Originality

Other words for originality are uniqueness, creativity and being different. If you said that something is original then you mean that it has an identity of its own. That it may stand up amongst many others and yet stay different. Originality is a really hard thing to accomplish and needs many times of trials, and yet after all it may not work and may end up with a complete failure. Originality means critique, it means that some may like and others may not. But it’s a target that is worth trying and working really hard for.
Uniqueness and creativity, does not only apply to the arts, as it may seem at a first glance; it also applies to the way we dress, the way we talk and the way we act. Being original may apply to each and every aspect in people’s lives; it may be that common thing in all the identities, that one thing that brings us all together and yet differentiates us all from each other.
The question here is, would people take the risk of being original or would it be easier to follow what have already been successful? Being original does not mean bringing a new thing out of nowhere, as it always comes from a place, but it means developing or treating what is already known to be our own, to have our identity and our originality. The resources could be the same but the product should always be different.
For some reason many, if not all, have been tamed into thinking that following someone else’s original is the right, strong and successful act. This belief’s use may vary, from one person to another, but it is a common viewpoint between many people. We may find it in the way we dress, what we eat, the way we talk, the music we make and listen to, the videos we make and watch, the movies we make and view and even in the way we love.
For some reason the “western” dream became our flawless picture, the aim we try very hard to accomplish. We tend to imitate what’s western to accomplish perfection or gain the admiration of everyone. We gave up our own culture for a new polished one, though our own culture is much older and more authentic than that new one, our culture has been originated before America was even discovered. Walking in the streets or sitting somewhere when you look around, almost everything lacks originality, like it does not have any real taste or direct relation to this culture or to the inner feelings of those people around. Do not misunderstand the words, and think that hatred towards what’s western is what I am calling for, or that I do not admit that they are more improved in many things; not at all, what I call for is taking their improvements and reproducing them but within our own culture, to make them ours. It is easier to just take the thing as it is, and also safer, as adding may not always be successful; but if you taste this success only once you’ll never go back to just taking the thing as it is. Its like buying some fast food and then adding your mums home made pepper like ingredient, would not it taste better.
In defense some may think that we are not up for that, or that we cannot compete. If you come to really think of it you will find that they also took many things from our culture and reproduced it to fit theirs, or tries to make their own versions of it. They loved the belly dancing, built places in the form of the pyramids, Mohamd Mounir’s music is highly appreciated in foreign countries and if try hard enough to think you will find many other examples.
In another defense people might say that in order to be successful here you have to copycat what is western, in order to get the admiration of everyone and especially the “elite”. May be many people tend to deviate towards what is western but this is only because we did not try really hard to produce and defend what is original, and for a matter of fact many people now are deviating back towards originality, towards belly dancing instead of salsa, towards going out in hossein instead of any fancy café and the examples go on and on.
People would think that trying that in a career is a suicidal mission. When talking about a career here the first thing that comes in mind is media and art, and the first example is Shakira. Shakira no matter how different people may get and that some might not think this is a good example, but the reason she succeeded at the beginning was not purely being attractive or the clothes, but it was daring to be different and to be original, she took dancing and music and treated it with her own origins, both from the west and the east and gave us the “Shakira style in dancing”, she made her own statement.
May be the reason behind this dilemma is that we are not that attached to our culture anymore, we do not really know it, due to the fascination of the western we do not get to run into what’s ours as frequent as running into what is western, and may unconsciously we become to think that when producing something that looks western, we are producing something that is stunning and original. Something that is western could be stunning and incredible, but the thing that makes me wonder is that if have enough technicalities to reproduce something that looks as good as the west, cannot we add just a little authentic creativity and make it really as good as the west, or even better, and not only looking as good as them.
For some reason adding some authentic creativity to the thing makes it closer to the heart; it gives a special feeling. That feeling that penetrates through the surface and gives it a soul, it is like its something that can be tasted. It takes the thing from the level of Excellency to the level of originality. To the level of marking history and not only following what have already been marked in history. That feeling of ownership, like it’s yours.
Again I repeat its risky and probably would end up with failure many time before achieving success, but it is definitely worth, its history making. So its either to take the risk and the burden of being authentic and therefore be a truly creative person? Or to simply follow and be a genius in what you chose to follow.

“ Two children were together and each was given a piece of paper and a pencil and asked for a flower, one drew a sun flower in a vase looking out of the window and the other drew a tulip in the hands of a small girl after shaping the piece of paper into a boat… original we were born, but with fear we grew to follow”