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#Hala’ib triangle in Photos : The village of #Abraq by Yasser EL Rasoul

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And here is the second part of The Hala’ib triangle in photos series. I started it with a photo slide show from Shalateen Port. This time the slide show is from the small village of Abraq in Shalateen.

These amazing photos were taken by talented photographer Yasser El Rasoul.

Abraq is 130 kilometer away from city of Shalateen in the North West.

Its people are from the Beja people ethnic. The Beja people are from the oldest ethnic groups in North Africa , it is enough to know that they used to fight along with the ancient Egyptians. Yes sir they are so old and so unique.

Now the village of Abraq is extremely poor as you can see in the photo , its main water source is that water well bearing the village name in the slide show “it looks amazing”. It is not about living in nomadic environment , it is about zero supplies and utilities. The people of Arbaq work mainly in pasture but some of them go to the mounts searching for coal in order to trade it with food especially Wheat in Shalateen main market.

What I say in this post is based upon the testimonies of the young humanitarians that went there and saw what they were not prepared for.

Amazingly the people there are content and they do not ask for more. They also are not angry from the valley or from the State that it neglected them.

The Egyptian Food Bank and Resala helped the people of Abraq before , there are also independent youth mostly from Islamists organizing food and medical supplies caravans.


Links and Notes 11/08/2013

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The Curious Case of Sami Anan

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The name of former general Sami Anan is back again to the front after being absent for nearly year. Suddenly we are having a flood of his photos in the civilian suite in some strange Facebook page called “The popular campaign to demand General Sami Anan to run for the presidency” which appeared suddenly from no where last October 19, 2013.
Now the Page admins claim that some of them are ex-military while other some are from none other late Omar Suleiman’s presidential campaign and allegedly Ahmed Shafiq’s campaign. The Ahmed Shafiq’s official campaign denied that it was supporting the former general in the upcoming presidential race.
Anyhow It seems that the campaign has got telephone number at least their office .. in Qena according to the stencils on the buildings there.“They consider the stencils as graffiti”
 That so-called popular campaign to convince the general to run for president page is full of personal photos taken for Anan in a civilian suit.

In his salon I think

Reading Al Ahram newspaper in his garden

Smiling to the camera
This is a personal photo-shoot session without doubt.
When I saw these photos , all what I thought about was how big a chief of staff’s salary was to have this luxurious villa or even Palace in New Cairo !? yeah I am bit naïve, but you know one of the misconceptions that the army officers are extremely rich living in compounds , well the average army officer or even average major general does not live in such palace or villa despite what is being said about the army’s economic empire.
Of course I can not neglect the fact that General Anan has dyed his hair to appear young or how that page is claiming that General Anan is the best presidential candidate to represent revolutionary youth !!! Oh yes to the end of that strange talk that makes you wonder if this is a parody page or what !!?
Needless to say the Social media users could not miss this opportunity and made fun of this photos turning them in to memes in less than 72 hours !!
 Here is a collection of the photos published by Contemporary Art Page.

Now we got a special Tumblr blog “Electoral Alsh” and Facebook Pages with all General Anan’s memes like “Sami Anan’s campaign to teach Photoshop” and “ Sami Anan’s presidential campaign to teach Photoshop
Of course some have started to ask how the case would be if it were Abdel Fatah El Sisi instead of Anan.
Well Meme makers in Egypt did not leave Egypt’s military savior alone in the past weeks especially with his famous quotes like “You are the light of my eyes” .. etc. Still it did not meet the same success after all Anan is from the few people all Egyptians whether revolutionaries , Pro-Islamists and Pro-Military agreed to hate and mock so far.
Yes it seems that Anan united a lot of people to hate him. The revolutionaries can not forget what happened during SCAF rule and how many people were killed during his rule.
The Pro-Military/Pro-Mubarak/Pro-Sisi Anti-Revolutionaries hate him because they believe that he sold the country to the Muslim brotherhood and the Americans not to mention that he turned against Mubarak. Ironically he was not alone in this, Abdel Fatah El Sisi. 
The Muslim brotherhood and their supporters hate him because he is a military man.
The Pro-Military media began to attack the General madly too as well. It is not a big secret that it seems there is wrong between the current commandership of the army and Anan , at least this is the reaction you got not from the Pro-Military media only but also the Pro-Military Facebook pages and accounts of army officers and supported unofficially by the army.
When a military Facebook page like Egypt Military Pictures mocks the former chief of staff explicitly then this means something.

I do not understand for real that Sami Anan affair especially that hate relation between the army and its former chief of staff now. It started last September when suddenly we found Al Watan newspaper which is too close to all sort of security apparatuses in the country publishing what they claimed to be Anan’s memories about the 25 January revolution.
After releasing those memories in Al Watan , we found the official spokesperson of armed forces  Col. Ali went ballistic issuing a statement warning of publishing alleged memories of ex-military men in that critical time without the army’s permission was a dangerous thing to the end of that talk. We knew that he was speaking about none other than Anan.
Amazingly nobody has spoken directly to Anan from the media whether about his alleged memories or about that Presidential campaign.
Anyhow there is something I do not understand from the memories in Pro-Military Watan to that pathetic Facebook page to the silence of the man already.
Will Anan be the scapegoat of the military ?? Will He play a new role in the future ? Will he be the next Omar Suleiman in the presidential elections ??
Are we going to have a face off between Anan and Sisi in the Presidential elections ??
A trivial fact ousted President Morsi issued a presidential decree last August giving immunity to both Anan and Tantawy against accountability. The decree has not been cancelled yet.
In the end , here is a certificate from Sufi order published online about Sami Anan claiming that he is the great grandson of none other than Omar !! Oh yes Omar Ibn El Khatab !!

The certificate !!

Man if Omar saw Anan and his cronies !!

Links and Notes 11/09/2013

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links and Notes 11/10/2013

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

This is what I can imagine A Salvador Dali Ghost House will look like !!!

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And Cairo does not stop to surprise us !!
This villa is for sale in El Oboor areaand its owner wants LE 4,200,000 according to Dubizzle. It got 12 bedrooms too.



This is a nightmarish version of some crazy Jumanji Ghost house designed by none other Salvador Dali !! WTH !!? Animals and one big eye seeing dinosaurs !? Who designed it for real !! What were the owner and the designer thinking.
By the waythere are more expensive villas in Cairo than this villa.
I could not resist myself from posting this landmark of its own in a separate post. 

Links and Notes 11/11/2013

Crucify Abdel Zaher and Abu Terika "Updated"

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Welcome to the land of non Stopped Drama. Yesterday Ahly SC scored the Africa’s Champions league , everybody was happy and overjoyed to the level that most people forgot the fact the two footballers that gave us that precious win were actually Pro-Islamist Pro-MB.
Some of them did not give a damn for what Ahmed Abdel Zaher did the R4bia sign after scoring the second Ahly Goal and even claimed that he was not referring to Rabaa but rather to the 4 goals he scored in the championship. ‘It turned out that he scored only 3 goals” 
Oh yes Abdel Zaher joined that list of athletes doing the Rabaa sign.
Abdel Zaher doing the 4 fingers thing
Abdel Zaher said after the game that he did the R4bia sign to pay respect to the martyrs whether from the Muslim brotherhood or from the police. The young man was a brave enough to admit it. Soon enough a photo circulated online showing the young player visiting the Rabaa sit in before its disastrous dispersal.

Of course some people including me wondered after Abdel Zaher’s goal what would happen to him and whether he will join the Kong Fu players in the blacklist or not. I believed that he would get away with it.
And man I was wrong as he is being crucified right now. The drama started after the end of the game the minister of sports Taher Abu Zeid refused to salute him.Later Abu Zeid downplayed what happened because in the end his club won the championship.


Last night Sports TV hosts “Mostly ignorant Pro regime regardless of who heads the country” were attacking him. Ahmed Shobeir , the famous sports TV host and former NDP member described Abdel Zaher as “Half intellectual” !! Oh yes “Half intellectual”
Today We found out that the Ahly SC administration decided to suspend Abdel Zaher from playing in Morocco referring him toinvestigation. Rumors already circulating that he won't continue in Ahly club next winter. Updated on 12/11/2013 : Ok it is official Ahly SC decided not only to suspend Abdel Zaher from playingbut they put him up for sale. This is too much.
The Olympic committee is speaking about suspending him from playing football professionally for the rest of his life because of the Rabaa sign !!
AbdelZaher scored a goal and we were qualified to participate in the Clubs’ World Championship for God sake !!!
Abdel Zaher is on the verge of being crucified for real.
Even Mohamed Abu Tarika did not survive that campaign. I do not know if it is true or not but some say that Abu Tarika refused to salute the minister of Sports because he represented “a coup government”. You can imagine how some react after reading this online.
Some Pro-military/Pro-Mubarak supporters  have started their campaign already against none other than Abu Tarika claiming that he is a hypocrite who used to be honored by Alaa and Gamal Mubarak and yet refused to salute the minister of sports Abu Zeid. Fat Mido aka Ahmed Hossam is attacking Abu Terika on twitter claiming that he was still receiving orders from the MB guide "He is currently detained" and that the renowned player should be punished for refusing to receive the medal. Pathetic Mido is jealous.
The conspiracy theorists now are claiming that Al Ahly SC is being infiltrated with MB as its players are pro-Islamists and its Ultras groups are funded by Khairat El Shater !!
Well I do not care what Abu Tarika does or did because actually after making our sad people happy for all those years nothing else counts. All what I know that Abu Tarika took the people's side after Port Said's massacre and he remembered the 72 boys last night.
Anyhow those people are considered true minority because let’s admit the majority of Egyptian people love Abu Tarika to the level that he can be a serious rival to El Sisi over popularity. “Actually he can beat the general after all the people love him whether revolutionaries or Islamists or Pro-Mubarak/Pro-military" 
Why do people fear a sign !? Do they think that fighting ideas like that the Muslim brotherhood and Islamists in general will vanish !? You will not fight extremism in this way
It is getting sillier more and more.
For God sake last night was from the rare moments that Egyptians overcame their political differences.
Back to football I believe that Ahly Club will lose in Morocco. 

Links and Notes 11/12/2013

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Regarding the WP's interview with #Egypt intelligence Chief

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Washington Post made another scoop today , it published an interview with Egypt’s current  intelligence chief major General Farid El Tohamy.
It is the first interview for the head of Egypt’s General intelligence after being appointed in that position in July 2013 in the media whether foreign or local one.
Of course our Egyptian media is focusing that Tohamy said it clearly : We still have got the best relations with CIA more than any other foreign intelligence agency.
Our currently spy chief was interviewed by David Ignatius , the famous American national security and novelist who once interviewed Hassan Nasrallah. It is a rare thing. I do not think that we had an intelligence chief in office interviewed by foreign reporters like before.
It is the worth to mention that Washington Post was the first to interview General Abdel Fatah El Sisi before any local media in August 2013.
The timing of that unexpected interview is interesting as it comes right after the New York Times’ report and profile about El Tohamy.
Some may think  PR campaign in Washington began its work by clearing the image of the spy chief after being attacked in NY Times especially that all the  Pro-Mubarak figures and supporters on the social media believe now that this interview set the record straight after NY Times pieceand WP beat the NY Times.
Of course some of them are even claiming on their Facebook Pages that the Egyptian intelligence were  the one that exposed the NSA scandaland that’s why NY Times is attacking El Tohamy !! Unfortunately they have not heard about Edward Snowdon or even read the interview carefully !!
Ignatius did not ignore the NY Times’ profile and linked it in his interview.
To be honest I do not think that the interview glorifies El Tohamy because its focus was mainly on the American-Egyptian intelligence relations and the man’s answer was clear that despite our recent rocky relation with the Obama administration , our intelligence agency’s relations with the CIA are still the strongest.
This interview is actually interesting that it comes in the same time official Cairo is preparing to welcome warmly the Russian defense minister with talk of big deals of arms and guns paid by our brothers in the Gulf.
By the way I still remember very well the reports published in Sawt Al Oma weekly newspaper in 2011 accusing El Tohamy of corruption.I wonder what its revolutionary editor in chief Abdel Halim Qandil thinks about El Tohamy now. Already Qandil is accusing Morsi’s spy chief Raafat Shehata of corruption in his newspaper’s issue this week.
Now speaking about the Spy chiefs , I can ignore all the rumors and talk in Cairo nowadays that former Spy Chief Mourad Mowafi got some presidential ambitions just like Sami Anan !!

Links and Notes 11/13/2013

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

#Hala’ib Triangle in Photos : Camels Market in #Shalateen

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Here is the third part of the Hala’ib triangle in photos series. After the amazing photos of Shalateen port and the village of Abraq in Shalateen , this time it is about the famous Camels market in the city of Shalateen.
The Camels market is one of the most famous landmarks in the city. It is the biggest market for camels in Egypt. The camels come from Sudan in a long trip led by their herders. Their temporary stop is at that market in Shalateen waiting to be sold to the camel merchants that come from all over the country in a long trip.
Now this time the photo slide show is a mix of photos by photographer Yasser El Rasoul and famous Photo journalist/dear friend Hossam el-Hamalawy.

Links and Notes 11/14/2013

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Nasser in Moscow : Newsreel

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As we were reviving the Nasser legacy in a way or another , I could not ignore that rare newsreel clip from Russia showing the visit of Nasser to Moscow in 1965.

By the way time changes indeed as well political alliances even faster as we may think 

Regarding The Reuters' Poll about Arab Women : My two cents

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I think it is never too late to speak about that Reuters' poll concerning women’s rights in the Arab world and its shocking result that Egypt is the worst place for any woman to live in. Even worse than Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Somalia !!
Yeah Egypt is even worse than Saudi Arabia where women can not take off their black Abayas and can move or do anything without the approval of their male guardian’s approval.
Yes Saudi Women “especially the rich” can have access to better health care and education but only with the approval male guardians. The Saudi women already need male guardian to drive them to hospitals official to get that treatment we do not have in Egypt. Ironically this poll hurts the struggle of Saudi women activists who are fighting for real to gain fundamental rights like driving their own cars for God sake !!
In Sudan women get imprisoned and flogged for wearing trousers while in Yemen girls as young as 9 years old are forced to marry. Inwar torn Syria , Syrian women are raped , killed , tortured and imprisoned for God sake !! I can go after each Arab country to prove my point that it is equivalent hell for ladies in neighbor countries in a wayor another.
I will not speak about the progress of women has achieved in this country or the historical milestone of pioneer ladies in Egypt that fought to gain their rights starting with the education right. I will not lie and say that Egypt is the best place for women now but I will say that it is not entire hell either comparing to our dear sister Arab countries.
Of course the poll caused a lot of controversy and angry among women activists in Egyptand they have to be. Many asked about the methodology and the sample,the questions as well the timing of the poll. 
Also interestingly this poll is based upon CEDAW treaty , yes the Controversial CEDAW that many Muslim and Arabic countries got their objections and reservations about that treaty like for instance Saudi Arabia where it said clearly that it would not implement any term in the treaty that contradicted directly with the Islamic Sharia “according to the Wahabi doctrines”.
I am not fooling myself Egyptian women are facing lots of challenges but again just as it is not paradise nor hell , it is only Egypt.

Links and Notes 11/15/2013

Banksy is not welcomed in the new democratic Egypt !!

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 The Mubarak deep state ministers in El-Beblawi’s cabinet are not wasting anytime. After proposing the Protests Law , they are now proposing a law to criminalize “abusive graffiti and stencil” in the country.
The law is proposed by former police general/old time governor/current minister of local development Adel Labib. According to that proposed law if you are found guilty then you will either face a prison sentence of up to four years or a fine up to 100,000 LE ($14,516) !!
Banksy in Manhattan
So the abusive graffiti and stencil according to the government means a 100,000 LE fine or 4 years in jail !! Interestingly as Mohamed Mahmoud 2011 clashes anniversary gets close , I remember that police officer El Shenawy who shot the protesters in their eyes got 3 years in prison.
Of course the matter of abusiveness will be determined according to the government’s views. Labib is justifying the new draft law that the country needs to be clean.
Definitely Banksy is not welcomed in the new Democratic Egypt !!
Needless to say that there was a media campaign in the past week in the mainstream media about how much we needed this law to stop those insulting stencils and graffiti drawing on our walls and how much we need this country clean !!!
Al Masry Al Youm published a strange news that French police arrested a group of graffiti artists in Paris with a picture from the clashes between the French riot police and PSJ Ultras from couple of months ago. There was no source for that news at all.
I do not know why the mainstream media was not that angry when insulting stencil , graffiti and slogans were written for the first time on the outside walls of the Presidential palace during Morsi’s presidency !?
I am so amazed on the amount of time this transitional government had spent  in drafting laws to fight the freedom we gain after January 25 revolution when it ignored the anti-corruption laws and to fight a deadly bureaucracy in the government in order to help the recovery of the ill economy.  I am so amazed on the amount of time this government and its minsters dedicate to draft laws against freedoms ignoring laws for transitional and social justice !!
BY the waythe Protest law is going to be issued sooner to fill the gap made by lifting the state of emergency this week.
You must know that the graffiti artists have not stopped expressing their arts and views yet. Recently graffiti drawings were made in Sabry Abu Alam street to commemorate martyrs Belal Ali and Miriam Ashraf by Graffiti artists Ammar Abu Bakr and Zeft.
Belal was young Morsi supporter that shot down point blank by police officer during the clashes last month while Miriam is the young girl that killed in Imbaba’s Church bombing.



Belal
Miriam
That graffiti was disfigured but and other artists painted again. Who is afraid of Miriam and Belal as a graffiti on a wall for God’s sake !?
by Abo Bakr
By Abo Bakr
Anyhow I will seize this opportunity and share with you the photos of the Tahrir area graffiti. There are new drawings I believe there. May be I will head there soon and take some snapshots.

Links and Notes 11/16/2013

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links and Notes 11/17/2013

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

It is official.. Bassem Youssef ends his contract with #CBC

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It is official now Bassem Youssef and his show’s producing company QSoft announced that they ended their contract with CBC TV network. QSoft issued an official statement regarding this matter.

Here is a summary for the statement in English

The company was patient and silent towards the unfair campaign launched by CBC Network against the show , its host and our company in order to press them and to put restriction on the content. The campaign started with the CBC statement on 26/10/2013 denying its relation with the episode aired on 25/10/2013. And on 1/11/2013 CBC’s administration did not air the next episode after receiving it in unprecedented move in media. After that CBC issued a shameful statement defaming the company with fake accusations and reasons.

The decision to suspend the show already reflected a negative image to the world about democracy and freedom of expression in Egypt after the revolution of 30 June especially after how the Western media expressed its concern about the aggression against freedoms in Egypt.

QSoft will sue CBC as it seems.

You know that Youssef was suspended indefinitely after the second season premiere because the world famous satirist dared and mocked the growing El Sisi cult !! 

Good for Bassem , I hope that if he reads those lines to think about returning back to YouTube instead of those TV channels that are taking orders whether from State security or from the Morale Department.

P.S I heard rumors that Bassem and QSoft have got an offer from MBC Misr.

This Tuesday , oh yes the big November 19 , 2013 the state security prosecution will start to investigate the complaints against Youssef accusing him of insulting the armed forces. It won’t investigate him yet.

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