Thursday, December 2, 2010

The Language of Numbers : Parliament 2011

According to official numbers :

  • Egypt’s population is 80,000,000 – 82,000,000
  • Registered voters in Egypt are 40,000,000 “About 50 % of the population”
  • According to the HEC only 35% of those 40 million voted last Sunday in round one.
  • According to the NGOs only 10% of those 40 million voted last Sunday in round one.
  • The official results of the parliamentary elections 2010 round 1 as follows :
Party Seats
NDP 209
Independent 7
Opposition 5

How can we consider this parliament as a parliament that represents the Egyptian people in the next 5 years !!??

Officially this parliament represents 35%  of 50% of the Egyptian population !!??  Unofficially this parliament represents 10% of 50% of the Egyptian population !!?? How it could be considered legal !!?

Yes the responsibility is partially on the Egyptian people , on those 40 millions registered voters who do not use their constitutional rights still the main responsibility is on the regime that  made people lose altogether in restoring back their rights which actually what the regime wants.

The people do not want to vote because they know there will be an electoral fraud , the people have lost hope altogether in the political process in this country.

Cablegate And Egypt : The First Batch Goes On “4”

Ok gang this is the last cable in that patch of cables released by Wikileaks this week, I dedicated this post for this last cable because it is very interesting , very provoking and very controversial.
This cable is a recent one , it was sent earlier this year on February 21,2010 from the US embassy  in Cairo. The cable is unclassified. It was a summary for the meeting that was held on February 7, 2010 between between U.S ambassador Margret Scobey and Ashraf Al Arabi Egypt’s tax commissioner then , yes Egypt’s tax commissioner and please do not ask me now why the American ambassador would have a meeting with the Egypt’s tax commissioner because this is just the start.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Cablegate And Egypt:The First Batch Goes On “3”

Here is the 3rd post dedicated to Egypt’s cables in the Wikileaks’ Cablegate. There are still mentions about Egypt directly and indirectly in that first batch. I expect there will be more especially the cables Wikileaks has got goes back to 1966 , yes 1966 which means more documents than what Heikal will wish for !!  Believe it or not I am waiting for the cables in the past more than the cables in the present , there are certain events which those cables can add more information to what we already know.
You can the first parts here and there.
Anyhow back to back , here are the cables and we have stopped at the eighth cable and we will move to the ninth cable. Again GOI stands for government of Israel , MFA stands for Ministry for foreign affairs, MOD stands for Ministry of defense, LAF stands for Lebanese army forces.

MB and Al Wafd To Boycott The Parliament

The Muslim brotherhood has announced from couple of hours ago its withdrawal from the parliamentary elections 2010 altogether. The brotherhood has not scored a single seat in the first round. The Shura council of brotherhood voted on the withdrawal today.
The Wafd party has also announced from couple of hours ago its withdrawal from the parliament and the parliamentary elections altogether. The Wafd  party has already scored 2 seats. A Wafd member in the Shura council “Bahaa Abu Shuka” has announced his resignation from the Shura council too.
Update#1
The Wafd said that it is rethinking its decision as expected. This can be a blackmail attempt to the regime not a true objection on what happened in the last Sunday.
The thing is that Mubarak needs some kind of competition in the Presidential elections next year 2011, Al Wafd could give him some sort of fake competition to beautify the elections.
Update#2
Now there is confusion because we got a video message from Siyad El-Badawy , the chairman of Wafd announcing the party's withdrawal from the Parliament altogether. You can watch the video below.

RIP Berlanti Abdel Hamid

Berlanti
Berlanti Abdel Hamid , the widow of Abdel Hakim Amar has passed away this morning. The former actress was 75 years old. Abdel Hamid had a son from Amar : Amr Abdel Hakim Amar who has joined his elder brothers from his father in defending their late father’s image.
Berlanti Abdel Hamid entered the political history of Egypt through her secret marriage to field marshal Abdel Hakim in 1960s. Originally from Bani Sawif , the Upper Egyptian girl Nafissa Abdel was born on 1935. Her first role in Egyptian cinema after graduating from the theatrical arts institute was in Salah Abu Seif “Raya and Sakina”. She was given the name “Berlant” due to her beauty. During her career she was always limited in the seduction roles.
After several years following the disputed death of Amar ‘she believed he was poisoned’ , she married his nephew Amin Amar for 12 years.
Berlanti Abdel Hamid passed away at the military hospital in Maadi , which means that after the death of President Nasser she enjoyed her privileges as the wife of a military man , not to mention Abdel Hakim was a former minister of war and chief of staff once upon time despite all his fiascos that no one denies except the Amers and his camp that still alive in Egypt and in UK like Shams Badran. “ I wanted to talk about him in the past few weeks but I was busy”
Last year I read Berlanti's last interview where as usual she attacked Nasser and accused his men of doing horrible things to her after her husband’s death. The last news I read about her was during the fury of the Amers about the up coming film project of Khaled Youssef “ The President and Field Marshal/Mohseer” , aside of disapproving the script of the film the former actress believed that Somia Al Khasab was better to present her role instead of Laila Eloui !!
Despite she is not remembered for her career in cinema “only 17 films starting from 1952) yet she is remembered very well in her role as a witness and indirect player in one of Egypt’s critical moments in its modern history. She wrote two books about her relation and marriage from Abdel Hakim , the most famous was “ Me and The Mosheer/ field marshal”. “Me and the Mosheer” was published in 1992 and became among the disputed sources for anyone who wants to understand what happened in 1960s despite its bias.
In 2002 she published another book called “ The road to my destiny .. to Amar” which claimed that was better than her previous book as she included documents and revealed new secrets. Still her first book is more famous and more popular according to my knowledge. FYI I have read neither her first book nor her second.
Regardless of what you may think about Berlanti/ Nafissa, you must know that she is between the hands of God right now. May Allah bless her soul. The only thing I am capable to say about her is that she had a huge ambition and entered a game she may have or have not understood its consequences from one of its controversial doors. RIP Nafissa Abdel Hamid
Links :

Follow Up : Khaled Said’s Murder Trial

Do you remember when Roger Waters surprised us by including Khaled Said in the Wall during his world tour !!??
Do you remember how that shot from Waters’ concert Florida made it to our online and printed media !!??  We all forgot to ask who took that shot that made our day.

Well the one who was took that shot during the concert was Mr. Kamal Omran who posted the photo in his Facebook profile to find it later all over the internet.
We all should thank Omran for taking that photo.
Last Saturday the way Khaled Said’s trial was adjourned to the 25 December because of the parliamentary elections.

Follow Up : Ahmed Bassiouny’ Case

Ahmed Bassiouny was sentenced 6 months in jail for spreading military information online. Despite being pro-military mandatory service, the military judge sentenced him 6 months in jail.

Strangely Bassiouny’s group is still online and active !!!