Apart from the issue of what is fact and what is fiction in the story of William Wallace—much of the film does not match historical events–yet the story is very realistic, and it is one of the movies that had a great impact on my life. One of the aspects that left the most impact on me is how William Wallace got involved in the resistance against the British.
Wallace tried in every possible way to be one of those citizens who avoided making waves. He acquiesced to all laws of injustice, did not at any point in time think of resisting, not to mention leading the resistance, let alone being its martyr and inspiration.
He reconciled himself to living as a simple farmer in a small home in his village, paying unfair taxes to an English nobleman who enslaved that village\’s people. He did not even think of opposing the atrocious law giving the English nobleman the right of the first night of marriage; instead all he managed to do was marry his beloved in secret to avoid sharing her with anyone.
And what was the result?
He was dragged into war, pushed into resistance, fighting and resisting them: they murdered his beloved and vandalized his home. This is a lesson to anyone who imagines life is attainable under a dictatorship, or that normalizing with military regimes is possible. This is a delusion; no one–however hard he tries–can ever be spared the assault of those tyrants.
Life in Egypt now, under the military regime, under the power of Abdel Fattah \”Sissi\”, the de facto president, resembles the life of William Wallace, the Scot, under English ruling in the thirteenth century. Whoever thinks he can live under such regime without being mortally wounded, is deluded, a fool, naïve!
You, the Egyptian citizen, will live life working at your governmental job that provides a stable meager income, then be surprised that a civil service law has been issued, to complicate your life and facilitate the government\’s job in getting rid of you and throwing you on the street without any rights or securities, without any social or medical insurances. After the state had deducted from your income thousands of pounds for the social security fund, you will be stunned that the government had stolen the social security funds, and that your pension (which is peanuts) will not be available for you to receive. Even if you receive it, you will discover that the currency has collapsed and that your pension will not buy you plain bread.
Meanwhile, you will see salaries of officers in the army and police and of the judiciary doubling and multiplying, and compensations and bonuses falling upon them like manna from heaven. If you think about complaining, you will be told, \”There is none to give you, endure for the sake of Egypt.\”
If you decide to endure patiently and invest in educating your children, you will discover that positions in education are reserved for the elite\’s children, and your poor son, despite his diligence, had his exam answer sheets switched with the son of this or that important persona and your son or daughter will find himself getting a zero (like the diligent student Mariam Malak) or a grade lower than he or she deserves.
Even if we suppose that your son does manage to receive high grades, you will find out that many colleges, such as military academies and others, are prohibited against his joining them in principal. What is worse is that there are many colleges that have become closed for many Egyptians because of the unjust law of geographical distribution in college placement, which effectively prohibits youths from outside the capital to join a number of colleges in top fields.
It is unfortunate that this law will be applied to your sons alone, whereas the sons of military and police officers and the judiciary will be officially exempted from this geographical constraint, by the influence of their parents, their country, and the excuse is: national security.
And if we suppose that your son manages to join any college (in bottom or top fields) you will be surprised that he has been permanently expelled from education without a court ruling, just like that. Upon the whims of thugs who have reached the highest positions at universities, students are permanently expelled from universities, for any reason whatsoever.
And if your son manages to complete his college education, with top grades, you will discover that appointment as college staff goes to professors\’ sons only, and your kid will be thrown out on the street.
If we suppose that you will liberate yourself from all this and start an independent private business, thinking that \”no venture no gain\”, \”success is for those who strive\” \”by the sweat of one\’s brow\” and so on and so forth, know that these are movie clichés, but in actual life, taxes will burden you and bribes will break your back, because you are an ordinary joe, one of the weaklings, with no backing. You will not get any of your rights without encountering one of the state\’s dogs who will bite off a chunk of your living flesh.
Meanwhile, you will find money pouring over those who know people in power, enjoying favoritism, and pouring over retired generals who compete with you in all fields. You will find yourself a mouse amidst lions.
Land is distributed among them for peanuts, they take direct financial aid for their exports from the country, they get exemptions from taxes and procedures in every possible way, official and non-official, and they get legislations tailored to them to a tee. As for you, the law must be applied on you and you must bribe them and grovel so that they agree to apply the law. Even if you do that, you still will not make any profit: your capital will not suffice all those endless forced bribes.
If, after all this injustice, you complain via a demonstration or a sit-in, you will be deemed an opposition, a terrorist, and then your blood, honor, money, and reputation will be open for attack, there for the taking.
You will enter any police station and only God knows if you will come out of it alive, or with a disability, or remain there for years until somebody notices your existence in it. You can disappear a forceful disappearance like thousands of other citizens.
Meanwhile, you will find police officers demonstrating with their weapons in their possession and no one will bother or stop them.
If you decide to resort to courts to alleviate the injustice you are suffering from any cause, you will find a system that is biased against you from the start, a system that sees any criticism of it as committing the crime of insult to the judiciary. If you find evidence of any violation against you and decide to resort to the Forensics, you will find that the government had closed that road before you: the coroner had issued a report on the death of a young man who was killed by the police, claiming that he had died of asphyxiation by a roll of joint earlier! He had issued death certificates of people committing suicide using three shots, killing themselves three times! The coroner testified that the student Mariam Malak\’s handwriting matches that of the handwriting in the answer sheet that got a round zero in the final high-school exams, despite the impossibility of the notion of getting a grade of zero in the first place!
If you believe that relief is coming soon for everyone and that Egypt is about to hit prosperity for all, let me tell you: \”Egypt will see no prosperity under the rule of these thieves.\”
Egypt made a huge discovery of natural gas in the Mediterranean, but will a single penny of this wealth reach you?
Reports say: The natural gas field was discovered through excavations done by two Italian companies \”Eni\” and \”Edison\”, both of which raised the natural gas\’s selling prices to Egypt by 100% two months before, making the selling price for one million BTU at US$5.88, i.e. double the earlier price (before the military coup).
The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced raising the price as well in July 2015. It admitted to signing a contract with the aforementioned companies, under which the price has doubled, applicable for the gas produced from the \”new discoveries\” for the two companies in Egypt (are you taking note of this?).
It is obvious: the gas discovery was made several months earlier, but the Egyptian state\’s officials received their sinful commissions in exchange for raising the price (it would be quite hard to imagine that this happened without the state\’s president himself being in the picture!).
In summary:
Do not imagine, dear citizen, that the regime\’s problem is with the Muslim Brotherhood, or with a group of politicians. This regime\’s problem is that it is an enemy to Egypt and to all Egyptians. It is a racist, class-discriminating regime that sees Egyptians as slaves who only deserve the whip. Everyone who imagines he can live in Egypt without directly sustaining great harm to what he holds dearest because of this regime, is living a delusion.
Overthrowing this regime is a national duty and a personal necessity for every individual in this country.
And if we wait it out, do not be surprised if it decides to grant its nobles the right of the first night!!!
Long live Egypt for Egyptians and by Egyptians.
——–
Original article written by Abdul Rahman Yusuf, was published in Arabi21.com on Saturday, September 5, 2015 under the Arabic title \”القلب الشجاع\” (Braveheart).