I’m an urban boy. I love big cities with their fumy exhausts, historical monuments, rude people, wide wealth gaps, disgusting public transportation and chic restaurants. After the excruciating process of taking my IGCSE examinations this May in Cairo where the sirens and whistles are sometimes too loud for you to be able to think, I decided to visit my grandma in Alexandria which contrasts with Cairo the way New Jersey contrasts with New York.
After visiting the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Alexandria museum of Art and watching The Hangover 3 in a local cinema, I decided that what I was missing was yoghurt slush, a drink Alexandria is notoriously known for, on one of the rustic cafes located right by the Mediterranean. The experience was one of immense delightfulness as the scent of salt air surrounded me all over. When the waiter brought over the yoghurt slush, I said ‘merci’ instead of ‘shukran’ and expected a moment of awkwardness. Weirdly enough, I was treated to ‘De Rien’. One thing led to another and soon enough we were talking. The young waiter of twenty-something apparently spoke three languages, went to law school and ended up working as a waiter because he couldn’t find a job and the entry level salary for lawyers was less than that of a waiter.
As I walked home, I couldn’t help but wonder about the Egyptian social system. Law school graduates from my social class, which your average sociologist will define as upper middle class, graduate from college and are supported by their parents throughout until they reach that point in their lives when they are finally ready enough to support themselves. That got me thinking, has the caste system or income discrimination really been eliminated or are we merely living a more discreet form of it? Is success in the world truly based on personal achievement alone, or are the depths of our parents’ or our own pockets the real deciders of whether we shall make it or break it in our futures?
Unemployment rates, nationwide, may be on the rise but that isn’t stopping everyone who society defines as ‘rich’ or ‘classy’ from effortlessly landing jobs through family connections with the C.E.O. of a multinational company or the renowned dentist who plays golf with one’s father in the community club. Could this be the root cause of the slackness, laziness and plain failure that is the ubiquitous complaint in most of workplaces today?
To everyone’s misfortune, the issue doesn’t just affect the individual in question, but the other person who was worthy of the job but didn’t have enough contacts, and more importantly, the economy as a whole bending in his or her favor. This is what has lead to the failure of our society today.
Why don’t we treat everyone for the assets that they bring to society rather than for the surnames, since they’re such an obvious indication of where we come from? Isn’t that what made first world countries become what they are today? Sure, if we’re taking Egypt as an example, even though it is my understanding that issues of the sort occur elsewhere as well, a huge part of the reason that upper middle class individuals are picked over those of a lower social class is the fact that upper middle class individuals are actually higher educated, but isn’t that to blame on the dismal conditions of public education in most third world countries? It all goes back to corruption, which is an issue I’ll be addressing later this summer.
It is not an unheard of notion- you eliminate caste and society will become a better place. Survival of the fittest is how the world was meant to be, not survival of the richest!
After visiting the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Alexandria museum of Art and watching The Hangover 3 in a local cinema, I decided that what I was missing was yoghurt slush, a drink Alexandria is notoriously known for, on one of the rustic cafes located right by the Mediterranean. The experience was one of immense delightfulness as the scent of salt air surrounded me all over. When the waiter brought over the yoghurt slush, I said ‘merci’ instead of ‘shukran’ and expected a moment of awkwardness. Weirdly enough, I was treated to ‘De Rien’. One thing led to another and soon enough we were talking. The young waiter of twenty-something apparently spoke three languages, went to law school and ended up working as a waiter because he couldn’t find a job and the entry level salary for lawyers was less than that of a waiter.
As I walked home, I couldn’t help but wonder about the Egyptian social system. Law school graduates from my social class, which your average sociologist will define as upper middle class, graduate from college and are supported by their parents throughout until they reach that point in their lives when they are finally ready enough to support themselves. That got me thinking, has the caste system or income discrimination really been eliminated or are we merely living a more discreet form of it? Is success in the world truly based on personal achievement alone, or are the depths of our parents’ or our own pockets the real deciders of whether we shall make it or break it in our futures?
Unemployment rates, nationwide, may be on the rise but that isn’t stopping everyone who society defines as ‘rich’ or ‘classy’ from effortlessly landing jobs through family connections with the C.E.O. of a multinational company or the renowned dentist who plays golf with one’s father in the community club. Could this be the root cause of the slackness, laziness and plain failure that is the ubiquitous complaint in most of workplaces today?
To everyone’s misfortune, the issue doesn’t just affect the individual in question, but the other person who was worthy of the job but didn’t have enough contacts, and more importantly, the economy as a whole bending in his or her favor. This is what has lead to the failure of our society today.
Why don’t we treat everyone for the assets that they bring to society rather than for the surnames, since they’re such an obvious indication of where we come from? Isn’t that what made first world countries become what they are today? Sure, if we’re taking Egypt as an example, even though it is my understanding that issues of the sort occur elsewhere as well, a huge part of the reason that upper middle class individuals are picked over those of a lower social class is the fact that upper middle class individuals are actually higher educated, but isn’t that to blame on the dismal conditions of public education in most third world countries? It all goes back to corruption, which is an issue I’ll be addressing later this summer.
It is not an unheard of notion- you eliminate caste and society will become a better place. Survival of the fittest is how the world was meant to be, not survival of the richest!
-Adam Ashraf
Untouchability, a solemn critique of the now outlawed Indian caste system by prominent artist and former Dalit (or 'Untouchable') Savi Savarkar
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