Those who see the light..

In his genius reformatory philosophical work "The Republic", Plato establishes the grounds for creating a republic in the most "optimum"/perfectionist way (for no other choice of word that popped in my head)... Not a kingdom or an empire, but a republic...

Now am not a person who enjoys old literature, but i really enjoyed reading The Republic and many of its critique articles... i even read much more than what was required back at uni.. It amazes you how a book written around 390 years B.C. has so much reform in it, and yet, no one listened... among other things, he talked about women's education! Actually, he had a plan drawn out for a close-to-perfect education system... one that we are currently getting closer to but yet so far..

Anyway, what am about to write now is an idea that possessed me in this book; the allegory of the cave.. An allegory is a story or a representation conveying a meaning deeper and higher than its literal meaning...
Plato's allegory goes that there is a cave with a large wall.. in this cave there is a set of prisoners tied to have their backs to the cave's entrance and are facing the huge wall... behind them, outside the entrance there is an enormous fire.. sometimes people and animals pass outside the entrance and between the fire and the cave, thus casting shadows on the wall.... the prisoners -having never seen the outside- mistake these shadows for the real thing.. the voices of the people outside reflect as echo on the wall, and appear to the prisoners to be coming out of the shadows on the wall...

So mainly the prisoners see shadows and hear echoes... now imagine a prisoner was released and goes outside... he would be blinded by the sun (or at night-time by the fire), then as he slowly adjusts to reality, he will start to see things as they are... he will "see the light"..

Having seen the light, it is the free man's duty, even his obligation, to go back to the cave and 'enlighten' his fellow men.... once he goes back to the cave, his eyes will have trouble adjusting to total darkness again, he would have to step into the darkness again to free/enlighten his fellow prisoners.... Only to be faced by resistance from those not wanting to be freed... those who are happy with the only truth they ever knew: the shadows and the echos...

Do we choose to stay in the dark? do those who think they see the light really see it, or is it a mere representation on a huge wall??


Signing off,
N.

P.S. check wikipedia's allegory of the cave article..

The world is flat!

when i saw this book @ Diwan, i thought it was a fiction book.. sort of like the Pratchett/Gaiman things i read :D.. turns out its a collection of political essays! Anyway, this reminds me of a Suzanne Vega song called "The World before Columbus"...............

about this song, Vega said "The idea of the world before Columbus came because I have a cat at home, and this cat scratched my eye -just playing, and it became infected and I had to wear an eyepatch for about a week. The thing I noticed was that the world was really flat seeing the world that way. It struck me as funny and I was writing it down and I said the world was as flat as the world before Columbus."

Read thru... and enjoy :) (you can listen to an excerpt of the song here

If your love were taken from me
Every color would be black and white
It would be as flat as the world before Columbus
That's the day that I lose half my sight

If your life were taken from me
All the trees would freeze in this cold ground
It would be as cruel as the world before Columbus
Sail to the edge and I'd be there looking down

Those men who lust for land
And for riches strange and new
Who love those trinkets of desire
Oh they never will have you
And they'll never know the gold
Or the copper in your hair
How could they weigh
the worth of you so rare

If your love were taken from me
Every light that's bright would soon go dim
It would be as dark as the world before Columbus
Down the waterfall and I'd swim over the brim

Those men who lust for land
And for riches strange and new
Who love those trinkets of desire
Oh they will never have you
And they'll never know the gold
Or the copper in your hair
How could they weigh
the worth of you so rare

Of Lady Godiva, Cats, and Bookmarks (Addendum)

Bey2ollak eno Lady Godiva was married to a guy who enforced really harsh taxes on his people.. The lady, being of a kind heart, tried to talk her husband out of it... the people told her eno please talk to him w keda.. So her husband, a guy who obviously enjoys a good laugh, made a bet with her that if she would ride through the city totally naked except for her long hair, he would reduce/cancel the taxes...
Lady Godiva said "ok eshta cool" (she said them in that order).. and she makes a deal with the people of the city that they stay inside and close their windows while she rides through the streets.. the people say "mashi ok" (after all, she is doing *them* a favor fa 3eib ya3ni!)
They all stick to their word, except for one who makes holes in the window shutters and peeps at her.. Hence the term "Peeping Tom" :)
you can read the Wikipedia article about that....

Now this talk about Lady Godiva is because this name also refers to one of the world's best chocolate companies, Godiva.

Yesterday, i received Duke's and Duchess' bday gift.. they took me out to dinner (actually "linner", a lunch/dinner combination) at Chilis, then gave me a box of Godiva Truffles that he got from Brussels, an amazing coloful mug with two cats -their faces half-painted with golden from Frankfurt, and a painted calendar that is also twelve bookmarks (each month is taken out to make a separate bookmark) that Meyo got me from Turkey :)

So, its an international gift (or gifts) :D

Read the previous post if you didnt, i blogged twice today! :)

clumps and chunks..

* What am reading
I spent last weekend (not the one that just passed, the one before it) sick in bed.. Thursday night i was with Kareem, Meyo, and Sherif in City stars then i decided i cant stay any longer because am starting to feel dizzy and drained so i went home.. Anyway so it turned out i spent the whole weekend in bed with a bit of a fever and totally drained of energy.. during this weekend i finished two *lovely* books.. The Solitare Mystery for Jostein Gaarder (the author of Sophie's World) and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon. Weirdly enough, both books were such a joy to read... they both belong to the Karim Sobhi's collection that i claimed as mine :D It's been such a long time since i last read something that impressed me, and both books, esp. the second, got me totally hooked!! i definitely recommend them.... the week after that i didnt read anything of value (i discovered that i started to sleep late, which makes it hard to read in bed these days).. i think i might start with "I Saw Ramallah" for Mourid Barghouti... unfortunately it is out of print, so i could only get the English translation.. I think i will try to start on it tonight...

* Bloggable thoughts
Kareem claims i always steal his thoughts when we're talking and we come up with something and i go like "This is totally a bloggable thought" :D Thr truth is, it is usually something we both come up with.... You need to learn to share the credit ;)
One of *our* latest bloggable thoughts say that since both our phone bills exploded dramatically in the past months, then Vodafone and Mobinil are probably spending each night celebrating... dancing the night away, and opening champagne bottles in the glory of another day added to our bills :D

* Birthday
Last Wednesday was my birthday... (am starting to get bored now and thinking to call this blog off, but no i will go on).... Celebrating this glorious occasion, ppl at work got me a cake and surprised (as in _really_ surprised me) at my cubicle... i knew they were going to do something for me... it gets very predictable when u find ppl who hardly know you saying Happy Birthday and all :D Then something funny happened, one of my friends was like "sorry i wont be able to make tonite to Viking" so i was like totally silent.. fa she said "uh-oh did i screw it up?" i said i think so coz i dont know what ur talking about.. so another friend says that they were planning to do something for me but when they knew that am going out with Kareem, they changed their minds and decided to make it another day so pretend u didnt hear anything blablabla.... So Kareem picks me up at 7.... i initially think we're going to dine in Zamalek (he said Zamalek somewhere in his talks).. turns out we're staying in helio... he tells me he got me gift vouchers from Diwan and Virgin so that i might get whatever i want and all... i think "Bummer! i hate to pick my own gifts" but i tell him its cool and thank you but u have to choose them with me and all.. anyway, so he says i made us a reservation at Viking since u wanna go, so i tell him the story of the ppl at work and do u still wanna go, he says yes... so i think ok i wont burst his bubble...

To cut an extremely long story short: he organized a bday for me and invited my friends and our common friends... the place wasnt as good as we thought but i sooooooooooooo wanted to try it, so i got my wish... i had an extremely nice time... _and_ he didnt get me gift vouchers after all, he got me a lovely Esprit watch :D (i've been wanting a wristwatch for so long but i didnt expect one).. Thank you everyone :)

some ppl i wanted to see but couldnt:
-Duke; he was in Brussels, couldnt call me coz my fone was dead (as da wife told me).. but Mayo Ze Lovely came and it was enough..
-Karembu & Chris; in the states, and i had to remind Karim of my bday anyway
- Nevine Fouda, Nevine Nabil (who was an essential part of the work bday along with Zeww), Emy... were in Cairo but had excuses...

* Google-able!
i discovered that blogspot is highly google-able.. hence, i decided to try and not use any words that are highly searchable... i like to believe i can somehow restrict access to my blog.. (even tho am publishing my thoughts on the World Wide Web :))

* Quotables ;)
You live and learn. At any rate, you live. ~Douglas Adams

The saddest song you ever heard - the most you said with just one word
The loneliest prayer you ever prayed - the truest vow you ever made
What makes you laugh, what makes you cry
What makes you mad, what gets you by
You highest high, your lowest low - these things I want to know

I wanna know you - like I know myself
I’m waitin’ for you - there ain’t no one else
Talk to me baby - scream and shout
I wanna know you - inside out

~ Bryan Adams, Inside Out


Cheers,
N.


p.s. Another addendum to this post will come later today :)