The Shuttle "Discovery" of the Egyptian Mass Media

I cannot resist giving our blessed Egyptian mass media some good time whenever possible. I just cannot resist the temptation to sing the praises and acknowledge how lucky we are. Egyptian media are so smart and need to be challenged all the time.

US astronaut Stephen Robinson carried out a risky repair to Discovery, pulling out two ceramic fibers that experts feared could have caused the shuttle to overheat when it returns to Earth. The operation was made successfully with no hitch.

American TV stations are interrupting their broadcast to bring live miraculous pictures from space. Everyone is so happy and proud of what is going on in the space after 2 and half years of interruption following Colombia. Pictures showing from space were incredible.

Egyptian TV and radio stations are interrupting for a four hour informative live transmission showing President Mubarak inaugurating a bridge. I am not so sure that this “inaugurating bridge” concept is deemed relevant and clear enough to everyone reading this blog. This is the sad reality in which we (Egyptians) are living. We learned about the process of inaugurating a street, pedestrian sidewalk, red light traffic and tuna cans. You name it and Mubarak inaugurates it.

Dangling at the end of a 17.7 meters long robotic arm with a hacksaw and forceps, Robinson became the first astronaut to carry out a spacewalk beneath the shuttle during orbit. He easily pulled out the two problematic protruding pieces of ceramic fiber under the nose of Discovery within minutes of each other.


The shuttle travels at about 26,500 kilometers per hour into the atmosphere, pushing temperatures on the shuttle skin to 1,370 degrees Celsius during reentry. For Mubarak’s parades to cross one of Cairo’s streets, thousands of soldiers have to mass up in lines since morning under the burning sun, even if he is going to do his errand at the end of the day. Two-hour is the minimum time to be stuck in your car until the President ends his errand.

While American viewers keep watching every second their space shuttle taking off to the space, we (Egyptians) keep counting how many Mercedes Benz and BMWs are moving as the President’s parade drives to its destination paralyzing Cairo. It is the most popular joke in Cairo when there is too much traffic to hear Egyptians say “Where did He go today?” If you are smart enough and you have urgent errands to run, you‘d better follow or predict the route to get things done.

Space shuttles take off to the space while we watch our ailing Arab leaders taken to their graves if not going to paralyze our lives with their errands.

Mostafa sent this link to share from NASA.gov. Thanks