Happy 30 June Dear Egyptians : Less energy subsidies , more fuel prices

Earlier Thursday, Egyptians woke up to the news that government announced cuts in the energy subsidies effective immediately, which means that there will be an increase in the fuel prices and subsequently there will be an increase in the price of everything.

The price of 80-octane gasoline has increased from LE 2.35 per Litre to LE 3.65 which means buses, microbuses, taxis and even tuktuk's fare will increase.

At the fuel state, an old taxi driver and a sign with the new prices
in Cairo, Egypt on Thursday "Photo: Reuters"

The prices of food supplies as well any things use that trucks for transportation will increase as well.

Already, vegetables' prices are expected to increase by 40%.
A simple salad will cost the Egyptian family nearly LE 50 !!

The price of 92-Octane gasoline has increased from LE 3.50 per Litre to LE 5 in another blow to the Middle class that own cars.

The price of gas cylinders has increased from LE 15 to LE 30.
A Huge number of Egyptian especially the poor working classes in the governorates will be affected with that increase.
The number of Egyptians who got access to natural gas in homes is still small compared to the Egyptians who still use the gas cylinders, especially in the countryside.

Experts say that the inflation will increase after this new wave of high prices that can reach to 35%.
In May, the inflation rate hit three-decade high with 32.9 % but it dropped in April but it fell to 30.9% in May.

This is the third major increase in the prices of fuel in Egypt since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi became the head of state.

The first time was in July 2014 while the second was in November 2016 following the Center Bank of Egypt "CBE" to devaluate the Egyptian pound aka to float the price of Egyptian pound free.

We knew that this will be coming because the start of the new official fiscal year 2017/2018 is 1 July in Egypt.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl Ep.29 and Ep.30

First of all, I am more than sorry for not posting anything on the blog or even continue our Arabian tale for this Ramadan or even posted Happy Eid from Egyptian Chronicles to you.


It was out of my hand as I had technical problems with my Windows 10 Dell laptop on Saturday.Thank God I have managed only to fix those problems only late Thursday.

They were technical problems related to booting and scary BSOD.
I spent technically the three days of Eid in attempting to fix my laptop aside of eating, watching movies on TV and sleeping.
Lots of things took place and I know that I can start with our Audio Arabian Nights tale for this year, the tale of Princess Sea Pearl.

I think before continuing our audio tale, you have to refresh your memory to remember what happened from nearly a week ago.
Now we going to finish our tale and know the fate our heroes for this whether the good or the villains.

Episode 401 or the Twenty Ninth night

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.25", "EP.26", "EP.27" and "EP.28"

First, Happy Eid in advance.
Second, we are getting close to the end of Ramadan as well the end of our tale for this year, the tale of Princess Sea Pearl.
Now, we stopped at the Twenty-third Night in the previous post. Sadly enough I could not find Episode twenty-four anywhere online even at the Egyptian State Radio's archives.

Nevertheless, based on the previous episodes and the upcoming episodes I can tell you that it is about that second meeting between Princess Sea Pearl and Hamal Al-Asya where they will fall in the love.

I can tell you also that in Episode 396 of the Radio Arabian nights show that Princess Sea Pearl marries Hamal Al-Asya and as she becomes a human, she loses her memory.

Third, here are our episodes for tonight.

Episode 397 or Twenty-Fifth night

This is what the Syrian refugees did to our Egyptian economy

Tuesday, the world celebrated the World Refugees Day. United Nations and its organizations above them UNHCR as well many countries in the world used that day to highlight their efforts to help the refugees around the globe.
The world is facing one hell of a refugees problem that it has not seen before since the WWII.
Back in our corner of the world, there has been one hell of silence when it comes to the Arab governments or Arab media.
In a sad irony, the Middle East or rather the Arab world is the Source of more than the half of refugees around the globe now.
Aside from Palestinian refugees who have been in limbo since 1948 and 1967, we have got Syrian refugees, Iraqi refugees, Yemeni refugees, Sudanese refugees and Somali refugees.
The media is busy with Ramadan TV season and at the same time the internal Gulf crisis as far as I could tell.
In Egypt, we got also Ramadan TV season, bad economy and a worse political situation with the ongoing Tiran and Sanafir Saga.Yet I have not forgotten about this important day.

It is never too late to post something about the refugees in Egypt or any other place in the world.

Earlier this month, I have read interesting facts that made me love the Syrian refugees in Jobs Make difference report published by UNDP, International Labor Organization "ILO" and World Food Programme "WFP.

For example; the inflow of Syrian direct investments headed to Egypt, Jordan and Turkey as things escalated from revolution to civil war in an easy way.

The report says that Syrian refugees in Egypt injected in those years not less than $800 million.
Yes, $800 million were injected into our economy through Syrian investors and businessmen who moved to Cairo.
The $800 million could have been more if it were not for the restrictions on foreigners to invest in Egypt as they lack to access to credit and banking.
They also must have Egyptian partners.

Two Syrians working in a falafel and beans shop at the Syrian street in October City
in 2016. See more photos here 

I believe the source of those millions is the textile factories. Yes, Syrian textile factories that found a huge demand in Egypt.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.20", "EP.21", "EP.22" and "EP.23"

And we continue our tale for this year, the tale of Princess Sea Pearl.

Again this Ramadan is special for personal as well for general reasons that make me share with you those episodes in that way.
To refresh your mind, here is a link to the past episodes so you can remember what Hamal Al-Asya has done.
Now without further delay and lots of useless and endless talk, here are the episodes.
We will see how Hamal Al-Asya meets with Princess Sea Pearl and how his life will be turned upside down. His wicked stepmother and so-called brother return back to our tale for this year for more bitterness and wickedness as usual.

Episode 392 or the twentieth night

Episode 393 or the twenty-first night

Seen in Cairo : Once a famous Cinema Theater

 Seen in Downtown Cairo the once famous and currently closed down "Opera" Cinema theater.
It survived the Grand fire of Cairo in February 1952 but it did not survive the curse of time.

Now it is closed down and surrounded with ugly big buildings and shops in the overcrowded Opera square aka Al-Ataba Square. According to friends , it is being renovated and it will be opened soon.
I do not know when it was built or who owned or owns it but I know it was named after Egypt's Khedival Opera House.

They are over 90 websites now : Online Censorship does not want to stop in Egypt "Updated"

Whoever runs this ongoing online censorship latest crackdown does not want to stop !!

This post has been updated on 18th June 2017.

Cairo-based human rights law firm Association for Freedom of Thoughts and Expression "AFTE" filed a lawsuit at the Administrative court appealing against the decision to ban certain websites in Egypt without legal basis nor official explanation.

Now the number of blocked websites in Egypt jumped from 65 in the past 48 hours to 77 to 93 websites on 18 June according to "AFTE".

The new blocked websites in Egypt are:

• Al-Manassa News and Citizen Journalism website
• Noon Post
• Nooun feminist webzine
• Ida2at.com
• Madaad.net
• 6 April Youth Movement official website.
• Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Mekameleen TV channel's official website
• Muslim Brotherhood's disbanded political army Freedom and Justice's news portal.
• Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News website
• Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Marsad Press
• Open Whisper System official website

I feel that sad that Al-Manassa news and citizen journalism platform has been blocked.
I think that website founded by veteran blogger and journalist Nora Younis joined the blocked websites list for its distinguished for its parliament's coverage.
The website had an excellent parliamentary correspondent who used to reveal the tiniest thing happening the in the House of Representatives.
It was among that the few websites that followed minute by minute on Wednesday how the Tiran and Sanafir Islands deal passed.

Turkey-based Noon Post is similar to Sasa Post. The Islamic-leaning website used to have very interesting news reports and investigative reports from time to time.
Now, I think Nooun Feminist webzine is paying the price of having a similar name to Noon Post

Nooun's logo after being blocked
"Nooun's Facebbok page"

because other than that I cannot find a reason on why this blog webzine dedicated to women's affairs and issues would be blocked now !!!!

Tiran and Sanafir Saga : The summer of 1967 Redux

A group of opposition figures called for mass protests across Egypt in the past 48 following the fast approval of Egypt' House of Representatives on the Egyptian Saudi maritime borders demarcation deal on Wednesday.

According to the deal and despite the history of Egyptian sovereignty, the Tiran and Sanafir Red Sea are part of the Saudi territories after this approval.

Former Presidential candidate and Nasserite political founder of the Karma Party and Popular Current Hamdeen Sabhi called for protests on Friday.
I do not know where or when those protests are going to be, to be honest.

It seems that the security predicted that there would be protests and thus in the past 48 hours as there are extended security crackdown as well mass arrests for activists across the country.

According to the latest Socialist Popular Alliance party statement, there are currently 64 detainees arrested from Cairo, Giza, Port Said, Gharbia, Sharkia, Al-Ismailia, Qalyubia, Fayoum, Alexandria, Aswan, Damietta, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Behaira, Bani Suef and Suez.

The current crackdown targets independent activists as well party members like The Constitution Party, The Socialist Popular Alliance Party and El-Karma Party as well Bread and Liberty party.
I am afraid that the protests would not attract too many people because we are speaking about Ramadan, Summer and above them fear.

Lawyers protesting against the agreement at their syndicate earlier
Thursday "Reuters" 

People are afraid of protesting thanks to the infamous protest law.
There had been small protests this week against the agreement whether at the Journalists Syndicate or Lawyers Syndicate or the doctors' syndicate so you can imagine how downtown Cairo was locked down in the past few days.

Aside from the usual crackdown, the government to close down El-Sadat Metro station in Tahrir.

A Late Midnight's recommendation

At 3 AM Cairo Local Time, The Supreme Constitutional Court's Commissioners authority issued its recommendations to the Supreme Court to reject the two appeals presented by the Egyptian Government against the Administrative court's verdict that the two islands are Egyptians.
The commissioners' authority whose opinion is advisory to the court upheld the original June 2016 administrative court, which was already upheld in January by the High Administrative.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.16", "EP.17", "EP.18" and "EP.19"

Sorry for the extreme delay in updating our Ramadan Arabian for this year. The past couple of days were extremely tiring.

By Edward Dulac 

It ended up by that defeat Egyptians faced in the Parliament on Wednesday as the House of Representatives, in what can be best described as a farce passed the maritime borders demarcation deal and there are lots of updates to catch on.
I will not give to sadness and I am going to continue to share our Ramadan Arabian Nights.
Tonight we will listen and continue our tale for the tale of Princess Sea Pearl and her husband Hamal Al-Asya from episode 16 to 19.
First, I think you should refresh your memory and hear the last episode I published on Egyptian Chronicles.
Now we will catch on with our hero Hamal Al-Asya and know how he rejected the unwanted advances of his boss's wife and how he would pay a huge price for that.

Episode 388 or The Sixteenth Night

We are still with the story of Hamal A-Asya and that wicked Wardshan.

Episode 389 or The Seventeenth Night

And Avaaz joins the list of banned websites in Egypt !!! "Updated"

And the banned websites list in Egypt is getting longer and bigger per day now.
According to the Cairo-based Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression "AFTE"", we are speaking about more than 60 websites.
They were more than 50 websites yesterday and the day before they were more than 40 websites whereas last week they were only more than 20 websites !!!

The most noticeable websites that joined the list this time are Avaaz and January News Portal !!
Yes, the famous U.S-based online petition and civic organization website is banned in Egypt for a reason beyond my knowledge or imagination.
Online Petitions do not really change things in Egypt or really effective.
I can't remember the last Avaaz petition that forced the Egyptian government to do something.

This is not a thing to belittle Avaaz and its role in the world and in other countries where it really makes a change.

Then we got January News Portal or Yaniar Gate which is founded and headed by Nasserite journalist Amr Badr.

Former Presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabhi at the sit-in of
the Journalists Syndicate "Mohamed El-Raay"

Yaniar Gate is just like Al-Bediah and Al-Badil, an independent news website that is totally against the Tiran and Sanafir deal as well the Egyptian regime's policies.

Amr Badr, the current head of the Freedoms Committee in Egypt's Journalists Syndicate has his share of trouble with the regime because of his opposition to the Tiran and Sanafir islands deal.

Currently, Amr Badr and other leading members of the Journalists syndicate including the trio of the previous Journalists Syndicate board are having a sit-in against referring the deal to the parliament and how the Legislative Committee passed in disgusting farce.

More blocked websites in Egypt : Medium is blocked too "Updated"

Just as the Egyptian Parliament is on the verge of committing unforgivable sin by discussing the Tiran and Sanafir deal against the public opinion as well the court orders, we find that more websites are blocked including petition website and a whole popular publishing and blogging platform !!!

A screenshot for Medium homepage on TEData

On Friday , I have known that an online petition website against the Egyptian Saudi maritime borders demarcation deal was blocked.
Honestly, I am surprised because this website is not that popular and only 1480 people have signed the petition so far.

Updated on 12/6/2017

Just in less than 24 hours , we found out Al-Bediah news website and El-Badil news website are blocked.

Headed by veteran leftist journalist and activist Khaled El-Balshy, the left-leaning Pro-25 January new website is actually the most prominent defendant of the islands' Egyptian identity in the world of Egyptian press. The website used to publish every single shred of paper or document stating the islands are Egyptian.

El-Balshly who used to used to the head Egypt's Journalists syndicate's Freedom committee is a long time opposition figure in the press. He may go to jail if his appeal against the November's two years in jail and LE 10,000 Fine court sentence is rejected in the case that goes also back to Tiran and Sanafir.

El-Bedial , which ironically El-Balshy founded and then left in 2012 , joined the list of the blocked websites. Also, the Nasserite website was against the Saudi-Egyptian government deal.

I have just known Saturday evening that popular Medium publishing and blogging platform has been blocked in Egypt.
You can't get access to Medium.com and its blogs and sites whether on TEData DSL ISP or Orange 4G LTE as I have tired.
You can access it through VPN.

Aside from its current blogs publishing what the regime rejects of ,I read that some of news websites originally blocked in May was going to use Medium as alternative to reach to its readers in Egypt.On 24 May , not less than 23 websites were blocked in Egypt including independent Mada Masr news website as well Al-Jazeera TV network's websites.

In the following days , more websites have been blocked in the country till they reached over 40 50 websites  according to Cairo-based Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression "AFTE".
Following the first batch , we got new websites blocked everyday. Aside from Medium.com , Turkey-based SasaPost was also blocked in Egypt.

Some Twitter woes with my Twitter account

Dear friends, first thanks for your support and the messages I have received.

Yes , my Twitter account (@Zeinobia) has been locked since Saturday afternoon and is temporarily restricted.

Saturday afternoon, I found myself locked out by Twitter due to some problem related to "automated tweets" in my account.

I usually use Hoot Suite to schedule tweets with posts from my blog as I have done in the past three years and did not face this problem.

I followed the procedures according to Twitter support and I was supposed to receive a call from Twitter to get a verification code and up till I have not received it.

Nevertheless, I managed to contact Twitter and I am trying to find a way to fix things.

I see many of the replies and notifications as well DMs in Windows 10 Twitter Native app and as I can not reply, I must say in my blog that I am overwhelmed with such support and love.
Thank you so much 

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.15"

And we are back on track.
We continue our tale for this year, the tale of Princess Sea Pearl.
We are still with the tale inside the tale hearing the story of Hamal Al-Asya as he recounts it to the Djinn King in the Sea realm
You remember how he ended up in some haunted mill here.
And now to our new Arabian night.

Episode 387 or the fifteenth night

Thank you for listening and if you like it then please share it with your friends :)

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.13" and "Ep.14"

First of all, I apologize for not posting episode 13 last night as I was very tired and arrived home late after very long and hot Ramadan day.

An illustration inspired by Arabian
nights in 1911 "Edmond Dulac"

Needless to say, Thursday was full of drama worldwide whether the ongoing Gulf feud or Comey's testimonies or the British elections.

Second, tonight we will have a double bill, two episodes instead of one as we continue our Egyptian Radio Arabian nights tale for this year "Princess Sea Pearl".

To refresh your memory, here is what happened from two days ago.
Tonight we will continue the tale of Hamal Al-Asya , in fact we know tonight his newest adventure and it is nice and worth to listen too.

With no further delays, here are our episodes tonight where we know what our young hero will do in the old haunted mill.

Episode 385 or the thirteenth night

Episode 386 or the fourteenth night

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.12"

The Middle East is still turning upside down and our tale for this year continues with Princess Sea Pearl and her human husband.
Tonight we will see how evil for real Hamal Al-Asya's stepmom and his so-called brother.
You can refresh your memory and remember how his father passed away here.
Now it is time for our episode tonight

Episode 384 or the twelveth night of our tale this year.

Thanks for listening and I hope you share it.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.11"

The crisis has not ended yet in the Gulf and it seems that it is getting complicated each hours especially with Trump's tweets.

If you need a break from that crazy Middle East drama then I recommend complete reading this post to listen to a new Ramadan Arabian night.

Tonight we will continue our tale "Princess Sea Pearl".

We will continue to hear "Hamal Al-Asya" and his family's story and how he and his father endured hell with his stepmom and his so-called brother.

To refresh your memory , you can hear the beginning of that family that found itself in the under the sea Djinn realm here.

Now here is tonight's new episode from Egyptian state radio's old Arabian nights.

Episode 383 or the eleventh night of our tale this year.

Thanks for listening and I hope you share it.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.10"

Okay forget what happened early Morning in the Gulf and the Middle East and Pay attention to this post.
It is time for another night of our Arabian nights this year.
We will continue our tale, the tale of Princess Sea Pearl.
You can refresh your memory and remember what Hamal El-Asaya's wicked stepmother had done here.
Tonight we will meet his so-called brother.
Here is our episode for tonight.

Episode 382 or the tenth night of our tale this year.

I hope you enjoy it and share it with your friends online.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.9"

It is time for our Ramadan Radio Arabian night. We will continue this year our tale , the tale of Princess Sea Pearl and her human husband.

We will know what Hamal Alasya's wicked stepmom had done to him and to his father.

You can refresh your memory and know the young man and his stepmom ended up in the Sea realm here.

Now it is for our episode tonight.

Episode 381 or the Ninth night of our tale this year.

Hope that you enjoy tonight's episode :)

Minya Massacre : What we should say and ask (Graphic)

A week passed following the horrifying Minya massacre on Friday where at least 29 Egyptian Christians including children were killed by militants while they were on their way to visit an ancient Christian Orthodox Monastery in Minya's Western desert.

On Sunday, the infamous Daesh claimed their responsibility for the attack unsurprisingly claiming that they killed "warrior Christians" !!! There were Children, women and elderly in that convoy !!
This is the third terrorist attack targeting Egyptian Christians since December by that death cult.
Daesh claimed its responsibility for the bombing of El-Botroseya Church in Cairo in December and the Churches bombings in Alexandria and Gharbia in April.

It also had declared that it would target Egyptian Christians at least twice.
The first time was in February as it published a video repeating the infamous ultra-Egyptian Islamist rhetoric when it comes to accusations of the Christian community in the country.
The video is technically produced to justify its old as well upcoming attacks against the biggest Christian population in a Muslim country in the Middle East.
The second warning which is the most recent in early May was in an interview with an unidentified leader of Daesh-affiliated group Daesh in one of their online publications.
That alleged leading figure in that terrorism franchise warned of further attacks against Egyptian Christians urging Egyptian Muslims to stay from Christian gatherings.
That request to Muslims came after at least three Muslim people were killed in the churches' bombings in April.

First question about security

Despite warnings , there has not been enough protection to the Egyptian Christians and their gathering places and the proof is what we saw in front of us last Saturday.

Since knowing about the attack in Minya, I have been asking myself on why that Christian Convoy was not escorted by security till the monastery in the Middle of the desert.

That monastery is in the Middle of the desert inside Bani Suef governorate, it is like the gate to Egypt's Western desert.

The location of the monastery, the red line shows
El-Edwa City in Al-Minya governorate. 

The road to the monastery is not paved or equipped.
There are no clinics or emergency checkpoints to help people on that road if there is a car accident, let alone there is no police presence there.
Here is a graphic video at the attack's location showing the victims' bodies in the middle of nowhere.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.8"

It is time to continue our tale of this year , the tale of Princess Sea Pearl.

Before we know how Princess Sea Pearl turned in to a human and how it ended up with no memory , we will know the story of "Hamal Alasya".

We will also meet his stepmom and know the story of his so-called brother.

It is a nice tale which I think you will enjoy knowing as usual.

You can refresh your memory and remember what happened in our tale here.

Now it is time of our episode tonight.

Episode 380 or the eighth night

I hope you enjoy the episode and have a pleasant Ramadan night. 

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.7"

We continue tonight our tale , the tale of Princess Sea Pearl and her human husband.

Tonight we go from a story to another one as no we are going to hear the story of ""Hamal Alasya" or "The pain bearer".

You can refresh your memory and remember how that man who bears a sad name ended up in the sea realm by checking last night's episode here.

Now it is time of our episode tonight.

Episode 379 or the Seventh night

I hope you enjoy the episode and have a pleasant night.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.6"

And we are on the right track now :))
Tonight we will continue our tale of this Ramadan, the tale of Princess Sea Pearl and how she turned into a human.

You refresh your memory and hear last night radio Arabian nights here.
Tonight we will meet that man who turned the Djinn Mermaid Princess into human like him, the poor "Hamal Alasya" or "The pain bearer"
Do not ask me from where Mr. Abu Fasha got those names because I do not.
Anyhow with no delays, here is tonight's episode in Arabic.

Episode 378 or the Sixth night