إقتراح

أكيد أكيد كراسي السلطة دي مريحة جدآ جدآ لدرجة إن مش بس عبدالناصر، ولاالسادات، ولااللي مايتسماش،ولا المجلس، ولا حتى الراجل الطيب اللي الناس إختارتة من الميدان بيرضوا يقوموا من عليه ويسيبوه لغيرهم يجربه شوية. ومش بينفع معاهم أي كلام ولا حتي الطبل البلدي.ء

 لهذا، أقترح سحب وتدمير جميع الكراسي اللي في قصر السلطة، مجلس الوزارة، مجلس الشعب، مجلس الشورى ( دة لو صمموا يبلونا بيه برضة)، المجالس المحلية، مجالس الإدارات، المجالس الرياضية، وحتى مجالس الأنس،  و تغيير إسمهم جميعا من مجالس لمواقف.ء

مين عارف، يمكن لما ضهرهم يتقطم يحلوا عنا ويمشوا!!!ء

October 6th

Other than private occasions such as birthdays and wedding anniversaries of loved ones, October 6th was my favorite holiday. To me it is the day we Egyptians regained our land and even more importantly, we regained our dignity (KARAMA).

It's ironic that a person who supposedly played a role in that historic day, has betrayed his people and his military oath and turned into a criminal who stripped Egyptians of our karama, and even collaborated with the same enemy our brave soldiers defeated.

For this reason, I now value and cherish two more dates, January 25th, and February 11. The first marked the long awaited unity of all factions of Egyptians to revolt against the tyrant, and the second marked his actual fall from his illegal thrown.

I am now eager to add a third and most important date to the previous ones. I'm waiting for the day when the honest and innovative Egyptians who actually initiated and lead the revolution, to take charge of Egypt's future.

Say Amen.


مدنية ديمقراطية، لا دينية ولا عسكرية

Palestine Inside Out

Do you think that you know everything about the suffering of Palestinians in the occupied territories? Unless you are a Palestinian living in the West Bank then please allow me to answer on your behalf. The answer is NO.

Only a handful of books can help you begin to understand the extent of the humiliation, suffering and dire conditions under which our brothers and sisters in humanity, the Palestinians endure and suffer at the hands of our other brothers and sisters in humanity, the Zionists.

One of the books that might help you begin to understand is Nothing to lose but your life which I recently reviewed. Another that I  strongly recommend is Palestine Inside Out by Saree Makdisi.

On page one of the introduction, you are introduced to a unique Palestinian tragedy. Sam Bahour, a Palestinian businessman happily settled with his wife and two daughters in the West back was informed that because he was born in Ohia, he must leave his home in the Palestinian territories because the Israeli government facility in the settlement of Beit El, has decided not to renew his permit!!!

 Allow me to repeat this because I had difficulty understanding it the first time around. A Palestinian born to two Palestinian parents, who was born in Ohio because his parents were forcibly expelled from their home and land, and who is married to a Palestinian women born in the West Bank and who is listed on the territory’s official population registry, thus the couple is eligible for family unification, yet an illegal occupying force stationed in an illegal settlement built on internationally acknowledged Palestinian land has the authority to throw him out at will!!! I still don’t get it!!!

On page three we are assured that Sam’s case is not an isolated incident.  Amal al-Amleh, a wife and mother and a resident of the West bank made the unforgivable mistake of crossing the Jordan River to visit her ailing father in Jordan. When she tried to return to the West Bank, the Israeli soldier at the Allenby Bridge denied her the required permit to rejoin her husband, a West bank native, and her children because Amel was born in Jordan. Though she is only a few miles away, it’s been years since Amel last saw her children. Her youngest who was only ten months old when she left and her siblings are growing motherless because an Israeli occupier is preventing a Palestinian woman from traveling from one Arab country where her father lives to an Arab territory where her husband and children are awaiting her. 

According to the Israeli Human Rights Organization B’Tselem , 120,000 Palestinian applications for family unification have been pending since 2000. 

Having read this, you must be either outraged by the cruelty and injustice of the Israeli practices, or you could be suspicious of the credibility of it all. You might be thinking why and how could any person do this to another human especially when some of them or of their parents have suffered tremendous injustice and cruelty at the hands of the Nazis. 

The answer to this question is simple. The Israeli forces are merely implementing an Israeli government policy (as set in place by Ariel Sharon and reaffirmed by his successors) with the stated objective to separate the Jews from non-Jews.   Thus the concept of transfer.

“Transfer” is a euphemism referring to the removal or expulsion of the indigenous, non-Jewish, population of Palestine.  During the creation of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced (transferred) from their homes, and forcibly prevented from returning afterwards, despite their moral and legal right to do so. Having captured what remained of Palestine during the 1967 war, Israel again found itself taking control of land with a population it did not want. Thus a shift from the 1948 large scale “forcible expulsion” to the “voluntary transfer” by basically turning the lives of Palestinian in the West Bank to hell!!!

Some of the devilish tools used to ensure the transfer:

• The Immense Wall
• Gates closure
• Sterile highways
• Work Permits
• Travel Permits
• Visa permits
• Check points
• Back-to-Back cargo checkpoints
• Back-to-back cargo road blocks
• Uprooting of trees
• House demolitions
• Land confiscation
•  New military zones
• New seam zones

And the list goes on and on and on.

Look up those terms and see how each one of them is making the lives of the Arab residents of the West Bank unbearable.

As suggested earlier, read Saree Makdisi’s book and learn much more about those injustices, then do speak out against them. Remember, "indifference to evil is even more evil than evil itself" (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel).

The American Granddaughter

As mentioned in the previous post, the late Noha Radi's Baghdad Diaries educated me on what the embargo was doing to the Iraqi people. Riverbend's amazing blog and book Baghdad Burning was pivotal in exposing the true face of the invasion.  

The American Granddaughter novel by Iraqi Inaam Kachachi, completes the picture, and is extremely valuable in highlighting the history, the dreams, and the lives of  important sectors of the Iraqi people, that is the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and the Shiites.

The novel is also unique in showing the American invasion of Iraq from the point of view of an Iraqi American returning to her homeland as an interpreter working for the invading forces. It's true that she took the job for the money, but she went there convinced that she was helping rebuild her homeland. 

If Zaina was successful, at least for a while, in deceiving herself about the truth of her mission and that being a part of the invading army could also mean that she is on the side of the Iraqi people, her grandmother was too wise and too proper to accept that.

Zaina's love for her grandmother, her forbidden love to her milk brother Muhaymen, and what she saw with her own eyes throughout her mission in Iraq has finally made her sadder but wiser.

Back to Iraq

If there is anyone out there who is still undecided about the invasion of Iraq, I will give you one last chance before I call you a complete moron. You need to answer the following questions:

1. Do you think that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11?
2. Did the invasion of Iraq eliminate terrorism?
3. Did any of the tens of thousands of invading forces ever find any weapons of mass destruction?
4. Did the Bush/Blair invasion eliminate the killing and torture that the Iraqis suffered from under Saddam?
5. Did the embargo which was enforced for years hurt anyone but the innocent Iraqi children and peaceful civilians
6. Is the Iraqi economy, education, health care, industry, infrastructure better today, eight years after the invasion, than they were prior to it?

If you answered any of the above question with anything other than NO (even a may be is not allowed), then you are a hopeless moron, and please leave my blog this minute and remove it from your history, and don't you ever come back.

 

Otherwise, you're a reasonable and logical person, and can benefit from reading a number of excellent books that I found solid, candid, and courageous.

1. Baghdad Diaries - Noha Radi
2. The Plan of Attack - Bob Woodword
3. Baghdad Burning - Riverbend
4. Collateral Damage - Chris Hedges
5. The American Garnddaughter - Inaam Kachachi

I've reviewed Baghdad Burning & Collateral Damage in previous posts. In my next post, I'll review the only fiction book in the list, The American Granddaughter.

Nothing to Lose but Your Life

The late Edward Said has repeatedly asked us to "reaffirm the power of culture over the culture of power,” and that’s exactly what Saud Amiry has successfully done in her new book Nothing to Lose but Your Life.

Applying the same successful formula she used in her first book Sharon and my Mother in-Law, Amiry’s ability to be both funny & balanced even when documenting the inhumane & miserable conditions under which the Palestinians live in the occupied territories is truly powerful. It is also much more effective in amassing the support of people around the world than tens of speeches by politicians.

Amiry’s book is a chronicle of the 18 hours journey, mostly spent running or hiding, she experienced first-hand when she accompanied a group of Palestinian men from a small village in the West Bank trying to sneak into Israel to reach the worker’s market, where Israeli employers pick them up to do various manual labor jobs.

I usually complain to everyone I know, and sometimes to people I don’t know, that I have to wake up at 6:00 a.m. every weekday morning to be at my office at 7:00 a.m. I was ashamed of my petty grumble when I realized that Palestinian laborers, who were denied work permits after the second Intifada, leave their homes at 2:30 a.m., to start a hellish journey that takes them across hills and valleys, through tunnels and over fences, all this while trying to avoid and evade Israeli security forces waiting for them in the darkness of the night.

Exhausted by the dangerous hide-and-seek game between the Palestinian potential laborers and the Israeli security forces, and getting genuinely scared for their safety when the sun cruelly rises before the group is able to reach its destination, I wondered why they just don't turn back and try again the next day. Amiry doesn't leave me wondering for long. A member in her group tells us that the men would chose being arrested or injured over the embarrassment of going home to their families empty handed.

When Amiry and her three companions, Murad, Saed and Mohamed, manage to avoid being arrested, injured, or discouraged by fatigue and the slim chance of finding work that late in the day, and finally go past an opening in the infamous Security Wall in the afternoon, Amiry was shocked, and so was I, when she was reminded that the military check points, the separate roads, the hiding, the chase, the arrests, and the gunshots were all happening in the West Bank, that is, in undisputed Palestinian territories. It is ironic to note that once in Israel; they had relatively much more freedom to move from one place to another, and they even managed to ride the Israeli public transportation.

I strongly recommend this book. The English version was published in 2010 by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. The book is also available in Arabic under the title مراد مراد      

The Help

The Help was not on my to-read list (yes I do have a to-read list, people with OCD like myself love lists), but was recommended to me by my once art teacher (who gave me my only fail grade in my school years) and who after over thirty years of not seeing or hearing from her, I now consider her (thanks to Facebook) a very good friend.

In a nutshell, I did not hate the book but at the same time I did not like it much. After only a few pages, I could not but think that this is a book about black maids telling how it was to work for white families in Mississippi back in the sixties, but it is obviously told by a WHITE woman.

Why this book was chosen to be made into a movie is a mystery to me. If Hollywood wanted to make a movie about this delicate issue, then Langston Hughes' "Not Without Laughter"- to give one example - would have been a much more poetic, genuine, and honest alternative.

I wonder if the choice was driven by commercial or racial reasons.

OK I have a confession to make, a few days after reading The Help, I was driving home from work and I saw the young man who helps with the house work walking in the direction of the bus station. I waved at him and drove home. Then I remembered a scene from The Help, and I found myself backing up, catching up with him, and insisting on giving him a ride to the bus station. In the four months he's been with us, I never did that before. I guess what I am trying to say is: reading The Help is not a complete waste of time after all.

The Walk of Honor

I went with my cousin and his two kids to Al Ka2ed Ibrahim mosque for the Friday prayers, then we joined the protest which moved from there, along the Port Said street towards the headquarters of the military northern command in Sidi Gaber to protest against the fact that more than five months since Mubarak's fall, not one high ranking official has been punished for Killing and injuring thousands of Egyptians since the eruption of the revolution on January 25th.

George Ishak lead the first chants, then the youth, mainly from 6th April movement took over for the rest of the way. We were around two thousand protestors, a low number compared to the numbers of previous Fridays. Seems that the extreme heat and humidity, and the boycott by the Islamists (not sure what this title actually means when most women and girls in the protest were vailed) were the mean reason for the low turnout.

The couple of times, I questioned the wisdom of my decision to join the protest on such a hot day, it was enough to look around to see my fellow Egyptians, old and young, healthy and frail, women and men, strong and handicapped struggling with their with crutches, it was enough to look at them all to forget about anything except our one and only beloved Egypt. Moreover, cold water was never in shortage. People in the balconies and windows of building along Port Said street are used to similar demos and were well prepared. Also, whenever protestors went into stores to buy bottles of cold water, they always bought extra ones and gave them out to whoever needed a refreshing sip.

A couple walked with the picture of their martyr son hanging from string around their necks. Mohamed Ramadan was 14 years old! No words could express how I felt towards them. As a mother, I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through, and not only for losing a son but also for knowing that his killer is free. All I could offer was a pat on the shoulder and a promise that their son's life will not be lost in vain. Two young girls were holding a banner of the martyred brother Ahmed Adel Ahmed. Again a pat and a promise were all I could offer for now.

When the protest stopped at the location where Khaled Said was killed, the car that carried the loud speakers played the beautiful song "ya Bladi ya Bladi, Ana ba7ebak ya Bladi", the tears that chocked my throat finally uncontrollably spilled from my eyes. I never knew I loved Egypt -actually, I prefer to call my beloved country MASR - and all it's children that much.

Credits: Second picture is by my cousin Mohamed Hanno.

Mornings in Jenin by Susan AbulHawa

Whether you’re already a strong supporter of the Palestinian issue, a distant sympathizer, a neutral by-stander who doesn’t care much for either sides, or even if you’re a hard core Zionist, I dare you to read this book

Susan Abulhawa has skillfully weaved a tapestry of heritage, love, pain, injustice, hope, despair, violence, tenderness, cruelty, and sacrifice that will force you to re-examine all your comfort-zone ideas and beliefs.

We all know the recent history of the region, and most of us might not need or want to be reminded of it or of the major events that lead to and followed the creation of Israel, yet Abulhawa, ever so softly & skillfully, retells this history from an extremely humane perspective.

Through the lives of four generations of the AbulHeja family, we see how a typical farming family, defined by the abundance of love and the deep connection to the land, is suddenly and literally uprooted from the land and lifestyle it has know for forty generations, into a brutal and arid life of displacement and refugee camps.

And while it’s true that the men in subsequent generations of AbulHeja are the ones who disappear or are killed because they the main target of the Zionist military might, or because they are expected to carry arms in defense of the women, children and the elderly, yet the real suffering is experienced by the women who are repeatedly left alone to care for themselves and their children under the most brutal of conditions.

I must warn you though; this book will not only make you cry it will make you itsha7tef (an Egyptian word meaning not being able to stop crying for six months).

Egypt on the Brink, By Tarek Osman

Since (according to Amazon) the publishing date of this book was January 11, 2011, then the few lucky ones who had a chance to read this book in the two week prior to

January 25th , should not have been as surprised as the rest of us were when Day of anger Riots that were scheduled for on turned into a full fledged revolution against Mubarak and his regime.

Not too long ago, I read two books that, more or less, cover the same issues. Those are: Inside Egypt by John R. Bradly, & Egypt: A moment of change by Rabab El Mahdi. 

All three books, to different extents, predicted that change was evident, but Osman’s book was the one that was closest to the scenario that unfolded on the 25th.

Mado of Taxi - Segn Torra

As an ad on Dream TV, his tune used to get on my nerves. Now, I'm Loving It!!!!

الذكرى السنوية الأولى لاستشهاد خالد سعيد اسكندرية

دا مفيش حد ما أعجبش بيها

دا مفيش حد ما أعجبش بيها!!!ء

فاكرين الجملة دي من فيلم شاطئ الغرام بطولة ليلى مراد و حسين صدقي ؟

أهو كل مرة أسمع حد محترم بيتكلم على الرئيس المخلوع واللي عمله في البلد،  بأقول لنفسي:ء

دا مافيش حد ما شتمش فيه!!!ء

دم نهلة مصطفى في رقبة قاتلي خالد سعيد

كتبت- وسام محمد

:

بعد رحلة عمل شاقة لإيصال صوت الحقيقة.. توفيت الزميلة والناشطة نهلة مصطفي، مذيعة برنامج ''كل يوم'' في قناة 25 ، مساء الاثنين، إثر حادث اليم علي طريق ، اسكندرية الصحراوي، خلال عودتها الي القاهرة بعد انتهائها من تصوير حلقه من منزل خالد سعيد بالإسكندرية بمناسبة الذكري السنوية الاولي له.

وقد تداول العشرات نبأ وفاة المذيعة علي المواقع الإلكترونية، بمشاعر ممتزجة بالحزن والصدمة والدعاء لها .

عن موقع مصراوي

كلنا أم خالد سعيد

كل شهداء مصر في قلبي،ء

وكل ما بفرح بإنجاز للثورة، بفتكرهم وبشكرهم لإنهم روا بدمهم الطاهر شجرة الحرية والكرامة والنهضة عشان تضلل على كل المصريين.ء

وكل ما بحزن بمحاولة لوأد الثورة، بفتكرهم برضه، وبيصعب عليا إن تضحياتهم وألم أهلهم اللي حققوا الثورة ينهدر بيد الفاسدين المفسدين اللي إهدروا كرامتنا وطاقاتنا و نيلنا وغازنا وثرواتنا.ء

بس أكتر واحدة بفرح أو بحزن لها هي أم الشهيد خالد سعيد.ء

كان نفسي أكون في مصر في ذكرى إستشهادة عشان أطبطب عليها وأقولها حق البطل و حقك علينا إننا مانسمحش بأغتيال الثورة زي ما سمحنا بإغتيال خالد.ء

الخباز الفصيح . الجمعة 2011-5-27

Palestine: A capital question

The following article was published by The Economist, on this day, four years ago:

ON May 15th, “Nakba [Catastrophe] Day”, Palestinians mourn the loss of most of their homeland to the newborn state of Israel. In a grim irony for them, this year's “Jerusalem Day”, the date in the lunar Jewish calendar when Israel celebrates its “reunification” of the city after capturing the West Bank in the 1967 war, falls the day after.

The 245,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem itself will feel the irony extra sharply. Last year 1,363 of them, many from generations-old Jerusalem families, lost their right to live in the city—up more than six-fold on the year before, and the highest annual total ever.

Demography has been the chief battle-ground for control of the holy city ever since Israel annexed the eastern, Arab part. It tried to consolidate its hold by building Jewish neighbourhoods (illegal settlements, in the eyes of international law) around the Arab ones. Systematic under-funding of municipal services in the east also drove many Palestinians to live in nearby Ramallah or Bethlehem, in the West Bank. Still, Jews today make up only 66% of the city's population, compared with 74% in 1967; a study published this week reported that the Arab growth rate is nearly twice that of the Jewish one.

Israel, meanwhile, has found various grounds to revoke the “permanent resident” status granted to most Arab Jerusalemites after the annexation. This bestows the right to work, get social benefits and vote in local elections, but not a passport or a vote in Israel's national elections—nor, apparently, permanence. In 1995 Israel began to strip the status from Palestinians who could not prove that their “centre of life” was in Jerusalem. It stopped four years later, after it emerged that the policy was making more of them move back.

Now they lose their status if they live abroad for more than seven years or get residency or citizenship in another country. In this respect, Israel treats them like other non-naturalised immigrants, “though it was Israel, in effect, that immigrated to them,” points out Yotam Ben-Hillel, a lawyer at HaMoked, a legal-advice centre. Last year's spike in revocations, the interior ministry wrote to B'Tselem, an Israeli human-rights group, was because of “an improvement in working procedures and control at the ministry, above all at border crossings”.

Even so, Arab Jerusalemites can get their residency back if they have visited Israel at least once every three years. The trouble is that they lose it automatically, sometimes without knowing, and then have to prove their right to it. Ahmed Jubran, who moved abroad in 1989 and has had American citizenship since 1997, says he has come back to visit his relatives at least once a year. Two years ago Israeli border officials began stamping his American passport instead of the laissez-passer that Israel issues to Arab Jerusalemites. They also warned him that he might not always get a visa. Only three months ago did he learn that he had lost his residency. “I'll do anything to get it back,” he says. “Hell, I'll even become Jewish if they want.”

Off you go

However, Jerusalemites who live elsewhere in the West Bank can lose their residency too. Since merely leaving the city entails no border-crossings and thus leaves no records, the authorities subject anyone they suspect of living outside it to a battery of checks, from producing municipal tax receipts and utility bills to enduring frequent home visits from inspectors who poke through sock drawers and kitchen cabinets.

Jerusalemites might have more say over their fate if most did not boycott municipal elections. They stay away partly out of protest, but partly, says Rami Nasrallah, head of the International Peace and Co-operation Centre in Jerusalem, because the fear of losing residency shapes all their contacts with the authorities. “They have become more individualistic,” he says. “It's a survival strategy.”

Mo Mansour ft. Emma Hayes - Dubai State of Mind

الخباز الفصيح -الجمعة 1-4-2011

B. D. S. (Jackson 5) Chicago Flashmob

Revolution: Telling the Tale : Ahdaf Soueif and Omar R. Hamilton Moderated by Amy Goodman (Q&A)

ليه مابحبش الإخوان؟؟؟

عارفة إن النظام السابق الظالم ظلم الإخوان

عارفة إن النظام السابق الفاسد إفترى على الإخوان

عارفة إن النظام السابق اللي مايخافش ربنا خوفنا من الإخوان

بس برضة مابحبش، أو خليني أكون أكثر موضوعية وأقول: لا أثق في الإخوان!!ء 

ياترى العقدة النفسية دي جاتلي منين؟؟؟ وياترى هي مبررة ولا لأ.ء

كنت حأطلب من زوجي العزيز يعملي جلسة نفسية، بس قلت بلاش أحسن. أولا لأننا ماعندناش كنبة مناسبة، وثانيآ، خفت يسحب مني إعترافات ملهاش دعوة بالإخوان من قريب أو بعيد.ء فقررت أحلل نفسي بنفسي. قعدت أرجع أرجع أرجع بالذاكرة، لحد ماخبط في الحيطة اللي ورايا. ولحظي السعيد، الخبطة فكرتني بأول سنة لية في الجامعة. إعدادي هندسة الإسكندرية، سنة 1977.ء

في أول السنة، ماكنتش بعرف، ولا بكلم إلا حوالي 12 صديق وصديقة كانوا معايا في المدرسة. ومع الوقت بدأت أتعرف على طلبة وطالبات أخرين خاصة اللي معايا في السكشن. وكان من بينهم طلاب ملتحين وطالبات محجبات (للتذكير، في ذلك التاريخ البعيد، الحجاب كان غير منتشر إلا بين من ينتمين للتيارات الإسلامية).ء 

المهم، بعد بدأ الدراسة بحوالي شهرين،  أصبح الإخوة والأخوات يتقربون لنا أكثر وأكثر. وفي يوم وبعد فتح باب الترشيحات لإتحاد الطلبة، جاؤا وطلبوا أن نصوت لهم حتي نستعيد الإتحاد من طلبة فاسدين، يسرقون الأموال المخصصة للإتحاد أويسرفونها في غير ما خصصت له. أما هم، فسوف يساعدون الطلبة المحتاجين، وسينظمون الندوات والرحلات، والحياه حتبقى بمبي. ولم يحاول إي من المرشحين من التيارات الأخرى أن يشرح لنا برنامجه، أو أن ينفي ما أشاعه عنهم الجماعات. وبما إني كنت طيبة وساذجة، فصوتلهم!!! وأعتقد إن أغلب أصدقائي عملوا زيي. ء

بعد الإنتخابات ونجاح الجماعات في الحصول على أغلب المراكز الهامة بالإتحاد، إمتنع الملتحون عن التقرب إلينا، أوالسعي لصداقتنا. وطبعآ كل سنة وأنتم طيبين، مافيش ندوات ولا رحلات. ولما وضح لنا ما حدث، صمم البعض على توصيل إستنكارنا لهم. فكيف كانوا أصدقاء لنا بالأمس، وفجأة يمتنعون حتى عن السلام.ء

وجاني الرد جاني، وعرفت سبب جناني.ء

كان الرد: الحرب خدعة ياباش مهندسة!!!ء

قبل ما حد يديني درس في الموضوعية، أنا بعترف إن موقف واحد غير كافي للحكم على جماعة كاملة. والله عارفة بس معقدة بقى، أعمل إيه؟؟  

Notes from Tahrir Square with Ahdaf Soueif

The Edward Said Memorial Lecture

Notes from the Egyptian Revolution from Heyman Center for the Humanities on Vimeo.

المسيحى رئيس لمصر

Mona ElTahawy's challenge to Israel

تحية وتقدير الي اسد التحرير

تعرف على المهندس عصام شرف رئيس الوزاء الحالى

الثورة تنتصر مجددا: استقالة أحمد شفيق وعصام شرف رئيسا للوزراء

خناقة بين شفيق والاسواني علي الهواء

احمد شفيق قبل و بعد مبارك

شهادات حية لمعتقلين نظام مبارك - خاص الشروق

محمد أبو الغار مع يسري فودة

Oh my Gas!!!

عن الجيش والشعب والاختيارات الثلاثة

الحقيقة أن اعتذار الجيش عن اللى عمله مع الشباب مؤخرا مالوش معنى ومالوش لزوم. يعنى لما نفس التعامل الوحشى المسبوق بالتطمين الكاذب يحصل مرتين (يوم الأربعاء ويوم السبت) وفى مكانين مختلفين (ميدان التحرير وشارع مجلس الشعب) ما ينفعش نقول انها غلطة، أو أن الأمور فلتت من قائد معين، ده جيش، والجيش مفروض إنه منضبط وإنه لا يتصرف إلا بتعليمات.

فما هى التعليمات اللى عند الجيش؟ ومن أين تأتى؟ وهل الذى نشهده دليلًا على انقسام آراء داخل الجيش، كما يقول البعض؟ يقول الشباب إن معاملة الجيش لهم فى مجمع النيابات العسكرية فى مدينة نصر كانت مختلفة عن المعاملة فى الشارع: «كانت العكس تماما.. حيث أمر الظابط بفك القيد عنا وسمحوا لنا بدخول الحمامات وبدأ تحقيق أولى بكل الأدب من بعض الظباط فى انتظار العرض على النيابة العسكرية، فى هذه الأثناء كنا نلاحظ تعاطفا كبيرا من ظباط النيابة». طبعا ان بعض الظن إثمٌ، لكنها أصداء اللعبة القديمة التى ألفناها عبر مئات الأفلام والمسلسلات الأمريكية، لعبة «الشرطى الشرس والشرطى الطيب»، فها هو «الشرس» يشتم ويضرب ويصعق، وها هو «الطيب» يعتذر ويمتدح وينأى بنفسه عن تصرفات «الشرس». لكن الضرب والترويع تم، والطيب والشرس يعملان فى نفس الجهاز ونفس المنظومة وبنفس الهدف. والسياسة، سياسة التخويف، هى نفسها التى اتبعتها الشرطة العسكرية حين دخلت واختطفت النشطين ورجال القانون من مركز هشام مبارك للمساعدة القانونية، فبرضه الاحتجاز تم بطريقة مدروسة الهمجية، مع تخويف مما سوف يفعله «الشارع» فى النشطين، على اعتبار أن الشارع يعرف أنهم عملاء ــ ثم، فى التحقيقات، تعامل بكل احترام من ضباط «يبدون فعلا حريصين على البلد». فما هذه الشيزوفرينيا؟ وما هذا الشر؟ وكيف تبقى الأمور هكذا بعد ما يفترض أنه نجاح ثورة ٢٥ يناير؟

مجلس قيادة الجيش الآن، كـ«رئيس دولة»، عليه أن يتفكر ويعلن موقفه، فنحن نسأله: هل يحكمنا بتفويض من الرئيس المخلوع؟ وفى هذه الحالة فالنظام لا يزال قائما والثورة لم تنجح بعد وعلى الملايين أن تعود إلى الشوارع، بل أن تصعد الثورة.

هل يحكمنا لأنه جيش وفى يده سلاح؟ وفى هذه الحالة فنحن نواجه انقلابا عسكريا وعلينا، وعلى العالم، أن نتعامل معه على هذا الأساس.

هل يحكمنا ليؤمن هذا البلد الثائر، المنتزع لحريته وكرامته، إلى أن يختار الشعب فعلا الحكومة التى ستدير البلاد؟ أى هل يحكم بتفويض من ولصالح الشعب؟ وفى هذه الحالة ما معنى أن يمنع الجيش الشعب من الاستمرار فى ثورته السلمية البناءة والتى مازلنا بحاجة إليها؟

على الجيش أن يحدد موقفه، وبالأفعال لا بالأقوال. الآن هو يعتذر ويقول: «رصيدنا لديكم يسمح..»، لكن هذا الرصيد، فى الحقيقة، يتضاءل، فقد رأينا الجيش يقف على «الحياد» بين ميليشيات البلطجية والشباب الأعزل، ثم رأيناه يخطف الشباب ويعذبهم داخل المتحف المصرى، ورأينا تلكؤه وعدم رغبته الواضحة فى تنفيذ مطالب أساسية للثورة منها إقالة حكومة الدكتور أحمد شفيق وإنهاء حالة الطوارئ وإطلاق سراح جميع المعتقلين ــ والآن هذا التصرف المشين.

على الجيش أن يحدد ويعلن موقفه، ثم يتسق مع هذا الموقف. تصرفاته الحالية لا تليق بالقوات المسلحة المصرية التى رحبت بها الناس فى شوارع مدننا.

المثل المصرى يقول حَرَّص ولاتخَوِّنْش، وعليه فنحن نطلب من الجيش، كتعبير فعلى أولى بسيط عن الموقف والنوايا، أن يسحب عصى التيزر من عناصره، الآن، اليوم، النهارده، علشان لو مرة تانية احتكوا «احتكاكات غير مقصودة» كما يسميها بـ«أبناء الثورة» كما يسميهم، لا تنتج هذه الاحتكاكات شرارة كهربائية تودى بأمن وسلام هذا البلد الذى حافظت عليه الثورة بكل إخلاص وأناقة.

الجامعة الأمريكية تبدأ في تدريس الثورة المصرية لطلابها

القاهرة - أعلنت الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة عن إطلاق مبادرات تعليمية للفصل الدراسي ربيع 2011 من شأنها توفير الفرصة للتمعن في الأحداث التاريخية التي وقعت في مصر في شهري يناير وفبراير.

وتشمل هذه المبادرات إدراج مواد جديدة عن الثورة المصرية في مناهج الجامعة، وتعديل المقررات الحالية لمعالجة أحداث 25 يناير- 11 فبراير، وإقامة ندوات دراسية وحلقات نقاشية عن كافة جوانب الثورة ومستقبل مصر، فضلاً عن توثيق الثورة من خلال مشروع "الجامعة في الميدان: توثيق التاريخ على أرض الواقع".

وقال مدحت هارون المدير الأكاديمي للجامعة: "هذه السلسلة الجديدة من البرامج الأكاديمية والتوعية المجتمعية توضح مدى استجابة الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة للفرص التعليمية التي خلقتها الأحداث الاجتماعية والسياسية في مصر، ففي خلال يومين فقط، قام 40 عضواً من أعضاء هيئة التدريس لدينا بوضع برامج دراسية جديدة، وورش عمل، ولجان، ومواد معدلة لتقدم في الفصل الدراسي الحالي.

من موقع مصراوي

لماذا نطالب باسقاط شفيق وحكومته ؟؟؟ مهم جدا

مصر للطيران في المركز التاسع لأسوأ شركة طيران في العالم

الشروق

٧٢ فبراير، ٢٠١١

أعدت مجلة "بيزنس إنسايدر" الأمريكية قائمة بأسوأ عشر شركات طيران في العالم. كانت منوعة بين الصين والولايات المتحدة الأمريكية وأوروبا، و جاءت شركة "مصر للطيران" في المركز التاسع بقائمة أسوأ شركات الطيران عالميا

وقالت المجلة: إن شركة مصر للطيران حلت في المركز التاسع لأسوأ شركات الطيران عالميا بسبب تعامل طاقم الطائرة "الكسول" مع المسافرين بإهمال وعدم اهتمام، وشعور معظم المسافرين بعدم الراحة أثناء الطيران بسبب المقاعد، وقذارة الحمامات، وسوء جودة الطعام الذي يبدو وكأنه "بواقي أطعمة"، فضلا عن ارتفاع أسعار تذاكر الطيران

يذكر أن المركز الأول كان من نصيب شركة طيران "رايان إير" الأوروبية، بعدها شركة "سبيريت إير لاين" الأمريكية. ويشار إلى أن القائمة احتوت على شركة طيران روسية، وشركة "يو إس إير وايز" الأمريكية، وشركتي "شاينا سازرن إير لاينز" و"شاينا إيسترن" الصينيتين

تعليق: ياجماعة إدو د.شفيق فرصة يحقق نفس الإنجاز للبلد كلها!!ء.

جمعة التطهير.. آراء الشعب المصري..الخباز الفصيح

Egypt’s Transitional Stage: Mechanisms and Measures Before Personalities

Amr Hamzawy 

Commentary, February 25, 2011

Carnegie Endowment

To attribute Egypt’s current political and social crises to personalities alone is to oversimplify them. One ought to be similarly skeptical when certain  individuals are then marketed as the solution to the problem.

Many in Egypt are attempting to link its decades-long crises of authoritarianism and corruption merely to the actions of former President Mubarak and individuals in his family and those close to him. Simply expelling these individuals from political and social life will not  build a democratic and transparent Egypt that combats corruption.

 

Those making this argument ignore the fact that the institutions of authoritarianism—from security agencies to state media to judicial committees accustomed to doing the rulers’ bidding—are the very mechanisms that enabled Mubarak and his family to last since 1981. They forget too that the integrated system of corruption that Mubarak’s regime produced entangled a considerable number of citizens in various ways.

Merely expelling Mubarak’s family and cohorts cannot rid Egypt of authoritarianism and corruption. Egyptians are incapable of achieving much progress if they shortcut the work on democratic reform in constitutional and legal contexts and placate themselves with the legal pursuit of prominent corrupt figures.

Democracy, transparency, and combating corruption can take root in a sociopolitical life only via a long-term process of development. The key to this process is institutional reform so that the rule of law is established and a balanced and mutual oversight among the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities is guaranteed. Such reform must consistently apply the legal and political principles of oversight and accountability to officials and must protect citizens’ rights and liberties. It is therefore incumbent upon Egyptians, as patriotic forces, civil society, activists, and intellectuals, to understand that authoritarianism will not end with the expulsion of Mubarak’s family. Nor will the imprisonment or removal of some of the individuals who symbolize repression and corruption from their public posts solve the problem. In spite of the importance of both these measures, they alone will change nothing. The public must know that freedom from authoritarianism and corruption requires that citizens follow through with mechanisms and measures of reconstruction and institutional reform. Egyptians must also temper the excessive intoxication of victory after Mubarak’s departure.

In addition, attempts have been made by some to reduce the critical and complicated conversation about the transitional stage to a discussion of potential candidates for the presidency—lending Egyptians the impression that one particular person is capable of delivering democracy to the country. The problem is that such talk about names distracts public attention from the process of the transitional stage and the challenges of democratic construction in Egypt.

Over the past few days I have attempted to intensify discussion on a range of issues: whether a presidential or a parliamentary regime is more preferable for democratic Egypt; the amendment of the current constitutional versus drafting a new one; the role of the military in the transitional stage and afterward; how to institutionally manage an expanded national dialogue about the transitional and democratic stage; the role of civil society; the challenges of reforming governmental and public institutions; and others.

All these issues are more central and important to Egypt’s democratic transformation than the discussion of the identities of possible candidates. Seriously addressing them requires ordered and detailed thought about mechanisms, measures, and timings—not public discussion of a particular post and the abilities of this or that candidate.

My bias here, as we strive to manage a successful transformation toward democracy, is in favor of a parliamentary republic that guarantees developed political life and limits the encroachment of the presidency and the executive authority. I prefer this to a presidential republic that gives the president absolute power with no accountability. I believe strongly in the necessity of a new Egyptian constitution that establishes parliamentarianism and saves us from the flawed 1971 constitution (perhaps after the next six months). However, I also think it preferable that, after the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces hands over rule to an elected parliament and president, the role of the military in political life be retained to guarantee that there will be no coup against democracy and pluralism—perhaps in a form close to that of the Turkish National Security Council.

I have also called for the formation of an institution for national dialogue, representing within itself all national forces, labor and professional syndicates, youth movements, and civil society. This body would manage, alongside the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the tasks of the transitional stage. It would precisely define mechanisms, measures, and timings for the democratic transformation.

 

Such issues warrant the public’s continual concern. Their discussion must be intensified to prevent the Supreme Council from taking all the decisions of the transitional stage by itself, and in order to guarantee citizens’ participation in defining the face of the new political regime. As for the talk about potential candidates—whether by them directly or through their intermediaries—I am convinced that it is premature and pointless at this moment.

 

Here, one must take note about the respected stance of Mohammad ElBaradei, who refused to talk personally about his potential candidacy and continually stressed the importance of achieving constitutional, political, and institutional reform before thinking about the identity of presidential candidates. He then announced that he would not run for the presidency, affirming that what concerned him was Egypt’s democratic transformation. Baradei’s stance was in total harmony with the legitimate demands of the Egyptian revolution. His stance served these goals much more effectively than the open declarations by some of their wish to run for the presidency, or early televised electoral campaigns.

إبراهيم عيسي في واحد من الناس

شاهد حلقة إبراهيم عيسي التى منع شفيق اذاعتها:ء

مفاجأة: أبو الغيط الوزير الوحيد الذي لايزال يحتفظ بصورة لمبارك في مكتبه

Ibrahim Kamel behind attack on Tahrir Square, Cairo. Feb 2 2011

العالم فاروق الباز: عندنا خمول رهيب وأدارات زي الزفت

د. فاروق الباز في حديث مصر النهارده 17-02-2011

THE WOMEN OF TAHRIR SQUARE

Barkha Dutt interviews Ahdaf Soueif, Shahira Amin, and Heba Fatma Morayef.

مصر النهارده والمفكر الدكتور طارق حجي

Hosni Mubarak Not Dying, Had Breakfast on the Beach

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was well enough to have breakfast on the beach today and is doing well, a sharp contradiction to reports that the sidelined strongman had slipped into a coma and was dying, a well placed source told ABC News.

Click here for more.

Sout Al Horeya صوت الحريه

Egypt Arising

Part 1:

Egypt Arising, Part 1 of 2 from Heyman Center for the Humanities on Vimeo.

Part 2:

Egypt Arising, Part 2 of 2 from Heyman Center for the Humanities on Vimeo.

Patriarch, Ghazi, Kaotiq ft. Anna - Higher (Tribute To Egypt)

Social networks, social revolution

Nefsy ya Masr - Egypt, I Wish - نفسي يا مصر

..... Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, and ......... ???

Looks like Revolution is more contagious than Swine & Bird flu combined!!

But do the people of those countries, and whoever is next, have to pay the same dear price for freedom?

Can't we just fast forward to the victory and the celebration?

حوار مع العالم الكبير فاروق الباز عن مصر والثورة

حوار مع العالم الكبير فاروق الباز عن مصر والثورة والمستقبل

Journalists in Cairo - Charlie Rose

Click on image to watch video

عبدالرحمن يوسف ببرنامج مصر النهاردة

Novelist Ahdaf Soueif's reflections on revolution in Egypt

Protesters clean Alexandria streets

The revolution begins now

By Ahmed Shokr
alMasry AlYoum
12-2-2011

The streets of Egypt erupted in jubilation yesterday after the announcement that Hosni Mubarak had resigned. Across the country, people relished the moment. Hundreds of thousands poured onto the streets to celebrate the end of Mubarak’s autocratic 30-year rule and welcome a new era where popular hopes for political freedom and economic prosperity can at last be realized.

The courage and resilience of the Egyptian people over the past weeks have inspired millions around the world. In an unprecedented display of popular unity, Egyptians transcended divisions of gender, religion, class, and political ideology that have long been exploited by the regime and banded together against a common enemy. Mubarak’s regime, founded on the principle that political stability must be imposed through a heavy-handed security state, unleashed its full arsenal of security tactics--riot police, thugs, provocateurs, secret police, and state propaganda--to put down the uprising. In the end, the regime badly miscalculated the people’s fearless resolve and inexorable yearning for change. The Egyptian revolution is indeed a testament to the power of popular struggle and will have profound effects on the entire region.

The revolution has made several gains over the past two weeks that few would have predicted. The ruling National Democratic Party has been sidelined from Egyptian politics, many leaders of the old regime have fallen, the state’s security apparatus and propaganda machine have collapsed, and, most astoundingly, a detested autocrat has been successfully toppled by the people. But the revolt has delivered another novelty that eclipses any immediate political payoffs: An Egyptian revolutionary spirit was born that has restored a sense of pride and self-worth to a people long crippled by a deep cynicism and a suffocating feeling of stasis. As the recently deputized Vice-President Omar Suleiman announced that the president had delegated his powers to the armed forces, anti-regime chants were suddenly drowned out by cries imploring people to raise there heads high because they were Egyptians.

In this time of joy, let us not forget that Egypt is witnessing a historic moment of hope and transformation that is far from complete. Those who nourished this revolution on the streets should now play a leading role in shaping the country’s political future. Mubarak’s resignation marks a time of opportunity, not a final triumph. In the days and months ahead, Egyptians must continue harnessing their collective energies to ensure that any political reforms go beyond the cosmetic and truly meet the people’s desire for freedom.

The pro-democracy movement has many legitimate demands that Egypt’s caretaker government must immediately begin acting upon. They include an end to the state of emergency, the release of all political prisoners, the dissolution of a fraudulently elected parliament, and a transition to a civilian government with a popular mandate, among others. Moving forward, the army must be pressured to meet these demands and follow through on its pledges to guide Egypt towards a democratic future. The power of popular mobilization must not be relinquished and people must hold the armed forces accountable every step of the way

Moved by a new sense of solidarity and self-empowerment, Egyptians once again flooded Tahrir Square this morning with many packing their tents, dismantling makeshift barricades, sweeping the streets and repainting the pavements, and scrubbing away graffiti. Mubarak’s warning of impending chaos in the event of his departure has been exposed as an absurd bluff. The impressive clean-up effort embodies the spirit of collective support that has sustained Tahrir Square over the past two weeks and offers a compelling vision of an alternative Egyptian society. But in the rush to return to “business as usual,” the imprints of the revolt still freshly etched on the buildings and streets of Tahrir must not be hastily effaced. They bear the memories of an extraordinarily hopeful moment when an oppressive status quo was overturned and a new political order molded. A return to normal might be too early right now, if ever at all possible. A yearning for the orderly and the routine should not defeat this historic opportunity to make a decisive break with the past and forge a new beginning. This moment, with all its possibilities, must be embraced. That would be a truly revolutionary act.

Happy Valentine