Tuesday, September 28, 2010

40 Years on Sadat's Cup of Coffee to Nasser

Nasser in 1956
President Nasser died on the 28th of September 1970 , which means he died from 40 years ago and his memorial this year was so special because some people wanted to celebrate it in the wrong way.
First of all I believe Nasser died on the 5th of June 1967 , it was the death of Nasser as an icon , as a president and as a leader at least for the generation that woke up that morning to found itself stained by the worst military defeat in the 20th century in the Middle East.
This year 2010 the Nasser memorial turned in to another media circus inaugurated by the Heikal’s statements or testimony on that day from 40 days in his show on Al Jazeera and what followed it from angry reactions from the Sadat family especially from his eldest daughter Ruqaya and others who were close enough to witness the death of Nasser like his own physician who refused this allegations.
From one side Heikal did not actually accuse President Sadat by murdering President Nasser by his own hands directly , he was only telling an incident he witnessed three days before Nasser’s death “ yes Sadat made that bloody cup of coffee three days before Nasser’s death !!” Then later he assured that Sadat could not do that to Nasser because of emotional and personal reasons !! It is worth to mention that he said that after preparing the viewers to accept the theory that the whole world wanted Nasser dead and that Sadat poisoned Nasser in the cup coffee he prepared to him in Nile Hilton three days prior to his death to calm him down after wasting hours with Yasser Arafat .


From another side Heikal can’t come now after 40 years and say that Sadat poisoned Nasser because simply we will ask and demand an explanation for Heikal’s silence all those years not to mention his own collaboration with Sadat in early 1970s against the same old Nasser’s men !!
The problem is not in Heikal but in Nasser’s offspring Huda and Abdel Hakim Nasser who are insisting that their father died in abnormal circumstances and will not withdraw the possibility that their father was killed by Sadat after all Sadat fought their dad’s men and his father’s image was defamed in his time !!
Baby Abdel Hakim with Nasser in 1956
Of course their sister Mona disagree with them as she was there when he had that sudden heart attack, some will say that this is Mona , the wife of Ashraf Marwan who betrayed Nasser’s men in 1971 and became the Ashraf Marwan we know in time of Sadat , strangely and miraculously they are the same people saying that Nasser’s son in law can’t be a spy , he was a hero who killed by Israel !!!
Now I heard lots of crazy theories about Nasser’s death and I believe the only realistic theory is the official explanation , his body could not take it any longer. The problem of those advocating the Nasser’ death conspiracy theory  that they do not look to Nasser as a human being but rather as an idol who can’t get sick as normal people do !!
They do not look to the huge pressure on Nasser especially after the defeat in 1967 , they do not look to the facts that that man suffered from diabetes “a rare kind of diabetes too” and blood pressure plus the man was a smoking machine according to all eye witnesses, they do not look to the fact that on that week from 40 years ago Nasser was heading the talks between the PLO and Jordan to stop the on going mini war between them ; why could not they gather all these facts and reach to the conclusion that Nasser’s heart and mind could not take it anymore and gave up in that early age !!?
Nobody thought he would die after this photo in few days
One thought that the Nasserites would be the first to consider the health condition when they speak about his health.
I am not a Nasserite but I think instead of throwing charges diverting our attentions , we can celebrate the man’s achievements and discuss his mistakes for real in order not to repeat them as we have done in the past. Gamal Abdel Nasser is an icon , no one can deny this , he did great things history will not forget and he also did horrible crimes history will not forget , I will not be like some radical Nasserites who think that the history of modern Egypt started on the Egypt Nasser toppled Naguib or it was ended when he died from 40 years ago.
Now I wonder when we will open the Sadat assassination that openly like that !!

7 comments:

  1. I perfectly agree with every single word you said dear .

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  2. Yes, when will they look into Sadat's assasination? I would like to see something done about that.

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  3. A medical tidbit we were all taught by our professors in med school :
    Nasser suffered from a medical condition known as Hemochromatosis, also called bronze diabetes where his body could not process the Iron and it deposited in various tissues causing damage and wrecking havoc.
    The damage to the pancreas causes diabetes. The heart muscle is also damaged and may eventually fail along with the liver.
    This disease shortens the lifespan considerably... it was basically a matter of time putting conspiracy theories aside.

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  4. Do you think the Israelis planted a hemoglobin and serum ferritin disrupting enzyme which in the long run made Nasser suffer from full blown hemochromatosis?

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  5. My family knew one of Nasser's close aids who used to worry about his poor lifestyle. Nasser was a smoking chimney, workaholic who hardly slept, ate very little and was involved with every governing detail and had his fingers in every pie.
    I believe that his unhealthy lifestyle, diabetes and strenuous workload killed him.
    As for Mr. Heikal, all I can say is that he is a chameleon who is known
    for sensationalism in order to sell his books.

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  6. With due respect to the occasion - one of AbdelNasser's negative legacies was how he sought to secure the 1959 Agreement - by colluding with the first military take-over of power in Sudan, after the civilian democratically elected government in Khartoum did not prioritise Egyptian interests over Sudanese ones.

    The subsequent forced removal of 50,000 Sudanese in order to make way for Lake Nubia, the paltry compensation, the zero tangible benefit to the Sudanese from the agreement's project are all negative occurrences during AbdelNasser's reign.

    The subsequent, current 'refusal' by the Southern Sudanese to construct the Jonglei Canal - and the hydro-political tensions in the Nile Basin between Downstream (Egypt) and Mid and Upstream States can all be traced to AbdelNasser's reign.

    Soft power diplomacy is not conducted through match-making - marrying the late, great Kwame Nkrumah to Egyptian Fathia...

    And on his legacy in Sudan, pan-Arabism is dead (thankfully).

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  7. A serum ferritin disrupting enzyme? Hum, I find that more than highly unlikely. Hemochromatosis kills slowly, not the method of choice for Musad if you ask me!

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