Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: The Sons of Egypt Electronic Game

On 18/7/2016, some say that Pokémon is a Jewish invention, that it represents demonic creatures and that it is a back door for American intelligence. Others say that it is merely a game produced by a multinational company in Japan seeking to make profits, and that any information found in e-mail or on mobile phones is already known and accessible to American intelligence and others, whether through the game or otherwise. What is new, however, is that the game can transmit an accurate picture of the details of the place where the player is located via GPS, and that the producing company made profits estimated at around 9 billion dollars in increased share value. It is well known that the US National Security Agency and many specialized agencies monitor and review all data, information and images on the Internet and social media sites, and use them in ways that serve their strategy, including recruitment, control, incitement and the spread of the values of globalization, as they call it, in addition to wiretapping calls made over telecommunications and over various innovative social media platforms, including eavesdropping on heads of state, as was revealed in the case of the German Chancellor and others. What is surprising is the media hype surrounding this game, as if we had suddenly discovered, as usual, that all data and information on the Internet and social media sites, whether through computers, smartphones or any other media, are being spied upon and exploited in one way or another, in addition to all such data being exposed to hacking and seizure by anyone with the ideas and know-how for electronic intrusion. Suffice it to know that as soon as you post a picture on your Facebook page, for example, it falls outside your control, even if you delete it yourself, without the slightest liability on the part of any party, based on your acknowledgment and your signed consent when you created your page. We therefore believe that the media coverage of the game in this manner is exaggerated and ultimately serves to promote the game or the company that designed it – without our thinking in a new way about how to break into the world of electronic innovation, which could earn us billions of dollars, amounts that might even equal our foreign currency reserves. It is true that we may not possess the capabilities and resources in knowledge and technology that qualify us to keep pace with the tremendous technological development, but the question is: when will we start, so that we can reach the level of dealing with information and communications technology? We stress that no one will help us except the youth and children, the future of this nation. These generations have the abilities and practices that enable them to think and deal with technology in a distinguished way, no different from the ideas and innovations of young people and children in developed countries. The difference, however, lies in the state's interest in and encouragement of such thinking and innovation, and in the way it treats the gifted, even if they hack into websites, as long as they do not commit anything that violates the law or customs and traditions, because they are regarded as gifted. We cannot enter the new age of technology and communications except through the gifted and the creative. We therefore renew our proposal on the importance of discovering talent by holding open competitions for young people and teenagers in the field of information technology, software development, how software is hacked and the means of securing it, and how to overcome electronic fraud, so that we may arrive at the invention of an electronic game that rivals or surpasses Pokémon, which we would call the (Sons of Egypt) electronic game, that is, the electronic game of the sons of Egypt.