Video Inverted Worlds: “Do You Like What is Happening?! The Country is Falling Down!”

“Do you like what is happening?! The country is falling down!” this is the most famous sentence you may hear while taking a taxi ride through streets of Cairo. Does this sentence really reflect a new feeling of boredom towards the revolution? Or there is a lack of communication with the revolutionary groups, activists and parties? The Egyptian revolution was famous for its extremely satirical slogans and chants, and before 25 January 2011, satirical journalism played an important role in destroying the “prestige” of the past regime.

Sorry for disturbance We build Egypt نأسف للازعاج فنحن نبني مصر
(Maggie Osama | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

But how will humour play its role in the new political system with political Islam groups taking large portions of power and the military generals struggling for the benefits they used to gain from the past regime? At this point the Egyptian youth depends on humour as a weapon to face those in power on the one hand, and on the other hand as a new way of communication to deliver their messages to the people who are being misled by the deceptive governmental media tools. But will they be able to develop a common language with the ordinary people? Through this new social and political scene, “Tok Tok” magazine came out as the first Egyptian comics magazine targeting adults and discussing social and political topics in an Egyptian way. Although “comic strips” art is still new to the Egyptian society, the magazine has been well received to date.

“Do You Like What is Happening?! The Country is Falling Down!” from Orient Institut Beirut on Vimeo.

Mohamed Anwar, political cartoonist, graduated from the Faculty of Engineering – Cairo University Biomedical Engineering Department. During his academic study, he started to work as political cartoonist at “Elbadil” daily newspaper, then moved to work at “Almasry Alyoum” daily newspaper. Now he is senior cartoonist at “Rose-Elyoussef” daily newspaper.

Hicham Rahma graduated from the animation department of the High Cinema Institute in 2005, and has worked in the Egyptian renaissance publishing house as graphic designer and illustrator for children comics magazines and book publications ever since. He is one of the leading members of Tok Tok comic magazine in Egypt, and is currently also working as a cartoonist at Almasry Alyuom. Hicham participated in a number of art fairs and events, including the Sharja book fair (UAE), Fibda comics Festival (Algeria), and the Arab spring comics workshop in Tetouan (Morocco).