Egyptian Chronicles’ Shakers and Movers of 2019

Okay, I am trying to keep an annual event in Egyptian Chronicles.

Here is my list of those I believe that have been the shakers and movers of 2019.
I started writing down this post at 3:22 PM, yes it is my epic procrastination for the year. Since October I have been suffering this bloody procrastination

This is not the list of the top people but rather those made an impact whether positive or negative based on my own views
This list is without any order. These names were the ones that came into my mind in those few hours.

Locally

Mohamed Ali, Soroya Mohamed, Mohamed Salah, Alaa Abdel Fattah

• The few Egyptian protesters who surprised everybody including the Egyptians themselves and the world in September. 
• Mohamed Ali, the former 15-years-civilian army contractor/one-time actor and producer/real estate developer/self-exiled/whistleblower/opposition figure. From where shall I start? There is no doubt that the 45-years-old man whom many Egyptians did not know before shook and moved things in Cairo like none other. He was like the danger that the regime has not ever thought about. The street smart guy in self-exiled unleashed a shock wave that Egyptian activists are paying its price a crackdown. Yet on another popular level, some members of the working class look to him as the anti-hero who made enough noise to disturb the upper class and government as some said. Ali’s wave lessened in December but he returned back with some Document to bring together the Egyptian opposition allegedly. He got less audience than before but he is officially there and can’t be ignored or disregarded after all he reached segments revolutionary intelligentsia failed to reach.

• Wael Ghonim and his return as well his complete change representing what the last nine years of social and political bullying can turn you. Ghonim is having a comeback online with constant vlogging discussing his thoughts. He is not your old Wael Ghonim but rather a new version of that Egyptian activist the world knew. “P.S: in case you do not know Wael Ghonim’s brother apolitical dentist Hazem Ghonim was released from detention last week”.

• MP Ahmed Tantawy, the opposition voice in the Egyptian parliament whom many suspect to be another fake décor
• A group of Egyptian journalists who remind me that this profession is not dead yet in Egypt and there is more to present and I got many names starting with the Mada Masr team, investigative journalist Ahmed El-Shamy, videographer Mostafa Darwish and Egypt’s only Pulitzer winners AP journalist Maggie Michael and Nariman El-Mofty who have not been honored yet by the Egyptian journalists syndicate as far as I know.

• Egyptian basketballer Soroya Mohamed aka the new Queen Cleopatra who was chosen among the world's best players in 2019. She is also Rami Malak’s Muslim Twin sister.
• As usual King Mo aka Mohamed Salah is in the list and it is not only about his victories but about his involvement in Warda’s affair and his constant quiet fights with the Egyptian football federation.

• Alaa Abdel Fattah’s family and Alaa himself. He was freed in May only to be detained in September in a new case.
• Late President Mohamed Morsi and his death in June. It was a tough summer for his family as his youngest son also passed away in September. 
• Mahmoud Abdel Fattah El-Sisi , President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s son.

Regionally

Without any order to all those brave and great protesters in the Arab world that reminded the people that the Arab protests movement or Arab spring or as I will call it the second grand Arab revolution movement is still alive and kicking.

Lebanon, Algeria, Sudan and Iraq, thanks for giving us the hope 

• The Sudanese protesters who managed to put an end for a corrupted military dictatorship peacefully, yes their republic is still new and part of the old regimes are still there.
• The Lebanese protesters who managed to stand against a highly sectarian political corrupted regime and a financially corrupted banking system.
• The Lebanese women who challenged that stupid sexist stereotype
• The Iraqi protesters who are standing not only against a highly sectarian politically and financially corrupted regimes but also against regional and international powers.
• The Algerian protesters who have been protesting for months now in complete defiance to the military peacefully.

Special mention to the great Syrian and Yemeni people, may 2020 be the year of your ultimate freedom.

The rulers class

• Mohamed Bin Zayed aka MBZ who truly managed to make Emirates a political regional power by supporting all sorts of despots and strongmen in the world from East to West but on what cost on the medium and long run !? Time will tell.
• Mohamed Bin Salman aka MBS who and his cronies proved that money can buy anything in the world and the sham trial of Jamal Khashoggi is a proof
• Erdogan whether you like or not the Sultan proved to the sultan of pragmatism in the Middle East world in a negative way. 
• Khalifa Khafter and his Zero hours to liberate Tripoli from the control of militias with the help of radical Salafi and foreign militias.
• Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s Prime minister

Internationally

Boris, Greta, Tsar Putin and dirty Epstein 

• Vladimir Putin, the official Tsar of Russia who returned back the Soviet Union’s power under a new name and new capitalistic system. The man who hit the West using none other than democracy and the alt-right wing
• Hong Kong protesters and Chinese Uighur Muslims
• The great people of New Zealand and their Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and what this tiny nation in the far side of the world presented as a society and as a state to their Muslim community after the horrifying Christchurch Mosque shooting which seems to be forgotten
• Congresswomen Rashida Tlab and Ilhan Omar whether you like it or not but for the first time since 1948, a taboo was broken about Palestine and the Palestinian people as well as the Israeli Zionist lobbies in D.C.

Rashida Tlab and Ilhan Omar in February 2019 "Getty"

• India’s Narendra Modi and how he and his Hindu nationalist party are dragging the world's biggest democracy to the abyss of nationalism.
• Greta Thunberg whom I believe did what is enough for me: annoying Trump.
• Jeffery Epstein, the pimp who was killed but it was made a suicide to shut him forever.
• The Great saga of Carlos Ghosn and Nissan in Japan that ended with his escape to Lebanon in a box.

In the end, 2019 was not politically great worldwide as it seems there is a rise for the alt-right around the globe. Hopefully, in 2020 this rise will be stopped.