That’s it for Shaaban Abdel Rahim aka Sha’bola “1957-2019” : More than an act

Earlier Tuesday , famous Egyptian folk pop singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim passed away in a Cairo hospital. The 62-years-old Abdel Rahim was suffering from some kind of lung disease as I have read recently.

Late Shaaban Abdel Rahim

Shaaban Abdel Rahim , commonly known as Sha’bola raised from local fame to international fame when his anti-Israel song “I hate Israel and I love Amre Moussa” in 2000.

It was released during the Al-Aqsa Intifada aka the second intifada in Palestine in 2000 and Amre Moussa was Egypt’s foreign minister during then.

With simple words written by the former teacher-turned-into-Shaabi pop lyricist Islam Khalil and the same music arrangement and music tune in all his song , Abdel Rahim sent a powerful political message from Cairo without realizing it would turn his life upside down.

“I hate Israel and I love Amre Moussa 
I will say that I hate Israel regardless
whether I get killed or go to jail”

Sha’bola declared it when protests rocked the Egyptian universities and people were glued in front of Al-Jazeera TV channel “it was its true golden age” watching Palestinians revolting against the Israeli occupation forces.

Lebanon Protests : Lebanese moms against Civil War, Lebanese moms with Revolution

The Lebanese protests against their government are still going strong against all odds.
Despite the threats of having a new civil war, despite the threats of using sectarianism, the Lebanese protesters continue their peaceful protesting demanding a true modern statue without corruption or sectarianism.

The spearhead against sectarianism in the movement now in Lebanon is none other than the Lebanese mothers.

"History won't repeat itself" a banner held by a Lebanese mom in a Beirut rally
Hussein Baydoun for Al-Araby website

For the second time in a week, Lebanese mothers in Beirut organized a rally where mothers from a specific sect neighborhood go on foot to another sect area to meet other mothers and go into a rally against sectarianism.

For example mothers from a Christian dominated neighborhood go on foot in a rally to a Shiite dominated neighborhood to be warmly received by mothers from that area and so on.

Lebanese moms hug each other by Hussein Baydoun for Al-Araby

Here is a video shot by TV journalist Ali Gharbeih on 30 November 2019 for the amazing Lebanese moms who went in a rally from Christian-dominated Khandak El-Ghamik neighborhood to Shiite dominated Borj Al-Ghazel.

Watch Egyptian and Lebanese women pioneer Filmmakers : The true legends "Updated"

Cairo is currently hosting its 41st International Film Festival and I believe it is one of its best editions.
Having a Martin Scorsese's film like The Irishman to open the festival and to have its first Middle East Premiere in Cairo is a big thing for cinema lovers in Egypt.
Needless to say, I read very good reviews of it from Egyptian viewers who waited to see it since 9 AM to watch it.
I am waiting to see it after a few hours inshallah on Netflix.
This year also it was announced the US’s Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences aka of Oscars awarded the Festival OSCAR qualifying film festival status.
“The winner of the Best Short Film award in the Short film competition ‘Cinema of Tomorrow’ section will eligible for consideration in the Animated and Live Action Short Film Categories of the ACADEMY AWARDS without the standard theatrical run,” CIFF said in its statement about the big achievement.
CIFF is the only and first film festivals in North Africa to join the list of qualifying international film festival joining other big film festivals like Cannes, Venice and Berlin

I must say that Mohamed Hefzy, the head of the CIFF succeeded this year.
Yes, it is not all glitz like Gouna Film Festival but CIFF proved it can overcome and survive against all odds. 
Youssef Cherif Rizallah is surely proud in his grave that his efforts in the CIFF have not gone in vain.

Now among the things I like about the CIFF this year is its tribute to pioneer Egyptian and Lebanese women filmmakers in a short beautiful video.
Watch it after the break

Regarding Mada Masr's ordeal

Egyptian independent news website Mada Masr and its team had a very bad experience on Sunday.

Lina Attallah after the release
"Mada Masr"

It started at 1:30 PM when Mada Masr HQ in Giza’s Dokki was stormed by plain-clothed security personnel who detained the website’s journalists for several hours before releasing them and detaining for a couple of hours the website’s editor in chief Lina Attaallah and two of the website’s journalists.


Attallah along with journalist Mohamed Hamma and Rana Mamdouh were detained and transferred to Dokki police station where they stayed for a couple of hours before they were released.

The ordeal of Mada Masr on Sunday comes hours following the arrest of the website’s Arabic Shady Zalat on Saturday.
Zalat was released Sunday afternoon too.

It is unclear what Mada Masr’s team is accused of.
I have read the Journalists syndicate played a role in their release.

Kodak Agfa presents : Features of an era “The Mohamed Ali Royal dynasty of Egypt” in photos Part-2

This is the second part of my photo-series about my visit to The features of an era “Mohamed Ali Royal Dynasty” edition that was held in March 2019 at Aisha Fahmy Palace aka “Al-Gazeira Centre of Arts". You can check the first part of the series here.

I am still trying to hijack the Mohamed Ali whistleblower trend as he is back this time in the international media with interviews in BBC, NY Times and Guardian. There is a new round of interviews coming on the way by him as it seems.
He held a very raising eye-brow press conference in London calling for some revolution/peaceful-transition of power/referendum/reconciliation which many are puzzled with back home.
In the end, it is kind of ironic that Ali is the only vocal opposition figure in Egypt.

Back to the original Mohamed Ali and his dynasty in that exhibit.
There are lots of beautiful stuff in that exhibit that could not be presented in a single post.

Egypt's Mohamed Ali Family tree in the 19th century 

Aside from the very well crafted paintings and busts as well as the statues featuring the rulers of Mohamed Ali Royal family rulers, there were awkward artworks in the exhibit too.

Mohamed Ali Pasha looked like a sweet granddad here 

Like that marble bust made Mohamed Ali Pasha look like Egyptian actor Yahia El-Fakhrany "The veteran Egyptian actor wanted to play him on-screen" for real or like a kind old Druze religious man in the mount of Lebanon or Syria not like a man who built a modern state in the 19th century restlessly and violently. "Democracy and human rights were not on his agenda but it was the early 19th century and those two words were strange to the East" 


Now that's a painting to Mohamed Ali we used to know from history books along with his son Khedive Ismail.

The father and Son, Mohamed Ali Pasha in painting and Khedive Ismail as a bust 

One of the things that I like about this exhibit is that it featured also the members of the Mohamed Ali royal family that are not that famous to the public.

Like for instance, Mohamed Ali’s eldest son Tusun pasha when he was a young boy.

Happy belated Mawlid Nabawy 2019 : Do not forget your brothers in faith in China and India

Happy belated Mawlid Nabawy for all Muslims all over the globe.

To be honest I wish we as Muslims can celebrate Prophet Mohamed “PBUH”’s birthday anniversary in better circumstances where Muslims are not suffering like now as many of them suffer from wars and dictatorships, even both at the same time.

The entrance of  Prince Mohamed Ali's estate Mosque 

This year in addition of having millions of Muslims as refugees “If you gather Muslims from Syria, Burma, Palestine and Yemen, you will have the biggest refugee group based on faith worldwide” and Muslims killing Muslims “Whether governments in Muslim countries killing other Muslim population because they are dictatorships or radical terrorists killing Muslims because they are terrorists”, we got millions of Muslims in China and India who suffer in silent and nobody is helping them for real, even with a condemnation statement.

This week, we found The Independent publishing a very disturbing report claiming that Chinese Uighur Muslim women are forced to share bed with Chinese Han officials as their husbands in Prison to make sure that they are not practicing Islam !!
Even if the Independent’s report is fake “I hope it is fake because this level of oppression is disgusting”.

There is well documented and confirmed evidence that the Chinese Uighur Muslims are suffering in China.
The BBC documentary about those scary “transformation camp” is real evidence that there is a trouble for Muslims in big China.

MP El-Tantawy has no place in Egypt now according to parliament speaker

On Tuesday, Egypt’s House of Representatives announced that it referred MP Ahmed El-Tantawy to a disciplinary committee.

The decision was taken after reportedly 95 MPs reported him and demanded that he would refer to the disciplinary committee with a possible outcome of being expelled.

“Who speaks about the elections, the constitutional amendments, the nation and the political leadership negatively has no place in Egypt,” House of Representatives Speaker Ali Abdel Aal said on Tuesday while raising the bar for Pro-regime speakers before him or after him.

MP Ahmed Tantawy in one of the parliamentary sessions in Cairo
"Cairo 24" 

The speaker added that just because that freedom granted to humans, did not mean that they are allowed to speak in everything with no limits !!

So how did El-Tantawy speak negatively about the Egyptian nation and the political leadership?

The Nasserite politician presented a-12-points initiative about forming 12 parliamentary committees made equally from the opposition and majority MPs “How many real opposition MPs do we have in the first place ?” to support political and economic reforms in order to end this political deadlock in Egypt on Sunday in an hour and something video.