Concerning the attack in Palestine's East Jerusalem : A matter of time

On Friday the whole world condemned the attack against a group of Israeli settlers in occupied East Jerusalem near a synagogue by a Palestinian shooter.

The lone Palestinian shooter killed seven settlers and injured five others near a synagogue in an illegal Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem.

According to international media, it is the worst attack against Israelis in 15 years.

It is a terrible accident without a doubt but I am sorry to say anyone following what is happening in the occupying territories even for a short time only will tell you that it was going to happen eventually. 

I knew that something like that would happen eventually thanks to Benjamin Netanyahu’s alt-right government's ongoing escalation.

My question was when and where.

It happened hours after the storming of the Israeli forces of Jenin refugee camp killing ten Palestinians including a 61-year-old mother.

Israel killed Majida Obaid, 61, during an illegal invasion of the Palestinian refugee camp where she lived.

She had just finished praying, her daughter said, when Israeli soldiers shot her through the window of her home.

Another Israeli war crime funded by US tax dollars. pic.twitter.com/TyKMEmq2FG

— IMEU (@theIMEU) January 28, 2023

Two brothers whose father is a long-time prisoner in an Israeli prison were killed in the raid. Their brother was critically injured, and this is just basic information that did not make it to international media.

News of the week: The release of Thabets pending investigation

On Saturday, Egyptian authorities released famous Egyptian businessman Safwan Thabet and his son Seif Thabet pending investigations after their arrest in the Winter of 2020-21

The Thabets were arrested allegedly for joining a terrorist group aka the Muslim Brotherhood. Safwan Thabet was arrested in December 2020 while his son and Juhayna CEO Seif Thabet was arrested in February 2021.

Mariam Thabet with her father Safwan and her brother Seif Thabet 

The famous industrialist who founded Egypt’s biggest dairy and juice producer “Juhayna Food Industries” was accused along with his son of allegedly financing the MB. The Thabets till this moment deny those charges.

#Jan25: The Man and the armoured vehicle

It is that time of the year and it comes in one hell of a time, the time of an economic crisis the country has not seen in ages.

It is the anniversary of the 25 January revolution or rather the start of the 25 January revolution that managed to oust one of the Middle East’s longtime strongmen solidifying the Arab Spring and relaunching it worldwide after its start in Tunisia from Cairo’s Tahrir.

It is 2023 and the quest for freedom, bread and social justice seems to be a faraway memory and yet it is the core of the Egyptian issue if not most of the Arab World and Africa as well as the third world's core issue till now

Anyhow, I am trying not to enter this Karballa-mood with the Egyptian Revolution anniversary and the same old discussions on what went wrong and the lessons we learned, let alone the favourite question of foreign journalists and post-graduate students to me and other Egyptians who lived those moments “Is it a social media network revolution ?”

Anyhow my own #Jan25 Karbala ritual is checking the photos from those moments online because it adds more to that history jigsaw.

Last year Egyptian photojournalist Tarek Wajeh released more photos recording that unforgettable moment of that Egyptian young standing bravely against a police armoured vehicle on 25 January 2011 in Downtown Cairo.

The Young man and the armoured vehicle of the police 

It was one of the iconic photos recorded in those 18 days. It was first published in Al-Masry Al Youm Daily where Wajeh works. Only in 2022, he released more shots of that moment. 

Egypt’s Fossil and Climate Change Museum in Fayoum’s Wadi El-Hitan Protectorate in 2017 (#EP3: When the desert turns into a museum)

We are back in the third post of our series about Egypt’s Wadi El-Hitan Climate Change Museum in Fayoum.

In 2017, I paid a visit to Wadi El-Hitan or the Whale valley in a quick visit to the beautiful Fayoum governorate. In the first post of this series, we shared the history of Egypt’s fossilized Jurassic Park as well as part of its indoor museum.

In the second post, we continued our visit to the very rich indoor museum in the valley.

Now we continue our trip in this post to the UNESCO World Heritage Site but this time we visit the outdoor museum.

Inside Wadi El-Hitan Protectorate in Fayoum's desert 

When you finish visiting the indoor museum, you go outside carrying your backpack or whatever but you must have a bottle of water to keep you hydrated and must wear your best hiking shoes because you will have one hell of a hike in the middle of the desert.

You will see why. 

Inside Wadi El-Hitan Protectorate in Fayoum's desert 

Head for the trail in front of you and just imagine that this was a huge ocean bed from millions of years ago.

The road to the outdoor museum and its exhibits from fossils 

The trail takes you up to a hill and seriously it is one of the best hikes I have ever taken so far.

Thursday rave and rants : #Ep9 “Latest Ramy Fahim trial’s updates”

Okay boys and girls, here are the latest developments and updates about Ramy Fahim’s trial in the United States in tonight’s episode of “Thursday Rave and Rants” Podcast in Arabic.

This is what I ranted about in Arabic.

First of all, there was a pretrial hearing on 6 December but it was just a procedural hearing.

The next hearing will be on 10 February, 8:30 AM at the court’s North Justice Center in Fullerton, in room N3.

The new date was set during another hearing, according to the website of the Superior Court of California for Orange County.

For those who do not know or are newcomers, we are covering the developments of Egyptian citizen Ramy Mounir Fahim who is accused of killing two people in the United States and may face the death penalty.

Ramy Fahim 

Fahim made headlines in Egypt last year due to the fact that he is the son of former State Minister of immigration and Egyptians abroad Nabila Makram.

Ramy Fahim who was living in Irving, California and was charged in April with special circumstances murders for allegedly stabbing his co-worker Griffin Cuomo “23 years old” and the co-worker’s roommate Jonathan Bahm “23 years old” to death in their apartment.

The son of an Egyptian businessman was charged officially with eight felony counts, including two counts of murder and two enhancements each of lying in wait, multiple murders and the personal use of a deadly weapon.

Dear Adobe, we need a special price in Egypt

Adobe is known that its applications are the best in the market when it comes to media production. Whether visual or web, it is well-established fact.

It is one of the reasons why it has an expensive price tag for its apps. It is also one of the reasons why its apps are among the most pirated software around the globe.

Now with the depreciation of the Egyptian pound, it is hard for many in Egypt to continue using the original Adobe apps above them Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects and Adobe premiere.

Made on Adobe Express FYI

You may think that USD 9.9 a month or USD 120 a year for the Adobe Photography bundle "Photoshop and Lightroom" cheapest license in the Middle East and North Africa region “Arab region” is a simple thing, but this means LE 295 and LE 3,544 “based on the US 1 = LE 29.54”

This is besides the commission Egyptian banks take for Credit Cards US dollar transactions from inside Egypt. 

This is hugely expensive for many Egyptians that use the app in photography and graphic design, especially with the increasing living costs in the country. Freelancers from graphic designers depend on that app for their living.

Thursday Rave and Rants: #EP8 The Tates

Despite all the economic woes in Egypt and the downfall of the Egyptian pound, I can’t ignore the social media growing cult evolving around notorious social media personality Andrew Tate. It already found its way to Egypt despite all our worries.

That’s why I am discussing it in Arabic on my podcast “Thursday Rave and Rants” in Arabic. 

Below is what I ranted and said but in English. “I speak a lot”

On Tuesday, Bucharest’s Court of Appeal rejected the appeal of the Tate brothers and upheld their 30-day detention on investigations for human trafficking, rape and organized crime.

Tristan and Andrew Tate 

The British-American social media personalities were arrested along with two women in Romania on 29 December in a connection with a human-trafficking investigation.

The two brothers are under investigation for allegedly forming an organized criminal group responsible for kidnapping and exploiting young women by making them the subject of porn videos intended for sale via websites like OnlyFans according to Romanian media.

Andrew Tate denies the allegations and says that it was “the matrix” moving against him aka a “global conspiracy” against him. I do not know why the alt-right folks in the West are fond of the Matrix when the Matrix universe was actually created by two trans sisters !!

Early in April, the Romanian police raided Tate’s house in the country following the allegations that he abducted some American woman but nothing was found and no one was arrested.

The Tates’ arrest in December may not have captured the world’s attention if it were not for the fact that it came right after an online duel of Andrew on Twitter with climate activist Greta Thunberg, which the Swedish teenage activist won in a perfect way.