The sin of Humanity´s vanishing adventure.


I really do not consider a sin to deliver oneself to the delights of the body (when no harming of innocents is in the equation) or to think for oneself (as many religions/political systems tend to tell us, direct or indirectly).
I find the notion of sin (hey, I am a catholic raised girl, after all…no good can come of pretending none of it influenced me cause it, clearly, did) most connected with evilness intended to hurt others or ourselves. I find sin in stubborn stupidity that rejects the idea of listening to other´s points of views, the sin of cherished envy, ugly competition that prefers to cut the opponent´s legs instead of surpassing its own limits, the sin of racism, prejudices that hurt till one´s heart bleeds and so on. Damn, we are prolific in the sin´s department!

Yet the deadliest of the sins seems to be, in a crescendo of devastating proportions, the loss of HUMANITY in today´s world. Money and power seem to be the only kings and queens of the day and mere mortals seem to live for them, exploit for them, cheat and kill for them as if they would never die and, therefore, enjoy the riches they so luxuriously gathered to the cost of human lives.

Wars, the planet destruction, the severe world economical crisis are just loud bursts of tears coming out from our own eyes but there are more subtle signs of this frightening process of Humans becoming machines, machines taking the place of humans, human relationships turned into convenience stores where Love, Passion, true Friendship, consciousness and loyalty to the heart seem to be dismissed as naïf stupidity of the past.

On my way back to Cairo, I stumbled into two small – and revealing – details that did not go unnoticed to my radar. The service once offered by employees of the airline´s companies is now made, in some cases, by machines. Unemployed people are staying at home in deep despair while dead objects we call computers do their job. Yes, it is practical and faster but a sign of the dark times we are preparing for ourselves. When computers and machines take the jobs of human beings, they also take our contact with each other. Friends do not meet anymore, they chat on the net. People are becoming more and more dispensable as technologies advance and I see no great good coming out of it. Being “connected” with the world, as it is often publicized, should mean more HUMAN CONTACT, more skin on skin, face in front of a dear face, human hands shaping the products with their own unmistakeable magic that no machine can substitute.

Then, on the plain, the most endearing and sad thing happened. I was lucky to be located, by random often lovely destiny – by the side of a Japanese old lady who offered smiles, kind gestures, beauty in all her movements and birds made of paper to everyone around her.
I was delighted to receive her huge, pure smile – not without some strange thought regarding to it…WHY would someone be THAT smiley for no reason?- and even forgot that I am a compulsive “smiler” and naughty “laughter addicted” myself. People who do not know me well may even see me, at first glimpse, as completely nuts because I smile a LOT. For no reason. To everyone that may come my way. And I do LAUGH a lot too. Loud, uncontrolled, childish laughter that irritates to the bones a lot of posh, discreet, diplomatic people. So I should be the last person to feel some kind of strangeness once I received this lady´s open smile. And yet I did. I am not used to it anymore, although Cairo is a city of “smilers” for no reason. That´s one of the things I most love about living and working in the city. It has a HUGE SMILE printed on most of its inhabitants faces. Though it may seem a small, unimportant detail, it dos make a real difference when it comes to daily happiness levels. It may be simple but, certainly, powerful.

This Japanese lady of small stature got me feeling she was a queen when I noticed how kind she was, introducing herself and shaking my hand (only Japanese speaking over there so…Joana! Pull up your non-verbal communication skills to its best use, please!) and going to the point of arranging my food and drink tray as it was handed to me by the hostesses.
Between my usual reading and sleeping sessions on the plane, she stroke me on the shoulder to offer me two little paper birds she made with her own hands. She pulled part of the bird´s body and the wings started to move. I grabbed the birds and did the same, showing her I knew how to make them fly. This brought her great joy.
When I handed them to her once more, she pulled them in the direction of my chest, offering the word: “Gift for you”. My heart bloomed. I am a sucker for BEAUTY. How many times have I said this?!
The passengers observing the scene started to stare at her and whisper naughty comments on each other´s ears. They thought she was nuts and were not afraid to show it. I just wanted to take her under my wing and protect her from this ugly side of the world which already started to be as cynical to the point of taking kindness for foolishness. Gestures like this are seen as unrealistic, insane, ridiculous and THAT is a sin.

I never got used to the way honesty, courage, dignity, word of honour and loyalty to one´s principles are considered traits of fools and mad people in Egypt. NEVER got used to it. Although many stories about me, and the way I became famous as a dancer, run around the blocks of futile, envious people who know me from nowhere, the truth is that I always had the hardest time because I struggled in a system that promotes body and soul selling to the devil, instead of TALENT, INTELIGENCE, PROFESSIONALISM and DIGNITY. Having paied extremely high prices for my bold way of going against the dirty system, I thought only Egypt had succumbed to the loss of HUMANITY that scares the hell out of me. I was wrong. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention to the world, while I dug deep into Egyptian society, maybe I just didn´t want to see it.

Today it was clear…human beings are being replaced by machines and the treasures that makes us truly HUMAN – compassion, kindness, ability to marvel at the beauties of oneself and others, courage, etc – are taken as signs of lunatics who don´t know better. While humans kills jungles and their indian reserves, the cities become those jungles (without the oxygen and the nature).

I started to look at this Japanese lady as if she was a queen. I FELT she was a queen, while people around us threw looks of pity at her.
The two birds she offered me could be, conveniently, wrapped in themselves and kept between the aromatic pages of a book. I chose to keep them in my heart and, by doing that, trying to save my own Humanity.