Catching Fire in The World

The amount of similarities between The Hunger Games Trilogy and the world is immense. It’s so immense yet sometimes we are blind to it because either we are used to it, or its happening somewhere else.    The same events that are happening in the Hunger Games/Catching Fire like hunger, starving families, uprisings, propaganda, inequality, racism (District 11), and so much more are also happening in the real world. We are even divided like the people of Panem, whether you’re looking from a state to state or country to country perspective.

    Here are a few good examples of places that are living very much alike to the hunger games in the way that the people are set up: Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Burma, and North Korea. These places were not always ruined yet there are people like President Snow who love to see others suffer in the expense of their own safety. There are so many things going on in these places, like wealth disparities, uprisings, and theft of homes and the worst part is, it has become normalized. Almost like a way of life, like how the people of Panem would talk about the games before the uprisings. Not only did they not have a choice, they got used to the fact that their kids would have to fight to the death and it took about seventy five years for that to change!

For this conversation I’d like to just focus on one country to place side by side with Panem. Egypt has always been a beautiful place filled with friendly and hospitable people, beautiful attractions and deliciously unique food. However there was always one thing that held back the country from progressing and that was the person in charge. Before the Egyptian Revolution took place Hosni Mubarak was in charge of the country for a whopping 30 years! Imagine if our president’s terms lasted that long…

Mubarak ruled Egypt with a blind eye to poverty, illiteracy and the problems of his people and finally the nation felt like it was time for a change. So just like in the Hunger Games, people started revolting and demanding the right to vote someone in. Finally elections were held and Mohammed Morsi won and became the first democratically elected president of Egypt. The country was finally taking steps to becoming something better before Morsi’s rightfully earned seat was stolen from him and handed unrightfully to Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. And here is where I can start drawing very similar comparisons to what is happening in Egypt with the Hunger Games.

1)  Horrible “President”: CHECK!

2)  Protests and uprisings: CHECK!

3)  Military killing its people: CHECK!

4)  Hand gesture to symbolize unity: CHECK!

The list goes on and on.

  A similarity I found to be truly amazing is the way the protestors unite with each other. I see this perfectly when Katniss was giving her speech in District 11 and I see it in the protests for Egypt.

“What happens next is not an accident. It is too well executed to be spontaneous, because it happens in complete unison. Every person in the crowd presses the three middle fingers of their left hand against their lips and extends them to me. It’s our sign from District 12, the last good-bye I gave Rue in the arena.” (Collins 61)

In Egypt people hold up four fingers on their right hand to symbolize the square in which the protests took place.

After the old man in District 11 whistled and held up three fingers he was executed as an example and in Egypt if you are seen holding up those four fingers you will be put in jail- no questions asked. Similarly, a boy who held up four fingers, to show solidarity with Egyptians, suffered punishment. And although he was not executed it is enough to say that the punishment was not justifiable.

“Mohamed Yousef is a tall, handsome practitioner of kung fu. In fact, he's an Egyptian champion who recently won an international competition.

But a month ago, when he collected his gold medal at the championship in Russia, he posed for a picture after putting on a yellow T-shirt with a hand holding up four fingers.

That's the symbol of Rabaa al-Adawiya, the Cairo square where Egyptian security forces opened fire in August on supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Hundreds were killed, including seven of Yousef's friends.

"I wanted them with to be there with me," Yousef says. "I wanted them to rejoice when I won the tournament. The least I could do was remember them. They died because they wanted to see Egypt better."

He says the military-backed government is doing everything it can to make people forget.

Yousef paid a price for his decision that day in Russia. He was suspended from the national team, summoned home and barred from representing Egypt in future tournaments for the next year.”

In situations like these I feel that it is important to set our political differences aside... the punishment and death of innocent people should be enough for us to stand together. 

Kamelia A.Prompt 4

Work Cited

Collins, Suzanne, and Elizabeth B. Parisi. Catching Fire. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Fadel, Leila. "The High Price Egyptians Pay For Opposing Their Rulers."NPR. NPR, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.