First of all, God bless the soul of
the 12 Egyptian Conscripts who were killed earlier this Friday by terrorists in Mid Sinai.I won't say anything new more than what I have said before in similar incidents before: Something wrong in the strategies concerning war terrorism in North Sinai.
Second , In the past 24 hours , Egyptians had nothing to speak about or share about online except that tuk-tuk driver who was not afraid of speaking on camera about the woes of Egypt slamming its government and president directly and indirectly.
I am writing a post about the current crisis between Egypt and Saudi Arabia but I have to pause for awhile to write about that short 3-minutes interview that became the talk of the country for real.
Wednesday evening, prominent TV host Amr El-Lissy aired on his TV show " Someone from the people" on Al-Hayah Private TV channel a special report he recorded earlier about people's complaints "mainly from economic crisis" in the working class' local market at October city.
Among those people whom he interviewed , a "tuk-tuk driver" who is extremely angry because of the current economic situation as well how things in general deteriorated in Egypt since 1952.
Here is the video. The tuk-tuk driver appeared in minute 7:19 exactly.
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Angrily and eloquently , the "tuk-tuk driver" told El-Lizzy that instead of spending billions on mega-national projects, the government should spend more on education , health and agriculture "so Egyptians can eat".
During the interview , El-Lissy interrupted him and asked him from where he was graduated as he spoke very eloquently unlike the general perception of "tuk-tuk drivers" as uneducated. The man told him that he was a "tuk-tuk graduate".
In 3-minutes , that anonymous man expressed what many Egyptians want to say publicly on TV.
Thursday morning , the 3-minutes video spread like fire on social media networks from
YouTube to Twitter to
Facebook to Whatsapp to
SoundCloud !!
On Twitter , several hashtags spoke about the video in Arabic above them
"tuktuk graduate"It was shared like fire by many Egyptians if not million of Egyptians on Thursday from all political affiliations and most of them agreed that this angry man represented them.
The 3-minutes interview already reached to 5 million views on
Al-Hayah Official Facebook page before it was removed for no reason by afternoon.
People are angry and attacking the channel on its official Facebook page.
Thursday afternoon , El-Lissy revealed that the cabinet
contacted him and tried to reach to the driver in order to have him in a meeting with the cabinet officials.The prominent TV host told the cabinet that he did not have his contact information or even know his name.
Let the conspiracy theories begin
Knowing how much the state controls the media especially TV channels in Egypt, several Pro-revolutionaries suspected that that interview was staged to vent the people's anger. They suspected that he would be an informant.
Do not be surprised but many people began to think this way after discovering how the security authorities infiltrated the media as well revolutionary groups and movements and turned to be informants.
I should write about this issue one day.
To be honest , I had my doubts about the authenticity of that video especially El-Lissy's choices of topics in his TV show like exorcism made me think twice.
Both
Amr El-Lissy and his producer Mohamed ElKomy denied completely that it was staged interview.
Then I saw how it was received madly and angrily by the Pro-Sisi supporters including the so-called e-committees or e-battalions on Twitter and Facebook pages.
Yes , Pro-Sisi/army/police/State supporters are furious because of that video.
They were furious to spread lies and rumors that anonymous driver who did not know about his name.
The Pro-State/Sisi/Police/army Facebook pages like
the unofficial Egyptian Police FB page which is said to be run by a group of police officers began to publish posts that he were a teacher and used to be a member in the MB's political arm "Freedom and justice Party".Other pages claimed that he owned a computer shop.
They even posted a photo of some family in Sharm El-Sheikh have fun on some yacht cruise in the Red Sea as a proof on how rich he were.
It turned out the photo is the photo of a lady called Rasha Ezzat who is not related from near or far to that "tuk-tuk driver". Ezzat vowed sued those who used her photo.
Ironically and sadly, she receives up till now comments attacking her as the tuk-tuk driver's wife !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The attack included Amr El-Lissy as well.
He is currently accused of being a Muslim Brotherhood member because he was former president Morsi's adviser. Those people forgot that El-Lissy who declared his support to the current regime in Egypt actually resigned to
object Morsi's constitutional declaration in November 2012.Masrawy news website made reached out to
the identity of the tuk-tuk driver who turned to be a hard working man originally from Sohag who lives and works as a tuk-tuk driver in October city.His name is Mostafa Abdou and left October city and took his small family back to Sohag till things calm down.
![The tuk-tuk driver]( "The tuk-tuk driver") |
| Mostafa Abdou , Egypt's most famous tuk-tuk driver |
He lives with his wife and his two children in a rented 53 square meter apartment. According to his uncle who spoke with Masrawy in October city , he did not continue his education and used to work as a mechanic for awhile before becoming a tuk-tuk driver.
His uncle also says that Abdou is not a member of the Brotherhood and he elected El-Sisi but he could not tolerate the economic crisis lately.
Many are expecting that he will be found by the government and forced to appear in the media praising the current regime and its president El-Sisi.
Pathetically and disgustingly , the Pro-Sisi online supporters used the horrifying terrorist attack against the young conscripts in North Sinai to slam the tuk-tuk driver launching
"#I_am_an_armored_vehicle_gradudate"hashtag in Arabic on Friday.
On Saturday , Al-Hayah TV Network announced that the Amr El-Lissy's TV show was suspended for two weeks because the TV host started his annual leave !!
Sources close to the TV host and his show say that it is an open annual leave.
Almost all TV talk shows are talking that tuk-tuk driveron Saturday.
Representing many Egyptians
I believe Mostafa Abdou's video went viral because simply this is what the Egyptian people are feeling and speaking about away from the media that do not truly represent them.
Abdou is usually from that class that ignored by all political powers above them the regime and deep state that only need them in time of elections.
Abdou's video went viral in no time and how millions of Egyptians shared across social media networks approving what he said to the camera indicates that there is anger under the surface but no one wants to speak about it.
Another important thing : Abdou's mention to Egypt's better economy before the 1952 coup with numbers "there was no social justice though during then" indicates that he is a good follower to
King Farouk website's Official Facebook page and its sister FB pages. He did not complete his education but social media is now a source of his knowledge. This is a bless and curse at the same time.
It also indicates how Egyptians regardless of their social status miss those days.
P.S : I found out that TV host Amr El-Lissy blocked me on twitter because I criticized him for hosting charlatans from time to time on his TV show.
