Me and Ultras "Asmahan"

From Nine years ago, I was like millions of Egyptians who watched admirably the TV series " Asmahan" which was based on the short life of famous Syrian Singer "Asmahan".

Asmahan

Like any other talkative Egyptian who has an opinion about everything, I wrote a post about Asmahan and what I think about her based on the TV series and a couple of books as well articles I read.
Up till now I get comments, mostly angry comments with threats from Asmahan "Ultras" fans.
I used to comment back that this is my personal space and you can send back a post to defend your point of view so I can publish it.
I have received another angry comment calling me names in the past 48 hours and it made me think about what I wrote from 9 years ago.
I read the blog post on Friday and it is great to return back to read what I had written then and compared with what I think now.
I can admit easily that I was harsh in my first opinion about Asmahan which was based upon a couple of books and a TV series.
Asmahan's life was an enigma without a doubt.
Just like from 9 years ago, I would say that even if a young lady living in the West had a similar life, she would be a legend and a talk of the town till our day.
Just like from 9 years ago, I would say that she was a victim of a man's world starting from her father who abandoned her family in Cairo.
Even the books wrote about her either demonizing her or making her the Mother Teresa were written about men.

Our Local Gandhi

Dear Joseph Mayton wrote 'The Mean streets of Cairo" at  The Guardian's Comment is free which caused a lot of a stir and anger in the Egyptian blogosphere and twitterville. Mayton wrote what he thinks that we should try other  peaceful alternatives than protesting considering the catastrophic results of the 6th April and 13th April protests. Mayton thinks that we should take lessons from international figures like MLK JR and Gandhi especially they adopted peaceful protesting style. It is not only Joe but others began to say we should adopt revolution Gandhi style like Saad El-Din Ibrahim and Amr Shobaky lately in Al Masry Al Youm not to mention I found several westerners also say that we should follow Gandhi's footsteps.

I waited all that time so people chill down and we discuss it because it does not harm.

First of all we must clear something , our protests are peaceful nonviolent , setting examples like Gandhi and MLK JR does not mean our protests are violent , they turn violent from the regime's side not from our side. Already we are tired of being beaten and photographed around the world as the world will not help us and we can't wait an external help from outside in the same way and the examples on this are too many to be citied. We have already tried the civil disobedience in an early step from two years ago if you remember as the wonderful 6th of April strike , this is an early step that should the regime that the people can really do it. All those strikes and sit ins across Egypt indicate by time we can reach to the level of complete civil disobedience. For the record Mohamed ElBaradei and other opposition icons like Ayman Nour and others consider this option but as last resort. Most people in Egypt care for their jobs , for the food of their kids and they do not want to lose their jobs because of some fancy men in suits who speak in TV channels about democratic reforms but they are ready to have a strike or have sleep in the streets for days for a sit in to get extra LE 200 over their LE 300 salary per month.

Mayton may be does not know before MLK JR and the African American community started their boycott campaign launching the civil rights movement in the States , in 1919 Egyptians boycotted everything British and everything supported the occupation in the country because it is not a foreign occupation but rather our own Egyptian regime and we are not a minority unfortunately but a whole nation.

Egypt is not India under the British occupation , we do not fight a foreign occupation , we fight a terrible Egyptian regime nor it is segregated America  so clearly these two examples despite the good intention of Mayton are not the best in the first place. Politically we are speaking about completely three different countries facing different challenges in three different times.

Second of all I understand when Mayton mentions examples like Gandhi but I do not understand when Saad El Din Ibrahim and Amr El-Shobaky ignore our own political history in the 19th and 20th centuries ; we got wonderful examples from Sharif Pasha to Orabi to Mustafa Kamel to Saad Zaghlol for God sake. It is clearly that despite having a long history , we do not learn from it and from the mistakes and the triumphs of our ancestors like those wonderful men I mentioned above. Most people ignore the fact that Kamel had inspired the Irish independence movement and Zaghlol himself had contact with Gandhi inspiring him because the Egyptians represented by Saad and his delegation  managed to get our partial independence from UK and after his death Safia Zaghlol and Nahas Pasha continued kept this contact with Gandhi.

I just hope all the current political icons in Egypt learn from those great patriots in the past who did not have the privileges of the communication technology when the illiteracy level in the country was more than 80%.

Why does not Saad El-Din Ibrahim learn from Kamel who roamed Europe for the Egyptian cause realizing there was no hope to depend on the West that cared and still cares for its political and economic interests above all still he did not lose hope and said his famous words :

No despair with life and no life with despair

Of course I do not refuse learning from others' experiences and mistakes as well but let's agree on something we should look for once back to learn and know where we screwed at , we have already wasted 30 years from our history.

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Egypt Electionnaire Anyone !?

Thanks to this alarming and interesting comment , I was introduced to the inspiring website “Sudan Electionnaire“. Aside of the results I am really impressed , yes there are foreign parties involved in this very important election the Sudan will have and Egypt will be affected with.

I think we need such website if we want to change our constitution and discuss the electoral programs of candidates whether independent or partisan candidates. It is very simple indicator to know what the people real want and  how much the constitution reflects their needs and also their duties.

I believe the National front for Change should set up a similar website considering the fact that many sectors in the country believe that we need a real constitution made for the people and not for the ruler. This website educates the people in a very simple way.

BY the way did you sign the national front for change’s statement !!??

Regarding the Sudan elections , well it is not the only challenge we are facing back in Cairo , this is just the tip of the ice-berg and the only I can say judging from what is going on for real is that I hope General Omar Soliman has made plans for the worse case scenario , we need plan B . The Sudanese file is among the files General Soliman is responsible for.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Comments,Sudan,Sudan Electionnaire,Politics,National,National security,democracy,Geek,Web2.0.Middle East,Africa,Elections

McCain: "In The 21st Century Nations Don't Invade Other Nations"

This is a joke right !!??

Well this shows how hypocrite the republicans are , they invade others countries and they do not consider it invasion , but wait minute , it is not only them,the Russians think in the same way so why McCain is surprised

Already this kind of thinking is an universal one , every country does not consider itself an invader when it goes and invades other country.

Bush entered Afghanistan for fighting terrorism and the terrorists are not dead yet there in fact they are winning more and more

Bush entered Iraq to get rid of Saddam and spread democracy , of course I do not need to speak about the WMD

Now Iraqis remember the days of Saddam as the old good days , well not so good but at least there was security and the most of the people were staying at their home in their countries not refugees.

Russia is exactly the same but you have to add that it sends messages to the world that it is here.

By the way McCain and Bush do not consider the foreign forces in Iraq as invaders but rather freedom and Peace keeping forces

Also Putin thinks the same thing regarding his troops in Georgia,the Russian Media calls the Russian troops as Peace Keepers !!

About John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Highlighted comments

These comments you should read carefully
First of All Didi Anadarama of Ananada Marga has left a comment on my post about the Egyptian Hindus and as some one who respect the

other’s opinion , unlike Al Masry Al Youm that did not publish the comment of the group in Egypt regarding what Al-Gamal had written. Didi Anadarama denies the allegations of spreading Hinduism through Yoga.
In my opinion the solution is simple , clear investigation with the journalist ,his sources and the group to know the truth with my all respect to all the parties involved.
Second that comment is in Arabic and unfortunately I do not dare to translate , not because it is too long but let’s just it is too imaginative yet it can be true and bring me trouble , a tabloid comment from an anonymous commenter that proves what I am saying that the murder of Suzan Tamim can inspire authors to write down novels like L.A Confidential and Black Dahlia , in fact I call Suzan Tamim now : The Red Dahlia.

Technorati Tags: Suzan Tamim,Murder,Suzanne Tamim,Didi Anadarama,Ananda Marga,Religion,Yoga,Hinduism,Al Masry Youm,Dubai,Lebanese,Comments,blog,Middle East,Egypt

China Had "Cute" Girl Mime Opening Ceremony After Singer Banned For Crooked Teeth

This is too cruel for the girl , hey you are not that pretty to represent your country ,even if Peiyi is happy or claims to be happy , she needed this

shame on them ,but it is not a surprise to me

all children are cute
About Olympics
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Correction that should be mentioned

This is an important correction for something I thought it was true based on Egyptian newspapers.

I published a black and white photo I thought that it was for Osama Bin Laden and his parent where it is not his nor for his parents. It is actually for his elder brother Salam.

I would not have known this mistake if it were for an anonymous commenter who was kind enough to show me the real photo of Osama Bin Laden’s father and brother.

I apologize for this mistake. I should have known better because when I look to that photo I posted I found out the man is much younger to be a tycoon like Mohammed Bin Laden during that time.

I corrected the post by the way and I have even

Technorati Tags: Blog,Osama Bin Laden,Photos,Saudis,terrorism,Bin Laden,Salam Bin Laden

Highlighted comments for important topics

From time to time I receive very valuable comments from valuable readers about topics I posted from quite some time that should be highlighted.

I received this weekend very valuable comments I want to share with you regarding two important posts

The first comment was regarding The “The language of numbers : Drug addiction and use in Egypt” , this comment is from Dr.Mohammed El-Hendawi , specialist in substance abuse and drug addiction treatment, he is currently working for the Heliopolis Psychiatric Hospital  AKA airport (El-Matar)hospital, the leading institute of drug addiction medicine in Egypt, and the regional center of  UNODC,he is also the head of the information center of the hospital , which means he has access to all information regarding the drug addiction and use in Egypt.

Here is the comment :

hello, nice blog and topic, i am a doctor who works in the field of substance abuse and drug addiction treatment, I work for the Heliopolis Psychiatric Hospital AKA airport (El-Matar)hospital, the leading institute of drug addiction medicine in Egypt, and the regional center of Treatnet group, UNODC, i am also the head of the information center of the hospital, anyway, I am not making any advertisement for the governmental hospital I work for, we don't need it actually, just mentioned that to ensure the reliability of the information I want to say, the number of 20000 addicts in Egypt is ridiculous, non-realistic and makes me laugh, as in the year 2007, our hospital alone delivered services for almost 24000 patients in the outpatient clinics! the real number of drug addicts (addicts not users) in Egypt is unknown for sure, but professionally it is estimated to be somewhere between 5-6 MILLION addicts, SAD BUT TRUE, these estimations are made by the National Centre for Social and Criminological Research (NCSCR), and the National Council for Fighting and Treating Addiction (NCFTA), both are governmental and specialized facilities.
Addiction is a real serious national problem that is going disastrous and huge.
anyway, thanks for the very nice blog, and topic, and for anyone who is interested in details about drug addiction and its treatment in Egypt, please feel free to email me at melhendawi@gmail.com

 

The Second I received was regarding the A to Zinc medicine, if you remember I was wondering once upon time if it is halal or not , that if that medicine got an ingredients from Pork

I received this comment from Mr. Syed Shah from UK in another different post

Here is comment

This is the email I received from Centrum UK thought share with everybody
Dear Mr Shah
Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding Centrum Tablets.
Several of the vitamins used in the Centrum formulations do contain gelatin, which is derived from Bovine (cattle) and Porcine (pigs)
Thank you for contacting the Wyeth Consumer Healthcare Careline.
Yours sincerely
Holly Lewis

This is from Wyeth Consumer Health Careline , Wyeth is the producer of Centrum , to tell you the truth I am confused as I asked the doctors in Egypt and they told me that there is nothing in it and it is ok to take it . All the debate is about the Gelatin , we do not know actually if it is 100% Bovine or 100 Porcine.

Seriously any doctor in the house  can tell us about this !!

A to Zinc in the doctors’ favourite multi vitamins in Egypt

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Society,Life,Medicine,Pork,Centrum A to Zinc,Addiction,numbers,comments,blogging,blog