Saving Egyptian Heritage : The old Italian Phosphate Company Colony in El-Quseir

God knows that I still feel sad about how that small watches shop in Downtown Cairo inaugurated in 1907 demolished “wait for a video clip about it”, only the same thing is being repeated in another place.

In the south of Egypt at the rich-history yet the small city of El-Quseir lays a small abandoned and forgotten complex that like a small colony made by an Italian mining company and it is a time capsule.

One of the administration buildings in the site now "Sebaq"

This Italian colony was founded by an Italian mining company for phosphate mining in the red sea in 1910.

Villa Italia with the Egyptian and Italian flags "Ashraf Baraka"

The employees and their families in the colony in 1946 by Ashraf Baraka 

Hours and Officially Alaa Abdel Fattah to be half free man (P.S He is already a free man) "Updated"

Updated :

-  Friday @1:34 AM: Mona, Alaa's sister announced that he was released from Dokki police station.
at  2:19 AM: Alaa was at home and met the nicest member of his clan 😀

اللقاء الأول
علاء وتوكة
💓 pic.twitter.com/mjkugrqrR3

— Mona Seif (@Monasosh) March 29, 2019

-Thursday @11:35PM Cairo Local time: Alaa Abdel Fattah is actually at Dokki police station where he is spending the first 12 hours of his probation there. 

- Wednesday evening: Alaa Abdel Fattah will be released inshallah from Kasr Al-Nil police station in Cairo's Garden city on Thursday or Friday maximum according to his family.
Here is his first photo outside the prison on Wednesday.

Alaa Abdel Fattah outside prison "Twitter"

Within few hours inshallah, Prominent Egyptian activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah is going to be released after serving 5 years in prison on charges related to illegal protesting.

Alaa Abdel Fattah "AP"

Alaa Abdel Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison and another five years on probation in February 2015 on charges of rioting, participating in an unauthorized protest, disrupting the lives of citizens and exposing them to danger, attacking an employee while on duty and thuggery in the so-called “Shura council trial”.

Sherine-gate : The problem is not in her big mouth dear Egypt

Once again, popular Egyptian singer Sherine Abdel Wahab aka Sherine is in hot water because of what she says on stage and once again lawyer Samir Sabry decides that she must go to jail and the Musicians syndicate believes she must be punished !!

Shereen in some concert in Lebanon wearing a cheerful Dolce and Gabbana dress 

Notorious Samir Sabry filed a legal complaint against her accusing her of “insulting Egypt” last week because she said in a concert in Bahrain that “Here I can say whatever I want as in Egypt I can get imprisoned” according to her.

In a very smart move, Sabry decided he should defend the Egyptian state to prove that Sherine is lying that people get imprisoned because of what they say and so he would send her to Jail because of what she said !!

Last week, Sabry claimed an alleged video spread showing her in that concert saying that “Here I can say whatever I want. In Egypt, anyone who talks gets imprisoned.''

Of course, there is a difference between "I can get imprisoned" and "anyone can get imprisoned" and anyone who followed Sherine's career in the past four years will know that she was speaking about herself actually.

Shockingly, the Musicians syndicate jumped into the wagon and decided to punish her as well as banning from performing in Egypt and summoned her for questioning this week because of what she said !!
The Egyptian State TV and Radio also decided not to run her songs too.

This is not the first time Shereen finds herself in hot water because of her mouth nor it is the first time notorious Samir Sabry stalks her like that.

Happy Mother’s Day 2019 : Egyptian Edition

Happy Mother’s Day to all beautiful mothers in the Arab world.
We celebrate Mother’s Day in Egypt and the Arab World on 21st March each year thanks to Ali and Mostafa Amin.
I know it is late but I want to celebrate all those beautiful ladies in the Arab world with this beautiful shot taken by photographer Muhammed Eldur last year for a mother and her son.

Your mother is your only audience by Mohamed Eldor 

That child dancing happily while his mother was his only audience was spotted by Eldur while attending one of the Moulids in some governorate last year.

All the people were following some performance in the stage at the Moulid when the kid was dancing happily alone and his mother cheering for him.

All that we know about that child and his mother is that he is sick and they are poor and his mother went to the Moulid to cheer him up and also seeking the blessing of the Muslim Patron Saint of that Moulid to cure her son.

Will Kamel Al-Wazir break the curse of Egypt’s Railways ? We will shall see

Earlier Monday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced that Lieutenant general Kamel Al-Wazir, the head of the Egyptian army’s Engineering Authority was appointed as the new transportation minister and within a couple of hours on the same day, the parliament declared its approval for his appointment.

The appointment of Al-Wazir comes after less than two weeks of Hisham Arafat’s resignation as the minister of transportation following the deadly crash of Ramses train station in Cairo.

At least 22 people were killed in that train collision while over 40 people were injured.

Kamel Al-Wazir has been always tipped to be the upcoming prime minister of Egypt due to his accomplishments in the Engineering Authority since he was appointed its head in December 2015.

Kamel Al-Wazir's first day as a civilian minister in the ministry of
transportation in Cairo last week 

His achievements according to the media that spoke highly about him were the highway networks, the so-called New Suez Canal, El-Galala hell development project in Ain Sokhana and the new Rod El-Farag axis.

In nutshell, all the projects involving the Engineering Authority currently in the country “and they are many currently” are successful because of Kamel Al-Wazir, who was being praised by Sisi himself in almost in all their public meetings.
Al-Wazir was graduated as an officer engineer from the Military Technical College in 1980.
His major was in construction.

Algeria protests : The Presidential elections are adjourned but this is not enough for the Algerians

And in a big twist of events, Algeria’s current president Abdel Aziz Bouteflika “announced” in a message to the Algerian people that the upcoming presidential elections in April were adjourned and that he would not seek to run to the presidency for the fifth time.

He also announced that the government would hold a national inclusive independent conference to discuss the upcoming transitional period in Algeria, a new constitution would be drafted. New presidential elections would be held following that conference.

There is no timeline announced but the announcement said that all that would happen before the end of 2019. There is nothing in the constitution about what should happen when his term ends this year.

From Paris, Algerian protesters say that Bouteflika Can't "AP" 

In that message , the ailing-health-president said that he did not intend to run for the fifth time for presidency !!!! “Who then presented his documents to the Presidential elections committee last week while he was in Geneva University hospital !!??”

Bouteflika did not announce all that in a speech on Television as someone would expect.
The statement was sent to the media and was published in Algeria’s state news agency “Algerie Presse Service”.
Prime Minister Ouyahia resigned and a new prime minister was appointed.
It is a busy night for news channels and news websites in the Arab world.
There is no doubt that whoever runs the show in Algeria “the army is co-leading actor for sure” is behind that statement.
That twist of events happened after that dramatic return of Abdel Aziz Bouteflika from Geneva as he was receiving treatment from some unknown illness
Those decisions were taken following three weeks of protests and marches that rocked Algeria and reminded me with the original Egyptian-million-marches and protests in the ol’ good days in Egypt

Martyr's Day 2019 : God bless all the martyrs

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A post shared by Zeinobia (@zeinobia) on Mar 9, 2019 at 6:35am PST

On the occasion of Martyr day in Egypt, May Allah bless the souls of all martyrs from civilians and military that were killed for sake of true freedom, stability and Security, for sake of a better future, especially in the past eight years. 

In the photo, Egypt’s Unknown Soldier Memorial which was built following the 1973 Yom Kippur war. 

It includes as well the tomb of late President Sadat. The pyramid shape memorial already witnessed his assassination in 1981. 

By the way, I use this opportunity and this occasion and post this very important link to this important list with nearly a complete documentation by (@EGAsante) for police and military deaths in Egypt since March 2011 till June 2018.  It is the most accurate thing I have seen online. 

#IWD2019 : Happy Women’s day to the 1919 revolution women

Happy International Women’s Day to all the women around the globe everywhere.

I won’t use big words I promise in this post but I dedicate this post and this “Happy women’s day” to every single Egyptian woman that protested from 100 years ago on 9th of March demanding Egypt’s independence and to an end to the exile of the Egyptian delegation of Saad Pasha Zaghlol and his companions who led the independence movement then.

Women moving in one of the rallies in March 1919

On 8 March 1919, the British occupation issued its decision to send Zaghlol and the rest of the Egyptian delegation that represented Egypt geographically and religiously to exile in Malta.

On 9 March 1919, the anger erupted in the country and its origin point was a small village called Nazlet El-Shobak. The rest is history.

In March 1919, for the first time, the Egyptian women participated in political protests.

Women fought beside men and as an act of equality, they left the full veil up showing their faces in public as in the old days, the type of veil showed your social class as a local Egyptian woman. It was not an anti-religious movement as some claimed as women then kept the head cover in a different way and also religious institution played an important role in supporting the independence of the country.

The mystery of Algiers : Who runs the show in Algeria ?

I am following currently the situation in Algeria as the Algerian people showed since 23 February 2019 their total refusal for current president Abdel Aziz Bouteflika’s candidacy for the presidency for the fifth time despite his ailing health.
In some black comedy reality, Bouteflika is currently in Geneva where he is undergoing “medical checks”.
News reports coming from Europe say the president who suffered a brain stroke in 2013 is currently in a very critical condition.

Bouteflika after the stroke in some public event "EPA"

Yet miraculously and boldly, the man or his team came and admitted his candidacy papers to the elections commission in Algeria angering protesters all over the country to a late hour on Sunday.
His new campaign manager declared his candidacy as his well electoral platform which included the following

• Organizing a national and independent political dialogue in order to prepare new political, economic and social reforms
• Drafting a new Algerian constitution.
• Fighting corruption and marginalization ..to the end of that talk. 
• Empowering youth
• Revising the current elections law and founding a new independent elections committee.
• Holding new presidential elections whose date will be determined by that national dialogue mentioned above and he “Bouteflika” won’t run in it!!!

Now I do not care about all the crap before the last point because I do not understand how logic or sane person would suggest holding new presidential elections after a few months of another presidential election!?
Even from the economic view, I do not know how it is possible !!

Do they think the people stupid? Why do Arab regimes or rulers think that the public are fool !?

Up till this moment, Bouteflika has not addressed his own country people and it is not a surprise.
Now I do not understand something and I hope some Algerian friend will stumble on this post and answer my question.

Algerian army is well known or to be perceived to the be real ruling power in Algeria since the black decade and that civil war between it and the Islamists.

Shawkan is at last a free man officially.

And finally, after five years and half, award-winning photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid aka Shawkan is a free man officially. He is at his home at last.

Shawkan and his famous camera sign at his home at last on Monday "Mohamed El-Raey"

He has been released at last from a couple of hours ago on Monday from Al-Harm police station to finalize the procedures of his release after his long time in jail.

Shawkan was among the 215 defendants who were sentenced to five years in prison by Criminal Court in September 2081 in the famous Rabaa Sit-in dispersal case

Abu-Zeid and the rest of the 214 defendants already served 5 years in total in detention pending investigation prior this long trial.