Egypt’s Constitutional amendments : Passed in the parliament , get ready for referendum starting from Friday

And two –third of Egypt’s parliament passed expectedly on Tuesday those controversial constitutional amendments including one to extend president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s presidential term to the year 2030 in Cairo on Wednesday and another one that would give the armed forces the right to interfere in political life to protect the civility of the State.

In numbers: 531 members voted in favor of the new amendments while 22 members voted it against and one member abstained from voting out of 554 MP who came on Tuesday.

The parliament and its MPs 

Here are the names of the 22 members : MP Ehab Mansour , MP Ahmed Tantawy , MP Haitham El-Hariri, MP Faiza Mahmoud , MP Mohamed Abdel Ghani, MP Samir Ghatas , MP Gamal El-Sherif , MP Reda El-Beltagy , MP Mohamed Atta Salim  ,MP Talaat Khalil , MP Abdel Hamid Kamel, MP Mostafa Kamal El-Din Hussein “Yes , the son of the famous Free officer” , MP Salah Abdel Badie ,MP Salah Abdel Bahie, MP Ahmed El-Sharkawy , MP Elhami Againa “since when is he opposing the regime ?” , MP Mohamed El-Atamani, MP Diaa El-Din Dawood, MP Shadeed Abou Hendiya, MP Abu El-Matai Mostafa, MP Akmal Qortam, MP Ahmed El-Bardissi and MP Mohamed Fouad “From New Wafd Party”.

This list is shorter than the list of the 104 MPs that rejected the demarcation agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in June 2017.

Already except for at least three names, 19 MPs are opposed the demarcation agreement.
There are already 596 seats so there are 42 MPs who did not attend the session like MP Khaled Youssef who opposes the constitution and has been in Paris for at least month and a half following his sex scandal.

Now those constitutional amendments will be put to a referendum next week for both Egyptians and Egyptians abroad.
The referendum will be held on 19,20 and 21 April in Egyptian embassies and consulates around the globe for Egyptian expats and 21,22 and 23 April for Egyptians in Egypt.

It will be interesting to see the turnout in the polls because as we have seen that since the Constitution 2014 referendum, there has been a decline in the turnouts in the elections.

Seen in Cairo : Saad Pasha surrounded by Constitutional amendments banners

Egyptian leader of 1919 revolution Saad Zaghlol’s statue in Cairo surrounded by pro-constitutional amendments banners encouraging the public to vote for them “indirectly” using the slogan "Do it right ✅

The 1919 revolution’s centennial started in #March but it is overshadowed by the constitutional amendments.

The 1919 revolution led Egypt to its independence from the UK in 1922.

Speaking about Saad Zaghlol, I can't ignore the fact that the New Wafd Party which was the so-called original Wafd Party declared its endorsement to the constitutional amendments.

On 11 April 2019, the current leader Wafd Party and head of the legislative affairs committee MP Bahaa Abu Shoka declared that the party members agreed on the constitutional amendment by 93 %.

It is worth to mention that there was an opposition inside the party to the constitutional amendments but now I guess that 7% of the members-only oppose the amendments. It is worth to mention also technically Al-Wafd Party is no longer considered an opposition party.

The original and old Wafd party of Saad Zaghlol pasha led the political battle to restore Egypt's Constitution 1923 when it was replaced by Constitution 1930.

#Sudanrevolts and Omar al-Bashir is ousted at last “Updated”

Updated :
Sudanese Professional Association “SPA” issued an important statement rejecting the armed forces statement issued Thursday afternoon calling the protesters to complete their sit-in and protesting movement as well Sudanese army officers and soldiers to join them.

“We are the powers of freedoms and change reject what was mentioned in the statement of those regime coup officers and call the great Sudanese people to continue their sit-ins,” The SPA said adding that “the authorities of the regime” made a coup to reproduce the same regime the people revolt against.


The Sudanese protesters demand a civilian interim government.
Protesters began to chant against the military.

Sudanese Minister of defense Awad Ibn Ouf declared on Thursday that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was ousted and currently detained in a safe secret place announcing the same time the formation of a military transitional council to rule Sudan for interim period of two years.
In those two years, fair elections and a new constitution will be prepared.

Ibn Ouf declared also the emergency status in the country for 3 months and a curfew from 10 PM to 4 AM for a month.
The air space is closed for 24 hours.

The once first-vice-president of al-Bashir also declared that the interim constitution 2005 was dissolved. The states’ government, the national and state parliaments and the cabinet are all dissolved.
The political detainees arrested in the past three months will be released according to that announcement.
Here is the statement in video in Arabic


That army’s declaration came after at least four months of ongoing protesting and rallies by Sudanese citizens in almost all Sudanese states following the announcement of al-Bashir that he would amend the constitution to allow him to run for another presidential term.

A black hole to remember

I think I am among millions of bloggers who shared one of the most important photos in the history of mankind.

The Blackhole 

This is the first ever black hole image released online by astronomers in a far .. faraway galaxy. (Sorry I could not keep myself).

That galaxy is called M87. It is 500 million trillion km and so those people who have hopes that the world ends soon by getting sucked by a black hole will have to wait for a little longer.

According to scientists, it is a monster black hole with a measure of 40 billion km (three million times the size of the earth) according to the calculations of the scientists.
According to scientists, the blackhole confirms Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. “Sorry to all the Egyptian students from Mounfia who prove it was theoretically every year, Egyptians will know what I mean”

The photo of a black hole was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which is a network of eight linked telescopes around the globe.

It is produced by a new algorithm made by 31-years-old Katie Bouman.

I do not know if EHT was named after that horror sci-fi film “Event Horizon” or not but it is interesting name indeed especially when you know that there is a black hole in it.

#SudanRevolts : Revolution is She

I could not let this beautiful stunning photo from Khartoum at the Sudanese army Commandership HQ sit-in on Monday pass away like that.
It is a Sudanese chronicle in its own way.

A Sudanese lady addressing protesters in the sit-in

A magnificent shot was taken by Lana Hago that summarizes a lot of words and says a lot of words at that the same time.
The first thing that came to my mind is that this lady standing giving a speech in her Sudanese white Thawab or Toob was a true example of famous Nubian Queens aka “Kandakas."
Sudanese Tweep Hind Makki explained in a threat of tweets why this shot of that lady was too special.

She's wearing a white tobe (outer garment) and gold moon earrings. The white tobe is worn by working women in offices and can be linked w/cotton (a major export of Sudan), so it represents women working as professionals in cities or in the agricultural sector in rural areas.Her earrings are the gold moons of traditional bridal jewelry (Sudanese, like many Arabic speakers, often use moon-based metaphors to describe feminine beauty).Her entire outfit is also a callback to the clothing worn by our mothers & grandmothers in the 60s, 70s, & 80s who dressed like this during while they marched the streets demonstrating against previous military dictatorships.Sudanese everywhere are referring to female protestors as "Kandaka," which is the title given to the Nubian queens of ancient Sudan whose gift to their descendants is a legacy of empowered women who fight hard for their country and their rights

And that girl rocks in making the crowd go wild for the right reasons.

حبوبتي كنداكة ♥️ pic.twitter.com/0SJbpVXJV4

— Sammy (@alllthingssam) April 8, 2019

On 2 March 2019  women across Sudan organized rallies against Omar El-Bashir while wearing that famous white Thawab saying “Just fall, that’s all”.

#SudanRevolts : April 6 Sit-in of Khartoum or Why you should keep your eyes on Sudan now “Updated”

At 3:13 Am Monday Cairo local time, reports about attempts of security forces “police” to disperse the sit-in but armed forces are reportedly protecting the protesters.

April 6th is a special political date in Sudan, it marks the anniversary of ousting Sudanese dictator Gaafar Nimery by a military coup following huge protests in 1985.

That military coup was and is regarded as the perfect bloodless coup and his leader, General Abdel Rahman Swar El-Dahab is like a legendary character. After all, he is the first and last Arab/African military not to stay for more than an interim year and was not power greed.

April 6th, 2019 has also become a very special date too for those younger generations.
It is the day that thousands of Sudanese people, mostly from youth started a sit-in in front of the Sudanese armed forces Headquarter in Khartoum.

This is the biggest escalation so far in the uprising that started months ago aiming to put an end for El-Bashir's dictatorship.

The sit-in has been untouched as the protesters demand the armed forces to oust the current president and internationally convicted war criminal Omar El-Bashir.
The photos and videos coming from there are more than impressive, especially at night.

This is not a rock concert in Khartoum, it is a political sit-in against a dictatorship " Ola Al-Sheikh" 

فلتنقطع الكهرباء في السودان ❗️
و ربّ الكعبة . . ما نحمله لكم في قلوبنا من وهج المحبة ، يكفي لإضاءة قارة .
يا شعب السودان الطيّب النبيل ، أنتم في قلوب العرب والجزائريين ❤️ pic.twitter.com/wUcjzBlTlt

— أحلام مستغانمي (@AhlamMostghanmi) April 7, 2019

Sunday evening that video was captured there and it gave me goosebumps with those lights and how people chanted “The people want to topple the regime”.

من أمام القيادة العامة الساعة ٦:٣٧ يوم ٧ ابريل. pic.twitter.com/fXp0ciLGgT

— احمد نعمان Ahmed Nouman (@bakak8) April 7, 2019