Alaa Al-Aswani: Why did Sisi laugh at the dance of Kiki?

In his essay DW Arabia, Alaa Al-Aswani asks why did Sisi laugh at the dance of "Kiki"?

Alaa al-Aswani is a tireless advocate for democracy in 

Egypt. He speaks to all who seek more democratic 

alternatives to authoritarian systems.

My late father Abbas al-Aswani was a well known writer and lawyer who, like his generation, participated in the struggle against the British occupation and was repeatedly arrested. My father's family lived during the 1940s in a large two-story house on Reda Street in Sayeda Zeinab. My grandmother told me that she always received the officer who came to arrest my father in the sitting room in the first floor and urged him to remain calm until my father woke up without fearing Khutah .

My grandmother asserts that the officer was responding to her request and even apologizing to my father for following instructions. He was never subjected to torture. He usually spent the first night in the office of the department commander, talking to the officers who were addressing him as "Mr. Abbas."

When my father was arrested on trumped up charges, he participated in the Cairo fire and remained imprisoned for months in the foreigners' prison. He was never subjected to torture. He even participated with his fellow detainees in football matches and performed theater performances. The hot food came daily from the house. The same humane treatment as the late President Anwar Sadat when he was imprisoned in 1946 during his trial for involvement in the assassination of Amin Othman (finance minister in the government of the delegation) Sadat complains in his memoirs of two incidents Consider them to be The prison administration delayed handing over his personal bag, which led to the shaving of his chin and the washing of his teeth, and the other incident when awakened by the prison officer during the night and drove him out in the yard to face some of the accused and the atmosphere was cold enough to harm his health.

The Egyptian state treated the political prisoners until the military took control of Egypt in 1952. The military intelligence controlled the detention centers and began torture with electricity, police dogs, beatings, suspension and maltreatment. This brutal repression led to the killing of many of the most prominent fighters, Cambridge University graduate Shahdi Attia El Shafei He died of torture in 1960. Nasser was the first founder of the powerful machine of repression that crushed his opponents from all political directions. The repression machine did not stop one day with the succession of presidents over Egypt even during the year in which the Muslim Brotherhood took over. The soldier died of torture and the Brotherhood government claimed he had died in a car accident. We also recall how Mursi praised police officers who killed dozens of demonstrators who objected to the Port Said massacre.

Dozens of reports from independent international and domestic organizations confirm the horrific torture of detainees in Egypt. The crime of these only detainees is that they are opposed to Sisi or are not impressed by his genius and his nobility. We have to defend the rights of detainees as human beings regardless of their political orientation. Dr. Abdel Moneim Abul-Fotouh, 66, is suffering from slow death because he needs medical care after suffering from angina. He can not stand before the judge who allowed him to sit. 45 days and refused to refer him to hospital. This is the crime of committing a crime committed by the Sisi regime against many detainees, depriving them of their right to treatment, such as blogger Wa'el Abbas, who suffers from heart trouble. He refuses to be presented with a doctor and Dr. Hazem Abdel Azim, who suffers from terrible pain in the bones of his legs.

What is happening in Sisi prisons is a crime against humanity and a disgrace will continue to pursue those responsible for the regime and all those who are silent about this crime. In Egypt, something called the Human Rights Council appoints members of the regime and gives them generous salaries. Unfortunately, they do nothing serious to stop the regime's crimes against the detainees. Al-Sisi's intelligence department confirms that thousands of detainees are terrorists and therefore they have no rights. This fascist theory ignores several facts: that the accused is innocent until proven guilty and that the rights of prisoners in civilized countries are not affected by the charges against them, and there is a big difference between the state and the gang. The state carries out the law against the perpetrators of the crimes.

In the midst of this tragedy that is happening to thousands of detainees, we were surprised at Sisi at the youth conference talking about the dance of "Kiki" and laughing. I do not understand how Sisi is responsible for the suffering of thousands of people in prisons and he seems so unperturbed and happy. Why did Sisi laugh at Kiki?

Democracy is the solution

~~~~~

Al-Aswany, like most Egyptians, is not amused by Sisi's insensitive joke, blaming serious food and other shortages on people not working hard enough, implying they are having too much fun playing and dancing. 
This is from The New Arab:

Egypt's obsession with the Kiki dance is to blame for the rise in gas prices and the failing economy, according to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. During an "Ask the President" conference at Cairo University, Sisi mocked the viral Kiki challenge, which has swept social media. The challenge consists of dancing outside a moving car to Canadian rapper Drake's "In My Feelings" song, which has led to the arrest of a number of Egyptians and bans enforced across the region. 

"You keep riding cars and doing that Kiki miki thingy," Sisi said before bursting out laughing at his own joke, when speaking about the reasons for Egypt's failed economy.
The audience at the university - presumably feeling like they had no choice - laughed along at the autocrat's joke. Sisi then turned around to the oil minister and jokingly said: "Hey, Engineer Tarek raise the price of petrol and don't worry," before he continued laughing.

Sisi's joke came as he discussed ways to repair the Egyptian economy. He accused the Egyptian people of being lazy and not living up to their promises to him. Sisi claimed Egyptians are not working hard enough and too busy interacting on social media - such as with the Kiki challenge - rather than doing "their bit" fixing the sluggish economy. Cairo's disapproval of the Kiki Challenge is nothing new. Last week, state media threatened participants of the game with jail for breaking the country's - somewhat lax - traffic laws. 

Muslim scholars in Egypt also warned that the dance is a threat to country's "long entrenched values and ethics". Despite the fact that Sisi is blaming Kiki for keeping Egyptians too distracted from repairing the economy, Drake's famous song has sunk further into the political bloodstream of Egypt with an Arabic parody. The song lyrics express discontent with Sisi's rule and his regime's inability to raise living standards - despite his constant promises to create more jobs and wealth for Egyptians. 

"Sisi, listen to me, stop joking, we are dying, our leader," says the singer, pairing the song's light hearted beat with sombre lyrics in a desparate plea.
"Sisi, did you not promise that you will spoil us, our leader." 

The song also parodies complaints of the rising cost of staple goods - such as bread and fuel, which have become unattainable for many Egyptians. It also described Egyptians trapped in a state of depression due to rising poverty. The parody reflects a number of discontents expressed by Egyptians, which have been brushed off by the country's political and religious elite.

Earlier this month Ali Gomaa - a cleric the Egyptian state heavily relies on for stanch support - defended Cairo's crippling austerity measures by mixing his religious credentials with a bizarre take on nutrition in a recent TV interview. "You all complain that meat is too expensive and you say 'oh so what are we going to eat?'" he said.
"No, we shouldn't be talking like that! Allah created us needing 3,000 calories a day... 3,200 calories a day." He then went on to completely disregard basic nutrition advice and spoke about the calories in cake, saying this is a suitable alternative to meat.
"A piece of cake is 900 calories. So if you ate two pieces, that's it, as if you have eaten breakfast or dinner or whatever else." 

Despite Egyptian political and religious officials treating poverty in the country as a laughing matter, statistics show that poverty in Egypt is far from a joke. According to UNICEF, poverty levels in Egypt have reached 27.8 percent, putting children at significant risk. The UNICEF report, released at the end of last year said at least 10 million children are suffering as a result of "multi-dimensional poverty" and the physical and mental well-being of the population, with reports of children being affected by stunted growth due to malnutrition.