The prompter room if you recall: In the old days, stage fright used to sometimes disturb actors and he would forget parts of his lines so, they placed a seated employee in a small room at the front of the stage. This employee's only task was to remind each actor of his lines so they could deviate from the original lines or improvise on the spot. This room was called the prompter room, and the prompter reminds me of journalist these days "who do really understand the magnitude of their job." With every sunrise they wake up to revise a dictated script in order to fix actors who are in fact playing roles that are not theirs. The honest person may be a thief in real life, a religious man may sin in real life, and the good teacher is the leader of a gang. As for the journalist he is a 'parrot' and the public is one of two things: either dumb or an accomplice. Every time I stand before a newspaper spread I forgive the citizen and realize the gravity of the crime; each newspaper views Egypt through a narrow window. Safwat Al-Sharif's papers see Egypt as a superpower, the party newspapers see Egypt as a cake and private newspapers see Egypt as a venue of creative chaos. As for the Policy Committee newspapers they see Egypt as a chair with four legs, one in Marina, the second in Halayeb, the third in Sharm El Sheikh and the fourth in Al-Orouba street. I forgive the citizen and turn towards the professional kitchen and say in disbelief: You cannot give when you don't have. We as journalists are fighting a fierce civil war where there is no distinction between the liberal and communist or national and Muslim Brotherhood. We are fighting a war of insolvency where the only beneficiary is selected by the government and the only loser is the citizen. We know this very well and will continue because we have no other function. We know we won't change anything and we won't scare anyone. We also know that the citizen knows we are lying to him and that lies are our products and "our daily bread." We are not even on the same side of the system nor are we on the same side of the citizen…in short we are prompters. ■■■ Normalization with Israel: Nature mainly overrides normalization. You cannot and do not have the right to speculate on the "citizenship" of an Egyptian in this issue even if he is a janitor. Hatred of Israel is the most important component of this citizenship even if Shaaban Abdel Rahim (a popular singer) belittled it. Hatred of Israel is a national security issue in absolute and final terms, and is not a subject for debate. As for the issue of normalization it is surrounded by many circumstances and raises many questions more than providing answers. If the West – which we look to and hope to be a part of its political, economic and scientific activities – has recognized Israel and allotted to it a seat in these activities; then where do we stand? Is it acceptable for an Egyptian or Arab university professor to leave an important scientific conference because an Israeli is simply sitting next to him? Don't our trade unions need a professional review of its position on the issue of normalization rather than all this fanfare? I know for example that Amr Diab (a popular singer) will standardize relations if he voluntarily sings in Tel Aviv but if an Israeli radio or satellite channel broadcasts one of his songs this would not be called normalization. If that were the case then Um Kulthun (a famous singer) would be the first to normalize relations because Israeli radio broadcasts one of her songs at 6 o'clock on a daily basis ever since the sixties! It is true that we are no longer at war with Israel. However it will remain our greatest enemy until it 'vanishes'. The problem is that it is no longer simply a matter of fact; it is us who have become 'nothing' and since we are 'nothing' and do not have the tools to restore the minimum of our rights in our country, then why don't we crowd Israel and tighten the noose around its neck and disturb it, and thank God we have a seven thousand year-old civilization. It is either that or the declaration of war against Israel from the stairs of the Press Syndicate.
