- Global Voices - https://globalvoices.org -

The Egyptians Tweet Farouk Hosny's Defeat

· Written by Tarek Amr

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Bulgaria, Egypt, Arts & Culture, Breaking News, Development, International Relations, Politics

Bulgarian candidate, Irina Bokova, 57, was elected the head of the UNESCO on Tuesday, defeating Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosny [1]. Bokova won by a vote of 31 to 27 to be the first woman and first Eastern European to run the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, after five rounds of voting at the UNESCO's headquarters in Paris.

Thanks to microblogging site Twitter, we have a summary of mixed reactions from Egypt and the Middle-East towards Farouk Hosny's defeat. In 140 characters, Twitter users

As expected, all Egyptians should be sad because their candidate for the UNESCO was defeated. And Hanan Abdel Meguid‘s sad tone was so obvious in the tweet below:

@hmeguid [2]: Looks like Farouk Hosny lost :((

And Youssra was astonished, and it seems that she wasn't expecting him to be defeated:

@youssra: [3] New head for the UNESCO, and it's not Hosni!

But wait a moment. It looks like other than the above two tweets, no one else was sad. Even Cairo-based blogger and journalist Sarah Carr wrote the following post asking people to help her find those few ones who were sad for his defeat:

@Sarahcarr: [4] Does anyone know of any Egy pro-Farouq Hosny blogs/tweets? English or Arabic. Apart from Mayton & Nawara who I already know about.

In fact, it seems the no one was able to help Sarah in her search, especially that the majority of the Egyptian Twitter users were not sad at all. Ahmed El- Sadek, for example, wrote here that he can't really say that he is sad:

@aelsadek: [5] Farouk Hosny defeated in the UNESCO elections. Can't really say that I am sad.

Zeinobia on the other hand couldn't hide the wide smile in her tweet.

@Zeinobia: [6] News that Farouk Hosni has lost the UNESCO elections :D

Mona Eltahawy was happy too:

@monaeltahawy: [7] Yes! There is justice in the world sometimes. Farouk Hosni lost his Unesco bid!

She even wrote another Tweet thanking God because Farouk Hosny did not win.

@monaeltahawy: [8] Congratulations to Irena Bokova and to Farouk Hosni – thank God you lost! Egypt has millions more who are better qualified for Unesco.

And Amr Salama wrote:

@amrsalama: [9] مبروووووووووك لشعب مصر .. فوز البلغاريه ارينا بـ31 صوت مقابل 27 صوت لفاروق حسني
@amrsalama: [9] Congratulations to the Egyptian people … The Bulgarian Irina won by 31 votes to 27 votes for Farouk Hosni.

So, it seems that most of the Egyptians were against him. Ahmed Shoukry wrote here to clarify that if this point of view is so common among the Egyptian blogs and tweets, then it is for sure the same point of view of the majority of people on the street:

@ashoukry: [10] اعتقد ان حال المدونيين يعكس حال الشعب المصري لرفض فاروق حسني و لا يختلف عنه كفانا الترويج بأن المدونون حالة مختلفة
@ashoukry: [10] I believe that the blogs reflect what the Egyptian people say. And their refusal for Farouk Hosny is also what people in the streets say. Come on, the bloggers are not any different from the rest of us.

But what really makes most of the Egyptian take such stand?!

Mona Eltahawy believes that it's because Hosny is not Egypt's candidate, but he's the Egyptian regime's candidate.

@monaeltahawy: [11] Farouk Hosni isn't Egypt's candidate, he's Egyptian regime's candidate. Hosni Mubarak: president 28 years. Farouk Hosni: minister 22 years.

The following conversation between Mostafa Hussein, and JPierre also elaborates why people didn't want him to win:

@jpierre: [12] @moftasa Voting for the Bulgarian candidate?
@moftasa: [13] @jpierre I don't know anything about Bokova. But we shouldn't leave Hosni get this position. We know him, we shouldn't let the world suffer.

And Cairo Gem has an almost identical point of view to Mostafa Hussein‘s:

@ehabmes: [14] After 22 years of failure as Egypt's minister of culture, what are your plans Mr. Farouk Hosny to destroy the UNESCO?

AlAnany believes that Hosny tried to please both the Egyptians, the Westerners and the Israelis and at the end he pleased no one:

@alanany2: [15] فاروق حسني خسر نفسه وخسر اليونوسكو لم ينفع الاعتذار فهل يعتذر لنا
@alanany2: [15]Farouk Hosni lost himself and lost the UNESCO, and his apologies didn't help him, so will he apologise to us?

And as usual, all our political debates have to end with a cool conspiracy theory like this one.

@mowatenmasr: [16]طيب مش ممكن يكون اليونسكو أختار البلغارية و رفض عشان فاروق حسني من خلفية عربية انا شاكك ان الموضوع فية ان و عنصرية ضد المصرين
@mowatenmasr: [16] Isn't it possible that the UNESCO chose the Bulgarian candidate and refused Farouk Hosny because he is an Arab. I'm suspecting that there is a certain conspiracy there, and racism against Egyptians.

For more reactions on Hosny's nomination before the election read Marwa Rakha's post here [1].