#Jan25 : Kasr Al Nil Bridge ; another Symbol of the revolution in #Egypt

Despite tens were killed and hundreds were injured on the Kasr Al Nil bridge yet it took the people a whole real to realize that its iconic significance  in this revolution.
I am totally against idolizing the symbols but that bridge has become another official symbol of the revolution.
Kasr Al Nil bridge is another icon of Cairo , one of its old bridges since the time of Khedive Ismail , it has got many tales about the city called Cairo yet I think its most important tale is how millions of Egyptians used it to cross to fear to freedom in 2011 in a historical scene my generation will not forget.

#Jan25 : The Kasr Al Nil battle

The old bridge with four lions “Said to be referred to Khedive Ismail’s sons despite his sons were actually more than four” also has got a tale on how hundreds of thousands of Egyptians came back to Tahrir square in long marches in a year later to show the world that they are still want that democracy and freedom many died for last year.

I wish that Mubarak had seen how the bridge looked like this year because most of these protesters are the children of his era.
P.S : This video below was filmed on January 28,2011 at Al Galaa bridge showing the protesters singing the national anthem , it is more than great.

#Jan28 : The national anthem at Al Galaa square

Technorati Tags: Kasr Al Nil bridge,Egypt,Al Galaa Bridge,#Jan25,#Jan28,Politics,Egyptian Revolution,History,Tahrir,Video,Photos

#Jan25 : The Police officer we want

Today marks the day where Police general Mohamed El Batran was killed by his colleagues from a year ago in El Kat prison for refusing to let the prisoners out of the jail to create chaos and fear in the society.
I will say one thing Mohamed El Batran is the true grandson of those heroes of Police that stood with the resistance against the British occupation in 1952 , he is the true hero of the January 25th from Police when he refused to take the orders and limit the prisoners out.
In Post Revolution Egypt , I want Mohamed El Batran to be a role model for the Egyptian police , this is the Egyptian police I want and I will seek to have it. I want a police force that really ready to die to protect the people and its moral campus is not corrupted , that ready to die to protect the law and not the regime. 
My big salute to his sister Dr. Manal El Batran ,the true Egyptian lady who did not give up the rights of her brother.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Egypt,History,Egyptian faces,Politics,Mohamed El Batran,#Jan25,Habib El-Adly,El Kat Prison,Martyrs

#Syrian Revolution : Hot battles in extreme cold weather “Graphic”

Nearly 200 martyrs have been killed in the past 3 days in Syria , most of them in Homs and Hama , 320 martyrs have been killed in the past 5 days in Syria ,
If the news of these battles between the free Syrian army “Revolutionary” and the Arab Syrian army “Pro-El Assad” today are true , then we are in front huge escalation , hot escalation in the extreme cold weather in Syria now.
There is no news regarding those Iranians who were captured last week.
There have been news that the fights in the suburbs of  Damascus that reached near to the airport.According to some observers what happened near the airport or rather at the airport was a new defection in the army.
There are confirmed clashes between the two armies in Homs and in Reef Dimshaq. There were rumors that forces in Ghouta region in Reef Dimshaq were going to cut the TV transmission.

Reef Dimshaq : The bombardment of the city of Erbin on January 29th

The news of Homs is not good by all measures , the shelling and bombardment of the city continue while the LAS delegate as the Syrian national council delegate have arrived to New York to have talks with the UN and Security council. Nabil El Araby hopes that China and Russia would change their mind and stop supporting El Assad’s regime , well a man in his experience in the international politics especially in UN should have known better.
Popular Salafist Sheikh Adnan Al Aroor has denied he issued a fatwa about killing the Arab observers in Syria.

#Jan25 : A year later in #Tahrir square in #photos

Here is the complete gallery on Flickr , I know that I took a lot of photos last #Jan25 2012

#Jan25 : Tahrir one year later

Here are some snap shots I thought of being interesting in this collection. I will do a little Big Photo blog here in Egyptian Chronicles.
This week a new type of street vendors appeared in the square and that’s the dates vendors , I found it interesting.

The tourists guides having a coalition to protect the Egyptian museum

#Jan28 Our true revolution Day

After many years history will say that the true revolution day in Egypt was #Jan28 or January 28th,2012 and not January 25th,2012 , this was the true day the Egyptian people showed the whole world that they are capable of making history.
My memories of this day are too many after all it is a day that changed my life completely , well it changed the life of all Egyptians in a way or another.
Today hundreds of protesters stood on Kasr Al Nil bridge to commemorate the martyrdom of the protesters on the same bridge from a year ago. The protesters held a prayer over the bridge that has become another icon of this revolution.

Praying today at

Potential presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabhi was among the people that joined the memorial prayer.
There is another big protest in front of Maspero building.

Hamdeen praying

Sarah Carr : 28/1/2012

The differences between the Muslim brotherhood and the rest of the protesting powers in the square are increasing minute after minute and this is not good at all. 

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Egypt,Politics,Post Revolution,#Jan25,Photos,Videos,Cairo

Regarding the #TwitterCensored

Yesterday Twitter surprised us with this decision : Twitter will withhold a specific tweet from specific country while keeping it available for the rest of the world !!

The people behind twitter give us the lamest justification ever. I am not convince with that considering the fact of the freedom of speech that the West always preaches us about. I do not get how withholding a specific tweet or specific tweep in one country and keeping it available for the rest of the world is good or great.
Many of the tweeps in the world do not tweet for countries outside their country or from tweeps outside their country. In fact when I imagine this feature or decision or censorship being applied , these examples pump in my head. 

• Manal El Sharif’s tweets about women to drive with be censored and blocked in Saudi Arabia as well the all the ladies who drive as well because their tweets are dangerous on the social stability in Saudi Arabia. Now in El Sharif’s case I do not care if the whole world reads her tweets , what is important is that her tweets are read by other Saudi women and men !!!
• The criticism to the king and the virtue committee in Saudi Arabia will be blocked in Saudi Arabia
• Rasha Azab’s tweets about virginity checks scandal as the Egyptian society is so sensitive to what is related to sex , it will be censored , of course it is worth to mention that if it were not for tweets , nobody would know in Egypt.
• Human rights crimes committed in Bahrain from time to time will be of course in Bahrain.
• The crimes of IDF in Palestine will be censored inside Palestine and Israel or even inside the EU or America  because of course this overstretched the anti-Semitic charges 
• Do I need to speak more about Egypt !? I think you got the whole idea.

I am from Egypt , from that country that led the social network revolution in the Arab Spring , I am from that part of the world that made of twitter something more than a gossip social network , I am from that part of the world that turned twitter in to a new source “despite what I think about being reliability” and I am from that part of the world that will pay a huge price because of this new genius decision !!!
We live in a part of the world those 140 characters can send you in jail because you criticize the royal family in the Gulf for God sake and you want to block tweets in a specific country.
I do not tweet for the world all the time , I tweet for my follow Egyptians most of the time so most of the Arab tweeps do who found in those 140 characters a virtual forum after years of forced silence.
Ironically many Arabs on twitter were happy from couple of days about how twitter will start to localize its UI and thus many Arabs would join twitter but I think it is different now.
Many people from all over the world have decided to boycott Twitter on #Jan28 today , ironically from a year we did not have access to twitter since January 26th , very few tweeps used proxy services and fewer tweeps knew that they could access it through dial up and internet satellite.
Returning back to twitter to on February 1st ,2011 through regular broadband before heading to Tahrir square to join the first million man protest and it was a huge moment as I far I remember it.
Is it the Walid Ibn Talal effect ? Are the world powers governments in the world behind it ?
By the way the Saudi tweeps are so concerned about this matter more than anyone because in a country where everything is filtered , twitter censorship seems to be a gift from San Francisco to many conservatives and the regime.  

Ironically as far as I see people did not boycott Twitter for real as they are continuing to vent their anger in #TwitterCensored and #Twitterblackout
I am extremely angry from twitter administration but I am more angrier from my own self because I have wished one day that this feature would exist to shut someone like Ahmed Zpider after insulting racist tweet about Doaa Sultan when he described her as a slave yet now I regret my wish.

Technorati Tags: Twitter,Citizen journalism,Politics,Freedom of expression,#Twitter Censorship,#Twitter Blackout,Walid Ibn Talal,Manal El Sheirf,Saudi Arabia,Egypt,Media,Social media

#ElBaradei tweets a new transitional Plan For #Egypt

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei tweeted last night on Thursday a new roadmap for the transitional period in Egypt which he proposes and hopes that it will get approval from all political powers

1. The parliament would elect an interim president.
2. Forming a provisional assembly immediately after electing an interim president.
3. Drafting a constitution that ensures the civility of the state and citizenship rights as well freedoms.
4. Electing a president after drafting a constitution as now the president’s power will be specified.
5. Electing a new parliament based on the new drafted constitution.

التسلسل المنطقى :١- رئيس مؤقت منتخب من مجلس الشعب٢- تشكيل لجنة الدستور فوراً ٣- دستور يحدد شكل النظام و يضمن مدنية الدولة والحقوق والحريات
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) January 26, 2012

٤- انتخاب رئيس معروفة صلاحياته طبقاً للدستور ٥- انتخاب برلمان على اساس الدستور الجديد. بعد عام من التخبط حان الوقت للتوافق على تصحيح المسار
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) January 26, 2012

I think this is an attempt of Dr. ElBaradei to bridge between those who want to have a presidential elections first “including myself” , those who want the parliament to take over power and those who want the constitution first. It is a good suggestion but again there are two questions :

• Who will be that interim president elected by the parliament ? And how we can trust the parliament in the first place and its majority party ?
• Why would the parliament  accept this scenario when it knows that it is an interim parliament and a new parliament will be elected ?

Nevertheless I think we should discuss this roadmap carefully.
P.S I do not think that there is no country in the world that uses the social media for politics as we do in Egypt !!

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Politics,ElBaradei,Parliament,News,Roadmap,Interim period,elecitons,Constitution,Post Revolution

#Tahrir Friday of Dignity : The #Jan25 is still there.

Again we got a full packed Tahrir square this Friday , there are thousands currently in the square. There are about 7 stages set up in Tahrir square including the Muslim brotherhood stage and April 6th Youth movement.

MP Yahia El Fakhrany is in Tahrir square , the Parliament is supposedly going to distribute a statement in the Tahrir square today. Mazhar Shahin said a strong Friday Sermon today where he said and demanded the following :

• Purging the media.
• Public trials for icons of the Mubarak regime
• Complete transparent audit to the Suez canal revenues and the Mubarak regime icons.
• Parliament holds revolutionary trials for the Mubarak regime icons.

There are many marches heading to Tahrir today :

• From Mostafa Mahmoud square to Tahrir square.
• From Giza square to Tahrir square.
• From Shubra to Tahrir square.
• From Al Abassiya square to Tahrir square
• From Maadi to Tahrir square.
• From Al Azhar Mosque to Tahrir square
• From Nasr city to Tahrir square
• From Salam mosque to Tahrir square.
• From Heliopolis to Tahrir square. 
• From Cairo university to Tahrir square.

Here is a video shot from Tahrir square by Pierre Sioufi earlier this morning at 11 AM CLT.

#Tahrir : Overview Jan27 @11 AM

I think Sioufi did not imagine his flat would be the hot spot for the reporters and photographers from around the world. Mr. Pierre is also transferring on air from time to time from Tahrir square through Bambuser.

@1:12 PM CLT.

Hundreds began to head from Mostafa Mahmoud mosque to Tahrir square. “A photo shot by Maged Sherif”

Syrian Revolution : #Homs is under attack “graphic” and “Updated”

The city of Homs is currently under terrible assault by Syrian Arab army “Pro El Assad army” now and I do not know what we can do know to save our families in Homs , yes they are our families in Syria.
The city is currently being shelled , it seems that there is a huge operation taking place against the people after capturing this group of Iranians in Homs. Here are some videos leaked from Homs short time ago. I can’t confirm these videos but there are sounds of heavy bombardment

Homs : From Bab Hood , you can listen to the live ammunition sounds

The battle For #Maspero in #Jan25

I apologize for my late coverage but between work and uploading tons of photos and videos , I am literally exhausted

By Yahia El Gammal

Hundreds of protesters are having that huge protest in front of Maspero , the iconic building of the Egyptian Radio and Television union “The heart and soul of state owned media” demanding the state media purge as well  the end of the military rule. The protest was big as you could see from the video below.
The numbers were big that some of the protesters managed to hold that “Kazaboon show” on the building in front of Maspero using the protector. “Paprika restaurant building if you are familiar with that area”
Yesterday a group of protesters headed to Maspero but their numbers were not big like tonight.
The traffic was cut for a while but from what I see now on TV it is back.
The protesters managed to post the “Down with military rule” using a projector on the iconic building of Maspero.
People are fed up with their lies and hypocrisy , they are demanding a real media that represent them instead of the regime or whoever rules.

 

#Jan25 : From One year ago

From one year ago I could not get to Tahrir square yet there was a big hope on January 25,2011

And today this is how Tahrir square looked like on January 25,2011.

AFP : Tahrir square

I remember from year ago CSF blocked Al Galaa bridge completely.

Here is the Kasr Al Nil bridge today.

Source : Facebook

The big achievement of this revolution is that it brought hope back to the Egyptians and reminded them that they have got a voice the whole world will listen to.
May Allah bless the souls of the martyrs as well the lives of the injured , May Allah bless the Egyptian people even those who think that the revolution was a bad thing.

From Egyptian Chronicles’ memory :

• The 25th Big Day

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Egypt,#Jan25,Politics,Democracy,Photos,National,History,Tahrir square,Mideast,MENA

#Jan25 : Live blogging For an important Day

Good morning everybody and happy Revolution Day , oh yes it is an official national Day whether some like or not.
All respect to all our martyrs and injured , to whom we owe this day to. May Allah bless their souls :)
There is no state of emergency starting from today in Egypt except in case of thuggery which is a vague word.
It is 10:02 AM CLT , the weather is clear after long rainy night that did not stop thousands of protesters from coming to Tahrir square since last night. It is still cold though.

Tahrir square at 3 AM CLT

Here is a photo for the square from short a while ago.

At 10 AM CLT

The Muslim brotherhood supporters are still there and they have controlled almost all the entrances to Tahrir square except Talaat Harb street’s entrance.