Mosireen Presents Prayer of Fear

This is one of the latest productions by Mosireen Citizen journalism collective : Prayer of Fear. It is a must watch clip.

Prayer of Fear is a poem by writer Mahmoud Ezzat in Arabic. Its narrator is Mosireen member and activist Salma Said.

This poem recounts the feelings of many true January 25 revolutionaries and supporters. The fear and confusion they live in nowadays.

The video clip brings very sad memories for all the past clashes and massacres.

Despite that is being labeled as youth revolution , its youth are hunted by death and think about it day and night more than those elderly who do not want to give up their chairs and thrones or even to think that they are two steps away from the grave !!

In the past two years the true revolution youth went to the morgue and funerals as well protests to commemorate the fallen ones demanding some sort of what seemed to be impossible justice more than to plan and to build for the future of this country , of this nation.

This poem gives a little hint on how the true revolutionaries feel nowadays in Egypt and how they are waiting for a new hope.

#Sudan_Revolts : It is Martyrs Friday “Graphic”

It is Friday and people started to protest against El Bashir regime while facing his security forces and their weapons bravely as usual. This is the fourth day the Sudanese head to the street protesting not only now against the lift of subsidies but against the massacre that took place in the country.

There are lots of development going on in Sudan and I am afraid our sources of updates on the ground are Netizens.Luckily for us the internet has not been cut yet by the government. Some sources say that some foreign “Mainly Western” embassies expressed their concern on how the internet was cut from two ago. Ironically and sadly enough the government officials are claiming that the protesters were the ones who sabotaged the internet lines in the country !!

Here is a photo gallery for the protests

The Sheikhs and preachers in the mosques in Sudan today spoke about the bad saboteurs and their bad protests. In some areas especially in Omdurman the mosques have been closed. The shops and markets are closed once again. The protests are now in Omdurman , White Nile , Al Jazeera and Khartoum as well North Kordofan. Here is a UShahadi map with the protests in Sudan.

#SudanRevolts : Returning Back online , Returning Back to Streets #Abena

From two hours ago the internet is back to Sudan and with it news are pouring from there and they are not good. It seems that yesterday was a night of hell.

According to the photos , videos and testimonies of eye witnesses online Omdurman has witnessed a massacre. Officially the government is saying that 27 only were killed while activists and opposition movements say that over 130 protesters including women and children have been killed in the past 48 hours. Hundreds are transferred to hospitals every hour as far I could tell from the tweets and updates I read on Facebook. The director of Omdurman hospital was arrested after speaking to the media.

The tragedies continue and activists are reporting that the Omdurman morgue refuses to let the families to bury their relatives except when they sign papers that those relatives are thugs and criminals. In fact it is much worse to know that there are racism in it , light Skin Sudanese protesters are considered thieves while the dark skin Sudanese protesters are considered murderers in the eyes of the bloody El Bashir regime. 

The photos from Omdurman hospital gives you the impression that there was an actually massacre going on in the city. “Warning : Extremely graphic”

It was like a déjà vu of January 28 ,2011 in Egypt where the regime’s forces and security thugs unleashed a night of horror that ended at about 5 AM. Tweeps are reporting that protesters arrested security agents wearing civilian cloths trying to break an ATM. The people there are also saying that those security agents aka thugs go and set fires at the fuel stations.

#SudanRevolts : The Sudanese are doing it again “Graphic”

I am already taking some time off away from the blog and social media altogether yet I am forced to return back with all the developments taking place right now in Sudan.
For two days now protests are rocking the Sudanese cities especially in Khartoum and its surrounding suburbs. Protesters set the headquarters of the ruling party “NCP” on fire as well some police stations and checkpoints after they were attacked by security forces that did not hesitate in live ammunition.

Late Hazaa

As usual the peaceful angry protests are met with violent crack down. The latest numbers we got at 21 have been killed and hundreds have bee injured. The fatalities are caused by live ammunition fired by security forces. Updated : Numbers are jumping as eye witnesses are telling Girifana that Omdurman hospital’s morgue got at least 30 bodies while another witness told the famous political group that he saw 17 dead bodies at a police station in the area.
Not less than 1500 protesters have been arrested in the protests in the past 48 hours.
Updated @11:41 Cairo Local time :
 According to some estimation the death toll in Omdurman has become 73 at least. Some say even bigger numbers.
The students are playing role in this uprising especially in high schools and universities as far as I understand. One of the young student martyrs whose picture is shared online earlier was Hazaa Jafaar who was killed yesterday. Today the Sudanese security forces attacked his funeral by tear gas grenades." I have seen this before in Egypt , same tactics and same moves”
The protests erupted after the government’s decision to raise the fuel prices by 75%.

#BanMiltrials : The Battle is on

This is one of the main challenges we are currently having when it comes to the Constitution 2012 amendments and God knows it is not a challenge more than it is a battle.

This battle, this challenge is the military trials for civilians. You see according to the Constitution 2012 vague article 198 civilians can stand military trials.
Here is what article 198 says “Translated to English by Dr. Nivien Salah”

The military judiciary is an independent branch of the judiciary. It alone decides on all crimes related to the armed forces, their officers, and personnel.
Civilians may not be tried by the military judiciary unless they are accused of crimes that hurt the armed forces. The law specifies these crimes as well as other competencies of the military judiciary.
Members of the military judiciary are independent. They cannot be dismissed, and they have the guarantees, rights, and duties that attach to all members of the judiciary.

According to Constitutional law expert Gaber Nassar who is also the head of Cairo University and a member in the Constitution committee this is a vague article.
Nassar gave a brief history of the military trials in Egypt as well in a series of tweets on Friday. They are extremely important.

Saving_history :It is sold now on #eBay

A screen shot from there

Professor Azza Sedky published on her blog a shocking post on how our ancient Egyptian artifacts are being sold on eBay now , oh yes on eBay !!
With quick search on eBay , you will find more than 1,000 artifacts for sale. Some of these artifacts are being listed by companies like Art Ancient LTD. Art Ancient LTD is a British company that works online in trading ancient artifacts from around the globe. It guarantees the legality of the artifacts it trades.
There are also items listed by ancient-artefacts.com that directs you to Antiquities.co.uk.
If I am not mistaken trading in Egyptian artifacts officially had been banned in Egypt since the second half of the 19th century.
I wrote before on how our ancient Egyptian heritage is being sold in international auctions. I will not deny that Egypt stopped some auctions in the past, but now it is getting ridiculous .. eBay for God sake !! What next we found our ancient Egyptian artifacts being sold on Craigslist !!
Already now the lazy ministry of antiquities began to act against some auction in Jerusalem showing some of the artifacts from different ancient eras.

Sami Anan and Presidency :Let the games start

Al-Watan newspaper claimed that Former Chief of Staff and deputy commander of SCAF Sami Anan announced today that he was going to run for president in Egypt.
The news was published in the newspaper’s Friday evening.
According to Al Watan, General Anan announced this during some public conference in North Coast attended allegedly by thousands of Matrouh’s tribesmen.
It is quite interesting because Matrouh is considered an Islamist voting bloc, a Salafist voting bloc to be accurate.

Sami Anan in his villa 

Hours later Al Masry Al Youm claimed that it spoke to the general and he denied that he intended to run for the presidential post!!
He did not explain the reason behind that meeting though.
When I made a quick search online, I found interesting news like for instance how in several shady news websites on how his support campaign claims that he was the main financier of Tamaroud campaign and how he reconciled with the so-called revolutionary youth.
I do not understand what is exactly happening considering the fact that Al-Watan is too close to what is being referred to the Deep State of Egypt.

Let’s be clear that Anan is not popular anymore. He is not popular among the revolutionaries who cannot forget what happened during SCAF’s rule and he is not popular among the pro-military or the NDP supporters who used to support in the past because they believe that he supported the Muslim Brotherhood.

He is also believed by that conspiracy theory group that he cut his visit to the States in January 2011 only to implement the US plan to destroy Egypt ….etc.
It is worth to mention that this news comes at the same time that there are several campaigns in Egypt calling General Abdel Fatah El-Sisi to run for presidential elections. It is also worth to mention that most of those campaigns if not of all them are run by NDPians, Omar Suleiman supporters and Pro-military’s figures.

Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, the new idol of the public in Egypt has not declared yet whether he will run for the presidency or not.
So yes we got two possible presidential hopefuls: Sami Anan and Abdel Fatah El Sisi.

#NU : Talk to me about the State of law

Next week study will start in all Egyptian universities except one university : Nile University.
Yes Nile University whose students fought for two years to restore their university and yet they could not to get back whether during SCAF’s rule or during Morsi administration.
Nile University already got two court rulings last April 2013 from the High administrative court to reallocate the land and buildings allocated to Zowail City of science and technology to NU and to consider NU as National university.
Needless to say this court rule to reallocate the land and the building to NU was totally ignored and instead ousted President Morsi issued a decree with a law to found the Zowail city. Again the State continued to defy the court ruling like in the days of Mubarak.
Now Morsi and his administration are gone , things have not changed so much. NU has not restored its land or its buildings.
Minister of higher education Hossam Eissa promised to solve the problem of Nile University and said that he respected the court ruling giving back the buildings and land to the NU. He presented suggestions but Zowail and his university totally refused.
Anyhow earlier this week we found out that the CSF and army are protecting and guarding the Zowail city of science in first day of school standing against the NU students and their families who came to protest how court ruling are being defied. 

Army unit protect ZCS "Eslam Farouk"

Another Sad Tragedy in a series of tragedies

From the boat

I am sorry but I can not find any other suitable title to describe what the Syrian refugees suffer from in Egypt now.The Syrian refugees are now trying to flee Egypt even it is going to cost them not only their lives but also their freedom. It is sad as Egypt was among the safe places for them. 
Today another group of Syrian and Palestinian refugees were arrested during a fail attempt to emigrate illegally from Egypt to Italy in one of a ship from Alexandria. It is not the first but today things went from bad to worse. The coastal guards opened their fire on one of those illegal emigration killing two of the refugees “30 years old and 50 years old” in the boat and injuring other refugees including a lady.
The rest of the refugees “about 100” were detained in inhuman conditions at the Monatzah 2nd police station. By the way another group of refugees “about 70” were arrested also today while they were at one of the cafes near the port.
I know what those refugees do from legal perspective totally illegal , totally wrong. They did a huge mistake and they will be deported eventually but instead of Italy, they will have other choices like Turkey, Jordan or even Syria.
I know they did a huge mistake against law , still my dear follow Egyptians we have been committing sins since last July against those Syrian guests who found in Egypt  some safety heaven they did not find in any other place. These people were trying to escape from our country even if it would cost their lives for God sake !!

Regarding the Military’s loyalty Oath

I do not think that it is too late to discuss this matter that made controversy and headlines all over the world.
Interim President Adly Mansour issued a presidential decree late last August to remove a very interesting part from the armed forces’ oath of loyalty.
That part concerning the allegiance to the President of republic does not exist anymore. That part was “to be loyal to the president of the republic.”
I was surprised when I had heard the news. Of course all the world consider that move was another example on how the Egyptian armed forces will not obey any civilian president enforcing the military state and political power in Egypt.
Still no one had paid attention to the  history of the armed forces’ oath of loyalty  before.
It turned out that the original military loyalty oath had not had this part before ousted Hosni Mubarak. Yes it turned out that Mubarak added this phrase to the loyalty oath. Some say that Mubarak added to the oath after getting rid from his rival defense minister Abu Ghazla.
As you may know Abdel Halim Abu Ghazla was popular not only among the army but also by the public and Mubarak got rid of him in a big for fear that he would lead a coup against him. “Of course some say that Program T was behind his dismissal”
The oath continued after the 25 January 2011 revolution and of course Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi would not think to change it.

And #ElBaradei has become the enemy of #Jan25 and #June30

Here is Ahram Arabi magazine’s cover for this week.
The magazine publishes the blacklists of the 25 January revolution and 30 June revolution enemies and members of the fifth column. The cover includes a group of photos for public figures; some of them are Muslim brotherhood supporters and some of them are not Muslim brotherhood supporters but rather democracy supporters.

Among the photos and the names featured in that blacklist : Mohamed ElBaradei “yeah ElBaradei is from the enemies of the revolution !!” , Amr Hamzawy , columnist Balel Fadl and singer Hamza Namira !!

#Saving_History : Destroying our History by our hands

When the tragedy of Mallawi museum took place last August , some people blamed foreign parties and enemies of standing behind the looting and destruction that took place in the Upper Egyptian museum just like what happened in Iraq.
Unlike Iraq , I believe we do not need foreign enemies and parties because so far I am afraid to say we are own worst enemy when it come to how we destroy our history and heritage.
After all the looting happened to the ancient Egyptian archaeological sites and the attack against old Christian churches and monasteries , we continue our attack on the Islamic heritage of Egypt.
From couple of weeks ago I was surprised and shocked like many “I Believe” to know that part of the 17th century Youssef Agha mosque was turned in to a Shoes shop o!! Oh yes a Shoes shop !!

Shoes shop in 17th century mosque !!

First of all I will be lying to say that I even knew that this beautiful mosque existed in Egypt. It is in old Cairo and it was built by a Mamluk Amir Youssef Agha Al-Hinn in 1625. It was a mosque and a school. This beautiful mosque is besides the Islamic museum and the Cairo security directorate.

The Mosque before the shop "Mohamed Msobeih"

#9/11 : What We Fail To learn as usual from history

Today is the anniversary of the 9/11 attack that changed the World upside down. Of course I can not get over this anniversary when we are having the infamous “War against in terrorism” in Egypt. Unfortunately we refuse to learn from other people’s experiences nor to learn from history .. even our own history.

These points below I believe we should know in Egypt especially now , they are lessons learned in a hard way from 9/11 and what followed it.

• Force will not beat terrorism and the evidence is in front of us , almost after 12 years of the 9/11 attacks and before it the World Trade center attack , the terrorists are not defeated !! In fact why we take an example from the U.S when we have our own experience with the bitter terrorism in the 1990s which I still remember very well. Using force and police state techniques did not stop radical thinking and terrorists.
• Terrorism based on ideology can not be defeated only by force but I will dare to say that you need counter ideologies more than force to fight the radicalism in ideologies that lead to terrorism.
• Fighting terrorism for real should start by admitting the root problems causing it from social, economic , cultural and above all political problems and try to solve it in order to prevent any radicalism in the future.
• Discrimination against others will not stop terrorism , in fact it may breed a new class of radicals who may resort to terrorism to make that society that rejected them suffer.
• History proved that “War of terrorism” was used by the Bush administration for certain political, economic and military gains that used fighting terrorism for a cover and the Iraq invasion is a good example.
• Shutting down media and forcing journalists to shut up in these times of so-called War of terrorism mean that there is something wrong and you do not want the public to know it.
• Do turn monster while fighting monsters. There are human rights according to religion and laws that should not be broken under any circumstances.
• McCarthyism always fails in the end

BY the way this year marks the 40th anniversary of Chile’s infamous coup supported by the CIA. I look to what happened in Chile and I know that there are many lessons should be learnt :

• The West has no problem with military tyrannies as long they serve their political and economic interests.
• Justice will prevail in the end in a way or another.
• Killing and torturing thousands can not be justified under any circumstances.

I am creating fighting terrible fall flu so I am not in mood for long posts to explain each point.

In the end I will quote what Ben Franklin once said :

Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Happy New Egyptian Year

Happy New Egyptian Year to all the readers of Egyptian Chronicles.

Today is the start of the new year 6255 according to the ancient Egyptian calendar and the new year 1730 according to the Coptic calendar.

Today is the start of Thout. 

Hopefully this year will be better than last year .. hopefully insh Allah 
 

And This is Why #Egypt Needs A Real Revolution

The world economic forum issued its annual Global Competitiveness index for year 2013 –2014 . Read it and you will know how Egypt needs a real revolution in every aspect in order to survive this ongoing world race.

First here is the ranking of the Middle East countries arranged  “as well other countries I found interesting in the report” as they appear in the report.

Country	Rank “Out of 148”	Score “1-7”	Rank among “2012-2013” economies	GCI “2012-2013”
Qatar	13	5.24	13	11
UAE	19	5.11	19	24
KSA	20	5.10	20	18
Israel	27	4.94	27	26
Oman	33	4.64	33	32
Kuwait	36	4.56	36	37
Bahrain	43	4.45	43	35
Turkey	44	4.45	44	43
Jordan	68	4.20	68	64
Iran	82	4.07	81	66
Tunisia	83	4.06	n/a	n/a
Algeria	100	3.79	98	110
Lebanon	103	3.77	101	91
Libya	108	3.73	106	113
Egypt	118	3.63	115	107
Mauritania	141	3.19	137	134
Yemen	145	2.98	140	140
Chad	148	2.85	143	139

Here is an info graph for the top ten Arab countries in the report. Of course all of them are rich oil gulf states.

Click in to zoom in "World economic forum"

Nevertheless you will find Israel after Qatar, UAE and KSA in the ranking when it has no oil.

The Sad end for the #SpyStork

I do not know if it is fate or what, but it seems that the story of Menes in the land of the Nile is extremely sad story.
After it was accused of espionage and spent a day in Egyptian detention , he was released in to a protectorate to fly free only to meet its end !! He was hunted down and eaten by an Egyptian Nubian family in the south !!!

First They Came For The … "Updated"

Do you remember when I told you that there were not so good news on Thursday other than the bomb targeting the minister of interior and the arrest of Sinai journalist Ahmed Abu Daraa ??
Well the other bad news is the arrest of leading Revolutionary Socialists member and labour rights lawyer Haitham Mohamadein on Thursday afternoon in Suez. According to tweep Gharib , he was forced to leave the bus he was taking at a police checkpoint because he is a bearded man at first.

Mohamadein in a public meeting for Revolutionary socialists

After inspection , he was detained because they found with him so-called political pamphlets aka “The Socialist” Newspaper !! It is worth to mention that according to law , lawyers can not be inspected except by a permission from the prosecution.
Mohamadein was in Suez in order to solve some labor problem in some steel factory. Later the lawyers and activists in Suez said that Mohamadein was being accused of belonging to a secret organization aka the Revolutionary Socialists.
Today Haitham Mohameden was interrogated by a district attorney in Suez who revealed to Mohamadein and his  lawyers that the socialist lawyer was being interrogated by a state security court !!!!!! Yes it seems that Mohamadein is facing a state security trial !!
Lawyer Ramy Ghanem was tweeting from there.

#Sinai : Abu Draa is not a terrorist

Yesterday we had other alarming news that should you make wonder where Egypt is heading to and here I am not speaking about the terrorist attack against the minister of interior , I am speaking about another news.
Sinai based and international award wining journalist Ahmed Abu Draa has turned to be arrested by the army since last Wednesday and will be referred to a military trial.
 People found out the shocking truth when the photo of Abu Draa was published in Al Youm News website among other detainees labeled as a terrorist !! He is the man wearing white shirt and Jeans.

Like a criminal , Abu Draa stood in white shirt and jeans

Ironically Youm 7 had published from couple months a report with a picture for Ahmed Abu Draa after receiving a Samir Kassir Journalism Award for 2013 for his report about human trafficking in Sinai.

#Sinai : Save the #Dahab Coral Reef

This is a must watch video report by Ahram Online's Mayada Wadnomiry about the efforts of Egyptian divers in Egypt to save the coral reef in the red sea starting with Dahab. Despite it is a short clip yet it is very informative.The video is in English.

I fully support the suggestion to stop diving for one month in each diving location.
Here is the Facebook page of the iDive Tribe.
I believe we need to make noise about the initiative.
By the way,those small initiatives and those small groups trying to make a change on the ground even if it is a small change give me huge promise in that depressing time in Egypt. Big things always have small beginnings.
I know that some will say that it is not the prefect time when we got a war on terrorism in Sinai , well I will say when we will have the prefect time to save our environment then !! There is always time

Bomb explodes in #Cairo , back to the old 1990s day

An explosion has rocked Nasr City district earlier today. It turned out according to eye witnesses that it was an explosion at the minister of interior's house targetting his convey. The minister survived the attack that rocked the area but 8 people including a child were injured according to ambulance authorities. Some sources say that 5 officers were injured in the blast.

A photo for the explosion earlier from twitter

A photo from the site by Ahmed Soliman

A photo from Ahmed Soliman

Up till now the reason of the blast is unconfirmed as the Nile TV said that a bomb was thrown from a building while the convey was passing by and eye witnesses are speaking about explosive devices in a car. 

The Stork is Free !! Our #Spybird

Ok this is a follow up for the Spy Stork story. It turned out that the Hungarian Stork is called Menes and it has become the most famous stork in the history of modern Egypt. After all how many storks are detained for espionage and how many storks got visits from animal rights groups in detention while detained humans are denied from this right !!??
Menes is released and is moved Salugah & Ghazal Protected Area, near Aswan.
Here is the free bird.

:)

The 50 members Committee : Who is Who

I am getting tired from these Who is Who posts I am doing over and over nowadays !! Here is the list and Who is Who of the 50 members committee that is assigned by the presidency to revise the amendments of constitution 2012.
The constitution amendments were presented to the presidency last week by the 10 members committee made of Constitutional law experts. The 50 members committee should represent the society through a specific quota announced last month by the presidency.

Here is the list of names:

Free Stork Now !! It is not a #Spy duck !!

Of course this news made headlines around the globe  yesterday : Egyptian authorities in Qena governorate arrest a duck with a spying device !! 
Updated : The stork is going to be released tomorrow and it will return back to its home in Hungary.  
 Well it turns out that it is not a duck but rather a stork and it is not a spying device but rather a satellite tracking device. The poor stork is still in the custody of Egyptian authorities.

The sad , beautiful and detained stork

That bird , that stork got a profile online by the way and here is its track as well.
The Nature Conservation Egypt issued an important statement  about that spy stork in Arabic and English. Please spread it.