Kodak Agfa Presents : Bahariya Oasis Heritage Private Museum

In February 2019, Kodak Agfa went on a short trip to the amazing and wonderful Bahariya Oasis of Egypt. Despite it follows the Giza governorate officially yet it is considered in the heart of the Western desert or rather we can consider it the gate of the Western Desert and its oases 

Interestingly the Bahariya Oasis is known in Egypt as Bahariya Oases and not only One oasis.

There are sites many sites and places I have been on this short trip including the city of Bawiti where I have been staying but I will kick it off with this small private museum I have been to hours before going back to Cairo.

That small private museum is the Bahariya Oasis Heritage. 

The Bahariya Oasis Heritage Museum from outside

This small privately-owned and operated museum is dedicated to the heritage, culture and history of the Bahariya Oasis, which is actually quite a mysterious place for the majority of the Egyptians from the valley of the Nile.

It is not your usual museum where you can find a collection of old artefacts but rather it is a heritage and art museum.

Ever Green Saga : Latest updates and memes too of Suez Canal Blockage Crisis

This post is to share all the latest news, updates and memes “yes” of the Ever Green on-going Saga.

For those who do not know 10% of world trade is technically in trouble because since Tuesday a gigantic container ship blocked the waterway of Egypt’s Suez Canal diagonally

Evergreen from Space by Maxar Satelite service 
for Getty images

There have been daily attempts by Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority to refloat the Japanese-owned Ever Green Container Ship with the help of Dutch Salvation but so far the attempts have not met any success.

Thus the third and the worst case which is offloading the gigantic ship will be on the table and that will take time.

Anyhow here is our Egyptian Chronicles live blog update on everything Suez Canal.

Ever Given Saga Continues : Tugging against time “Latest Suez canal crisis updates”

Up till now Gigantic Ever Given container ship is blocking not only Egypt’s Suez canal but also at least 10% of the world trade.

So far on Saturday evening the attempts to tug Ever Given continued using the high tide with 14 tugboats joining forces.

There has been no official statement from the Suez Canal Authority “SCA” about the progress of this attempt but some believe Saturday night may not be our lucky night.

The latest photo of Ever Given Saturday evening 

The Chairman of the SCA Vice Admiral Osama Rabea held a press conference Saturday afternoon to share with the media and the world the latest developments concerning the big ship.

Here are the most important points Rabea said.

• 321 vessels are currently stuck at the Suez canal.
• It will take 48 hours after “unblocking the canal” for those vessels to leave the canal.
• Currently, those vessels are receiving all needed logistics and support from SCA.
• The wind and the dust storm are not the main cause the vessel to run aground as it was claimed earlier
• The cause of this disaster is still being investigated.
• Before this disaster, the SCA used to achieve USD 12 million as revenue on a daily basis.
• It is unclear how much time it will take to solve this problem but the SCA is working day and night.
• No casualties or pollution have been caused by Ever Given.
• He thanked the countries that offered help including the United States, China and UAE.

Sohag Train tragedy : A return to the bad train accidents curse in Egypt “Graphic”

It is as if Egypt has not enough trouble this week with the Ever Given blocking the Suez, it ends the week with another tragedy:  A horrible train collision killing over 30 people and injuring over 100 others.

The tragedy started at 12:04 PM Sohag Local time when two trains collided in a rural village in the city of Tahta in Sohag governorate. 

Train “157” collided with “air-conditioned” Alexandria-Luxor train causing three train passenger cars to derail and flipped over.

The trains after the collision "Getty images" 

The result is at least 32 dead people and 108 injured according to the latest toll by the Egyptian Ministry of Health. 

ِAccording to the latest statements of Minister of Health Hala Zayed 19 people were killed and 185 were injured 

The injured's condition is between moderate to critical. 

In some sad coincidence, the accident took place near a cemetery inside that village in Tahta.

The victims were transferred to local hospitals after being saved by the locals before the authorities would arrive at the scene and lift up the trains.

In fact, the citizens tried to lift up the trains and open an exit for the victims to save them on time.

Ever Given Saga : Still blocking Suez Canal

For the third day in a row, Ever Given container ship is still blocking the Suez canal’s narrowest point and the Suez Canal Authority “SCA” brought more tug boats including larger ones with teams coming from Netherland and Japan to help in re-floating the ship.

According to SCA, 9 tugboats, 2 drudgers and 4 bulldozers are participating in the rescue works of the ship. 

 SCA announced on Thursday that it aimed to remove 20 meters of sand to reach 12-16 depth level to refloat the Ever Given through removing the sand around its bow.

The latest and clearest satellite image by Airbus for EverGreen's Ever Given
in the Suez canal 

Dredging the sands around the ship is actually the second scenario the SCA is using after an attempt to tug the gigantic ship on Wednesday according to Marine expert Mahmoud Nakhla who spoke with Egypt's Ahram Online about scenarios to re-float Ever Given. 

If dredging does not work then the SCA will have to unload some containers from the ship before lightning it, which is the worst-case scenario. 

It is an evergreen day at Suez Canal … literally !! "Updated"

It is all about evergreen in the Suez canal and in Egypt

It is not every day we find a huge big container vessel blocking the Suez Canal and its traffic creating a crisis in world trade movement worldwide even for short time !!

The Ever given vessel stuck by Julianne Cona on Instagram. 

The whole strange drama started at 7 AM on Tuesday when a gigantic vessel ran aground in the narrowest part of the Suez canal blocking it and creating a canal jam.

A 220,000-tonne, 400 metre-long Ever Given “Mega Ship” is technically stuck and the Egyptian Suez canal sent help with 8 mega tuck boats to help re-float.  

Currently, it is stuck in the narrow single-lane path between the Red Sea and Bitter lakes. ِ

Now we got news from Reuters that a team from the Netherlands will come and help in its refloating early Thursday, so yes we are speaking about more than 48 hours. 

The latest update we have so far from the Suez canal that the Suez canal authority team managed to free that part of the ship called "bulbous bow" which was stuck in the rocks. 

Happy Mother’s Day 2021 from Egyptian Chronicles

Happy Mother’s Day 2021 from Egyptian Chronicles to all the mothers around the globe especially in Egypt and the Arab world.

To Dear Mother Greetings from Egypt

An old colonial “Mother Day Card from Egypt” I found on Alexandria 1900 Facebook page.

Special Happy Mother's Day to activist Laila Soueif.

Coronavirus on the Nile: Thirteen months of COVID-19 in Egypt in graphs

Another monthly post as part of the COVID-19 coverage in Egyptian Chronicles.

This time it is a quick look into COVID-19 numbers in Egypt after thirteen months since its arrival to the country in February 2020. Yes, it has been a year.

Chosen as the best "coronavirus related photo in Egypt for 2020" by 
Egyptian journalists syndicate's photographers sect "Ayman Aref" 

Now we got one year to compare to but we did not have any cases in January 2020 and only officially one case in February 2020.

This is an interactive graph. You can see each year and month by clicking on the tabs.

Coronavirus on the Nile : The COVID-19 Spring of March “Live updated”

And the time comes again a new live updates post for 15 days to cover everything coronavirus as much as we can.

The mass vaccination in Egypt continues but in a very slow phase.

There are not many people registering on the website launched by the Ministry of Health and it is a problem the officials are speaking about publicly.

It is a problem and it has several reasons.

ِAn Egyptian lady receiving her first dose of the vaccine in Cairo 
"Adel Eissa" 

The target age group is the elderly and chronic disease patients. Not all elderly and chronic disease patients have access to the internet or know the website, especially in the countryside.

We need more campaigns targeting those people.

Another reason: The God damned bloody conspiracy theories.

I thought that the conspiracy theories were not that effective till I know that in working classes bloody WhatsApp messages are being shared warning about the vaccines and how they will round people in streets to be vaccinated !!

Another reason: Some people do not want the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and want the AstraZeneca vaccine but Egypt has not got enough jabs yet from either vaccine. 

Another new reason: Some people do not want the Chinese vaccine nor the AstraZeneca vaccine especially after its suspension in seven countries :((

It is madness

Now, here is our live update below for another 15 days.

Coronavirus on the Nile: Egypt’s COVID-19 February numbers in Graph

This is the time of our monthly post about the coronavirus pandemic and its numbers in graphs.

After January 2021 witnessed a decline in the number of coronavirus cases officially in Egypt, February 2021 witnessed officially a steady increase in the numbers released by the Ministry of health, which I depend upon here.

Egyptian Doctors wearing the PPE "Reuters" 

Unofficially, doctors began to speak that we began the third wave of coronavirus in Mid February.

February witnessed the mass vaccination of health care workers which started in late January.

It started with the Sinopharm vaccine and then AstraZeneca but it is moving slowly.

I would like to hint out that according to Minister of Health Hala Zayed in early January, the official numbers of cases represent between 10%-15% of the real number of cases.

Now to the graphs of February numbers.

First, the daily cases of coronavirus in Egypt.

#IWD2021 : The New Draft Personal Status law

First Happy New International Women’s Day to all the fantastic ladies all over the world

Second, I do not know how we celebrate the IWD 2021 and speak about Women’s Empowerment in Egypt on any level when we are on the verge of having a new Personal Status Law that will be a huge setback to Women’s empowerment in Egypt.

Last week, we knew that among the new draft laws the House of Representatives will discuss and supposedly pass it soon is the new Personal status draft law which was drafted by the Egyptian government.

The new personal status law on the occasion of IWD 2021 by Doaa Al Adl 

Youm 7 website reportedly published a copy of that draft law before removing it according to the women’s rights advocates who took a copy from that draft law.

According to them, it is disastrous for women and a huge setback to women’s empowerment in Egypt.

One of the major points that they raised that this law or those amendments technically cancels the woman’s legal capacity in the first place.

Despite it gives women the right to marry by themselves, it allegedly enables any male “guardian” in the woman’s family to annul or to divorce her.

One of the proposed articles strips mothers from financial guardianship or conservatorship over their minor children giving it to men in the family. I do not know what to say.

The True Awaited Historical Meeting

Earlier Saturday, Pope Francis held a meeting in Najaf Al-Ashraf with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on the second day of his visit to Iraq.

It is the first meeting of its kind between the head of the Catholic Church and a Muslim Shia grand Ayatollah or Marja in the size of al-Sistani.

Ayatollah al-Sistani and Pope France at his place in Al-Najaf , Iraq

The meeting and the visit to Iraq itself represented another way of how the Catholic Church is open to interfaith dialogue internationally under the leadership of Pope Frances.

For the first time in history, the Pope visits Iraq aka the cradle of the civilizations as well as the place believed by Jews, Christians and Muslims to be the birthplace of Prophet Abraham “PBUH".

Now to my two Egyptian piasters, the meeting between Ayatollah al-Sistani and Pope Frances is not the truly historical fruitful meeting that would push things forwards in the interfaith dialogue I am looking forward

The true historical meeting I am waiting to see in my lifetime and hopefully will “definitely” play a role in easing the sectarian tensions in the Middle East is the meeting between Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, The Grand Emam of Al-Azhar and Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf Al-Sharaf.

You are damned right !! I want Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb of Egypt’s Al-Azhar to visit Al-Najaf Al-Sharaf, the Shia holy city and to sit with al-Sistani.

Coronavirus on the Nile : The COVID-19 Vaccination of March “Live updated”

And the time comes again a new live updates post for 15 days to cover everything coronavirus as much as we can.

This time we start our post with the month of March.

This month will witness the start of the mass vaccination in Egypt after the launch of the ministry of health website to register for the vaccination.

Currently, it is targeting three segments: The healthcare workers, the chronic disease patients and the elderly.

A healthcare worker vaccinated as part of the Egyptian Health Ministry's
the campaign last week "Egyptian Health Ministry"

I highly recommend that you register your parents and your elderly if you are in Egypt.

Unfortunately, you can not access it abroad.

Now, here is our live update below.