insight9999
male - 40 years
Blog 10
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Depicting human face
The human face -and body in general- has obsessed almost all of the world greatest artists, not only in our today’s modern world, it even goes back in time when the ancient artists began creating their very first images. The range of faces they have created is breathtaking!
I think that the society that we live in, the values that we create for that society, the artist's culture, the particular aspect that the artist is attempting to express, etc. all together are what dictate the artists how to depict the human face.
However, the artists very often and deliberately exaggerate some parts/features of the body and ignore others.
There are numerous images of the face and body that are not really realistic and don't resemble a real human being.
Maybe, the more we understand why our world is so dominated by images that are not realistic, the more we can reveal something about ourselves as human beings… -
Donkeys
I feel bad when donkeys are talked about in a negative tone or thought to be stubborn or stupid.
Donkeys were one of the first draught animals used by man; to ride upon, carry burdens, pull carts, and plough the fields.
They have been used through the centuries and considered very valuable animals in many ancient civilizations as they used to serve as tractor, family car, shopping trolley, guard and companion.
That can be clearly seen illustrated in ancient paintings.
People who keep them will tell you they are highly intelligent and 'single minded'.
Unlike horses, they cannot be forced to go into dangerous situations, they can map their ways from and to the farms at theirown.
Their hearing is very acute too and their long ears also help them to hear over long distance.
Donkeys are very clean in a stable, usually relieving themselves in one chosen corner, which is easily removed. A clean bed of straw in another corner is appreciated at all times!
The only bad thing about donkeys is their very loud, distinctive braying voice.
However, I still love, respect and appreciate donkeys....
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Abdo Dagher: 50 years of innovative compositions
Dagher’s music - who never learned to read music scores- is known for expressiveness, meticulously crafted monotones and unpredictable experimentations.
He is known in Egypt as “Master of Improvisation”.
I’m at the opinion that his music hasn’t been transcribed or preserved yet in Egypt. There is no proper archiving of his production. All are just backstage, interview, random concerts, etc. recordings, and as such the entire musical heritage he composed over the years will go away if he dies!
During Dagher’s last visit to Switzerland, he received an honorary diploma from Zurich University. Also, a fancy party was thrown in his honor to celebrate his 70th birthday.
“I have never held a birthday party in my life or went on vacation. I dedicated my whole life to music,” he commented.
His career actualy took an unexpected turn in 1990 when he met the German musician, Roman Bunka, in Cairo, who had earlier listened to Dagher’s music in Germany but didn’t know who the composer was.
Bunka came back one year later with a fellow German documentary filmmaker who directed a film about Dagher entitled “The Oud.”
The film received critical acclaim, won an award at the Chicago Film Festival, and paved the way for Dagher’s first tour in Europe.
Dagher soon became a household name in classical music circuits in Europe, performing several highly acclaimed concerts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He also conducted a number of workshops on oriental violin, tailored for European musicians.
Dagher’s prominent status in Europe was cemented when a statue of him was set up inside a public garden in Germany.
The story of Dagher’s life was also documented in a book by the Egyptian writer Khairy Shalaby entitled “The Pearl Fishers”.
Among his most famous pieces are: “Nights Gone By”, “Longa Nahawand”, “The Nile” and “The Call”.
Dagher was born in Damietta (an Egyptian city) in 1936 with an instinctive love for music. He taught himself how to play the oud (oriental lute) at the age of seven.
Though his father worked in the music business, he rejected the idea of his son becoming a musician. He used to beat him to stop playing music to the extent that his leg till now bears old marks of injuries.
He wanted him to be an Azhar scholar or a lawyer because, at that time, these were the most respected jobs.
Young Abdo didn’t give up though and left home when he turned 13 to work for Sufi singers and chanters at mawalid (religious celebrations), which helped him to formulate his own methodology.
He was later transfixed by the sound of an Italian violinist in Egypt named David Osra who performed at a church concert held in his hometown, Damietta.
From that moment onward, Dagher started playing the violin until he mastered it.
Dagher moved to Cairo at the age of 18, where he worked in a shop that manufactured musical instruments. Gradually, his musical dexterity attracted a sizable buzz until he was taken up as a member of famous Egyptian takhts (ensembles), accompanying the likes of Om Kolthoum and Mohamed Abdel-Wahab....
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Colors
How between black and white, the infinite variations of gray suggest planes (wall, mirror,,,) and textures (zipper, fingers, nose, , , , )?!
How it also suggest a stream of sunlight in between, to the extent where you can see the light filling the empty spaces in the spot?
It suggest also positions! Sunlight with exposed and unexposed sides of the entire body. Look at both sides of his face! From the left side, the angle suggests even the stress level on his neck muscles.
Beyond all, that look…. Right in the very middle of your eyes!
It suggests me a position where I play the portrait role and he is the one who scrutinizes me!
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Mr. Art
I came today morning to my office and was pleasantly surprised that today is off. It seems I did not read the the Eid holidays circular carefully.
This surprise, and I don’t know how, led to me to a discussion with the cleaner on what Art is? who preferred to serve me a very satisfactory cup of coffee and do his job.
A simple line may be defined as a continuous mark, made on a surface, by a moving point and it is long relative to its width!
But when Art is applied, this line may define a space, shape an outline or pattern, imply movement or character, or indicate to mass or volume.
Art plays an important role in making our live infinitely rich.
Imagine what would be the impact on our life if there was no art?
Look at the desk where you are, right this moment. Someone designed that. It is art. The graphics on your computer is art. The icon on your screen is art. Your shoes are art. Your shirt is art. Your coffee cup is art. All designs, though functional, are art. Art actually is something that is both functional and pleasing to our eyes.
Art stimulates different parts of our brains to make us laugh, cry, meditate, focus, analyze, choose a behavior, define an identity, express ourselves, be creative and all with a whole range of emotions in between.
Art is subjective, and may mean something different to every single person.
Art is a constant state of change.
Good... I'm still able to know in words what I know in thoughts...
How good was this coffee!
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Egyptian Jews
Egyptian Jews constitute perhaps the oldest Jewish community outside Israel in the world.
While no exact census exists, the Jewish population of Egypt was estimated at fewer than a hundred in 2004, down from between 75,000 and 80,000 in 1922 !
The historic core of the native Egyptian community consisted mainly of Arabic-speaking Rabbanites, where Rabbinic Judaism is a system that guides the interpenetration of Jewish scripture, and Karaites, where Karaite Judaism is a system that bases its believes on Scripture alone and rejects Talmud and Oral Law.
After their expulsion from Spain, more Sephardi and Karaite Jews began to emigrate to Egypt as it was free of intractable national, ethnic, religious, etc. conflicts, and their numbers as such increased specially with the growth of trading prospects after the opening of the Suez Canal, to play effective role in the commercial and cultural activities of the modern community.
In brief, until the early 20th century the Jewish community, fleeing persecution in Europe, found safe haven in Egypt.
However, the Arab-Zionist clash in Palestine between1936 to 1939, allowed for the first time in modern Egypt the ideological groups to start gaining penetration into the cultural, political, religious, etc. life of the Egyptian society. While such ideological groups were not anti-Semite, but it affected the Jewish relations with Egyptian society, along with its other negative effects on the socity in general, despite the fact that the number of Zionists in the Egyptian Jewry was limited.
Further, with the rise of militant wings for such ideological groups, conditions worsened for Egyptian Jewry by the 1940s, and the decline accelerated after 1952 coup (adopting an Arab Nationalist ideology), then the failed operation of Israeli military intelligence to plant bombs in Egyptian, American and British-owned targets in Egypt in the summer of 1954, and finally Israel's participation, with France and England, in the Suez War in 1956 against Egypt.
In his summing up statement Fu’ad al-Digwi, the prosecutor at the trial of jewish Egyptians which were invovled in 1954 Israeli operation, repeated the official government stance:
"The Jews of Egypt are living among us and are sons of Egypt. Egypt makes no difference between its sons whether Moslems, Christians, or Jews. These defendants happen to be Jews who reside in Egypt, but we are trying them because they committed crimes against Egypt, although they are Egypt's sons.”
However, such tone was acceptable only in the early days of 1952 coup and also as Mr. Digwi was not member of the coup ruling team.
Immediately after England, France and Israeil attack to Egypt in 1956, on November 23, a proclamation was issued stating that 'all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state', and it promised that they would be soon expelled.
Based on ethnic, financial, educational, political, etc. factors, Egyptian Jews left to Israel (35,000), Brazil (15,000), France (10,000), the US (9,000) and Argentina (9,000).
Of the individual Egyptian Jews who played an important role in Egypt:
René Qattawi, leader of the Cairo Sephardi community, endorsed the creation in 1935 of the Association of Egyptian Jewish Youth, with its slogan: 'Egypt is our homeland, Arabic is our language. Qattawi strongly opposed political Zionism and wrote a note on 'The Jewish Question' to the World Jewish Congress in 1943 in which he argued that Palestine would be unable to absorb Europe's Jewish refugees.
Murad Beh Farag (1866-1956) was both an Egyptian nationalist and a passionate Zionist. His poem, 'My Homeland Egypt, Place of my Birth', expresses loyalty to Egypt, and his book, al-Qudsiyyat (1923), defends the right of the Jews to a State.
Yaqub Sanu, an Egyptian nationalist advocating the removal of the British. He edited the nationalist publication Abu Naddara 'Azra from exile which was one of the first magazines written in Egyptian Arabic, and mostly consisted of sarcasm, poking fun at the British as well as the government parties known for their loyalty to British.
Henri Curiel, who founded 'The Egyptian Movement for National Liberation' in 1943, an organization that was to form the core of the Egyptian Communist party.
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A tale of flag...
(11) Flag of Egypt under Ottoman Empire during the 19th century.
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12) The Egyptian flag under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty (1805–1922).
Muhammad Ali introduced a flag highly reminiscent of the Ottoman flag to signify his autonomy from the Ottoman Porte, and his own grandiose ambitions of challenging the Sultan for control of the Ottoman Empire itself.
The three white crescents and three stars on a red field used to be interpreted as to symbolize the victory of his armies in 3 continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe), or his own sovereignty over Egypt, Nubia, and Sudan.
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(12) Kingdom of Egypt (1922–1952)
This national flag of modern Egypt was adopted by a Royal Decree of the Kingdom of Egypt in 1923.
The three stars supposedly represented either the three parts comprising the Kingdom (Egypt, Nubia and Sudan), or the three religious communities of Egypt: Muslims, Christians and Jews.
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(13) Republic of Egypt (1952-1958)
This flag was introduced following the 1952 coup,
The colors on the flag were assumed to represent the following:
White - peace and honesty
Red - hardiness, bravery, strength & valor
Black – Determination.
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(13) United Arab Republic (1958–1961), flag used until 1972
In 1958, a Presidential Decree established a new flag for what's so called at that time the United Arab Republic which comprised a merger of Syria and Egypt, each presented by one star.
The ruling regime continued to use this flag until 1st January 1972, although the short-lived union saw its dissolution in 1961 !
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(13) The Republic of Egypt (1972–1984)
In 1972, when Egypt joined the Federation of Arab Republics, the Law was amended to change the flag again. The stars were removed from the flag and replaced by a golden hawk of Qureish, holding a scroll with the Arabic name of the Federation.
-> The Federation of Arab Republics was an abortive attempt to merge Libya, Egypt, and Syria, creating a pan-Arab state. The federation lasted from January 1972 to March 1977.
-> Quraish was the dominant tribe of Mecca upon the appearance of Islam and to which the Prophet Muhammad belonged.
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(13) Arab Republic of Egypt (1984-present)
In 1984, the ruling regime introduced 2 changes to the flag, i.e., replaced Hawk of Qureish by Eagle of Saladin and replaced the 'Federation of Arab Republics' by 'Arab Republic of Egypt' in the scroll that the eagle holds.
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6 changes in 200 years.
In 150 years, 2 changes.
In the last 50 years, 4 changes + 6 wars + merger + United Arab Republic + Arab Republic of Egypt + Hawk of Qureish + Eagle of Saladin, etc.
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Choosing a role in real-life drama
Ironically, the victim role is by far the preferred role of the emotions, especially in a conflict, as it actually allows for the greatest drama.
The pain, grief, and suffering the victim endures can be so heart-wrenchingly and blood-drippingly dramatic and that what makes the agony worthwhile.
Individuals and groups which may be classified as chronic victims, take it to an extent where they unconsciously encourage and manipulate situations so that they can be believable victims in the drama.
Further, being victimized once or even several times does not remedy the situation or bring “The Plot” to an end. Once the curtain comes down on one deluge, the next and more severe catastrophe is already in the making and such individuals and groups grant themselves a brief breather before performing the victim role one more time, with even more intense feelings.
The victim's emotional nature trusts that in the end, no matter how long it takes, goodness will triumph, and hence don’t really bother developing preventive measures to their lives which may cease their being victimized over and over again.
The culture of blame that emanates from a victim mentality, is one of the popular symptoms of chronic victimhood..
Denial, which may be defined as "a state of rational apprehension that does not result in appropriate action", is another symptom.
In our rapidly changing times we begin many new endeavors and we realize that anything new usually involves a learning curve. During such curve, ‘emotionally’ we are like new infants who have to learn how to crawl before running at the speed we'd like; and the technique that we develop for dealing with our upsets throughout such period, usually determines the chronic roles that our emotional selves choose later in life.
Acknowledging failure experiences as victim “status”, one is driven by negative emotions, spending time in a crisis mode, waiting until misfortune strikes so many times until one can't help noticing that something must be wrong, and eventually becomes an emotional basket case, cut off from his/her natural healthy feelings and courses of action, attitude, behavior, etc. are formed accordingly.
Liberation from the pain of past sufferings is not easy work, but worth the effort; and what applies to individuals, in a way, applies also to the groups which share the same circumstances and the same culture of dealing with such circumstances. -
From Egyptian to Arabic
I understand that Egypt, allover its history, changed its language only once, i.e., from Egyptian to Arabic.
The hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic and Coptic are just different scripts of the same Egyptian language.
Of course there had been always changes and evolutions along its long history, but the language as a whole remained the same.
An example for different scripts of one language is the Turkish language, which was written in Arabic letters for hundred years, and then they wrote it in Latin letters at the time of Kamal Ataturk in the 20th century.
They didn't invent a new language or change it, they've just written their spoken Turkish language in Latin letters, instead of the Arabic letters.
Persia is another example. They write their Persian language in Arabic letters.
Coptic is the latest script of the Egyptian language, and it is, as such, a common mistake to call 'Coptic' a language. It is in fact the Egyptian language, written in Coptic letters.
So what remained of the Egyptian language?
• Names of some cities and villages which are not arabized, e.g., Minufمنوف , Sers سرس, Sentrees سنتريس,
اطسا Itsa, Teta تتا, Aga اجا , Kamshoosh كمشوش, Tanta طنطا, Sengerg سنجرج, Ashmoon اشمون, Gerga جرجا ,
Minia منيا, etc.
• Some nouns, verbs, phrases, etc. are still in use, e.g.,
o اوطه (Ota=Tomato),
o عنتيل (Antiel=Strong/big)
o برسيم (Brseem=Clover)
o بح (Bah=finished)
o بلاص (Ballas=Pitcher)
o (ايتاي (كما في ايتاي البارود (etay=valley)
o اردب (Ardab = the measure unit in use for grains)
o لبش (Labsh=Sugarcane)
o وحوح (Wahwah = to cry with pain)
o هيلا هوب (hela hop = the expression in use while lifting heavy articles)
o (خيت (كما في شبراخيت (kheet = north)
o (منت (كما في شبرامنت (mant = west)
o امبو (Empo = Water or to drink, one of them)
• The Coptic Orthodox Church still use it in the chants, prayers and other liturgical purposes.
• The colloquial language, though Arabic, but follows the same vowel harmony of the Egyptian language.
• What else?
How and why around the 14th century Egyptians changed their language, unlike Turkish and Persians? I'm not aware of solid source of information in this regard and scientific references are, for me, hard to conclude an opinion from specialy when even an attempt may require such amount of time which I’m already in lack of. All what I came across are just salon alike discussions (actually 'salon des refuses'!) where political and/or religious views are imposed over the historical fact in an interpretational form which I tend to distance from.
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Your children are not your children !
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You are Yesterday and they are Tomorrow….
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you, as life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be of gladness; for even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves the bow that is stable.
Gibran Kahlil Gibran
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