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.
At least this is what I know.
Already, even if those students did not inform the administration, the University of Alexandria must seize the opportunity and host Heggy giving him all the facilities he needs in order to speak with Egypt’s students about the latest Mars exploration.
I do not understand how any university in the world, especially in the Third World in a country like Egypt would reject to host a lecture about the latest space explorations by NASA researcher like Heggy.

Essam Heggy

Anyhow, I would be lying if I said that I am shocked that Heggy’s lecture was cancelled. I was actually amazed that he would be allowed to give lecture publicly like that after expressing his views openly on his Facebook about the regime, New Suez Canal and the endless arms deals.
People always refer to how Heggy stood as the President’s advisor for sciences in 2014 against the infamous army Kofta device.
A stand that made him face disgusting attack in the Pro-regime media in Egypt.
Nevertheless, Essam Heggy has been critical of Sisi’s regime despite not naming him directly. He has been criticizing openly how the country is spending billions of pounds on inaugurating projects like New Suez canal and buying arms instead of investing in education.
He is not speaking only about education in Egypt.

عدم مشاركة الناخبين هي رسالة قوية منهم للمرشحين و الدولة بأن مصر ليست أمة مغيبة. نصيحة للمستخفين بعقولنا: لا تقايضونا عل...
Posted by Essam Heggy on Monday, October 19, 2015

On 19 October 2015 , where the whole world was speaking about the low turnout of voters in the first stage of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, the NASA researcher posted this on his Facebook account publicly.

The voters’ decision not to participate in the elections is a strong message to both the candidates and the state that Egypt is not an absent nation. An advice to those who underestimate our minds : Do not force use to choose in a nightmare or to die for the sake of a dream. If we choose the first choice today then tomorrow nothing will remain except the second choice.

When Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet committee won the Nobel Peace prize for 2015 , he wrote this post.

The Nobel Peace Prize went to the civil society in Tunisia which contributed in founding a civil dialogue that is the basis for a modern democratic state. Congratulations and Thanks Tunisia for standing for the Arabs.
There is no heroic act in dividing the society through a vulgar media language that draws idols and glories that would and will never be there.
We take a pride in buying weapons with all what we have for the sake of the war on terrorism while poverty , ignorance and disease are slaying the nation.
The true hero in the war on terrorism is who will end this war by a word of love , a word of mercy ; not that will win in a battle where the blood of Arabs will be spilled from all parties.

Do you think that he would be let to have public lectures with young students even if they are about pure science after all this talk !?
By the way, Heggy appeared on CBC TV channel on Thursday where he was debated about which was important : Education or war on terrorism !!!!!!! He later knew that his lecture was cancelled.
I will not speak about how bad this is for education and science in Egypt because there is no use to speak about that.