Rapture to my ears, honey to my soul … when that lady sings “Ya Habeebi”. To those who are fond of this Arab icon know who I am talking about by now, two words … that is all you need to say to run sweet chills across the spines of who have witnessed the phenomenon that Um Kulthum is, or of those who have never seen her magic on stage-like myself- but rather in the eyes of the elder generation, but the experience is not whole yet until you bless yourself with a long thoughtful night in the honorable presence of her thick voice and well composed music taking your thoughts on a journey to a time when one song united a nation, two decent, honest, and simple words left thousands glorifying her name “’Azamah ‘ala ‘azamah ya sit”; “Glory Oh Glorious Lady” … why?
“Ya Habibi” quite literally means “O’ my Beloved”, and I can’t find anything more Arab and more sincere to shout out of the top of my relinquished lungs and amid my teary eyes in honor and respect to the Tunisian and Egyptian people. The scope of my vocabulary is limited when it comes to describing “The revolution of the Jasmine” in Tunisia, unfortunately you will have to wait a couple of weeks at least for me to learn new superlatives to at least attempt –and eventually fail- to draw a wordily picture that can rightfully reflect the magnificence and significance of such a revolution. For years I have believed unwaveringly that the intensity of an event determines the quality and quantity of lessons to be delivered in light of the respective event, and boy did we see a lot, but boy? Have learned anything?
The Egyptian people, descendants of Sa’d Zaghloul, children of Um Kulthum and the eyes that the words of Najeeb Mahfouz and Taha Husein found light through have sung endlessly of freedom, unity and about a peasant David knocking out a tyrant Goliath, songs and chants that are archived under “fiction” in my head and found at the bottom shelves when looked up, but the past week have urged me to conduct a massive “make-over” for my cerebral library, a hard job that I am actually happily willing to do! Because these few days, the builders of the pyramids have risen once again, the wide-shouldered men and wide-hipped women of the fertile Delta have given birth not for one more hungry mouth added to the other 80 million hungry mouths waiting to be fed, but to a revolution … 30 years in bone-shattering labor!
For some reason, my friends assume that I am a political analyst (which I am not, really no!) I am not Egyptian, nor am I Tunisian yet people would always want to hear my views on the situation and I spent a considerable amount of time explaining and ranting about what I think and what I heard and theorized while sipping my coffee in front of my TV screen and on my facebook live feed page and realized that the only thing I am sure of and believe in is the fact that you do not have to be a political analyst or an Egyptian/Tunisian to have a say in what is going on … you only have to be human with feelings, heart and mind to recognize and understand the atrocities that have been committed by corrupt regiments around the world, what greed and dishonesty have lead us to these days, that is all you need.
I am proud of Tunisia today, and I am proud of the Egyptian people today and hopefully I will be proud of Egypt in the near future. With that said, I can’t wait for Palestine to be proud again. Don’t get me wrong here I am the most damn proud Palestinian you will ever meet, shamefully I admit that my contributions and sacrifices are irrelevant and approach zero when compared to what my fellow Palestinians have to done to make the dream of a Palestinian state one step closer to becoming a reality yet I hope that we Palestinians can learn today’s lessons in unity because the lessons that we Palestinians have taught in unity have been forgotten for some time now and need a good knock or two to refresh our memories, remember that the power of one is only strong when this “one” is the “many”. What have I learned? … When there is a will, there is a way. Change is here, change is eminent. United we stand, divided we fall.
Today, people have the say. Today and everyday from now on will be a triumph for the poor, the unprivileged, for the human living inside each and every one who believes in freedom, and the power of the people. Today, the characters in all the Egyptian comics and novels have triumphed, the slumdogs of Cairo, the Sheikhs of Azhar, the Monks of Aswan, the night-girls of October 6th street, and all the light-hearted old boys of Nahawand’s café in Tunis have all … ALL… equally emerged victorious today, kudos to them and woe betide the corrupt and inhumane.
I wonder what would Um Kulthum sing tomorrow? A’ ghadan A’lqak? (“Will I see you tomorrow”) … probably not Mubarak, but surely a new Egypt.
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