In an era where honesty is often sidelined, my friend Professor Nadia Helmy exemplifies true courage. Specializing in Chinese politics and residing in Egypt, Nadia continues to provide ethical and insightful analysis despite significant risks. Her commitment to truth, akin to figures like Nelson Mandela, is vital for global understanding and peace. I deeply admire her bravery and dedication.
Can you still vaguely remember the meaning of the word honesty, or what it means to “dare to give your opinion honestly”? Honestly, I increasingly wonder if humanity still values honest people around them. Do you still dare to tell the truth to someone’s face today? It seems as if there’s an embargo or even criminal prosecution for doing so. Well, the beautiful invention of marketing by Philip Kotler and others is one factor that has taught us to think commercially: to ask the right questions and ensure we don’t immediately reveal everything to the other person.
Are you still as frank with everyone as ever?
Being candid, telling your story by an open campfire with a good glass of beer or wine—who remembers this from their recent past? I’m discovering more and more that the truth is often elusive. For the last few decades, it seems schools have taught students that you can’t just tell the truth. Maybe the rationale was that you shouldn’t hurt people unnecessarily, but still, who benefits from lies? I’ve known for years that we humans don’t truly communicate; we merely emit sounds at each other—tones of different pitches, from which the other person then derives meaning. Strictly speaking, we rely much more on facial expressions to understand each other.
Are lies also told in politics?
“You don’t have to lie to avoid telling the truth,” my mother, who sadly died far too early, used to say to me. So, you can legitimately withhold things, as often happens in business negotiations. But what about politics? A very
good friend of mine, Nadia Helmy, is an extremely friendly lady who studied political science in Sweden and now lives in Giza, Egypt, specializing in China. Despite all the negatives in Chinese policy, she also sees the better sides. She is very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of this country. She now has 16,908 followers on LinkedIn, of which I am one, and is also a member of the LinkedIn group “Semper Simul,” which I founded in January 2024 and already has eight hundred members. I founded the group because I understand from my giftedness and high sensitivity that we are all connected in this big world.
Will Semper Simul (Always Together) remain a dream, or will it ever become our reality?
I regularly speak to Professor Nadia via LinkedIn or WhatsApp and hear about the political battles she faces because she speaks the truth and wants everyone to benefit from it. But there’s a law of “Medes and Persians,” mentioned even in the Bible, that not everyone is always happy with the truth. Even the most well-grounded stories told by a professor are often not accepted by those who don’t want them to be true. Stories that you and I now know to be true are often colored differently for political reasons.
How many different colors of pens do you have?
It seems as if all those stories are written with different colored pens. Surely, we can assume that Professor Nadia Helmy produces well-founded and ethically responsible stories in the press and other media. Yet her life is seriously threatened from various political sides. Many times, she is no longer sure of her safety. She is particularly saddened because she is very sincere and honest.
Time and again, she rises from these life-threatening situations because she wants to continue proclaiming the truth, a truth I also believe is crucial for peace on our earth. With this story, I want to show my deep respect for the professor and the woman she is. In my mind, I would place her among the likes of Bishop Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Elvis Presley, all people of faith who were aware of the inequality still present on our earth.
Nadia Helmy, a celebrity of her kind?
I hope we can all support her for a long time from the comfort of our armchairs in front of the television or radio. It takes a lot of courage to do what Professor Nadia does every day for us and the rest of the world. I would love to shake her hand in person one day and thank her for everything she has already done for us as citizens of the world. Thanks to her, we can see both the bad and the good sides of China and its people.
I invite you to greet her and thank her for all her good work at the universities of Beijing and Cairo. Thank you, Associate Professor Nadia Helmy.
