Friday, July 8, 2011

Revolution First : Back to Tahrir "Updated"

Ok back to Tahrir square and other squares in Egypt. There is few cars in the street today in Cairo. Kasr Al Nil bridge is parking lot
Scene at Tahrir thousands and thousands despite the extreme hot weather.
After Friday prayer the protesters held a martyr prayer dedicated to the people of Syria,Yemen and Libya
Not less than 4 stages are there
This is bigger than May 27th
Salafyo costa and the coalition of Salafists youth are there
The sit in tents are at the gardens in front of the AUC. People are resting there from heat.
The Muslim brotherhood is there with banner calling for justice.
The Middle class is there.
It is crowded , people from all ages and background here. I saw men and ladies as old as my grandma attending the protest along babies who came with their families.
Ramy Essam chants new songs criticizing SCAF in one stage "The liberal stage" while on another stage "The Islamist" famous constitutional jurist Tharwat Badawy was saying the States and Israel the main enemies working against the revolution. There are not less than 5 stages in Tahrir square. As I said there was liberal one , Islamist one , the one in front of Hardees , the Wafd party stage "first time to participate at Tahrir in this way as far as I could tell" and besides them ironically is the Nasserist parties stage !!
I noticed that the Islamists Stage or the Muslim brotherhood stage was less critical to the SCAF from the time I spent watching it unlike for instance the Hardees stage or the liberal stage.
I did not see anyone being forced to leave the stage despite I heard and read that some Muslim brotherhood member and Youth revolution coalition member Ziad El-Alimy were forced to leave the stage at some point. I am sure about that.
I saw potential presidential candidates Abdullah El-Ashal and Mohamed Salim El Awa at the square while potential presidential candidate Bothina Kamel announced that she would start an open sit in at the square. Presidential candidate Amr Moussa attended the Friday prayer at Omar Markam and stayed for a little time at Tahrir square before leave. Potential presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabhi and Hisham El Bastawisi participated in the protest at Alexandria.
These are our demands if anyone was asking.
Potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei did not participate in the protest despite he supported it because he did not to know this to be interpreted in the wrong way yet he will speak on CNN about it shortly.
There were parties and group distributing surveys , applications and flyers , here is one of the surveys asking the people to evaluate the performance of the SCAF. I had a copy from that survey.
From Mohamed El-Garhey 
The Muslim brotherhood announced that they would leave at 6 PM and indeed they did along the Salafists from what I saw. They began to pack by 5 PM where the sisters started to leave first. There is no doubt that the Muslim brotherhood made sure to show their presence with their banners and even their caps.
There were political dialogues all over the place between complete strangers who were only few minutes at Tahrir square.
I visited the field hospital and according to the doctors there most people came there complaining from low blood pressure because of the heat. Based on the ministry of health not less 170 were sick because of heat.
The hospital needs this supply ya people : 
  • Blood pressure meters
  • Stethoscopes
  • Alcohol 
  • Glucose meters 
  • Diclofen pills
  • Braddoral pills 
  • Epicotil pills 
The martyrs were there with their families who spoke to the protesters about the agony they have been living in all those 5 months.
The street vendors were there as well selling cold beverages ,t-shirts and cheap souvenirs as it is a golden opportunity for them. Despite the fear from what would result from today "thanks to the mainstream media" , I believe McDonalds , Pizza Hut and Cilantro had their best days today.
I saw reformist judge Khodairy at Cilantro but  I could not approach him because both of us were tired but I managed to speak with the amazing Hala Fahmy , the reformist TV hostess from the national Egyptian TV. Hala Fahmi was roaming the square with a big banner rejecting Osama Heikal as minister of information and the ministry of information altogether.
Ironically she was standing in front of the ERTV van which everybody attacked and refused to speak with its crew. One lady told me that she refused to speak with that TV crew after knowing that it was the national Egyptian TV.
The Egyptian TV was not the only TV unwanted in the square , CBC was reportedly kicked out of the square and they had to film from that big building over the square , same thing happened to Al Hayat channel. I have heard that Al Jazeera correspondent in Alexandria was kicked out of the protest still I am not sure.
Al Nahar TV channel showed a footage for two thugs arrested with knives at Tahrir square and detained. It is worth to mention that the security check points are extremely organized.
I met today Loai Nagati and his spirit was high and great.Yesterday Loai was released because of health reasons still the case is on. Last night he appeared on ONTV and he criticized field Marshal Tantawy like no other on TV to the level of freaking out Reem Maged :) I met Loai with wonderful tweeps/bloggers/activists Reem Awad , Salma Talaat and Mohamed Sobhy as well.
The protest was not in Cairo or Alexandria or Suez but reportedly in not less than 21 governorates. The protesters in Alexandria started to have their sit in at Saad Zaglol square. There were reportedly protests in Upper Egypt for the first time since February 11th , same thing in Sharkia and Tanta which witnessed a big protest as well. There were protests even in Sharm El Sheikh as well as Aswan.
There were protests at Bani Sawif , they were bit violent because some people broke in to a police station there to free some detainees.
The Suez sit in gave a warning to SCAF that if their demands are not to be met "concerning the rights of the martyrs" , there will be a civil disobedience in the city tomorrow. You must bear in mind we are speaking about the workers of the Suez canal authority affiliated companies who are currently on strike.There is a sit in in Alexandria , Mansoura, Damietta , Ismailia and Tanta as far as I know
The Youth now at Tahrir are currently having their sit in , there are thousands there since last night. They cleaned the square.
Here is a video from Sharm El Sheikh in South Sinai where protesters stood outside Sharm El Sheikh hospital and attacked its most famous patient former/ousted President Mubarak. The people of Sinai do not want him there already.
Here are photos from Al Arbin square from short while ago at Suez Online.com 

10 comments:

  1. so much for unity, every group had their own banner and stage. Didn't remind me of the revolution Tahrir but more of soq el Saida Aisha.
    Hopefully the other cities are doing better.

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  2. What was this for again?

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  3. Proud of Tahrir 8th of July unity of the people I wish SCARF realize the importance of the demands of the people and starts taking them seriousely,i heard PM E.Sharaf doesn't have full authority to act for the good of the country's priorities it seems he wanted to resign and was forbidden.We are lacking communication eventhought we have proven that we are not as stupid as they thought!
    We know it is a transitory period but nevertheless do not underestimate the power of Good when there is a will there is a way!

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  4. Much better than apathy which in the end accomplishes nothing. This is the way it should be. All the groups, with their own priorities and demands expressing them without violence or force. Even in the West this can be difficult to achieve.

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  5. This is off-topic but important, and Zeinobia in spite of her thoroughness could miss it since it's not a local story. It is an important global story, however, and one that turns out to involve Egypt.

    It concerns the recent dozens of deaths and thousands of sick by hemolytic uremic syndrome caused by E. coli O104. The first cases were in Germany.

    The outbreak has been linked to one fifteen-ton shipment of Egyptian-grown fenugreek seeds, sent from Damietta to Antwerp on November 24, 2009.

    What happened of course is that the Egyptians mixed the fenugreek with cattle feces, either inadvertently through improper use as a fertilizer; or intentionally, befouling a shipment destined for the West.

    Recently on this blog I exchanged views with a commenter concerning Egypt's agricultural industry. He said "We produce enough legumes, veggies, pulses and fruit and even export more than 20% of agricultural produce, except of course for exotic fruits like kiwi which we have to import to keep the rich happy but by no means essential to the population. This year we will grow enough wheat to reduce import to 30% and by 2013 we will be able to produce 100% of our wheat consumption" yada yada yada.

    My dear sir. Egypt may soon have the pleasure of keeping 100% of agricultural output for domestic consumption because, literally, no one wants to eat your shit. The international marketplace is unforgiving and has a long memory. Before mad-cow disease, Britain was a major exporter of beef. That industry was completely destroyed. It is no longer possible for Americans to buy English tinned steak-and-kidney pies, for example. All British beef is still embargoed in spite of BSE not being much of a problem for ten or fifteen years.

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  6. As far as,on the 23 july there will be, in all embassies,around the world, cocktails/parties for the "indipendence day", there is plenty of time, to organise PEACEFUL sit-in in front of them. The world must know what's going on. Do not think they know&understand! and what they know is not enough!It has to be spread, all around, at the same way it was in january. Egyptian youth need all the support of all the world.Please remain PEACEFUL and UNITED

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  7. Jason

    I have been reading yr comments on this blog for a long time now. I think you are either being paid to keep annoying Egyptian bloggers and if this is the case you suck at it. Or you are seriously in hate relation with Egypt and in this case you will eat yrself alive as we say in Arabic.

    Eitherway you have to start loving other people and wish them well in order for you to enjoy life and Live happily.

    Lose the hate Jason

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  8. Egyptian-in-USA (Egyptian Muslim Human) said...
    "Jason
    I have been reading yr comments on this blog for a long time now..."

    COOL STORY BRO BLAH BLAH BLAH. YOU ARE STUPID AND AN IDIOT, YOU ARE SO RIDICULOUS YOU ARE A SELF-PARODY. UNLIKE YOU MORONS I HAVE SOMETHING USEFUL TO DO WITH ME LIFE, I AM DEDICATING IT TO STALK ANOTHER RETARD LIKE MYSELF. NOW I HAVE TO GO BUILD A SHRINE FOR MOHAMED ELNASCHIE. SO LONG SUCKERS!!

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  9. Also,very important to support those in the other countries who are suffering for the same aspirations.

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  10. REVOLUTION FIRST?? WHAT ABOUT HALYEB UND SHALATEEN? IT'S BEEN OVER 5 MONTHS AND YOU ACHIEVED NOTHING!! YOUR 'REVOLUTION' IS GOING NOWHERE. REMEMBER THE RUSSIAN AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS?? HUH ? THEY REACHED THEIR GOALS IN LESS THAN A WEEK BUT YOU HAD OVER 5 MONTHS!!!! IT'S OVER FOR YOU EGYPTIANS, YOU HAVE NO FUTURE. BUT WE MUST WIN BACK HALYEB EVEN IF OUR COUNTRY IS BURIED IN AN ENDLESS WAR BECAUSE HALYEB MUST GAIN INDEPENDENCE AND DECLARE A SOVEREIGN STATE!

    OH AND I AM SO CULTURED I CAN SPEAK FRENCH TOO..LOOK AT ME LOOK, AT ME SPEAKING FRENCH
    NOTRE PAYS DEVIENT UN MENAGE A TROIS MAIS JE N'AIS PAS CONCERNES

    ReplyDelete

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