Quantcast
Channel: Egyptian Chronicles
Viewing all 4288 articles
Browse latest View live

#Ramadan Arabian Nights #2014: King Dandash’s tale-9

0
0
 Once again sorry for the delay but it is hard to keep up with the economic/political jazz in Egypt as well what is currently happening in Palestine.
Here is the latest episode , episode no.350 in the Egyptian national Radio's Arabian nights.




And the miracle baby grew up to become a young man called Shamalan but unlike what any parent would wish for ; he grew up to become extremely lazy and thus earned the title Shamalan the lazy. The young man did not work nor help his poor father who died leaving him with his poor mother Mabrooka.

Mabrooka lost her job as a maid at the chief merchant's house because of her old wicked friend who spread lies about her after her husband's death at the merchant's house. That old wicked lady also told Mabrooka that the chief merchant's wife was jealous of her and feared that she would her steal her husband and so poor Mabrooka decided not to work there.

Time passed and one day Mabrooka and her lazy son knew that chief merchant "Gaafar" was going in sort trade tour in the sea and that the people of the city were investing in his trade.In a desperate move earning her and her son people's laughs , Mabrooka gave Gafaar the only money she got "two pounds" in hope she and Shamalan got something in return.

Of course they will


#GazaUnderAttack : Once again

0
0
Once again Israel is attacking Gaza. Since early morning the raids have not stopped at all. I wanted to speak about what is happening in Palestine in the past week but sickness and that jazz in Egypt made difficult. Anyhow it is never too late.
The rockets are coming and going from Gaza in the same endless cycle of attack and counter attack. Of course IDF has geared up its force from F16 , Drones and Apache. So far Israel bombed not less than 50 targets in Gaza including residential homes. The new operation is called "Protective edge".
According to Palestinian activists the causalities reached to 1 martyr and 43 injuries including 3 women and one child
Updated @11:11 PM:
The death toll of Palestinians increased to not less than 20  so far. 
The IAF shelled the a house killing at least 6 children from one family, the Kawara'a family. The IAF warned that it would target this house but its owners refused to leave and along other people in the area they went to defend it. The IAF blew up the house with tens of injured and not less than 7 or 8 were killed.
Over 100 were injured after more than 200 Israeli raids.
The Palestinian resistance militant groups did not stand still and they launched tens of mortars.
Abu El-Ali Brigades claimed responsibility for targeting 3 Israeli cities this morning. 
El-Kassam Brigades announced for the first time that its commandos attacked an Israeli naval base.
The Statement of Al Qassam brigades

A photo for El-Qassam commandos
The Palestinian rockets reached to Tel Aviv , Haifa and Jerusalem for the first time forcing millions of Israel to head to the shelters.
Amazingly ISIS claimed responsibility for the murder of the Israeli teens and yet Gaza is once again being punished. 
By the way today is the anniversary of the 1973 war  in the Hagri calendar aka the Tenth of Ramadan war anniversary.
There is the new old talk about ground invasion but IDF officers and soldiers on the ground told foreign reporters that they have not got any invasion orders yet but there are huge deployments taking place on the borders.
Hamas held a press conference telling Israel to stop its attack and release the prisoners as well to respect the truce between them 
This is the first Gaza attack test for El-Sisi and his administration.I wonder if he can save the day in the same way like Morsi did in 2012. Already DPA claimed that Egypt's spy chief Mohamed Tohamy was in Tel Aviv holding talks with Israeli officials in the past few days.  There has been no confirmation or denial regarding this matter. Officially Egypt denounced the Israeli raids and ..it will not open the Rafah crossing. This evening El-Sisi spoke with Abu Mazen promising to work on ceasing fire. Honestly this is another test for El-Sisi besides economy and politics. 
El-Sisi's supporters online are gloating disgustingly.
See the photos from Gaza , since early morning.

#GazaUnderAttack : And the Attack continues

0
0
And the attack against Gaza continues.
Not less than 40 have been killed most from the civilians. Hundreds have been injured. Tens of houses have been shelled by the Israeli forces including the houses of Hamas leading figures.
The Palestinian militant resistance groups did not stop its attack either.
El-Kassam brigades published more details about its daring commandos' operation against the Israeli naval base. Yes the commandos were killed but the operation is unique.
El-Kassam diving commandos units 
By the way El-Kassem Brigades named this operation "The 10th of Ramadan" dedicating it to the souls of the Egyptian officers and soldiers killed in the 1973 war in a very smart move.
Here is a video released by El-Kassem Brigades showing the training of their naval commandos.
Rockets reaching to Tel Aviv and Haifa and naval commandos operations show a new level if I am not mistaken.
Back to Egypt it turns out that the Rafah crossing is still closed. What the Pro-El Sisi supporters claimed last night that the Field Marshal gave his orders to open the crossing for the injured. Well it is a rumor.
Officially Egypt demanded that both Israel and Hamas stop the fight. Some Foreign experts say that Egypt lost its power over Hamas.
On the other hand an explosive device blew up in North Sinai killing up at least one army solider and injuring other 4 soldiers. This attack for sure will be used by the mainstream media to attack the Gazans.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights #2014: King Dandash’s tale-10 and 11

0
0
Tonight is a double bill , we going to hear two episodes instead of one. Tonight the luck of Shamalan ,the lazy and his poor mother Mabrooka is going to change.

You can hear episode no.351 which is our 10th epsidoe from the Radio Arabian nights this year after the break


During his trade tour , the chief merchant and his crew found out that their ship was stuck and did not move a further mile. They found out that the reason that they did not get anything to Shamalan and his mom by those two pounds. Yup it is like betraying their trust and thus heavens punish them. 
Stopping at the nearest island , the deserted island of pineapple they found a man that sells monkeys. The chief merchant decided to buy for Shamalan and his mom a monkey. The mysterious man sold him a very old peculiar monkey. 
That old peculiar monkey acts like human on the ship in a strange way. 
Meanwhile the Shamalan's laziness gives his mom hard time. 

Now to episode no.351 which is the 11th in our nights


The chief merchant's ship stops at the pearls' fishermen. They wished to get some pearls but got none. To their amazement that old monkey acting like humans dived in to the sea and got not only huge pearls but amazing jewels.

Back home Shamalan and his mother were called to get their share from that tour which turned to be the biggest, they are no more the joke of the town.Chief Jaafar gives Shamalan the monkey and the jewels.

#GazaUnderAttack : The attack continues

0
0
Ok For the third day in row Israel continues its attack against Gaza. The death toll in the besieged sector increased to 78 according to Palestinian health officials.
Israeli media is speaking about the land invasion in the upcoming days while the resistance groups in Gaza continues in launching rockets against Israel forcing Israelis to hide in shelters. Of course there are no shelters in Gaza.
Egypt opens Rafah crossing expectationally for Palestinian injured  , to be precise for the critical cases only. A group of Leftist activists are trying to organize a quick medical aid craven to Gaza. I do not know if it is going to pass or not. Here is a live update for the latest attack on Gaza 

Regarding El-Sisi's speech on the 10th of Ramadan

0
0
Just like any other president preceded him , Abdel Fattah El-Sisi addressed the public on the 9th Ramadan about allegedly the 10th of Ramadan anniversary aka the anniversary of the 1973 war according to the Hagri Calender.
As expected it was not about the war but about the latest economic decisions taken this week to lift up fuel and energy subsidies.
These are my remarks about the 25 minutes recorded Televised speech : 
1- Extreme emotional speeches do not work every time especially in hard economic times. It may work with certain classes especially among the Upper Middle class ladies and Upper class ladies but it won't have the same effect now among the working class that will pay the price for real for such cuts. Already such classes have been paying the price in the past 30 years
2- As he spoke directly in informal Arabic in Egyptian accent , I wonder for real who wrote for him this speech. That speech with this arrangement of ideas can not be improvised , at least the points and their arrangement should be outlined before recording. I real wonder who wrote and honestly I do not think that the usual suspect "Hassanein Heikal" is behind that speech because Heikal is an expert in sophisticated political speeches.


4-Reminding the people  how the Egyptian people made sacrifices for 6 years from 1967 and 1973  was a great way to motivate some people but it provokes me for real :
 a) Despite the huge war catastrophic losses we did not have a disastrous economy like now with such deficit , huge population and poverty rate plus endless corruption. 
b) Our economy then was centralized socialist not this unknown economy system we have got in Egypt. I do not know if we are having a Neo-liberal economy or State-Control economy or what !! 
c) The CEOs of pubic sector telecommunication companies , Judges , police general , army generals as well ex-generals ..etc were not paid in millions. 
d) The army did not lend the state , in fact the army was part of the state. The army then actually paid a big price for engaging in politics and civilian life , a lesson El-Sisi completely forgot or rather ignored.  
e) El-Sisi is not Gamal Abdel Nasser , El-Sisi is not Gamal Abdel Nasser
f) El-Sisi is not Sadat either.
5- What is the relationship between ISIS and the Pseudo-Caliphate in Iraq to the budget and subsidies cuts in Egypt !? I do not understand seriously considering the fact that the National security budget has not been toughed and actually since the 25 January revolution both Police and army's salaries increased hugely each year !?
I am speaking about facts here because actually the army "that protected Egypt from the fate of Afghanistan and Iraq according to El-Sisi's statements to Press on Sunday" donated one billion Egyptian pounds to the Egyptian government so financially both army and police do not suffer like other sectors in the country for instance health and education.
Already it is worth to mention that radicalism and terrorism can be fostered in poverty and ignorance , we saw this very well in Egypt in the 1980s and 1990s.
6-With my all due respect before speaking to the people about austerity and its importance when the maximum wage limit is not applied in judiciary or police or army or telecommunications or banks sector !? I repeat this point specifically because I understand why it would not be applied in police or army or judiciary and yet will be applied in other sectors !?
7- We are going to borrow from the IMF after all according to what he said.
8- El-Sisi said that he would work on making Egypt from the great nations , well great nations and countries in our time are truly democratic countries that apply transparency , justice , citizenship and fight corruption. Great nations do not have jail journalists and activists.There is no state inside state as well there.
9- I am ready for austerity measures as long as I receive services , the problem in Egypt that we receive nothing.  

#Ramadan Arabian Nights #2014: King Dandash’s tale-12

0
0

And we continue our tale , the tale of Shamalan who is no longer lazy but rather rich after those jewels he got from that strange monkey and of course there is something unexpected waiting for him around the corner.

By the way tonight’s episode is one of those episodes full of racist stereotyping and it can be considered anti-Semitic as well “Spoilers”. Taking in consideration that those episodes were recorded in the 1950s and 1960s , you will find that the example of the wicked greedy Jewish merchant is repeated.

Anyhow here is the 353th episode of that show.

Happy and famous for being suddenly rich both Shamalan and his mom returned back to their hut with big plans only to find a strange man waiting for them. That strange man is Shamoun , the Jewish merchant who offered them to buy the Jewels they got from the sea and sell them for higher price. He also warned them that the city’s Jewelers would deceive them and get the Jewels for a price less than their value.

as Naïve as they were , both Shamalan and his mom believed him and sold the Jewels for only 400 pounds. The poor couple already believed that was too much and decided to sell the hut and get a new house with that sum.

After awhile the Jewelers and offered to buy the Jewels .. for 10,000 pounds , poor Shamalan and his mom were shocked. The Jewelers told him that they were victims of Shamoun. 

Shamalan went to Shamoun to restore back his jewels but the old wicked man denied knowing him.

Back to his mom disappointed , Shamalan looked to his old monkey and got a new plan. He would go to the sea where he would send that strange monkey to the abyss to get the Jewels he wanted

Aside from Taher Abu Fasha’s own version of Arabian nights , the original Arabian Nights book is full of racist stereotyping against Black people , Shiites, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians not to mention its misogynist themes.

#GazaUnderAttack : The War on #Gaza continues

0
0

With death toll over 100, the war on Gaza continues for the fourth or the fifth day in a row. The Rafah crossing is closed because today is holiday in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities already closed the crossing last night after allegedly busting an attempt to smuggle rockets from Gaza to Sinai.

On the other hand the Egyptian armed forces sent to Gaza today 500 tons of food and medical supplies.

Here is the latest updates from Gaza as well related to Gaza.


#Ramadan Arabian Nights #2014: King Dandash’s tale-13

0
0

And we continue our tale , the tale of Shamalan. Tonight is the 345th episode of our Radio Arabian night adventure.

Now you can listen to the episode after the break.

Shamalan went to the sea with his treasure hunter monkey. They brought back jewels and now Shamalan and his poor mother Mabrooka are once again rich. Now Shamalan has bought slaves and palace where he and his mother would live. He even assigned special group of servants to serve the monkey whom he cared for too much.

The old wicked lady who used to be the friend of Mabrooka is back to the scene , she is trying to know the reason behind Shamalan’s sudden wealth. Acting as poor old lady as usual , that lady wins the sympathy of Shamalan who appoints her as the head servant supervising his precious monkey.

That old wicked lady plans to steal the monkey.

#GazaUnderAttack :Day “5”

0
0

Day 5 and the Israeli raids have not stopped in Gaza increasing the death toll. Tony Blair is back to the scene trying to reach to a truce as if he succeeded in the past years. Of course now he got an official reason to visit Egypt.

Here is the latest updates from Gaza , Israel and Egypt.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights #2014: King Dandash’s tale-14

0
0
And we continue our tale in these hard times. You can hear the 14th/355th episode after the break.





The evil wicked lady Ma'ato'a managed to steal the monkey along her coward son. Returning next day to Shamalan's place and screaming that the monkey was stolen , she found the strange acting monkey in front of her smiling. 

Ma'ato'a vows to steal the monkey.

On the other hand Shamalan sits with the monkey later wondering Sarcastically if the monkey can speak and  you can imagine what happened next. The monkey spoke and Shamalan screamed madly

#GazaUnderAttack : Day 6

0
0
And the attack continues against Gaza with death tolls increasing in to more than 160 as well threats of ground attack by Israel.
According to the UNRWA not less than 4,000 Palestinians are taking shelter at the UN organization's facilities in the besieged sector.
Another day , another confrontations.

Kodak Agfa presents "Super Moon 2014"

0
0
and Kodak Agfa presents "Super Moon 2014" edition

This is my first attempt to take a photo for the Supermoon in Egypt. I hope you like it. 

#14Juillet : A Tale of two revolutions

0
0
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
The opening paragraph  
And despite it was about the French revolution , nothing describes the Egyptian Revolution aka 25 January perfectly as those few lines.
Some say we are moving perfectly on the same guide or model set up by the French Revolution sans the executions. Well France took couple of hundreds of years to become the FRANCE we know. I wonder how many years and how many souls Egypt will take in this bloody region to become the EGYPT we want !! Democratic strong Egypt. 
Happy 14 Bastille Day !!

#GazaUnderAttack : There are some people in #Cairo who support #Gaza

0
0

Despite that shameful Anti-Palestinian Pro-Zionist campaign in the mainstream and social media in Egypt by the Pro-Regime supporters now , there are still people who support Gaza and its people.

Yesterday several political parties and movements “mostly leftist” organized a protest in solidarity with Gaza at the Journalists syndicate “back to the stairs” as well a rally in downtown Cairo. Among the prominent figures that showed up in the protest like former Presidential candidate and leftist lawyer Khaled Ali and Liberal politician Amr Hamzawy.

Amr Hamzawy and Khaled Ali in the Pro-Gaza rally.

Among those parties :  Constitution Party , Egyptian Social Democratic Party , Strong Egypt Party , Popular Socialist Alliance party and the Revolutionary Way.

You must bear in mind that this protest was organized during World cup final, Ramadan , Protest law and extreme anti-Gaza media campaign. Here is a photo gallery for the protest and rally.

Already those parties and movements are organizing a relief aid convey to Gaza by the end of this week.

Now there are important updates from Cairo. Egypt is proposing another cease fire initiative. The initiative is based on the following :

  • Israel shall cease its attack against the Gaza Strip via land, sea, and air, and shall commit to refrain from conducting a ground attack against Gaza.
  • All Palestinian factions in Gaza shall cease all the attacks against from the Gaza Strip via land, sea, air, and underground, and shall commit to refrain from firing all types of rockets.
  • The Crossings “Mainly Rafah crossing” shall be opened and the passage of persons and goods through border crossings shall be facilitated once the security situation is stable.
  • Other issues, including security issues shall be discussed with the two sides.

Cairo made it clear that both parties should cease fire at 6 AM GMT and within 48 hours following the cease fire a new round of talks in Cairo should start.

Ironically the Palestinian youth especially from Gaza got their initiatives on twitter with their own set of conditions to cease fire.

It is worth to mention that US secretary of state John Kerry is coming to Cairo tomorrow from Vienna.


#Ramadan Arabian Nights #2014: King Dandash’s tale-15&16

0
0
Tonight we continue our tale , a double tale night as we will hear episodes 356 and 357 to know what happened to Shamalan after know that his monkey was capable of talking like humans.
Here is episode 356 or 15th after the break



The monkey speaks and Shamalan freaks out.Neither the servants nor his mother believe poor Shamalan. They bring the monkey to him and the monkey acts like a monkey.Now Shamalan believes that he was hallucinating. 
Now we are introduced to a new person : Princess Mango , the daughter of prince Shehab The son of the governor is proposed to Mango.
The monkey speaks again alone with Shamalan revealing his secret. Shamalan vows not to reveal the monkey-creature secret otherwise he will lose his monkey and the monkey creature will be a monkey.Now the monkey  reveals that he was a creature that was under spell to become a monkey. His spell will be broken on the following conditions : make Shamalan rich and make him marry princess Mango.
Princess Mango mocks the fact that Shamalan the lazy , the son of a maid and woodsman was asking her hand in marriage. she tells her father to ask Shamalan that he must bring the following to her if he wanted her hand in marriage : a pearls necklace placed on a golden plate on a golden tray. 

Now to episode 357

Shamalan raises the bar and tells the the Prince that he would bring to him more than a pearl necklace in 24 hours only because the princess deserves more. 
Later the strange monkey tells his master that he should have a palace bigger than the prince's palace.In a wink the monkey that is not a monkey transfers Shamalan to a Palace made of gold in an amazing place. He transferred all his slaves and his mom to the new Palace. 
Shamalan gives his maid wicked Matao'a the old Palace. The monkey brings to his master the princess' legendary dowry.
At the same time , Shamalan's mother Mabrooka feels that there was something wicked about the monkey. 

#GazaUnderAttack : A week passed and the killing goes on

0
0

Earlier Today there were four kids playing on a beach , they were all cousins and brothers from a family working in the sea as fishermen. With no warning the Israeli forces or rather Navy shelled the beach killing on of the boys suddenly then when the other three went to check what happened to their cousin.

And the beach was rocked again by another Israeli attack. That time the three boys joined their cousin in the afterlife while their tiny bodies turned in to pieces.

Their beach was near a hotel where journalists from all over the world are staying. The cameras rolled and the tragedy of the boys who were buried on the same day was recorded and transferred to the whole world.

The world will be angry for awhile and then Bakr boys will be forgotten like the rest of that long list of Palestinian Children killed by Israeli forces for no reason except that they are Palestinians.

The boys and their families’ photos are now in the Front Pages world wide and according to the US department of the State that crime was the mistake of Hamas because they refused the Egyptian initiative to cease fire !!

This is the story of the Bakr boys simply as that.

Officially a week passed after the start of the Israeli attack against Gaza. Today the death toll reached to 220.

Political the Egyptian regime is trying to make

Last night a set of terms allegedly Hamas demanded to cease fire including a term that pissed off many Egyptians mostly from the Pro El-Sisi supporters online. That term allegedly says that the Rafah crossing should be under international and regional supervision.

Of course if those angry Egyptians care so much above National sovereignty and the dignity of our Egyptian armed forces , they would speak about the Camp David accords and how up till this day we are not allowed to have army forces in Zone “C” {The Eastern part of Sinai} except after Israel's approval.

Hamas denied according to Al Mayadeen TV channel that it demanded those terms including the International and regional supervision on the Rafah crossing.

Speaking about the Palestinian factions, I can not do anything except wondering what the evil boy who was kicked out of the West Bank Mohamed Dahlan is doing in Cairo now. Dahlan is back in Cairo and he is a media star now. He is appearing in TV channels and is photographed while visiting the injured from Gaza as if he is an official in the Palestinian authority.

Of course some say that Dahlan is supported by the Emiratis and the current Egyptian regime to become the president of Palestine instead of Abu Mazen. I believe those some.

Now the word in Cairo is that the Egyptian regime does not look for a cease fire as much to destroy Hamas regardless of the losses because of the Muslim Brotherhood connections and so on. By the way interestingly enough there is a Palestinian

We leave Cairo and its initiative , abroad in the bad evil west things are different. Chile cut its commercial relations with Israel. John Stewart is speaking about Gaza along with Bassem Youssef. There were protests in solidarity with Gaza in several cities around the world “Egyptian cities are not included” like for instance Washington D.C in front of the White House itself.

Now Hamas accepted Israel’ short truce. We do not know what happened next.

#GazaUnderAttack : To Cease Fire or not Cease Fire

0
0
And a new episode of negotiations and talks started between Israel and Palestinian factions indirectly started in Cairo.  Israel claimed that a cease fire agreement was reached but Hamas denied.
Already Hamas published its own terms for a cease fire and it has nothing to do with the the set of terms spread online on Wednesday in Egyptian and Palestinian websites. Here are the Hamas’ terms from Electronic Intifada website :
  1. Opening all the crossing with the Gaza Strip.
  2. Opening Rafah crossing, the link between Gaza and Egypt, on a permanent basis, 24 hours per day with international guarantees it will not be closed.
  3. A maritime corridor to Gaza.
  4. Allowing residents of the Gaza Strip to pray in the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
  5. Israel will release the prisoners who were freed as part of the “Shalit” deal, and Israel will abide by the previous agreement reached by prisoners and the Israel Prison Service with Egyptian mediation in 2012.
Now to a Live update for what is happening on the ground right now. The ground operation against Gaza has started. 

I highlighted the second condition for my fellow Egyptians.
Now to the language of numbers regarding Gaza :
  • Death toll increased to 228.
  • The injured increased to more than 1200.
  • According to UNRWA 79 schools and 23 health facilities were destroyed in the past week.
  • There are 22,000 Palestinians displaced from their homes  and currently at 24 UNRWA Shelters. “18 shelters in the city of Gaza” and “6 shelters in Jabailia”
  • Here is an infograph by Wall Street Journal showing the airstrikes' distribution in Gaza. 
Today's afternoon another Palestinian family lost 3 of its children again in another airstrike. 
I lost counting the number of Palestinian Children killed in that aggression. 
El-Kassem declared its responsibility of a daring operation where its commandos stormed a military Israeli post using tunnels. This is a change. 

#GazaUnderAttack : Ground Invasion "Day 2"

0
0
The Israeli ground invasion in Gaza's day 2 has started from several hours ago. Now it is afternoon and the Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza reports that not less than 23 were killed only yesterday.
The so-called talks to save the day is taking place , mostly to force Hamas to accept the truce. Some say now it is a showdown between Israel and Egypt vs. Turkey and Qatar regardless of the humans getting killed.
Here is another live updates blog post about the development in Gaza. 

#GazaUnderAttack : When El-Bakr children were alive

0
0
Dear friend Ghazla Irshad went to Gaza in 2011 and among the stories she brought back with her a photographic report about a family that works in fishing in Gaza for decades.
Three years later that family made headlines when four of its kids were killed by the Israeli fires on the beach while they were playing. That’s El-Bakr family and here was their life in Gaza 3 years ago. According to Ghazla she does not if you took photos for those kids or not . Still this is their family , those young terrorists who were killed while playing football

I browse and search among the photos for the little boys and wonder if those were the same faces running on the beach last week for the last time in their lives.
Here is another photo taken for the 4 boys. The photographer “Siam Mohamed” says that he took it from 4 months ago.
By Siam Mohamed 
Now below a painting made by Israeli artist Amir Schiby 


Viewing all 4288 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images