Nermeen Edrees of Global Voices Online wrote about Egypt's Going Local Campaign. Today Blogger Juka celebrates the launch of the initiative's facebook group, Ahmed Al Sabbagh reacts to Facebook itself going local while another two bloggers dictate their terms to switch to local Egyptian products. Juka celebrated the Facebook group of her “Buying Egypt Back” initiative saying: Please check out the group, join it and let us know what you think. During the upcoming week, the initiative will also have a blog to call it’s own, hence the delay in posting success stories. Also, another housekeeping note, I’d love to hear all your input on the initiative, logo, slogans, ideas, actual experiences with local products you’d like to share, etc. Kindly e-mail us at [email protected] Ahmed Al Sabbagh who supports the initiative is not thrilled with the local Arabic version of Facebook In a post titled: Going Local: You Want My Money, You Have to Earn it, Perwin Ali dictated her terms to switch to local brands: I recently got an invitation from [Mermaid] a friend of mine to join a group called Let’s Go Local, which is a group that aims to support Egyptian products. I also found out that she had written something about using only Egyptian products. Now anyone who knows me knows how much I love my country, even though I have x-ray vision when it comes to its faults. For me one thing has nothing to do with the other. To me the problem is in the people, not the land, or what Egypt represents to me. That said, the invitation got me thinking: am I willing to sacrifice my comfort to support my country’s local products? The answer is simple: no. However, ask me: Am I willing to support my country by buying good local products? Yes, in a heartbeat (which is what I do most of the time anyway). Call me selfish, but I’m not willing to sacrifice my comfort to support a product that doesn’t respect me enough to create something of acceptable standards. Why should I? I work hard for my money (hard being the operative word here), and I deserve to feel the outcome of my hard work (again, hard work here is key). Her rationale is simple: Other than my own discomfort, if I buy mediocre products, it would just be an act of enabling the bad products to remain bad. After all, they would still be able to make money even when they are not up to par. Then she elaborates: I’m sorry, but I do not see that starting with an act of good faith works here. I cannot start buying low quality products in the hope that they are going to improve. That just doesn’t make any sense. Why would they want to do that? We all know it’s hard work to be good. Easy is always better –especially if you can get away with it. The way I see it, this is a situation of ‘help me help you’. You have to be good enough if you want my patronage. It’s a buyer’s market now, so get with it. You might think I’m harsh. So what if I am? This is tough love. I love my country, but I won’t support its bad habits. Finally, Insomniac tells us of her experience of supporting a local fast food delivery chain that offers two product lines: one is for burgers and the other for healthy food. Today, given my new diet plans, I decided to give the Z a try. I tried to tempt one of my coworkers to join me, but he said he felt like eating something “yeshaba3” [fill me up]; so I told him they were the same place from where we get our usual burgers, he said he was in for a mushroom burger. I called them and here is how it went… The guy (who was really friendly and polite): is it your first time to order? Me: yes, I think I use another number, and I always called the X brand, so to save you time I can just give you all the info all over again and then you can merge them on your own… *after giving him all the necessary information* Me: so this is my order, cob salad, and I want to make a burger order, so how does it work, do u put me through to a colleague or I just tell you?? Him: no, you will need to hang up and call the X number Me: oh! But it’s only one number different from yours, so I am assuming you’re in the same location, no??? Him: yes, but it’s a different concept, we offer healthy food while X offers burgers Me: yeah I get that, but I want both orders to be delivered at the same time, since I don’t want to start eating and have my colleague watching me or the other way around!! Him: yes, I understand, don’t worry; I will make sure they are delivered at the same time… Me: no, I meant to say you should make sure they are delivered by the SAME person!!!!! It’s cost efficient for you, you know!! Him: yeah of course, but… ok, I am so sorry, but the owner clearly stated that deliveries from either brands should be separate….