Strike4Sudan : The Sudanese Won't give up

You may think that things have calmed down in Sudan after two weeks of protesting against El Bashir , you may think that Sudanese gave up quickly. Well they did not give up and they know that this is just the start in a path that will end up with freeing Sudan from the iron fist that dictatorship they were cursed with. 

Sudanese activists have started since yesterday a 5 days hunger strike. Yes 5 days hunger strike for those specific demands.

1. Release of all political detainees.
2. Bringing those responsible for the killing of protesters to justice and allowing people to demonstrate without fear of detention or use of force. 
3. Freedom of expression and allowing journalists to resume their role and lift the bans on newspapers.

You can follow the updates of the strike4Sudan in this blog. 
Also this blog "Sudan Martyrs" follow the list of Sudanese martyrs fallen in the past weeks. 

You can follow the updates of the strike on the following hashtags on twitter : #Strike4Sudan and #اضراب_للسودان in Arabic
By the way I am so astonished on how the West has been silent on what was taking place in Sudan , was not Omar El Bashir a criminal wanted by the ICC !? Was not he wanted for his crimes in Darfur !? Is not he a dictator ? I know that there is an iron curtain when it comes to media inside Sudan but this is too much. 

This video below is Mosireen Collective production about Sudan. It is Arabic and has not been yet translated. It is called "Revolution continues ..Sudan".Please share it.
I am shocked to see such footage now especially when it comes to the massacres in Nuba mounts !!

Indeed Revolution does not only continues but it grows day after day

Mosa’ab El Shamy Presents : The funerals of Al Warraq Wedding

Dear friend and talented renowned photographer Mosa’a El Shamy attended the funerals of the sad and misfortunate wedding of Al Warraq. He was not there alone , he accompanied his camera with him and got us some sad pictures from those sad moments. 

A Wedding and 4 Funerals : #AlWarraq tragedy

Blood on the Church's floor

Last night a wedding in a Church in the popular area of Al Warraq , Imbaba turned in to 4 funerals. Egyptians were attacked while attending a wedding ceremony at a Church in Al Warraq , Imbaba after two assailants opened their fire on the people standing outside the church late Sunday. The two assailants were on a motorcycle and fled away after opening their fire.

A Wedding that turned in to 4 funerals including the funerals of 8 years old and 12 years old girls carrying flowers , a wedding that turned in to 4 funerals including the funeral of the groom's mother. 

As it is a church in a popular area , the Virgin Church in Al Warraq is not secured and according to its bishop it has not been secured since the ousting of Morsi or after the attacks against the churches following 3 July.

Moments after the attack all the fingers were pointing to the Muslim brotherhood and co. as the attackers , they are the primary suspects that have been convicted by the crime that we have not known yet for real who did it or why.

Inside the Church from short time ago

All what we know that the Muslim brotherhood and their pro- radical Islamist allies radical rhetoric against the Christians and the Church played terrible and major role in the continuous attack against Churches. That rhetoric they refuse to give up , those actions they refuse to stop make them the primary suspect in highly polarized society.

The human rights activists are blaming the ministry of interior for its failure to protect the Christians , I can not blame them to be honest because since July 3 , 2013 and the government , the army and police have been warned over and over by human rights organizations that Christians would pay the price and were paying the price.

On the other hand since the attack all the Pro-military supporters as well the Pro-Mubarak supporters have gone in to a crusade against PM Beblawy demanding him to resign from his position along all his ministers. Ironically everybody knows that Beblawy is not real responsible for security in Egypt and that it is beyond his power. Security in Egypt is officially the responsibility of two men  : Abdel Fatah El Sisi and Mohamed Ibrahim. Be brave and speak about the responsibility of the ministry above the accountability responsible for the security of civilians aka the ministry of interior.

Anyhow unfortunately this is the first attack of its kind and sadly it will not be the last "despite I am praying that it would be" as long as there is no justice , no state of the law , no respect of human rights for all Egyptians regardless of their religion or color or race or class.

The 4 funerals will be held after two hours.
The second photo is by photographer Alaa El Kamhawy.
Update : Below after the break a small photo gallery for the sad day in Al Warraq.

Bassem Youssef To return To Bigger Challenge

After  being absent for several months following the vacation of his successful famous show “Al Bernmag” Satirist TV host Bassem Youssef will be back to TV screen next weekend. Youssef will present the first episode of in his show’s newest season next Friday 25 October 2013 on CBC after being absent for three months.
Everybody is waiting for his return from Islamists to Pro-Military to revolutionaries to normal Egyptians. All people are anticipating how the renowned TV host will return back and who will be his next victims.
The revolutionaries are wondering whether he will criticize and mock the new regime figures above them General Abdel Fatah El Sisi just like he used to do with ousted President Morsi.
The Islamists are waiting to see if Youssef will be bold enough like in the days of Morsi and will criticize explicitly ,freely and rudely from their point of view Abdel Fatah El Sisi. The Islamists and Pro-Morsi supporters believe that Youssef was actually used by the deep step and the army in order to turn the people against Morsi.
The Pro-Military/Pro-Sisi love to remember that Youssef’s producer is from the famous Qazaz’s Muslim brotherhood family.
The famous satirist did not deny that and it is true that his producer Tarek Qazzaz comes from him the famous MB’s Qazzaz family whose member Khaled Qazzaz is currently detained among other Morsi’s top aides and advisors. Khaled was Morsi’s secretary on foreign affairs.Still Tarek is not a member in the brotherhood.
The regular people are just waiting to see the show.
Bassem Youssef has got even bigger challenge now in those days , the true days of polarization and radicalization in Egypt. Radicalization in Egypt now is longer associated with religion only.

#UA07 Protest to release their detainees

Members as well supporters of Ultras Ahlaway group “UA07” are organizing a protest today in Cairo as well a rally. The UA07 boys are demanding the release of their colleagues that have been arrested from two weeks in clashes with the security forces. Among the detainees leading figures in the groups. Those who have been released from the UA07 detained boys reported that they were badly tortured by police forces during their custody.
I believe that this is the biggest Non Muslim brotherhood rally organized in Egypt against the security since the ousting of Morsi.
Here is a short live blogging for the main event. Scroll down to read it.

You Do not go to the streets after this law !!

Today Al Shorouk Newspaper published the draft protest law prepared by the government aka ministry of interior which is also being reviewed now by interim president Adly Mansour. According to the articles published in the newspaper protesting will be officially an impossible thing in Egypt.

Among the interesting articles : You have not only to notify the ministry of interior with not only the time and place but also the number of the protesters expected to come 24 prior to the protest. I do not know how anyone will be able to tell the expected number of protesters !!  The ministry of interior will then grant you the permission. Question : How anyone can predict the number of the protesters in any protest !!!
You also have to tell the ministry of interior the names of the organizers and their contacts as well the goals and demands of the protest.

 The million dollars question is : Will the ministry of interior allow a protest against itself ?
In another article the minister of interior and other ministry's officials can cancel the whole event if it violates the conditions and terms the ministry listed in the law.
Of course the draft law bans sits in. It also bans protests and sits in nearly vital governmental institutions except after 100 meters like Presidency palaces , governmental offices , ministries, embassies , governorates and courts !! Just go to the desert and protest there !!I think Tahrir square is off limits for real according to this law.
For the record the law states that there will be a space in every governorate allocated for protests !! 

From what we know there are voices inside the cabinet against the law , actually it is one and only voice : Dr. Ziad Bahaa El Din.

We Have Been the Biggest Losers from Long Time

Yesterday Egypt lost in front of Ghana in the World Cup qualifiers and since then millions of Egypt are mourning the loss of the game in a great grief as if it were the end of the world with no regards to all the losses in all fields of life we shamefully produced in the past 31 years.
It is really ironic and quite sad to see people on TV and social media are extremely demanding enthusiastically the accountability of the Egyptian Football federation’s officials and the team more than the accountability of the Egyptian government officials responsible for setting back Egypt in every bloody field in life.

From Brazil's protests

As facts of life 40% of Egyptians live under the poverty line and 25% of the Egyptians can not read or write according to official numbers in 2012. Our basic education system is considered the worst worldwide according to the world competiveness report in 2013 !! We do not have real scientific research in Egypt , our universities hit rock bottom. We got an energy crisis . We got an unemployment crisis. We got traffic problem and housing problem aside from the shanty towns that can kill millions if we have another 1992 powerful earthquake in Cairo alone.
We live on loans from other countries. We are number no.1 in Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B is spread as well in Upper Egypt. There are hundreds of villages completely forgotten with no clean water access or electricity access in 2013.We got a Nile river crisis everybody forgets. We got a Constitution in making everybody is ignoring. We got laws against the right of protesting made and sent it to the interim president and everybody is ignoring it. Freedoms in Egypt are in real danger in Egypt and yet people care only for a football match score.
I am sorry dear follow Egyptians we have been the biggest losers from long time.

Happy Eid Adha 2013 From Egyptian Chronicles

Today Egypt and Muslim world are celebrating Eid Adha , may it be full of happiness, joy and peace all over the globe.

A Kodak Agfa Co-Production : #Oct73War Anniversary in #Tahrir square

This small photo gallery is from Tahrir square last 6 October 2013. It is a co-production between Kodak Agfa and a dear friend of mine.

Of course the day ended in a very sad way despite all the celebrations and so on unfortunately.
Tahrir square is closed in front of protesting until further notice.

The sad story of Haya , Julia and Sama

Haya , Julia and Sama

Those beautiful girls are called : Haya , Julia and Sama. They are sisters. Palestinian refugees who were born in Syria. Their family fled Syria after the revolution turned in to a war seeking better life in Egypt.
Facing with double bitter reality mixed with racism, their parents decided to emigrate illegally escaping from Egypt seeking safe place in Europe unfortunately.
Haya , Julia and Sama drowned on Friday in the Mediterranean near the shores of Alexandria among the 12 Syrian and Palestinian that were drowned in the illegal immigration boat incident.
I do not know what to say except that I am sorry, I am sorry that the Syrians and Palestinians have to suffer in Egypt. I am sorry that we are not helping them to live in dignity in our country. I am sorry that they had to die like this.
The agony of the refugees from Syria is doubled for the Palestinian refugees as unlike other refugees they do not have UNRWA in Egypt to help them. This is of course besides racism against Palestinians in Egypt nowadays.

#EgyCartoons : And Mostafa Hussein Strikes again

In less than 48 hours Cartoonist Mostafa Hussein surprises us with another one of his masterpieces about General Abdel Fatah El Sisi.

Oh yes this was published this time in today’s issue of weekly Akhbar Al Youm.
The idea of that cartoon is famous Satirist writer Ahmed Ragab’s. The cartoon simply says that General Abdel Fatah El Sisi does not want to run for the presidency, but allegedly the people are carrying him to the throne of Egypt !!
So it is obvious that Hussein and Ragab want the general to run for the presidential elections.

#Oct1973War : The lessons We Failed to learn after 40 years !!

Thousands headed to the streets allegedly to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 6 October War by the orders of the interim president , army , Muslim brotherhood , the Church , parties to the end of that to get the party on or accurately to get on with their own political agendas.

None of them tried to learn from the political lessons Egypt learned in a very expensive in 6 years of war.
I am afraid we are repeating the mistakes we have committed in 1967 and forgot all the reasons on why we made it in 1973.

Let’s start with the media , we got the same Ultra-hypocrite lying propaganda machine of 1967 working effectively in 1973 !! Joseph Goebbels would be impressed by the amount of propaganda this nation has produced whether in 1967 or in 2013 to be honest !!!

When I look to the headlines of the newspapers on October 7 , 1973 and the headlines of the early editions of the newspapers on June 6, 1967 I see that someone had learned a tough lesson. Do you know that people did not believe the Egyptian radio and TV news on October 6,1973 and had to hear the news from Israeli radio Arabic service as well Monte Carlo Arabic radio service !? Do you know that for 6 years Israel seized this to send its poison propaganda in its radio service !?

It is a bird , it is plane ,it is Sisi-Man

I do not know what to say actually except this cartoon published in Al Akhbar newspaper today and it was enough to turn your stomach upside down from the amount of hypocrisy.

The cartoon

Do not be astonished  , this is not an American film , this is El Sisi man saving El Mahrousa "aka Egypt" before she falls !!

Ok I think El Sisi-Man and Egypt had this cheesy moment

Despite I respect the style of Mustafa Hussein and I showed some of his work in my blog, I can not ignore that he is a big hypocrite when it comes to kissing the president/ruler’s ass. He got shameful long history. “Thanks to Doaa Sultan”

#9Oct #Maspero : We Will not Forget

Today is the second anniversary of the Maspero massacre.Today we remember the awful massacre where a peaceful protest “was the first in the history of Egypt to be granted a permission from the government” ended up with army VPCs running over 28 bodies of the protesters.
Unlike last year grand commemoration that included a long march from Shubra to Maspero in a breathtaking procession with chants rocking against the military and SCAF , this year revolutionaries only had a very small vigil compared to last year commemoration.
I saw its start at October bridge , the flags of the martyrs headed by Mina Danial in the sunset. It was a beautiful scene.

I recorded this shot video clip for that small protest there.

#Maspero : For the martyrs.

The vigil was for couple of hours at Maspero building.There were chants against Military and MB.
Here is a photo gallery in Storify which I am adding photos to.

The big Operetta to crown a New Pharaoh

Yesterday the morale department of the armed forces presented its big operetta to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the October war.

The big event was attended by the minister of defense “the big star of the event” , the interim president , the ministers, former first lady Jihan El Sadat and former minister of defense and head of SCAF Hussein Tantawy.

It was not actually an operetta or an event to commemorate the great war and its heroes but it was actually a coronation gala for the new pharaoh of Egypt Abdel Fatah El Sisi.

Let’s start with the operetta. Let’s analysis the scene piece by piece.

Almost the guests, the singers and actors participating in that piece of .. “something definitely not related to Art” are the old faces of Mubarak’s regime hypocrites. Once again we are back to the Northern Korean-Soviet Nationalist 1960s talentless operettas. The lyricist and the singers and the actors are from the old ass kissing Mubarak’s hypocrites. Talentless and tasteless thing they claim to be art and I see it a waste of money when Egypt is in deep economic crisis.

And as we have replaced the Qatari sponsorship with Emirati Sponsorship , we find famous Emirati singer Hussein El Jasmi singing in the operetta with whiney voice urging the general to run for the elections. I just want to say to El Jasmi if he loves the general so much , he can urge him for the elections in his own country !!!

Mosa'ab El Shamy presents : #Oct6 Protests

Renowned Photographer Mosa'ab El Shamy was in the streets yesterday documenting the protests as well the clashes between the Pro-Morsi supporters and security forces mainly in Dokki.

The latest death toll we have got official is 51 dead and over 200 injured. Again it is a chaotic scene in Zanihom morgue with bodies all over the place. Most people justify yesterday killings with today's attacks in Sinai and Ismailia.
Back to El Shamy's documentation , the young fantastic photographer did it and took a snapshot that becomes an internet sensation whether nationally or internationally.

Speechless

#Oct6 Anniversary : Live Blogging

Today thousands are expected to head to the street starting this afternoon in more of a confrontation mood than celebratory mood. Thousands of Muslim brotherhood supporters are vowing not to return today to their homes except when electoral legitimacy is restored and Morsi is back as a president while on the other hand thousands of army supporters are vowing not to let the Muslim brotherhood supporters spoil the 40th anniversary of 6 October war in the streets too especially in Tahrir square.

Here is  the live blog. 

#KhaledSaid : Erasing a History Starts with Small steps usual

This school year we found out that the photo of Khaled Said was spotted in the second grade's Arabic books .Many people were happy by the move despite institutions like Police did not like unofficially.

Unofficial Facebook page following police and ministry of interior kept publishing comments on how some Khaled Said is mentioned in the school books when he is a bloody addict who deserves to be killed.
Some of course criticize the move saying that children in the second grade will not be familiar with Said. Surprisingly the current minister of education is saying that he did not know that that the photo of Said was in the school courses in the first place. 

This week we knew that the photo of Khaled Said will be removed from school courses next year.
Someone is annoyed by the photo that made it to Berlin Wall and its symbolism , someone does not want the students to  know that young man and the role in changing the course of the Arab nation whether that one likes or not.

Let the War Games start : Video wars

Yesterday MB’s RSSD News Network began to post some series of videos online claiming that those clips are a scandal to General Abdel Fatah El Sisi and the army. The first video clip in the series was a very interesting. Its title was :  “El Sisi : The military spokesperson is an important attraction factor for ladies” !! Oh yes

Adel Fatah El Sisi speaking about media and army.

RSSD claimed that that video was leaked secretly from a secret meeting exposing the coup. According to what the officers and generals wore winter military uniforms.
Now in that clip we find an officer called Col. Omar “He became famous in social networks” asking General Abdel Fatah El Sisi what he would do then when the media crossed the red lines the army enjoyed for past 50 years. Col. Omar adds that there are TV channels speaking about the army , their owners should be intimidated or encouraged to cooperate with the army and not to cross those holy red lines when speaking about the army. He also asked about the Egyptian armed forces spokesperson Col. Ahmed Mohamed Ali.

Back To Back : #KhaledSaid trial

Earlier today what happened in Khaled Said trial was extremely symbolic for what it is happening now. You got those convicted of his murder , the two policemen who are standing a retrial are smiling in the cage while those few protesters chanting against the ministry of interior and its brutality beaten and detained for a couple of hours before they were let go.

The young protester

The murderers smiling in their cage

Today the protesters say that the police was attacking as if it had some sort of vendetta with them.An officer told one of the protesters that they had played for 3 years now and it was time to return back to study.
The majority of the people care less now about the trial.
I am not pessimistic, but this is just back to back.Anyhow it is like we are returning back to the starting point. No problem in that at all supposedly that people learned from their mistakes.