Actually we need the LE 300 Billion Rain drainage system ASAP in Egypt

From a week ago, East Cairo technically froze for nearly 8 hours or even more because of the rainfall.
The streets and tunnels were flooded for hours, people stuck in their buses and children in their school buses till from afternoon till the early hours of the morning.

Up till now, there is no official or unofficial estimation for the economic losses resulted on that day or the whole wave of bad weather conditions that followed it.

Egyptians began to ask questions as they should about why we do not have a proper rain drainage system to save the capital from flash floods like what we saw last week.

The answer came from the cabinet spokesperson Nader Assad who said on an Egyptian TV channel the following :

We need LE 200 to 300 billion to build a rain drainage system in Cairo alone and even if I have this money , shall I spend it on a rain drainage network to be used for a day or a two in the year or every couple of years !? It is better to use it in more urgent things like building schools and hospitals.

I do not know where to begin but I and many Egyptians believe that this money “if the government has got” is not spent on building things like schools and hospitals.

Lebanon Protests : What do the Lebanese protesters want ? These are some of their demands

 Eleven days have passed and the Lebanese protesters are still occupying main squares and spaces in Lebanon united against all the sectarian political powers and against all odds too in an unprecedented moment in the Lebanese modern history.

On Sunday, Lebanese protesters from different backgrounds, Classes and sects made the longest
human chain 

On Saturday, Lebanese protesters organized a huge human chain from its North and South in a message to the political powers that they are united from Tyre to Tripoli

شي بشرف شي بيرفع الرأس شي بكبر القلب #لبنان_ينتفض pic.twitter.com/VTgB4iBKSZ

— Larissa Aoun (@LarissaAounSky) October 27, 2019

Rain season in Cairo : It is just the start !! "Updated"

At least 5 people were killed on Tuesday because of rain in Egypt including two children.

 A girl was killed on Tuesday in Nile Delta because of the rain.

A student on her way back home from school, 9-years-old Marwa was electrocuted as the street was flooded in the city of 10th Ramadan in Sharkia governorate as a result of the rain.

Another child was electrocuted too in the street during the rain in a Gharbia governorate village according to Masrawy.com.

Egypt’s government announced on Tuesday that schools and universities would be off in the Grand Cairo province on Wednesday following the rains that hit Cairo and paralyzed its East part.

Already the Egyptian Meteorological Authority announced that Wednesday would witness more rains than Tuesday.

It is worth to mention that the EMA has been warning about the rain for two weeks since the start of October as it is the time of seasonal rains in many governorates.

But what do you know ?? It has become an annual habit to find cities flooded whenever the sky rains a little bit.

It does not rain in Cairo like in other foreign cities or even like in cities like Alexandria but what you know !!
Cairo's Heliopolis, Nasr City and Al-Obour have had their share on Tuesday.

الان
مصر الجديدة
صلاح الدين pic.twitter.com/3YIR99BBk0

— Jouka (@__Jouka) October 22, 2019

Here is how the Unknown Soldier Memorial looked like today !!

If you do not know the reality behind this photo, you will think it is beautiful
The famous Unknown Soldier Memorial in Cairo with its pyramid shape surrounded by water !!

This rain blew up the traffic in East Cairo because some streets and tunnels were flooded with the watch because of the lack of rain drainage systems as usual.

#WeWillSpeak : Egyptian Tweeps speak up about Twitter Middle East Selective Censorship

Hundreds of Egyptian tweeps began on Monday a new campaign on Twitter against Twitter MENA policies after a wide suspension of opposition and activists’ accounts in the popular social media network.

The Egyptian tweeps launched  #WeWillSpeak” and #هنتكلم hashtags to reach out for Twitter in the United States.

In the past three months, several opposition and political activists' accounts were either permanently or temporarily suspended allegedly for violating Twitter policies.

#WeWillspeak campaign logo 

Some accounts are allegedly suspended because some Tweeps used “harsh and bad language”.
I know a tweep who got a permanent suspension from two months ago because he used allegedly bad language in criticizing a film from two years ago. 

Lebanon protests: What is happening there ? It is something bigger than a WhatsApp tax revolt “Graphic and updated"

I began to write this post late Friday as the protests got intense in Lebanon with clashes between protesters and security forces as well as political powers and parties' militias.

The protesters have been demanding since Thursday evening the three main powers in Lebanon to resign: The President, Prime minister and the Cabinet and the parliament. They also can't take it anymore of any of the current political powers and parties in the country. They are all financially corrupted and puppets to regional powers, which actually is true.

Then I could not publish it at 2:25 AM because I have got huge material from photos and videos showing something huge taking place in that beautiful small yet troubled country to be constrained by the term "WhatsApp tax revolt" as some wire services and correspondents put it so simply. I could not choose from this huge material and I slept, unfortunately.

I updated this at 2:00 PM Cairo local time when armed supporters of Lebanese parliament speaker and Shiite political leader Nabih Berri had been attacking protesters in Tyre in an escalation for hours.

At least there are four people who have been killed including two so far.
This won’t scare the protesters but rather will make them angrier. This what we have learned as experienced Egyptian protesters and reporters since 2011.

In fact, protests and rallies against the political establishment and political powers including Amal Movement and its leader Berri got bigger and stronger in places like the movement stronghold Nabatieh.

A rally in Nabatieh where the protesters held the flags of Lebanon alone "Source: Ahmad Issawi"

This is unprecedented.
Lebanon is yet again in political and social upheaval, this is not a revolt against WhatsApp tax.

Videos went viral since afternoon on social media in Lebanon like these below show how allegedly Amal Movement members opened their fire against the protesters "Warning: Graphic content" 

The return of Mubarak : YouTube edition

Last Tuesday many Egyptians waited at 8 PM Cairo local on a YouTube channel to see their former and ousted President Mohamed Hosni
Mubarak to appear and speak.

24 hours earlier, Mubarak’s eldest son Alaa announced on Twitter that his father would speak for the first time live on YouTube on Tuesday at 8PM.

I would have loved to share the tweet directly from Alaa Mubarak’s twitter account but the once-a-businessman -tycoon has blocked me on the popular social media network.

Anyhow Ironically at the same time, whistleblower Mohamed Ali announced that he would address the nation yet again in an important video at 8.30 PM !!

It seemed that the 91-years-old despot joined Egypt’s latest Political online video craze that has hit the country in September with the first video released by the contractor turned in to an actor then a runaway whistleblower who continues to release videos against current president El-Sisi on Facebook and YouTube from Spain.

Mubarak as he appeared in his video sharing his war memories 

Now he also joins the growing and interesting Egyptian YouTube realm in his own way.

Anyhow Tuesday came and a video was upload on that YouTube Channel called “Mubarak archives” in English. The YouTube Channel was created and launched on 13 October 2019.

Farewell elephant Naema : Egypt’s Giza zoo loses one of its stars

Egypt’s Giza zoo declared on Monday that its famous elephant Naema passed away.
According to news reports, Giza Zoo’s only remaining African elephant passed away after possibly having a  stroke on Sunday evening.

Late Naema in 2013 in Giza Zoo

Dr. Mohamed Ragae, the head of Giza Zoo told Masrawy that “Naema” fell on the ground and refused to eat her evening meal adding that she fell due to a sudden heart stroke which her old body could not resist.
Naema was not only the remaining African elephant in Giza Zoo but she was also the remaining elephant our famous Zoo had.

There will be more political and media reforms in Egypt : Parliament speaker says

The House of Representatives' speaker Ali Abdel Aal said on Tuesday there would be political, partisan and media reforms in Egypt in the upcoming period.
"There will be new measures in the coming period to reactivate Egypt's political life." Abdel Aal said in the opening procedural session of the parliament in Cairo.

Aside from the usual blaming of foreign hostile powers working against the country, the speaker of the House asked the current cabinet led by PM Mostafa Madbouli “not export problems to the president of the republic and to parliament”.

A file photo of Parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal "Al-Ahram"

He said the following too according to VetoGate “Hitler had his mistakes but what enabled him to expand East and West was Germany’s infrastructure which is the locomotive that led Germany to become a top-level country and the rich countries are economic countries like Korea and Indonesia”

I do not know but that “Hitler” reference is troubling on many levels because historically the infrastructure that the infamous dictator built in Germany was destroyed after the defeat of Nazis in WWII !! Also, Hitler did not “have mistakes” , Hitler did horrifying war crimes that the world is still paying their prices !!
I do not know what the former professor of constitutional law is trying to justify or say here.
Aside from Hitler and the bad government as well as the promise of upcoming reforms, there were strange quotes in that opening procedural session in the last term for this parliament from unexpected people.

In the same session, we heard Pro-regime MP Mostafa Bakry saying that “The war against expressing opinions must be stopped, this is not Egypt that we sacrificed for !!”
Bakry’s TV show on Sada El-Balad which had its share from crazy conspiracy theories and genius children has suspended from a couple of weeks ago.