Egypt in colours

We met with Tamer and Shahira from a group Egypt in Colors مصر بالألوان, a company of fine art students that started their activities the day Hosni Mubarak stepped down. The idea of the group is to bring more colors and art to the streets of Cairo, especially to poorer areas, to boost self confidence of Egyptians by stenciling portraits of famous Egyptian personalities and to bring communities face-to-face or hand-to-brush with art experience.

“If we have to start the change, why don’t we start from the streets of Cairo and changing them into big open gallery for art and colours to add a cheerful, aesthetic and artistic mood to the normal street man. And then we thought not to do that alone what if the people in each neighborhood and street would share in that renovation process…wouldn’t that increase the idea and awareness towards beauty and art and introduce the culture of colours to the street?!”

Check their facebook page for more photos and videos!

With Tamer and Shahira

Group "Egypt in Colours" were painting portraits of prominent Egyptian personalities

Mural in one of the neighborhoods in Cairo

One of the first murals painted in El Maadi neighbourhood (courtesy of Egypt in Colours)

A grey wall is painted in El Maadi with the participation of all neighborhood (courtesy of Egypt in Colours)

Support us on Indiegogo fundraising campaign!

Dear MAD project followers and friends,

Indiegogo campaign – here is finally the best and easiest way to give us a DONATION. Our Egyptian flatmate and friend, Ahmed Zeidan, a talented young filmmaker, has shot and edited this fundraising video. For those who have missed us or who do not even know how we look and sound like, this is your greatest opportunity ever!

Please check this out and all you have to do after 3 awesome minutes, is to click “CONTRIBUTE NOW” and don’t hesitate to encourage your friends on facebook, twitter, google+ and in person to help us out!

Marahaba mendji, mille mercis, aciu, spasibo, thank you, terimakasih, shukran, tak!

Yours, the M.A.D Couple

Egyptian revolution gave birth to street art

Today is the official start of our research into “Egypt. Revolution. Art”. We strolled the streets of downtown Cairo and Zamalek island to document the numerous graffitis that appeared during and after the revolution. It is safe to say that before the revolution street art almost did not exist in Egypt.

We discovered that many of the graffitis were already painted over or “vandalized”, and not all the people were very welcoming of us taking so many photos. Our friends explained to us that this is due to big fear of foreign spies who might want to damage the fragile victory of the revolution. Well, we tried to be fast and not to look suspicious, which is difficult with two cameras in our hands

We knew where to look for numerous graffitis thanx to this brilliant website with the map.

Here, just a few photos out of 300 that we took today, stay tuned!

"I am free" - mural on the wall of the Art School

Funky soldier

"I am Egyptian" - says the tree

Respect Existence or Expect Resistance, Graffiti by Keizer

Eugenija, one of the M.A.D. couple. Strolling Zamalek streets

Culture of resistance: Olive trees

Olive trees have a very special place in Palestinian culture: it is a vital source of income, it is a part of daily meal, it is symbol of peace, hope and prosperity. Many of the olive trees were witnesses to historical events as some of them count around 2000-3000 years. At the time of Israeli occupation, Olive trees also became a symbol of steadfastness of Palestinians – Sumud: as olive trees are deeply rooted in Palestinian land, so are Palestinians.

Israel government has been pursuing policy of cutting or uprooting olive trees in Palestine for what they claim are security reasons. As of now more than 1.2 million trees were destroyed since 1967. Moreover, Palestinian farmers face violent attacks from settlers who aim at preventing farmers to plant, take care or harvest the olive trees.

You can help the Palestinian cause by planting your own olive tree. Read more about great campaign and sponsor an olive tree just for few bucks here: http://www.jai-pal.org/content.php?page=1

Olive trees resisting the occupation

Mission (Im?)possible: Palestine

Since the beginning of our M.A.D.ventures we have been anticipating to get to Palestine. We were excited to go there and collect information about artistic expressions of Palestinians, so we can talk about it as part of our educational tour in Europe, and we were also worried, as we expected our travel to Palestine not to be smooth.

Everything would have been easy for our visit to Israel if not for our background of being involved in development work and recently traveling in Muslim majority countries, signaling of something else – these two guys are not interested in Israel, they are heading to Palestine. It is no secret, that Israeli border control refuses entry to many people especially if they suspect travelers to be activists, or intend to work with an NGO in Palestine.

Knowing this we have started our mental preparation long time before we booked tickets: we thought of credible stories, for example, that we wish to learn more about Israeli culture, or that we are dancers who want to explore folk jewish dances, filmmakers interested in spiritual arts of orthodox jewish community, we even considered to pretend to be birdwatchers coming for a seminar on migrating birds. At the end we decided to tell half of the truth: we are interested in arts and culture. No specifications.

Then came the physical preparation: “cleaning” our computers of any mention of Palestine, hiding our blog posts that would give a hint to our real intentions, going through google results on our names, working out facebook privacy settings, scrutinizing our photo and video archives, and carefully planning luggage. At some point, I had a feeling we are spies preparing for a mission. Never before I would have thought art and culture can prevent me from entering a country…

As both Malaysia and Indonesia do not maintain diplomatic relationship with Israel, it was difficult to get a cheap flight to Tel-Aviv from there, so we decided to fly to Cairo and catch a morning bus to border with Israel. And so we did… Our first troubles started still in Egypt, as on the way beduins blocked the road with burning tyres as a protest for some political reasons that we could not figure out without basic arabic skills. At that moment we thought our trip would be over before it started. After an hour of negotiation and arrival of Egyptian military, we passed through.

Burning tyres on the road from Cairo to Israel

Our next trouble was, of course, on the Israeli border. The mood was not welcoming at all as a young female israeli soldier looked at my passport and threw it aggressively on a table. “Here we go…” – I anticipated long questioning. We passed one by one through metal detector while our bags “drove” through scanning machine. And the “interrogation” started: Kamal was called aside by two young Israeli soldiers, while a third one was standing in such a way so he could hear what Kamal says and see me together with Heather – an american who joined us for travel – waiting patiently and chatting on the bench. It makes it more difficult to pass the Israeli border for Kamal, obviously being both from African and Muslim background does not help. The Israeli soldiers focused their interrogation on him: what is you grandfather’s name, what are you doing here, why did you go to Malaysia, do you know somebody in Israel, do you celebrate Ramadan, what about Christmas, are you going to meet the Palestinian authorities, how do you know each other and so on, and on, and on…. My turn was next, I felt calm, and tried to smile to release tension, but my smiles were not answered… I started to get nervous after questioning: the soldiers were whispering between themselves, my bag was separated from the others and kept aside by another soldier, and our passports were…. I could not see where they were! The feeling of the unknown was getting on my nerves.

After some waiting, the soldiers announced that we can proceed. I smiled as I thought “We did it!”. My happiness did not last long: a soldier called me to open my bag. As she started to take things out I suddenly saw it! The brochure from Malaysia with photos of colourful soap bars and big letters – Palestinian soap from Nablus. My legs were heavy… She continued to take things out as I prayed that the traitorous paper is left unnoticed. I guess my prayers were answered: the soldier turned away, I grabbed the paper and put it in a different purse… As I was zipping my backpack I could feel how visibly my hands were shaking… I hope that was it: they questioned us, they checked our bags, they gave back our passports and we will just need to get the stamp.

However, there was another round of questioning same questions again, same cold response to our smiles and jokes, suspicious looks and constant checking with something secret in computer monitors. And then again border control officers disappeared with our passports in their hands. And again long waiting in the empty hall filled only with the echo of “Gangster’s paradise” song by Coolio, which Heather declared as a proper soundtrack for the atmosphere. And then the third questioning round followed – this time we were invited one by one in a small room by an immigration officer. Three rounds of questioning by four different people! As the clock hand moved towards 9 p.m. and we counted almost three hours at the Israeli border, our passports were finally given to us with the first smile and “welcome to Israel”.

Photos take on a checkpoint from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The Israeli border somehow looked similar

Receiving our passports, we were rushing out, gasping for a relief from fresh air and trying to get away from the wave of sickening feelings: 18-19 year old soldiers, almost kids! with heavy weapons around them and steel look from under their eyebrows… We felt intimidated and disrespected, treated like we were criminals smuggling guns (in fact, it was just some soap bars from Nablus, Palestinian city) and we wondered – is this the same kind of intimidation Palestinians face from Israeli soldiers?

More photos from the road trip here.

From Holocaust to Naqba

This text was written by Kamal just a month before the bombing of Gaza on 27th of December 2008. Today, three years later, it is still relevant, as the oppression of Palestinians goes on. 

During my time in Jerusalem, I visited the Holocaust Museum located at the foot of Mount Herzl. From that impressive building, people can enjoy the green forest and the red roof: a symbol of the Zionist settlement. One needs the entire day or maybe two to get the full experience of the whole museum. Four hours were more than enough for me to realize the Tragedy. I of course knew about that terrible period of our European history but being in Jerusalem, in that museum, seemed to me a kind of pilgrimage, a repentance for something I am not even responsible for. I just felt ashamed being a human being, there is something sick about us, isn’t it?

Jews have been often persecuted, the Holocaust was just the consequence of our silence. Other people and nations were massacred too, (Indians, Africans for example) but it did not create such an impact on people’s mind. Why? Maybe they just don’t know how to express their pain or maybe their suffering is simply ignored. The Jews are surely the first ones to denounce their murderers in a such efficient way and the ones who know how to raise awareness among people, even if it’s sometimes discussable.

So my four hours in that shiny and very modern museum made me realize how a human being can be. I hold many times my tears by reading the goodbye letters of the victims to their families. I had stomach pains by watching and listening to the stories of the survivors. I was paralysed by watching the mass killings and terrorized to see millions of German citizens and other European ones (from France to Lithuania) being directly part of the Genocide. Maybe I would have been part of it as well…Who knows? After all, those who participated in the massacre were simple citizens like you and me. It`s worth to think about it. One can say that this is part of our past now but the truth is we did not learn so much from it. Today, 10th of December 2008 it is the celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 60 years!!! In 1948, the World said never again, reffering to the Holocaust and other human right abuses. Since then other genocides have been committed  (Rwanda, Srebrenica, Darfour…), with the deafening silence of the International Community, indirectly or directly responsible of the tragic events. To conclude on that point, no one can get out of Yad Vashem (Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes for Remembrance Authority) without being emotionally and intellectually moved. The museum is not only a remembrance or a memorial of the Jewish tragedy but a warning and a desperate call to return to our Humanity.

The Holocaust museum bears something very ironical though. It is built in Jerusalem, in Israel where an other cleansing took place three years after the end of the second world war and in the year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.The year 1948 is the year of Al-Naqba (catastrophe-disaster). Al-Naqba is for Palestinians what the Holocaust is for Jews. The number of victims is inferior though but the suffering is the same for Palestinians. In that year more than 800 000 Palestinians were uprooted from their land by military force. Thinking that it was just a matter of days, they only took their keys or identity cards. 6o years later they are still waiting for their right to return. Some of them are refugees in their own country, others are spread in the neighbouring countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt) and a minority is spread in Europe, South America and other parts of the world. The most unfortunate ones were just killed. The majority of Palestinian families suffers from at least the loss of a parent or relative.

One can say we cannot compare the Holocaust to the Naqba because of the number of death which is much higher for the Jews. It would be a fair argument but a genocide or an ethnic cleansing is not defined by the number of deaths but by its intentions or goals. The fact is what happened in 1948 before the eyes of the International Community is purely an ethnical cleansing and this crime still goes on until now and always with the silence and support of our governments. Palestinians houses and villages are still destroyed, displacing thousands of families with one and unique purpose: get rid of the Palestinians and establish a pure Jewish state, after all it is their “Promised Land”. Different reasons are given for house demolitions: target terrorists, punitive reason, military operation, lack of building permit etc, this is what they are calling, transfer by will, meaning that Palestinians will of course just leave by themselves after such harrasments. Since demolition is not efficient enough to reach their goals, they multiply the checkpoints, outside the occupied territories but also inside, for security reasons, they say but we know it is to make Palestinian`s life unbearable so that they leave the country. Meanwhile they keep murdering civilians, not in a big number of course, by fear to alarm the world and risk an international intifada (uprising) but they kill them little by little, today 10, tomorrow 36, the day after 50 and so on, always giving a good reason for their inhumane behaviour. The numbers of Palestinian refugees is estimated now at 7 000 000. 2 out of 5 refugees worldwide is Palestinian. It is the largest group of refugees over in the world.

So how can the victims of yesterday can become the murderers of today? Did they forget their own suffering and humiliations? Ok, not all Israelis are involved in those crimes but by their deafening silence, they are also responsible of what is going on in their own country. The few Israeli human rights organisations that I’ve met here feel sorry and lonely in their struggle and they are loosing hope by facing such a passive attitude. And what about the International Community? Total silence again. Human rights organisations from Israel and Palestine and Palestinians themselves don`t count on them anymore. Hypocrisy is what characterizes them the most. All those people involved sincerely in the peace process count on Us, on simple citizens from the Western world. The South Africans got rid of the Apartheid system thanks to their admirable struggle of course but also thanks to the International actlvists who were pressing their own governments. The humiliations, dehumanisation and killings of Palestinians won`t affect their will to become free and their will to get a just peace which respects the rights of all people in the region. As long as the occupation goes on, the Palestinians, people of dignity and patience will remain “Sumud”, steadfast. We are obliged to act and honor our values and our essence as Human beings.

Soldiers in the old city of Hebron. The street, declared by peace activists and palestinians as "the Apartheid street" is separated in two. On the left side only Israelis and soldiers can walk, on the right side is a path for Palestinians.

 

The wall is not only separating Israelis from Palestinians, but also Palestinians from Palestinians

 

East Jerusalem, part of Palestine. Israeli settlers setting their marks of power on the buildings they occupy illegally

 

Israeli checkpoint within the Palestinian territory, occupied both by Israeli soldiers and settlers

 

Street of Hebron, that became a ghost city due to the arrival of around 500 illegal Israeli settlers and 2000 soldiers, forcing around 13000 Palestinians, owners of the houses here, to flee their homes

What happens when C.C. goes M.A.D.? A new partnership is born!

Discussing M.A.D. ideas

Since the arrival of the M.A.D. project in Kuala Lumpur we were in good hands of local organisation, Crescent Collective: they hooked us up with their impressive network of musicians, singers, contemporary artists and professionals, they got us to meet some of potential partners and spread the word of the M.A.D. couple in artistic circles of KL. And not to forget to mention: made sure we had the transportation, tasted all those local specialities (oh, that wonderful cake we indulged ourselves with!), gave us space in their offices and unlimited access to internet, and generally spammed our inboxes with dozens events going on in KL and ideas of how M.A.D. can get the M.A.D.est benefit out of the stay in Malaysia.

The M.A.D. couple, as we are called by the guys from Crescent Collective, became eternally overwhelmed by these guys and occasionally exhausted by a busy schedule they have prepared for us. Still wondering, who of us is more M.A.D.?

Our busy schedule

Crescent Collective is a non profit organisation based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Their motto says all you need to know about them: “Come as you are”. Open to anyone joining the group Crescent Collective strives to promote positiveness, peace and humanity. We, the M.A.D. couple, share similar vision and strive to achieve similar goals. No surprise, that we became partners. Partners? Maybe more like a family

After a productive meeting together at Arabic Academy Malaysia we put many M.A.D. ideas on the agenda in order to bring some of the best examples of arts and cultures of Malaysia to Europe. Definitely a great feeling of spending time with like minded people discussing worldly issues at 2 am.

Beware! M.A.D.ness is spreading!

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