Notes of #30June Presidential Palace explosions "+18"

Today marks the first anniversary of 30 June mass protests that led to the ousting of President Morsi aka 30 June Revolution and today also 4 explosive devices shocked Heliopolis in the premises of no other than the Presidential palace.
2 explosive devices were defused and 2 explosive devices were detonated killing at least two police officers "from explosives department" and injuring not less than 7 officers.
Now there are certain remarks about that sad attack :

• Interestingly enough "Ajnad Misr" published a statement on Friday "27.6.2014" stating its responsibility on its official for the explosive bomb in Heliopolis court warning civilians that that they set up other explosive devices in other places including none other than  the premise of the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis. The militant group interestingly even highlighted the exact location of the bombs they planted nearby the Presidential Palace  in red bold font !! 

The statement 

• Here is the tweet : 

#أجناد_مصر تنبيه المارة بالأماكن الملغمة بعبوات ناسفة عند القصر الرئاسي بـ #الاتحادية بعد إلغاء تنفيذ عملية التفجير pic.twitter.com/SLI1Z8Qy5S
— أجناد مصر (@ajnad_misr_am) June 27, 2014

• Sorry they did not find them but rather the street sweepers who called the security forces !! 

#Ramadan Arabian Nights #2014: King Dandash’s tale-2

And tonight we continue our interesting tale ; the tale of King Dandash and that fake Sultan using his name.
Tonight's episode is the 344th episode from our radio nights' tale.
Here it is

A quick summary in English for tonight's episode :

Sultan Dandash and his vizier disguised as Dervishes stalked the fake Sultan's noisy merry boat till it reached a palace on the other bank. Reaching  that huge palace with guards , the fake dervishes insisted to go on and try to enter it. The poor boat's man refused to go on with them.
Busted by the guards , soon enough the fake dervishes found themselves in the middle of the fake Sultan's royal court. The true Sultan Dandash was amazed to see the fake Sultan had a more luxurious throne and more beautiful maids.
Claiming to be Dervishes , the two men were amazed to know that that night was the Sultan's so-called misfortune night. Dared to ask real Dandash asked the fake King if he were whom he claimed to be and why he had got a "a misfortune day", the fake king went mad and ordered his guards to be kicked out of the palace. 

#AJETrial : How it is seen in #Taiwan

Do you remember that Taiwanese YouTube Channel that explains every interesting news in the world through animation !?
Well they are back to explain to the Taiwanese people what is currently happening in Egypt , exactly what has happened to Al Jazeera English staff after the scandalous trial that made us the joke of the world.
Here is their video to explain to the Taiwanese people the Al Jazeera English staff's trial. Of course new elected president El-Sisi's image is not good at all.

Now speaking about Al Jazeera staff , Peter Greste's family set up an e-mail "Freepetergreste@gmail.com" for the people to send their solidarity emails to the award winning journalists ; those emails are going to be printed out and delivered to Peter in Tora prison as far as I understand.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights #2014: King Dandash’s tale-1

Ramadan Karim and welcome back to our annual tradition  in Ramadan : Listening to the Egyptian Radio’s Classical Arabic Nights.
This year’s tale is the tale of King Dandash.
Yup King Dandash , one must wonder how Taher Abu Fasha came with such names.
Tonight's episode was the 343rd episode in the Egyptian National radio's Arabian nights.

Now a quick summary for tonight’s episode
Poor Sultan Dandash is suffering from bad insomnia, the man can not sleep. In one night he decided to take his vizier and  to go around his realm while being disguised as a Dervishes . “A common theme in 1001”
During the Sultan and vizier’s tour , they found a noise coming from a boat in the river. So they asked a poor man in his boat about it and the poor man told them that that was the Sultan’s boat and Sultan Dandash was having one of his happy nights tours in the boat right now along with his Vizier.
Angry as well curious to know who dared to impersonate the king like that , Sultan Dandash and his vizier decided to follow that the fake king’s boat.
Tomorrow insh Allah we will continue the rest of our new tale for this year.
You can go back to Egyptian Chronicles’ archives of 1001 Arabian nights.

#KoftaGate : Showtime after another 6 months

And the Engineering authority of the armed forces held today its international news conference to declare the results of its breakthrough medical inventions to diagnose and treat HCV and HIV commonly known as The Koftagate  in Egypt and abroad.

Several months ago the army announced that HCV and HIV treatment would be available next 30 June 2014.

Despite it is not the 30th yet , the army has declared the following : Despite the results of the Complete cure device "CCD" are allegedly 100% positive as tested on 80 patients "HCV and HIV" , the treatment will not be applied for another 6 months because it needs more clinical tests.

The Complete cure device 

There were another interesting announcements about the CCD as it turns out that it does not treat Liver fibrosis and that it did not cure either the late stage HCV patients. The army also screened a documentary about the Engineering authority and its history with the different authorities and agencies working under the umbrella of the armed forces like the Nuclear supervision authority.

Despite initially announcing that the CCD is a top national security secret that won't be shared with anyone , there was a brief description about how the device it works.

Happy #Ramadan #2014

Happy and blessed Ramadan to all the world from Egyptian Chronicles.

Tomorrow insh Allah will be the start of Ramadan in Egypt and a number of countries around the globe.

Hopefully this year’s Ramadan will be better than last year’s. Of course one can not stop thinking about the families of the detainees this year.

I pray to God this Ramadan that this injustice end soon insh Allah and all those imprisoned unfairly to be free soon.

Do not forget to check Egyptian Chronicles insh Allah tomorrow at 8 PM Cairo Local Time as Scheherazade will be back for a new tale this year insh Allah.  You can check back Egyptian Chronicles’ Arabian Nights here.

#Aswan and the Return of The Tribal Fight : Try blaming the MB for it this time

As people were preparing for the holy month of Ramadan as well watching the World Cup , terrible news came from Aswan late Thursday.
New tribal clashes erupted tribal clashes between "El Hilaliya" and Nubians in Aswan last April.  Three Nubian men were killed and their bodies were mutilated horrifyingly by men allegedly from “El-Hilaliya” tribe. The victims are Nubians from “Daboodiya” and “Combania” tribes.
It is not clear that if it is an act of retaliation for what happened last April or not but usually in Upper Egypt or rather the South old grudges play extreme role in such violent crimes.
Last April tribal clashes between Arab “El-Hilaliya” tribe and Nubian “Daboodiya” shocked the nation for real where not less than 26 were killed , over 50 were injured and many houses were torched. It was one of the most worst vendetta tribal clashes Egypt has seen in the past 5 years.
I remember that the regime stuck to its official story that the evil Muslim Brotherhood was standing between the clashes and they even arrested a Nubian teacher “well respected in his community” accusing him of standing behind the fight !! I wonder what they would claim this time.
As usual the government stuck to its old methods of triumphing the tribal judiciary over the true state of law during then. Al Azhar institution sent a committee to oversee a reconciliation plan between the two groups in another TV fake scene we learned by heart.
You have to deal with the roots of the problem using the right way : Apply the state of the law fairly and justly along with citizenship, enforce the true state concept over the tribe concept !!
Anyhow from what I read the government this time , at least the ministry of interior are taking its precautions for fear things develop violently like last time.

You Can Blame Yourself Dr. Alaa now !!

If in one year we end up with military rule, we don’t blame the military. We can only blame ourselves.

Alaa Al-Asway in an interview to the New Yorker Magazine
January 2014

I remember these words as soon as I read renowned writer and novelist Alaa Al-Aswany’s announcement on his official twitter account that he would no longer write in Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper because only one view is welcomed in the paper.

الى القراء الأعزاء . لقد توقفت عن الكتابة في جريدة المصري اليوم . . اشكر لكم حسن متابعتكم لمقالاتي الأسبوعية ونلتقى بإذن الله في مكان اخر
— Alaa Al Aswany (@AlaaAswany) June 23, 2014

Dear readers , I stopped writing in Al-Masry Al-Youm. Thank you for following my weekly column , we will meet inshallah in another place.

لم يعد الان مسموحا الا برأي واحد وفكر واحد وكلام واحد . لم يعد مسموحا بالنقد والاختلاف في الرأي . لم يعد مسموحا الا بالمديح على حساب الحقيقة
— Alaa Al Aswany (@AlaaAswany) June 23, 2014

Different views are no longer allowed ; only one view , one though and one talk. It is no longer acceptable to have different opinion and to criticize. It is no longer acceptable to say the truth but to praise only. 

Strong words.

#AJStafftrial : Notes on a scandal

The least thing that can be said about Al Jazeera International staff trial is that it was a huge scandal.
Whether the trial itself or the evidence used to incriminate its over 20 defendants or its sentences; the whole affair is a real scandal for Egypt. For months those of us who have been following the case , know very well how scandalous it was and how insulting it was to the true concept of judiciary before Egypt.
The international reactions rejecting the sentence continued. Following Netherlands and UK , Australia summoned Egypt’s deputy ambassador to object officially the sentence against Peter Greste.
France also rejected the sentence demanding a new trial with a new independent investigation.
US officials are demanding President El-Sisi to pardon Al-Jazeera staff and the new elected president answered at the Military academy graduation ceremony that he would not interfere in judiciary which means that there will be no pardons.
Of course some speculate that the Al-Jazeera staff scandal will end up like the Foreign NGOs workers who left Egypt on the board of US military jet in 2011. Well I am afraid none of the Al-Jazeera staff is American or his father was a former secretary.
The Australian and British tweeps launched hashtags to boycott Egypt and not to travel to the country which is trying by all measures to mend its touristic financial losses in the past 3 years.
Renowned actress and activist as UN ambassador Mia Farrow joined those tweets and urged people not to come to Egypt.

The #Photo That Summarizes The Situation of Media in #Egypt

This photo taken today by Jared Malsin was the best visual summarization of the situation of media in Egypt in general.

By Jared Malsin

This was taken outside the court at Tora where the shameful trial of Al Jazeera journalists was held. This was after the trial.

#AJStafftrial : The shocking verdicts of the day

Today the judge will issue his sentence in the infamous Al-Jazeera staff trial. Just after few moments the world will know the fate of those journalists who found them stuck in prison since last December for no other reason except political fights between Cairo and Doha.
The Verdicts are here and they are disgusting and outrageous :

• Peter Greste , Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fadel are sentenced to 7 years in maximum security prison. 
• 10 years in prison sentence for the absentee defendants including foreign journalists  
• Baher Mohamed got extra three years and LE 5000 for the possession of a bullet 
• Anas El-Beltagy and Ahmed Ibrahim are acquitted. 

Foreign ambassadors are attending the trial including the ambassadors of UK , Canada and Australia. The families of the defendants including Greste are here and you can imagine how they feel. I feel so angry. These verdicts are issued one day after John Kerry's visit to Cairo.
You must know there were strong scenarios about today's verdict :
Scenario#1 : The defendants would be acquitted.
Scenario#2 : The defendants would be sentenced but they will be pardon by none other than newly elected President El-Sisi.
The second scenario will take place after the rejection of the appeal according to the law and the appeal will take ages.
This is a clear message to the whole world and journalists in Egypt : Journalism is a crime in
I feel angry and have no temper to discuss fundamental rights and facts. The whole world knows that this trial is a shame for God's sake.

The War Against #Jan25 Continues in Media Continues : Now It is A TV Series

And the war against 25 January revolution in the mainstream media by the State itself continues ,today we found out the ministry of interior reportedly interfered to suspend the broadcast of a TV series starring a group of  a Pro-#Jan25 revolution actors because among its characters a corrupted police officer before the revolution !!

Yup according to the producers and makers of the TV series “The people of Alexandria” {Ahl Exenderia} may not be broadcast next Ramadan on Al Hayat TV and Mehwar TV channels after pressures from the ministry of interior aka security apparatuses.

Stated-owned “Media City for production” ; the producer of the series admitted that there were pressures from security apparatuses on the two channels not to air the TV series. For the production company , this will be a huge financial loss. The ads have been booked and actually we got billboards all over Cairo about this TV series.

The Holy Month of Ramadan will commence next week and it is well known fact that it is the golden season for TV shows and TV soap operas in the Arab region.

“The people of Alexandria” is a socio-political TV series written by writer Belal Fadl and starring Amr Waked and Basma Ahmed. According to the synopsis of the series , it is about a corrupted police officer in Alexandria who was punished in 2010.

I believe that this is another sequel to Fadl’s hit series in 2010 “The people of Cairo” where he criticized powerfully and boldly the political and social status of the Egyptian society.

Fadl issued a long statement about what happened earlier today in Arabic on his official Facebook page saying what happened was unprecedented and did not happen in the time of Mubarak.

#NoProtestlaw : International Day of Solidarity with Egyptian detainees

Today activists protested against the infamous protest law whether inside or outside Egypt. It is the International Day of Solidarity with Egyptian detainees.
Hundreds of protesters organized a rally against the infamous protest law to the Presidential Palace this afternoon.
Several prominent political activists are participating in this rally like Mona Seif and Khaled El-Siyad , who was arrested in the latest anniversary of 25 January. He was also tortured and witnessed the torture of other detainees as well. The Revolutionary Way Front was among the main political movements participating in this rally.
Needless to say the CSF did not waste any time in dispersing the rally using thugs and tear gases. The thugs hurled rocks and empty bottles at the protesters as usual followed by tear gases. The security forces are determinant not to make this rally did not reach the presidential palace.

Of course what happened afternoon is a proof that the Ministry of interior is still using its old weapon : Thugs
At least 30 people have been arrested during the dispersal of the protest including Sana'a Seif. Three of them are journalists.
Here is a video below for the protest and what happened during its dispersal after the break.

An invitation to Create a New diplomatic crisis with Ethiopia !! "Update"

Last week while I was taking a break from all the political shit in Egypt , I found the name of Tahrir TV host Rania Badawy along with the word “Ethiopia” jumping over and over in my twitter notifications.
It turned out that the journalist turned in to a TV host may have started a diplomatic crisis with Ethiopia after hanging up the phone on the Ethiopian Ambassador in Cairo on air angrily !! Yes she hung up on the Ethiopian Ambassador in Cairo on air. Updated : Rania Badawy is suspended by Tahrir TV channel's administration.

On air fight between Rania Badawy and Ethiopian ambassador

“ Why do you insist on building the dam with the current specifications !?” Rania Badawy asked Ethiopian Ambassador in Cairo Mahmoud Dardir. Ambassador Dardir told her that she did not understand the construction of dams and their specification and that she was speaking arrogantly. Things went madder starting from that point.

#Free_Detainees :One is Free , There are still others behind bars

First of all I am sorry for the lack of posts and updates , I took a short break and traveled to the North Coast for the last four days. I tried to keep the blog updated as much as I could but I failed as I did not bring my laptop. To blog using the iPad is not that easy and honestly I felt that I had to have a break from politics after our 7th historical impressive elections in three years.
I ignored the news of the cabinet but I could not ignore the news of Abdullah El-Shamy’s release, it made my day from two days ago. Seeing him with his family , with his brother , with his strong wife who shared him his hunger strike for many days gave a lot of people hope including me

The freedom Selfie with Mosa'ab El-Shamy "By Mosa'ab"

Abdullah hugging Jihad "By Mostafa El-Sayed"

#FreeAbdullah : Released Due To Health Concerns 

In a huge development today the prosecutor general has ordered the release of Abdullah el-Shamy , the Al Jazeera correspondent who has been on a hunger strike for more than 140 days as well other 12 detainees Monday afternoon. 

el-Shamy who was detained during the dispersal of Raba'a sit in last August along with other 12.The prosecutor general has not referred el-Shamy or the other 12 to the court. According to the official statement issued by the prosecutor general , el-Shamy has been released due to health concerns. 

Of course this means that the health of the 26 years old journalist is not great and fine as the so-called June 30 revolution fact finding commission claimed. El-Shamy who has been for a food strike for more than 100 in order to be referred to court lost a lot of weight as you may have known. His wife Jehad started a food strike as well demanding the release of her husband. 

Leading leftist activist Laila Soeif has been on hunger strike for more than 3 weeks as well in soldiarity with El-Shamys. Human rights activist Aida Seif El-Dowla was also on a hunger strike in soldiarity with El-Shamys but ended that hunger strike last week. 

Now personally I believe that Abdullah won that battle against the regime. Of course there are other detainees who are on hunger strike like Mohamed Soltan. Soltan was transferred to Kasr Al Aini hospital in a critical condition after more than hundred days of hunger strike. The US Egyptian citizen is among the defendants  in the Raba'a control room case . He is accused among others like MB supreme guida Mohamed Badie of inciting violence in the country. 

Soltan's family insists that he is innocent and that the security forces arrested him while caring for his cancer patient mother. His family says that security forces arrested him from his house when they failed of finding his father , famous MB leading preacher Salah Soltan. I think His father was arrested later.

I hope people do not forget freelancer photographer Shokan who was detained in Rab'a sit in dispersal as well.

#EndSH : Cartoon against Sexual harassment

Cartoonists in Egypt have been fighting sexual harassment with their art.

Execute them "Doaa El-Adl"

Doaa El-Adl 

Dad : We did not speak when one harassed then we
we got a mass harassment then it became an assault
Then it became rape
Daughter  : After that you want to be a grown up and
a bride !! "Doaa El-Adl"

No for sexual harassment "Doaa El-Adl"

Naturally religious people "Andeel"

It is men's party "Andeel"

Hey Kitten "Haitham"

Have you praised Prophet Mohamed today ?
 "Hisham Rahma"

#EndSH : The protest , the Media and the security are here too

From couple of hours ladies as well men joined a protest against Anti-Sexual harassment phenomenon in Egypt.
It was a small protest compared to the fact that not less 13,000 people said that they would go on the Facebook’s event page for a whole week. According to a friend who went and attended the protest , the number of journalists and TV channels were more than the protesters. It is sad. Of course when you read the FB event page , you will find fights and endless debates.
Of course several women’s NGOs and activists said that they would not go after the announcement of the National council for Woman “NCW” would go.
Those NGOs and activists made it clear that they did not forget on how the NCW ignored all their pleas and their activities against sexual harassment in the past three adopting the state’s position to ignore the whole thing.

#EndSH : The video is not the Problem

Ok lots of updates following Egypt's latest mass sexual harassment and assault incidents in Tahrir square.

On Wednesday President El-Sisi paid a visit to one of the victims currently being treated for burns in El-

The anatomy of a harasser by Ternz

Halmia military hospital along the minister of defense where he vowed to fight sexual harassment apologizing for the victim and the Egyptian women for the spread of that epidemic.

Needless to say after that visit all the media has launched a crusade on that alien phenomenon attacking the Egyptian society following this visit. Now the president admits that there was something.
The victim asked El-Sisi to remove the video showing her being assaulted in Tahrir square and so the Presidency asked YouTube to remove that video filmed from two weeks ago showing the assault. 

 I forgot to say that the Egyptian National TV blurred the victim's face during El-Sisi's visit "it was aired on TV" but left her mother's face !!! This is much better than the ministry of health which sent a press release to the media with the photo and name of the victim before asking them to blur the photo !!

Just like any president of Egypt , El-Sisi gave his orders to form another governmental commission made of religious institutions and bunch of ministries to put a strategy against sexual harassment in Egypt !!! Yeah a strategy.

#FreeAlaa :Back to 2005

First of all early Thursday morning there was a very small protest at El-Koubba presidential Palace. It was the first protest in front of a presidential palace after the presidential inauguration. It was also the smallest protest made of four girls only : Mona Seif , Sanaa Seif , Aida El-Kashef and Sara El-Sherif. "The photos are by Alaa El-Kamhawi"

Freedom for Alaa , Nouby and Wael

#Egyptian Presidential elections : The Biggest winner of all is not #ElSisi or #Sabahi

In the Egyptian presidential elections the biggest winner is not Abdel Fattah El-Sisi , the bigger winner of the presidential elections are those spoiled their votes aka the spoilers “Yeah I will call them the spoilers”.

Yes according to the official results “The spoilt votes”  scored the second place in the elections “1,036,410 votes” in one of the biggest surprises in this election. Yes the spoilt votes scored more than Hamdeen Sabahi did as he got only “740,304 votes”  

The founder of the Popular Current who was the wining horse of the presidential elections 2012 first stage did not even get one million votes. Now there was an online joke that El-Sisi is going to have the runoffs along with Mr. Spoilt Votes.

Let’s leave Sabahi and his votes and let’s go for Egypt’s newest voting bloc aka The spoilers. I know that they may seem insignificant but to score more than the second rival in the elections this means something.

#FreeAlaa : Alaa and protesters sentenced 15 years in jail

This is not the kind of news you want to hear in early morning.
Prominent activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah and other 24 protesters have been sentenced 15 years in jail and 100,00 LE Fine early morning in absentia.

This is just ridiculous when you hear what happened in today's session. Another episode of that on going TV series in crazy verdicts in Egypt.
Today the Cairo criminal sentenced the 25 protesters in the Shura Council clashes trial. The judge issued his sentence in absentia despite the fact that Alaa Abdel Fattah , Wael Matawally and Ahmed Abdel Rahman , the defendants were waiting outside the court "at police academy" and were trying to get in.
The court claimed that the defendants did not show up where as there were thee of them trying to get in.
Needless to say the three were arrested and currently in detention. Of course as this is an absentia court verdict , I believe there should be a retrial.

A photo for Alaa earlier this morning "Al Masry Al Youm"

BY the way Alaa did not call for this protest , the No For Military Trials campaign called for it. He did not steal the Walkie Talkie or attack any officers. There are video and photos showing the whole affair.
There are other protesters in the trial , please do not forget them.
Among those Wael Matawally is a mobile phone apps developer , already he and his company were awarded. Wael is a dual nationality citizen and got an Italian passport yet he has never used it.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman "Noubi" was on his way home when he saw women protesters attacked by security forces and tried to defend them. Again there are photos showing this
Alaa Abdel Fatah is still facing two trials by the way : Torching Shafik's campaign HQ and insulting judiciary.

#EndSH : It is not a Conspiracy or A Plot , it is ugly truth

And fairly we can say that the talk of town in the past 48 was not the speech of newly elected president but rather the mass sexual harassment or mass sexual assaults to be precise in Tahrir square.

Another series of sexual assaults and attacks took place through the past week where the climax was last Sunday on the inauguration night where there was a gang rape for a lady in the square who was saved by police officers.

Personally I think that we would not know  about that tragedy if it were not for a shocking video that reminded us with that epidemic called Sexual Harassment.
The shocking video clip showed a badly beaten naked lady escorted by a group of men including a policeman to a nearby ambulance in a chaotic sad scene. I will not post that terrible awful video , it is truly shocking and worst than any video for mass sexual harassment as it is actually a sexual assault.

Thanks to that horrible video the people knew that Tahrir square was hit by another merciless wave of sexual harassment and sexual assaults.

It is worth to mention as soon as the video hit the social media “allegedly on Saturday” , Pro-El-Sisi supporters claimed that it was an old video from 2012 and that the Muslim Brotherhood supporters republished it to spoil the celebrations of democracy.

Well according to the official investigation that it was recorded last week and the victim was 45 years old lady who came to the square to celebrate El-Sisi presidential victory with her 5 years old son.

It turns out that there are also at least 9 girls in Al Helal Hospital , downtown Cairo in a critical condition because of sexual assault. One of the girl was actually a victim of a gang rape , she is in a critical condition. Her uterus is torn to the level that she may have to remove it. She lost her virginity and is suffering from huge bleeding !!

Couple of suspects were arrested and the Prosecutor General is investigating the whole thing. Newly elected president El-Sisi called the people today to restore the moral spirit of Egypt. Whether he likes it or not but the “alien to the Egyptian society” incidents spoiled his inauguration.

Another video made people even madder online. On Sunday night also A TV host called Maha Bahnassy laughed at the fact that there were sexual harassment incidents in Tahrir square.

 

Newspapers' headlines today in #Egypt

A new day in Egypt and a new president swore in. Here are the Front pages and headlines of Egyptian newspapers on Monday

The headlines of newspapers today

From 40 Days Ago I lost a Friend

Yesterday I found out that from 40 days ago I was shocked to know from twitter that my dear friend Bassem Sabry passed away in a tragic way.

Bassem in Abu Dhabi last year 

40 days and I am trying to something about him in my blog not as a mourning as a something to celebrate to the life who gave a lot in a very short time. 

I was lucky enough to know Bassem Sabry when we were students in Cairo University and I saw that shining like a little star in campus during the students activities. 

I am trying to overcome my feeling that if I write about him it will be like an obituary , a thing that I dislike because I know that Bassem and his ideas are still living with us through his writing. 

I miss him now more than ever. 

Now I decided to remember Bassem and let the world remember him in a new way. Bassem Sabry used to play Spanish Guitar and he recorded some pieces on Soundcloud. He was not only a blogger/writer/young politician. He was really multi-talented.

Live : Inauguration Day 2014

And here is a live blog for the Presidential inauguration Day 2014 edition.

Preparing For the big Inauguration Day

And Egypt is witnessing its second big presidential inauguration within two years , oh yes within two years.
After few hours from now newly elected President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will head to the Supreme Constitutional court in Maadi , Cairo to take the presidential oath in front  of the Judges and a number of Egyptian public figures and statesmen.
Needless to say Maadi will be a military zone from 8 AM to 12 PM because El-Sisi will take the oath at 10.30 AM.
The red carpets have been set since early Saturday morning at the Supreme Constitutional Court.

The red carpet at the Supreme
Constitution Court "Haitham El-Tabei"

Then afterwards there will be a big ceremony at El-Koubbeh Palace in Cairo attended by VIPs from Egypt and around the globe. El-Sisi as well Mansour will address the nation tomorrow.
El-Sisi is not the first Egyptian president to swear at the Supreme Constitutional court because there is no parliament , Morsi did it in 2012.
Tahrir square will witness also another celebration by the Pro-Morsi and so it will be also closed in front of traffic.
Heavy security deployments are seen in Heliopolis , earlier today there were helicopters hovering all over Cairo.
Of course Sunday is a National holiday in Egypt because of the big inauguration day.

Egyptian Presidential Elections 2014 in Numbers and infographs : The official Results

Presidential Elections Commission announced the results of the presidential elections 2014 officially last week.

Field Marshal Abdel Fattah El-Sisi got a landslide victory for 96.9% of the votes while his rival Hamdeen Sabahi got only 3.1% of the votes.

Create Infographics

The official turnout is “47.1%” which is less than in 2012 Presidential elections runoffs “52.1%”  despite all the attempts to increase it through extra day and imposing fines..etc.

Here are updated infographs with the final results of presidential elections, I updated the numbers after they were first published here.

Here is an updated chart showing the votes of El-Sisi and Sabahi as well the spoilt votes.

Create Infographics

Here is updated chart comparing between the spoilt votes in 2012 and 2014. I have the feeling the spoilt votes will increase in the upcoming elections.

Create Infographics

Another updated chart comparing between Sabahi’s results in 2012 and 2014.

Sabahis Votes 2012-2014 {Governorates} | Create Infographics

It is worth to mention that despite admitting that El-Sisi is a winner , Sabahi and his campaign raised question about the numbers of the turnout as well the votes. They officially presented an appeal against extending the election for an extra day demanding PEC to cancel all the votes scored on that day but of course the appeal was rejected.

Here is an updated comparison between the results of the candidates in the presidential elections 2014 and Presidential elections 2012 “Second stage”. Interestingly you will find a parallel between Shafik and El-Sisi.

Create Infographics

And From Four years ago ..

And from Four years ago a young Alexandrian man was beaten to death in Alexandria by two police informants and this changed Egypt forever for real. That young man is late Khaled Said and the two police informants that beat him till death are currently serving ten years sentence in jail after a retrial.
Now after four years one feels that we returned to square one especially now those activists who defended Khaled’s right back in 2010 like Mahienour Al Masry , Mohamed Adel , Hassan Mostafa and Ahmed Douma are all in jail for illegal protesting.
It is a setback but may be we need this setback to correct our path
This video below was shot at the first protest in solidarity with Khaled at his home , you will see familiar faces in it like Mahienour and Ahmed Douma. This was the beginning in Alexandria while in Cairo it was a very small protest in front of the ministry of interior by brave few protesters.

Black Out - Protest in Egypt - English Subtitles/Sous-titres français from Mayye Zayed on Vimeo.

In 2010 it started in Cairo with this small protest "Omar El-Hady" 

Six Days War after 47 years : Escaping a defeat

It seems that after 47 years of the Six days war defeat many Egyptians have forgotten all the lessons they learned for an expensive price they paid with blood and land.

After 47 years the Egyptians returned back to the same reasons that made us lose in what can be described as the worst military defeat in the Egyptian modern history in the 20th history.

Once again they allow the army to get busy in politics as well economy , once again they let the mainstream media deceive them with cheap nationalism slogans and hypocrisy, once again they idolize a mortal military making him immortal savoir. Once again cheap populism is taking the country.

Now nobody dares to question a decision taken by the regime just like the 1960s , nobody dares to say a different opinion otherwise he or she will be a traitor.

In 1967 it was not only about warfare but it was about a series of bad leadership in Egypt that nobody dared to criticized for fear of dictatorship. Same headlines are back in the newspapers , same ideas are back , even in politics we see now a new modern one Party Socialist Union in making to provide a so-called political cover for the new elected president.

Now amazingly the 1967 Generation is the same generation right now idolizing Field Marshal El-Sisi as the savior of not only of Egypt but the Arab world if not the world who stood against the American imperialism !!

That 1967 generation had a dream that saw it turning in to a nightmare in that summer and despite it achieved victory in 1973 and despite they had 47 years to restore that dream they failed and yet they insist to continue pursing it. That generation is always speaking about its dream in that bloody summer of 1967 , just check all the renowned writers , intellectuals and poets’ interviews in the past few months. You will find that lost dream there.

Amazingly that old generation does not realize that it is killing the dreams of other generations that came after it, especially the young generation which has got its own dreams for its own time.

I fear that the old generation dream of 1967 will make us repeat the same defeat in a different way and unfortunately the only generations that will pay the price are the younger generations as usual.

#DyingtoLive : Updates about Abdullah El-Shamy

First of all an important update about Abdullah El-Shamy.
According to his brother renowned photographer Mosa’ab El-Shamy , his family has seen him at last. It turned out  after his disappearance from Tora prison , the 26 years old Al Jazeera TV correspondent was

An old photo for Abdullah in Tora prison months ago

transferred to security tight Al Akrab maximum security prison in Tora complex to a solitary confinement.

It turns out that he was transferred to hospital as it was claimed earlier but he was allowed to buy water from the prison cafeteria after fainting several times and his kidney functions began to fail. Yes they prevented him from buying bottled water and vomited blood.
This young man needs to be transferred to hospital ASAP. For God’s sake murderers , spies and drug dealers are treated in prison better than him !!
Up till now he has been in prison for no official crime !!
Now Abdullah denied totally that he was photographed while he was taking solid food insisting that he did not break his food strike in the past weeks. Regarding this two weeks ago we  found out leaked photos for him allegedly eating solid food published in Egypt’s Military Photos Facebook Page “Which is one of the top Pro-Military FB pages in Egypt” as well other Pro-Police and Pro-El-Sisi Facebook pages with captions claiming that he was lying and was not on strike.The photos appeared right after his video was leaked online.
It is worth to mention for more than 14 days his family failed to see , only today after a lot of noise earlier this week they were allowed to see him.

Earlier this week the families of Abdullah El-Shamy and Mohamed Soltan along with activists and Pro-Revolution protesters held a protest demanding the release of those detainees as well other detainees arrested and imprisoned because of the illegal protest law.

And a dust storm strikes Cairo

Extremely hot weather plus a dust storm , in nutshell it is not the best weather for hanging out in the street.

By the way there will be a drop in temperature tomorrow.

#PEC Announces It officially : #ElSisi is the President of #Egypt

And the Presidential Elections Commission “PEC” has announced it officially : Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is the president of Egypt for the next four years. He won it nearly for 96.9% of the votes
There is no surprise here.
According to PEC the following are the official results and numbers

A photo before the speech

• The eligible voters : 53,909,306
• The number of voters who participated in the elections : 25,578,223
• The turnout : 47.45%
• Spoilt Votes : 1,040,608
• Valid Votes : 24,537, 615
• Abdel Fattah El-Sisi : 23,780,144
• Hamdeen Sabahi : 757,511

Not less than 15,000 Egyptians are celebrating his victory in Tahrir square. It is not fully packed but the TV cameras are zooming out. All TV channels are cheering for the new president. Since early morning army units closed Tahrir square in front of traffic where big stages were set up in order to celebrate El-Sisi’s victory. Similar stages are set up in major squares in big cities in Egypt. I wonder how much the cost for such big and fancy celebration.
Cables are coming from the Arab countries , KSA is first of course followed by UAE. KSA is calling for an international economic conference to aid Egypt economically, I wonder if Hamdeen Sabahi won , would the Kingdom call for such conference !?
The newly elected president addressed the Nation shortly after the result in a recorded video message saluting the people , the police and the army as well his rival Sabbahi. El-Sisi praised the glorious Jan25 Revolution which his supporters curse day and night. He also told Egyptians to work to rebuild Egypt.

It is an End for Freedom of Expression in #Egypt For the Time being : Bassem Youssef’s show suspended

And Bassem Youssef announced this sad news today at his Downtown Cairo Radio Theater studio: There will be no more “ElBernmag” TV show.

The end of the show 

Yup Egypt’s first and best satire TV show has been suspended as expected.
The international award-winning TV host announced in a press conference today that the TV show would be suspended on MBC Misr because of pressures. He could have reduced but the tempo but he and his team refused.

He also refused to transfer the show outside Egypt or even to air on a foreign channel.

“I am tired of being worried on my family and my safety” He said thanking MBC Misr wondering what made some in Egypt fear a satire show like that.

Needless to say, the pressures he spoke about are the pressure of Saudi Arabia on MBC Group as well the Egyptian state, Saudi Arabia and allegedly King Abdullah of KSA forced him to stop the so-called insults against the Egyptian army.

I do not think that King Abdullah watches “ElBernmag” and you do not need to guess that he got some calls from angry people in Cairo.

Well, we will not forget this for King Abdullah and MBC.

And Here is #Mubarak officially as a prisoner

Here is ousted president Hosni Mubarak wearing for the first time the blue suite as a sign of being convicted prison behind bars early Saturday morning in the Police academy court.

Ousted Mubarak was convicted of embezzling public funds in the “Egyptian Presidency palaces” case along his two sons Gamal and Alaa Mubarak.
To know more about this case “The case of Egyptian Presidency’s palaces” , I urge you to read this fantastic investigative by report made by Hossam Bahgat “Arabic version” in Mada Masr and spread it as well. Bahgat included in his amazing report a copy from the Mubaraks’ purchases in that case. By the way mainstream media in Egypt ignored this important report except Youm 7 which plagiarized it !!  
Officially Mubarak is the first president of Egypt to be convicted of such crime and will be the first living ex-president of Egypt to be officially imprisoned.
Mubarak is currently standing the re-trial of the killing of the protesters in the early 18 days of the Egyptian revolution in 2011. It is likely that he will be acquitted.