Readers' corner
Way open
Sir-- It's great to see someone taking action against Israel. The Palestinian people have suffered for far too long. The borders have opened to let food, medication and building supplies in.
Azza Maher
Cairo
Egypt
Hand in hand
Sir-- I'm hoping I'm wrong but let's see how long before Hamas and the Brotherhood hook up to try and take Egypt back to the ninth century.
Casey Mason
New York
USA
Save money
Sir-- We're in debt up to our eyeballs and he wants to send $1 billion in aid to you. Where are we going to get this? And who are we to tell Israel what is best for them? We can't even handle our own problems!
Bonnie Napoli
New Jersey
USA
Need to know
Sir-- It is beyond comprehension as to why, even as the election looms, the Egyptian media have not taken the opportunity to inform the public on politics, party development, or even inspire individuals on what they wish for their great country.
25 January was the start of the revolution but now is the turn of leadership, vision and expertise of the electorate to build the foundation of this great land and bring about social justice, economic development, improved education and healthcare, reduce pollution and poverty. A business, a community organisation, a party, or an individual(s) needs to take the leadership role(s) to explain the elements of grassroots politics to a population who have empowered themselves and yet haven't the resources nor information to motivate themselves.
Lori Ann Comeau
Dubai
UAE
Mubarakism
Sir-- In the mid-1950s, the world came to know Nasserism. In the early 1980s, Mubarakism was ushered in.
Mubarakism means favouritism; nepotism; rigging of elections; influence peddling; bribery; abuse of power; profiteering; money laundering; forced business partnerships; looting state-owned land; plundering foreign aid; manipulation of police and judges; abuse of human rights; repression of opposition parties; shooting, maiming and killing protesters; suppression of basic freedoms; and tampering with articles of the constitution to facilitate inheritance of the presidency.
The Mubaraks and their coterie let 30 years slip out of control without real development.
Sociologists tell us that a corrupt official at the helm corrupts over 100 subordinates. As such, Mubarakism subverted the morals of an entire generation and Egypt must now pay dearly for the chaos we have been suffering from since the inception of the revolution: ubiquitous demonstrations, sit-ins, unending sectarian sedition, security anarchy and hooliganism are to mention but a few.
It seems Mubarakism has plundered the country of its past, present, and maybe its near future.
Mahmoud Elewa
Cairo
Egypt
Britain online
Sir-- I've always been wary of organisations that depend too heavily on online work. Not a single institution has an online system which is 100 per cent effective.
Take the British Embassy in Cairo.
If you want to visit the UK, and you live here in Egypt, here's what you do: you are asked to visit the embassy's website. You are asked to fill in an application form nine pages long. You must answer dozens of meaningful and meaningless questions. It is a tedious process which takes up to 45 minutes. Then, when you come to the end of this arduous journey, you are to click on a button to set up a date for a face-to-face interview. Just as you are about to feel all the effort has been worth it, you click, and... presto. Nothing happens. Actually, something does happen -- you are taken all the way back to square one of the form. Either you start all over again or opt to throw yourself out the window.
If you want to complain, you cannot, for there is no online give-and-take. And a complaint in person does not work because the problem, as I write, remains.
This looks and feels a bit like racism at the time of the British imperialists who on their high horses looked down at their half-naked brown-skinned subjects. Mahatma Gandhi and Gunga Din had a difficult time of it, but at least they didn't have to deal with an online embassy.
Shireen Farouk
Cairo
Egypt
Al-Ahram Weekly reserves the right to edit letters submitted to Readers' Corner for brevity and clarity. Readers are advised to limit their letters to a maximum of 300 words.
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