Cairo Time Now

Masr

Visitors have often remarked on the light of Egypt. There is something about the soft diffusion of sunlight in the country that makes it visually special. Beginning in the early nineteenth century a combination of that light and the new, more sensitive technology of lithography conspired together to allow artists to capture with unprecedented fidelity the country's monuments, Pharaonic as well as Islamic. But there is another way in which the word "light" captures the reality of Egypt. In Arabic it is said that the blood of a people is either "light" or "heavy." Where the blood of others in the region could be said to be heavy, that of the Egyptians is emphatically light and it always seems to have been that way. Here, the word serves as a proxy for "cheerful" or "optimistic." The book that follows captures some of that fundamental Egyptian buoyancy and optimism, and it was not very hard to do. The attitude is infectious and anyone who has lived for any length of time in the country is in danger of succumbing. The pieces reflect a sometimes wry, occasionally humorous, but always affectionate view of an essentially unchanging Egypt.

Frameworks

Dr. Decker, a brilliant Nanotechnologist and Virtual Reality Engineer, is suddenly tapped by the government to help them on one of their Top Secret projects. Seeing this as a lucrative promotion and an opportunity to work with the latest advancements in his field, he decided to accept their offer. Little did he know that he was about to take a journey into a new reality. As time moved on, he went from the excitement of seeing how far mankind had progressed to the horrors of the high price that man would pay to get there. No man or woman had ever dreamt of the dangers inherent in the interweavement of human potential with good and evil, dangers that resulted in the ultimate hijacking of the human mind.

Hearings