Regarding the alleged NGOs deal

Ahram Arabic Portal published this news last night : A LE 50 billion deal between SCAF and Washington to release the U.S NGOs workers. The small news speaks about a deal behind the sudden release of the U.S NGOs workers that includes immediate financial aid from the Gulf to Egypt !! Oh Yes the Arabian Gulf !!

According to that report based to the statement of anonymous official source to the e-news portal of Egypt’s first official newspaper : Saudi Arabia gives us $3.5 billion  , Qatar gives us $ 4 billion , UAE gives us $ 3 billions , U.S gives $ 1.3 billion as military aids and $ 3.5 billion from IMF as well $ 1 billion from International bank and another 1/5 billion from the African development bank.

Well this is a lot of money compared to the bail the U.S embassy in Cairo paid and considered by many public figures in the country now as a bribe.

Why do the Arab Gulf states need a pressure or rather a permission from Washington to give us aids to release the foreign NGOs workers !? Why do Arab countries specifically KSA , UAE and Qatar interfere in an Egyptian American issue like that ?

It is very insulting to the Arab Gulf states to be part of this deal and wait for a pressure or an order from the US administration to give us financial aids so the government and SCAF would release those NGO workers !! So much for Arab-Arab cooperation indeed ? We needed help for months and it seems that they do not care for us except when the US gives them an order , screw the big slogans of Arab nationalism.

This is why I do not want our Syrian brothers to trust this Gulf support to their revolution , it is not that honest nor sincere. 

The United States only care for its interests but one must wonder What if these employees were guilty ?? Would not this be taking an advantage of a country in an economic need with weak leadership ??

To be honest after reading that news I began to think about these tweeps I read the other day from Blogger and tweep Ahmed Sarhan wrote last weekend about a certain deal and the pressures on Egypt. 

Of course the weak leadership got the biggest share from blame , I do not know how much failure SCAF needs to prove that it is incapable of ruling this country as it should or any president should. Now worldwide SCAF and the Egyptian government look as if they took those foreign NGOs workers hostages for economic aids in a disgusting way. SCAF has not got that bright image in the world for God sake , it is a military junta in the eyes of many especially with the mistakes, crimes and violations that took place last year.

If SCAF was intending to release the U.S NGOs workers from the start in return of an economic deal , why it humiliated the judiciary in Egypt like that ? Why did it allow that propaganda campaign in the media that made from the NGOs workers trial something equivalent to our Egyptian National dignity and then in few days the deal was sealed and the Egyptian National dignity tune was shut up !!? Where did the Egyptian National dignity tune go ?

SCAF pro-Supporters and Egyptian Nationalists are having now an emotional shock in what their new idol has done from betrayal to them. I am not waiting to hear a full transparent explanation for what exactly happened.

I will not speak about the Egyptian army because I know this will not be the first time the Egyptian army is humiliated because of the involvement of its leadership in politics. Hopefully it will be the last time insh Allah.

I will not speak about the Egyptian government because after the statement of the Egyptian iron lady Faiza Abu El Naga that she did not know about the release of the foreign NGOs workers from the media , I know that everybody now is jumping from the ship and putting the blame on SCAF directly and indirectly.

I know some will say that I should shut up and be thankful for the aids we got because of the bad economic situation but me and millions of Egyptians are tired of that trade off for years now.

In another random thought The United States  , Saudi Arabia and Qatar are now united against the El Assad regime.

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Just Opinion,US aid,Saudi Arabia,Qatar,UAE,Faiza Abu El Naga,NGos trial,Politics,Citizen journalism

Save the Coral Reefs of Tiran and Sanafir Islands

Last March 1st ,2012 after we found that Saudi Arabia is pumping aids to Egypt after the big act of PM Ganzoury , we read in the newspaper and news website that the King Abdullah bridge project is being resurrected once again.
King Abdullah bridge project was an ambitious project suggested to have a bridge between Egypt and Saudi Arabia during the time of Mubarak to end the accidents of Egyptian ferries especially after the disaster of the Salem 95 ferry. I did not support that project during the time of Mubarak because of its ecological effects on the red sea especially we were speaking about very special coral reef area then. For political reasons then Mubarak did not want the project.

Tiran area Coral Reef 

In July 2011 we got this small news that the bridge will connect Sharm El Sheikh and Tabuk then in August 2011 in the Israeli embassy incident when we were busy Globe and Mail published a great simplified report about the project with its pros and cons. According to that report the bridge will connect between the Egypt and KSA through the straits of Tiran and will pass through the disputed Tiran island and Sanafir Island. After several months and showing an improvement in our Egyptian-KSA relations early last month we found out the ministry of transportation is saying that the work in this project will start by mid 2013.
Despite what it seems to be the project of the century that would turn Egypt rich in no time , I do not support this project. I do not support this project for ecological reasons. I am not environmentalist to provide a detailed study but I know simple science facts :

Egyptian Constitution : Drafting the Post Revolution Constitution

This is the first time we cover the draft of the Egyptian constitution from more than 60 years like that , this is the first time we blog about drafting the Egyptian constitution after the revolution.
Today the parliament “Upper house and lower house” is having a joint meeting to discuss the standards of choosing the members of the constituent assembly. It is the first from three to discuss those standards or rather choose these standards. 
It is worth to mention that according the constitutional declaration the presidential elections should be held before drafting the constitution. Also according to the that constitutional declaration issued  the constituent assembly is made of 100 member.
The discussion now is the presentation of how we are going to choose these members and the percentage of the parliamentarians , here is how it went.

Syrian Revolution : Another Friday , Another Massacre“Another +18 Graphic post”

And today is another Friday in Syria , another round of protests through out villages and cities across the country against El Assad regime despite the extreme cold weather in the country.
Today is another Friday in Syria and the Syrians participating in the protests are demanding the world to provide the Free Syrian army with arms proper enough to stand against Syrian Arab army.
Here is a protest earlier this morning from Aleppo , from El Bab area.

Aleppo : 2 March protests

Reef Dimshaq : 2 March Protests

EC Interview : Mulham Al Jundi , our man in #Homs

Mulham Al Jundi is the young citizen journalist from Homs who managed to get in to the city despite the El Assad forces’ strong siege. Al Jundi gained popularity in the social media as well international mainstream media as most websites now use his photos from Homs “Which I posted here , check 1, 2, 3” as well his live

Mulham El Jundi in Homs

stream footage.

The young SNC member was injured earlier last week in his leg thanks to a bloody El Assad’s sniper on some rooftop. Still he was like the ambassador of the media in Homs.

I was lucky enough to speak with Mulham for couple of minutes online on February 28,2012 after  , here is our short interview.

EC : How are things in Homs today “February 28th,2012” , is the shelling today as strong as in the past 25 days ?

MJ : Things are the same in Bab Amr yet the shelling was less tense in other quarters , the shelling today is concentrated in Bab Amr and Job Al Jandali quarters.

This can be hell for real Dear Matt

First who is Matt ?

He is the guy who dances around the globe in this nice video clip.

Where the hell is Matt ?

You can know more about this inspiring young man from his official website. 

Now Matt is coming next Sunday to Cairo to do his little dance in none other than Tahrir square from 2 PM to 3 PM CLT. At any other thing I would love seeing Matt in Tahrir square but I am afraid that I am concerned about his safety especially now.

Tahrir square is not safe and even the activists and protesters know. In the past two weeks they attempted to clean the square from the thugs sent by the security apparatuses in order to scare people from the square and to give that bad impression about Tahrir square protesters.

This is why I think such event needs to attract more people than those who said that they will attend the event on Facebook. If anything happens to Matt , this will affect our tourism, our image abroad and will damage the Tahrir image in Egypt more than it is damaged image already. We need to restore our square clean for real.

Instead of Tahrir square now ,I think Matt should dance in front of our Pyramids or in Aswan as people there are more friendly and merrier than in Cairo.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Where the hell is Matt,Video,Politics,Tahrir square,Tourism,Culture,Arts,Inspiring,Dancing

Regarding the NGOs trial : It is more than NGOs crisis

The U.S NGOs workers have left Egypt today, they were taken by that U.S military plane that had land surprisingly in the Cairo international airport last night with no pre-knowledge of the airport officials. The military intelligence dealt with that U.S army small plane sent to get their U.S citizens.
That U.S military plane is going to head back to Cyprus where it came from and the 16 U.S NGOs workers on its board. The other foreign NGOs workers from Britain and Serbia have also left.

Cairo : The U.S workers leaving the country

 

The U.S embassy billed them out for $ 5 million. The Egyptians involved in the case are expected to be accused of a felony. Unlike what the official media claimed in Egypt all defendants in this case are facing only two charges related to unregistering the foreign NGOs and illegal funding.

I did not want to speak about the U.S NGOs trial because I knew there was more in the case that we did not know and it was not about NGOs or human rights or standing against SCAF. For weeks I have been overwhelmed with rumors , tips and news and trying to put pieces of puzzles together to understand what is going on. Still I think today is a good day to chat all my thoughts about this case.