Dear Adobe, we need a special price in Egypt

Adobe is known that its applications are the best in the market when it comes to media production. Whether visual or web, it is well-established fact.

It is one of the reasons why it has an expensive price tag for its apps. It is also one of the reasons why its apps are among the most pirated software around the globe.

Now with the depreciation of the Egyptian pound, it is hard for many in Egypt to continue using the original Adobe apps above them Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects and Adobe premiere.

Made on Adobe Express FYI

You may think that USD 9.9 a month or USD 120 a year for the Adobe Photography bundle "Photoshop and Lightroom" cheapest license in the Middle East and North Africa region “Arab region” is a simple thing, but this means LE 295 and LE 3,544 “based on the US 1 = LE 29.54”

This is besides the commission Egyptian banks take for Credit Cards US dollar transactions from inside Egypt. 

This is hugely expensive for many Egyptians that use the app in photography and graphic design, especially with the increasing living costs in the country. Freelancers from graphic designers depend on that app for their living.

Thursday Rave and Rants: #EP8 The Tates

Despite all the economic woes in Egypt and the downfall of the Egyptian pound, I can’t ignore the social media growing cult evolving around notorious social media personality Andrew Tate. It already found its way to Egypt despite all our worries.

That’s why I am discussing it in Arabic on my podcast “Thursday Rave and Rants” in Arabic. 

Below is what I ranted and said but in English. “I speak a lot”

On Tuesday, Bucharest’s Court of Appeal rejected the appeal of the Tate brothers and upheld their 30-day detention on investigations for human trafficking, rape and organized crime.

Tristan and Andrew Tate 

The British-American social media personalities were arrested along with two women in Romania on 29 December in a connection with a human-trafficking investigation.

The two brothers are under investigation for allegedly forming an organized criminal group responsible for kidnapping and exploiting young women by making them the subject of porn videos intended for sale via websites like OnlyFans according to Romanian media.

Andrew Tate denies the allegations and says that it was “the matrix” moving against him aka a “global conspiracy” against him. I do not know why the alt-right folks in the West are fond of the Matrix when the Matrix universe was actually created by two trans sisters !!

Early in April, the Romanian police raided Tate’s house in the country following the allegations that he abducted some American woman but nothing was found and no one was arrested.

The Tates’ arrest in December may not have captured the world’s attention if it were not for the fact that it came right after an online duel of Andrew on Twitter with climate activist Greta Thunberg, which the Swedish teenage activist won in a perfect way.

The bloody Wednesday: The free fall of the Egyptian Pound starts

I will remember this Wednesday very well.

 How I and probably a million other Egyptians glued in front of their laptops and mobile phone screens only to refresh their google screen to see the price of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar. 

1 US dollar = 29.76 Egyptian pound 

It started at $1 for LE 27.6 and the free fall started till it reached in a very short time LE 31-32 in some banks then it returned back to LE29.7.

According to Ahram Online, the Egyptian pound lost over 100 % of its value since March 2022. 

It reached its lowest-ever value in its history. We knew it was coming but not so fast in a single day. 

According to MadaMasr’s report, the Gulf money once again saved the Egyptian pound somehow.

Kodak Agfa Presents : A Great Cairo Christmas in video and photos

A belated Merry Orthodox Christmas

Unfortunately due to the cold, this post, its photos and its video were delayed but it is never too late to celebrate Christmas and its spirit.

I think we all need a light post to break the cycle of depressing economic news in Egypt for real.

Christmas bazaar at Capital Promenade Mall in Giza's Sheikh Zayid 

This year I went to Shubra again as you may have known and seen but I did not stop there as I decided to visit other parts of Great Cairo that celebrate Christmas.

For those who do not know, despite the majority of Egyptians being Muslims but believe it or not people celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Shops, restaurants and malls hang Christmas decorations and install those big Christmas trees.

Kodak Agfa Presents : Photos of the year “2022 edition”

Another year-ender post I hope that inshallah it will be another tradition in Egyptian Chronicles: The photos of the year.

This is a subjective post because I chose those photos as my favourite for the year 2022, they represent major events in the year which I found significant and they are not too many.

They are without order. I apologize for that. 

For me, this is the photo of the year 2022.

A four years old girl working in a brick factory in Afghanistan sleeping 
after work on one August afternoon "AP"

That photo summarizes the Afghani ongoing forgotten tragedy.

It also represents everything that is wrong in this world my afraid on every level whether social injustice or economic injustice or political injustice.

The whole photo story is heartbreaking.

The photo story is available on AP and those sad photos were taken by photographer Ebrahim Noroozi.

I pray those children will have a better year and future this year.

I do not know the source of this photo or who actually took and I hope that he or she is okay because they are in China. It was taken in Shanghai during the anti- Zero-Covid-19 policy protests.

Egyptian Pound in limbo : A worrying start for a new year

God knows this is not how I wanted to start the new year. I was on merrier post to remember last year before going into the worrying stuff it did not take 7 days into the year 2023 and the economic worries returned back in force.

On Wednesday, the Egyptian pound had lost over 10% of its value against the US dollar two or even one hour after Egypt’s biggest public sector banks announced their new 25% saving certificates.

A photo of Banque Misr in Downtown Cairo 

Egypt’s National Bank of Egypt “NBE” and Banque Misr “BM” which are both state-owned announced issuing new one-year maturity saving certificates with a 25% yield after one year.

The new certificates are also available at a 22.5% yield for monthly disbursement.

This is the highest yield an Egyptian bank has ever presented.

Happy New Year 2023

Happy New year 2023 from Egyptian Chronicles

Happy New year 2023 from Cairo’s Shubra and its Christmas market that against all odds survived 2022 and its supply crisis.

Here is to a new year hopefully inshallah it will be better with less trouble, less sadness and less crises.

Hopefully inshallah it will be a better year for Egypt and Egyptians despite all the hardships.

Those photos I took last week from Cairo’s Shubra.