#FreeJournalists : Some Egyptian Journalists began to Take a stand

I was wondering why or when the Egyptian journalists are not supporting their colleagues currently detained behind bars like foreign journalists.
Well people began to react at last in Egypt. Today I found a group of Egyptian photographers declaring their solidarity withe detained journalists in Egypt .

Freedom for detained journalists

I am not surprised because Egyptian journalists especially Photojournalists have been paying the price in the past three years, especially in the past 6 months.

 By the way, the mainstream media in Egypt is claiming that all the journalists showing their solidarity with Al Jazeera detained journalists are actually journalists working for Al Jazeera and some people are actually buying this.

The Return of #BassemYoussef on #MBCMasr

And Bassem Youssef has just finished the first episode of his new/old show “Al Bernmag” on MBC Masr and it was one hell of a return back after suspending his show from three months on CBC and ending his contract with that network.

By Rawya Rageh

The episode started with funny Sketch where Bassem hinted out to El Sisi/army mania in a funny way then it was the big show. Youssef and his team slammed CBC and its owner Mohamed El Amin. He also mocked other pathetic TV hosts who were attacking him exposing their overreactions. He claimed that he would
avoid the one who won’t be named showing a silhouetted photo of El Sisi but man he mentioned names several times. . 
In the second segment Bassem continued speaking about the El Sisi-Mania in the Egyptian TV that extended to cooking shows and fashion shows !!
In the last segment Bassem Youssef hosted Cairokee band. The Pro-Revolutionary Band presented songs from its new album “Left lane” which is available now on iTunes. The first two songs were the best representation for what the Pro-Revolutionary generation and class feel right now in Egypt honestly. 
Here is the full episode.

Al-Bernmag : First segment

Saving #VillaAghion , Saving #Alexandria

Wednesday morning culture and heritage activists in Alexandria woke on another disaster : Alexandrian Landmark Villa Aghion was being demolished by a court order for its latest owners in order to be replaced by another ugly cement huge building.
For months activists were trying to save this remarkable villa designed by August Perret in 1927 for Gustav Aghion as a private residence. Perret's Neoclassical designs are celebrated worldwide. Here is more about the villa. 

The Perret Brothers already left a series of buildings in Cairo and Alexandria , their first was that villa.
When the bulldozers began their work , the activists of "Save Alex" initiative to save the historical villa calling the governor to stop this destruction process.
The governor , a former major general and a member of SCAF Tarek Al Mahdy with bunch of TV channels insisting that he gave strict orders not to demolish old buildings and villas.

Mr. Governor saves the day .. with TV cameras 

Of course Al Mahdy had his own confrontation with the latest owners of the villa who showed him that the municipal council gave a permission for demolishing breaking his orders.
In the end the governor reached to an amazing idea , he froze the demolishing of the villa and decided to have talks with all parties involved in the matter.Ironically 50% of the villa was destroyed as you can see in the photos above.

The meeting after 50% of the villa was destroyed

Of course things are bit complicated because it turned out that the French Consulate in Alexandria asked the UNESCO to interfere because the work of Perret is considered a World heritage. They are celebrating Perret now in Parsi for heavens' sake !! Things do not stop here as I found out there is a legal fight between the current owners of the villa.
Here are photos for the villa before the bulldozers' attack.

#FreeAJStaff : Journalism is not Terrorism Indeed

Today not less than 180 journalists in Kenya held a protest in solidarity with the detained Al Jazeera International journalists in Egypt especially in specific Australian Peter Greste.
Greste , the award winning journalist was the correspondent  of AJE in Kenya and so his colleagues there organized the protest. The foreign Correspondents association in East Africa organized along other journalists at the Egyptian embassy in Nairobi. The protesters held signs and banners saying that Journalism is not terrorism and that "We are all Peter Greste" 

The journalists tried to hand over books and letters to Greste to the Egyptian embassy staff but the one of the embassy's officials told them they can not because they do not interfere in judiciary and so on. 
Anyhow the deputy ambassador got a copy from a letter by the protesters demanding the release of the detained journalists as far as I understand.
Interestingly  the Kenyan police was going to disperse the protest but the protesters brought up the Kenyan Constitution.  What I know that those journalists in Kenya are much respectable then their counterpart in Egypt.

The Political Marshal is about the Naked Emperor

Yesterday writer and columnist Balel Fadl shocked many of his fans online that his op-ed in Al Shorouk Daily Newspaper was banned and he ended his work there. 

للأسف تم منع مقالي من النشر في صحيفة الشروق أمس واليوم وتم نشر اعتذار باسمي دون معرفتي. المقال كان يتحدث عن المشير السيسي والأستاذ هيكل
— Belal Fadl (@belalfadl) February 2, 2014

" Unfortunately my op-ed was banned in Al Shorouk yesterday and today. An apology was published by name without my knowledge.The op-ed was speaking about field Marshal El Sisi and Mr. Heikal"

 Known for his anti-military views and powerful recent columns against ElSisi unlike any other writer in Egypt in printed media , most people suspected that the military had something to do with it.
Couple of hours news began to spread that the military has nothing to do with it and actually it was banned because allegedly Fadl spoke negatively about renowned and veteran journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal .

Actually #Jan25 Presented the alternatives

Lately the mainstream media and the Pro-Military supporters and Pro-Mubarak supporters as well the seasonal supporters {Who change their political support and affiliation to latest political fashion whether it is right or wrong} are claiming that the 25 January revolution did not represent any political alternative and so the people have to choose the only option they have got “other than the Islamist alternative they tried and failed”.

“The revolution people did not give any solutions and they have been arrogant” This idea has been spreading like fire in the media and some people with short memory are buying this. Well contrary to this myth the 25 January revolution has presented several alternatives that were not chosen by the people and were rejected “and fought most of the time” by the regime whether in time of SCAF or Morsi or now.

Let’s go back in history :

• Starting from March 2011 Constitutional amendments referendum , most of the revolutionary forces and powers rejected the amendments demanding a Constitution first option. SCAF and the Islamists were supporting the Constitutional amendments. I remember all the anti-Revolutionary Pro-SCAF Pro-Mubarak Facebook pages calling the people to vote yes just like the Islamists TV channels. The majority chose yes.

#ChileNotEgypt : The Story of Chile's coup 1973

This is an indirect Guest blog post I am proud to present. Writer/blogger and tweep Iyad ElBaghdadi wrote in a series of tweets brief history of Chile's coup in 1973 
I wish someone would translate these tweeps in to Arabic
One of our problems in Egypt is that we do not read history whether our own history or other countries' history in order to learn how to avoid mistakes. We do not read history in this way because we are not learned in our education system to do this properly unfortunately.
Ironically and sadly some people warned of having a Romanian Counter revolution scenario in Egypt including people like Alaa Al-Aswany but no one wanted to listen. Some warned of having a Chilean scenario in Egypt but no one wants to listen. Some warned of having another 1954 scenario and are warning of another Nasserite era with its cons before its pros but nobody wants to listen.
I know every country has its own circumstance and time plays an important role but yet again the same mistakes are committed and people are paying the price.
Here are the tweets of Dear Iyad gathered in a storify post below.