Lebanon protests : A legal crackdown against activists and journalists heats up

I have not forgotten Hosni Mubarak and his heavy legacy that will hunt down Egypt for a while but this is important.
On Thursday, renowned Lebanese TV host Dima Sadek and Lebanese activist Gino Raidy were investigated by Lebanese prosecution for allegedly insulting former Lebanese foreign minister and current Free Patriot Movement “FPM” President Gebran Bassil.
The prosecution accused Sadek and Raidy of lying and inciting hatred and sectarianism using their social media accounts.

Dima Sadek and Gino Raidy in Beirut on Thursday
"Gina Raidy's official Twitter account" 

The incident goes back earlier February when actually Sadek and Raidy criticized online the FPM members and supporters when a young man from Tripoli was attacked in Kesrouane, which is an overwhelmingly Maronite Christian by the bodyguards of FPM MP.

The incident started when a group of activists found that MP dining in a restaurant in Kesrouane and they protested his presence in the place, instead of leaving the MP and the activists started a war of words.

Things evolved badly when a group of the MP’s supporters showed up and attacked the activists and protesters after leaving the restaurant including a young man from Tripoli.
Videos from the incident showed racist slurs against the young man because “he is from Tripoli” and “his place is not at Kesrouane”.

For those who follow the Lebanese scene know very that FPM is actually enforcing sectarianism and classicism as well as xenophobia in the country.
Also, if you follow the Lebanese scene, you will know that activists like Dima Sadek and Gino Raidy are actually against sectarianism, xenophobia and classicism through their words and activism.

Mubarak’s life and death : A quick timeline

I love timelines. This timeline is a pathetic attempt of me using Knight’s lab timeline js in visualizing the long life of Hosni Mubarak , Egypt’s ousted and former president who passed away on Tuesday and was buried on Wednesday in Cairo.
I depended on Ahram Online’s timeline.
The timeline covered the major milestone in the life of Egypt’s ruler in the modern time.

There is a lot of dates to be added in the timeline and there is a lot to say too.
This op-ed by former chairman of Al-Ahram and economist Ahmed El-Sayed El-Nagger shares a little glimpse of Mubarak’s achievements in economy.
As many Egyptians compare between our current time and the time of Mubarak and find it better from several points does not mean that his time was better.

Egypt's former despot Hosni Mubarak passes away : A Day recap

Egypt's former president Mohmed Hosni Mubarak passed away reportedly earlier Tuesday in Cairo according to family and officials.

The day started like another day with a rumor spreading like the fire that Hosni Mubarak passed away and his lawyer Fareed Deeb denying the rumor in Al-Watan yet after one hour it was confirmed that the 92-years old despot passed away.

The long time despot who was ousted on 11 February 2011 died after a struggle with illness. It seems that he suffered from some sort of cancer.
Mubarak underwent two surgeries since late January including one from a couple of days ago.
Yes, the excellent medical care made survive all those years but he was too old to survive two surgeries in a short time

According to sources from here and there, the initial plan was to have a short funeral at New Cairo’s Field Marshal Tantawy’s Mosque complex and to be buried on Tuesday on the same day.

Mubarak in one of the recent photos at trial "Reuters"

It was unclear what kind of funeral the long time president would have because simply he and his sons were convicted of corruption and public funds embezzlement in the trial commonly known by “The presidential Palaces” trial in May 2015. That court ruling was upheld in January 2016 by the court of cassation.

The Mubaraks also requested to reinstate political rights stripped after their conviction in a corruption case in 2015 but Egypt’s court of cassation rejected their plea officially in September 2018.

Officially in September 2018, the 1928-born Mounfia born was Egypt’s first president and ruler to be convicted in the modern history of the country since the 19th century.

According to this court ruling, this conviction deprives him and his sons Gamal and Alaa of their political rights, presidential benefits and military honors because that convection and the crime are related to honor.

This is the Egyptian law. 

Mecca’s girl : You got a bigger issue here

In Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two songs are making headlines for all the wrong reasons forcing us to ask a question about creativity, censorship, racism, classicism, and society in general.

I will speak in this post about that song from Saudi Arabia with my all due respect and yes I am going to meddle in one of their internal issues.

Late Monday news came from Saudi Arabia that Saudi authorities released young rapper Asayel AlBishi after her arrest following the release of the music video “Bent Mecca” {Mecca’s girl}.
It is still unofficial news based on her sister Ayah AlBishi’s Tweet.

#افراج_اصايل_البيشي#ساعدوا_اصايل_البيشي الحمدلله على سلامة أختي أصايل البيشي وشكرا لكل من سأل. وأنصح نفسي والجميع لا يتكلموا بناء على الظن لأن النبي عليه الصلاة والسلام قال(إياكم والظن فإن الظن أكذب الحديث) ومن تعرضوا لنا بالسخرية والغلط فبيننا وبينهم الله هو حسبنا ونعم الوكيل.

— Ayah Albishi (@AyahAlbishi) February 24, 2020

The whole sad affair started in the Weekend when Asayel AlBishi or Asayel Slay, a young amateur rapper decided to release her music video “Bent Mecca” online and it went viral creating huge uproar online.
Slay was bragging about how fine and great the girls of Mecca. She was doing a classical braggadocio rap.
There is one problem, she was bragging and little girls dancing around her in a café in Mecca, the holiest city for Muslims.

I won’t lie and say that I was not taken by surprise and a little shock when I saw the song and the little girls dancing at first glance. I was surprised like many to find a Mecca girl rapping like that.

My only remark is how the girls were dancing because I think they are younger to dance those moves and actually I do not like women dancing in rap music.

Another remark, if Asayel rapped about Jeddah girls or Riyadh girls, she would have gotten away with it but this is Mecca where the holiest site for Muslims is located.

 Yes, the Muslim world got this perception of the people living in Mecca are extremely pious but in reality they are like any other population with youth and teenagers like any other city

Novel Coronavirus in Egypt : Time to address anti-Asian racism "Updated

In case you do not know, Egypt’s ministry of health and the World Health Organization declared in a joint statement that the first confirmed case of the Novel Coronavirus was detected in the country on Friday.

According to the details that surfaced later, a patient is a Chinese man who arrived in Cairo from China on Thursday and was spotted at Cairo International airport.

He was taken to the quarantine hospital aka Al-Nagila General Hospital in the border governorate to stay there for two weeks or till recovery according to the procedures.

The Quarantine section at 'Cairo International airport
"AFP"

This is the first confirmed case in Africa and honestly earlier Friday I saw comic that Africa was the only Coronavirus continent and people were sharing that comic on Facebook to brag.
Here is the result of bragging.
Anyhow  I will speak now about something that bothers me.

A pharmacist in Zamalek bragged to my aunt on Friday that his pharmacy in the upscale neighborhood refuses to serve Asians !!

On the same day, I found out that Taxis and some Uber captains refuse to serve Asians for fear they turned to be Chinese.

On Saturday, I was shocked to know that a Chinese restaurant in Maadi said it explicitly that Chinese people were not allowed to dine in !!

Happy Valentine’s Day from Ancient Egypt : Egyptian Museum of Cairo edition

Happy Valentine’s Day from Ancient Egypt.

This beautiful couple was at Akhenaten's special section on the first floor of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square, Cairo.

Akenaten and Nefertiti "most probably"

I do not remember their details but I guess they could be the famous golden couple Akhenaten and Nefertiti

I do not know if they still remain there at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo or they have been shipped to the Grand Egyptian Museum which will be inaugurated later this year.

Again I have to say why the government thinks it is a good idea to empty the Egyptian Museum of Tahrir from all or almost all the famous and important pieces when Egypt got hundreds of thousands of antiquities pieces that are unseen before and need to be displayed at Grand Egyptian Museum.

#11Feb : Al-Bashir to the ICC for crimes in Darfur

Today 11 February 2020 and it marks the ninth anniversary of that event that my generation and other generations in Egypt and the Arab world won’t forget: Mubarak stepping down after 30 years of rule in Egypt.
It was the magical moment that we touched the seventh heaven for real as Egyptian people regardless of what happened the next day.
It is a day that I and others will remember in a mix of pride, nostalgia and sadness on how things turned to be nine years later.
It started with the usual mix of sad nostalgia in Cairo for certain group and then the news came in the mid of the day from Khartoum to remind us that there could be justice, after all, a sort of justice.

The current Sudanese interim government of Sudan reached a historic agreement with Darfur rebel groups to hand over former president Omar Al-Bashir and two other unnamed officials to the International Crime Court “ICC”.

A file photo for the Arab world's worst war criminals, one is down and the other one is still on the loose thanks

to the international community

It has become a special day in the valley of the Nile.

Seen in Dokki : Another trees massacre for sake of development

The municipality cut the old trees at Soliman Abaza street in Dokki

Another sad and truly unjustified #trees massacre and this time at Soliman Abaza street in Dokki, Giza.

The municipality claims that it is part of some development plan to the Upper Middle-Class street in order to put an end to the parking chaos there !!

I do not understand truly how the government launched a campaign for afforestation in Egypt and at the same time leaves the municipalities continue to cut off old trees like that !! This has to stop if we really care for environment.