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Follow Up : A crazy day
2008-04-06 15:32:00
Ok I can't keep up with the huge numbers of people who are arrested and detained till , well this is one hell of number. Every minute I found a twitter msg from Wael Abbas and others saying that some was arrested in Al Tahrir square since the morning from activists mainly and citizensBig names like Magdi Ahmed Hussein and Mohammed Abd El-Quds were arrested , in fact Abd El-Quds was arrested when he was buying a newspaper down town , also famous activists like Sharakawy were arrested from their homes , imagine it !!?? "Sharakawy was sexually abused by the police force from couple of day"It is just crazy already Abbas is saying that there are more than 900 anti-riots Vechiles in Cairo today and I believe him .By the way if you have a mobile phone in Al Tahrir square area that is down town you will not be able to receive or make calls despite the transmission stations in the area , there are a lot of noise and you do not have to guess who is behind it.The Kasr Al-Ainy street is nearly...
More About: National , Egypt , Crazy , Democracy

Follow Up : Outside Cairo
2008-04-06 15:23:00
Ok here are the some updates about the strike from outside Cairo , from the Goverantes across the republica.Al Arish in North Sinia ; The participation there is between 40%-45% Alexandria ; Sidi Bashr populated area is deserted More updates to come
More About: National , Egypt , Democracy

Follow Up : The security in the Tahrir square
2008-04-06 15:19:00
These are not the most recent photos , in fact there are no recent photos , anyone is spotted with camera or a mobile phone camera taking photos from down town and the Tahrir square protests is being detained along with his or her cameraThese photos were taken in the early morning showing the security presence in the area , the security forces did not notice the young man who took it thank GoodnessThese photos were taken by X-Hacker Haridy who sent them to Strike blog which I published its url early
More About: Security , Egypt , Square

The strike is legal
2008-04-06 13:38:00
The official media promoting that the strike is not legal but it is legal according to the following :Article no.151 from the Egypt ian Constitution Law no.13 year 2003 "In Mubarak's era"The international human rights convention Egypt had signed in year 1982
More About: National , Legal , Democracy , Strike

The 6 of April strike Blog
2008-04-06 12:23:00
There is a blog made by the activists for the 6 of April Strike ,the great strike of todayIt is in Arabic , it contains all the news,updates and photos of the strike from all over the republicHere is the URLhttp://6april08.blogspot.com/
More About: Politics , National , Egypt , Blog

The strike Graffiti
2008-04-06 12:03:00
A Strike Graffiti , here are some photos from Helwan and Dar Al Salam areas , some one wrote slogans of strike on the wallsThanks to Ibana2 MasrMost of the slogans were "Strike, we can't find food,we can't find bread"Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
More About: National , Egypt , Democracy

Follow Up: The General Strike 6 April
2008-04-06 11:55:00
Public Interest:Yesterday my hair dresser asked me suddenly if I was going to participate in the strike at this point I knew that we all achieved something. Of course I could not take the day off despite I could because my work load in Sunday is too much to be postponed to Monday ,despite I believe in the Strike , already I decided not to buy anything on that dayToday I found the lady who is cleaning the office in the morning asking me if I found an easy means of transportation , this lady told me that she could not find any micro-bus in the morning and she had to take a taxi , when she asked about the reason they told her that it was because of the strike. Many people fear the strike effect's on the transportation in Cairo especially. Today I also knew that down town is so quiet more than usual , very quiet and there is about 200 protesters currently there surrounded by 50,000 anti-riots forces "The usual scene"The traffic in Egypt is so so so smooth ; there is no usual morning tr...
More About: National , April , General , Democracy

The interior ministry warns from the general strike.
2008-04-05 23:04:00
I think they are scared and they do not know what is  going to happen tomorrow. Already the interior ministry released an official statement regarding the General strike attacking those who are calling for it by big names from those minority of minority that work against the nation. The interior ministry said that it would stop any attempt of destabilizing the general security from protests in the streets and encouraging citizens on mutiny "already I have known Malek-X the famous leftist and blogger activist blogger was arrested and currently detained in some police station for distributing flyers" Ladies and Gentlemen I believe that the General Strike has already won thanks to this statement :) By the way the MB are not going to participate in the strike , as usual , those guys have their own calculation sometimes bargains with the regime Update: It is not Malek -X only who was arrested and detained but several activists Technorati Tags: General Strike,Cairo 6...
More About: National , Egypt , Democracy , Ministry

what brings the Egyptian army in the equation ??
2008-04-05 22:10:00
Ayman El-Zowahary , the second man in Al-Qaida released another single , another audio speech in some so-called Islamist website and of course the media all over the world rushed to speak about the new release of the second wanted man in the world "as if it were real" The same old words are repeated , the new thing is that Ayman said that all those civilians were killed in their attacks were unintended targets and they were killed because their governments used them as shields !!?? " I would not even waste my time or yours about this" The only thing that made me stop is that Islamic group veteran mentioned the Egypt ian army in his talk ;oh yes the Egyptian army was mentioned in specific in his silly talk , he claims that the Al-Qaida has fans in the Egyptian army !! Its popularity is growing in the biggest and most powerful and important army in the Arab world !! Some will say that the man is trying to repeat some ancient ,well not that ancient , some old hi...
More About: Media , National Security , Army

Mohammed Mounir is going to join the Strike of tomorrow
2008-04-05 15:51:00
I just knew from dear Egypt ian Leftist that Mohammed Mounir ,the famous Egyptian Singer announced yesterday in his concert that he will join the strike against greed so the people can buy one kilo of meat . Mohammed Mounir is very popular among the Egyptians , he is from the few singers who currently are not shy to express their political views. His views can be considered some how leftist I think Youssef Chahin ,Khaled Youssef , Khaled El-Sawy and all other leftist celebs will join the strike too. Technorati Tags: Mohammed Mounir,Music,Art,Strike,6 of April Strike,Egypt,Democracy ,Citizen Journalism,democracy,Follow Up
More About: Join , Tomorrow

Links of the day
2008-04-05 13:16:00
Here is a collection I found interesting in today: In Egypt ,Upper crust gets bread;From the Washington another international coverage about the bread crisis The Peace Symbol anniversary slide show in Time.com ; the trip of this worldwide icon around the world,the world is celebrating the 50 anniversary of Peace symbol , this famous cultural icon representing the Pigeon of Peace in the middle of a circle; unfortunately it only became an icon not a real thing !! Hoda Kotb is an American from Egyptian origin "I think you knew that from the name" TV host , she is hosting currently a very famous daily TV show called the Daily Show on MSNBC.Hoda is not that famous in Egypt , the media does not speak about her may be because she does not consider herself an Egyptian ,her ethnicity is not reflected that much, this is what I actually hate because she comes from a great country with a great background. Charles & Marie: Narghilé  , oh yes a Mini Shisha ...
More About: Media , Health , Culture , Links

The language of Numbers: The sick Egyptians
2008-04-05 12:39:00
I gathered these numbers from several newspapers and magazines in the past few weeks ,there are not so cheerful. 90% of the street children are threatened to carry HIV due to the homosexual practices and drug abuse There are 8 Million Egypt ians suffering from Hepatitis mainly HCV and HBV "concentrated in Upper Egypt especially Qena" There are 6 Million Egyptians suffering from diabetes "I think that this number is smaller than the actual real number" There are 10 Million Egyptians suffering from asthma and allergy "Say hello to pollution and black cloud" There are 600,000 Egyptians suffering from tuberculosis "Thanks to Shisha" Technorati Tags: Health ,Egyptians,Egypt,Egyptian Life,National ,Citizen JOurnalism,Africa,Mideast,Middle East
More About: Language , Numbers

That will teach her a lesson
2008-04-05 12:04:00
On last Tuesday a court in Cairo convicted Huda Abd El-Nasser ;the daughter of late Egyptian president Gamal Abd El-Nasser ;of defamation and ordered her to pay a compensation equal to L.E 100,000 to Ruqaya El-Sadat; the daughter of late Egyptian President Sadat . I am very happy that the court reached to this fair order The story started in 2005 when Ruqaya filed suit for defamation in 2005 after Huda Abdel Nasser was reported by a weekly Al-Ahram Al Arabia saying that Anwar Sadat was behind the death of her father and that he worked for the American secret services !! This is the second trial , Ruqaya made an appeal and she won. Huda lost because according to the judge she did not present any evidence on what she was claiming to the court and thus what she had said is considered a defamation. Well as soon as Huda found herself in a trouble ; she tried to make President Mubarak mediate between her and Ruqaya convincing the later to give up her right in defending her fathe...
More About: History , Lesson

Follow Up : The pre-Sunday strike updates
2008-04-04 11:55:00
These are the update about the news regarding the Sunday 6th of  April general Strike which Egypt is going to see for the first time in its history First of all you must know the stock Market in Cairo and Alexandria fears that strike and its consequences , it is expected that it will be affected on Sunday , affected badly if things got ugly as it is expected to have protests all over Egypt . Second of all The Muslim Brotherhood is going to join the strike along with the rest of the political forces in Egypt . Third Dr. Ayman Nour is going to strike in his prison too , well I know that sounds strange because he is already jail yet you consider it as sentimental move . Fourth there will be protests outside the Egyptian Embassies in major cities around the globe "Bring it on !!" Fifth the regime is trying to crack down the strike by dirty tricks ,already today and yesterday "and probably tomorrow" several activists from Kafya and MB "mainly about...
More About: Society , National , Updates

Let's strike together baby [Flickr]
2008-04-04 11:39:00
Kodak Agfa posted a photo: A cartoon by Ahmed Nadi
More About: Baby , Flickr , Strike

Links of the week
2008-04-04 10:49:00
Here some links I found interesting regarding Egypt From CBS Website based on AP article : In Egypt ,Children Bear the weight of Poverty ; it is true , it is speaking about the child labour problem in Egypt , of course I wonder why Mama Susan is from this ,it will not be solved by laws only , it will be solved by better economic situation in Egypt and lifting the standard of life of the poor class so they will not need to force their kids to work ,this is what logic says !! From the Washington Post : Egypt shrugs off slowdown but faces inflation risk ; City Stars mall is mentioned here , of course must be mentioned when you sell some bag for than L.E 2000 in a country where people can't find bread in it ,it must be mentioned , seriously I do not know if we are having inflation or recession or even worse in our way to a great depression just like the United States !!! From the Middle East Times : Egypt heading towards Natural disaster ; The global warming problem baby is ...
More About: Religion , Islam , Economy , Links

L.E not EGP
2008-04-03 21:13:00
I do not know why I am insisting on writing down the Egyptian Currency in French as "Livre Egyptien" or "L.E" as in the past it used to be known and written in the school books , I remember even in the Math books it was L.E . L.E one of the things the revolution did not change from the time of Monarchy but it was changed lately in the last 25 years , but now it is "Egyptian Pound" or "EGP" , some will say that it is the correct form to use in English ,some will say that it is appropriate because of globalisation but I do not why I am attached to "L.E" more than "EGP" may be because I was raised upon "L.E" ,I just do not know May be because as "L.E" the Egyptian Pound had more value than it is "EGP" !!! In this blog I will continue using "L.E" not "EGP" Here are some photos for the "L.E" when the Kilo of Meat was equal to 1 L.E and people did not like it and ...
More About: Society , Economy , History

There is still a hope
2008-04-02 20:28:00
Fidel Castro stepped down and Robert Mugabe is two steps away from giving up the power after 28 years of rule , well may there is still a hope for us after 27 years from Mubarak rule that we can have freedom in 2008. Seriously this year seems to be the year of retirement for all dictators all over the world !! May be we are not going to wait the divine order after all nor we are going to have the son to replace his father !! Technorati Tags: Robert Mugabe,Fidel Castro,Hosni Mubarak,Egypt ,President,Africa ,Cuba,polit ics,News,Middle East,Zimbabwe
More About: Politics , International , Democracy

It seems that it is for real this time !!
2008-04-01 22:47:00
On the calendar of the strikes in Egypt April 2008 will be a full month just like month of March , in fact it can be a historical month because not only we are going to have strikes in different fields like Medicine but we seem that we are going to the first real general strike in Egypt. Oh yes ,it was announced last month , the idea was adopted by all the political opposition forces and activists from Kafya and MB. It was originally came as a solidarity move with the El-Mahalla textile workers who were planning for another strike on that day but it moved from a stand with workers rights to a stand against the terrible economic situations. A stand against the rise in prices , this is what is called. Instead of going to Mahalla or protest in street ,you just stay at home as simple as this. I remember last year the political activists tried to make the people join a strike they were arranging but it did not work yet this year it seems that it is going to work insh Allah ,in fact ...
More About: Society , Economy , Time , Democracy

The Egyptian Exorcist
2008-04-01 20:56:00
This made the headlines of both the Egypt ian Gazette and the Daily News in Egypt  from two weeks ago, the headlines in the front page were about this interesting report by the AFP correspondent Charles Onians .It was about The Egyptian Exorcist father Makari Yunan,the preacher of St. Mark Coptic Church. Arabic newspapers surprisingly ignored it completely despite it is not only interesting but it is very important. This is the first time the media records exorcism in a church like this in Egypt. Exorcism in Egypt is always associated with secret places , whether for Muslims or Christians , official representatives of both religions avoid speaking in this matter , it is not a taboo but it is like a swamp , dangerous area because both religions  believe in the existence of Demons , of course I do not know about the Church men , but there are many sheikhs and Islamic clerics who disbelieve the idea that an evil spirit or a demon can possess a person , considering it from t...
More About: Religion , Culture

What about the footballers and Amr Diab ??
2008-04-01 20:12:00
The official and unofficial media now in Egypt has no one to attack except Amr Khaled again and again for no real reason. They started the attack after what the Arabic version of Forbes has published from two weeks ago about the fortune of Amr Khaled. The magazine is claiming that Amr Khaled's fortune is U.S $ 2.5 Million only , and that he is number one in the most richest Islam ic preachers list in the Arab world. As soon as this was published all those who hate Khaled started the attack. In their point of view Khaled Should not have this fortune and that this proves he is using religion for his interest and for his profit. The anti-Khaled campaign is back again in the same time he lunched his campaign against drugs in Egypt with the association of the UN. Khaled appeared on several channels denying the Forbes' claims saying that this number was the total ads his TV show Hit "On the Prophet's steps"  received from two years ago. Of course his enemies did ...
More About: Society , Religion

Follow Ups : The University strike and the Badr Vessel Saga
2008-03-31 21:49:00
Ok there are new updates about the University Strike and the Badr Vessel Saga First of all the University strike of last week , I got new photos for the strike from Cairo University Campus thanks to blogger Friend Mustafa Mahmoud , I showed before the photos from Helwan University Campus . By the way wait for more strikes coverage in April. Second If you remember in February I spoke about the sudden and mysterious disappearance of an Egypt ian Vessel called Badr I in the Red Sea , till now it has not found yet , it seems to me that the media just forgot ,well I have not and I just like to remind you about it Technorati Tags: University,Cairo University,Photos,News,Citizen Journalism,Egyptian X-Files,Strike,Follow Ups

Leave the messenger
2008-03-31 21:03:00
The Egypt ian regime's foreign affairs policies show how fragile and stupid the regime became nowadays , the foreign affairs are not only about the present but also about the future. I do not know really who is shaping the Foreign affairs policies and on what bases , already to be honest I do not know who the really FM is Ahmed Abu El-Gait or General Omar Soliman. The Foreign ministry now is in the worst days ever and here I am not speaking about the ministry itself but how it plans for the future. I will not go through the regional alliances and policies ,it is enough to see our latest fiasco in the Arab summit at Damascus but I will show you a little example on how short sighted the Foreign ministry has become just like the regime. The Egyptian state  is fighting the next U.S Ambassador Scobey who attacked Mubarak and his regime in the America n Congress ,you can not imagine the level of attack this woman is facing right now in the media now and she have not come to Egypt...
More About: Politics , Media , International

The 20th Arab summit : 3 Syria : 0 U.S and Co.
2008-03-31 20:32:00
The 20Th Arab summit was finished yesterday and I think that this summit was not a bad or weak as usual like the rest of the other summits at least this what I think. I believed that Syria did something unexpected to host this summit and make it work despite all the America n and Western involvements that wanted to prevent it. For the first time the American administration said directly that it did not want the summit to be held in Damascus , the first direct public interfere in the Arabic affairs yet all its plans failed.The Syrians played this round well and won. The American administration wants to isolate Syria in the region in order to weaken Hezbollah for the Sake of Israel and it is doing this by the help of its gang in the region : Saudi Arabia ,Egypt "the past allies of Syria" and Jordan. These countries sadly are using all their diplomatic and undiplomatic connections in order to isolate Syria and  in the past few weeks they tried to debunk the Arab summi...
More About: Regional , Summit

We still have it
2008-03-31 20:03:00
I have come from outside from a terrible traffic congestion ,it became a daily routine , I rode with an old taxi driver ,you know the famous type of Cairo Taxi talkative drivers , well he was one of them and he kept telling me these hilarious political jokes that made my day and remind me that we still have this famous sense of humour. It has been awhile when I heard a new political joke .Several newspapers reported that Egypt ians are losing their humour touch and can't come up with new powerful political jokes thanking to the increasing depression rate between ; as result of the terrible political and economic situations they live. Well it seems that they were wrong because we still have it according to my cab driver. Oh boy I did not speak a word only laughing "I could not stop myself" and he was like a radio saying these jokes , most of them were about Mubarak and sons , mostly about Mubarak . I really needed some laughs. This cab driver from the working poor...
More About: Society

What speech are they speaking about ??
2008-03-30 18:49:00
The hypocrite official newspapers Al-Akhabr and Al Ahram newspapers have nothing in the headlines to speak about today except the Mubarak Powerful's speech that Mofid Shahab said on his behalf  in the Arab summit in Damascus yesterday !! This is so strange because Mofid Shahab did not say a world yesterday in the opening nor the closing  ceremony of the Summit in Damascus because the Syria ns were crystal clear when they said that only Presidents and Kings are allowed to say a speech , their representatives are not allowed to speak on their behalf !!?? I do not know who they are fooling !!?? Spreading lies about things that did not take place !!?? did they become so desperate ? Of course they think that they could get away by this as the national TV did not transfer the summit as usual on air !!?? Stupidity Technorati Tags: Mubarak,Syria,Damascus,Regional ,Arab,Poli tics,Media ,Press,Arab Summit,Mideast,Middle East
More About: Politics , Egypt

McCain and the autocratic rulers of Egypt
2008-03-30 18:34:00
I have just read this interesting post about John McCain and his  digg_title = 'McCain and the Autocratic Rulers of Egypt ';digg_bodytext = 'John McCain said in his speech that he does not want to deal with the dictators of the Middle East including the Egyptian ones';digg_topic = '2008_us_elections';//--> policy towards the so-called "The threat of radical Islamic terrorism" in The Pakistan Policy blog , experts are right when they are saying McCain may be worse than Bush . The post was about the Speech McCain had said to the Los Angeles World Affairs council about his views regarding the international affairs on March 26, 2008 Here is the original complete speech from John McCain's official website McCain mentioned Egypt in his speech among other countries like Iran,Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Here is what he said : For decades in the greater Middle East, we had a strategy of relying on autocrats to provide order and stability.  We reli...
More About: Politics , America , Democracy

The Arab Summit in Damascus
2008-03-29 14:52:00
I watched the opening ceremony of the 20th Arab summit in Damascus ,the summit that would not have seen the light except for the persistence of the Syrians and this something I respect them for. For your record I am already feeling sick and not well ,I always got sick in this changing weather and I missed most of the speeches except the important ones at least from point my view. I did not and I would not have missed the speech of Bashar Al-Assad ,already he was heading this summit this year and he spoke as the President ,I love Bashar's speeches in the Arab summits since he became the president of Syria after his dad , yes he is one tall dictator ,son of a dictator but he speaks in a wonderful wise way , first of all in the previous summit he talked without reading any paper ,this is time he was reading from paper but still it was a good speech and less firing than I expected , I thought that Bashar would take Egypt and Saudi Arabia whether directly or indirectly like what he...
More About: Iraq , Iran , Israel , Regional

And what will the sorry do ??
2008-03-28 10:10:00
President G.W Bush is regretting at last for the murder of an Egypt ian citizen by the his troops in the Suez Canal , in an accident the Egyptian regime could not hide nor could it use its technique to divert the people's attention ,how can they do it ?? Believe it or not they tried to do ,but they failed it is not a martyr of bread queue but a man who  was killed by foreigners in our Egyptian territorial waters , not any Foreigners but America n navy members in the Suez Canal ,the Suez Canal that drunk a lot of Egyptian blood. The people of Suez are very angry ,really angry those people saw lots of wars , saw their children got killed by all the invaders who came in the modern time to get Egypt , this accident opened some wounds in the Egyptian memory , Yes the U.S is not officially  an invader or an occupier but for many it is already invading us without armies , thought economy , through culture and most important through politics , through the puppets they gave their ...
More About: National Security

What a reception
2008-03-27 21:10:00
I do not want to write about Sarko and his private life but every now and then I found something in the newspapers about his private life and his wife Carla that makes me blog about it. Sarko now is visiting the UK and you may know that in the same time of his visit Christie's announced that it is going to sell his wife's nude portrait in an auction in New York at !! It was taken from 18 year during Carla's modelling days and of course the British tabloids found it a good opportunity especially Sarko is French man. Carla by the way looked so elegant and classy when she met queen  Elizabeth II yesterday ,really she was chic , I wasn't surprised to know that this gray high-waisted coat was designed by Dior's John Galliano , I really love it with that small hat ,she looked like a real First lady not a crazy model swinging from a man to another. BY the way that elegance was a smart move from her to confront the auction news. Seriously I love her 1950s look. I found this ca...
More About: Europe , Reception