Egyptian Chronicles: Follow Up : Blue Star

The Blue Star agony continues ,it continues and I am afraid the media does not cover it as it should. It did not even bother to publish the names and pictures of the crew that can face death in any second. I feel that the media is intended to ignore the Blue Star and does not want to give it the space it deserves because of higher orders.

In the last 48 hours I found contradicting news.

First the ransom reached to $ 1 Million because the pirates realized that those sailors are Egyptians whose government does not care and that they come from poor country; thus $ 1 Million was enough.

Then today I read that the pirates raised the ransom to $5 Million !!!

Second the owner Mr. Abdel Rahman Al Awa is said to offer the pirates the ship for the return of the crew safe , then it is said that he was going to pay the $1 Million ransom, then he said that he was going to pay half of the sum where as the government would pay the other half “as if the government will really do it” !!??

Then there were some imaginary news saying that the Presidency will pay the rest !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????? Since when insh Allah ??

Anyhow the second official statement from the Foreign ministry after denying the hijack of another Egyptian ship in the Red Sea was that the State won’t pay a penny , of course the State here includes the President and the government !!

Trying to separate Reality from fiction let’s agree that Mr. Al Awa does not want to pay a big ransom, it is obvious thing after all the ship has been under the pirates control for weeks because Al Awa believes the ransom is too expensive.

I do not care for Mr. Al Awa despite part of the responsibility is on him but if these men are killed , it will be very bad for Mubarak , even worse than his fiascos lately.

He can’t blame Iran or Qatar as usual.

BY the way interestingly enough the Somali Pirates released a Turkish ship !! I am happy for the Turks , hopefully insh Allah we will be the next. Still I see a big irony in this despite the situation , the Turks are every where now : in TV series, in Davos and now their Ships are returning back home free from the mercy of Somali pirates.

By the way it turned out as I said one of the crew members were injured in the ship and you know why ?? Because another group of pirates tried to hijack Blue star from Hamad’s group but thankfully Hamad restored back his control on the ship and is currently ready to blow it up at any moment he wants.

You know May be in the end he will release in the end because he will realize that they are from a poor country and that their government do not give a shit about them !!

Update #1

According to Al Ahram official newspaper the ransom reached to $ 6,000,000.
Safwat Al Sharif , the Speaker of the Shura Council said that we should not surrender to that blackmail otherwise it would endanger our naval routes !! Really ?? Now he is speaking ?? seriously !!??
Hossam Zaki, the official spokeperson of the Foreign Ministry says that the negotiations are secert to ensure success !!

Update#2 :

Mr. Al Awa travelled to Kenya along with a delegation from the intelligence.
Al Awa only has $ 1 Million , they want to have it ,fine if they do not ,he will return back and forget about our crew "Toz in the Crew !!"