We’re all familiar with the Script’s song ‘Six Degrees of Separation’. However, we’re not all familiar with the concept of the Six Degrees of Separation. The Six Degrees of Separation is the idea that the “friend of a friend” statement can be made to connect any two people, even if they are at different ends of the world, in a maximum of six steps. A ‘degree of separation’ is a measure of social distance between people. You are one degree away from everyone you know, two degrees away from everyone they know, and so on. 

Six Degrees of Seprataion

What’s the 6 Degrees of EGYPTIAN Separation, you ask? 

I think the 6 degrees concept prevails in our country. Everyone in Egypt knows everyone and the people you don’t personally know, you know them from other people you know. Everyone you meet knows someone you already know. And everyone you know knows someone you will meet very soon without knowing that they two know each other. In our country, it shouldn’t be called the 6 degrees because let’s say you want to meet someone specific, you will never get past the second or third degree. It is CRAZY! Lotfy Labib had it right when he told Ahmad Helmy in Assal Eswed “Hatrouh meny fen? Di Masr kolaha ooda w sala”.

Assal Eswed

How did we all get so freakishly connected? 

Half of Egypt is Unutilised Land

More than half of Egypt is unutilised desert. This basically means that every 1000 people are piled up on top of each other in a space fit for only 10. We’re being treated as compact objects compressed to fill an area that’s much too small for them. Ehna makboosen fo2 ba3d while half the country is empty land. If the desert were developed, there would have been more school options, more universities and overall more places to hang out in. We would have been roaming that extra space instead of just bumping into each other wherever we go.

Egyptian

The Schools/Universities are Few and Numbered

Also, no one necessarily goes to school/university in his or her district. You could live in 6th of October yet drive each morning to New Cairo because you go to AUC. There aren’t that many school or university options in the first place. You are destined to either go to Cairo University, Ain Shams University or become a GUCian, BUEian, AUCian, MSAian or MIUian. This means that your friends are destined to do the same, so your entire circle of friends revolves around these few and numbered schools and universities. As a result, everyone ends up knowing everyone. 

saul-goodman

There Aren’t Many Cool Places to Hang Out in

When it comes to hanging out, you could be living in Nasr City yet spend most of your waking hours in Zamalek, because it’s where all the cool spots are. The places we usually hang out in are the same which is why every time you go somewhere, it is a MUST that you meet someone you know. In fact, it’s not very unusual that you meet the same strangers wherever you go that now they don’t feel so much as strangers anymore. They’re now friends you’re not on speaking terms with. 

For all of us, Summer means Sahel or Sinai

And even when we decide to travel, we all travel to the same destinations and hang out in the same places. Sahel in Summer is a disaster, because you go knowing that everyone you have ever met in your entire life is going to be there. Then when we’re fed up with za7met el sahel, we decide to go chill in Sinai and surprise surprise, everyone’s also taking a break from Sahel there!

This Makes Dating Boring

When you date, you never get to date people whom you have no friends in common with. Your dates will either be friends, friends of friends or a friend of a friend of a friend. It really is a vicious cycle.

However, this also means that we’re all six steps, if not less, away from meeting Beyoncé. We just gotta know the right people to talk to! 

Beyonce