Egyptian Chronicles

Morsi Appoints New Governors And #MB stupidity

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 15:40:27 PDT

President Morsi has issued a new presidential decree to appoint new 17 governors. I think that this is the third time he has changed the governors since becoming a president. The new governors' reshuffle is as follows : 7 Muslim brotherhood members, 5 army generals , 2 independent , 1 Gad El Thawra member and 1 Al Gama'a Al Islamiyaa member and I think one Salafist too.

I will not comment on how I find it strange from political perspective to find Morsi taking such decision 2 weeks prior the 30/6 protests provoking people in governorates by appointing more MB members as governors in anti-MB governorates like Monufia. For God sake The people signed rebellion petitions in the Nile Delta governorate more than in Cairo. I will not comment on how we do not know till this day on what basis those men are appointed as governors.

I will comment on one thing : How president Morsi and his advisors and aides like Pakinam El Sharkawy found it acceptable and logic to appoint Adel El Khayaat , the leading member of Al Gama'a Al Islamiyaa as the governor of Luxor.

El Khayaat is said already to be the prince "Amir" of the notorious group's branch in Assuit so he is not from Luxor in the first place. Second how on earth and heavens you appoint a member if the group is involved in the massacre of Luxor when more than 60 people mostly tourists were killed in 1997 by radicals in one of the Worst terrorist incidents in Egypt. I do not know what kind of message Morsi is sending through appointing a member in an extremist group as a governor of a tourist attraction governorate. Hell Luxor is the second attraction after the pyramids when it comes to ancient Egyptian civilization !!

Another thing what I know about Luxor is considered a Sufi center in Upper Egypt. Sufism and Al Gama'a do not mix.

By the way I see some sort of Al Gama'a Al Islamiyaa Muslim Brotherhood alliance taking place. This alliance is replacing the MB Al Nour/ Salafist Calling alliance

Another thing I see more army ranks with my all due respect to the generals in the governors reshuffles and that makes me wonder about the myth of Mohamed Morsi ended the military rule and military control in Egypt. By

Posted with Blogsy

Cairo University’s report on Ethiopia's Great Renaissance Dam

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:55:08 PDT

The Cairo University professors and experts in the faculties of engineering and agriculture have formed a group called “Group of Nile Basin” {GNB} and this group prepared extremely important report about the Ethiopia’s great Renaissance Dam.
The report was published in Arabic on Facebook by Dr. Nader Noor El Din , a member of the GNB and it was republished once again by famous Kolena Khaled Said Page.
Thanks to Mr. Ashraf El Shehat , this report has been translated to English. Without his help I do not know what I could have done. This report represents the Egyptian objections based on science not based on politics or any other thing.

Group of Nile Basin (GNB) at Cairo University to Support Egypt

Introduction

A series of external challenges have suddenly appeared on the surface forming major threats to securing the water supply to Egypt. The sources of these threats are the new plans by the Ethiopian Government to construct four dams on the Blue Nile (Figure 1).

However, the major threat was the sudden unilateral announcement of the Ethiopian Government to divert the course of the Blue Nile marking the actual start of construction of the Great Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) without consultation with the downstream countries; Egypt and Sudan. This act in the eyes of the majority of Egyptians amounts to a flagrant assault on all the basic fundamental laws and the international norms.
Figure 1- Plan of construction four new dams in Ethiopia endangers the only water supply to Egypt.
Considering the major threat to the people of Egypt, a group of professors from the Department of Irrigation and Hydraulics, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University formed a group titled “The Group of the Nile Basin” (GNB). The purpose of the group is to support the effort of Government and the decision makers facing these serious escalating water threats. The scope of GNB shall include analytical studies of the Ethiopian Dams, prepare and implement numerical water models to study the side effects of these dams and collecting all recent scientific studies in this field.

The GNB Activities

The members of the GNB include – among others - four Professors who were involved and still directly involved in the review studies of the Ethiopian Dams and assessing their effects in cooperation with the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MERI) since the year 2010. The GNB shall be also working closely with both the National and International Committees involved in studying the consequences of the construction of GERD.
On 16th April 2013, the GNB has conducted two workshops at Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University about the technical, political and legal consequences of constructing the GERD. The attendees included numerous University Professors and Experts in different fields of specializations. Representatives of MERI, some Political Parties, management of Engineering Syndicate in addition to numerous media channels. The purpose of the workshops was to spread the awareness among the people and the Government bodies about the challenges and threats facing the country.
The last few days have witnessed a series of escalating and accelerating steps adding to the tensions including the unilateral decision of Ethiopia to divert the Blue Nile, and the subsequent objections of some of the Egyptian Politicians during an aired meeting with the President. On 13th of June 2013, the Ethiopian Parliament ratified the Nile River Cooperative Framework Agreement opposed by Egypt which ends the veto granted to both Egypt and Sudan on all projects constructed by the upstream countries of the Nile Basin.

Major Comments from the Trio Committee

An international committee – called the Trio Committee – was formed based on the proposal of the Ex. Ethiopian Prime Minister M. Zenawei about two years ago to reduce the tension. The committee concluded its work that took around a year and half and issued its report on the review of the studies presented by the Ethiopian Government. The trio committee consisted of 10 members; 2 from each of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, and four international experts approved by the three countries. The committee has recently concluded its review and issued its report with the following conclusions:

There are no sufficient structural studies.

There is a lack in the hydrological investigations.

There are no environmental impact assessments on the two downstream countries; Egypt and Sudan.

In addition, the Ethiopian Government failed to submit advanced studies reflecting the details and reliability analysis to meet the minimum requirements of the international standards for similar size of dams. Such lack in information and the weakness of the studies formed an obstacle in enabling the Trio Committee to assess the structural safety of the dam and the negative impacts on both Egypt and Sudan.

Areas of Concern to be considered by the Egyptian Government

The GNB draws the attention of the members of the Egyptian Government to the consequences of the Ethiopian Dams which constitute a series of tough social, economical and political nature that are hard to be controlled or to tolerate. Some of these consequences are:

The plan for the 4 dams on the Blue Nile aims at total control of the water in the Blue Nile which is the main supplier to the Nile. As such, this plan shall subsequently include total control of the share of Egypt’s share of the water in the Nile and the possible redundancy or at least dwarfing the role of the High Dam in securing the future supply of water to Egypt.

The current design capacity of GERD of 74 Billion cubic meter will have harsh negative impact on the share of the water reaching to Egypt and also on the production of electricity from the High Dam and the Aswan Dam during the filling period of the lake of GERD and during its operation. This negative impact shall escalate during the drought period wherein the water supplies to both Egypt and Sudan shall conflict with the water needed to produce the electricity from the GERD.

Reduction in the water share of Egypt will result in abandoning huge areas of agricultural lands and scattering millions of families. It would also result in increasing the pollution of the water streams and creating problems in the supply of water for drinking and industry. There will also be problems in river transportation, Nile tourism and threats to the fish farms.

Collapse of GERD will result in catastrophic effects in both Sudan and Egypt. This includes failures of dams, drowning of major towns and villages and exposing millions to the dangers of death and relocation.

Target of Negotiation: Mitigate the Damage

Basically, it should be understood that negotiation with Ethiopia has been drastically delayed. The ideal target for the negotiation from Egypt’s point of view would be to prevent constructing the dam. However, this is no longer a valid option considering the current circumstances. Ethiopia has managed to place the dam as a fact and no longer a theory. As such, the purpose of the negotiation at this stage would be aiming at mitigating the damages.
Considering the above, the following are the suggestions:

Request stopping the construction at once until completing the negotiation and assess the effects through scientific means and agree on them. We need to highlight here that there are other alternatives that can be studied to fulfill similar advantages to Ethiopia without causing major damages to the downstream countries.

The minimum requirement for the Egyptian Government should be the maximum size of the Dam not to exceed 14 billion cubic meter as per the proposal prior to the January 2011 Revolution. This capacity would enable producing 60% of the proposed electricity from GERD and with efficiency exceeding double the efficiency of the huge GERD and with much less cost and much less negative impacts that can be lived with. In addition, the proposed design of 14 cubic meters would fulfill most of the advantages of Sudan from GERD and as such, unifies the points of views of both Egypt and Sudan.

Ethiopia to commit officially not to use the water behind the GERD for the agricultural purposes as previously announced.

Ethiopia to commit for the advance notice for any future projects including their executing procedure in light of the Framework Agreement of the United Nations of 1977 for the common rivers.

The design of the GERD to be reviewed thoroughly by Egyptian Experts after amending the technical dimensions to ensure its structural safety.

The GNB further urges all non-specialized personnel to avoid getting into issuing irresponsible statements that justify the illusionary benefits of the GERD, issuing statements with no real value, or statements that may underestimate the serious side effects using unfounded methods. All the positive and negative impacts are actually a result of intensive, thorough and specialized engineering investigations. Some of these investigations have been carried out be the members of GNB and some are still being conducted. The results at this stage agree broadly with the international studies and to some extent with the Ethiopian studies presented to the International Trio Committee, even though the latter are incomplete.
Main Focus: Downsizing
We would like to warn the Government not to limit the scope of negotiation to secondary issues and ignore the major problem; the size of the dam. The people in Egypt should be aware that focusing the negotiation on the number of years to fill the lake of the dam or the operation policy of the dam including participating with the operation of the dam are of no prime importance. The major threat is the result of the magnified size of the dam. Without reducing the dimensions of the dam itself, the major negative impacts as indicated above are unavoidable.
It is not a secret that throughout the history, Egypt has never been an obstacle preventing the development in the African Nations in general and the countries of the Nile Basin in particular. Egypt has always been supporting the projects of common benefits to the people of the Nile Basin including building Owen Dam for the benefit of both Uganda and Kenya, has shown no objection for building Tecjizy Dam and Tana Plus Tunnel in Ethiopia, and also has not objected the building of Marwe Dam or increasing the height of Roserus Dam in Sudan. All of these projects and others help to improve the revenue of the brothers and sisters of the African Nations. Egypt has always maintained and is willing to keep the Nile as a uniting force for the people of the nations and not a source of disperse or dispute. Egypt is willing to maintain the Nile basin to remain an oasis for peace and not a battlefield.

Members of the GNB

Mohamed N. E. Allam – Ex. Minister of Water Resources & Irrigation

Mohamed S Bazarah – Prof. of Irrigation and Drainage

Alaa Al-Zawahry – Prof. of Hydraulic and expert of dams and member of the National Committee of GERD.

Mohamed S. El-Manadily – Prof. of Hydraulics – Chairman of Department of Irrigation and Hydraulics, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University.

Nader Nour Eddin – Prof. of Water Supplies and Lands, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University

Ahmad E. Hasan – Prof. of Hydrology, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University.

Khaled H Hamid, Prof. of Wter Supplies, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University – Member of the Trio Committee

Ashraf M Ghanim, Prof. of Hydraulics, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University.

Mostafa A Gheith, Pro.f of Irrigation & Drainage, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University.

Mohamed H Algamal, Prof. of Hydraulics, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University.

Hesham B Mohamed, Prof. of Water Supplies, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University. Member of the National Committee to study GERD.

Mohame E Abol Hagag, Prof. of Hydraulics, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University.

#Syria Does not Need #Morsi And His Sheikhs

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:57:25 PDT

As usual , as expected the Muslim brotherhood did what they are best at and are exploiting the agony of other people, other tragedies for political gains.
A very cheap political conference to show off Mohamed Morsi and Muslim brotherhood’s supporters before the opposition’s mass protests on 30 June 2013 took place tonight at Cairo stadium hall. As usual the MB mobilized its members from all over the country including women and children as well their so called MB Ultras to fill the Cairo stadium indoor main arena. By the way the Cairo stadium indoor main arena’s capacity is 20,000 spectators.
The event was to show solidarity with Mohamed Morsi with all the banners praising , with all the Morsi t-Shirts and with all the pro-Morsi chants like “Morsi will stay whole 7 years”.
There were many scenes in the event that actually an insult to Syria and its martyrs. You got imposters , crocks and terrorists like Safwat Hegazy , Mohamed Hassan and Assam Abdel Maged acting like heroes.

Abdel Maged and Hegazy one hand "Doaa Sultan FB page"

There is the historical scene that me and millions of Egyptians will not forget when Salafist Sheikh Mohamed Abdel Maksoud prayed against the infidel hypocrites who are going to protest against Mohamed Morsi ,the president of all Egyptian !!

Sheikh Mohamed Abdel Maksoud prays against the 30/6 protesters

By the way Sheikh Abdel Maksoud is the brother of our current MB minister of information Salah Abdel Maksoud.
Syria indeed won a lot with that prayer. I know people,Muslims who were hesitant in participating in the protests against MB on 30 June 2013. They are going to participate after that scene.
Another scene, a typical scene full of racism and hate towards Shiism where the Sheikhs called the Shiites dirty and urging Morsi to cut the relations with Iran.
Of course in another scene that made breaking news worldwide Moris issued the decision to cut the diplomatic relations with Syria 48 hours after the US announcement to arm the opposition in Syria.
Amazingly in the speech distributed by the presidency on press on there was no mention for this decision. It is a surprise , a cheap one considering the fact that the Syrian ambassador left Egypt and the Egyptian ambassador left Syria and we got only a diplomatic Commission there in Damascus.
Unfortunately the advisers of President Morsi on foreign relations aka Essam Haddad and Khaled Qazzaz did not and will not understand that the decision to close the Syrian embassy in Cairo will harm thousands of Syrians in Egypt. “There are over 90,000 Syrians in Egypt”
Yes according to my Syrian friends who are Pro-Revolutionary by the way this decision will harm the Syrians who want to issue and renew their ids and passports !!
Of course I should not forget to highlight the amazing statement of Khaled Qazzaz , the President’s secretary on foreign relations. Qazzaz is not worried from the Jihadists travelling from Egypt to Syria nor he does consider them a threat to the National security considering the radical ideas they got.
By the way the Jihadists who came back from Afghanistan and other countries to Egypt consider Qazzaz infidel including those in Sinai.
Qazzaz is an engineer who was appointed as the president's adviser for education in 2012 by the way. His dad owns the biggest private school where the rich MB members send their kids to.
Back to the Circus held tonight in Cairo stadium.
President Morsi spoke Hezbollah yet he forgot to mention Russia and China. Amazingly China which he visited and the MB was flying over the moon with this visit is helping African countries in building dams on the Nile !!
Anyhow cutting the diplomatic relations is nothing for me comparing how millions of Egyptians turned to be infidels because they are political opponents of Morsi and Muslim brotherhood.
I apologize for Syrians especially for those who are killed that some Egyptians are using their blood for those domestic political gains.
God bless Egypt and Syria and May their agonies so soon.

#Morsi Degage One week Before His first anniversary in the Office

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:32:35 PDT

This video was filmed earlier today after Friday prayer in New Cairo where President Mohamed Morsi was praying.

Morsi, angry people and the lady asking for help

This video shows his departure while people , angry people screaming “Leave, leave” or like the Tunisians say it “degage” in French. You can see a woman trying to approach and to speak to the President but the presidential guards and president’s security stopped her just like in the days of Mubarak.

I wonder what the president’s men from the Muslim brotherhood will tell regarding this no so warming departure and reception of the public !!

After one week Morsi will celebrate his 1st anniversary in office and people are telling him to leave outside the mosque !!

Declaring #Jihad in #Syria From #Cairo In less than 24 hours From White House’s decision

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 06:32:57 PDT

Yesterday the White House announced that after two years the U.S is going to arm the Syrian rebels after its conclusion that Bashar El Assad used chemical weapons.
Now the White House did not mention which Syrian rebel groups the West was going to arm exactly but I do not think that they were speaking about the Pro Al Qaeda radical groups roaming Syria and giving its people hard time.
Anyhow today as part of an event announced by the Muslim brotherhood we found Saudi Sheikh Mohamed El Arefe announcing that he and other clerics that agreed to open the door of Jihad in front of youth. Muslim youth should go and fight in Syria according to Sheikh El Arefe and other Sheikhs sitting in air conditioned rooms !!! It seems that the Sheikhs waiting the American decision after all !!
Of course the Jihadists from all around the world are not waiting this announcement because they are already there.
El Arefe declared this during the Friday Speech from Egypt’s oldest mosque Amr Ibn El As in front of thousands of Muslim brotherhood supporters who chanting Pro-Syria chants and so on. His Friday speech was aired on the Egyptian National TV’s Ch.1 by the way.
Now I wonder if the Freedom and Justice Party and President Morsi support what Sheikh El Arefe called from in Cairo considering the fact the party is organizing this 3 days event and sponsoring it.
Already tomorrow President Morsi will attend that big protest in Cairo stadium in solidarity with Syria. So we have to ask the President and his president directly : Do they support sending Egyptian youth to fight in Syria for Jihad ??
Does the Freedom and Justice Party support the sectarian talk of Sheikh El Arefe and others clerics from Islamic groups from their political allies and how they attack the Shiites and Iranians ??
Does the Freedom and Justice Party support the talk of Sheikh El Arefe who declared with all the confidence in the world that the Islamic Caliphate system will return back ??
This is so much like Afghanistan.

#SOS_EgyHeirtage: More Info About West #Aswan Tombs

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:56:34 PDT

More information surfaced online about the 6 West Aswan tombs discovered and controlled by the locals who are refusing to let archeologists and authorities to check them.
Al Rawi Heritage magazine published on its official Facebook more about one of those tombs “featured in the video” and their history according to Spanish archeological team work in Aswan. It turns out the illegal diggers uncovered a tomb of Elephantine mayor from the 18th dynasty. The tomb is 1 km away north of Qubbet el-Hawa. Here is the video they are speaking about.

From the video, colleagues of mine have identified the name of the Mayor of Abu [Elephantine], Wesir, and his wife, Tuyu. There is also a man [in the middle photo] called Paser who was a "soldier of the regiment" [waw n pA zA]. In the picture showing two men, the one on the right is a is a sS qdwt, a draftsman scribe and wab-priest who seems to be called Montunefer; the one on the left is a scribe and his name is Amenemhat. It's a little unclear because their names have been partially erased--the theophoric elements, Amun and Montu have been smudged. The tomb dates by all the indicators from the reign of Amenhotep III, and the owner himself may have censored the names under Akhenaten
According to the Spanish team the locals from Nubians did not allow the inspectors from the ministry of antiquities to check the tomb because they think that it is located in a land that does not belong to the ministry thus it has no right to inspect it !!
Of course those illegal diggers do not want the state to control the tomb.

In case you do not know Rim is like Assaf

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:48:22 PDT

Last Sunday Avichay Adraee , the IDF spokesperson for Arab Media expressed his admiration with the voice of Palestinian Mohamed Assaf, the popular contestant in Arab Idol 2013 as well his anger from Hamas and how it is allegedly fighting this rising star.

Hamas is still meddling in the Gazans’ affairs and is still imposing its provoking and ugly restrictions on them. The best example is how the movement demanded the rising star “Mohamed Assaf” to withdraw from Arab Idol TV show to return back to the sector in a threatening message sent to him and to his family. Hamas also gave its orders to remove the photos of Assaf from cars and shops imposing fines on those breaking its orders. According to estimations and given data Mohamed Assaf is in good position in the TV show and there is high hopes that he will be “Arab Idol”
Personally I watch the show from from time to time , I am not a fan of a certain contestant but after what happened with him... "Bad Arabic structure" his voice is great or like what Ahlam had said “his voice is like diamonds”. That voice makes those who refuse creativity and other opinion angry. I say you are amazing amazing amazing Mohamed Assad

Strangely as far as I know Hamas denied that it ordered Mohamed Assef to withdraw from the popular TV show , in fact it denied those rumors from long time. Assaf himself had to speak and published a comment denying what Adraee claimed.

I had to visit your ugly page that is full of lies because of what you had said. I had already

denied on my Facebook page all those rumors. Nobody asked me to withdraw from Arab Idol TV show. No one has threatened me or threatened my family. My photos are everywhere in Gaza as an evidence on your lies. What it will be more than great and amazing is to stop the murder of our children and to end your occupation to our land so my people can found its independent state so Mohamed Assaf can sing to our children in order to hear the sound of love and peace instead of hearing the sound of bombs.

I wonder if Adraee will continue to hear Assaf. Anyhow it is good that the IDF spokesperson speak about arts and listens to Arab Music but why he did not speak about Palestinian singer and activist Rim Banna and how she was summoned to the Shin Bet because of her humanitarian visit to Syria !?
Last Monday in early morning a police force went to her house in Nazareth to inform her that she was summoned for investigation at the Shin Bet Tuesday morning.

Israeli police speaking to Rim

It turned out that the Shin Bet wanted to interrogate her regarding her humanitarian visit to Syria with a group of Arab activists including Egyptian activists last month. I remember this visit very well as it included Egyptian activists like Abdel Rahman Mansour and former MP Mostafa Al Naggar. They accused her of dealing with suspicious NGOs and travelling to an enemy state !!
Ironically I remember that Adraee used to speak from time to time on how poor the Syrian people are and so on.
Rim went to the interrogation and in the end she said the following on her Facebook page.

They were dwarfs and they will continue to be dwarfs,not higher than a Palestinian girl’s shoe.I am the one who ended the interrogation of Shin Bet officer by telling him one sentence : I do not care how you are worried about me , all your security and the security of the world do not scare and will not stop me from supporting freedom and human causes. I am released on a bail and accused of a national security charge which is visiting an enemy state. I was informed and warned. My answer was that I have been informed and the decision is up to me now.

This is why I love Rim Banna besides her amazing voice and beautiful song
Anyhow good luck to Assaf and really wish to hear him in a duo with Rim Banna, the original Arab Palestinian idol.

There is Always Hope : Little Smiles From #Fayoum

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:25:20 PDT

Sometimes you need to see such photos to give hope in the future , yes a simple pure hope from simple little smile can change your mood.
This photo is from those simple little things that can give hope.

By Mohamed El Kordy

Those adorable little girls are from Izzabt Soliman in Fayoum and that precious beautiful moment was captured by Mohamed El Kordy “via Wael Ghonim ”

When Al Akhbar Newspaper Speaks About #Qatar

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:01:28 PDT

This is the first edition from Al Akhbar Newspaper issue on Tuesday

Mama Qatar provides Gas to Egypt

The front page headline in Red is "Mama Qatar provides Gas to Egypt". It is about the decision of Qatar to give Egypt natural gas supply in Summer
The first edition was pulled back from the newsstand in one of the first incident of its own in 2013 when it comes to newspapers and state-owned newspapers in particular in Morsi's first regardless of what you think about the headline.

Of course speaking professionally this is a Front page headline that would make Mostafa Amin May Allah bless his soul curse the current editor in chief of Daily Al Akhbar and his journalists. Mostafa Amin got a school of his own when it came to headlines but fine one not a cheap one like that. This is a headline that suites tabloid newspaper not a newspaper with long history like Al Akhbar

Anyhow the second edition was printed and it had a different headline

Below "Qatar gives away gas to Egypt"

The second edition of the newspaper was "Qatar gives away gas to Egypt" , of course the correct translation of that phrase from Arabic to English would "Qatar gives gas as a present to Egypt".
I believe someone was fired today in Al Akhbar.
I am surprised , truly surprised that Al Akhbar Newspaper published this headline considering the fact that Al Akhbar is state-owned newspaper and currently is headed by Islamist leaning editorial team. There is nothing published on the front page except when it is revised by regime representative.

#OccupyMinCulture : Occupy Movement Vs. Islamists

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:18:31 PDT

The day started with very alarming announcement published in the official Facebook page of Ahmed Mogheer , the leading youth Muslim brotherhood member and their star. I think you have read about Al Mogheer before in the previous clashes like the Presidential Palace clashes on 5 December 2012 or the Moktam clashes in last March 2013 .You have see him doing the Harlem Shake MB edition .
Anyhow He is like the omen of the death and blood. Once he opens up his mouth and rants about mobilizing the MB , you will know that this gathering will end up in violence and the blood of Egyptians will be spelled.
Back to Al Mogheer’s announcement “I am sorry I had to have this introduction because he will appear again in our chronicle later” on Facebook. The Self claimed artist said the following

Al Mogheer's early announcement

Today at 4 PM all the supporters of the revolutionary solution to support the minister of culture in front of the ministry of culture because I want to assure that if that minister’s plan succeeds , it will be generalized on everybody insh Allah but if it fails God forbids I do not want anyone to complain from reformist solution

It is worth to mention that a group of artists and intellectuals have been occupying the ministry of culture demanding the dismissal of the minister for several days now. They came in peace and hold every night a cultural event in the street of the ministry like ballet.

The ministry of culture while it is occupied "Cliff Cheney"

So I do not know what kind of revolutionary solution that young man was calling for and why he was calling for a protest in a place where there are other protesters if he did not intend to use violence in order to disperse their sit in.
As soon as this FB status was published the artists and intellectuals called the people and the world to support them. The alarm was spread especially when we know that other Islamists will join El Mogheer including Al Watan party , the Salafist party.
To be honest I found many journalists, writers, artists and normal citizens online declaring that they will head to the ministry of culture in order to protect its protesters.
At 4 PM few Islamists showed up with heavy security forces presence.

The CSF deployment "by Ronna"

The CSF was deployed at nearby intersection and cameras came waiting for the expected battle.

The ministry during then "Cliff Cheney"

The protesters inside the ministry of culture closed and chained its gate while the protesters outside it stood to let no one in. The protesters inside and outside sang and chanted against the Islamists.

During then Mamdouh Ismail, the famous Islamist lawyer should up. The security forced deployed more forces forming a perimeter as well a human shield between both teams. Things went clam between them but suddenly small scuffles happened and small groups of each team beat up each other. I do not know how things have started but what I know that Salafists hurled something at the security forces and one of the conscripts was injured.
Then there was this surrealist moment when the CSF and the protesters ran after the Salafists over 15 May bridge !!
Occupy Movement won this battle.
Of course this was nothing compared to what happened MB Superstar Ahmed El Mogheer.
Ahmed El Mogheer was beaten up by a girl , yes a by a girl during the scuffle. Of course That girl is not any girl , that girl was Rasha Azab. The Rasha Azab of No for military trials to refresh your mind.
Rasha Azab was a close friend to late journalist El Hossainy Abu Deif who was killed during the Presidential Palace clashes allegedly by the MB thanks to the incitements of El Mogheer and others.

ضربت ابن الوسخة وقلتله دي من الحسيني ابوضيف فالامن ضربني بالعصاية كسم الشرطة
— رشا عزب (@RashaPress) June 11, 2013

I beat up that son of bitch and told him that this is from El Hossainy Abu Deif , the security forces hit with a stick , fuck the police ---- Rasha Azab

Rasha , Al Mogheer and security forces "ENN"

BY the way Rasha did not cause all those injuries alone , I saw videos where he was beaten by other protesters. He is so much hated in a way you can not believe it.

Here is Al Mogheer beaten earlier by angry protesters

He had to be transferred to the hospital of course in CSF vehicle accompanied by none other Omar Abdel Hady , the former member of constituent assembly.Abdel Hady is not different from Al Mogheer when it comes to incitement he spread.

Al Mogheer and Abdel Hady in the police vehicle

Ahmed El Mogheer does nothing on his Facebook except spreading hate between Egyptians. He did not care for the blood cost Egyptians paid because of his hateful posts and incitements. Today he paid the price.
Of course he is playing the victim now and his brothers who were threatening to turn Egypt in to Syria on June 30 are condemning the language of violence.
This is what Al Mogheer wrote on his Facebook page after what happened.

This is the culture they are defending , the culture of violence, terrorism, blood and exclusion, the culture of destruction and destroying nations… Yes I am injured physically and I have spelled a lot of blood but my spirit is high. We will meet next 30/6

He also posted this photo

Victory sign "Al Mogheer"

El Mogheer appeared from awhile on TV , on Al Youm TV channel saying that the “wolves” attacked him !!!!

احمد المغير راح يتظاهر سلمي امام وزارة الثقافة تأييدا للوزير بيحاولوا يعتدوا عليه! المعارضة لم تحتكر الاماكن فقط بلاحتكرت حتى التظاهر #مصر
— سامح الخطاري (@Truthcaller) June 11, 2013

Ahmed El Mogheer went to protest peacefully in front of the ministry of culture in solidarity to the ministry , they are trying to attack him. The opposition does not monopolize the places but it also monopolizes protesting !! ---- Sameh El Khatry

Sameh El Khatry is a Muslim brotherhood preacher who got two accounts , one for these statements and one for replies on twitter. He is another superstar among the Muslim brotherhood.
I hate to say that they started it so they should not come and play the victim role. He was planning along to disperse the sit in by force.
In the end I do not have any problem in saying : Ahmed El Mogheer was beaten by a girl.
By the way hundreds are currently at the ministry listening to the music of Al Masrieen band and Ramy Essam

A Reader’s Reply From #Egypt to Open Letter From #Ethiopia

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 01:46:00 PDT

I got this short reply from dear friend Dr. Ahmed Abdel Kawi to the open letter Egyptian Chronicles got from Ethiopia and published on this blog. Abdel Kawi’s reply is short and is addressing specific points.

Dear Sir

Thank you for your letter. Regarding first myth:please calculate total annual water income of Ethiopia and the annual income of Egypt,you will find that water input to your country is much than Egypt.Please don't describe situation as if Egypt is depriving Ethiopia from water. Regarding second myth,let's leave it to the law experts to solve,we are taking actions aiming to solve such issue. Regarding third myth,we are afraid that after building the dam,some one may destroy it,the water flowing will reach Egypt within a month and destroy our dam,thus ending in flooding Egypt. Finally dear sir we hope to negotiate with your people for best interest of our countries.

I have also to comment and say that if we want to reach to Win-Win situation then we have to forget our nationalist chauvinism. Also if we want to act in a mature way , we have to listen to the experts and their decisions as a start for true negotiations.

We do not have problem with dams on the Nile contrary to what is being portrayed in the Ethiopian media , in fact we agreed and helped African countries like Sudan in previous projects. Our objection on the renaissance dam or to be accurate its current specifications from water capacity as well the material used in its construction. Dr. Ahmed spoke about those two points.
Our objections are not related to our Egyptian dignity heavens forbid but rather are based upon the trilateral International commission to study the effects of the dam’s report. This commission included experts and scientists from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan as well foreign independent experts. I do not ask much when I urge the Ethiopians to check this report and to see our true objections.

The commission said that Ethiopian government did not cooperate as it should disclosing some of the important reports needed. We need those reports in order to make sure that the dam will harm us because according to the data we have got from the Ethiopian government itself it will harm Egypt.

Only yesterday the PM of Egypt admitted the fact that from 5 years we are suffering from Water poverty.

Just look to our map and you will release that Nile is truly our life source. We know very well that we do not own the Nile and we know that for the past 30 years we did not treat our African neighbors in the South as we should or as we used to during the 1960s.

I still believe in negotiations and reaching win-win situation , this is the only way.

Morsi Speaks To #Ethiopia and #June30 Supporters as Well

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:50:04 PDT

Today Islamist political parties held some so-called popular meeting to discuss the Nile river crisis including the Freedom and Justice Party. Those parties invited President Morsi to that meeting and he addressed the Nation.
There was not a real discussion for the Nile crisis as much it was obvious replica conference from the days of Mubarak and the NDP. The exact sign but with a religious touch. I will not comment on the fact that Islamist parties mobilized its members from governorates as far as Bani Sawif to attend the conference in Cairo and to stand outside the Conference halls in Nasr City. I will not comment either on the banners the supporters of Morsi held like “We love you President” and “The goals of the revolution have been achieved”. I will not comment on what happened on the beginning of the conference. I will go straight to the main event of Morsi’s speech.
The speech is two parts : One that deals with Ethiopia and the Nile Dam and the other deals with Egyptian opposition.
The first part that deals with Ethiopia Morsi presented the good cop/bad cop in not so good way. Speaking in escalating and confident tune , Morsi declared that “All options are available” asserting over and over that our Water’s security is a red line that we will not accept to give up a single drop from it.

If a single Nile’s drop from our share is lost , our blood will be the cost.

He said those words after quoting a verses from Abdel Wahab’s song “Immortal river” earning him a standing ovation. He also said that Whoever thinks that Egyptians are busy with their internal challenges is delusional and that we are the soldiers of God. Using this language in confidence is not good because on the other side I know that some Ethiopians consider themselves as soldiers of God.
Anyhow after those indirect threats Morsi pulled back the Good cop insisting that we do not want any harm to Sudan or Ethiopia and that we are not against any development projects unless those projects harm our water shares. He also stated that we are have talks with Ethiopia and our relations are getting better than back in the old Mubarak days.
It is as if Morsi was trying to pull Nasser, Sadat and Yasser Arafat at the same time.Either Morsi is bluffing or he got intelligence backing up him to escalate in this way especially that his ministers are heading to both Sudan and Ethiopia. Already Ethiopia is heading in it plans and Sudan is supporting. Either he knows what he is doing or he is playing with fire in order to cover his internal political failures. Most observers believe he is trying to hide the internal political failures.
I think you probably know that Egyptian revolutionary and political powers and parties are organizing a mass protests day and are hoping to withdraw confidence from president Morsi on the anniversary of his election victory. Well Morsi is using the Nile Crisis in a way to lure the opposition forces calling them for national reconciliation as “there is no time for differences in Egypt now” according to him.
You must know that leaks in press that there is a trend in the presidency aka El Shater’s men to give up some concessions for the opposition. Anyhow it is too late because Morsi and the Muslim brotherhood do not want to understand that the people not the opposition are the leading this wave of anger and rebellion due to their own fiascos. The opposition in Egypt actually can not keep up with the revolutionaries and the people.
By the way Morsi presented his condolences to the family of the Homeland security’s special forces officer Abu Shakra was killed/assassinated in Sinai described his murderers as terrorists. Today in the funeral of Abu Shakra , the police officers chanted against Morsi.

#OccupyMinCulture : Street Ballet #Updated

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:54:21 PDT

In case you do not know, I missed covering the Occupy Ministry of culture movement that started last week.
Ago of intellectuals, authors, artists and actors occupied the ministry of culture in Zamalek as an escalation for their demand to dismiss the minister of culture Alaa Abdel Aziz. Now every night at the HQ of the ministry in Zamalek artists present shows for the people in the small street. Of course these intellectuals and artists are being attacked day and night by MB’s supporters and allies.
Last night the artists presented parts of Ballet Zorba in the street.

Here is a video clip for the show from Ahram Online

This is dedicated to the Salafist MPs who left everything in the country and wanted to ban Ballet.
Amazingly hundreds go and watch these daily shows in solidarity with the artists. I believe this is the richest culturally sit in we had since Tahrir sit in July 2011 when we used to have concerts , Tweet Nadwas and Tahrir Cinema.

Readers’ Chronicles : An Open Letter to Egyptians From #Ethiopia

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 09:20:19 PDT

I do not think that I have done this before. This is an email I got from Ethiopia , from MR. Yared H.Meskel.
I did not edit a single letter in the email. I am not going to comment about the open letter in the blog post , civilized discussions are extremely welcomed in comments section
MR. Meskel is columnist and managing director in a technology and investment advisory consulting company in East Africa and UK. Dear Egyptians,
I think you politicians have been feeding false propaganda and the politicians have lived to believe their own propaganda. This propaganda has created three major myths in Egyptians mine.
One is Egypt own the Nile, second there was an international treaty, third, Ethiopia can block the water.
All are myth built up with no facts and lack of understanding basic scientific observations.
Here are the answers to think about.
1st. Egypt does not own the Nile. Nile belongs to Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, and off course, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. If Egypt thinks that it is only Egypt can drink from the Nile, and then take a hard look of the reality. You are receiving every day, clean, drinkable free from industrial toxic and fresh water everyday from these countries. If they do not benefit from the water they can send their wastes with it.
It is though fact that this is a shared resource and everyone has to invest and protect it to give fresh water to Egypt. The solution is to come back to the Nile initiative and negotiate to develop this shared resource together without losing your fare share. Ethiopia or Kenya cannot invest on the land and the forests which give to the life of Nile at great cost to become slaves to deliver drinkable water to Egyptians. In fact, Egypt should have been putting at list 2.5 billion USD/ half of the Ethiopian Dam cost, since it will serve as water reservoir for Egypt to design it in such a way that would not reduce the flow of the water.
Please don’t forget that 85% of the Nile water comes from Ethiopia and Ethiopia is not using so far 1% of the water while it's own people perish of starvation and drought So there is no international or moral law that obliges Ethiopia to die of drought and thirst while Egyptians want to water their desert garden grass and lawn for European tourists or want to export it to Israel to earn cash. But still Ethiopia has no intention to reduce the flow, despite it’s cronic problems.
Abay/ Nile/ is a shared resource and the reality is to take time to understand the Ethiopian position. Sudan fully understand the Dam is beneficial for Sudan and Egypt. Despite internal public criticism Ethiopia has gone extra-mile to prove and reassure Egyptians by inviting and setting a joint expert committee that the hydroelectric dam does not at all affect the water flow. In fact it will increase the water flow in sustainable way, while the water is stored in deep gorge of Ethiopian cold highland by reducing huge evaporation, rather than flush it in to the Mediterranean see between June and October. This is science and I think Egyptians politicians need to pick their high school science books and revise it. A good number of Egyptian politicians appear to have (PhD) after their names and I guess they may have earned their degree in dramatics rhetoric than hard science.
Nile is Ethiopian as well as 9 African countries resource and Ethiopia need the hydropower as Egypt needs the water. The water moves a turbine and flow to Egypt and cannot come back or stored. Only demented politicians oppose building of hydroelectric power. If Ethiopia has intention to reduce the flow the dam would have been built where Irrigation is possible not where electricity could be generated. The fact is as simple as that and Egypt could have stopped it.
2. The second Egyptian myth is believing in non-existent treaty. Ethiopia had never been a British Colony like Egypt and British had no legal jurisdiction to sign any treaty in on behalf of Ethiopians. This is a basic logic. Egypt might have some debt with Kenya and Uganda but not with Ethiopia. Thanks to our forefathers, Ethiopians have fought all colonial forces at great cost and never surrendered to any mighty power. No one had signed on behalf of Ethiopia and no one will. Dying with freedom and dignity has been the ultimate privilege of all Ethiopians, who gave us this country. They died burned by poison gasses, tank shells and areal carpet bombing. Their crops burnt, their 2/3 of their cattle wiped out by biological warfare introduced by Italians and yet Ethiopians chose to die than surrender to anyone. As a result thanks God, we were not part of any treaty. We never signed anything and accepted any treaty. Hence, the fact is 85% of the Nile water had never been claimed by anyone and had never been part of any treaty. This is a fact casted on stones. Let’s the Egyptians politicians stop misinforming the Egyptian people and produce a single paper signed by Ethiopian or anyone who had legal jurisdiction over Ethiopia. Let them produce it and we are happy to honor it. So let’s clear this myth built on false propaganda.
3. The third myth is Ethiopia can stop Nile. If Egyptians politicians could Google, they could easily find enough scientific research data done by Egyptians that it is almost impossible for Ethiopia to stop the Nile flowing, without submerging a quarter of Ethiopia under water and turn themselves in to fish to survive. So it is time to separate ancient Egyptian myth from scientific data.
In fact, if there was an intention on Ethiopian side to reduce the water, there is no need to build a mega dam on the most rugged terrain of Ethiopia, where there is no land for irrigation. This is a gorge suitable for hydroelectric power and nothing else. If Ethiopia had intention to reduce the water it can instruct every village, to have a micro-dam on tributaries and flood plains. The fact that Ethiopia is building this huge dame close to the Sudan boarder means it is in its own interest to recharge the dam continuously to keep the power turbines moving. This is in fact a God given insurance for Egypt that the water will continue to flow to Egypt for eternity. If this dam is not built, then micro-dams are the alternative that would open the opportunity for utilization of water for other purposes too. So Egyptians politicians need to open their mind to see plan B, rather than getting carried away with myth creation and misinformation of the people.
So, please get tell your politicians to stop empty threat and bravado which is designed for internal consumption rather than dealing the real Egyptian real issue and the need for collaboration with Nile basin countries. Nile belongs to all of us, and it is enough for all of us. It is time for Egyptian politicians to come to the table and talk to the Africans who are delivering your drinking water everyday endlessly. Ethiopians, Kenyans, Ugandans, South Sudanese, Bruindies, etc. are united and the solution is not bullying but negotiation to have a win-win situation. That is upper countries use the water for power generation while Egypt continue to enjoy a free supply of clean, drinkable and life giving water from countries like Ethiopia and Kenya.
That is a win situation and the rest is more of a fantasy based on false assumption and myths. Egypt is not a superpower or a colonial master over Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda or South Sudan. A little bit of respect towards Africans is overdue.
In the last 20 years, there were more Egyptian investment in Ethiopia and we all thought that the old Egyptians politics is beginning to change to create some brotherhood with the African nations, but what we see from Egyptian politicians is old habits never die. Mubarak is may gone, but not his ideology.
Ethiopia has opened it door and files to Egyptians experts to examine every data that the dam does not affect the water flow. The good thing is the conclusion of these experts is clear that the dam has no impact on the flow of water. But Ethiopians gesture of brotherhood to take it’s file and plan for inspection has been taken for weakness by Egyptian politicians. Now if that is the perception then Ethiopia need to close it’s door and focus on its own plan till the Egyptian politicians learn to behave in civilized way and prepare to work with mutual respect and brotherhood.
Cooperation and win-win solution benefit all, and Egypt would be left out if its politicians believes their own myth and refuse to cooperate for our collective benefits.

The Kurdish who Made it to Arab Idol Quarter Finals

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 15:53:06 PDT

I do not think for one second that anyone has ever thought that a young lady from Kurdistan would be popular in the Arab world through a Reality TV show.
Parwas Hussein was the only Kurdish Iraqi Contestant that made it to MBC’s Arab Idol “Pop Idol Arabic version” when she does not speak Arabic fluently. She made to the quarter finals in Arab Idol and lost. “Tough to compete with other contestants with their strong voices in that stage”

Singing in Beirut while wearing Kurdish traditional dress

Of course it was a clever thing from the Arab Idol producers and the MBC to accept Parwas , they did not have to accept someone who is not fluent in Arabic to become the Arab Idol but for sure politics play a role here. This year was the first time Arab Idol would include Kurdistan.
The young wife and mother made it and earned the love of the viewers all over the Arab world and she had to. Her voice is nice and young with beautiful young face. She had a cheerful charisma that made viewers like her despite the language and cultural barriers as well political conflicts.
Hussein made it regularly for the viewers in the Arab world to listen to Kurdish language and even to hear Kurdish songs in the beginning of the show. I do not think that she made to that stage with the votes of the Iraqis and Kurds only when I think about it.
Here was Prawas singing some Kurdish folk song while wearing a Kurdish traditional dress.

Singing in Kurdish

Another thing I liked about her during the show was her attempts to sing in Arabic. Of course I think it was bold thing from her to do. She even sang for Um Kulthum , a thing that not so many people can do in a live show.

P sings a Thuma song

I am not a reality TV show fan but I love how through this show Arabs knew that the Kurds are normal people and not villains and how Kurds watched the show and listened to the Arab songs to support their representative.
This is how things should be and how ethnic minorities should be invited to be included in the society. What I liked about P was how she celebrated her nation’s culture in pride in one of the most watched reality TV shows in the Arab world. We should not be afraid from including ethnic’s cultures in to our mainstream cultures whether our Arabic cultures or our nations’ cultures. I believe these sub cultures and ethnic cultures actually enriches our Arab/National culture and make it stronger with its diversity.
I do not know if the producers of MBC’s Arab Idol understand what they have done or not but they managed to break the ice for real through Kurdistan and the Arabs through Parwas Hussein. I just wish that after breaking the ice , there will be bridges to mend the gap made from a very long time ago. This is the true soft public diplomacy.
Amazingly from what I see the foreign media was focusing on Mohamed Assaf, the popular Arab Idol Contestant from Palestine and did not pay to attention to that young lady from Kurdistan.
Parwas Hussein did not lose , in fact I believe she won a lot of popularity whether in the Arab world or Iraq or Kurdistan. She also made something politicians failed and it is more significant than being the Arab idol.
Here is the official Parwas’ official FB page.

Actually The Police Can Stop them .. If they Want to

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 09:39:16 PDT

The official page for the ministry of antiquities on Facebook “It is the ministry’s official page thought” paged on Thursday very alarming posts about ancient tombs discovered and controlled by the locals who are not allowing the Egyptologists nor the police to come near to the tombs.
The tombs are said to be in Aswan , particular in the West. Ancient Egyptians used to have their tombs in the West. There are about 6 tombs discovered there recently by the people who took control of these tombs.
Yes the people do not want the state to control the tombs. Already I saw the photos and video from there and I am not an Egyptologist to say that this was an Authentic tomb or but its colors and drawings look amazing.
Here are some photos taken from inside one of the tombs

Here is a video from inside one of the tombs.
Now I do not understand who the Police can not control this tomb, I feel that we are living in Shadi Abdel Salam’s “The Mummy” !! The police can stop the locals of managing the sites as they want , they can even do it in a civilized way.

#Morsi speaks to Ahram in Four pages !!

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 14:29:55 PDT

Al Ahram Newspaper

Today Ahram newspaper published in its Friday weekly issue its first full interview with President Mohamed Morsi. The President was interviewed by the man who used to attack the brotherhood and the revolution in past Mr. Abdel Nasser Salama.
Now amazingly in the printed issued of Ahram newspaper , we found out that interview was published on 4 pages in addition of the first Front page with big headlines for the interviews.
We are making history in media and in press in particular in Egypt now without doubt !! 4 pages interview !!??
Now the interview summarized in few points for those who do not want to spend all that time to read the interview

Egypt will not lose a single drop from its share from the river Nile and Ethiopia is our friend.
Any talk about early presidential elections is nonsense.
We respect our agreements aka Camp David.
Morsi and army are good friends.
There is nothing called brotherhoodization of the state , it is nonsense.
The Mubarak regime corruption is unimaginable
The investigations of Sinai's kidnapped soldiers incident are confidential because it is a national security matter !!!!!!! “What about the national dialogue about the Nile Crisis ?”

The interview

Unfortunately there is nothing new in the first interview for Morsi in the Arab press. By the way he considered his interview with the Global and Mail was more of a chitchat.
The interview took 3 hours and Morsi refused to drink anything during the interview !! The interview was typical presidential interview in state owned Ahram , full of hypocrisy !!

Here is the link in Arabic on Ahram Website and here is a summary in English for the interview from Ahram Online.

Rebellion Campaign HQ set on Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 03:34:05 PDT

Late last night the Rebellion Campaign ‘Tamarud’ stated to the media that they got threats and after few hours we found that the Campaign HQ in Downtown Cairo was torched.

The HQ on Fire "Tamarud official FB page"

The Campaign is accusing the Muslim brotherhood of standing behind the fire. The Campaign also issued a statement saying that the signatures they are collecting from citizens are not being kept only in the HQ and they are safe. It seems that unknown assailants threw Molotov cocktails in to the HQ.

After putting the fire off at the HQ "Tamarud official FB Page"

The campaign also announced on Thursday that it refused to sit down with the minister of interior to discuss the upcoming arrangements for the mass protests on 30 June 2013. On that day the campaign is planning mass protests as well to represent the signatures they collect to withdraw confidence from President Morsi in order to have early presidential elections to the Supreme Constitutional Court.
It is getting intense in Cairo without doubt and it is not even 30 June already.
Last 5 June 2013 the attorney general has ordered the trial of 12 opposition activists for allegedly inciting clashes at the Muslim brotherhood HQ in Moktam last March. Those activists including Alaa Abdel Fatah, Ahmed Douma, Hazem Abdel Azim, Karim El Shaer, Nawara Negm and Ahmed Eid.
The regime is provoking the opposition and the revolutionary youth as it is daring them to protest next 30 June, this is how I see it.

#KhaledSaid : We are Khaled and They are all #Mubarak

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:02:40 PDT

Today was the anniversary of the incident that changed the Egyptian society , today Egyptian youth in different governorates commemorated the anniversary of Khaled Said’s murder.
The Young Alexandrian man whose brutal murder was like a wake up call for the Egyptian society months before 28 January. Just like in 2010 the people went in silent stands in squares and major squares holding banners to remind with Khaled as well other young men who are killed and tortured to death.

The silent stand at Kasr Al Nil bridge

Khaled Said’s commemoration this year is called “We are all Khaled and they are all Mubarak”.


Khaled and his brothers(R) and Mubarak and his brothers (L)

It is a brilliant name because this is what is happening now in Egypt.
There is no big difference now when it comes to Police brutality. The Mubarak legacy lives on.
Just yesterday another citizen was allegedly tortured till death in some police station in Cairo. A quick low to the human rights violations by the police force in time of President Morsi and you will wonder what kind of revolution we had in Egypt.
In the first 100 days of President Morsi’s rule , Al Nadeem Center published a report stating that more than 30 torture cases in the police stations by policemen where as 11 cases of torture till death were recorded. These were the first hundred days.
In January 2013 , the center documented 16 torture cases and 3 cases of kidnapping and torture of 3 political activists. Of course in January 4 political activists were tortured till death including Mohamed El Gendy May Allah bless his soul.
In March 2013 the center documented 41 torture cases in police stations as during the protests.
In April 2013 Al Nadeem center documented 51 tortures cases where the suspect are the police and the brotherhood. 24 fatalities were documented including 16 cases with firearms.
In May 2013 we got 74 cases of torture in police stations and prisons.
This is the tip of the ice berg , this is just one human rights center in Egypt.
Of course this is besides the big irony that up till now we can not get back the right of Khaled Said through the courts and law. Oh yes the court has accepted the appeal of Khaled’s murderers who were actually convicted of manslaughter. Not only the court accepted the appeal but it released them pending the case. They are now in their homes.
The thing is that after 3 years from Khaled’s murder and after 2 years of a revolution that started originally as a protest against Police brutality , people are still dying because of torture in Egypt.
It is good to remind the people in Egypt with the brutality of the Mubarak’s regime and his police state especially there is some sick nostalgia for some to these days.“ You know Mubarak kept the Islamists in chains behind bars feeling you read in the comments in Egyptian social Media”
Parties like Constitution Party and Strong Egypt Party called their members and the public to participate in the stand. The revolutionary socialists and Popular current also participated along other revolutionary movements.
It is a déjà vu but we got new comers from parties joining Khalid's stand, black clothes and protests at security directorates and squares in cities like Alexandria, Cairo, Ismailia, Damietta and Assuit.

In Assuit

In Cairo , Sheikh Emad Effat was there

In Alexandria

In Damietta

Khaled’s photo was not alone as he had a big company of martyrs who left us in the past two years. Just like Khaled , we failed to restore back their rights.

Khaled , Mohamed El Gundy and Jika

Moktar , an army solider killed last week in Salloum in strange circumstances

The family of late army solider Mokhtar Essam Mokhtar who went missing near the borders and was found dead in the desert , killed to be accurate was also there trying to find justice for their son.
What we wanted in this revolution , the state of law and torture is not part of the law. Of course I will not fool myself , I know that we will reach to this state of law when there is a political will for this. The 25 January will achieve one of its true goals when the ruling regime abandons the police state mentality and the police force becomes the servant of the public for real.

#Nile Crisis : Sorry Is the Hardest word Indeed

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:06:50 PDT

After the scandalous National dialogue aka War council held by Presidency , we found no reaction or no official apology from the Egyptian Presidency regarding the insults to Sudan and the threats to Ethiopia.

On Tuesday Mohamed ElBaradei apologized to both Sudan and Ethiopia

Sincere apologies to the people and governments of Ethiopia & Sudan for the irresponsible utterances at the president's "national dialogue"
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) June 4, 2013

Of course this did not go quietly despite many Egyptians online respected what ElBaradei as veteran diplomat did . The Islamists unleashed a new verbal attack against the former head of the IAEA as usual.

اعتذار البرادعي لإثيوبيا تناقض جديد يضاف إلى قائمة طويلة سابقة من التناقضات ؛لم نسمع منك رأيا ولا شاركت في حوار يهم الوطن كله؛معارضة عرجاء1
— نادر بكار (@naderbakkar) June 4, 2013

The apology of ElBaradei to Ethiopia is a new contradiction added to his long list of contradictions , we have not heard any opinion from you nor did you ever participate in national dialogue , lame opposition.

This was Salafist Al Nour party Spokesperson Nader Bakkar on his official twitter account.
Al Nour Party leader Younis Makhioun suggested that Islamist militants could give Ethiopia hard times and we can escalate the matter to the level of having a covert operation to demolish the dam.It is worth to mention that Al Nour party has been actively marketing itself abroad to the West as a good replacement to the Muslim brotherhood.

من اعتذر لاثيوبيا عما بدر من وطنيين أقلقهم تهديد حقوقنا القانونبة في مباه التبل ارجو لو قدم اعتذرا لوطنه لانه لم بشعر بالعطش بهدد شعبه #مصر
— Mohamed MAHSOOB (@drmahsoob) June 4, 2013

Who apologized to Ethiopia for what the patriots said and expressed regarding the threats to our legal rights of Nile , hopefully will apologize to his nation because he did not know that there was thirstiness threatening his people.

This is Mohamed Mahsoob, the leading member in Al Wasat Party. I think Abu Ela Mady , the leader of that Islamist party also suggested some hostile action against Ethiopia.
Amazingly those politicians do not realize the damage they have caused.
Anyhow on Wednesday President Morsi tweeted the following on the same day of the National dialogue.

نؤكد على احترامنا للشعب السوداني شمالا وجنوبا والشعب الأثيوبي #الرئيس
— د.محمد مرسي (@MuhammadMorsi) June 3, 2013

We assert our respect to the Sudanese people in the North and the South as well the Ethiopian people

This is indirect apology.
No one commented with a single word at all.
BY the way when the national dialogue speakers were speaking about covert operations against Ethiopia. The Ethiopian ambassador was having a meeting with Amr Moussa and Moussa apologized to him for the insults and threats on air against Ethiopia.
Updated :
The Ethiopian Ministry of foriegn affairs accepted Dr. ElBaradei's apology and in fact the minister of foreign affairs in Ethiopia Mr.Tedros Adhanom retweeted ElBob's tweet !!

#Tamarud : Rebels With A Cause

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:30:01 PDT

“Rebellion” or “Tamarud” is a name of a public campaign in Egypt now that is causing controversy and making headlines in the media. Everybody is speaking about this campaign , the revolutionaries have high hopes for it while the Muslim brotherhood supporters mock it. The former regime supporters are divided whether to support it or not while the Islamists refuse it altogether and even launched a counter campaign to this rebellion

The iconic logo of the campaign

“Tamarud” campaign aims to two main goals : To withdraw confidence from Mohamed Morsi and to have early elections.
It is crazy thing to topple a democratically elected president but the campaign is doing this through the collection of ID signatures from Egyptians.They are putting a target of 15,000,000 signatures to withdraw the confidence from the elected President. On next 30 June 2013 the campaign will present these signatures "if it manages to collect that number" to the Supreme Constitutional Court. In the campaign's best case scenario the Court will consider these signatures like votes and withdraw confidence from Morsi and call for early presidential elections.

The famous document now

Collecting signature is not a new thing actually it was used before by the National association of Change in 2010 against Mubarak if you remember before the revolution.
Tamarud campaign started in late April 2013 but its official birth was in Tahrir square in May Day , during then people mocked those young men and girls but in one month it seems that the members of the campaign had the last laugh so far. What started in small campaigns in at crowded streets in the evening at clubs and main squares turned big day by day.

Signing the petition "Cairo Dar"

On last Wednesday the Campaign announced they managed to collect exactly 7,540,535 , yes in one month they were enabled to collect this number from all over the country. On the same day they launched an official website to receive signatures and post Updates thought it online.

You can see the info graph here.

In Graph

You can notice that in governorates Cairo , Monufia and Daqhalia we got more than One million signature South Sinai and North Sinai as well Matrouh got the lowest number of signatures. Well the three governorates are considered from the stronghold of Salafists.
It is worth to mention that President Morsi got exactly 13,230,131 votes “51%” in the runoffs of the Presidential elections in 2011.
against President Morsi. It is not a surprise considering the voting pattern of those governorates in the the presidential elections as well the Constitution referendum.
The huge numbers in this short period are not surprising considering the fact the problems the Egyptian society currently faces and blames President Morsi and his administration for. More people in the cities suffer from fuel and energy crises. A little example from couple of days ago , I knew that taxis were standing in a long queue for hours at one fuel station in the Ring highway when some Tamarud campaigners saw that scene and seized the opportunity to go and get signatures using the people’s anger. Almost all the taxi drivers signed the petition to withdraw confide fence from Morsi.
From couple of weeks ago in Shubra El Kheima , the popular current members seized the opportunity and headed to crowded café showing the UEFA champion league final match to call people to sign the petition.
You will find now some shops in some areas in Cairo putting the petition papers besides the cashiers. Already it is now crossing borders and Egyptians are having “Tamarud” days in the States and Canada.
The opposition parties found a resort in this campaign and several parties including those in the Salvation Front joining it. Already many of the campaign founders are from the revolutionary youth that joined parties and movements. You will find members from April 6 Youth , Free Egyptians Party, Popular Current Constitution Party and the Egyptian social democratic party in the campaign announcing their full support. In fact those parties and movement have announced that their headquarters began to receive the signatures from the public. Their members also started mobilizing in different governorates giving big push to what started a small campaign.Strong Egypt Party praised as a popular movement that should be away from any partisan affiliation.
Mohamed ElBaradei, Hamdeen Sabbahi and Amr Moussa also praised it.
Famous people from politicians , intellectuals, celebs and activists signed the petition. Bassem Youssef spoke about too.

Novelist Alaa El Aswany

Actress Athar El Hakim

Former MB leading MB Mokhtar Noah and his family

Amazingly the small campaign would not have gained much success as I could tell from the failures of Morsi only but rather from the counter campaign launched by the Islamists in Egypt against it. Even Morsi helped the campaign when he mentioned it during his meeting with the Egyptian community in Qatar. Al Gama’a Al Islamiyaa even launched a counter campaign to collect signatures to support Morsi !!
Some say that Rebellion is the from the first true revolutionary actions taken since the elections of Morsi. Well without doubt that it is one of the biggest political revolutionary popular actions we have seen since the huge protests that rocked Cairo in November 2012 after the constitutional declaration.
Others believe that there is no use in what the campaign is doing because it is not constitutional. It is true , it is not constitutional but politically if the campaign manages to collect the number of signatures it will be a huge challenge to Morsi. According to some analysts in best scenarios Morsi may be forced to hold a public poll about his presidency. It is worth to mention that political forces and parties are calling for massive protests on 30 Junes 2013. It will be on hell of a day as it seems.
I spoke with Mahmoud Badr , one of the founders of that young movement in order to know more about it. Badr , a young journalist who voted for Morsi in the second stage of the President is currently accused by the President’s supporters of being Shiite as well atheist !!

Badr told me that the idea came to that group of youth when they found Morsi failing all his promises as well his duties as a President. He is very confident in what he is doing and believe that the campaign will make it.

In my short talk with Badr I spoke with him the fear that the campaign was being used by some to promote for the early elections just like What former Presidential candidate and former Ahmed Shafik wants.

“Early elections do not mean Ahmed Shafik , already there are candidates as well other than Shafik like Hamdeen Sabbahi, Abu El Fotouh, Amr Moussa and ElBaradei , why focusing on Shafik” Badr replied.

It is worth to mention Abu El Fotouh , Amr Moussa and ElBaradei all declared that they are not going to run in any future elections including early Presidential elections. It is also worth to mention that once Shafik declared he signed the petition calling his supporters to sign it , the campaign issued a statement slamming him despite its respect to his supporters. The campaign later issued a statement saying that its partisan, ideological and persons free campaign. The Shafik supporters considered it an apology.

Some of the extreme Felol and old regime/Pro-military rule supporters who hate both the brotherhood and revolution believe that Tamarud is actually a secret MB/revolutionary movement made to stop Abdel Fatah El Sisi’s powers of attorney campaign launched from several months ago !! The Not so extreme Felol supporters are happy with the campaign despite all its revolutionary talk insisting that they are the ones behind its success and not the revolutionaries. That team believes that the upcoming 30 June 2013 will be the end of the so-called “MB occupation” and brotherhood in Egypt and in this world.

I asked Badr also about a very important technical question on how they are going to check the ids and details they got from the citizens , there could be fraud and there could be duplications. Already we know that famous Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Nagm signed 16 copies from the petition !! Badr told me that the campaign is currently installing a database system that will filter the petition without giving more details. Hopefully that system will work.

Personally I believe “Tamarud” is the one of the great pressure tools we can use against the regime. I do not what will happen on 30 June 2013 to be honest , nobody knows after all who could have predicted what would happen on 25 or 28 January 2011 still what I want from the campaign and told Badr about is to have a Plan B just in case of anything.
Wise people said and say that to make 25 January revolution works we must have two parallel paths : A revolutionary one and A political one . Unfortunately our elite whether from activists or politicians do not get this and are insisting on taking one path only without the other. We need a plan to have both.

#NGOTrial : Another bad news for #Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:36:58 PDT

Today the Cairo Criminal court has ended the first chapter of the NGO trial in Egypt and it was not a good end at all.
The criminal court sentenced 43 NGO workers between 2 to 5 years in jail ordering at the same the closure of 5 foreign NGOs in Egypt. Twenty seven defendants got 5 years jail sentences in absentia. Those 27 who were smuggled/escaped in some shady unknown deal between the US and SCAF in March 2012.
Eleven workers received one year suspended sentences and five received two years jail sentences. The convicted included 19 Americans, 16 Egyptians, as well as Germans, Serbs, Norwegians, Palestinians , Lebanese and Jordanians.
Robert Becker who works in NDI and refused to leave Egypt last year like the the rest of the Americans in the case left Cairo and headed to Italy in exile by the request of his lawyers.

Safely out of #Egypt. On my lawyers advice, I have unwillingly and angrily gone into exile until appeals get sorted out. #NGOtrial
— Becker - روبرت بيكر (@rbecker51) June 4, 2013

Becker knew the verdict while watching his own trial in some Cairo Café. Becker will return after his appeal.
By the way some of the NGO workers are on twitter and you can follow them like Rawda Ahmed , Hafsa Halwa , Sherif Mansour and Bassem Fathy
The court has also ordered the closure of 5 foreign NGOs : US Freedom House, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ), and Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS).
Amazingly the maps of the so-called divided Egypt and other National security documents leaked to the media were not included in the case in front of the trial. The NGOs workers are going to appeal.
Interestingly the court informed the Interpol to issue an arrest warrant for the other foreign convicted NGO workers including Sam LaHood, the son of the current US secretary of transportation Ray LaHood.
It is just sad because NGOs played an extremely important role in Egypt when it comes to development and foreign funding played a role in this. What is even more sadder is how the Egyptian NGOs workers and employees are being punished in this way.
Those Egyptian women and men may not find a job in Egypt easily when they are officially convicted in a political case like this.
Of course the world is not stupid , it understands what happened and is happening.
You must know that this was the trick of the old Mubarak’s regime , to let those NGOs to work without any licensing in order to close those organizations whenever they are crossed the red line . It happened before with TV channels like Orbit, Dream TV and Al Jazeera Mubshar Misr.
Of course it is worth to mention that the Muslim brotherhood is walking on the same path like Mubarak regime and SCAF.
This is another setback to human rights in Egypt and actually it will not encourage people to come to the country or invest in it. I believe this verdict will also be a setback in the relation between the United States and the Muslim brotherhood as well EU and the Muslim brotherhood.
Here is the National security council in the United States expresses its concern regarding the NGO trial’s verdict. The US department of state also issued a statement about the trial. Senator McCain slammed the verdict too. I wonder when Essam Haddad will take the first plane to Washington D.C to put the blame on SCAF, the army, the judiciary and Mubarak’s regime.
The German ministry of foreign affairs summoned the Egyptian charge d'affaires earlier today. The minister of foreign affairs expressed his extreme anger from the verdict.
There will be another chapter in the NGO trial and that’s appeal.
By the way I remember that last year when the witch hunt started against the NGOs , there were reports about how Salafist NGOs got millions from the Gulf without the knowledge of the government.

Shall We stand Against This As Well ??

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 10:22:23 PDT

Yesterday there was a protest in solidarity with the Egyptian judges at the Supreme court in down town Cairo. A considerable number of protesters ,if not the majority were from the Mubarak regime/Okasha supporters “The infamous TV host” were there. The protest was held in solidarity with the judges and their on fight against the Muslim brotherhood.

Youm 7 and Al Wafd newspaper both recorded very alarming thing that took place during the short protest. A young girl beaten by so-called men from the protest in a very disgusting way.

From the videos’ descriptions posted by both newspapers that young girl in black veil objected having the Mubarak’s and Okasha supporters in the protest. She was among the protesters already. A so-called man hit on the back of her neck with all his power while another so-called man kicked her . It is disgusting.

Al Wafd video

Youm 7 did not get the same angel like Al Wafd.

Al Youm 7 video

This incident is critical test to the so-called revolutionary powers and forces as well the independent media. Will they stand with the right of that unknown girl and demand it like they have demanded the right of Mervat Moussa ??

I do not care this girl on what side of that political fight but what happened to her is totally unaccepted.

Also to be honest violence against women is something evilly rooted unfortunately and it has nothing to whether it is about Islamism or politics but we do not want to admit it.

I think we help this girl and restore back her rights if we want to dare and claim that we are civilized society.

Camera and National Security Do not Mix Dear Presidency

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 07:30:20 PDT

I believe today the national dialogue held by the Presidency earlier this morning to discuss the Nile river crisis with Ethiopia will be an example of failure in international politics and international relations as well international crisis management. A total fiasco without doubt.
The first part of the meeting was fine. Khaled Qazaz, the president’s aide discussed the summary of the trilateral commission’s report then President Mohamed spoke and lost people with his technical knowledge.
Then came the second part of the meeting and the madness started. Aside from the common words “ We have to mobilize the people and unite them around the Nile , it is matter of life and death .. bla bla bla” , we found ourselves watching a live part of Dr. Stranglove’s film !!
Now to the memorable suggestions of the parties’ leaders :

Younes Makhioun of Al Nour Party : We will use all our cards including the intelligence card in bringing down the dam if we have too.
Ayman Nour of Ghad El Thawra Party : We should spread rumors to scare Ethiopia like claiming that we bought aircrafts to strike them, the Ethiopian society is weak and we should use this for our advantage as well we need an intelligence team and not an embassy work. Sudan's position sucks !!
Magdy Hussein of Al Amal party : It is fake threat , we are being manipulated by US and Israel. We should open the Rafah crossing. We can send Abu Tarika to Ethiopia as they love him there. We can have joint electricity projects with Ethiopia and there is no need for the high dam !!

Bassem Youssef should air this meeting as it is.
I think that meeting will make our relations worse with Ethiopia.
I have got several questions in my mind and I can not find answers
Why did the Presidency broadcast this meeting on air ?? Where were the intelligence and the ministry of foreign affairs from that meeting ?? It was important to hear what they have got.
Why did not the Presidency or the intelligence cut off the broadcast when they saw this human tragedy on TV ?? I just do not understand it for real.
Now speaking realistically here I am not shocked from the radical suggestions presented by the Egyptian politicians because actually many Egyptians think in the same way whether offline or online. Many Egyptians believe that Egypt is being humiliated and we should use power to restore our position in the world.
Amazingly all those who spoke in the language of war and covert operations against Ethiopia on air like Ayman Nour and Mohamed Anwar Sadat JR are saying that they did not know that it was on air.

مندهش من اذاعة جلسة الحوار الوطني بالرئاسة حول ازمة اثيوبيا. دون احاطةالمشاركين علما مسبقا رغم حساسية الموضوع المثار
— Ayman Nour (@AymanNour) June 3, 2013

I am astonished that National dialogue session about the Ethiopia crisis was broadcasted in advance without the knowledge of the speakers despite the sensitivity of the topic discussed.

It is worth to mention that both men Nour and Sadat were from the active political figures participating in the public diplomacy delegations in Africa.
Pakinam El Sharkawy , the president’s political affairs aide apologized on her official Facebook page claiming that broadcasting the meeting on air was last minute decision. She added that she forgot to tell the speakers that they were on air.
Anyhow just from few minutes ago on ONTV , Amr Hamazawy, the liberal politician revealed that he asked Dr. Pakinam El Sharkawy on Sunday about whether there would be transparency with the public, the President’s political affairs aide told him that the meeting would be broadcasted on air.
I think Morsi’s administration learned one hell of a lesson today : National security matter and cameras do not mix.
Updated :
Mohamed ElBaradei apologized on his twitter account to Ethiopia as people and government for what was said yesterday in the meeting.

أعتذر لأثيوبيا والسودان شعبًا وحكومة عما صدر أمس في "الحوار الوطني" من إساءات، وأطالب رئيس الجمهورية بتقديم اعتذار مماثل باسم الشعب المصري
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) June 4, 2013

He also demanded the president to present an official apology on behalf of the Egyptian people

The Trilateral Commission Report's Summary is Here

noreply@blogger.com (Zeinobia) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:22:14 PDT

The Egyptian presidency published a summary of the trilateral commission report about the Ethiopian dam aka Renaissance.
It is in Arabic and you can read it after the break. Here I will summarize the important points.

Ethiopia did not present all the detailed and extensive studies about the Renaissance dam especially about its negative environmental and social impact on the downstream countries. They are not sufficient
The Ethiopian government did not present extensive studies about a very alarming scenario : The collapse of the dam. It is a study that has to be presented.
In flood season this dam will make it hard for the High Dam to generate electricity While in drought season will reduce our water share especially in irrigation.

The original report got an index of more than 600 pages and it is full of technical details. It is not that good according to the experts. The Trilateral commission is made of experts from UK, France and German and 3 delegations representing Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

ملخص تقرير أعمال اللجنة الدولية للخبراء المعنية بدراسة وتقييم سد أثيوبيا by Egyptian Presidency

Amazingly this report is totally contradicting what the ministry of foreign affairs in Ethiopia claimed on Sunday. Yesterday the MOFA in Ethiopia claimed that the Trilateral commission supports the dam and that the dam has not got any negative impact on Egypt or Sudan.
According to international laws expert Egypt has a legal right to reject the construction of the dam as long as Ethiopia does not present the required studies.