Voting Girl 2010 Edition : Parliamentary Elections Round 1

And here she is or was  , the voting girl 2010 edition who was a model citizen and voted in the Parliamentary elections 2010  of Egypt. I know I should have written this post last Sunday 28th November 2010 but for being busy in the Wikileaks I could not write my experience in the polling station in time as it is my habit.

Anyhow here we were on the Sunday 28th Nov 2010 , a big day indeed and if you were following me on twitter you will know that I could not find my Voting ID for hours still I was not eager to go and vote or to be accurate I was between going to vote and not going to vote due the reports I was receiving from twitter and Facebook on how bloody this day was. Even if I wanted to go to vote , I had to choose either to elect real candidates or invalidate my voting and write the name of Khaled Said or Mohamed ElBaradei in the ballot card.

Anyhow after couple of hours  I found the voting id in my money purse where I left it after my voting girl 2010 edition : Shura elections experience !! There were still two hours before the official closure of the polling stations across the country and I thought that this was a sign for me to go and vote despite all what had been happening.

Follow Up : Farewell Hadeel

I wanted and wished that the next time when I write about Hadeel was the time she would recover from her severe illness and return back to her family, to her friends and to her blog.

To be honest I have knew the news from minutes ago and I feel so sad ,despite I do not know her personally nor I was a regular reader to her blog , I visited her blog when I read about her story of illness and I was so sad to find that this talent go away like this .

I do not know why I feel sad

is it because Hadeel was young like me , she had just celebrated her 25th Birthday ?? !!

Or because she is a blogger like ?? Or because she was talented ??

May be Blogging did not save her life but for sure it made so many people feel sad for her and consider her as another friend .

It is strange because she is not the first blogger to die young , in Egypt we got Shimaa or Shiko who is not longer online , Shimaa wrote a farewell post in her blog because she was sick but Hadeel did not have the time to do so.

I am sorry but I feel so sad now

RIP Hadeel , May Bless your soul , give patience to your family , your friends and your fans.

If you are Muslim then please read the Fatah on her soul :(

If you are not Muslim then please mention her in your prayer

Image source : Yazeed.net

Technorati Tags: Hadeel,Blogger,Saudi Arabia,Arabs,Women,Follow Up,Blogging,Geek,Health,Middle East,Mideast,KSA

The Jubilee of the UAR: on a personal level “Nahed Riyad”

Today is Sham Al Nassim "The Spring day in Egypt" and so I will keep it light today :)

The union between Egypt and Syria whose 50^th anniversary passed in Silence in both countries and very few people remembered ; was not a fiasco on the public’s level like the political level, on the contrary it depended on how the idea was appealing to the people in the first and last place, the charisma of Nasser and how the Arab Nationalism was as rebel as a wild horse like the Syrian Poet Nizar Qabbani once described played an important role to unify the feelings of two people to accept the idea of becoming one.

I do not know why I remember a lady that I have never seen in my life whom I only heard about when I began to read more and more about this important event.

Mrs. Nahed Riyad, An Egyptian Cairiene lady who was born in 1930s , she was a friend to my grand mother from the French School “Saint Vincent et Saint Paul” ,a sweet brunette petite young girl whom in 1940s her parents agreed on a daring decision to let her join the Cairo University to complete her education , a real daring decision during the time most families believed that the girls future in their husbands’ houses , including my grand mother’s family whose father believed that his girls were beautiful and should be married soon. Nahed entered the Cairo University and strangely she did not join the faculty of law or the faculty of Arts as it was common for girls, she entered the faculty of agriculture, strange choice I think, I bet that all those families and old ladies surrounded her talked about how fool she was a, but fate was preparing something strange and unexpected for her.

A Syrian young man studying in the same university and in the same faculty asked her hand for marriage and it seems that she liked him too that she accepted him , they got married and she left Egypt . Till that she was a close friend to my grand mother. My grand mother once described me that Syrian groom as a tall blonde young man who reminded her years later by the Syrian hero who was killed in 1956 defending Egypt Jules Jamal.

Nahed did not stay at home in Syria, she worked as an agricultural engineer, visiting the Syrian country side, much chiller ,less muddy than our Nile Valley country side, she was happy by the reception of the Syrian people to her even before the Union.

She gave birth to two kids, a boy and a girl, my grand mother remembers her girl till now, a beautiful cute girl who speaks Arabic in a Shami accent whose pronunciation for “TH” letter in Arabic was perfect one “anyone who knows Arabic language perfectly and comes to Egypt will understand why my grand mother noticed it”

The last time my grand mother met her in Egypt was in mid 1970s, after Hafiz Assad and his brother took the rule and began their Baath discrimination to anyone who would say no , and when the clashes between them and the MB began , My grand mother remembered that Nahed was sad and Scared , she told her about the terrible stuff the Baath party members did to their opponents especially to the Sunni people , how the Baath girls would take off the veil from the heads of old ladies walking in the streets , how the Baath secret service men would throw men allegedly members of the Syrian MB from balconies .

After that meeting my grand mother did not see her or hear from her again, but she remembered her from couple of years when she sat beside a Syrian lady “a political refugee” in her cousin’s memorial service and it seems that talking with her about Syria and the status there from discrimination against the Sunni majority by the Baath refreshed her memories. When she returned back from the memorial service, she wondered what happened to Nahed and her husband, strangely she does not recall the name of her husband at all, and for her he was that Jules Jamal.

I do not know if this related to the UAR as this marriage happened before the UAR, strangely most of the marriages between Syrian Men and Egyptian women during the UAR did not last and ended disastrously creating a social problem that was solved from couple of year “The Citizenship of the Egyptian Women’s children”. I just wanted to write it down as I remember this lady whom I send my greetings and my grand ma’s where ever she is now.

Technorati Tags: Syria,Egypt,UAR,History,Egyptians,Syrians,Arabs,Nostalgia,Mideast,Middle East

Celebrity watch

I do not like to speak about Egyptian actors and actresses here in my blog ,but I think I should record this , it will not harm anyone , already bloggers always write down what they encounter in their daily life from events and people especially when they meet or see celebrities.

I saw many Egyptian and Arab celebrities but this particular Celebrity made me blog about her.

I have seen the lady of the Arab Silver screen Fatan Hamama , I have seen her in Mohendessin at Wadi Nil Street ,she was with her daughter Nadia Zoulfakr, the daughter of the later Egyptian director Ezz El-Din Zoulfakr, they were going to Fifth Avenue , yes it is opened there beside Queen Bakery .

Fatan despite her old age is still keeping her elegance and that lady look , she is so white ,she did not have any make up on her face , her hair is dyed with that dark reddish brown colour . Nadia helped to walk through the parked cars holding her hand .

I do not know why I am blogging this , but may be because I love and respect this great actress . It made me so happy to see her fine like this.

Technorati Tags: Cinema,Celebs,Celebrity,Egypt,Egyptian faces,Egyptians,Egyptian Life,Society,Cultures,Arts,Fatan Hammah,Mideast,Middle east

Is Centurm A to Zinc halal??

This is important question for debate and discussion .I received an email saying that the Centrum A to Zinc is not halal or Kosher and that The gelatin in the Centrum vitamin products may be from a porcine source

I checked the official website of Centrum and their faq webpage but I could not find anything ,yet I found this in an online pharmacy

They are saying that it may contain porcine source which means it may or may not have a porcine source

I am taking The Centrum A to Zinc The Advance formula

I need a medical opinion here and this is not a funny thing

Updates : So there is gelatin in Centrum but they do not exactly say what the source of that Gelatin , from which animal it is whether a pork or a cow

I hate this so much

Technorati tags: Halal, Kosher, Centrum A to Zinc, medical, medicine, vitamins

Home sweet Home

I am back again , after being away for four days , believe it or not I missed the Internet and my blog still the view of the sea made me forget them for while , yes I did not swim in it this time because the black flag was hanged , nor I did swim in the swimming pools because children kept screaming there for no freaking reason , I mean why do they scream ?? I don't know really

Still I had the chance to put my feet in the sea , it was so chilling and beautiful ,I had a book the fourth part of the Original Arabian Nights and my Ipod which I forgot its charger in Cairo

I took lots of photos there mainly for the sea in the North Coast, insh Allah soon I will upload it to flickr but now I don't know why I feel so sleepy ,I mean I did no drive but I am kind of the people who stay awake all the way along ,so I did not sleep from exactly Marakia to Lebanon square ,when I came home I fall sleep from 5 PM to 4 AM!! The problem was that every time I try to open my eyes I feel that someone is closing them

anyhow I am back again ............

When Egyptians Hit the roads

I do not know why We the Egyptians when they hit the road for summer vacation they seem to like to take everything in the house ,I mean just look at these photos in the way to Alexandria

 

Anyhow I should not say that because insh Allah I am hitting the road tomorrow as early as possible for the north coast , for some days and that's why I will be absent for awhile no email ,no blog nothing at all and that's why I canceled the moderation of the comments so please keep it clean

Insh Allah I see you soon salaam for now

My Zazzle panel design

well I thought I would give it a shoot to try these online design shops , and if you have a sharp eye you will notice that I put an ad for Cafe press in the sidebar ,I tried it made a gallery there , but it did not work , already I do not like the idea that you only have one design for the single shop and if you want more than you have to purchase the pro-account

Anyhow I found this new service Zazzle , I came by accident to it and I was so impressed by the options they give whether for design or the ease of use

and so in some spare time I tried to upload some of my designs"wow my designs big words" ,with little help of some words ,I made couple of things and here they are "I won't get any money from it because Egypt is not included in their country list ,I don't know but I said I will give it a try , I like to try new things"

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

I wish there is something similar in Egypt,really I love the idea that you customize your own cloth and stuff

Technorati tags: Zazzle, designs, online shopping

Tough decision

I am sorry but from now on I will moderate the comments immediately , I am sorry I have to do it but this is the only every one respects him and steps back to the line of the manners

Please read this comment

Do you remember the anonymous commenter from El-Falalis ?? well he sorry she is back and if she truly is what she claims then somehow I got a scoop

Beside that I feel so sick I am will take some rest for couple of days ,I can not think in anything right now

Technorati tags: Sherif El-Falali, Espionage, spy, Egyptian national security, national security, intelligence, news, Ashraf Marwan

Beware of Summer fruit

It is not my custom to speak about my personal life here , but please pardon me these days as I am sick now , oh yes very sick thanks to the summer fruits

The doctor when He saw me wondering why he wants me to run several tests from blood to urine to ultrasonic told me that in any other country he would tell me to go home and live my life normally but this Egypt and it is full of diseases this summer

the biggest warning is to stay away from almost sorry from every summer fruit in Egypt ,the only two fruit kinds I can eat are bananas and oranges other than that it will be like standing in front of a train !!

It seems that they sprayed the summer fruits even the watermelon with dangerous harmful substance , well I am not surprised 

Since Friday I was suffering from a fever and I couldn't eat anything till I saw the doctor who shared with me this nice piece of story

Once Boutres Ghali , I guess the ex-UN Secretary , was suffering from unknown fever for couple of weeks, the doctors in Egypt didn't know what caused it and thus he traveled to mother France to check with the doctors there , as soon as they saw him , they told him that it was sure something from the infectious nature in Egypt !!

I don't want to scare anyone coming to Egypt but come on I know that foreign Embassies warn their citizens from a huge food list including fruits and vegetables , this something I knew personally from my Egyptian-American relatives

Anyhow wish me speed recovery because it is not nice at all to spend a week whole eating nothing except soup and drinks

Technorati tags: Egypt, Egyptian life, health, fruits, summer, personal

Won't go

I think you all now are sick of hearing about my personal struggle whether to leave or stay in Blogger.com
Well no any more people as I decided to stay , and for the look we can change , other things can be tweaked
You know in Islam there is a Prophetic quote for Prophet Mohamed "PBUH" which means as I don't remember the correct words that sometimes it is okay to ask your heart in your matters , believe or not I didn't feel comfortable in the new domain , in fact I decided to cancel it
I know that Blogger.com is not that advanced or fancy like wordpress but I think in the end Google will improve it to be on the edge like wordpress and vox which I really admire ,already Google was asking for testers for blogger as they announced in their blogger blog from couple of weeks
I love this blog , despite all what lacks ,it became an important part of my life , in fact I thank God it became so
By the way I write this through the editor in blogger not through WLW
Call what you like but I am here and I won't go :)
N.B I promise you I won't speak about this again ;)

Farewell Granddad

I don't know what to write or what to say except yesterday my grand father had passed away suddenly ,yes he was in the hospital in the IC because of strong winter flu ,yet we had faith that he was going to be just fine and come back again ,Already from two months he survived from the IC in Badran hospital ,I didn't mention the disease but he was going to die from the doctors' mistakes !! It was enough to say that he was suffering from high blood pressure ,he went from Badran with diabease ,I swear there was a night while he was there and we thought he was going to leave us ,yet yesterday we didn't imagine that he was going to leave us in that simple way.
Thank God in the last two months ,he saw all his family member who loved him so much ,he was the elder of the family ,even his sister in the United States came and saw him ,it is heart breaking ,already I don't know what I am writing .
Despite my early age I farewelled him when he was in the morgue and I attended his burial ,We got cemetery for the family in El-Fayoum way ,just like the pharaohs dead city ,who used to bury their dead in the West side .
I try not to remember how we recieved the news ,or what does this mean,sometimes I think he is going to come back ,he was too hyper active
He is a grand father to me ,he is a father too me ,My mom and my real dad divorced when I was just one year ,and I was raised by my grand father or Papa as used to call him ,I had n't seen my father once ,I don't know what his face looked like ,even when he died from Cancer when I was 8 year old and my mom told me to go and pray for him ,I prayed then I went to watch the TV because simply I didn't know who was that person .
Yet it is different in My grandfather case ,so different ,yesterday morning I was crying and going wondering with no aim in the house ,just walking around .
My grand father is the one who made me like this , a blogger ,who loves to read and express her opinion ,a jounralist without a newspaper ,and this goes to the fact he was a great journalist in this Country ,you may not be fimilar with him simply because he was an honest man, who never sold his pen for the ruler's satisfaction and that 's why he didn't take anything from jounralism , he adored it and he adore the synidication and there were generations who graduated undeer his command and it is enough to say that Wagdy Kandil,Mamdouh Mahran and Osama Thraya worked under his command
I can't write anymore except if you got El-Akhbar today you will see him in the first page , he was an Akhbar-El-youm stuff,this is another post story because he got very important books and great history
I want to send him a message : I know I promised you to make a website from Mohammed Ali Royal Family and I am sorry that I didn't even started in designning the website despite I made a concept design for it ,and I am sorry I was lazy enough not to buy a scanner to scan all great historical photographic archive that I doubt that any one in the arab world has it ,
grand dad your pen is not dried yet and you still with us ,we love you and you can imagine the emptiness in our lives now , I may not know how to express my love easily but I guess you know I love you ,you are from my idols and God knows how much I feel now

Today I was born ,Today I started to blog

I am lazy I know but it is not my problem, today is my birthday and I feel sick to speak about politics again and again.
One of my friends who are reading my blog once told me I should change the subject, not to be politics-driven all the time.
I agree with him ,in fact I have another life in the MSN Spaces with my MSN Space ,I write about music, movies, history ,civilization and my favorite topic Arabian and Egyptian legends and myths yet I feel the kind of visitors who come and visit me here are different from the MSN Spaces community.
The MSN Spaces are still not considered a powerful blogging tool despite the great work MSN made in their project and I know that effort because I lived with it since day one, I was from the early bloggers who joined the MSN spaces from Egypt, if I wasn't the first, as soon as I read about it in Mess.Be, on the same day of its release as beta project I joined, and so I followed it step by step growing up, yet it is still a small baby.
If Microsoft is wise enough it should make a blogging tool like type pad or Word press for the pro-bloggers like me.
I consider myself a pro because simply on this day from three or even four year I began blogging online, on my birthday, I had a terrible depression because no one of my friends remembered my birthday as usual except may be one or two ,and no one from my age even my cousins attended my birthday ,it was a an adult birthday ,my mom ,my aunt ,grandparents and grand mother's cousins !! So you can see how I felt, so sad, so lonely and I got this brilliant idea, I read about blogging and I got opera browser community which has this blogging feature as journals, go on and let the world share your misery and it will be great feeling because you will be the first Egyptian to write in Opera journals and from that day I began to share my thoughts with the Internet community.
I joined after that the JoeUser.com blogging community ,a part of Wincustomize.com and stardock.net software company ,I like customizing my windows and I am regular visitor there ,my Joe User days made me so strong because also I was the only Egyptian ,Muslim and even Arab who dared to speak against the Hawks of American Right Wing there , my first encounter with Israelis ,with guys who didn't believe in God or religion ,a great experience yet I couldn't stand it there ,the anti-Muslim Arabic climate is killing me
After that I joined Blogger.com
Then MSN Spaces and my wonderful life there
Then I found Dr. Ramy is visiting me, saying why you don't join us in Egyptian bloggers and Manal and Alaa
And Volia here I am
Blogging became a part of me and I guess I can consider myself an old blogger, after 4 wonderful years
I don't why I am writing this ,rarely I talk about my personal life which I don't like to speak about but this is what in my head
As a change in the course, I will speak about Hend El-Henawy case inshallah Next post.
About my other blogs and spaces
My opera journal is still there but didn't update it from very long time but I will update today after publishing this post
My MSN Space is there
You are visiting and reading this in blogger.com
And my joeUSer.com is out of service now I can't stand the racism.