Red, White, Black and an Eagle
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Guess what.. yes, I went to the final match for the African cup between Egypt and Cote De Voir. First time for me to attend a football match in the stadium. Actually I’m not that much interested in football. But this time it was different. I don’t know exactly what was different. All I know is I found myself watching the matches and searching for tickets everywhere.
Got the ticket, unfortunately from the black market. Wish I didn’t get it that way, but there was no other way. Was going with my friend and her colleagues from work. It was a very good company. I seriously couldn’t believe what I’m seeing. Countless number of people, doing the same thing, wearing the same colors, saying the same things, holding same things. All categories of people, different way of thinking, different backgrounds, different standards. All were there.
Couldn’t stop my mind from analyzing what’s going on around me, even analyzing why am I here?!! To be honest, I didn’t have a clear idea why I went. I don’t like football, my parents were totally against it, none of my family is that of a big football fan. Still I had that urge deep inside me to go. Was it for supporting Egyptian players?! Is it because I’m Egyptian?! Don’t know. Don’t know even if we were all there for the sake of Egypt?!
A lot of people around me thought it’s a trivial thing. It means nothing, and it only reflects that people are trivial. But I strongly disagree, though I can’t say why, I can’t know why I felt happy. The only thing I can point out was, I’m happy all these people gathered doing one thing, even if this thing is meaningless, it definitely reflects something.
I waked up today, searched the symbolism of the colors of our flag. I had a previous vague idea about the symbolism, but wanted to recheck. What I found more or less was the same that I knew. But I don’t know why I looked at it in a more general way. I believe that the red color represents all those who died defending their country. The black represents the time where injustice was dominant, and oppression of people (whether it’s over or not yet). White represents prosperity and optimism, whether it’s achieved or not yet. The eagle represents strength.
However, in that particular moment, through all what’s happening around me, I have totally different idea of the colors. The Red represents those victims of the Salam 98 ship, especially that only today we knew that one of my father’s friends was on it. The Black represents what going on about those Danish cartoons. The White represents winning the African cup of football. The eagle represents the strength of Egyptian people to handle all that, all the contradictions happening, it reflects their capability to unite and defend their rights.
P.S. If interested that's the link for Samira's song.. Beautiful meaningful lyrics. I love the song.
posted by MoonLightShadow at 1:40 PM, | 
2 Comments:
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The song is meaningful...love the way you associated our current issues to the flag colors. Although I always had this issue with the flag..ya3ni come on it is not like the lebanese for instance..something that represents them only..but ours has not a unique character!!
Nerro, actually I don't like or dislike the flag. Of course would like it if it represents a unique character, however, still the current flag represents us whether it is a unique character or not.