Friday, November 29, 2013

No Birdshot , No Ammunition , No One is Dead in #Cairo University “+18”

Yesterday security forces opened its fire , its birdshot and its tear gas in the Campus of Cairo University in a scene I never thought I would see after January 25.
Al Masry TV : Clashes between protesters and security forces. The newspaper considered the protesters to be MB alone by the way.
Originally the protests erupted in several universities yesterday in solidarity of the 11 girls in Alexandria.They were not MB students protesting alone this time , there were students who are against the MB as well against military who had enough. It is not longer Muslim Brotherhood Students as some are trying to claim deceiving themselves before the public. Anyhow police forces came to disperse this protest especially that it started to head to Al Nahda square. Sooner the security forces began to fire teargas, bird shots and even live ammunition inside the campus itself as pictures and videos show.

And it seems the government in #Egypt got its own #Anonymous group

Hours after the arrest of Alaa Abdel Fatah from his house and the confiscation of his laptops and mobile phones , we found these strange two messages on his sister Mona Seif’s twitter account "@Monasosh".
Here is a screen shot for the account before it was suspended (Photo sources : Al Masry Al Youm , Bel Trew and Miriam Bent Omran)

  1. Tweet No.1 : Attention what will be written on Mona Seif does not represent her as her account has been hacked by Anonymous an we will announce the reasons later with all my respect !! "We will and then my respect !?
  2.  Tweet No.2 : Cyber Terrorist, 0xomar , Risk Rock , Nile Fox, Soumy Nina ,Anonymous founders 
  3. Here is Cairo dear citizens , the nation's leader will address soon !! "WTH" 
  4. Anonymous welcomes you , no for traitors or agents !! 

Links and Notes 11/29/2013

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

#FreeAlaa Hashtag is back once again

This was a long day and I have just returned back home ready to write about what happened in the universities especially in my university Cairo university that lost one of its students today , I returned to read Manal Hassan saying that her husband Alaa Abdel Fatah was arrested from their house.

Not only he was arrested but Manal was physically assaulted by the police force. They also confiscated their mobile phones and laptops. Luckily their  son Khaled  was sleeping in another room.
There was an eye witness living in the same street who saw the arrest of Alaa . This time he was arrested by special forces !!  !!

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Links and Notes 11/28/2013

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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

For the Sake of #Jan25 Principles

Today 14 girls have been sentenced to 11 years in jail in because of balloons and a hand sign in one of the most disgraceful court rules ever in the Egyptian judicial system if I may say. The true humans in this country were shocked and angry for this verdict murderers and corrupted do not get regardless of the political affiliation of those girls!!
Now among those are angry a hacker called Pharaoh that hacked the Judges Club’s official website, the Judges club is Egypt’s Judges Syndicate.
The screen capture
The hacker left a message that I believe actually represents the view of many young Pro-revolutionaries :
I have never imagine that I would defend one day a MB or a Pro-Morsi person but today I will defend the 14 girls sentenced 11 years in jail because of Rabaa sign. As much as I hate the Muslim Brotherhood , this is injustice. The Principles of the 25 January revolution are bread , freedom and social justice and today the freedom of 14 girls has be suppressed. The Muslim Brotherhood did sell us and the revolution but I will never give up the January 25 revolution.

#NoMilTrials : To Protest or Not to Protest

Today a group of protesters and  activists tried to defy the government and the ministry of interior by organizing another protest against both " The military trials for civilians in the Constitution" and "The protest law". The protest is organized by Thowar Front. "Revolutionaries Front" 
Now the Ministry of interior is claiming that late Jika's father was the one who applied for a permit for this protest. Ironically no one from the activists asked for a permit in the first place and nobody can reach Mr. Salah Jaber, Jika's dad to confirm this.
The official statement of MOI says that some activists apply for the permit but did not say who these activists are. Ironically according to the law you should apply three days prior to the protest not only the same day.
Interestingly the MOI spokesperson refused to reveal to Daily News Egypt report Fady Ashraf the organizers that applied for permits.

Jika is believed to be killed by the MOI during Mohamed Morsi's rule. No one was held accounted for his death up till now. 

Links and Notes 11/27/2013

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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

#NoMilTrials : Back To Back !!

And the peaceful protest of the No for Military trials Campaign against the bloody article in the Constitution was dispersed by force brutally in the first test for the ministry of interior and its Pro-Media.

What I see in front of me that we are not back to 11 February 2011 but we are back to 24 January 2011 if not to 2010 with the same lies in the media.

Here is a storfiy report for what happened since the start of the protests. You can see it after the break.

Links and Notes 11/26/2013

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Links and Notes 11/25/2013

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Sunday, November 24, 2013

And the Anti-Protest Law is issued !!

And Egyptian interim president Adly Mansour has issued the infamous Protest law today. Here is what I originally wrote about that protest law last month.
Amazingly I remember that deputy PM Ziad Bahaa El Din hinted out last month after his meeting with political parties that the law would be discussed in the new elected parliament but it turned to be an empty promise unfortunately. The Conservative/Deep State/Pro-Military/Pro-Police branch won after all.
Now here is an English preview for the law from Ahram Online. Also here is a collection of tweets from HRW Egypt director Heba Morayef about the law in English after the break.

#AblaFahita ; The dangerous Puppet Spy !!

The level of Public Nationalism Paranoia in Egypt has reached to a scary level especially now it is being adopted by the mainstream media. Now our media is repeating claims that U.S President Barack Obama is a member of the mighty international Muslim Brotherhood organization and that the international MB is actually running the world. “But failed to sustain a rule in Egypt more one year amazingly !!”
Of course this paranoia is rooted online in social media in the Anti-25 January revolution Facebook pages that adopt the conspiracy theory forever , you know the revolution was a cosmic conspiracy and we had a great life during Mubarak rule and so on.
So now after the fifth column lists craze , we got the latest Mossad and CIA spy in Egypt : Abla Fahita , the famous YouTube Puppet.
It started with the Pro-Mubarak Anti-Freemason/Anti-Revolution/Anti-MB/Anti-Sisi Conspiracy theorist and financial analyst Sameh Abu Arayes who analyzes and predicts disasters and terrorist attacks according to the TV ads.
He is the father of the infamous Closed Conspiracy theory Facebook Page Subliminal Message. Now Abu Arayes saw the Dolce Ice Cream ad starting Abla Fahita and her daughter Caroline and predicted that the sinister puppets were speaking about terrorist attacks because Abla Fahita was speaking on how the new Dolce Ice Cream tasted like bomb !!
Here is the funny ad which is the best in the campaign if you ask my opinion.

Links and Notes 11/24/2013

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

#EgyConstitution :The draft is not Final yet

Today we found the Egyptian Constitution committee’s official twitter account announcing that the new draft Constitution 2013 is available online. People began to gear up to read and inspect that draft Constitution but then came Mohamed Salmawy , the official spokesperson of the committee to tell us that the draft

It is true , it is not the final draft because they are still last minute talks with everybody to ensure that the majority of certain groups like the Salafists and Workers are going to say Yes. There are still major fights about certain articles other than the military trials and the army articles in general.

Yes the Salafists as well Al Azhar are now fighting with all their powers over the so-called Islamic identity articles and it is not about the infamous 219 but about the fact that they do not want the word “Civilian” in the article related to the identity of the Egyptian state.Oh yes Al Azhar also refuses the word “Civilian” , the open-minded moderate Al Azhar that fought the Muslim Brotherhood also refuses the civility of the State !!

I do not know what the problem of the sheikh is with the civility of the State. “Civilian” is not secular for God’s Sake , Civilian opposes military as far as I know !!

Anyhow this is just the tip of ice berg , you got the other Sharia related articles.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

A Stolen Revolution Indeed

The statements of John Kerry about how the Muslim Brotherhood stole the January revolution from the Tahrir kids echoed strongly back in Cairo. It is most powerful statement condemning and slamming the Muslim Brotherhood since the 25 January 2011 not even since 3 July 2013.

Now I have two remarks about that statement.

Well the first remark is that I am afraid that the Brotherhood was not the only thief in town that stole the revolution from those kids in Tahrir. In fact all the grown ups stole it along with the Muslim Brotherhood whether the army or the deep state or the pseudo political parties or media or Islamists or even global and regional powers. They are even fighting over the booty now.

Those kids in Tahrir square have spent the past three years between the morgue and funerals fighting the worst despair where as their revolution has been stolen over and over in front of their own eyes.

Those kids do not have anything to do except see their friends in coffins not to mention being demonized in the eyes of the public at the same time they are trying to fight fairly in a dirty war without any foreign aid or deep state aid. Those kids are the best personification of Don Quixote

Links and Notes 11/21/2013

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

#Nov19 in #MohamedMahmoud #2013 : A big long day

And it is the 19th November !!! And only God knows what will happen on that busy day , we got sad anniversaries , pharaoh's birthday and a football match.
Here is a live blog for the long day.It seems that it would start earlier. 

Monday, November 18, 2013

#18Nov : Jika's Rally to commemorate Mohamed Mahmoud clashes

And the activists as well Pro-Revolutionaries began their event commemorate Mohamed Mahmoud clashes. It is one day earlier to avoid any political trap or clashes tomorrow. Tonight's event is exactly a rally from Martyr Jaber Salah aka Jika's house to Mohamed Mahmoud street. Jika was killed in Mohamed Mahmoud street clashes in 2012.
Here is a live blog for the event. 

Links and Notes 11/18/2013

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Sunday, November 17, 2013

#MohamedMahmoud : Whitewashing our own Egyptian Karbala

And in some sad irony that is rather closer to a farce the Egyptian government decided officially commemorate the martyrs of Mohamed Mahmoud 2011 clashes .. and the martyrs of army and police as well.
The government already gave orders to some company called El Abed from 5 days ago to build some memorial to commemorate the martyrs of the 25 January and 30 June revolution martyrs and the construction only started on Saturday. The memorial which is built from a very bad material looks indeed like the famous Yellow Submarine !!
The memorial now
Some tent where the government and the police can receive condolences for the martyrs, oh yes some cruel irony !! The cruel irony does not stop here.
The police issued a statement to commemorate the martyrs saying that it respected reviving the memory of all martyrs for their role in the process of national work including those whose blood soaked the tree of national struggle !! This is unbelievable !!
The government or rather the deep state is rather trying to white wash what had done there.

It is official.. Bassem Youssef ends his contract with #CBC

It is official now Bassem Youssef and his show’s producing company QSoft announced that they ended their contract with CBC TV network. QSoft issued an official statement regarding this matter.

Here is a summary for the statement in English

The company was patient and silent towards the unfair campaign launched by CBC Network against the show , its host and our company in order to press them and to put restriction on the content. The campaign started with the CBC statement on 26/10/2013 denying its relation with the episode aired on 25/10/2013. And on 1/11/2013 CBC’s administration did not air the next episode after receiving it in unprecedented move in media. After that CBC issued a shameful statement defaming the company with fake accusations and reasons.

The decision to suspend the show already reflected a negative image to the world about democracy and freedom of expression in Egypt after the revolution of 30 June especially after how the Western media expressed its concern about the aggression against freedoms in Egypt.

QSoft will sue CBC as it seems.

You know that Youssef was suspended indefinitely after the second season premiere because the world famous satirist dared and mocked the growing El Sisi cult !! 

Good for Bassem , I hope that if he reads those lines to think about returning back to YouTube instead of those TV channels that are taking orders whether from State security or from the Morale Department.

P.S I heard rumors that Bassem and QSoft have got an offer from MBC Misr.

This Tuesday , oh yes the big November 19 , 2013 the state security prosecution will start to investigate the complaints against Youssef accusing him of insulting the armed forces. It won’t investigate him yet.

Links and Notes 11/17/2013

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Links and Notes 11/16/2013

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Friday, November 15, 2013

Banksy is not welcomed in the new democratic Egypt !!

 The Mubarak deep state ministers in El-Beblawi’s cabinet are not wasting anytime. After proposing the Protests Law , they are now proposing a law to criminalize “abusive graffiti and stencil” in the country.
The law is proposed by former police general/old time governor/current minister of local development Adel Labib. According to that proposed law if you are found guilty then you will either face a prison sentence of up to four years or a fine up to 100,000 LE ($14,516) !!
Banksy in Manhattan
So the abusive graffiti and stencil according to the government means a 100,000 LE fine or 4 years in jail !! Interestingly as Mohamed Mahmoud 2011 clashes anniversary gets close , I remember that police officer El Shenawy who shot the protesters in their eyes got 3 years in prison.
Of course the matter of abusiveness will be determined according to the government’s views. Labib is justifying the new draft law that the country needs to be clean.
Definitely Banksy is not welcomed in the new Democratic Egypt !!
Needless to say that there was a media campaign in the past week in the mainstream media about how much we needed this law to stop those insulting stencils and graffiti drawing on our walls and how much we need this country clean !!!

Links and Notes 11/15/2013

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Regarding The Reuters' Poll about Arab Women : My two cents

I think it is never too late to speak about that Reuters' poll concerning women’s rights in the Arab world and its shocking result that Egypt is the worst place for any woman to live in. Even worse than Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Somalia !!
Yeah Egypt is even worse than Saudi Arabia where women can not take off their black Abayas and can move or do anything without the approval of their male guardian’s approval.
Yes Saudi Women “especially the rich” can have access to better health care and education but only with the approval male guardians. The Saudi women already need male guardian to drive them to hospitals official to get that treatment we do not have in Egypt. Ironically this poll hurts the struggle of Saudi women activists who are fighting for real to gain fundamental rights like driving their own cars for God sake !!
In Sudan women get imprisoned and flogged for wearing trousers while in Yemen girls as young as 9 years old are forced to marry. In war torn Syria , Syrian women are raped , killed , tortured and imprisoned for God sake !! I can go after each Arab country to prove my point that it is equivalent hell for ladies in neighbor countries in a way or another.
I will not speak about the progress of women has achieved in this country or the historical milestone of pioneer ladies in Egypt that fought to gain their rights starting with the education right. I will not lie and say that Egypt is the best place for women now but I will say that it is not entire hell either comparing to our dear sister Arab countries.
Of course the poll caused a lot of controversy and angry among women activists in Egypt and they have to be. Many asked about the methodology and the sample,the questions as well the timing of the poll. 
Also interestingly this poll is based upon CEDAW treaty , yes the Controversial CEDAW that many Muslim and Arabic countries got their objections and reservations about that treaty like for instance Saudi Arabia where it said clearly that it would not implement any term in the treaty that contradicted directly with the Islamic Sharia “according to the Wahabi doctrines”.
I am not fooling myself Egyptian women are facing lots of challenges but again just as it is not paradise nor hell , it is only Egypt.

Nasser in Moscow : Newsreel

As we were reviving the Nasser legacy in a way or another , I could not ignore that rare newsreel clip from Russia showing the visit of Nasser to Moscow in 1965.

By the way time changes indeed as well political alliances even faster as we may think 

Links and Notes 11/14/2013

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

#Hala’ib Triangle in Photos : Camels Market in #Shalateen

Here is the third part of the Hala’ib triangle in photos series. After the amazing photos of Shalateen port and the village of Abraq in Shalateen , this time it is about the famous Camels market in the city of Shalateen.
The Camels market is one of the most famous landmarks in the city. It is the biggest market for camels in Egypt. The camels come from Sudan in a long trip led by their herders. Their temporary stop is at that market in Shalateen waiting to be sold to the camel merchants that come from all over the country in a long trip.
Now this time the photo slide show is a mix of photos by photographer Yasser El Rasoul and famous Photo journalist/dear friend Hossam el-Hamalawy.

Links and Notes 11/13/2013

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.