Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei To The West : It Is Either Democracy Or Extremism

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei had a very interesting interview in the Guardian today with dear Jack Shenker. Dr. ElBaradei is speaking to the West but the question is : Will the West listen to him and support real democratic reforms !!??
What ElBaradei has said in the Guardian has been said and repeated over from inside and outside the Arab region but no one listens in the west because democracy will not be in the best interest of western corporations nor the western regimes like what happened in Iran in 1950s. 
I believe the West knows very well how the Mubarak regime is using a pseudo enemy to earn its support and justify its dictatorship.
Anyhow what Mohamed ElBaradei needs is the full support of the Egyptian people , this will be enough for him. 
The only thing negative in the interview is the photo used.

Updated : 

Here is the full interview and its script at Shenker's blog , it is highly recommended

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,democracy,media,national,politics,presidential elections 2011,Middle east,Mideast,Mohamed Elbaradei,West,Press,Guardian

Dr. Banoub We Need You in Egypt More Than The States

Dr. Samir Naguib Banoub , MD a name most Egyptians and Americans do not know despite the role it has played recently in the United States. Most of the Americans do not know that Dr. Banoub is the man behind the Obama's health care plan.
Dr. Banoub is a professor of public health and expert in WHO. He left Egypt in 1970s and published several studies and reports about the public health systems in the world.
I am very proud with the role Dr.Banoub played in America but I wish that the day will come and he plays a similar role in pushing the national health insurance project in Egypt . We are in desperate need for better public health care. In the last 30 years we have become a sick nation and the regime is insisting to turning us as a dying nation by supporting insurance health systems good for the rich only and abusing the treatment at the state expense program.
I Wonder if Dr.Banoub knows that our minister of health who owns Egypt's most expensive private hospital in the country treats his wife at the state expense abroad or how the minister of finance who owns three palaces who treats his eyes abroad at the state expense !!??
People hope not to get sick for fear they can't afford the medicine , we have become simply no medicinenor treatment for poor man land !!

Out of Context

A junkie young man entered a pharmacy in order to buy a cough medicine ,it seems that the Hashish crisis forced him to seek other alternatives. The pharmacist did not know the man before and went to get the medicine from the cabinet as usual but unfortunately when she turned back she found the man searching in her handbag for cash. When he found out that she was looking at him , he pulled a gun and opened his fire. Fortunately she survived the attack , she only had an external injury.
The junkie escaped from the pharmacy but of course the people outside the pharmacy in the street caught him and called the police.
Regardless of how bad the attack is and its social and criminal indications , do you find anything strange in this incident !!??
Already this incident happens several times in Egypt and even in the whole world , junkies desperate for any drug head to pharmacies and things get ugly. In normal circumstance this incident would not be taken out of its context regardless of how many times it was repeated till we got bored from.
Well Youm 7 has decided to add more spices to the news so it would be  interesting enough to make readers click the link : 

After the shooting incident in Asuit, the Muslim pharmacist's family believes that there is a mysterious motive in the incident , the witnesses relate it to the Islamic conversion of a Christian girl in another village and a source of in the church fears another crisis !

Of course I forget to tell you that the junkie who is a convicted criminal in Asuit is Christian and the pharmacist is Muslim because I believe it is irrelevant and I still believe so. This is a straight forward case a junkie wants to steal money , a theft incident which religion and gender do not play any role in it. If that Pharmacist were a Christian , he would have tried to shot her down and to steal her and vice versa !!
Already if you read the news , you will find it different from the headline !!
If Youm 7 wants more clicks , why not try to have more interesting topics and real exclusive scoops than trying to create a sectarian division in order to get more clicks and hateful comments !!??

The Photo of The week … Every week

The photo of the day and everyday actually in the people's assembly , Ahmed Ezz with his intimidating looks to his NDP members !!

Why did he stand like that !!!!??

This photo was taken during the discussion of renewal's the presidential delegation in secret arm deals , in other words till the year 2012 the President of Egypt regardless of who he will be will have the right to buy arms for the Egyptian army secretly without any accountability and the Egyptian parliament will have no right to discuss this deal !!
Of course when the NDP approved with its majority on the renewal they meant Mubarak and son without realizing that this delegation is one now more than ever to God knows who will rule us till 2012 !!
The decision of this renewal was a huge circus of its thanks to the NDP hypocrisy where the head of the National security in the Parliament former Police general Abdel Fatah Omar made sure to enter the history of the Egyptian parliament when he said :

We should delegate to Mubarak everything in Egypt because even if he is leaning towards dictatorship , he will be the just dictator !!! We should trust and give him our souls because he is the source of security who saved us several times

This is just the tip of the ice-berg because we got MR. Ahmed Ezz who fired back at the MB group in the parliament :

You want to sell Egypt's military secrets in the street !!

Of course the man who says so sells steel to Israel which uses it in building the ugly apartheid wall !!

Already I do not know what military secrets this man is speaking about for God sake , we are keen on this country and its army more than him and all those NDP respectable members. In civilized countries sometimes the parliament like the congress the national security  committee reviews and discusses  secretly the secret arms deals and even covert operations of the intelligence to make sure that the money of the public was not wasted and the best decision was taken for the best interest of the country , but of course this is in the democratic civilized countries where the members chosen to be in the national security committee are not from the kind of general Omar !!
The argument the NDP and also the army were promoting during the discussions was that :

"We are in a very dangerous times in the region ..etc"

They gave us the impression that we are either in the war or we are going to the war against some country , I can't deny that we live in a region wars are usually a normal thing but let's say I do not want to have another 'Six days war defeat' and I find out in time of action that our president agreed to buy some second hand crap from the junkyard of the former Soviet Union or from the States. I do not say that President Mubarak did that heavens forbid but I am speaking of a dangerous delegation in a critical time in Egypt now !! How we can be so sure that Mubarak this dangerous operation he had in Germany will take the sound decisions concerning the army. It is just like a close circle.

We care about our army more than what the regime thinks , we care about its nationality security more than what the regime thinks because in the end our men are  those die in battles not those who escape the army service.

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Politics,Democracy,Economy,citizen journalism,Mideast,Middle east,Photos,Egyptian army,Ahmed Ezz,National security,News

Mustafa ElBaradei : Like Father , Like Son

The official Mustafa ElBaradei stamp issued in 2004

The key to Mohamed Mustafa ElBaradei's personality is his father Mustafa ElBaradei ; the brave lawyer who led the Bar Association of Egypt "BAE"  in the toughest time you can  imagine standing against both Nasser and Sadat as much as he could protecting the law and the rights of his fellow citizens. To really understand how dangerous Mustafa ElBaradei was to the regime you only have to know that clients and friends avoided him and his law office for fear to be regarded as his supporters during the Nasserite era and  when he died the regime made sure to control the BAE for more than 20 years through late lawyer El-Khawaga whether in time of Sadat or in time of Mubarak.
Mustafa ElBradei was born in  a small village called "Ebiar" in Gharbia governorate in somehow rich and old family. He lived in "Ebiar" till he finished the primary stage then his family moved to Cairo to complete the secondary stage and college. He joined the faculty of law in Cairo university. After graduation he worked at the State court till he became a judge. The man is popular even after his death in the village unlike what the official media claims as he is still remembered by his charity and how he  helped other people there. He was from that generation of liberal Egypt who had this religious conservative values of their ancestors and the democratic liberal thinking of the west.
Mustafa ElBaradei used to be a Wafd party member before the revolution. I think from what I heard and read about him he did not give up his political believes regardless of the regime change in Egypt and what it accompanied it from dictatorship.
Mustafa ElBaradei headed the lawyers' syndication three times :

• From 1958 to 1959 "before the union with Syria"
• From 1964 to 1966
• From 1971 to 1977

Mustafa ElBaradei was famous for his clash with President Sadat when the later introduced some strange concepts like the public courts and the so-called defect law "Late Sadat had strange thoughts from time to time" and ElBaradei considered as aggression on the law and state.

The Baradeis in early 1960s

MR.ElBaradei did a fantastic job in raising his offspring because all of the five are successful in prestigious positions whether academically or professionally. His offspring are : Mohamed , Tarek, Mona, Ali and Laila. "From left to right : Laila,Mona, Ali,Mohamed and Tarek"
I think Mohamed ElBaradei is the most one of his siblings affected by his father's political and social ideas adding to them of course his own experience. It is not about inheriting his father's look but rather his father's idea and fight for better Egypt as much as he can.
Mohamed ElBaradei may succeed and may fail in achieving what he wishes for Egypt yet the honor of trial is enough from him.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Politics,Mustafa ElBaradei,Mohamed ElBaradei,National,follow up,Egyptians,history,Nasser,Sadat,Mubarak,History,Photos,Mideast,Middle East

The Real Volcano of Anger

It is strange coincidence that this came at the same time we are remembering the anniversary of Egypt's dark Nightingale , Qaddafi played his song " The Volcano of Anger" in the background of the Arab summit reception show

  Oh  volcano of anger , you who unit the Arabs

Qaddafi believed that the lyrics was about him as it seems. Already I thought that it was a song about Nasser but when I listened to the whole song later without the face of Qaddafi I noticed that it was about the war.

I know that there was a story behind every patriotic song Halim sang and so I searched and guess what !!??

The Real Volcano of Anger was no Nasser nor is Qaddafi , the Real Volcano of Anger was the Egyptian army during the war of attrition !!

It  is a very strong beautiful song , Halim sang the best honest patriotic songs after the six days war defeat.

You can listen it here.

May Allah bless your soul Halim along with those who wrote and composed this song , May Allah bless all our heroes who died bravely in the war of attrition !!

Technorati Tags: citizen journalism,Egypt,culture,1967,Politics,National,News,History,War of attrition,Halim,Abdel Halim Hafiz,Qaddafi,Nasser,Regional,Arab Summit 10,Mideast,Middle East

Et Toi Lebanon !!??

Lebanon and its people have been envied by all most all the Arabs from the democracy and freedom of expression it enjoys but it seems that the Lebanese regime has decided to imitate its Arab counterparts.

Leftist Lebanese journalist and blogger Khodor Salameh wrote a post criticizing in mockery President Soliman and his policies. The post is very regular one and comparing to other posts from Lebanon or even from Egyptian blogosphere speaking negatively about the regime it is so simple !!

But unfortunately the official reaction  was not simple at all , the government has addressed and ordered him either to change the tone or to close the blog altogether !!!

Is this new Lebanon !!?? Is the "Freedom, sovereignty and independence" new Lebanon !!?? It is a shock , a real shock !!??

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Lebanon,Democracy,Blogging,Bloggers,Human rights,Media,Politics,Regional,Mideast,Middle East,Khodor Salameh,Michael Soliman,News,Freedom of expression

Saving Heliopolis Style

We have an Egyptian a unique architectural style that does not exist anywhere in the world ; this style is called "Heliopolis Style". As you can see from the name , this early 20th century style was used primarily at Heliopolis area. You can see its remains now especially in the Korba street standing against the aggression of the growing greed and modern tasteless architectural styles. The Heliopolis style is also known as Neo-Islamic Style.

Heliopolis 1931

When I see these huge building I always wonder why construction companies and contractors do not adopt this style preferring foreign styles like Spanish and Mediterranean styles  , these buildings provide residential and commercial units alike in a very elegant way. I do not get it at all , it is not about our Egyptian Heliopolis style but also the famous Baroque style . I do not get why we are ignoring those wonderful styles which will not cost the construction companies a thing considering the big prices they charge the people with.

What puzzles me is that those who designed those buildings were foreigners and yet they respected this huge cultural mix of Egypt adding where as now most of designs in new cities like 6th of October or New Cairo are modern Western designs made by Egyptian designers !! I do not get it.

Anyhow I believe we should protect the Heliopolis Style and what remains from it in Egypt as much as we all could.  I had wanted to speak about this matter from a long but I always forgot to but thank to this wonderful post I was encouraged to write this post which I hope would encourage some architectural designer will read this post and adopt the Heliopolis Style.

Photo sources : Cairohk , Moon-Watcher ,Carine&Tom, Magdy_Tanious and Niveen Fouda

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Arts,Culture,National,society,Heliopolis,Cairo,Architecture,Photos,History,Mideast,Middle East,Baroque Style

Mubarak To Meet Al-Assad JR Next April !!

Future News claims that President Al Assad of Syria is going to meet Hosni Mubarak in next April and not today or tomorrow "or even this week". Already there were news confirmed by both the Egyptian and Syrian parties that the Syrian President is mostly welcomed in Egypt especially Al-Assad expressed his wish to visit his old father's friend.

I am happy to see that our relations with Syria began to return to what it should be even if it is on slower steps still I am unhappy or rather worried that Mubarak can't meet anyone at least for two weeks.

I hope that those who are ruling Egypt for real to stop fooling around , the Egyptian people know what is going now very well. It is very obvious that Mubarak may not run for the elections next year.

Technorati Tags: citizen journalism,Egypt,national,politics,Syria,Al Assad,Mubarak,April,health,democracy,mideast,middle east

The Hypocrite Headline of The Day : The return of the soul

The return of the soul
Originally uploaded by Kodak Agfa.
All the official newspapers chief in editors are competing on who will enter the hall of shame and have the most hypocrite headline today to prove their loyalty to Mubarak.
I give the shame award for the most hypocrite headline of the day to Tarek Hassan , the chief in editor of Al Ahram Al Massai and the proud member of the NDP Policies committee.

Mohamed ElBaradei Speaks To The Egyptian People

Mohamed ElBaradei speaks to the Egyptian people , Shall the Egyptian people listen !!??


Shall the Egyptian people listen and sign the statement demanding a real democratic reform !!??

Breaking News : Mubarak Has Arrived Back Home

Hosni Mubarak has just returned back to Egypt. His presidential plane has just arrived to Sharm El-Sheikh airport and the event is currently on aired on Ch.1.
Welcome back MR. President. Sooner insh Allah I will post the videos and Photos of the big event today.
Update #1

• Here is the photo of the Mubaraks with medical team in Heidelberg from Dostor Newspaper

Update#2

• Here are the videos showing Mubarak leaving Germany and returning back home.

• The other video showing him arriving at Sharm El-Sheikh, you can see him very old and fragile to the level that
  they used automatic stairs for the first time in Egypt so he would not get tired from that long stair. I do not know why Suzanne Mubarak did not take his hand when they were going down the stairs !! Of course he was wearing some kind of sneakers to make him comfort.

Technorati Tags: Hosni Mubarak,Politics,Egypt,Sharm El-Sheikh,Health,Cairo,National,News,Mideast,Middle East,Citizen Journalism,Follow Up,Breaking News

Al-Sa'aa Has Become My Nation !!??

Many people have wondered why all of the sudden Qaddafi has ordered the closure of the Al-Sa'aa TV Channel on Nile Sat last week without any explanation. People were watching Mustafa Bakery's show on the channel when suddenly the screen went black.

Nobody knew anything including the employees in the channel but rumor said that there was a fight between Seif El-Islam Qaddafi and Ahmed Qazaf El-Dam , Qaddafi's brother who owns the channel but I believe it is another thing 

I think that the Libyan regime needed this channel for the Arab summit , we found out today that there is a whole channel dedicated to the summit with the name "My Nation" !!

Already Mustafa El-Bakery revealed that Al-Qaddafi told him that the channel will return again on air , so I assume that it will return after the summit.

Libyans do not deserve this man and his regime.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Politics,Media,Democracy,Arab Summit 10,Sirt,Nile Sat,TV,Channels,Al-Sa'aa,Qaddafi,Seif El-Islam Qaddafi,Ahmed Qazaf El-Dam,Mustafa Bakery,regional,Mideast,Middle East

Arab Summit 2010

It is in Libya and Al-Qaddafi is officially the chairman of the summit for a whole year. He said frankly that he wanted more powers, he said that he want to represent officially the Arabs for the whole year and God knows what this means !!
As Arab people we know very well that we should not expect much from the Arab summits but this time despite the issues and challenges from the Arab world faces from East and West we know for certain that this time it would be like a big circus thank to Qaddafi !!
The man is living his Nasser moment for sure now , he is already taking advantage from the huge media attention to the summit so he would as usual take the stage. Already what he has done so far makes me worry :

• Broadcasting the Nasserite era songs which praised Nasser as the patron of the Arab as if it were about Qaddafi
• Those folklore dancing troupes and musical festivities in those 48 hours.
• Allocating a whole channel for the big event , in fact allocating all Libya's channels to transfer the summit on air !!!!!!!!!!!!
• The Arabs did not agree on the name of the summit this year except today when we found that its name is " The summit of supporting Al Quds Withstand" where as the Libyan TV was calling it " The Fatah summit" !

Anyhow the Arab summit 2010 Sirt has started and Sheikh Hamad of Qatar gave the big burden to Qaddafi who made fun of him !!

I have not listened to the words of Amr Moussa unfortunately which was expected to be the real surprise of the summit. I read its summary in BBC Arabic , the most important points are that he is not going to continue in his position and that the Arabs should study all options regarding Palestine including the complete failure of the Peace process.
Eradogan spoke what is considered the strongest word till now reminding us that there are Neo-Ottomans in the region.
There is no justification why Berlusconi  was invited or was given the opportunity to speak just like why he kissed the Qaddafi's hand !!
Ali Abdullah Saleh is kissing Qaddafi's ass to take couple of millions , it seems that Saleh has agreed to suggest Qaddafi's poor idea of Arab Union as if it were his own idea where Qaddafi would cheer and say "We are going to discuss this in the closed session !!"
As I said we do not expect much already because the big leaders of the regions are not there :

• Mubarak is sick
• King Abdullah of KSA will not step a foot in the country of the man who tried to assassinate him
• Lebanon sent its ambassador in Egypt to Sirt because of the Emam Sadr case.
• The King of Morocco Mohamed IV who heads the Al Quds committee did not come and sent his brother instead !!
• The sultan of Oman did not come as usual
• The King of Bahrain
• The president of UAE who has lost a brother.
• The Iraqi president and Prime ministers because of the elections

Already the absence of Mubarak and King Abdullah is playing a very important role in weakening the summit despite the fact we should not expect much from them too.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Libya,Politics,Saudi Arab,Palestine,Al-Quds,Amr Moussa,Qaddafi,Video,Media,Qatar,Italy,Turkey Ragab Tayyib Erdogan,Berlusconi,Ara Summit 2010,Sirt,League of Arab States

Mohamed ElBaradei in ElHussein : Video

I do not have any comment except that most of these people are ordinary people who do not have any political agenda from any kind except to live in a good way and to have a better future for them and their children

We see Mohamed ElBaradei insh Allah today somewhere :D according to some leaks. I hope that Dr. ElBaradei does not only visit public places in Cairo but outside Cairo too , I hope that he visits the poor villages whether in Delta or Upper Egypt or even Sinai or West desert

We need him to see exactly what we suffer from , we need the people to know him very well. He should go where the NDP dares not to go , to the people directly.

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Politicis,Citizen Journalism,National,News,Mohamed ElBaradei,Video,media,ElHussein,Cairo,Democracy,Follow Up,Presidential elections 2011

Follow Up : Magdy El-Gald's Interview With ElBaradeis

These are the third and fourth parts of Magdy El-Gald's interview with ElBaradeis including Mohamed ElBaradei's wife Aida El-Kashaf. She seems so sweet and simple woman and hopefully she remains so.

You can watch them below , I hope Al Masry Al Youm chooses more friendly player like Blip.TV !!

Breaking News Again : Mubarak To Return Tomorrow

This time it is the national TV :

Mubarak to return back home tomorrow insh Allah afternoon.

Again Welcome back MR. President.

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Politics,Mubarak,Follow Up,National,Media,Health,Germany,Mideast,Middle East,Hosni Mubarak

Mohamed ElBaradei's Big Day in ElHussein

I knew last night that Mohamed ElBaradei was going to pray the Friday prayer in a big and popular Mosque , I though of all big Mosques in Cairo, Giza and even in 6th of October except ElHussein Mosque.

Mohamed ElBaradei has prayed this Friday Prayer at ElHussein along with 10 members of his campaign including his brother then visited the surrounding area of Khan Al-Khalili and Sultan Hassan Mosque.

Here are the photos and you can see ElBaradei surrounded by a huge crowd with no bodyguards or protection or a wall behind his back like some other people who prefer to pray in army Mosques for fear gatherings.

Last night Al Arabiya aired the first interview with Mohamed ElBaradei with an Arab non Egyptian channel in a big blow to Al Jazeera which avoided him for fear the wrath of Cairo. I think ElBaradei introduced himself to the Arab viewer. By the way I know one phrase he said in the interview would cause a big controversy

"I am the most famous  Egyptian abroad"

Which he said to cut it short on all those who claim that he is seeking fame after the IAEA. Well I prefer the fact that he is the most famous Egyptian abroad over for instance Zahi Hawas or football soccer. I want to know what Amr Adeeb's reaction after claiming that the man did not say that !! 

Now today Aida El-Kashaf began to speak starting another round in the war between Al Shorouk and Al Masry Al Youm. Already Magdy Gald promised to published the first interview in the Egyptian press for the woman behind Mohamed ElBaradei after his interview today  but it turned out that it was not the first interview for El-Kashaf as she had an interview with Al Shorouk last December which she requested not to be published immediately.

Most important facts about Aida El-Kashaf :

1- She is the daughter of a former head of lawyers' bar.

2- She was a Port Said language.

3- She is a Political sciences AUCian graduate.

4- She used to teach at the international school for 11 years in pre-school stage.

5- She does not want to be a first lady.

Ah and Mohamed ElBaradei loves Mokhalia :D

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Democracy,Follow Up,Egyptians,Islam,Media,Politics,Photos,Mohamed ElBaradei,ElHussein,AUC,National,Cairo,Press,Interviews,Mideast,Middle East,Presidential elections 2011

Search For The Complete Music Piece !!??

Can someone tell me from which music piece is this clip below !!?? Already I believe that they are two pieces from some film’s soundtrack about the East !!

I do not know the clip’s name , already I copied from a very old time from Loghat Al Asr’s free software CD :D

Update

• It turned out to be from the origianl soundtrack of the "13th Warrior" by Jerry Goldsmith

Technorati Tags: Letter from the editor,Music,Geek,Media

More Info Regarding This Incident !!??

I have received an email from a reader called Mohammad Alshura who has an American citizenship. MR. Al Shura says that he was physically abused and tortured in Al-Amyriah police station in Alexandria in May 2008.

Does anyone have any info regarding this old incident !!?? It is not about an American citizen more about a human who possibly was abused.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,egypt,democracy,human rights,national,politics,america,alexandria,mideast,middle east,al-amyriah,mohammad alshura

Breaking News : Mubarak To return After Few Hours

reIt has just been announced in TV that Mubarak will return back home in the coming few hours. I do not know if this true or not but it seems that Friday was chosen as it is the national day in Egypt.
Welcome Back MR. President :)

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Mubarak,Politics,National,News,Follow Up,Health,Mideast,Middle East,Germany

The Beef In The Presidential Health Crisis

Is not it strange that we have this meat crisis in Egypt which all people are talking about when our president is having that health crisis abroad !!??

No, it is not a strange thing nor it is coincidence , this is a natural thing or shall I say an artificial weapon used by the regime as old heritage when it is needed. We have a major health crisis in the presidency palace then we must have this huge crisis about meat.

When Will Mubarak Return Back !!??

When will President Mubarak return back from Germany !!?? A question many Egyptians are currently asking especially with the persistence of the regime media that he is more than fine now. If he is fine and has restored his responsibilities as the head of the state , why has not he come back !!??
Al Masry Al Youm claimed today that he would return today and it was only matter of hours and the whole world will find him sitting either in Orba palace or the Jolie Ville resort in Sharm.
Al Dostor claimed today that he will return to Cairo after 48 hours.
Youm 7 claimed that Heidelberg hospital has not announced yet when the President can leave to his homeland based on a report in CNN
Heidelberg hospital itself has announced that the President will leave the hospital in the next coming days without giving an exact date
People are confused and again the rumors mill is running over and over especially that the physicians in Egypt are convinced that he did not have a benign in duodenum. Many doctors whether online or offline are referring to this dangerous surgery in Mubarak’s age fearing from its consequences on the country and on him too.
Already Nazif is packing his bags to join Al-Gaddafi circus and so technically the country in the coming days can be without a president or a prime minister officially.

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Citizen Journalism,Democracy,Follow Up,Society,Presidential elections 2011,Politics,Media,National,Health,Mubarak,Mideast,Middle East

IOL Needs You

There has been a dangerous and alarming update in the IOL Saga : Sheikh Qaradawi has been sacked by Qatar from IOL . The minister of social affairs in Qatar has ordered the disband of the Al-Balag board of directors which was headed by Qaradawi . The minister has appointed a new temp board of directors which Qaradawi has no place in especially all his rivals are members there. A very strange and surprising move from Qatar , the same official Qatar Qaradawi has avoided in the IOL crisis.

It is a shock because this week there was this hope that Qaradawi would save day , after all he returned back defending the rights of the journalists and editors and taking important decisions to save this very important website. Already his Qatari rivals took advantage of his surgery in Saudi Arabia so they could take over the international website. Yet today , tonight actually we found this surprising news which can indicate that the good years of Qaradawi are over and he may return back to Cairo for good.

Some people believe that the reasons behind this hijacking are political ones : Israel wants Qatar to stop the website from covering what is going on the occupied territories especially in Jerusalem and some are speaking about the rivalry between Cairo and Doha !!

Other people believe that the reasons all this are merely religious : Salafi Vs. moderate Muslims , America Vs. the Websites that caused thousands to convert to Islam !!

I think all these reasons above are not all wrong nor they are all right , there is no smoke without fire still I think the decision to sack off Qaradawi came from above in Doha for certain I can’t fully understand because the Doha leadership is claiming that it is the new center of moderate Islam.

Now it is not about Qaradawi , it is about the editors and journalists who believed in the message they wanted to delivered and they actually managed too perfectly despite all the hardships they have met. The strike is still on and you can follow it on air second by second. The sit on continues and the invitation is on for all those who believe in those cause of these wonderful men and women who really believe in their job.

Tomorrow insh Allah a group of activists and journalists are going to participate in the sit in at the IOL service center, you can go there whether you are an activist or journalist or even a simple person.

I am a blogger and I support IOL

Here is the address :

IOL Service center , West of Somaid Land piece 7

6th of October City , 6th of October Governorate.

Also here is the telephone no. : +2(02)3827-4200

Join the strike or at least watch it on air from time to time and spread the word about it in the forums and facebook

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Qaradawi,IOL,Islam Online,Muslims,Qatar,Freedom of expression,Regional,Politics,Israel,Palestine,America,Strike,Sit in

You Said The Same Shit Before Amora !!

I can’t stop remembering that this is Amr Adeeb who attacked Qatar, Algeria and the Palestinians vulgarly from a year ago !!!?? With my all respect Adeeb used to repeat the same shit Ezz said from three days in the Parliament from couple of years ago !!??
Amr Adeeb is just a vent used by the regime to calm down the people’s anger , it is very old technique and has been used over and over , the regime does something bad and then someone like Adeeb will come and scream to absorb people’s anger and disgust.
We need really an Egyptian Jon Stewart and his Daily Show team to expose the amount of contradictions and hypocrisy in our media

Technorati Tags: Amr Adeeb,Media,TV,Orbit,News,National,Palestine,Israel,Ahmed Ezz,Egyptian Parilament,Citizen Journalism,Mideast,Middle East,Algeria,Qatar,Al Quds,Gaza

Egypt Electionnaire Anyone !?

Thanks to this alarming and interesting comment , I was introduced to the inspiring website “Sudan Electionnaire“. Aside of the results I am really impressed , yes there are foreign parties involved in this very important election the Sudan will have and Egypt will be affected with.

I think we need such website if we want to change our constitution and discuss the electoral programs of candidates whether independent or partisan candidates. It is very simple indicator to know what the people real want and  how much the constitution reflects their needs and also their duties.

I believe the National front for Change should set up a similar website considering the fact that many sectors in the country believe that we need a real constitution made for the people and not for the ruler. This website educates the people in a very simple way.

BY the way did you sign the national front for change’s statement !!??

Regarding the Sudan elections , well it is not the only challenge we are facing back in Cairo , this is just the tip of the ice-berg and the only I can say judging from what is going on for real is that I hope General Omar Soliman has made plans for the worse case scenario , we need plan B . The Sudanese file is among the files General Soliman is responsible for.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Comments,Sudan,Sudan Electionnaire,Politics,National,National security,democracy,Geek,Web2.0.Middle East,Africa,Elections

Double Bill: Al Masry Al Youm Special Talk With Mohamed ElBaradei “First Part” And Austrian De Presse ElBaradei Interview

At last Al Masry Al Youm managed to interviewed Mohamed ElBaradei , of course it is after Al-Dostor. This time the interview covers aspects that were not covered in his previous interviews in the Media.He speaks about his father and his struggle against Nasser and Sadat regime , he speaks about his childhood and how he sees himself as Taha of The Days

You can watch the first part of the interview below right from the Oven :) You can read its script here.

Sleazy Jihad

Infamous NDPian and Political sciences Jihad Ouda was quoted from a couple of weeks ago that Mohamed ElBaradei will not be so far from legal accountability in Egypt if he violates any law regardless of his international status aka he can go to jail. He said this on Dream TV 2's 10 PM
This statement was considered as a indirect threat from the regime on how far it may go.
Some people believed that Ouda was provoked and irritated by Abdel Rahman Youssef , the coordinator of ElBaradei campaign to the level of showing the true ugly NDP face.
Well it turned out that Ouda was not bluffing more than he was just preparing us for the new NGO law prepared by the ministry of Social solidarity !! According the new draft of the NGO law ElBaradei and the national front for change members can be imprisoned !!
Please read and spread the Nadeem link.
It seems that the battle is really on. I expect more of similar laws before the elections

Breaking News : Farida Mubarak , This is True

This time it is not Youm 7, it is the News Sector of the National TV

Baby Queen Farida
of Egypt 

Khadija Al-Gamal Mubarak has delivered a baby girl this morning in Germany in Heidelberg :D “Just like I had predicted from a couple of weeks ago it turned into being a girl”.

She has been named “Farida”, Farida Gamal Mohamed Hosni Mubarak aka Farida  Mubarak.

Congratulations to her parents and grandparents especially the Gamals. 

In Egypt, many people believe that babygirls bring fortune to the family and maybe this little princess will be either the first daughter or the granddaughter of the former president. I hope all the happiness and health for the baby girl, I hope that she will not have to pay for her family’s mistakes. 

I hope that she will be regarded as a little princess not because she is the granddaughter of Mubarak but rather because all girls are princess

High Dam Special : Celebrating World Water Day in Aswan High Dam Style

The World celebrated yesterday the World Water Day in time where many people in the world can’t find a single clean drop of water.

This year Egypt is celebrating the jubilee of inauguration of the Aswan high dam construction and one of the high dam’s great pros is providing a constant water source for Egypt which unfortunately is being misused by the Egyptian regime in the last 30 year. Only now the Egyptian regime started to understand the challenge it faces , still despite its diplomatic efforts to save Egypt’s share from the Nile , it has not preserved the Nile inside Egypt nor the rights of the Egyptian people in the Nile. Up till now there are areas with no clean water access , in fact there are areas with no water access thanks to the corruption in the country. In summer Egyptian villages in Delta suffer from water shortages because all water sources are allocated to the rich summer resorts in North Coast. From time to time we read about people getting diseases from the kind of kidney failure  because of polluted water and also poor old infrastructure. Of course we should not forget that the Nile itself is being abused by the industrial wastes too !! God gave us a gift from Nile and not only the regime but also the people are abusing it by our silence and sometimes our participation in the crimes against the Nile.

This photo below was included in the Big Photo blog and it made so happy , it is for section of lake Nasser from NASA , yes a section you can imagine how big lake Nasser is.

I hope that we all stop wasting water which one day will become more valuable than oil and gold.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Water,Nile,Environment,international,nature,Lake Nasser,photos,Aswan High Dam,Middle East,Mideast

Egyptian Poll : Will You Sign The Statement !!??

Last post has inspired to hold a new poll in Egyptian Chronicles,it has been awhile since the last time I held a poll.

The poll is just like the post asking a simple question to my dear Egyptian readers :

Will you sign the national front statement !!??

The answers I wrote down from which you have to choose from are all the possible answers I can find , if you have any other answer please be my guest and I share it with me in comments or through the contact page.

Ah and I forget to announce that I have added a new pages for polls

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Democracy,Follow Up,National,Politics,Polls,Presidential elections 2011,Letter from Editor,Mohamed ElBaradei,News

Will You Join these people and Sign The Statement !!??

Will you sign the proxy/petition/statement to end the emergency status and amend the constitution for real in order to have a real democratic life for the sake of your children and their lives ??
Only about 12,000 have signed so far accordingly including a huge group of politicians, intellectuals and ordinary citizens above them Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei.
Will You join these 12,000 whom are increasing day after day !!?? 
All those people have signed the statement

Mark Your Calendar For The Next April The 6th ,2010

Hamdi Qandeel is calling all Egyptians to a sit in in front of the Egyptian parliament next April 6, 2010 at 12 PM Cairo Local time so mark your calendars. 

This time people have to be there , we do not need parties or movement but we need people. It was the people who made the 6th of April a significant day in our modern history from two years ago and it will be the people who will bring change. by the way I found here a semi-official page for this man.

Side Note : I hope that Hamdi Qandeel thinks about opening his own channel on Youtube,I know that he is from the old school but this is much better channel to reach for masses instead of the TV channels that fear the wrath of the Egyptian regime if they host his TV shows.

Technorati Tags: Hamdi Qandeel,Politics,Democracy,Egypt,Follow Up,Video,Media,Egyptians,National,Presidential elections 2011,Mideast,Middle East,6th of April strike,Change,YouTube

Breaking News : ElBaradei Is Back In Cairo

Dr. ElBaradei is back again in Cairo , he has just arrived from few hours to Cairo airport along with his Wife Aida where they were received by family members. Very few knew about his arrival as he did not give a definite date. I respect ElBaradei because he understood that it would be inappropriate to have a huge public reception like the first one last month where Mubarak is sick.

Speaking of Mubarak , well official sources are speaking that he will return back to Egypt by the weekend and that he gave his orders to ban all public receptions which the NDP was preparing to show that his popularity is more than ElBaradei. The official sources also revealed that Mubarak’s daily schedule will be modified till he fully recovers from the surgery !! This means in other words : Less meetings, less interviews and less public appearances.

Welcome back to ElBaradei and I hope Mubarak returns safely to Cairo where he has a new chance to be remembered as the man who opened the door of democracy.

Now it is the real work time for ElBaradei and the question is : Will he continue till the end !!?? 

Technorati Tags: ElBaradei,Mohamed ElBaradei,Breaking News,Politics,Presidential elections 2011,Mubarak,National,Democracy,Middle East,Mideast

Happy Mother Day 2010

Happy mother day to all the wonderful moms in the whole universe. Happy mother day to all mothers in Egypt today

And now to the national anthem of Mother Day in Egypt “ Set El-Habayb” by Egyptian Syrian singer Fayza Ahmed. The music is by Mohamed Abdel Wahab and lyrics by the fantastic late Hussein El-Sayed.

Egyptain X-Files : Egypt´s greatest survivor

I found this very interesting and old news in the archives of Al Sharq Al Awsat

The Egyptian authorities set the mastermind behind Mubarak's assassination attempt at Sidi Barni free !! 

This news goes back to 2003 and as you can see it has nothing to do with the Addis Abba's assassination attempt in 1995 , it was another assassination plot inside Egypt near our borders with Libya before Addis Abba by two years we did not know about.
It turned out my dear reader that the Islamic group tried to assassinate Mubarak in 1993 by planting explosives at the Western coast high way which Mubarak usually takes when he goes to Libya. It seemed that the presidency announced that he would go to Libya during then and that was how the Islamic group reached to that devilish idea. Of course the security forces found about the plot and arrested those involved in it without our knowledge. 20 person were arrested and accused of planning to kill the President ; one had been acquitted by the court yet was not released except after a whole decade in 2003 where as 2 were executed and the rest have been in jail till now.
I do not understand why it had not been announced then , I can´t remember it nor anyone in my family. May be they did not want to announce it because during that time it would cause chaos and fear especially that it was during the hot terrorism years in Egypt or may be because they did not want to inspire anyone with a mad thought. Of course I understand now why the secret services secure any locations Mubarak is going to visit in Egypt in that infamous paranoid way.

Atef Sadky assassination attemp

Strangely at the same year I remember late Atef Sadky , our prime minister then survived a terrible assassination attempt where as several civilians did not survive the blast including a 15 years old student girl called Shaima. Also there were attempts to assassinate minister of interior then Hassen Al-Alfy and minister of information then Safwat Al Sharif. 1993 seemed to be one hell of  a year.
What amazes me is that it is not only us who do not know about this assassination attempt , it seemed that it kept as a secret from the whole world , amazingly most international sources recognize the 1995 Addis Abba as the first assassination attempt except for the BBC that claims Mubarak survived at least 6 assassination attempts !!
Were there any assassination attempts we do not know about like Sidi Barny !!?? If we exclude Anwar Al-Sadat's assassination and the Port Said alleged assassination we will have two documented assassination attempts : The one in Sidi Barni and the other in Addis Abba !!
If there were other assassination attempts , why they were not announced !!?? Who planned them and why !?
Mubarak is indeed Egypt's greater survivor yet he can't escape death forever , no human can !!

Saad Zaghlol : The Leader And His Shadow

Al Jazeera documentary surprised us in Egypt by producing a documentary about Saad Zaghlol in the anniversary of the 1919 revolution from two weeks ago. The documentary is about the other Saad we do not know from the school books, it is about the human Saad tracing his journey from an elder son of a wealthy landlord who got huge social ambitions to a grown man who was battling a nasty addiction to an old man who found himself leading a nation in one of its critical moments in its modern history.

Saad Zaghlol unlike other politicians was keen to write his diaries not to profit from  but to heal himself from inside. Unlike other politicians you will be surprised by the amount of honesty in his diaries , of course these diaries were not to be published and were trusted to very few eyes in the old Al Wafd party. Till the death of Al-Nahas pasha in 1960s those diaries were kept away from the public then the state took these diaries keeping them at the national archives of Egypt which is from the greatest archives in the whole world , you can’t imagine the treasures there. Among these treasures are the Saad Zaghlol’s diaries where you can find Saad Pasha chronicling everything in his daily life whether his fights with his wife Safia or his wish of having son and marrying a young girl from the countryside or his gambling addiction that was killing him.

If you read the diaries or you watch the documentary ,you may feel that Zaghlol was not that great leader we always imagine , well my dear reader you forget that Zaghlol was a human after all with his own ups and downs. Unfortunately in Egypt we forget that our leaders are humans , we still idolize our leaders just like the ancient days where the pharaoh was the Gods’ son but here we got a fantastic example of a person who did not glorify himself and have this inner syndrome that I am great and flawless !! I believe God gives every person opportunities and Saad may not be the hero we believed in but he may be was that antihero who played a very important and great role by the end of his life.

Here is the video recorded from Al Jazeera documentary by the fantastic Tafatefo, I wish it had English subtitles. It has photos and clips from newsreels I have not seen before. It is sad thing that our National TV is not interested in producing similar documentaries about our leaders in order to educate the people , well may be this is the reason they do not produce a documentary about our leaders.

I think the documentary was short to cover Saad’s life in order to give the viewer more information about this man and also the general climate in Egypt during that important period. I also think that there were others who can speak more Saad and this period better than Rafaat El-Said and Salah Eissa like for instance Dr. Latifa Salem

You can download Saad Zaghlol’s diaries which were published on several parts here. 

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Democracy,Egyptians,history,Media,national,politics,video,Saad Zaglol,Saad Zaghlol,Mideast,Middle East,Documentaries,Al Jazeera,1919 revolution