It’s clear from the number of letters I received that the British Airways’ decision to suspend its flights to Cairo has left many Egyptians feeling humiliated!
From the volume of letters, it’s also clear that many Egyptians wish that the Egyptian state would react as much as the company did!
The decision to suspend flights for a week would have brought no comments from us if it had a convincing reason and also if it had come at a normal time, not while Cairo was celebrating with its African brothers its success in organizing the African Championship.
There would have been no room for objection!
But when this comes without introductions, without warning, and in timing of celebrations of the championships, this brought on the humiliation I saw in every word of every message that came to me, since I approached the subject in an earlier column!
Those who felt insulted hoped that the state’s relevant agencies would have advised the government to take action, so that London would understand that Egyptians are not ones would accept this sort of treatment.
That was their hope and still is.
And this comes about not to cause problems with the English people, but for the purpose of reciprocity and to send a message saying that we will not start an attack on anyone, unless they started first!
Take Samir Takla, for example, an Egyptian living in the British capital for 50 years, who sent me a one-line message saying: “Egypt has prestige, if the government does not keep it, then no one will take care of it!”
Ashraf Mahmoud wrote: “I have experiences with the English people indicating that we should not let go any action from their part against us, without following a similar procedure that says, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
Another reader, Dr. Mohamed Sheta seemed very angry over what happened. He sent a message saying that our government did not respond adequately to the decision to suspend flights, and they fell short from claiming their rights.
If the government had forgotten that Britain occupied our land, looted our wealth, contaminated Alameen with landmines, planted Israel on our borders, and helped establish the Muslim Brotherhood borders, we’re now reminding them of all of this!
Sheta has a proposal to the government, which is to start from today procedures to receive compensation from England for what was looted during the occupation, and their debts to us before the revolution.
He is very enthusiastic about the proposal and calls on civil society organizations to adopt it if the government fails, and believes that the moral victory in this is more important than the materialistic!
I’m enthusiastic and support this.
Kuwait received from Iraq days ago US$270 million as the first batch of compensation for months of occupation, so just how much would we receive for being occupied for seven decades?
