Owner of New York Eatery Works for Egyptian TV

 

Hatem El-Gamasy owns Lotus Deli, a small business in Queens, New York.

His store sells sandwiches, coffee, beer, cigarettes and other products.

El-Gamasy, an Egyptian-American, is known as “Timmy” to his customers. But to people thousands of kilometers east of New York, he is considered someone knowledgeable¹ about United States foreign policy and the Middle East. He has spoken about those and other subjects on Egyptian television.

El-Gamasy worked as an English teacher in Egypt before moving to the U.S. nearly 20 years ago. He attended Teaching English as a Second Language classes at St. John's University in New York.

He started working at an eatery to pay for his studies, food and housing. Eventually, he got married and bought his own store.

Over the years, El-Gamasy had written opinion pieces. But Egyptian broadcasters generally ignored his commentaries³.

That changed last year. Many experts thought Hillary Clinton would become the next U.S. president. But El-Gamasy predicted that Donald Trump⁴ would win the presidential election.

Nile TV, an Egyptian television station, heard about the prediction and spoke² with El-Gamasy. After the interview, other broadcasters and news agencies began to contact him.

In September, The New York Times newspaper published a story on El-Gamasy. It provided details of his day job to the whole world.

Some internet discussion boards described his experience as an example of the "American Dream" – the idea that hard work leads to good things.

But news operations and social media forums⁵ across the Middle East were critical of El-Gamasy. They questioned his credibility.

In the month since The Times' story, Egyptian TV stations that used his commentary⁶ the most – CBC eXtra News, ONtvLIVE, and Nile News – stopped calling.

"Oh, the political analyst⁷ Mr. Gamasy is just a sandwich guy; he's a pancake guy; he's this and this, nothing else," El-Gamasy said. "As if owning a small business is something I should be ashamed of … I have nothing to regret."

When he's not working at his store or discussing politics, El-Gamasy spends hours working on his poetry and short stories. He recently published a book in English.

El-Gamasy says one of his favorite books is Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist.

"It [the Alchemist] teaches you, like, If you have a dream, don't give up on it. You need to pursue that dream."

El-Gamasy still follows White House and Department of State briefings on foreign policy.

"Politics is like a running river," he said. "Nothing stops."

Whether more opportunities arise or not, El-Gamasy says he has already found success as a small business owner "in one of the greatest cities" on earth.

I’m John Russell.

Words in This Story

discussion board – n. a public computer system on the Internet that lets people read and leave messages for other users (also called message board)

customer – n. someone who purchases a product or service

interview – n. a meeting at which people talk to each other in order to get information

opportunity – n. a chance

sandwich – n. two pieces of bred with something between them

1 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 commentaries   

n.实况报道( commentary的名词复数 )；评论；评注；批评

参考例句：

• The schools produced diligent excerpting from older manuscripts, summarizing, and commentaries. 各学院从古代手稿里作了辛勤的摘录、总结和评注工作。 来自辞典例句
• The schools produced diligent excepting from older manuscripts, summarizing, and commentaries. 各学院从古代手稿里作了辛勤的摘录，总结和评注的工作。 来自辞典例句

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 forums   

讨论会； 座谈会； 广播专题讲话节目； 集会的公共场所( forum的名词复数 )； 论坛，讨论会，专题讨论节目； 法庭

参考例句：

• A few of the forums were being closely monitored by the administrators. 有些论坛被管理员严密监控。
• It can cast a dark cloud over these forums. 它将是的论坛上空布满乌云。

6 commentary   

n.评论，评注；实况广播报导，现场口头评述

参考例句：

• He is giving the commentary on the basketball game.他正在对篮球赛作评论。
• His running commentary on the football match was excellent.他对这次足球赛所作的实况报道十分精彩。

7 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。