An amazing thing I came to realize watching us (and by us I mean e7na el Masryeen) in the last few years, was how incredibly detached from reality we can be. It’s mind blowing how we are able to absorb all we see, hear and experience and still be able to act as if it will not happen to us.

Detachment has many forms, there is logic detachment… where we stop using our heads and just follow this unexplained feeling of everything will be alright. We are the only people that will over crowd the elevator and when you point that we are over the weight limit… your reply… ya 3am rabna haystorha isA… ya 3am inta er7mni ba2a, eh el iman dah kolo! The many times we got stuck because of this… sigh! Religion never says to stop using your head and rely solely on the power of faith; elevators run on electricity and follow the laws of physics not faith, heck for being so stupid you might actually fall down so it acts as a lesson to use your head next time.

Not convinced… What about how we cross the street? We do it as if we are superman and if a car hits us (la qadr Allah)… it will dent! Mashyeen bil Barka! Bezmtkom kam wa7d etdas 3ala reglo wi 7abtito meryat el 3arbya wi howa bey3adi! Tab3an Rabna beystorha 3shan e7na sha3b ‘3alban wi 3ala ad 7alo wi di min ra7mot 3lyna. Tayeb low mesh metwadi… ha3rf a3adi elshare3 wala hatdas… haga ghareeba!

Still not convinced?… How about the fact that we somehow manage to arrive to our destinations without killing someone in the road or even having an accident every single day… OK that one I can’t explain. I truly believe it is a daily blessing min Rabna 3ala 3ebado, because it doesn’t make any sense otherwise, and just getting off with dam ma7ro2 is far less worse than what normally should happen with our way of driving in our streets.

Or more recently… how we are dealing with the bombs we find!! Again…I t’s as if Rabna haystor and it will not blow up, because bombs don’t blow up apparently and they are good opportunities for jokes, laughs, gatherings and selfies... mind baffling!

It’s is with a sad heart that as I am writing these words, an incident occurred that very much demonstrates what I am talking about. The unfortunate event at Zamalek game vs Enpii where 22 lives have been lost and not to mention the many others hurt. While all this was happening, the game still managed to finish, I would understand playing the first half… you still have no idea what’s going on, but akeed in the half time the news reached someone on the inside. Amr Gaber got a call to not play because of what’s happening outside and he refused to continue and was suspended pending an investigation. Now if we say that violence is sometimes a byproduct of football we won’t be far off… but this is not your usual violence incident… everything about it seems fishy. And while maybe the game finishing as it did or that the dawry should continue as well… is the right thing to do, maybe it is not… When something doesn’t seem right you stop what you’re doing and see what is wrong, maybe had they stopped the game… fewer lives would have been lost! The detached part came when people would hear the news and then ask about the score of the game… “La 7awl Allah, bas howa el match khels kam?”

We are emotional beings by nature (and by nature I mean for no explainable reason). The surprise here is that with how emotional we are (ovwara included) we are still able to dissociate with those that are around us. Let me try to make it clearer. Lets take the revolution as an example. The 2011 revolution took place in Tahrir Square… this is your first circle. Tahrir is in west el balad which is your second circle. West elbalad is in Cairo… Cairo being the third circle… Cairo - Egypt... Fourth or Outer circle. Somehow a lot of us have a shift in personalities when we move from one circle to another. The closer you are to epicenter of it all (or the first circle) the more emotional you are about all of this. It’s black and white… ya e7na ya homa... ya m3aya ya 3alya… etc. Now as you move further, things cool down… which is normal, but the interesting fact is the moment you reach the third circle… it’s as if the first two didn’t happen… with the extreme being in lala land in the fourth circle and not caring what happens as long as it doesn’t affect your directly in a great sense.

This is in no way only triggered by physical distance away, but also psychological relevance to the situation itself and your proximity to it. Some of us simply just don’t care… won’t say at all, but don’t care enough!

I know it’s a way of coping to everything that is happening around us, life goes on… blah blah blah! But is not caring really the solution to the times we are in. To exercise the notion that as long as I am ok then I should not bother myself. If I work and I eat and I enjoy myself then what happens outside my circle matters little to me. True we will read about it, hear about it, talk about it with friends and family, even dare to have opinions about it… But just not truly care about it!

To be sometimes detached is normal, it’s how we maintain our sanity… to be always detached from those and everything around you except your own circle… what hope do we have for being a better being and in turn a better society!

The revolution happened because people were fed up with just being OK, because some knew that people deserve better… They deserve great and fantastic and amazing and they decided to do something about it. Be it they were wrong or right, time will tell and history will judge… but at least they cared… for us all...

By: Hesham El Dahmy