NAPOLEON HILL
FOR THE PERSON WHO REFUSES TO STOP FIGHTING.
VICTORY IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE
12 DECEMBER 2011 CAMPUS
THE MOHAMED MAHMOUD EPIPHANIES
By Wessam Sherif
You know we had to overhaul the entire issue? We had to ask for a ginormous amount of favors from our super-fast writers to send us new articles that are relevant to what the country’s going through. Alternatively, you’d be now reading an article about a transsexual cat, I shit you not. Nevertheless, the one subject I actually found gruelingly hard to depict was Tahrir itself; it was either experienced firsthand by a big chunk of people or thoroughly covered by media. Consequently, I questioned the value added of a piece dedicated to the week-long (and hopefully longer) saga. But that was dumb of me, really.
Because you see, unlike our initial 18 day battle, this time we had Mohamed Mahmoud. That changes a lot; the second I stepped into that street I was struck by a myriad of epiphanies that I believe to be well worth sharing. So bear in mind while reading this that this is simply me reflecting on the entire experience from beginning to end. But before delving deeper into my theories on the subject, I’d like to note that I don’t claim to be in any way objective, because that would be a blatant hypocritical lie. I do promise, however, to be empathetic. Causes are defined and honed by struggle As of the 11th of February, we haven’t had an actual fighting front. True we’ve had our skirmishes with the authorities in which heroes were lost, but this time, dumb as they usually are (and fortunately for us), they’ve re-instigated the Jan 25 Tahrir spirit by giving us a front; a place where you can actually head to for battle. They’ve given us a place where exceptional individuals went to happily give their lives in order to resurrect Tahrir. Sadly, sacrifice brought Tahrir back. During the months that followed ousting Mubarak, people had grown accustomed to Tahrir; traffic was no longer affected by sit-ins, the socalled wheel of production was no longer spoken of. The shocker that was Jan 25 had sunk in too well. Add to that our military friends’ sleazy antics, and you’ve got yourself a clusterf*ck. In short, Mohamed Mahmoud re-shocked our collective system into survival mode, and it all snowballed its way to glory from there. St. Fear Every time I approached MM I got the chills, man. It is freaking scary; all you can see is a dark road that echoed incessantly of explosions, plus of course the stench of gas that has grown on us. And every time we set foot in Tahrir, that question loomed, yet again, in the horizon: “Do I go into MM, or do I stick around here where it’s safe?” Brilliant.