Today is the anniversary of the 1973 War in the lunar year , the glorious 10th of Ramadan when our soldiers crossed the Suez Canal while they were fasting full of faith in victory they and this land really deserved.
From couple of days ago Marshal Abd El-Halim Abu Ghazala had passed away after a long struggle with disease in Cairo.He had a military funeral that suited him as a minister of defense for one of the greatest armies in the region.Some people mourned him in the media,of course his death came along with another more tragic accident that was the Al-Doweiqa and the big media circus of Hisham and Suzanne.
Some people did not like what I had written about the late Marshal in the past and I felt that despite I do not have to explain myself here ,I have to say few things. Tom Hanks did not produce that film which the Egyptian State totally ignored despite it is more insulting than the Sadat’s documentary;to attack Abu Ghazla on propose , the Universe is not about us for God sake.All what I demanded was an investigation and I think it is our right , it is Egypt’s right.
Marshal Abd El-Halim Abu Ghazala was among who those fought in this war and I can’t deny his role otherwise I will be a liar , he did his role bravely in that war just like Mubarak. Yes he did some improvements in the army but as not as something extra with my all respect , it was his duty to improve the army to be better and independent.
Yes he was fine man and he died in a holy Month after a long disease ,for us Muslims this means God forgave him for what he had done in his life , the disease takes from the humans’ sins in our belief still this does not mean we should not speak the truth , yes May Allah bless his soul and believe I wish that I will die in Ramadan too still 50 years from now they will speak the truth and will judge as just we are now doing with the historians of the revolution.
Abu Ghazla got fans just like Nasser and Sadat and even King Farouk who do not like and do not want to admit that the man was a human being who made mistakes and we should discuss these mistakes because they are about the country , so we can learn from them and avoid them.
By the way Dr.Yasser Thabat is publishing a nice series about him in his informative interesting blog.
I said it before and I will say it again
Egypt deserves better than Mubarak and Abu Ghazla
Your blog makes me think the internet cable getting cut wasn't such a bad idea. This is coming from a confirmed internet addict.
ReplyDeleteZeinobia's Lesson in English Grammar Number 1
ReplyDeleteDISCLAIMER: Gather around kiddies. We've realized that Zeinobia is hell bent on blogging in English. This is despite the fact that her use of the language would probably embarrass my 80 year old Grandmother who doesn't speak a word of English.
So we're putting together a special initiative - entirely free of charge of course. In the name of charity, we are going to do everything we can to teach her how to speak the damn language.
Without further ado, let's jump into Lesson Number 1:
I'm not even going to attempt to touch that first paragraph. It's just way too convoluted for Lesson Number 1. Oh sorry - convoluted means complicated Zeinobia, before you go running for dictionary.com. In fact - I'm not going to be able to correct every single mistake in each of your posts otherwise I'll be here till tomorrow morning.
Honey, "From couple of days ago" is a direct translation from Arabic. You don't seem to grasp the idea that English grammatical rules are slightly different from those in Arabic, despite the fact that you've been blogging in English for quite a while now. Just drop 'from' and say "A couple of days ago." And please, please, Zeinobia, do not underestimate the power of one little letter "a." Your inability to include it in your sentences makes you sound like a moron.
The next part of our lesson involves learning to use tenses. So in your sentence "Marshal Abd El-Halim Abu Ghazala had passed away after a long struggle with disease in Cairo." - rather than use the word "had" since this is something that just happened a few days ago you could opt for "has" or just leave it out entirely.
Now - you seem to drift in and out of confusion regarding how exactly to use the space bar. The space bar is that long button on the last row of your keyboard. It puts spaces between each word or sentence. Here's a hint - there should be a space between every single separate word and sentence. Okey dokey?
Here's another example of how you just keep leaving out words left and right: "I felt that despite I do not have to explain myself here ,I have to say few things." That sentence should be "I felt that despite the fact that I do not have to explain myself..." or something to that effect. Another point that you might notice in this sentence is your use of the space bar alongside the comma. Now the comma, full stop, and any other extraneous punctuation you may feel the need to use - it comes directly AFTER the last letter of the word it follows. There should not be a space after the word "here" in that particular sentence. Another problem with the sentence is, once again, your confusion of the tenses. When you use "felt" you imply that you no longer feel that way but we all know you do cause nobody can change Zeinobia's mind. So it should "I feel, that despite the fact that I do not have to..." You get the drill right?
Now the word "despite" seems to cause lots of problems for you. I'd probably suggest that you shouldn't use it (or any other words for that matter) until you are truly familiar with how they should be used. So in the sentence "Tom Hanks did not produce that film which the Egyptian State totally ignored despite it is more insulting than the Sadat’s documentary" you should have said "Tom Hanks did not produce that film, which the Egyptian state totally ignored, despite the fact that it is more insulting than Sadat's documentary." See? Another little change you might have noticed is removing "the" at the end of the sentence. So we all know that Sadat was a man. You can't refer to him as "the" - when we refer to people it's either "he" or "she" or "they" - I don't need to explain when each instance is used do I?
Ok now here's one that gave me a chuckle. When you said "propose" I'm sure you meant purpose right? I mean I don't see how attacking Abu Ghazala (who's name you spell 2 different ways in the post) would have anything to do with marriage or even proposing an idea. Now would be a good time to run over to dictionary.com and look up 'purpose' and 'propose.' And about the spelling of the man's name - I won't be hard on you regarding the actual spelling since it's an Arabic name - but please pick one and stick to it.
"He did his role" - oh that hurts. "He played his role" would be ok, but "He did his role" makes you sound like your 5. Same goes for "Yes he did some improvements." A person does not "do" improvements - they make them.
Now we come to a sentence where you could actually have used one of your favourite words - "did" - "this means God forgave him for what he had done in his life."
Of course I'm sure you've caught on by now, but just in case - where you use "had done" you should have just used "did." Just in case you're confused, and after all you probably are since this is your first lesson, it would be "this means God forgave him for what he did in his life"
"the disease takes from the humans’ sins in our belief" Ok now the problem with this sentence is learning which word comes first. So it should be "We believe that disease washes away human sin." Of course I jumped ahead a few lessons with that sentence - but we still have two more paragraphs to go so I'll just leave the explanation to that one for another day.
And just a little style tip - don't start so many sentences with the word "Yes" - it makes you sound unprofessional.
"Abu Ghazla got fans just like Nasser and Sadat and even King Farouk" Oh dear God poke my eyes out now. Did you seriously just use "got?" Honey - nobody uses the word "got." My 4 year old niece doesn't use the word "got." It's HAS. HAS. HAS!
Oh and I just noticed this one - above the comment box. "Thanks For your comment. I won't accept any insult in my blog , please keep it clean" Let's quickly break this one down. "For" should not be capitalized. As for the grammar in the second sentence - it should say "I won't accept any insults on my blog. Please keep it clean."
Zeinobia - what do you have against putting commas in the right place?
So kiddies, that's it for Lesson Number 1. We see that Zeinobia already has a new post up. (She's such a prolific writer isn't she? It's such a shame that she's not actually a good one.) But we're going to wait a while before we tackle the next one. Grammar lessons can be so exhausting.
Until next time.
Ta-ta
you just hate him because he supported the brave Iraqi Armty in its war against the dirty Iran. the humilating defeat of Iran in 1988 where the Iranians were masscred in thousands, people in Tahran demonstrating for sieze fire, and the Iraqis chasing the Iranians away into Iran after having the entire armoured foreces of the Iran melted away, using Egyptian tactics in El-Fao battles.
ReplyDeleteAnon #2, God bless you. You speak for all of us.
ReplyDelete@anonymous, there is a very easy solution to spare you from reading my blog : Do not come again as simple as that
ReplyDelete@anonymous no.2,thanks for the grammar lesson,it is very valuable to me and to my readers , I really appreciate your concern for reading and analyzing my post not to mention writing all that comments , it shows that you care I really thank and I promise these mistakes won't happen again ;)
@anonymous aka Amr,Ramadan Karim ,it is not for that reason actually because I like Saad El-Din Shazaaly and late El-Gamsy who helped the Iraqi army then , it is because the other reasons I mentioned
@anonymous#3 amin
@Anonymous #2,Why do you hide your name? We all know that you are Diptychal, a Palestinian female living in Egypt,Christian by faith, hate Egypt and Egyptians by heart and narcissistic by her own admission. I couldn't stop laughing while reading your sicko post. Have you heard of the proverb "If you live in a glass house you should not throw stones". No honey please don't say because they will break the glass. Where should I begin? let's see here.
ReplyDeleteLesson #1 "Another little change you might have noticed is removing "the" at the end of the sentence. So we all know that Sadat was a man. You can't refer to him as "the" - when we refer to people it's either "he" or "she" or "they" - I don't need to explain when each instance is used do I?" really? you never heard something like The Bush administration, The Reagan library, etc..
Lesson #2 "Abu Ghazla got fans just like Nasser and Sadat and even King Farouk" Oh dear God poke my eyes out now. Did you seriously just use "got?" Honey - nobody uses the word "got." My 4 year old niece doesn't use the word "got." It's HAS. HAS. HAS!"
Did you just say "nobody uses the word got"?
Do you know how many times I hear this word everyday in America?
I recommend to ask your 4 year old niece. she might be able to help you.
Lesson #3 Boy this is really funny. You said "And about the spelling of the man's name - I won't be hard on you regarding the actual spelling since it's an Arabic name"
Its "It" won't be hard. You forgot the T T T T. lol.
Finally Diptychal, you would make a mediocre English teacher but certainly not a good blogger. I would also suggest to pack up and move to another country where you can find people with the same intellectual abilities. You don't like Egypt and Egypt doesn't like you.
Here is her website address
http://diptychal.com/
Hazem - what I find very amusing is how you make these silly little assumptions of yours. And honestly, do you think I'm going to take your opinion seriously - someone who doesn't have any talent or anything relevant to say? I wonder how long you studied that comment trying to find some mistakes - seems you couldn't actually find any and had to make some up.
ReplyDeleteClearly your English can't be all that good if you think it's grammatically correct to compare "the Sadat's documentary" to "the Bush administration." And your next two points prove that your English just isn't that good.
According to what you said - everything that the Americans do is correct? I'd like to see you dig yourself out of that hole. Maybe some people use the expression "got" (but certainly not in the context that she used it cause that is just simply incorrect.) As far as the general use of it is concerned, go ask any journalism or literature professor what they'd think of a student using that word in an introductory course - and I'm sure you'd be disappointed to realize how wrong you are.
And your third correction - have you ever heard of the expression that a teacher won't be hard on a student? So "I" refers to me and "won't be too hard on you" means that "I" won't chastise you. Take a look here since you're clearly confused about it. http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic15543.html
And it's not "If you live in a glass house you should not throw stones." The correct expression is "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." It seems you might learn a thing or two if you actually practice what you preach.
Did you seriously think that you were going to correct my English?
And you can stop your little guessing game - especially if your 'intuitive powers' are anywhere near as good as your English. You're just wasting your time.
@Anonymous or diptychal, I have to apologize for the third correction. I was falling asleep while reading your sicko post. But please please don't insult my intelligence and deny being diptychal. On your website diptychal.com, you said that you want to be a good Christian and good Christians DON'T lie and DON'T spill out hate.
ReplyDeleteI have to reiterate that your personality is typical of a narcissist who lacks abstract thinking. I honestly suggest that you should see a psychiatrist to help you identify unhealthy, negative beliefs and behaviors and replace them with healthy, positive ones.
Getting back to your bizarre idea that speaking a better English will make you a better or successful person. Did you know that Einstein was not fluent in English? Did that make him a less of a person?
My advice to you is to stop bragging that your English is better than Zeinobia's or mine and making a fool of yourself. It takes a lot more than just a good English to succeed or be effective in life.
Lastly, take it from me, changing "People who live in a glass.." to "If you live in a glass.." IS OK because it did not change the meaning of the proverb. The good thing about the English language is that you can relay different meanings using different words and sentences.
@Hazem,thanks for defending me my dear friend.
ReplyDelete@anonymous teacher, what do you think about the topic of the post itself??
@Hazem... well you were right about one thing. I (Diptychal that is) am an absolute narcissist because I was googling my website and came across your comments about me.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what all this is about, but I would like to reply to what you said about me. First off... I am not Palestinian. Sorry to ruin your conspiracy theory. And second.. just because a person points out negative things about a country, it doesn't mean they hate it. And Egypt hates me huh? How old are you exactly Hazem? Sounds like quite a juvenile thing to say.
On a serious note, please don't insult me by telling me how I should practice my faith.. especially when you have me confused with other people. I believe that is personal and none of your business.
Oh and thanks for spending all those hours reading my blog and plugging it.. it's so sweet of you.. but I'd appreciate it if you leave me out of this child's play.
@diptychal oh sorry teacher Diptychal with capital D. God I am good or what. I knew it was you. How did I know? lets say you put a lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig lol. Sorry for the proverb's language.
ReplyDeleteYour ethnic background or religion don't matter here. I was just trying to present you to the readers here. And about whether or not "Egypt hates you" is grammatically correct? Sure it is. It is something called "abstract thinking" have you heard of it?
About my opinion on this blog. I would like to quote you here; "I'm entitled to it, just like you are to yours". "If someone is going to put their thoughts in a public forum they have to face the fact that not everyone is going to agree with them, and not everyone is going to like the way they write"
I would be happy to stop expressing my opinion on this matter if the owner of this blog asked me to.
@Hazem you seem to be very proud about having figured something out about me or this anonymous commenter and I guess it's clouding your judgment so let me try to explain things in as few monosyllabic words as I can so I don't have to come back here and explain it again. I am not the person who commented above. Is that clear enough for you?
ReplyDeleteAnother way that you have me confused with this other person is that my response to what you said about Egypt hating me has absolutely nothing to do with grammar. "Egypt hates you" sounds like something that I would have heard in a school yard rather than coming from a supposedly mature man.. It's a childish insult but if you want to classify it as "abstract thinking" cause you think it makes you look smart.. go right ahead. It actually does the opposite.
I really have no idea why you quoted me or mentioned your opinion about this blog. I didn't ask you and I really couldn't care less. I am simply asking you to stop making your assumptions about me.. whether its about my religion, my nationality or the fact that you think that I'm this anonymous commenter. Give it up Hazem and stop wasting my time.
@Diptychal, It is pity that you are still denying the writing of the 2 hateful posts. You are angry because you got caught. However, let me reveal some of your mistakes that pointed to you as the culprit.
ReplyDeleteFirst, using the dash sign after my name in 2 previous posts, one under Diptychal and recent one above under Anonymous. Here is the excerpt from the previous 2 posts;
"diptychal said...
@Hazem - how is what I said in any way related to burying my head in the sand?"
And
"Anonymous said...
Hazem - what I find very amusing is how you make these silly little assumptions of yours"
Of course that is plus your peculiar way of using the dash sign throughout your blog and the 2 hateful posts. Show me any other post which uses the dash like this.
Second,and this one was really the break in the case. Using the word "convoluted". once on your website and twice to Zenobia taunting her. On your website, you said "No matter how difficult, how complex or how convoluted a topic might be. And what has been happening at Egypt’s borders has to come to an end. There’s a limit".
To Zeinobia, you said
"I'm not even going to attempt to touch that first paragraph. It's just way too convoluted for Lesson Number 1. Oh sorry - convoluted means complicated Zeinobia, before you go running for dictionary.com"
Then you said "Pop Quiz: What does convoluted mean? (Hint: Check Lesson Number 1 for the answer and feel free to post the answer below"
Tell me for God sake, how many posts here or all over the net use the word "convoluted"?
Third, Did you say "I was googling my website and came across your comments about me". What a liar you are! I googled your website at least twice and I only got your website and few things on you but NEVER got my comments about you in this blog.
Fourth, If you put your glasses on, you will see that I did not say "Egypt hates you". I said "You don't like Egypt and Egypt does not like you". It is a figure of speech.
Finally If you have a grain of respect for yourself, you should apologize to Zeinobia.
@Hazem - you can sit here and try to find clues all you want. You seem to think you're a private investigator and I guess you have nothing better to do with your time than to spend hours pouring over some anonymous comments. You must have such a sad and empty life.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise the use of the dash was such a rare occurrence in comments these days but I guess you don't have time to read much else online if you spend all your "free" time analysing this blog.
So people don't use the word convoluted huh? Oh look here. This person used convoluted in their post http://almeezan.blogspot.com/2006/04/who-is-against-who.html hmmm wanna start pointing fingers there too? Or how about this person http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/269 they use the word convoluted AND link to Zeinobia's blog. Better go after them in your little witch hunt.
Now do yourself a favour and google diptychal.com and see what the fourth entry is.
I don't know how many times you need someone to explain something for you to actually understand it but the comment about "Egypt hates you"/"Egypt doesn't like you" has nothing to do with whether it is a figure of speech or whether the expression can be used. Let me make it easy for you. Yes you can use that expression but it makes you sound like a 10 year old because it is a childish insult. Get it?
You can sit there and write another lengthy response and try to prove your little theory there until you go blue in the face. You want a major clue? The anonymous commenter uses American spelling. Check my comments and my blog and you will see that I use British spelling. I'm sure that will provide you with a few more hours of detective work. Personally, I am done with you.
Finally, if you have a grain of self-respect, you should stop making a fool of yourself and just give this up.
@Diptychal, You can be condescending as much as you want but I am still sticking to my analysis and opinion. To tell you the truth I did believe you for a second when you pointed out that the anonymous commenter uses American spelling, like using realized instead of realised. Then I looked at the second anonymous comment and there you go, you got distracted and used favourite (British) rather than favorite (American). So this defense is certainly not in your favor (American).
ReplyDeleteI did not know that "You don't like Egypt and Egypt doesn't like you" is a childish insult. So president Kennedy's famous quote "Ask what you can do for your country not what your country can do for you" was a childish quote? give me a break
I think you have selective amnesia because in a previous post, you commented on Zeinobia's blog saying "And you may think that this blog is just so incredibly brilliant, but personally when I read something that I find enjoyable, it has to at least meet the criteria of being grammatically correct".
So it is really in your hands right now. I would stop my comments here only if you admit guilt and apologize (American) to Zeinobia.