Book author Akram Al Kassas (Photo: file photo)
CAIRO – 26 August 2017: The process of applying sarcastic writing while passing along the idea is a rare talent; however author Akram Al Kassass was able to dominate this talent by displaying eight sketches and screen shots in his new book Awlam Khana (The Global Citizen).
The book is divided into eight chapters featuring funny-toned titles such as “Spy on your neighbor and be happy,” “Life is a huge conference,” and “Discovering the language of frogs and the ant’s feelings”.
The titles continue with the purpose of exposing the new ways of shaping people. The plot has been forming and taking shape since the beginning of the millennium and is still taking form with great success we might add.
Exploring the advertisement’s new invasive methods, the book reveals the dispute of advertisements dealing with humans as consumers. The world learned that every place on earth can be an advertisement space; roads, vehicles, stadiums and even the human body became a walking advertisement.
The writer explains this notion through one of his sketches “advertisement justify the means,” following the famous principle that the end justifies the means.
Al Kassas deals with the concept of sponsored wars which are live broadcast to your home the same as food delivery. The patrons of this concept are famous TV channels, weapons manufacturers and arms dealers.
He notices that the propaganda experts were mad when their campaign for the war against Iraq was met by demonstrators all over the world refusing the war. This anger made the advertisement experts more aggressive, they exploited the need of the average global citizens and used their homes for political campaigns and even their bodies sometimes.
The book also tackles divorce becoming a part of human social activities, analyzing the reasons and symptoms. In the book society encourages the concept of leaving the relationship if it is not comfortable for either individual. The new generation will be the result of the broken houses. It is already happening.
A fact that cannot be denied anymore is that the internet is being used as a new tool to educate, nurture and even punish the global citizen. It is the private investigator for spouses, friends and lovers. Auctions are made online and crime movies became quite naive in comparison to the real crimes that occur online.
Basically the ‘big brother’ becomes real, watching everyone everywhere and all the time. The message is be a good citizen or we will get you, the “we” here means everyone else who are free to watch and report other people for any reason.
The book also explains how watch lists, the no-fly lists and the terrorist lists became a source of ridicule. Many four year olds have been stopped from flying with their parents due to their name being similar to suspects on those lists, especially after the 9/11 attack in 2001.
Addiction to texting and short messages became very real. Car accidents increased due to texting and there are no outings nowadays without texting or messaging. Communication at work and between families occur online and this became a very acceptable behavior.
The pets industry is also tackled in one of the chapters, the five stars hotels that exist for pets, the promotion of special diets for dogs and cats, the lives of the owners that are adjusted according to their pets doctor appointments and so many details that are irritating to the reader are documented.
What is remarkable about this book is the effort put by the writer into the sketches, he gathered examples from all over the world. Between Europe, USA and Asia, Akram Al Kassas noticed the similarities of the global citizen and the behavior expected of him in this world.
He also documented anecdotes about people’s peculiar behavior such as giving their inheritance to their pets, attending funerals as a hobby, buying pencils, running for office as a pass-time, the business of selling stones in ground zero in New York and many more.
The book was published in 2013 and it is still a valid read today. The information provided is relevant to our lives in the second decade of the twenty first century.
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