Saturday, April 28, 2007
The Ranting Sandmonkey is calling it quits from blogging. This is terrible, but not unexpected. I met "Sam" when he was in Boston and he's a great guy and a true friend of our shared human values. Things have gotten hot in Egypt for those who speak, and he's feeling it:
One of the chief reasons is the fact that there has been too much heat around me lately. I no longer believe that my anonymity is kept, especially with State Secuirty agents lurking around my street and asking questions about me since that day. I ignore that, the same way I ignored all the clicking noises that my phones started to exhibit all of a sudden, or the law suit filed by Judge Mourad on my friends, and instead grew bolder and more reckless at a time where everybody else started being more cautious. It took me a while to take note of the fear that has been gripping our little blogsphere and comprehend what it really means. The prospects for improvment, to put it slightly, look pretty grim. I was the model of caution, and believing in my invincipility by managing not to get arrested for the past 2 and a half years, I've grown reckless. Stupid Monkey. Stupid!
How can we help reform in the world, when we can't protect the visible...how can we help the invisible millions?
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This is terrible. We've lost a strong and interesting voice, humorous and brave, and a window into the world of Egypt - so vitally important for people to learn how to see each other -
BUMMER.
I hope he'll be ok -
He'll be missed. But it's good to know that there are people like him out there.
I valued his integrity, courage, earthiness and wit. I admired the way he cares deeply about his country, yet rises above blind patriotism or jingoism to see its faults. I appreciated how he treated Israel as a country worth saying good things as well as bad things. And I'll miss the way that he, as an Arab, treated Israelis and Jews like human beings. He called the shots as he saw them, with insight. I don't think there are many like him in the Arab world.
I hope the same fate doesn't await Big Pharoah, another brave Egyptian blogger. Big Pharoah personifies the same values and opinions as Sandmonkey (he's linked on Sandmonkey's site). It got to the point where many readers suspected that he and Sandmonkey were the same person. Big Pharoah has stopped keeping up his blog for the time being. He says that it's a only temporary break, and I hope that turns out to be true.
I am sorry for the problems that Sandmonkey has run into. I know this sounds like a cliche, but I'm reminded that we're lucky not to live under an authoritarian regime like Egypt's. Say, maybe SM could move back to Boston! Well, it's a thought.
In any case, I'm sad to see him go. Sad, but not very surprised.
"I appreciated how he treated Israel as a country worth saying good things as well as bad things."
Sorry, I meant "good things about..."
Moderates exist but live in fear everywhere. And no wonder, for even the leader of the Catholic Church has to weigh his words.