Friday, September 16, 2011

AUC Strike : And the flag Mania reaches to the New AUC Campus

The AUC strike has entered its 5th day in row since its start earlier this way and it seems that it will not end this weekend or today especially with the escalation that took place this afternoon and surprised everybody.
If you do not know what is going on in the AUC , well this week the  the workers “ DDC workers , Security staff and custodial workers” along with students decided to go in to strike against the administration of the university. Some of the university professors along with some of AUC alumni are standing with the students and the workers. Here is a list with the demands of the workers and students as well.
AUC strike demands
Earlier today President of AUC Lisa Anderson went and talked with the students in some sort of negotiations that did not succeed. She left the AUC President - Lisa Andersonmeeting and headed to her office along with her secretary after a little tension with the students , nobody attacked her physically from near or far by the way.  In fact according to protesters’ statement issued yesterday it was her guards that created chaos in order to make it as if the students were attacking her. According to Gigi Ibrahim , The AUC president left when the students began to speak about workers’ human rights and working conditions.
The students are demanding that she steps down.
Now yesterday afternoon we were surprised with by an unexpected escalation : The protesters pulled down the American flag !!
AUC Strike : Bringing Down the AUC flag
It was surprising and shocking. The protesters rallied with the flag for a while chanting chants like “Raise your head , you are Egyptian” and “We will not leave , she will leave”.
Rallying with the flag " Gigi Ibrahim"
Anyhow the protesters folded and returned it back to the admiration office.
Heading to the admin office to return the flag 
Returning back the flag "Gigi Ibrahim"
There was a huge backlash from everybody as far as I could see whether from other AUC students or Alumni or foreign watchers online. Everybody mixed what happened with politics in a way I can’t blame them for , it is as if there is a flag fever in the country !!
I am not an AUCian but I know if the Egyptian flag was pulled down from Al Azhar university branches or University of Alexandria branch in Beirut or Cairo university branch in Khartoum , I will not feel happy about "Actually I wonder if our flag is hoisted up on these universities' branches outside Egypt"
As soon as I hit the send button in twitter with the news , I found many replies from all around the globe with some ridiculous comments from the kind ‘Are you going to nationalize the AUC !? ‘ , ‘ You hate the Americans’ and the most ridiculous one of all ‘Good bye to your revolution’ !!!
I will not enter a debate except when you think about , this small incident shows what we suffer in the Egyptian revolution itself recently from unneeded emotional escalation without any regard to the consequence.
I followed the whole matter on twitter from different accounts including Gigi Ibrahim’s who is currently under huge attack because of the flag despite she made it clear it was not her idea. Gigi has posted a beautiful photo gallery from the AUC strike on her Flickr account.

Many students and alumni disapproved on the move.

Dispute among #AUC student body over the taking down of the American flag on campus. From tone of incoming messages, most opposed to action.Thu Sep 15 16:31:59 via web
I do not get how the American flag has become Lisa’s flag and how they would not return back except she apologized again when I think about. Gigi said that it was not a political move but rather a symbolic one as the flag represents Lisa’s hypocrisy !! This seems political to me !!
This is what we suffer actually in our revolution if you remember , emotional decisions . As Farah Saafan said how this would help the cause of the workers before the students !?

Alright can we go back to focusing on the original demands of AUC workers? Can we move on PAST the flag drama? #AUCstrikeThu Sep 15 16:06:51 via web
The workers in AUC take LE 400 only in month.

هرجع أكمل شغل.. إشربوا العلم كلوا العلم و سيبوا العمال إلي بياخدوا ٤٠٠ جنيه في الشهر من غير اجازات إسبوعية يولعوا #AUCstrikeThu Sep 15 16:10:25 via web

I am for the #AUCstrike demands. I however dont see how taking the US flag down is pushing the case forward, in fact, it only weakens it.Thu Sep 15 15:42:08 via web
You must know that many people regard this strike as one of the important strikes in the students movements after the revolution that can open for change in the Egyptian universities.
For the record this is not the first time it happens in the history of AUC in the past 11 years despite it is the first time in the new Campus. In 2001 leftist journalist/blogger/activist/student then Hossam El Hamalawy pulled down the American flag from the Old Tahrir Campus and hoisted instead of it the Palestinian flag. It was during the intifada , El Hamalawy was arrested and tortured by the state security because of it. The American flag had been not seen at Tahrir campus since then till the AUC was transferred to its new home in New Cairo.
Now Guardian has published a report about the AUC strike by Jack Shenker that made many AUC professors angry from what they considered wrong information in the Guardian’s report despite Shenker is from the best foreign reporters in Egypt.
The final Ultimate of the protesters is the closing of the university which nobody wants whether the protesters from students or workers or professors.
Here is one of the groups on Facebook that represents the Custodial workers “The AUC independent Syndicate

9 comments:

  1. AUC is outrageously expensive and although considered amongst the best in Egypt it is mediocre by international standards. AUC clearly benefits from the desolate situation of Egyptian universities.

    But what really disgusts me and that is why I am fully supporting the protests: Behind there is a lot of Egyptian establishment, making a fortune from the high tuition fees. Egyptians exploiting Egyptians - that should be a thing of the past after the revolution.

    The same btw applies to the German University (GUC) and the infamous Professor Ashraf Mansour. Hopefully students at GUC will follow and bring that guy down too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Zeinobia "it was her guards that created chaos in order to make it as if the students were attacking her." To me that is not plausible, but Egyptians seem able to believe anything.

    Also:

    Egyptian civility: “Sorry, we thought you were a Jew”. Part of the same pattern as shouting "Jew" at Lara Logan while raping her.

    Strategy page on The Arab Disease: "fondness for paranoid fantasies and an exaggerated sense of persecution and entitlement"

    Totten on Egypt's botched revolution

    Spengler: Endgame for Egypt. "a country that can’t teach half its people to read, and can’t produce employable university graduates, and can’t feed itself, is going to go down the drain."

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Jason Now that is Zionist propaganda - apart from the alleged rape of this Lara Logan, who made that story up to have a hot story to sell to the media.

    Let it me put it this way: The Ihwan will win the next elections and become the dominant political and religious force in Egypt. We have funds in abundance and we can feed every Egyptian and at the same time give a loan to Greece.

    Israel is doomed anyway. We don't need to go to war, although with Turkey as an ally we could crush them as USA are broke and can't afford another war.
    We let our men do the work. Palestinian and Egyptian men are strong. Israeli men are weak. We will just overwhelm them by numbers and they will soon be forgotten - a glitch of history, nothing else.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Don't believe a word "The Islamist said..." That's a parody account. No sane person in his right mind would write such crap and believe it. Trust me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AUC students are called 'caviar socialists' and come from filthy rich families but want to act like revolutionry hippies.
    Thanks to Mami and Dady that they drive expensive cars, belong to private clubs, dress imported cloths, eat at expensive restaurants and attend private universities.
    I would love to see them support themselves through uiversity like most of us do in the west.
    The Canadian.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is a great irony in all of this. The American flag which represents ( or should) the aspects of freedom and democracy gets pulled down as a protest. I realize that our flag has now become more a symbol of meddling in foreign affairs but the basic concepts of what it once represented are still held dearly by most Americans.
    Most of our gains much like the student demands were actually made by unions. Many died for the working conditions we now enjoy. That's a fact that many seem to forget.
    I hope the students will be able to seperate principles from symbolism.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Demeur
    It is actually more serious. The American flag has become a symbol of killing Arabs/Muslims. Your honorable concepts do not apply once it comes to defending the Jewish land grab.

    You will see it again, when the USA will veto the Palestinian demand for statehood. Then the USA will finally and definitely be the enemy for all Arabs. Only some corrupt, autocrat puppet rulers will hold up the alliance with the USA, however, those will perish one by one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ahaha! These over-privileged fucktards can fuck right off!!

    ReplyDelete
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