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Monday, May 08, 2006

'Unified Call' To What?

Moved on! Check TheCairoCalls

The ministry of Endowments (which is responsible for religion...still not registering why!) had been discussing this project forever, and now they're saying they're about to implement it:
When the project starts, a single muezzin chosen for the quality of his voice will make the call to prayer from a central location and the call will be transmitted directly to loudspeakers at the top of the city's thousands of minarets.

I agree with this government project for a change. But, I have an Orwellian concern: What if somebody, other than the muezzin gets hold of this 'magic' microphone? We're not talking about radio now, which some people have, some don't, and you can never guarantee that even all those who have it are tuned in to the same station at the same time. We're talking about a 'voice' that will be heard all over Egypt in the same instant. The speakers at all the different mosques would be operated remotely. So, if somebody decided to hog the microphone for any reason, all of Egypt would have to hear him!
Now, I can understand how tight the security would be around this 'blessed' microphone, but what if the government is the one who will abuse it. They can start be playing nationalistic songs in national days, and then move one to broadcasting messages about how great the achievements of the governments (and the party) are. Then they can have a unified call for us to wake up, and another one to sleep. It can also be used in emergencies like 'outlaws wanting to destabilize the country through riots and demonstrations', by contracting some interior minister assistant to read us our rights as citizens. But, it won't be all bad, happy moments will be shared also. Like Gamal Jr.'s first words, or the harmonic voice of the First Snore.
Now, that's what I call a united nation!

Moved on!

1 Comments:

.. or we will have a goon put on a tape with gay arabic pop music onto it. Ah what the heck, let's have it ;-)

By Blogger The Sphinx, at May 08, 2006 4:13 PM  

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