obama's speech in cairo (nawal el saadawi)

8/3/2019 Obama's Speech in Cairo (Nawal El Saadawi)

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Obama’s Speech in Cairo

Obama is different as a person to G.W. Bush. Obama looks more

human, but politics and economic interests have nothing to do with

humanity. We live in one world ruled by the capitalist patriarchalreligious system. Power dominates our whole world, not justice or

reedom or peace or ethics or human values. Politics under such a

system is a game based on how to use beautiul words to cover ugly

actions, how to use the power o God to dominate your listeners,

how to select verses rom holy books to hide double standards and

contradictions, how to kill people and rob their land and resources

and then apologize to them with tears in your eyes. We call themin our Egyptian–Arabic language ‘crocodile tears’.

In Cairo, on Thursday, 4 June 2009, Barack Obama spoke to

2,500 Egyptian men and women invited by the Egyptian and US

governments. They were allowed to enter the big hall at Cairo

University surrounded by 13,000 Egyptian and American policemen.

We are 80 million in Egypt, so those 2,500 men and women who

applauded passionately thirty times during Obama’s fty-minutespeech are not the whole of Egypt. They are only the chosen people.

They applauded strongly when he said that Muslim women should

wear the veil i they choose to wear it. As i veiling (or nakedness)

is something to be chosen! As i oppression is something to be

chosen by the oppressed! It’s like saying girls or boys should be



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circumcised i they choose to be circumcised (because they do not

want to be dierent rom others), or like saying the poor people

should be poor i they choose to be poor (because o their lazinessor ignorance).

I read that during the Gaza massacre the Palestinians choose to be

killed (or they kill their children) so that they may appear as victims

and gain sympathy rom the world. I was looking at the television

screen, observing how Obama talks with his hands, eyes and lips.

His lips and hands look less cruel than G.W.’s. His colour is more

attractive, not black, not white, not yellow, a mixture o humanblood and multiple races developed into a more sophisticated human

being. Obama is a creative actor on stage, having learned his text by

heart to sound as i there is no text at all. He is well-trained in being

spontaneous.

Egyptians, Americans and the people of other countries, especially

those chosen by governments, are not creative enough to understand

this type of creativity: how some political leaders acquire what is calledcharisma. The Germans passionately applauded Hitler; the Russians

loved Stalin; the Americans elected G.W. more than once; and Sadat

in Egypt won all elections with no less than 95 per cent o votes. The

most dangerous political leaders are the most charismatic; they make

you sing: ‘Killing Me Sotly’. You sacrice your blood or them.

One o the chosen Egyptian men screamed in the hall while

Obama was giving his speech: ‘I love you ! ’ Obama replied: ‘Thankyou.’ Obama praised the king of Saudi Arabia in his speech, portray-

ing him as a hero o the dialogue between religions! This theocratic

kingdom breeding extremism is democratic? A dictator ally o the

USA can be transormed into a democratic hero. Saddam Hussein

and bin Laden were reedom ghters at one time. Obama praised

Netanyahu by saying that he is intelligent. Indeed, did not describe

any Arab ruler as intelligent, including Mubarak sitting next to him.He did not mention the name o Mubarak in his whole speech. Did

he want to distance himself as a person from himself as the American

president? Did he want to expose or hide his double personality?

But he is sophisticated and understands what is called in psychology



o b a m a ’ s s p e e c h i n c a i r o 1

‘the philosophy o the present moment, how to leave yoursel to the

moment but not leave the moment to itsel’.

Obama’s body language looks natural; he bounds up the planesteps with his hands near his chest, jumping with his body, like

a happy schoolboy going to meet his girlriend. This is not the

American president but Barack Hussein Obama. I saw his speech on

television and read it twice more to grasp or detect some improve-

ment in US policy. Using beautiul words selected rom the three

holy books, he sounded like the Pope giving his speech in Jordan

some months ago, praising the three religions. He artully used hismiddle name, Hussein, to speak to Muslims, but he knows also

when to hide it as a deormed organ.

Muslims listening to Obama applauded passionately when he

read verses rom the Qur’an. They did not notice the mistake in

his understanding o Surat Al-Isra. It does not say that the three

prophets Moses, Christ, and Muhammad prayed together Lilat Al-

Isra. Egyptian Copts applauded when he spoke about minority rightsin Egypt. Israel applauded when he conrmed that the USA and

Israel are tied eternally by culture (not mutual interests) and when

his voice cracked with emotion when he spoke about the Holocaust,

6 million Jews burned in Germany, their eternal sufferings, and their

right to have a homeland.

Obama did not say that this homeland should have been in

Germany, the country that burned them, or in Europe or in theUSA, or in some other place where there is no people to be killed

and robbed o their homes and land by military orce. He did not

ask Israel to stop its military violence against Palestinian children.

He only asked the Palestinians to stop their violence against Israeli

children. He did not mention the number o Palestinians killed and

tortured by Israel in the last sixty years. He did not ask Israel to

respect previous UN resolutions; he rather asked Israel to stop build-ing new settlements. What about the old settlements that expelled

thousands of Palestinians from their homes? What about settlements

to be built under so-called ‘natural growth’? He asked Palestinians

to orget the past and look orward. Likewise, some days ago in his



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country he asked people to orget the crimes o torture, to orget

the past and look orward.

But what is the unction o the law i it is not to be used toinvestigate and punish criminals who killed or tortured? Obama

shited smoothly rom ethics to politics and interests as i there

was no contradiction. He said the USA has no interest in Iraq’s

resources. He ignored or forgot the Iraq Oil Law forced on the Iraqi

government (which commits the country’s oil to the monopoly o

American companies or thirty years). He mentioned the danger o

Iran owning nuclear power; he did not mention the danger o thenuclear military power o Israel. The real goal o Obama’s speech

was to mobilize the Muslim countries against Islamic extremists, to

open the markets o Islamic countries to American goods under the

so-called development and partnership, to guarantee Saudi and Gulf

oil and other American interests in the so-called Middle East.

Egyptian people suered because o Obama’s visit to Cairo.

Thousands o students did not attend their schools or universitiesand delayed their exams. They were closed by the government or

security reasons during Obama’s visit. Michelle Obama did not

accompany her husband to Egypt and stayed in the USA to be with

their two daughters during school exams. Many streets in Cairo were

closed by the police and many people could not go to work, losing an

estimated $20 million. The Egyptian government spent $500 million

on the security of Obama, deployed 10,000 policemen and hundredso police cars. Egyptian people were ordered to stay at home and

not to open their windows in all areas visited by Obama, including

the Pyramid region, Giza, Ain Shams, Helwan, Cairo University,

certain ministries, Al Kalaa, Sultan Mosque, Kasr Al Kobbaa, and

all streets leading to these areas and more.

Normal lie in Cairo stopped. Streets were empty; people were

prisoners in their homes. Nobody was allowed near Cairo Univer-sity while Obama was delivering his speech, except or thirteen

American men and women who were allowed to make a show o

demonstration at the university gate, shouting slogans asking Obama

to visit Gaza. Those thirteen Americans were allowed by the police

to demonstrate. They, then, are the opposition, the dissidents, in



o b a m a ’ s s p e e c h i n c a i r o 11

democratic Egypt, while the real Egyptian dissidents are either in

prison or outside Egypt. But politics is a game to be played by all

parties. Only thirty minutes ater Obama’s plane took o, the poorEgyptian workers were in the streets were removing the articial

fowers and trees planted everywhere to welcome the demi-god o

the world.

5 June 2009

obama's speech in cairo (nawal el saadawi)

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