The Big Debate

(Ouch, that's gotta hurt..., the red
bits are there to keep all this
legit...)

Salaams,

There is a debate which is sweeping through the middle-east and much of the subcontinent. It is breaking up families, people are refusing to speak to others and many an argument is taking place discussing this issue, the issue which is...


Is Wrestling real or fake...????


No, I kid you not. Whilst I was in Bangladesh and I used to go to random cafe's and shops in the bazaars with my cousins, I noticed that alongside the standard news, soccer and other sports, WWF Wrestling (as it was known back in my day) was an Extremely popular programme with the locals, getting them cheering and jeering away for their favourate guys, and drooling over the ladies.

This too seems to be the case in Egypt. Quite often you see groups of 20 to 30 kids, teenagers as well as grown men, transfixed on the TV set in the cafe's watching oiled up grown men "fight" each other. Considering quite a few of these guys might be...batting for the other side...I guess we shouldn't be too surprised by this. Also recently though they've introduced female wrestling which basically consists of ex models (usually of an adult nature) wearing skimpy clothes "fight" each other.

Back in the day I myself aged around 10 (note this age), used to watch WWF wrestling, back in its heydey when The Hulk Hogan was in his prime,The Ultimate Warrior was kicking butt and The Undertaker was Awesome (as opposed to the camp Biker he is now - a warning to any ladies, these links contain semi-naked men...) but now from what I've seen, it seems to have gone very Soap Opera like, with all these "background" stories telling you about who is doing what, who is sleeping with whos wife etc and it just seems to have sold itself and become too commercial. Very unfortunate.

Anyway with this current level of high interest, at some point someone must have suggested that the "fighting" isn't actually real and since then this debate has been raging. During my time in Bangladesh and Egypt, unfortunately I've often been put on the spot a few times and asked if the wrestling is real. And unfortunately I have had to oblige to the truth and tell them all that it is actually FAKE (yes!! It's NOT REAL...I swear, the look on some of these guys' faces when I told them this...some of them seemed like they were about to cry!)

I thought all the above was quite funny to be honest..that's the power of TV I guess.

Anyway regarding me, Thursday was a sad day as it signaled the end of my Arabic studies. It's been along and hard five months, but alhamdulillah I've got through it (and who knows? I might have actually learnt a thing or too). So the last few day I've just been relaxing in Cairo. I was supposed to go to Sharm-el-Sheikh today but after much thought I decided not to go. Everyone I talked to seemed to warn me about it saying it was basically like going to the beach in a western country but the final straw was the possibility of having to put up with topless bathers when I thought maybe it's not for me..So instead I'm going to go to Alexandria on Tuesday and spend a few days there and then maybe go onto Siwa.

The seven month road seems to be coming to an abrupt end as I will be back in the UK in the middle of June...but I think I have definitely got the traveling bug and somehow I don't think this will be my last extended trip.

Anyway remember me in your dua's and I'll see some of you soon inshaAllah

Salaam