Whats the point....?

Question

Ok so i wonder, why do many non-Egyptians come here on Egypt section with false stereotypes, God knows where the ... they got them from and still wanna pay a visit to Egypt???

i mean come on, if i hear a terrible thing about another country, i wouldnt think of going there in the first place.

it always go like that "i'm goin to egypt next month, do people in egypt beat the crap of westerns, do u have killers, do u, do , u bla bla blaaaaaaaaaa
and we always go like, of course not, this is wrong, ur welcome here, so is that what they wanna hear as an extra guarantee of safety in Egypt after planning the whole vacation??

For God's sake, i wouldnt go to Israel section, asking them yupeee i wanna pay u a visit but do u hate Muslims, are u gonna hate me....?!!!

asking a question for confirming or correcting the image we have is ok, but already booking a flight then asking will i be killed in ur county, is total nonsense, i dont know

alright i got it already, westerns scared of arabs because of terrorism, that wasnt my question, i already know that, the question is if they are scared of coming here, do they think asking on this section and getting people to comfort them will save their lives?? why do they wanna come here when they are that scared??

and Monreda, respect ur point of view but how can u be so sure its the arabs who did that thing in newyork

Answer 1

I totally agree with you,However terrorism exits but we are not the only country it does exists in,plus its kinda stupid to plan for a trip then say tell me guys would it be the last one for me? and why are ppl doing it only when they come to Egypt? why don't they go to Italy section and says" hi ppl tell me if I stepped a foot in Napoli would it be a 90 % possibility that I'll got robbed,or in the US section saying "hey ppl would I get rapped or killed if I walked down the streets after 9 PM" I mean every country had its dangers,crimes and criminals are everywhere,and maybe its more in other countries so I think its stupid thinking that way,plus what are they expecting from Egyptians to say?? will they say "yeah yeah our country sucks pls don't come" ,its not reasonable at all,I loved your question a lot the only bad thing about it is it gave this so called (no man's land) whom is actually (all outsiders) to express some of the hatred he has to this country.

Answer 2

As someone already said, it's all about the media here in the U.S. Everytime I watch a documentary about Egypt, it's about the pyramids, the desert, the camel and the ugliest places in Egypt. I often wonder, howcome they don't show the nice places that we and other foreigners get to enjoy. People travel thousands of miles to spend a week @ sharm to go snorkling, but does anyone show that?? NOPE. It's always the trashy places and the dirty people. Then no wonder people don't know the truth about Egypt. I'm in grad school and some of my grad friends still don't know where Egypt is. They keep asking me how we dress, eat, behave in Egypt. It's like Egypt is another planet. But u know, sometimes I feel it's our fault as Egyptians. We don't educate people about our country, our homeland. I try to answer my friends' questions as much as possible, but we need to spread the awarness. We need to stop the people who come to Egypt and take videos and pics of the worst places we have there. We have an amazing history that we are all proud of, but we also have a wonderful present that we need to announce to the whole world. Egypt isn't about the pyramids and the camel. We would all be pharos and queens if that was the case (might be fun for a Halloween party, maybe :) but not life.
The people u are talking about need confirmation about their safety. I've friends who plan trips to Egypt and come and ask me if they should go. I'm always tempted to ask them "are u going to cancel ur trip if I scare u about the trip??" I don't do that of course, I try to assure them. It has to start from us, as Egyptians, so it would spread all around the world..

Answer 3

I'm an American and its the media coverage. I have a friend in Sweden and her mother told her not to come to America, because America is so dangerous. And this was pre 9/11. If a foreigner watches shows like 'Cops' and 'America's Most Wanted', which are true shows then they think America is full of crime. I read a statistic that last year in America there were 100,000 rapes and 16,000 murders. Do you want to come here?

Answer 4

I stay in South Africa and the people want know if lions roam the streets. I have never seen a lion in the wild, only on Tv and the zoo. They get so suprised to learn that i am white and niether i or my family going back generations have ever left South Africa and we have no intention of leaving. Then the questions like do u have running water. Do you have international banks and financial institutions. Some one should educate the world on Africa.

Answer 5

when i watched the movie the exorcist, they were bringing a part of a dirty place with very dirty people walking in the street, u can say people who never saw a drop of water, and it supposed to be Egypt...

when i meet any foreinger thourgh the internet and when i just mention that i'm from Egypt, they keep on asking OHHHH r u cleopatra? do u live in the pyramids? do u have ur own camel? so i answer back OHHHH u didnt go to school yet? u havnt been educated yet?

it's all about the foreigner media, they always show them that we r some stupid uneducated jerks which can only be quite when u throw them anything to be eaten...they always show them that Egypt is a terrorist unsafe country...

SO Y U COME IN THIS SECTION ASKING IF IT'S SAFE TO COME HERE....

Answer 6

Well I can't vouch for all nationalities but for Americans this is generally the way it seems to be...
Americans in general learn very little about the Middle East. We get the overview of Ancient Egypt up to about the time of Alexander the Great and then it's like the Egypt sections fell right out of history books. Our preconcieved ideas of Egypt in general come from our media's portrayal. Unfotunately our media does not portray things very accurately at all. We see the pyramids, the desert, and the camels! It's unfortunate that many Americans do not make an attempt to expand their minds by learning about other countries and cultures. The real problem is that Egypt being a country in which the dominant religion is Islam also means that Americans dump their stereotyped notions of Islam into the mix as well. This wouldn't be so terrible bad if the stereotype was good but once again the American media rears it's ugly racist head. We grew up watching tv shows like "I Dream Of Jeanie" and movies like "Harem Scarem," "The Thief Of Baghdad," "Sindbad," and far too many more to list as our basic understanding of the Middle East and Islam. These movies often feature Harems with nude or nearly nude women who hang around all day ready to please their master the Sultan/Caliph. The men are often strong, greedy womanizers who seek only wealth and sex. We see only deserts, camels, bedouin type living, tents, slave trades, and bellydancers. We just don't get enough cultrual education in the subject. Because many of us see and hear about the fabulous tourist sites in Egypt, we want to go. My grandfather knows absolutely nothing about Egypt (despite my occassional attempts to inform him) but really wants to see the Pyramids and the tomb of King Tut. Why does he want to see that? Because he's seen it many times on the discovery/history/travel channels. They hype it up and really sell you on wanting to see it for yourself but offer little to no information about life in modern Egypt. So then we are left wanting to see these ancient marvels but then are faced with the anti-Islamic stereotypes that we have learned (especially after 9/11 which only made the stereotype worse). Now they worry should I or Shouldn't I go and see this. For some this worry does not set in right away since surprisingly many americans don't know that Egyptians are largely Muslim and Speak Arabic. The fear may arise from a comment made by a friend or relative who comments on the matter or when searching for an Egyptian Language pocket book to be able to converse somewhat on their trip. They may have already purchased tickets before this realization. Others just have such a high desire to go that they are willing to face any negative consequences of foreign travel but ask just to know what exactly they will have to face. As a whole Americans just don't know anything about Egypt. Here's some examples of how stupid many of us Americans actually are when it comes to Egypt these are a few of the most frequent questions I've been asked about Egypt:
"Does everyone have their own camel?"
"Do Egyptians live in tents in the desert?"
"Do they live in Pyramids?"
"Do they have air conditioning in Egypt?"
I could go on but I think that's enough to illustrate my point.
Please don't take it the wrong way they just have not been educated about Egypt or Islam for that matter. At least if they are asking a question about it here they are attempting to better understand right?

Answer 7

gee sounds like you are in the popular tourism myth loop

join the q,

here in australia we get the people who want to travel by car 14000 kilometers in a day or two and think it is only an hour between capital cities, or think we all have koalas in our backyard and keep skippy as a pet.

seriously people believe more of what they see on tv than they actually read about factually.

in any case i loved egypt for every second if that helps

cheers

Answer 8

Your statement is justified and valid but we have to keep in mind that not everybody has a positive approach towards matters, even when they seek information.
There could be two possibilities: either it's just a normal person really wanting to visit Egypt but uses a negative attitude, because that's just the way he/she is.
Or it could be one of those Arab or Middle Eastern haters, who likes to provoke Egyptians, knowing that he/she could then incite a negative reaction and use it to claim we are bad natured people and validate his hatred for himself. (you can see this sort of people in most categories, especially politics and religion)

Answer 9

i agree with you. but you have to understand how americans are worried because of the terrorist. look what they did in new york. i can't enjoy Christmas anymore because of what happened. it effects people in different ways. i would go to Egypt in a minute if i could. from the photos i saw it's beautiful. i don't think all Muslims are bad. we have are different beliefs and i respect others. in the end we will all face the same god.


is bin ladden not Egyptian? i wouldn't be scared to go to Egypt. if i was to die there i would haunt the person who killed me. lol. people are strange, don't listen to them. if they was really that scared they wouldn't go. they just want to run their mouth about something they have no idea about. if they are going to be harmed in any way it will happen any where. bless you and peace.

Answer 10

I know some people are stupid

what should we do?