On a visit last Wednesday to the Parliament, or I should say Westminster Palace, I noticed many things and asked myself a lot of questions.
I never saw my Parliament, I never went to Maguliss El Shaab,( i.e The Egyptian People's Assembly or lower house) nor to Maguliss El Shoura ( The Consultative Council or upper House.) Is it even open to the public? I should look into that.
I am aware of its role and I have seen some sessions on TV but they were about angry MPs being thrown out of the room, throwing shoes or protesting, nothing very informative.
One of the things I felt as an overall impression after this experience at the Parliament is how U.K citizens and to my experience British citizen, are very much in touch with their politics and their representatives at the parliament.
I guess in my case, it is a lack of information because I still need to do some effort to get infiltrated into the Egyptian society because of my background but als0, I am sure my case is the same for a lot of people. We don't really know anything about our parliament, most of us do not really know who is our local MP. Well actually, if I talk about the group I fit in and the generation I come from, some of us do not even know how to read and write Arabic which is very sad but true. Still I do not think that language is such a barrier so I wonder: Where does this apathy come from?
We have been so alienated by our government never seeing an end to the oppression the misinformation, the corruption and all the other majors problems that Egypt has, to the extent that we do not even care or we are not even aware of our local politics. I am fascinated by how citizens in England are so aware of their politics, so active in their communities.
I was amazed yesterday when we saw David Cameron ( leader of the Conservative Party) come out of the house of Commons so casually whereas in Egypt, you only get to see Fathi Sourour or any other parliament member in VIP events if you are an average citizen( putting journalists, activists aside). Then, the guide explained to us that you can even meet your local MP out of the session and talk about your issues and sometimes let him ask questions for you at the session. I noticed some firefighters all gathered outside of the session probably from a union asking for issues being all united and active.
In the recent past years the youth in Egypt has started to move. I will never forget the 6th of April strike, a movement that was created by the youth and that spread through networking and Facebook. The power of internet in Egypt is great, blogging, groups etc.. we are starting to get pro active in the community and this is a good start. But still, there is this lack of action and a kind of apathy regarding politics and organizations.
It is such a wide topic that needs experts and analysts it is all interrelated to so many issues and problems in Egypt. To put it simply, I do not have the feeling that I am being represented in the parliament, I do not have the feeling that I am a citizen in my country. Not only we have a lot of social restrictions, we also have political ones and on top of all of this, our voices are not even heard by the government because we are too passive to participate.
One of the things I felt as an overall impression after this experience at the Parliament is how U.K citizens and to my experience British citizen, are very much in touch with their politics and their representatives at the parliament.
I guess in my case, it is a lack of information because I still need to do some effort to get infiltrated into the Egyptian society because of my background but als0, I am sure my case is the same for a lot of people. We don't really know anything about our parliament, most of us do not really know who is our local MP. Well actually, if I talk about the group I fit in and the generation I come from, some of us do not even know how to read and write Arabic which is very sad but true. Still I do not think that language is such a barrier so I wonder: Where does this apathy come from?
We have been so alienated by our government never seeing an end to the oppression the misinformation, the corruption and all the other majors problems that Egypt has, to the extent that we do not even care or we are not even aware of our local politics. I am fascinated by how citizens in England are so aware of their politics, so active in their communities.
I was amazed yesterday when we saw David Cameron ( leader of the Conservative Party) come out of the house of Commons so casually whereas in Egypt, you only get to see Fathi Sourour or any other parliament member in VIP events if you are an average citizen( putting journalists, activists aside). Then, the guide explained to us that you can even meet your local MP out of the session and talk about your issues and sometimes let him ask questions for you at the session. I noticed some firefighters all gathered outside of the session probably from a union asking for issues being all united and active.
In the recent past years the youth in Egypt has started to move. I will never forget the 6th of April strike, a movement that was created by the youth and that spread through networking and Facebook. The power of internet in Egypt is great, blogging, groups etc.. we are starting to get pro active in the community and this is a good start. But still, there is this lack of action and a kind of apathy regarding politics and organizations.
It is such a wide topic that needs experts and analysts it is all interrelated to so many issues and problems in Egypt. To put it simply, I do not have the feeling that I am being represented in the parliament, I do not have the feeling that I am a citizen in my country. Not only we have a lot of social restrictions, we also have political ones and on top of all of this, our voices are not even heard by the government because we are too passive to participate.
(Photo By Randa El Tahawy, part of the Parliament)
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