when you were able to get the music only on vinyls. As the releases piled up, the quality of the released material decreases proportionally. Nowadays DJs and producers tend to hire other producers to do their work. Creativity decreases. There’s also the case of the low income generated from the sale of records due to its availability online. On a positive note, online media like Facebook, radio stations and others are beneficial for increasing popularity.

C: What are the best/most memorable gigs you’ve played at?A&F: To be honest it would be hard and unfair to single out just a few, there have been so many amazing events over the past couple of years that’s its hard just to pick out a single one. We’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks to the fans and promoters for the support.

C: Who are the best crowd you’ve played for?A&F: The Crowds in Latin/Central/ South America are so enthusiastic; they dance like crazy from start to end. The FSOE Nights in Argentina are crazy! Hopefully there’ll be some in Egypt soon. There are so many enthusiastic crowds worldwide though.

C: What’s your take on the trance scene in Egypt? A&F: It’s growing fast. The FSOE 200 celebration will give a great indication on how the trance scene in Egypt is heading. But yeah, people in Egypt are now more aware regarding electronic music in general and there is a good chance we’ll have a healthy clubbing scene in Egypt.

C: What are your future plans? A&F: We are working on a project with an idea to bring an Aly & Fila show/concept worldwide. It will be sort of an authentic show, with Ancient Egyptian décor and dancers dressed as Pharaohs. It’ll be a big Egyptian visual show with a long music set from us. It is an amazing idea and if it happens the show will be epic, so magical and mystical like Ancient Egypt was with some Trance music thrown in. We are waiting to find the right worldwide brand partner to help us make this dream become a reality.

Don’t forget to vote for Aly & Fila in the DJ Mag Top 100 via the link below:www.djmag.com/voteCheck out all the information on Aly & Fila via their website.http://www.alyandfila.com/

63



Help!SelfBecause self-help books are bad…

For quite some time now, book charts have become depressing. A few decent books are spotted every now and then in an ocean of celebrity biographies, celebrity cookbooks, celebrity dieting tips, celebrity TV spin-offs, and most glaring of all, self-help books.

“If you’re reading it in a book, folks, it ain’t self-help. It’s help.” – Comedian George Carlin.Let it be known that I find self-help books a hoax. Quite honestly, the mere fact that I’m reading a book that totally defies its purpose is not my cup of tea. I mean, isn’t this double dealing? Getting the help I need, then claiming it as my own rather than giving credit to the person who, supposedly, put in an effort to help me. Tsk, tsk… 3eib walahy.

By May Kamel

Your

65

Self Thing is, we all need help

If you’re reading this, then you’re either aware of your negative patterns of behavior that require some work from your side, or aware of the sham that is self-help and its claimed ability to save the world. But I’m not here to judge. Actually, I’d much rather believe that you like my articles we keda…

Reality check: we all need help in one way or another. That’s life. And the recent prevalence of bullshit constantly sends us on quests to find the magical pill that will eradicate despair and make everything ok. Some of us resort to drinking, some stuff their faces with ice cream, some go shopping; to each his/her own. Comparable to those quick fixes are self-help books; both offer immediate relief, if any.

But to really change human behavior one needs consistent practice of new behaviors over a continuous period before it becomes a new entrenched and default behavior. So when a person comes along and tells me that he/she can help me change my habits after reading a book, I will most certainly have my doubts.

Furthermore, should self-help books only be a waste of time and money, it wouldn’t have been that big of a problem. I’m not your mother ya3ny. But there’s the hitch; there are huge costs associated with the public acceptance of the self-help movement. Buying into the puffed up claims such books make can lead to you blaming yourself for failure when you don’t achieve the outcome you hoped for — and, consequently, avoiding treatments that actually work. Not to mention that very little, if any, of the advice offered in self-help books has been tested scientifically, despite the fact that there are ways to do so. Indeed, there have been many good scientific studies on how to become happier. With self-help authors overlooking this fact, they are practically providing painkillers designed to make people feel good without actually curing what ails them.

Case Study: The Secret

For a case in point, let’s dissect The Secret. Not only is it the most popular self-help book that has been published recently, but it also sits atop my “gollash” list. For those of you who were lucky enough to avoid it, some explanation is in order. According to author Rhonda Byrne, “Whatever you dream of can be yours.” Byrne’s secret is simple; the ‘law of attraction’, which says that thinking about something makes it more likely to happen to you. Once you understand this basic ‘law of the universe’, there are three simple steps to getting whatever you want. First, think about it, focusing on the positive and not the negative. If you are trying to lose a few pounds, for example, you should not think about the fact that you are too fat. Those negative thoughts will make you even fatter. Think, instead, about slipping into Miriam Fares’ costumes we3mely fawazeer.

The second step is to believe in what you want, and have faith that it will soon be yours. Again, no negative thoughts allowed. Those costumes will fit perfectly; and very soon. The third step is to ‘live’ the idea of having what you want, feeling as you will once you get it. Imagine what it will be like to wear those costumes w te3mely el fawazeer, and start practicing your autograph and stuff. Ironically, all the girls I know who have successfully lost weight did it by focusing on the off-putting aspect

of it rather than the positive, but yeah, whatever floats her boat. To give it more credibility and make readers feel more relevant w keda, Byrne claims that the “secret” has been known by a select few throughout history, including the Babylonians, Plato, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein — but has been hidden from the rest of us until she uncovered it. Quite how it works is unclear; secret ba2a!

Apparently even Abdel Moneim Madbouly was aware of this whole thing, and hence his “ana mesh 2osayar 2oz3a, ana taweel w ahbal” theory came to life. See, I’m getting a hang of it. Yay me.

Gollash aside, I have two major problems with this book. First, its science is questionable. Where are the sources and why haven’t they been proven? Second, I’m not a fan of the blame it confers on people who fail to attract the good stuff.

“Make Everything OK”

Real life doesn’t come with buttons. It’s tough and it’s strenuous. Straightening the kinks sure does require lots of work and perseverance, none of which that I think one should get from books based on transparent hocus-pocus. The self-help market might be worth billions of dollars and is very popular worldwide, yet the very fact that there are so many self-help books on the market is likely to be a sign that none of them is particularly effective. After all, if one of them really did unlock the secret to everlasting happiness, wouldn’t it corner the market and crowd out all the others? So the next time you’re trying to make positive changes, I suggest you go see a life coach. Or if you hate ranting, then do it yourself by digging deep and finding sustainable ways to fix whatever that’s needs to be fixed. You’re worth the attention and the effort, I promise.

Give Help a Chance?

No. Don’t. And before team self-help starts with the lashing, here are more thoughts on why those books are practical jokes.

• We share problems, but we don’t share personalities. Therefore, it’s impossible to have a certain method that works as effective with everyone.

• Given that they are read-worthy to begin with, self-help books give you morsels of good advice. You’ll find yourself wandering through piles of fluff before coming across a useful tip.

• There’s no follow up. So even if you have the best book with all the answers to the questions of life, you will most probably just follow the easy stuff that appeals to you because, again, that’s human behavior.

•Sometimes, the premise of the book is not logical, discussing theories that are from another dimension and can in no way apply to the real world, or even to your own culture. It just won’t resonate.


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Campus - September!

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Transcript of Campus - September!