/tagneed/: Arabic word that refers to the process of recruitment into armed forces / Being a soldier
Its rare that I write things about myself, but I thought it would be nice to share a bit. My expereince today excited me to express myself a bit, which is a good thing.
Backgrounder: Military service is compulsory for Egyptian males. The duration is determined by the level of education, the needs of the army and the post (either officer or soldier). Officers spend almost three years and soldiers spend about 14 months. Usually a number of the graduates of scientific majors such as engineering, medicine,....etc are recruited as officers while others are recruited as soldiers. After accomplishing the service, the individual remains on call till the age of 30 or 32 (not sure), in case any military threats occurred.
well well well, from where to start?
In a long queue, waiting to give my mobile to the security, these two guys in front of me, talking and joking. The funky guy at some point talked very seriously about how this whole situation is nonsense, "the army should put the results on the internet, same as high school results instead of us lining up here" and the other replied while laughing loudly "or on the face (this renowned fucken abbreviation for facebook), army delivery, hahahaha".
ohhh fucken funny. as i look at them with my sleepy gonflee eyes, i just cant stop thinking, are new Egyptian generations 90% sissy or 92%???
after finally handing over the mobile, weeeeeew, you join the gaaaaang bang.
you get under this huge iron umbrella and take a seat on one of the cold stony tiring benches. all these guys under the same roof, 3000 guys, 6000 eyes, balls and legs, all waiting for one hell of an important decision in their life,......are you going to spend one or three or zero years of your life in the army? are you leaving your family, putting all your professional, romantic, social, ....etc plans on hold and joining this whole new community for a part of your life? is it time to merge into this enormous institution and stop being yourself?
might seem a normal experience for you, but believe me you will unconsciously feel this suspense to know where exactly your life will be.
when you know its time for the army , your live turns grey because simply nothing is determined. everything is a 50% chance. some take it too serious, some just revive this purely egyptian sense of destiny & god's will (kadaa wa kadar). i prefered the second option.
its one of the few moments in life where equality is alive and breathing. for hours, people from totally different backgrounds, all stuck together, waiting for long hours, and having the same chances of either to be recruited or not. you find guys from all types, all sitting there, guys whose confidence comes from their rayban glasses (although we arent sitting under the sun) and their style which reminds me with the guys who surrounded me while taking a brunch the day before at sequoya where everyone is posch and bling bling. but these same guys are currently sitting side to side with guys who cant be except a reminder of how deep and miserable are the problems of this country. contradictions are all around, or maybe its just the diversity of this country, black brown and white; rich, average and poor; adidas, abibos and abibas,....etc (in case you aren't egyptian, abibos is a chinese or a local replica of adidas, same lines and everything, just a d instead of a b)
while waiting for hours for any officer to come out and say anything you think a lot. well, you can speak alot but this implies that you have company, which wasnt my case. in fact, since i did my masters so this promo wasnt mine and knew no one who was applying for the army at the same time. well, anyway, i prefered to think, and mostly wonder about all those around me.
i wondered why we always distinguish between the people and the army, as if they are two different planets. it has been very flagrant after the revolution that we always point it out. arent they simply, me, my brother, my cousin, my friends? is the discipline they learn enough to make them new people, to give them new identity other than civilians? why is it they always look at us very angrily with their eyes, whose looks express disgust out of our disorder, attempts to steal places in the line, on our stupid questions, our desire to keep standing beside friends and not sit down, ...etc?? well, now i see why they are different, and actually i might feel like them in a few time.
but still, a major philosophical question is unanswered, is discipline enough to to give you a new identity? what gives you a new identity? what makes you categorized, a civilan not a military and vice versa, or any other categorization? are these categories even valid??
while sitting down, i also remembered my father's stories about the army. remembered when he was recruited as an officer then downgraded because of his history of political activity as a leader of a leftist radical underground students group. he described me that day when he and two other guys -amongst who was tarek el zomor, one of the guys who assasined sadat a couple of years later- where made soldiers instead of officers. remebered his story about the war reharsal they were having in the desert with live ammunition and when his tank got lost for 13 days till they found them, remembered his story about his tank named fatma, his story about the chemical war test,.... many stories actually.
anyway, as i remembered all these stuff, i kept thinking about the difference between the 70's which was a time of war and now. the stories of my friends about the army were hugely different, obviously they order food delivery in their units, they log on to the internet with their mobiles, they .......enough, they might be fucked up if any military personnel happened to read that.
time goes on with me wondering. on the background there was two distinct voices, the noise you hear in a mall when everyone cant just stop his dam tongue, and the other voice was the music put on. OH MY GOD. nonstop nationalist patriotic 60's style music. cool when you know the song, but i only recognized two out of the hundred displayed. seems they have this internal production of propaganda stuff, or maybe its just tv that have been filtering the songs to air, thanks god it did. some of the songs in the camp seemed like bollywood songs with a very high pitched sharp woman voice coming from far, bizarre music and then u just discover after a few minutes she is singing in arabic. by the way, most of the new songs are simply rubbish, we can talk about this later.
i started getting this feeling i just had the night before after watching the second act of verdi's ernani in the opera: dizzy head, starter of maigrane & a backache. shit, not again.
so quickly, i try to get distracted by anything, you look around and here you go. who is this tasteless bastard who chooses the colour of the banners and posters? and then came to my mind this new poster they have on the vehicles, who the hell designed it? there is this soldier carrying a kid, who is almost falling from between his hands, and from far always it makes u feel the soldier is a cannibal, or holding some dead rabbit in his hand or something.
seriously, they do need some loads of pr, marketing and communication courses, because many of the problems that happened have been caused by serious misunderstanding, miscommunication or lack of precision an ...... well thats not the subject so lets get back to the topic.
now, you got two things to run away from, the music and the posters. one option was to simply go buy a snack to eat
one hilarious thing was this little sign put over the cantine (small snacks kiosque) : Buying is optional and not compulsory. looool. i figured out later, there was this very widespread rumor (apparently inherited by generations), that the name calling wont start unless we finish all the stuff in the store and that they keep us waiting to keep buying all the stock. well, obviously not bcz we were done like 6 hours after and the store was still full with stuff.
the second option was listening to music. luckily, i had my mp3 with me. very naturally, i put on one of my favourite songs, deep purple's sail away and i just discover my instinct led me to the right song at the right time. the lyrics were too perfect for the moment
If you're driftin' on an empty ocean
With no wind to fill your sail
The future, your horizon It's like searchin' for the holy grail
You feel there's no tomorrow
As you look into the water below It's only your reflection
And you still ain't got no place to go
Time will show When, I don't know
Sail away tomorrow Sailin' far away
To find it steal or borrow
I'll be there someday Yeah, yeah
Oh woman, I keep returnin'
To sing the same old song
The story's been told, now I'm gettin' old
Tell me, where do I belong?
Feel like I'm goin' to surrender
Hard times I've had enough
If I could find a place to hide my face I believe, I could get back up
Time will show When, I don't know
Sail away tomorrow Sailin' far away To find it steal or borrow But I'll be there someday Yeah, yeah
Sail away tomorrow Sailin' far away To find it steal or borrow But I'll be there someday Yeah, yeah
Sail away tomorrow Sailin' far away To find it steal or borrow But I'll be there someday Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah
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finally, someone gets in.
a high commander, probably a general speaks and as usual (for me at least), proves again how bad is the army men with talking or arguing. he tries to make things simple and explain the recruitment process based on random choice, with numbers and examples. at some point we just have all our mouth open and at this exact same point he asks : is it possible with all these divisions and equations that anyone interfere in the process?? huh??". and as no one answers a guy volunteers and speaks loudly no sir. luckily he didnt repeat this shit explanation.
but what surprised me again was how at a certain moment he managed to make the people clap for him, actually twice. he finally showed he understands a little bit of communication skills when he spoke away from all the rhetoric stigmatized school shit he had been repeating for over 20 minutes. it shows how although these army guys really need some serious learning, they do have this sense or common back ground with the vast majority of egyptians, and hence manage to make them deserve this mystic legendary image, again luckily.
anyway, the explanation he did seemed to be a part of a new transparency policy. at the beginning of the day they called about 250 candidates who went inside the building and assisted in the whole process, video conference meeting with the high commander head of the department to choose the needed specialization, determine the dates, check on the random i don't know what, ....etc not much for me but still cool
after that, all i remember are lists and lists of names, specializations, birth dates, sit down, stop talking, shut the hell up, no questions now, any questions, noise, laughs, congrats, disgusted looks, tired eyes, sweating faces, and wondering eyes.........etc
well, it was time to know whether i am in and out.
Year 1988
If you arent any of the suspended cases mentioned before, then you shut up and listen. The following dates are to be given a postponement of the service
1 january 1988 till 12 january 1988
19 february 1988 till 25 february 1988
21 april til.......
may....
well thats it, he gave no suspension for the june dudes. i am in. starting april, i will be officially an egyptian army personnel serving a service of 14 months.
Army Army, here I come.
They always say, you get to be a new person after that experience, will i?? probably yes. how will i be? I don't know.
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