Russian Plane Crashes in Middle of Sinai #7K9268 “Updated”

This is the sort of news you do not want to wake up on !!!!
A Russian airliner carrying 224 passengers and crew crashed in Sinai peninsula earlier Saturday.
According to Egypt’s cabinet, the Airbus A-321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia with registration number KGL-9268, was flying from Sharm El-Sheikh in Sinai to St.Petersburg earlier this morning when it crashed in Central Sinai after 23 minutes of taking off.
Exactly the airplane took off from Sharm El-Sheikh airport at 5.58 AM Cairo Local time “CLT” in its way to St.Petersburg. The flight number was 7K9268

The wreckage of the plane at the crash site , a photo released
by Egypt's PM office after his visit this afternoon

At 6:20 AM “04:13 UTC”, it disappeared from the radars after nearly 23 minutes of taking off due to technical malfunctions.
Unfortunately, there were 200 adults and 17 children on the board of the plane in addition to 7-crew members.

Relatives of the victims waiting at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg

The cabinet also said in its official statement that the Egyptian armed forces’ radars spotted the missing airplane crash site at a mountainous area near the city of El-Hassana.

At 1:41 PM CLT

The Egyptian government announced that the airplane’s black box was found  and that more than 100 bodies were found.
Despite the Egyptian officials hinted at first that a technical malfunction was behind the crash, now they are saying that it was early to determine the reason behind it.
Russia’s President Putin declared Sunday as a national day of mourning.
According to Russian L!ve News website, this photo could be from the last photos taken at the Plane by one of the victims who sent to his family back to Russia.

"L!ve News website"

The Russian embassy in Cairo is saying that there were no survivors in the crash unfortunately.

К сожалению, все пассажиры рейса 9268 Когалымавиа Шарм-эш-Шейх - Петербург погибли. Выражаем соболезнования родным и близким.

— RussianEmbassy EGYPT (@Rusembegypt) October 31, 2015

The Russian embassy in Cairo says that there were 212 passengers and 7 crew members on board.

Russian Sputnik news agency says that when the Egyptian cabinet gave slightly different figures in its statement, saying the plane was carrying 214 Russian citizens and three Ukrainians, including 138 women, 62 men and 17 children.

When Riham Saeed meets Karma

Do you remember what tabloid Egyptian TV host Riham Saeed did to the Syrian refugees !?? Well, you know what is being said about Karma, it is true. Now Riham Saeed is paying the price of her

tabloid TV journalism.
Now she is in truly hot boiling water over something that could end her TV show right away and drag her as well her TV channel “Al-Nahar” to the court.
On Tuesday, she aired an interview with a girl who was sexually harassed in a Cairo mall and was physically assaulted when she tried to defend herself.
The incident was filmed on the mall’s CCTV and soon enough the video was online.

The CCTV video

Riham Saeed , who always preaches about morals and modesty blamed the girl for being harassed because she was wearing sleeveless top
When the girl confronted Riham Saeed that she wears sleeveless top, the famous TV host arrogantly said that she was a renowned personality and American University in Cairo “AUC” graduate !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It did not stop at there as Saeed dared and aired personal photos for the girl while wearing a swimsuit on beach carried by some man as an evidence of her misbehavior !!!!
I won’t share this episode here.
The renowned TV host claimed that her produced received those photos through Whatsapp.
The girl spoke in other TV shows in the past 2 days and it turned out when she went to the studio, she put her mobile phone to be charged in the location and Riham Saeed’s crew took her mobile phone and searched in its file.
The girl says that they took her personal photos. Now that’s a lesson on the importance of mobile phone passwords when it comes to privacy.
Of course Saeed went mad on how she was being attacked on other TV channels and on Wednesday night she appeared on her show defending herself claiming that because she was a mother , she would not scandalize that girl anymore !!!!
Luckily, women’s rights activists and anti-sexual harassment activists decided to help the girl to restore back her right. Not less than 15 lawyers offered to help her and to take a legal action against Saeed and the Al-Nahar TV channel.

#Egyelections : First stage’s runoffs searched for voters too

The first stage of Egypt’s parliamentary elections’ runoffs are over and now we got the results and indications.
First of all, the turnout was lower than the first stage’s turnout last week.
Usually, the runoffs got much lower turnouts but this time we got people who are totally uninterested in the parliamentary elections as well awful heavy rains.
Not to mention, many people did not know that there were parliamentary elections runoffs in the first place.

An empty polling station in Haram, Giza by Heba Farouk Mahfouz

Again it was higher in the villages and districts in Upper Egypt because of the clans and tribes’ power , nothing more.
I did not cover those runoffs, but journalists and photographers who covered them reported empty polling stations.
Checking the media reports and photos as well the interviews made on air at the polling stations confirm this.

Esraa El-Taweel still remains in detention "Updated"

Esraa in an older photo 

And New Cairo Prosecution renewed earlier this week the detention of Freelance photographer Esraa El-Taweel for another 15 days pending investigation.
The next session , Esraa’s detention will  be reconsidered by a Criminal court judge because the temporary detentions limit is over according to the law. She has been in detention for 5 months so far !!
Updated : Now according to Esraa's lawyer , the prosecution actually did not determine an exact date for her session at the criminal court !!!!!!!!
Esraa has been in detention for more than 160 in detention accordingly pending investigation into accusation of being a member in the Muslim Brotherhood and sending fake news to defame Egypt abroad.
Hopefully inshallah, she will be released because this is too much.
BY the way speaking about Esraa El-Taweel and remembering her forcible disappearance, there are three journalists who have been arrested and detained in unknown locations.
Updated : 
Earlier this week , Esraa was allowed to have X-ray scans at Kasr Al-Aini hospital where she met her family and sisters.

Free Alaa : One year later

Today marks one year since the imprisonment of Egypt’s renowned blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and the rest of the Shura Council detainees.

Free Shura case detainees 

Today thousands of people across the world are participating in a twitter storm to remind the people and the world about Alaa Abdel Fattah and his cause in Egypt as well the cause of many detainees like him under hashtag “#FreeAlaa”
In the past few hours, my twitter timeline and Facebook timeline turned red and orange with Alaa’s avatar while sharing his famous quotes.

Alexandria is drowning while Winter has not come yet !!

Today, Egypt started unstable weather wave with heavy rain and thunderstorm in the North. This thunderstorm wave is hitting East of the Mediterranean.
It started yesterday and ironically the Alexandrians were happy.

The thunder in the sky by Nada Besheer
"Facebook"

The thunder last night in Alexandria
By Sohila Essam "Facebook"

Looking to Alexandria after few hours of heavy rain, you will think that Hurricane Patricia hit what was once known as the Mermaid of the Mediterranean.

Alexandria's famous Cornich

When Mars becomes a National security matter

Egypt’s prominent astronomer Essam Heggy was going to represent an open meeting about Mars and the latest NASA explorations there at  the University of Alexandria on 23-24 October. He was supposed to say a word at Bibliotheca Alexandrina then he was going to have an open meeting with the students of the faculty of engineering in the University of Alexandria.

في مصر يوم ٢٣ و ٢٤ أكتوبر. كلمة بمكتبة الإسكندرية الساعة ١ ظهرا و لقاء مفتوح بطلبة كلية الهندسة بجامعة الإسكندرية الساعة الرابعة ظهرا.

— د. عصام حجي (@essamheggy) October 19, 2015

The former President advisor for sciences arrived Cairo and was on his way to Alexandria only to find that his meeting with the university of Alexandria was cancelled for security reasons !!!

أعزائي الطلبه، حبكم ورغبتكم باللقاء تعدت التوقعات ولم تجد إدارة جامعة الإسكندرية المساحة الكافية لإحتضان حماسكم وحضوركم ...
Posted by Essam Heggy on Friday, October 23, 2015

My dear students , your love and wish for this meeting to take place exceeded expectations, nevertheless the University of Alexandria’s administration did not find enough space to embrace your enthusiasm and attendance and decided to cancel the lecture one day before its date while I was on my way to Alexandria for security reasons.
I would like to thank the organizers and the people who registered to attend the lecture. A salute to the administration of the university which is keen to protect Egypt’s national security by cancelling a lecture about Mars exploration.

This decision created huge reactions denouncing what happened to the lecture of Egypt’s renowned scientist who was part of the Rosetta team.
To defend itself, the University of Alexandria administration said that the students organized the lecture without the knowledge of the faculty of engineering which was informed allegedly on short notice.
I think to organize such event in our public Universities, you need an approval from the administration and security weeks before the event.

Hassan Malek , the man who wanted to destroy the Egyptian economy

On Thursday, the Egyptian security forces arrested Muslim Brotherhood leading member and renowned businessman Hassan Malek from his house in New Cairo along 4 other members of the banned brotherhood.

For several hours, there was nothing official about why Malek was arrested especially for two years he was a free man unlike many of the Brotherhood’s leading figures.

Then the Ministry of interior “MOI” released an official statement on its official Facebook page saying that the State security prosecution issued a warrant to arrest Malek because the MOI’s National Security sector received tips that Malek and other members of the Brotherhood were planning to “smuggle foreign currency out of the country” in order to attempt “to harm the Egyptian economy”.

إستمرارً لجهود الأجهزة الأمنية فى رصد ومتابعة الأنشطة الإرهابية والأعمال العدائية التى يخطط لإرتكابها أعضاء جماعة الإخوا...
Posted by ‎الصفحة الرسمية لوزارة الداخلية‎ on Thursday, October 22, 2015

According to the statement, Malek and the other four MB members are accused of using of foreign exchange companies affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood to destabilize the price of the US dollar by collecting and smuggling foreign currency outside the country.

It also accused him of funding the Muslim Brotherhood inside the country.
Friday evening, the state security prosecution decided to detain Malek for 15 days pending investigation.

The Egyptian pound is having a very tough time while the price of the US dollar was increasing officially and unofficially in the black market in the past two weeks full of drama.
This drama ended with the resignation of Hisham Ramez , the former Central Bank of Egypt governor and appointing Tarek Amar as the CBE governor.
In simple words, Egypt already got a currency crisis and the Egyptian pound is dying.

October 23, 2015 at 02:36PM

The beginning of a dust storm in #Cairo #Egypt #Citizenjournalism #Blogger #Egyweather #nofilter October 23, 2015 at 02:36PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1OMcN4c

The low turnout turns out officially to be 26.5% "Updated"

And Egypt’s official High Elections Committee “HEC” announced on Wednesday the official results of the first stage of Egypt’s parliamentary elections of 2015.

According to HEC,  the voters’ turnout in the first stage reached 26.56 % with 7,270,594 voters participating in the elections out of 27,402,353 registered voters in 14 governorates.
The valid votes reached 6,584,128 (90.46%) , while the void votes reached 694,466 (9.54%).

The “For the love of Egypt” electoral list won the list based seats while only four candidates won the individual seats including unfortunately Abdel Rahim Ali, the infamous TV host and my Constituency MP officially now.

At the agricultural museum's polling stations in Dokki 

Interestingly HEC should have announced the results at 3 PM Cairo local time at Headquarter in a press conference than it announced that no journalists or reporters would allow to cover that conference except the Egyptian National TV. The reporters and journalists waited outside the HQ.
The conference was pushed back to 5 PM and then to 7 PM !!!

Now I found that interesting turnout turned to be 26.56% when the Pro-Sisi media was screaming and begging the people to go and to vote in those 48 hours because the turnout was low !!
Already I found out that the Military police even sent Cars in cities with sound speakers playing songs associated with voting and elections in Giza aka Boshrat Kheir !!!!!

Parliamentary elections 2015 : Voting girl on Day “2”

Sorry guys , I could not post anything yesterday after finishing the second day of the parliamentary elections' first stage as I was so tired after working for long hours and sleeping for few hours.
Well on Monday , the first stage of the Parliamentary elections concluded in Egypt , the results began to surface after 9 PM till next morning on Tuesday.
I did a round in several polling stations and here is what I saw :

• At 1 PM I went to Meet Okaba primary school in Mohendessin in my constituency ‘Giza and Dokki’. It is a working class polling station. What I saw there were mostly old ladies and Middle age ladies coming to vote.
• I felt that there were more people coming vote than yesterday but a judge in the polling station told that it was like yesterday and mostly elderly showed up.
• Monday evening, I went in to another round on several polling stations in Dokki Upper Middle and Middle classes polling stations.



The longest queue made of three people I saw at the Agricultural research center in
Dokki 

• Despite the fact that several judges I met on Monday said that the turnout was the same like on Sunday while being bored , I felt that there were more people showing especially from younger ages but not so many.
• The turnout is lower than the Presidential elections
• Most polling stations I went to in the past 48 hours , the number of voters did not exceed 500 voters except very few polling stations.
• Usually, I saw extra two ballot boxes empty in the polling stations.

Two empty extra ballot boxes , I saw them alot 

• The Youngest voters I have on Monday were a 20-years old dentistry student and a 18-years old girl who came with her mom who told which candidates to choose. The 20-years old student chose Amr El-Shobaki while the 18-years old girl and her mom chose liberals only.

Parliamentary elections 2015 Day 1 : Where are the voters !?

Where are the voters !? Where are the young voters?
These two questions are the main questions anyone would ask earlier today after seeing the polling stations during the first day of the parliamentary elections’ first stage in 14 Egyptian governorates.

There are nearly 27 million registered voters in the first stage who will choose their 226 representatives if I am not mistaken. Well, one thing for sure I can say safely that most of those millions did not go to vote on the first day of the elections. Just like the days of Mubarak, we are back to the days of empty polling stations.

Personally during as part of work as a journalist, I passed through several polling stations in my Constituency Agouza and Dokki in Giza at 2 PM and 7 PM and I found the following:

Parliamentary elections 2015 : In Giza

After few hours , Egypt’s first parliamentary elections after the ouster of Morsi in July 2013 will kick off its first stage in 14 governorates across the country.
Strangely , there is some sort of an agreement among the journalists that those elections are less interesting and exciting than the 2011 elections or even the 2010 elections.

Egyptian lady votes in Egyptian embassy in Jordan
on Saturday "Reuters"

It is true , after all those elections are mainly between the Pro-Sisi supporters with no opposition what so ever. There are no ideological battles between the right wing or left wing for real , nor there are battles between Islamists and seculars for real.
Yes, the Pro-Sisi supporters are claiming that the Salafists will invade the parliament to turn Egypt in to Afghanistan in a fake campaign in order to push the people to the polling stations.
The campaign is actually turning to some kind of hysterical racist Islamophobic one from what I see.
Those Salafists aka Nour Party are actually Sisi supporters , they are regime friendly since the days of Mubarak.
Again, it is a fake battle.
In the end as I hinted before this is a Pro-Sisi parliament.
Now as I am sick and yet have got a long day to cover after all inshallah , this post is about the parliamentary elections 2015 in Giza governorate ,one of Egypt’s biggest blocs in general because there are quite interesting numbers and facts regarding this governorate.
I live there and this is why I followed its news.
First of all we are speaking about one of the biggest and diversified voting blocs in Egypt with 4,639,126 registered voters out of population equal to 7,486,361. We are speaking about all sorts of voters here from filthy rich Upper class in Sheikh Ziyad district  to poor classes in districts like Meet Okaba , from farmers and workers to people living in Bahriya Oasis.
Now there are 414 candidates competing on 48 seats for Giza in the House of Representatives including 37 individual seats and  11 electoral list seats.
Most of the 414 candidates are independent.

#Elections 2015 : Voting is like Praying as it seems !!

On Saturday, Parliamentary elections polling stations in Egyptian consulates and embassies in 139 countries all over the world opened its doors to Egyptian expats participating in the parliamentary elections.

Back in homeland, preparations are being taken to secure the elections with security personnel from Egyptian armed force and police force to secure polling stations in 103 electoral constituencies in 14 governorates.
Nearly 27,402,353 registered voters are expected to participate in the parliamentary elections to elect 226 MPs out of 2,573
Earlier Saturday in a televised word President Abdel Fattah asked the people of Egypt especially the Youth to participate in the parliamentary elections that will kick off in Egypt tomorrow.
He also said that the upcoming parliament would represent the “Egypt’s Consciousness” in front of the world !! Yeah, former NDPians and journalists like Abdel Rahim Ali are going to represent Egypt’s Consciousness in front of the world.
“The Whole world” is the key phrase here. It is about how the whole world is going to witness these elections as proof on the success of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s administration and regime.
The regime is worried that there will be a low turn out just like what happened during the Presidential elections.

Egypt in UN Security Council : Team US or Team Russia !!

Yesterday, Egypt has won a Non-Permanent seat in the UN Security council for the fifth or the sixth time since the inauguration of the UN Security council in 1946.
Egypt got 179 votes to secure the seat out of 193 votes from the UN member states.

Egypt's delegation presentation to Member states in UN
"UN Press" 

According to some news reports, 11 UN member states rejected the candidacy of Egypt while one UN member state abstained and there was one spoilt vote.
Do not ask me how a member State can spoil its vote !!?
The Pro-Sisi media says that it is a historical achievement when some say that it is actually expected because it was Egypt’s turn to get the seat after nearly 20 years.
The Ministry of foreign affairs’ diplomats say that it is indeed an achievement and that Egypt got votes with deals with other countries to get Egypt’s support and votes in return in the UN and its organizations.
Either ways , it is a fact that Egypt has got a Non-permanent seat in the UN security council for 2015-2017.
Now I look to having a seat in that council now as a responsibility and I wonder what we are going to do.
The big and the tough question: What team shall we join in the UN security council ?? Team US or Team Russia or shall we choose the Non-alliance choice and abstain !?

Parliament 2015 : Its true role

Next 17 October Egyptians abroad will officially open the parliamentary race at Egyptian embassies and consulates around the globe where they will choose their 8 MPs for their 8 seats in Egypt’s 2015 Parliament.
Back in  homeland aka in Egypt, the Parliamentary race’s first stage will kick off in 14 governorates

Candidates banners in 2015 

for two days starting on 18 October.
The results of the first stage will be announced at the polling station throughout 19 October till the new morning of next day.
The 14 governorates are: Giza ,Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, Assuit, New Valley, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, Red Sea, Beheira, Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh.
The run-offs for Egyptian abroad will be on 26-27 October whereas back home it will be on 27-28 October.
Now those are the basic info about the upcoming less interesting parliamentary elections’ first stage.
Officially, the Egyptian government says that by this parliament is the last step in its the 3 July roadmap for the so-called democratic transition in Egypt.
At least this is what the regime officials say abroad and to foreign media.
Back home, it is another story.
Everybody knows that this parliament is not meant to become the last step to bring the democratic transition to Egypt or have any true legislative role or supervisory power on the President or the government.
Everybody knows that this parliament will be a replica to the old NDP parliaments where a new unofficial President’s party is made through electoral coalitions.
For months, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was urging parties to participate in one electoral list for the sake of unity.
Of course, the parties did not do it due to the fights over power and number of seats....etc.

Happy New Hijri Year 1437

Happy new Hijri year 1437 folks.

Today, Muslims around the globe celebrate the start of the new Hijri year 1437.
Officially, today is a national holiday in Egypt
Let’s pray this year will be better and bring the miracle of peace to the world.
God knows Muslim world needs a miracle of peace now more than any time. 

Another 15 days in detention for Esraa

Cairo’s State security prosecution renewed on Tuesday the detention of freelance photographer Esraa El- Taweel for another 15 days pending investigation.
The state security prosecution will revise her detention renewal next 25 October.

Esraa El-Taweel

We are speaking now about more than 100 days of forcible disappearance and detention pending investigation.
Now there is a new update in Esraa’s case. The Prison hospital examined her allegedly at last and officially issued a medical report saying the young photographer was suffering from paralysis in her limbs due to an injury in her spinal cord and needed physiotherapy but her condition was stable now and can be detained in custody !!!!
I do not understand how she needs physiotherapy, but it is okay to keep her in prison !!
According to Alaa El-Taweel, she did not go to any hospital and that strange contradicting report was written without her examination !!
Her lawyer Halim Haneesh presented her original medical reports to the prosecution and demanded that she would be examined by a neurologist.
In early October, Esraa’s sister published a part of her letter to her family asking them to bring instant noodles, bonbon and Jelly Cola sweets !! oh and she wants to go home so much.

I want to go home, Esraa says to her family demanding
gum, instant noodle, bonbon and Jelly Cola "Alaa El-Taweel"

Esraa is accused of being a member in the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a terrorist organization officially in Egypt now.
She is also accused of sending false news to foreign news website about the mistreatment of police forces to protesters in Egypt !!!
Sadly Esraa El-Taweel is lucky that she got friends to speak about her outside, other detainees do not have this privilege.
I have just read the story of Rasha Mounir who was arrested along her sister on 16 August 2013 at Al-Fattah mosque clashes following Rabaa sit-in dispersal and I feel so sad. The lady was originally sentenced along other defendants in the case 25 years in jail and then she appealed and her appeal was accepted. Till this day, the new trial has not been determined when yet.
All this is okay and fine, but it is like that Mrs. Mounir had a series of tragedies one after another. The mother of two girls lost her husband who died while waiting to visit her in jail.
Her husband's family took the custody of her two girls claiming she was a terrorist due to the first trial. The lady also turned to have a heart disease and was transferred to the prison hospital.
Now her lawyer and family seek health pardon for her before her health condition goes worse.
It is just depressing and sad.

October 12, 2015 at 06:18PM

Elections time #Egypt #Citizenjournalism #Blogger October 12, 2015 at 06:18PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1LELNwQ

Where have those old lamps gone !?

Thanks to an auction in Christie’s, we would have known that old Islamic lamps were stolen from the Old El-Rifa’I Mosque
While in London,  conservation architect Dr. Omneya Abdel Barr found out that Christie’s was going to a put an old Islamic glass lamp from Rifai Mosque for an auction on Friday.
The old Islamic glass lamp got the name of Khedive Abbas Helmi II inscribed on it.
The renowned heritage activist had doubts that that the glass lamp was stolen from Al-Rifai Mosque in Cairo. According to the data available.

The lamp
"Christie's"

According to Christie’s, 1910s the Enameled glass mosque lamp got the name of Khedive Abbas Helmi II pasha.
You find old lamps like that in Al-Rifai Mosque as far as I know.
Dr. Abdel Barr contacted a friend back in Cairo and asked him to check Al-Rifai Mosque and its lamps because they looked similar and her friend found out a disaster.
Not less than 98 old Islamic glass lamps were missing or rather stolen from the old Mosque that includes a cemetery of the Mohamed Ali Royal Family.
The lamps were replaced with cheap energy saving bulbs !!!!

It seems that Sadat predicted what is happening in Syria after all !!!

This short clip for Egypt’s President Sadat in 1980 went viral not only in Egypt but also in the Arab world recently.
That clip was taken from a long speech for the late President on 5th October 1980 at the National Democratic Party “NDP” in Cairo.
Those few seconds focused on what was happening in Syria during the clashes between the Muslim Brotherhood and Hafez El-Assad Baath regime in what is known as The siege of Aleppo. Thousands were killed and arrested in that fight. If you think that Syria was enjoying stability and peacefulness in the 20th century then you have to think again about how El-Assad and his son reached to that fake stability based on fear.
Anyhow here is what Sadat said about El-Assad in his speech where he slammed his opponents as usual.

Sadat slams El-Assad and speaks about Soviet Military support .. from more than 30 years

There is civil war in Syria. Hafez El-Assad wants to keep his head along the heads of his brother “Refaat El-Assad” and his Alawite sect and so he asks for the help of the Soviets in Syria and signing a common defense treaty with them against 98% of the Syrians … to protect his head. 

Relations with Syria went from bad to worse after Camp David treaty with Hafiz El-Assad and Saddam Hussein leading the boycott Egypt movement in the Arab world.

#Maspero Anniversary : We are not dead yet !!

Today is the anniversary of Maspero Massacre where not less 28 people were killed including 27 Egyptian Christians and 1 one military police conscript in the worst clashes between Egyptian people in general and military police in 2011. How can anyone forget the pleas of Rasha Magdy to the people to save the army from the Copt protesters ?? How can anyone forget Mina Daniel !?

Mina Daniel in Omar Makram mosque treated
after being injured on 2 February 2011 clashes in Tahrir

Well, it seems that except for that group that still supports and believes in 25 January revolution, people forgot sadly enough. I am not surprised about how most people forgot that bloody moment in our recent history thanks to the media. It seems that the mainstream media careless about the anniversary of Maspero as it used to be in the past.
I also noticed that shamelessly the Pro-military/Pro-regime newspapers like Al-Wafd newspaper boldly claims that the so-called social media activists blame the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists for what happened in Masepero in a very loussy and weak report !!
I am not surprised that this claim is spreading across the Pro-Military/Pro-regime media and the regime supporters because Pope Tawdros II himself said last year that what happened in Maspero was a “Muslim Brotherhood plot” !! In an interview with Sky News Arabia, the head of the Egypt’s Orthodox Church claimed the Brotherhood pushed the protesters to the military police and then withdrew leaving them to be killed !!

October 09, 2015 at 04:59PM

تهنئة بفوز مرشحي الحزب الوطني في دائرة الباجور في انتخابات مجلس الشعب لعام ١٩٩٥. وقتها فاز الوزير كمال للشاذلي بالتزكية بكرسي الفئات في البرلمان و لان في عام ٢٠١٥ يترشح ابنه معتز لمقعد الباجور في نفس الدائرة. An ad congratulating the NDP candidates for winning the people's assembly elections in year 1995 in Bagour constituency , Monufia including infamous NDP leading figure and minister Kamel El-Shazly.In 2015 , his son Moatez is running for the same seat. #Egypt #Blogger #Citizenjournalism #Egyelections October 09, 2015 at 04:59PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1R2p4iA

October 09, 2015 at 04:49PM

سعر الذهب في مصر من عشرين عام The price of gold in #Egypt from 20 years ago , from 1995. #Citizenjournalism #Blogger October 09, 2015 at 04:49PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1LlJGCq

October 09, 2015 at 04:39PM

سعر الصرف الأجنبي من ٢٠ سنة في مصر the foreign exchange in #Egypt from 20 years ago in 1995 from an old newspaper #Blogger #Citizenjournalism October 09, 2015 at 04:39PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1WRe2QY

This is What I call a quick restoration

Do you remember how the Italian consulate in Cairo was bombed in July !? Do you remember how the old consulate looked like after that bombing that destroyed part of its façade as well affected the old poor buildings in Maspero shanty town?
Here is how the Consulate looked like two days after the bombing.

The building following the explosion 

During then the Egyptian government announced that it would repair and renovate the building of consulate at its own expense.
In no time, the Arab contractors started working in the location.
In September, it looked like that.

The consulate building was repainted

Now We should be very worried about Massouny

At last after two weeks and lots of public pleas, the Ministry of interior “MOI” issued a statement about the forcible disappearance of Mostafa Massouny.

أكد مسئول مركز الإعلام الأمنى عدم صحة ما تداولته بعض وسائل الإعلام حول إلقاء القبض على الناشط / مصطفى الماصونى أو إحتجاز...
Posted by ‎الصفحة الرسمية لوزارة الداخلية‎ on Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The officials at the security media center denied what was said in the media that activist MostafaMassouny was arrested or detained in any facility following the ministry of interior. The officials also added that the ministry of interior was investigating the case of Massouny.
I think we should be very worried now about Mostafa Massouny.
This statement makes you wonder about what really happened to Massouny.
The family of Massouny does not believe the MOI statement.

Talk to me about a true triumph for Women in the new cabinet

I did not speak about the new cabinet of PM Sherif Ismail as I used to do in this blog sharing the new ministers’ who is who. It is never too late to share some of my thoughts about the new ministers.
I noticed that in the past two weeks there has a lot of talk about the new female ministers in Ismail’s cabinet and needless to say, there were lots and lots of sexism towards those ladies.
Only three ministers were appointed in Sherif Ismail. Minister Ghada Wali kept her position as minister of social solidarity, Sahar Nasr was appointed as minister of international cooperation and Nabila Makram Ebeid as the minister of the newly founded ministry of immigration and Egyptians abroad affairs.
As soon as their photos of the ministers swearing in hit the wires, we found such comments on how beautiful and elegant they are as a triumph for women in Egypt !! We found a famous college photo for them.

The popular photo college showing the ministers swearing in

First , appointing three female ministers in the cabinet already is not a huge triumph or achievement for women in Egypt because actually it seems that the maximum number of ministerial seats the Egyptian woman can get in any cabinet is three women.
 I do not know why some of our feminists are cheering for appointing 3 women ministers when we used to have four women ministers in the second reshuffle of Ibrahim Mahlab’s cabinet.
Second, I read that comments of so-called and self-claimed feminists on Facebook and I feel that they are actually superficial sexists who judge women on how they look.

“I can say the Egyptian mentality in decision-making cabinet has progressed to meet the 21st-century global requirements” !! 

This is is the exact comment of a famous writer specialized in women’s issues on Facebook !!
I do not know what the 21st-century global requirements are, let alone we do not know really if those ladies were chosen according to those requirements.

Seen in Cairo : A Catholic Church

Seen in Cairo : A Catholic Church in front of Egypt's Journalists syndicate 

October 04, 2015 at 12:03AM

The #Nile at night in #Cairo #Citizenjournalism #Blogger #Egypt October 04, 2015 at 12:03AM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1Vxbmpa

Where is Massouny ?

On 26 June 2015, Mostafa Massouny was staying with his friends in downtown Cairo. At the

Where is Mostafa Massuny? 

evening, the young film editor went to get some food for him and his friends. He has never been seen since then.
For nearly two weeks , his families and friends failed to find him searching in hospitals , morgues, prisons and police stations. In the end his family found a friend of a friend who works in Egypt’s National Security “NS” and told them Massouny was arrested and detained for a couple of days at the NS at Lazghouli street in Cairo and he would be released. That friend of friend warned the family of contacting media or his activist friends.
Days passed and became weeks, weeks passed and became months and Mostafa Massouny did not show and has not been released from his alleged detention.
For three month and week, Massouny has just vanished with no what so ever official trace.
I know Mostafa Massouny as a tweep and protester in 2011. He was once arrested , detained and beaten while covering an anti-SCAF protest in Aswan in July 2011. Then he was arrested later in August from the same year briefly at Tahrir square as the military police was dispersing a sit-in there.
After 2011 , the young graduate of faculty engineering had left politics and activism altogether and focused on his work as a video editor. For 3 years Massouny was focusing on his work with no reportedly political activity.

October 01, 2015 at 03:29PM

#Egyptian flag in #Tahrir square #Blogger #Citizenjournalism October 01, 2015 at 03:29PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1KTH0rW