The Black Cloud
"The Black President"
The Trouble With Black Muslims
Black Dog
Unbelievable! WHO’s vaccine recommendation comes under cloud!
No, not the novel...The black cloud, the one that covers Egypt every year...is slowly approaching. As dooming as it actually sounds, as doomed we really are.
Egypt has been suffering from the black cloud phenomenon since 1999, as it approaches our skies every autumn and literally envelops our atmosphere with a suffocating smog, that is very hard to ignore, yet has become such a normality, that we have learnt to co-habitate with it, like we have with many other life-threatening man-caused things.
Every year local newspapers dedicate one page for the Black Cloud, attempting to solve the mystery of why it visits us. Some have said that the rice farmers insist on burning the rice straws following the harvest season, which coincides with the black cloud appearance. However, controversies continue to arise, and studies show there are several contributors to the foul air. So, again, like so many other things, we, the general population are unsure of the reasons and unaware of any solution.
Many times on the news channels and local talk shows, a viewer will come across an official from the ministry of agriculture or the ministry of environmental affairs, and we'll hear something along the lines of "we have criminalized the burning of rice straw"..."we have discovered great potential in rice straw, so we should not burn it"... and the list goes on for excuses, so called progress reports, promises to do something about it, and...well objectively speaking of course...the black cloud continues to come back every year, and grace us with its smoldering presence and suffocating hovering.
'tis the season of the black cloud. Thought I'd welcome you with a worthy introduction.
