#Egyworkers : And the Newspapers workers demand better training incentives

Today I met a protest “ not a big one” at the famous “Sahafa street” in front of the state owned major newspapers Al Ahram and Akhbar Al Youm. The protest included workers from state owned newspapers , privately owned newspapers whether independent or partisans.

The protesters were from newspapers workers and administrative employees who were demanding an increase for their technological training incentive about 25% just like the journalists who got an increase in their incentive earlier this year.
The protesters held banners like “The newspaper needs the journalist and the worker” and chanted for Kamel Ganzoury to meeting their demands.

They are also demand a governmental support to their pensions fund. The government is already paying this technological training incentive for all newspapers.
The protesters headed in march to the Shura council to present a petition with their demands to the Speaker of the Shura council Ahmed Fahmy “Who is also the chairman of the Supreme council of journalism”.

The March to Shura council

Ahmed Fahmy has already asked PM Ganzoury to increase the incentives and to support the pension fund in official request issued from the Supreme council for journalism in Egypt.

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And The MB has just created their first diplomatic crisis !!

It started first with Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi , he slammed the Emirati government and the rulers of UAE last week for their decision to deport a group of Syrians and their families for protesting in front of their embassy in Abu Dhabi without a permission in his weekly TV show on Qatari Al Jazeera.

Qaradawi slammed UAE government

The old influential Sheikh told the rulers of UAR to fear God and the day of judgment. It was a very simple criticism ; “fear God” was once said to Omar Ibn El-Khatab himself but despite many believed that next day all people would forget what Qaradawi said , a high profile Emirati official did not forget and was offended from what the Sheikh said.
Dhahi Khalfan , Dubai’s police chief fired back at the Sheikh and said that if he insulted UAR and its rulers , he will not only arrest if he steps a foot in UAE but he will ask the Interpol to arrest him.
The statements were shocking to the Sheikh’s fans as well Islamic clerics , despite I think Sheikh Qaradawi used to worse attacks by Mubarak regime yet somehow people did not expect this attack coming from an official , from a Gulf state where Qaradawi is popular more than in Egypt.
Not only the Sheikh’s fans have fired back at Khalfan but also his brothers in the Muslim brotherhood stood for him as well. “Qaradawi is a famous old member of the group”

Syrian Revolution : Another massacre in Karm EL Zaitoun “+18 Extreme Graphic”

Today we woke up on a terrible massacre that took place in Karm El Zaitoun quarter in Homs , Syria yesterday. I am sorry Syria we are busy in the presidential elections circus. Last night over 100 Syrian have been killed in Homs , Idlib , Aleppo , Damascus and its suburbs
Yesterday there were two massacres in Homs , the biggest one was in Karm El Zaitoun and the second one is in the Jobar area.

Presidential elections 2012 : The Circus goes on

The second day of the presidential elections registration seems to be even more interesting than the first day
Today citizen Adel Abdeen from Tanta came and registered himself as the presidential candidate while holding the Egyptian Royal Green flag and claiming that he is the son of King Farouk I , the king of Egypt and Sudan !!!!

Abdeen "Al Wafd newspaper" 

We got also citizen El Sayid Ahmed who came on his motorbike to register as a presidential candidate.

On the motorbike "AP"

Infamous lawyer who fights everybody Mortada Mansour registered himself today. It is worth to mention that Mortada lost the parliamentary elections in his hometown in Mansoura fro two months ago !! Mansour says that Egypt needs a Man and he is that Man.

#Virginity Checks : The verdict was already known !!

And so the military court has acquitted that conscript doctor accused of performing virginity checks for girls arrested on March 9th ,2011 !!
It is not a surprise at all for me thanks to the testimonies of the eye witnesses including the eye witnesses Samira’s lawyer brought to support her claim. These eye witnesses’ testimonies contradicted with Samira’s testimony including the testimony of Rasha Abdel Rahman who was with Samira on that day at military prison !!!
Of course one must wonder about the confessions of the SCAF commanders to the media whether the CNN in order not to be accused raping the detainees or the activists like Mona Seif about having those awful tests in the activists meeting with SCAF commanders . Still you must remember that the eye witnesses did not deny having these tests but they said different versions on how it was conducted.
The verdict was somehow expected.
Samira Ibrahim herself did not have faith in the military judiciary to her tweets and her statements and described the whole trial as a play all the time.Nevertheless the feeling that you lost a case is difficult even if you have a little faith. She cried and broke down in the court today.

Samira after the verdict crying

Unfortunately the case of Samira Ibrahim has been exposed to the media to the level now people are wondering if she is honest or not. The girls who were with Samira that bloody day should speak up and support her story. I know there was another girl other than Samira and Rasha , a hairdresser who was the first to speak about the matter. That lady needs to speak about the case.
Today the military court let Egyptian TV channels film inside the court and they even let that doctor Ahmed Adel have his own press conference. From his side Adel is defending himself and saying that he is a doctor who respects his profession and that he was a “sissy” to engage in sexual assault.
I do not know if Adel will sue Samira for defame or not because she should be left alone now.
The final verdict is between the hands of God and it will come in both this life or after lift.

Updated :

Activists Samira Ibrahim, Asmaa Mahfouz , Nawara Negm and Ghada Kamel along with couple of young men “about 15” and 2 other girls are protesting at the ministry of defense.

Presidential elections 2012 : Who is endorsing Who “3-11”

Here is a quick summary for who is endorsing who in the political scene in Egypt when it comes to the presidential elections.It will be updated every week ISA. I will keep the position of Muslim brotherhood till the end as part of the suspense.

The presidential Office in Abdeen Palace 

Liberal New Wafd Party declared its endorsement to Mansour Hassan hours after his announcement that he was going to run last Wednesday in a surprise move after their announcement that the famous old liberal party would endorse Amr Moussa. Speculations say that Al Wafd chose Hassan because he is the SCAF and Muslim brotherhood’s candidate. The Al Wafd party’s youth are said to began a revolt against the party’s old leaderships that chose Hassan over Moussa. We will see if this revolt will result in defections or not.
Wafd party comes after Freedom and Justice party and Nour party when it comes to representation in the parliament
Islamist Al Wasat Party has declared its endorsement to potential presidential candidate Mohamed Salim El Awa. It is not a big surprise at all as the party considered him as a godfather. El Awa has secured 11 MPs’ power of attorney already. It is not a new thing as Al Wasat party declared his support to El Awa for months. Al Wasat party got members in the parliament
The Egyptian current party aka El Tayar El Masry party “Youth moderate party” has announced its endorsement to presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abu El Fatouh. TM was founded by the defected MB youth who left the brotherhood in the beginning of the revolution including Islam Lotfy , the member of Revolution Youth Coalition. The Egyptian current party got no representative in the parliament

Presidential Elections 2012 : The True Power of The power of attorney !!!

The independent presidential candidates are required to collect at least 30,000 power of attorney from 15 governorates across the country or to score 30 power of attorney from members of parliament.
The idea behind of these terms is to show that candidate has got a real popularity.
The partisan presidential candidate should be represented a party that got at least one party. This means that Potential Presidential candidate and MP Abu El Ezz El Hariri is eligible to run already.
Here is a complete list in Arabic for the public notary offices across the country. There are at least 337 notary offices assigned to receive the power of attorney from the citizens. 
Here is a scan for the power of attorney for presidential candidates.

Power of Attorney

Citizens need to bring their IDs along the ID info of their candidate.
Most presidential candidates already complained the High presidential elections committee “HPEC” did not declared the steps on how people can submit the power of attorney for weeks. Nobody knew about that presidential candidate power of attorney except today. 
In the first 24 hours rumors began that candidate X and candidate has began to buy power of attorney to spread.
People have to understand this power of attorney is not a vote , you can sign a power of attorney for one candidate and vote for another one when time comes.
Here is a nice slideshow for our presidential candidates’ IDs :