Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Follow Up : Protesting Against Al Gomhouria

Here is it , the first protest of its kind near the famous Press street taking place in front of El-Tahrir publishing house as it was announced.
There are dozens of protesters mostly women currently in front of the building chanting anti-regime slogans. Police forces are surrounding them as usual but there is no violence used up till now.
I really wonder if Mohamed Ali Ibrahim is in the building to hear these slogans and feels the real tides of change.
By the way I have read there is a similar protest to be held in front of the Al Gomhouria HQ in Alexandria , does anyone have any updates about it.
An Update from Alexandria : 
Things there are little bit uglier as protesters and activists were arrested and more security presence reaching to the manager of security directorate is already there.
Updates from Cairo :
Here are photos from Cairo's protest (Courtesy : AP)

In front of the building
Protesting the newspaper's treatment

17 comments:

  1. Sorry to say this is all just a silly waste of time ...!! The newspaper did no more than mentioning that the guy was a drug abuser which is perfectly clear from his looks , especially his eyes .Anyway,may God rest his soul, but dear if you say that the regime is getting off - point about the death incident I believe the pro - Khaled Saeed camapgin is ridiculously much more off - point....!!!

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  2. @ comment above, get ur facts checked the paper said more and deviated from the real issue, issues isnt him being a potential drug abuser (how many young Egys and even old ones dnt take Hashish or Bango?) the point is the brutality and illegality of wt the police did.
    Its not a waste of time glad ppl are getting the courage to call those who turned our lives to a mess out and making them know we know their reality

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  3. @Akher ayam elkhareef, I did not know that drug abusers have distinctive looks. So when you looked at Khaled Said's picture, you immediately figured out that he is a drug abuser!!! Are you talking about his picture before or after his face was smashed?? What happened to you Egyptian people??
    In USA, we say wake up and smell the coffee but in Egypt, people wake up and smell corruption, ignorance, sewage, and every other stinky smell. Please God help

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  4. @Anonymous this is what I exactly mean ...!!! if the issue is the brutality and illegality of what happened to an innocent or supposed - to- be innocent citizen then all this buzz against the normally unread Algomhoria is irrelevant...!!! Actually, I am sure the newspapers'CEO and senior management must be very happy with this unexpected propaganda ...!!!

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  5. @ Hazem .. yes for sure drug abusers have distinctive looks depending on the narcotic they take and its active ingredients,and these are ABCs include short - term and long - term features that can be simply recognized by any Healthcare professional (by the way I forgot to mention that I am a pharmacist).I am perfectly sure of what I say : his face before smashing - especially eyes - indicate clearly the action of an Euophoric drug most probably a cannabis derivative e.g Bhango , Haschish ,Mariguana ,...etc. It can be easily and unnegotiably detected by taking a urine sample from the body's urinary bladder and analysing it.Cannabis Sativum plant is characterized by having exclusive mushroom - like hairs on its leaves and stem.The presence of these hairs in any human fluid sample cuts it sharp that this person is under the influence of cannabinoids.

    I am not attacking you by the way,but I have to sincerely ask you not to mock people's opinions until you make sure have enough background about the topic ..!!!

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  6. @Akher Ayam El Khareef: Again you missed the point. The issue is police brutality regardless of whether Khaled was innocent, a suspect or even a convicted criminal.
    As to your comment about "It can be easily and unnegotiably detected by taking a urine sample from the body's urinary bladder and analysing it." Well according to the former senior doctor one of the main points of weakness of the report is that its saying what you just wrote while from a medical point of view you can not trace such matters after death if a certain number of days have passed from the time of death.
    In a way you also mocked the efforts of others and their decision to protest El Gomhoryia. Im not saying its ok to mock you either and I appreciate your point of view esp about the drugs thing but may be you do not realize the destructive role this paper has been playing some ppl do read it and buy the crap published in it and when we feel we are paying for that crap then I understand and respect any attempts to call attention to the low lives running it.
    @Hazem: you are Egyptian too arent you? Being a citizen or living in another country doesnt make you any thing but Egyptian still so, I'd advice you to use the "we" instead of the usual "oh Egyptians this and Egyptians that" tone that we get from those thinking they are foreigners now.

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  7. Z, as usual thanks for your post. Do you have news about some activists kidnapped in Alexandria bec of their attempt to protest El Goumhoryia there? Please check and let us know they should not be left to face this alone, i read some have exams

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  8. @anonymous 1 : " Again you missed the point. The issue is police brutality regardless of whether Khaled was innocent, a suspect or even a convicted criminal."

    Again this is what I exactly said ...!!! If the issue is about unhumanly hitting the guy to death than the newspaper has nothing to do with it dear friend ..!!!

    " Well according to the former senior doctor one of the main points of weakness of the report is that its saying what you just wrote while from a medical point of view you can not trace such matters after death if a certain number of days have passed from the time of death."

    That is quite true.I was talking generally and not about khaled in particular.It is preferable to take blood samples but in case of the late young man yes for sur you can never do it due to several factors.

    " In a way you also mocked the efforts of others and their decision to protest El Gomhoryia. Im not saying its ok to mock you either and I appreciate your point of view esp about the drugs thing but may be you do not realize the destructive role this paper has been playing some ppl do read it and buy the crap published in it and when we feel we are paying for that crap then I understand and respect any attempts to call attention to the low lives running it. "

    There is a great difference between stating my opinion and mocking the others.Anyway , with all respect to your point of view , I still believe that Algomohoria ia the last newspaper to be considered.I never heard about anybody buying it except during exams bec.of the Model Q&As appendix they distribute for free.!!!

    Thanks for your respectful ,polite manner.I really appreciate that

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  9. Take it from a professor of pharmacology and toxicology, and a board certified toxicologist specialized in forensics, that there is no way you can look at one's eyes and decide (or even guess) that they belong to someone who smoke 7ashish. We never teach that in any college of pharmacy in Egypt or abroad, or encourage any pharmacist to reach such an erroneous conclusion. Even if the person is intoxicated, there is little to know from how they look until you do some proper testing. And there is nothing in Khaled's dreamy eyes, big ears, or wide mouth, to suggest that he was on any drug when he took this picture.

    Of course, there is something in the reported stories that suggest that Khaled knew his killers, and probably some of the other thugs that house Sidi Gaber police station. His history too suggest that he was involved with drugs for at least some time in the past. But that doesn't give those thugs a license to beat him to death. One of the writers above suggest repeatidly on her messages, blog, and twitter exchanges, that that is acceptable as long as he is not as innocent as we portray him. That is really sad to see.

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  10. I beg your Pardon Dr. Hailie with all my deep respect ,but you already teach us among the effects of cannabinoids is dilatation of eye pupils and clear redeness of the eye .This is quite apparent in the guy 's enalrged photos.Moreover,my mother is a physician and her PhD thesis was about drug abuse in teenagers , and she told me there are more signs to at least seriously suspect someone as an abuser and she could observe them in the young man's face .But still we agreed on a point with which you surely agree,that lab analysis is the most precise way to cut it sharp.She added to my info that some people might acquire the cannabis effect just by smelling the smoke for a reasonable period of time.Unfortunately ,I cannot find at the moment the link of that ALDOSTOR article for which one of the comments stated clearly that Khaled's photos gave him the same impression based on the commenter 's own experience with narcotics....!!! I think Zeinobia can help us find that link because the comment was quite to - the - point to the extent it had been retweeted several times by several people.

    " But that doesn't give those thugs a license to beat him to death. One of the writers above suggest repeatidly on her messages, blog, and twitter exchanges, that that is acceptable as long as he is not as innocent as we portray him. That is really sad to see. "

    I think this refers to ME as there is no other HER who has replied to this post.Actually, Doctor, if you had read my words carefully whether on my blog,Twitter exchanges,or my replies here as you kindly said you will never find that meaning which I wonder what exported it to you.I certainly never agree to such a crime even if he was a true convict , but I am also perfectly against portraying the guy as an angel as well as wasting time protesting in front of a newspaper of no weight,no credability because we are against the innocent or even convicted citizen's murder ...unless the murderers were Algomhoria journalists disguised as police men ....which is not the case for sure.

    Please accept my full respect and regards.

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  11. "Those who think they know it all have no way of finding out they don't.."
    — Leo Buscaglia

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  12. @Dr. Hailie: could you please comment on the whether it is possible to find extracts of narcotics (hashish in that case) by taking samples from a body after so many days?

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  13. @ Anonymous conflict in opinion never beats respect and acknoldgement.

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  14. @ anonymous الخلاف فى الرأى لا يفسد للود قضية

    @ Dr.Hailie yes please I repeat the same question anonoymous said.

    " could you please comment on the whether it is possible to find extracts of narcotics (hashish in that case) by taking samples from a body after so many days? "

    I asked myself the same question when they mentioned this narcotic issue for the first time even before seeing khaled original photos - the ones before death.Could they analyze the body fluids after so much time??

    Btw a friend of mine her father is an ex-police officer and he is a very respectable and trusted man as well.He told me after what I had written about recognizing drug abusers by face that police people really receive some sort of training about the basic signs that appear on a drug abuser so that when they work at safety points on the motorway for example and it happens that they look at someone who has some of these signs they can search his clothes .He told me it never let him down during his working years.Always the person under the question mark had something in his pockets or some times in his socks or shoes or much stranger places,but none of them had the time to swallow what they had.At least not to the extent that deforms his features that much ..!!!

    thank you doctor and eagerly waiting for your valued reply to anaonymous' question.

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  15. Cannabis and metabolites are readily detected, in blood and urine, for a few days after use. This period can extend to 15 or even 30 days if it is used regularly and/or at high doses. That also depends on the type of test used, and should be evaluated against the background in the general population (controls). Specimens from a dead body can also be used to detect and quantify cannabis and metabolites, but the accuracy depends on when these were collected and at what conditions (esp. temperature) they were stored. Unfortunately, in present day Egypt, the results of these tests will probably be written before any is performed. Besides, the issue here (again and again) is not what this young man did, but what our Egyptian police did to him and to many many others. They are everywhere, in plain clothing, hired and paid for by the government to intimidate you, harass you, beat you, and even kill you, without impunity or remorse.

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  16. As for detecting drugs in the eyes of a drug user, that is something left to the specialist to guess, and in many cases they will guess wrong. You can be on other medication that dilate or constrict your eye pupils, or you can be slightly disfigured and appear to some to be a drug user. A trained police officer (and a real one) can guess that someone is intoxicated, but testing is required for confirmation. In pharmacy schools, we provide only theatrical knowledge of the effects of certain drugs on appearance and behavior, but we can't claim that a pharmacist has expertise or experience to do that in practice. Even a specialized physician can't do that except if he or she is well trained and has done appropriate research in blind studies against "normal" controls in the population.

    From where I sit, the photo of the living Khaled, if presented as a football player or a pop star, it will never be seen as that of a drug user. That was generally the case anyway; it is only here, and in one other blog, that this issue is repeatedly addressed without justification. That is a real distraction.

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  17. " From where I sit, the photo of the living Khaled, if presented as a football player or a pop star, it will never be seen as that of a drug user. "

    In this we perfectly agree Dr.

    But you still did not answer my previous question :

    " But that doesn't give those thugs a license to beat him to death. One of the writers above suggest repeatidly on her messages, blog, and twitter exchanges, that that is acceptable as long as he is not as innocent as we portray him. That is really sad to see. "

    I think this refers to ME as there is no other HER who has replied to this post.I wonder what gave you that impression???

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