The way I see it

The way I see it finds a New Home

2007-05-24T23:51:00.001+03:00

"The way I see it" has moved to another Blogging Platform.

Find me at My New BLOG.

This is my second move. This new Blog is still a "work in progress" in terms of design, colors etc. Content is complete though. This blog and my wordpress blog will remain as they are.

My new RSS FEED. (http://www.thetobril.com/feed/)

OR, you could use the old Feed Burner Feeds and chicklets on the left sidebar.

Some reporters have something else to say...

2006-08-06T15:28:00.000+03:00

Read Post Here.

So I’ve been using cabs for sometime…

2006-08-03T14:43:00.000+03:00

… but the past couple of days have been pretty weird.
For one thing, over this past working week, and on the ride home in a taxi cab everyday, I’ve always come across this old woman, the same old woman, at various points of the route home and she always extends her hand to stop the cab driver and as we drive past I always manage to hear her say: El sayeda!

(CONTINUED)

If they like your idea… you’re definitely “enlightended”.

2006-08-03T14:39:00.000+03:00

So while doing my thing, surfing the Internet today, I came across this title to a blog post that I had subscribed to: “Egyptian Blogger Asks the Real Questions“.

I thought to myself: cool.

Clicked on the title, was taken to the blog’s address, started reading the story and discovered that the Egyptian blogger in question was Sandmonkey, and no other!

*Sigh*

(CONTINUED)

It's not exactly a problem of Dirty Laundry

2006-07-30T17:19:00.000+03:00

I haven't commented at all on the current situation in the Middle East; the Israeli "invasion" of Gaza or Southern Lebanon. It's because I feel that I don't have anything new or original to add to the discussion. That and the fact that I try not to use my blog as a medium where I criticize other bloggers' views.

I did find a debate, or discussion if you will, which I feel strongly enough towards that the urge to write something would not dissipate however much I willed it to. I am, of course, talking about the criticism of Hezbollah, by Arabs, in the past three weeks or so.

First of all, let me (for the umpteenth time) clearly say that I am staunchly anti-islamist when it comes to politics. Basically the day will not come that I would support an Islamic government over a secular one... no matter what.

Having said I wish to make it clear that I am 100% behind Hezbollah in the current endeavour. This stems from many reasons, of which I will list the most important to me:

(CONTINUED HERE)

How Personal is Personal?

2006-07-05T21:08:00.001+03:00

Recently had a little chat about blogging with a better-known Blogger who resides in Egypt. I initiated the conversation by asking: how do you know what to post on your blog?

We discussed this for a bit and I complained that I did not want this blog to be a personal blog. He asked me why I didn’t and I responded by saying that there were too many people who might read this blog and read things I just didn’t want them to read.

(CONTINUED)

Do you want me to work for you or not?

2006-06-30T00:35:00.000+03:00

My second job interview in Egypt had convinced me beyond all doubt that there is no redemption for this country's "professionals". I just quit that job, teaching at the American High School section of an Egyptian private school, but in retrospect I realized how much the interview was a reflection of the state of affairs at the school as a whole; disorganized, useless, ridiculous and a general waste of a time.

(CONTINUED)

To say that Egyptians are tolerant...

2006-06-18T00:05:00.000+03:00

...is the same as saying that arctic temperatures average out to 45 Celcius annually; completely bogus and ridiculous.

An hour or so ago, I was engaged in a conversation with a friend about various topics of interest in Egypt and the world. We were thinking of doing some research, for our own purposes, about minorities in Egypt (ethnic and religious); Armenians, Gypsies, Coptic Christians and Baha'is etc.

(Continued...)

Ahmed EL Droubi Released!

2006-05-26T15:01:00.000+03:00

Ahmed El Droubi has been released!

You've been missed man!

Egyptian Police Sexually Abuses Pro-Democracy Detainees

2006-05-26T02:56:00.000+03:00

Mohammed Sharqawi demanding the release of his fellow detainees.

Ahmed El-Sharqawi and Karim El Sha'er, two recently released activists with Youth for Change, have been abducted and detained from Abdel Khaleq Tharwat Street in downtown Cairo by plain clothes security agents.

(Story Continued HERE)

Pictures - 25th May.

2006-05-25T21:06:00.000+03:00

Here are some pictures from the May 25th Demonstration at the Journalists' Syndicate. All pictures are courtesy of Hussam El-Hamalawy. More pictures here.

My full post at my new blog.

Central Security conscripts (without batons and shields)

Judge Mekki greeted by the demonstrators

Judge Mekki (Light-colored suit - Left) greets George Ishaq (Kifaya)

AUC Campus surrounded by Central Security Cars

Outside the Journalists' Syndicate (from outside)

Central Security conscripts barricading entrance to Journalists' Syndicate (inside)

AUC Students, Alumni and Faculty during their Silent Stand

Celebration and Dismay - This Week's Egypt.

2006-05-24T12:31:00.000+03:00

I haven't posted anything for close to a week now, although I have been keepting abreast of matters, and I thought to point out those things that caught my attention or were of special interest during the course of that week.

First of all comes the sentencing and jailing of 10 officials that the courts found guilty of negligence in last year's Bani Suief's theatre fire that took the lives of 46 people, many of whom were prominent and active playwrights, writers, actors and artists. More on the issue from The Daily Star - Egypt.

Secondly, my friend Ahmed El Droubi's detention has been extended by State Security Prosecutors for another 15 days. He was also able to smuggle a letter to his friends through which he infomed them of how he feels about the whole affair. More on the detention here and the full text of the letter here. There have been rumours circulating, since yesterday afternoon, that Ahmed is due to be released today or, if not today, then within the next two days. This news is unconfirmed though.

Free Droubi T-Shirts have also been made available.

More about Ahmed El Droubi and the issue in general, but specifically at AUC, here.

Thirdly, students, faculty, alumini and employees of the American University in Cairo have declared their solidarity with the Egyptian Judges and plan a teach and stand-in tomorrow to this effect. They have also released a statement declaring their solidarity with the Egyptian Judges.

Fourthly, the World Economic Forum has come to Egypt. I have mixed feelings about the issue but, in all honesty, I haven't been following it closely enough to render an educated opinion. What was found interesting by other bloggers though was Mubarak's apparently harsh not-very-friendly-towards-Americans Inaugural Speech. Here is the Egyptian Obersever's view on the matter.

Fifthly, the Egyptian stock market seems to be going haywire. More on that here and *gasp* at the sandmonkey's.

Sixthly, our beloved President's son visited the US of A. I wonder why? Thoughts on the matter on the Arabist's Blog and The Daily Star Reporting and Analysis.

That's about it for my news compilation. There are, of course, many other things that were of importance (some personal, some not): Judges Mekki and Derbala giving a two-hour talk at AUC with an overview of the situation, its history and their opinions of events along with possible future scenarios. Also, the release of some of the detainees that were incarcerated because of the recent boughts of clashes between protestors and the government... and many more.

Due to personal reasons, I will probably be posting with a much lower frequency for the coming two weeks or so.

But! That's the way I see it.

The Egyptian Judiciary and Ayman Nour

2006-05-18T13:50:00.000+03:00

This just in, breaking news from Al-Jazeera News Channel (tv). Judge Makki has been acquitted of all charges and Judge Bastawisi has been held responsible by the Judicial "Disciplinary Council".

No news about if any sentence or decision concerning Judge Bastawisi has been passed by the "Disciplinary Council", as of yet. Judge Bastawisi's trial has been postponed (possibly because he is now in Intensive Care as he suffered a massive heart attack Wednesday Morning and was obviously not present at the hearing).

According to Al-Masry El-Yoam newspaper and other news sources (before the events of today), the hearing was supposed to be delayed since Judge Bastawisi was not going to be present. They also said that Judge Makki was not going to attend the hearing today. It is unconfirmed at the moment whether Judge Makki attended the hearing today.

Note: All names placed within quotation marks " " are either unconfirmed English translations or Arabic titles/names for which a translation is not available. Also, unless mentioned otherwise, news source here is Al Jazeera TV News Channel.

Update: This just in. The Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest criminal court, has just confirmed the ruling finding Ayman Nour guilty and his sentence of Five years in jail for the charge of falsifying documents used to establish a political party (by rejecting his appeal).

Update #2: Four Hundred members of Kifaya and Muslim brotherhood arrested today including top Muslim Brotherhood figure Essam El Erian and Mohammed Morsi.

Update #3: According to a Daily Star reporter the "Disciplinary Council" has issued a 'final warning' to Judge Bastawisi; one more infraction and action will be taken. It appears that he has been found innocent as well and was severely reprimanded by the court. (The information was obtained directly from the reporter. The story is definitely not on the website or even in print when this update was posted).

Update #4: Judge Makki, on a televised phone interview, says that Judge Bastawisi has the right to continue the fight and that he will be part of his defense team. He also said that there are three cases in front of different courts and appellates contesting different decisions that led to their trial in front of the "Disciplinary council" and including the Justice Minister's decision to form this "Disciplinary Council" in the first place. From his choice of words, I couldn't verify whether Judge Bastawisi's case has been postponed or whether he was declared innocent with a warning (as I've been hearing and reading both).

He did say that the Council condemned Judge Bastwisi's actions "...Idanat Hisham Al Bastawisi"

Note: Please excuse the different facts being reported; as I get the information from different sources, the exact nature changes depending on whether I hear it from reporters, judges, professors or people who were there at the demonstrations.

Yikes! Social Liberals Vs. Capitalists?

2006-05-17T10:05:00.000+03:00

I won't waste time with a long introduction. This post is a response to a response to a post I wrote, which in turn was a relative response to another post.

Alright then, let's go!

Now, Sandmonkey responded to my post by saying:

Well, Faisal, let me ignore your mindboggeling comparison of those who die on the hands of terrorists and those who die from poverty for a minute, because You said you don't want a blog-bashing post and I believe you. This will be a discussion of the issue at hand and the mode of thinking. Ok? But first of all, let me correct you on 2 things: The Oil companies in Bolivia aren't US or from other developed countries, and this wasn't done for the "benefit of the people".

Hold on a second! I made that comparison for a reason... ignoring my comparison is like saying: "we'll just imagine you didn't say this". But... but... I did! I said it!

I will, of course, continue to look at the rest of the arguments that were made, but we can't just forget about the comparison. No way. I will bring this up again as I go through the post. I also want to say I'm glad that you didn't take it as a blog-bashing contest. That would have been useless and such an intellectual turn-off!

Now, you said you wanted to make two corrections. Let's take the first; that the oil companies in Bolivia are not from the US or other developed countries. This is factually incorrect. I actually quoted an Exxon Mobil spokesperson in my first post. But, more information about the "nationalities" of these companies here, here, here and here. Brazil's PetroBras has the highest share and then come the three European companies (or joint venture in one case) and Exxon Mobil. That's three major operators from developed countries.

As for the "benefit of the people" argument, I guess my whole post will go through that.

Sandmonkey also said that "Brazil isn't exactly what someone would call a rich or developed country. And do you know how much the bolivian government stole, sorry, i meant nationalized from them? 1.6 Billion dollars worth of investment . That's money the brazilian people will never see ever again. Is that, in your opinion, right?"

This is a bit tricky to answer, I must admit. On one hand, and straight off, I would have to say Hell No! Of course, it isn't right. $1.6b is quite a large amount of money, especially for countries like Brazil and Bolivia.

But, again as I mentioned in my original post, Morales clearly stated that the contracts would have to be re-negotiated within six months or the companies would be nationalized. I'm guessing what he is doing, at this point in time, is ensuring that no foul-play (as far as he is concerned) or some form of sabotage takes place. Whether I support his decision or not, it would be reasonable to suppose that these companies might decide to take action that Morales would not want; dismantling equipment beyond the abilities of the Bolivians to put back together, shipping equipment and other forms of capital out in secret etc.

Keep in mind that the statements in the previous paragraph refer to matters from Morales' point of view... regardless of whether I (or anyone else) agrees with his decisions.

Now, this re-negotiation (assuming it occurs and matters do not deteriorate drastically - which I do not believe will occur with the way both the Brazilian President and Morales have been handling the situation after the announcement) will probably end up changing the current contracts in such a manner as to benefit the Bolivians (through their government and respective agencies and institutions) more.

Oops. Noticed I didn't answer the $1.6b question. Open a notepad file or something next to your browser so that you don't forget, I will be getting to this question in the next part of my post, but I will say this: If there is proof that a certain party was complicit in any action or whatever that involved depriving another party of their economic rights and thus their right to live a dignified life where their needs are satisfied (because of work they do, of course) then I support nationalization 110%. (Please keep in mind that I am not, at this point, claiming that the companies, related to this specific topic, were in fact party to any such behavior. I was merely declaring my view on this matter).

Moving on. I need to make sure that something is clear; Morales, during his campaigning had always mentioned that the nationalization of energy/hydro-carbon industries was a main and important point on his political agenda. The people voted for him based on this agenda. In fact, that vote had one of the highest voter turnouts in Bolivian democratic history. Morales won a clear and comfortable victory. Conclusion: A large portion of Bolivians wanted this. The Majority wanted this. Morales, as a man/human being/living entity or whatever, is merely a representative of this group of people. He didn't seize power through force or through illegal practices.

Sandmonkey then said:

Second of all, does it strike you as odd at all that the moment they seized the companies, it was venezeulan technicians who went in and ran the sites ? Does it not seems suspicious at all, that the bolivian candidate that was supported by Chavez all the way , suddenly nationalizes the industry and hand it over to the technicians of his "ally"?

As about the Venezuelan technicians part, I honestly see no relevance to the topic at hand; if that post was in fact a response to my post, then it's the nationalization and its disadvantages/advantages to Bolivia and its people that was under discussion. Excuse me if I think that the attempt to tie Morales to Chavez is an attempt at sensationalization by linking Morales to someone who is not quite liked by many countries in the west.

Either way, let's say it wasn't an attempt to sensationalize and it's relevant and all that. Well, I hate to say this... but most of the sources I've attempted to check online mentioned nothing about Venezuelan technicians taking over these facilities. It might be that I missed that fact while browsing through, literally, at least 90-something news and opinion pieces on the matter.

Either way again, if he enlisted the help of another country's technicians because his couldn't manage on his own, I honestly see no problem with this. As about Chavez... well of course he'd support Morales. Their "economic reform/policies" agaendas seem to have found a common point, an intersection if you will, where they both see eye-to-eye. I'd support him i I were Chavez: LOOK! LOOK! I'm not alone! Third world countries tend to do that.

Interestingly enough, when I followed one of the Sandmonkey's links I found this (it was the last paragraph of the article):

Under Monday's decree, foreign companies must sell a majority stake of their participation to YPFB. Yet it remains unclear how Bolivia will come up with the several billion dollars needed for that deal.

Pssst! There's the bit about compensation. It isn't exactly hardcore, confiscate-nationalization if you're buying the shares/stake, is it? (The YPFB is Bolivia's state-owned natural gas company).

Aaaah! Now we get to the meat of the matter; the war of ideologies. I've noticed that many of the comments on Sandmonkey's post are screaming against socialism. Well, I'm not going to defend socialism because, in all honesty, Im not rooting for socialism. What I'm going for are certain ideas that I believe can be integrated into any system; the fact that they bear close resemblance to socialism is... well, it is what it is. I have no explanation for it.

When sandmonkey says

Do you know what Morales now wants? He demands that any company that comes in to get only 18% of the profits, and give the other 82% to the Bolivian government. And they are wondering why the hell no one has stepped up to take them on that offer yet. Man, I work in the Oil and Gas sector, and let me tell you, that kind of profit margin is beyond unacceptable. The return on the investment would take forever to actualize itself, and let's face it, any government that sees it well in its right to nationalize your investment whenever they see fit, is a government that you can not trust with your investments. So yeah, sure, they did take over the facilities, but no one who actually knows how to run the business will touch it with a 10 foot pole. Morales, if he really wanted to help his people and raise their income level, has fucked up big time. Bolivia doesn't have much oil to begin with, so the return is not even close to the risk.

... all I can say is:

1. Don't you think that the number, 82%, is a bit of a strange number? I did. First thing that came to mind was: Why on earth did this guy not say 80 or 85? I mean come on, I sincerely doubt that they went to great pains calculating some sort of cost-benefit analysis and came to the conclusion that with the 82/18 combination they will get the right number of investors. First thing I did was check things out and, then I found this. Now, I can begin to understand the number:

The state assumed the majority control (51% of the actions) of all the oil-producing companies in the country and two refineries of the Petrobrás (brazilian state company); decreed an increase of the gas tax of 50% for 82% and gave a period of time of 180 days for the companies accept the measures, otherwise they will have to leave the country... Formerly, in the beginning of the privatization process, the companies stayed with 82% of the invoicing and the state with 18% left. In that time, the executives of the company Repsol YPF (Spain and Argentina) celebrated the fact that, for each dollar they put in Bolivia, the company got 10 dollars of profit.

So basically, the situation was reveresed when the companies were privatized. Hell, it isn't even fully reveresed because befor privatization, the state owned 100% of all assets. Even more, I came across this article. This is the bit which caught my attention:

Although Mr. Morales said on Thursday that no compensation would be paid because there was no confiscation of energy companies' assets, Bolivian officials have said that if the new contract talks fail, expropriations are possible, and in that case, restitution would be made.

As always, its the little stuff that is mentioned by some anonymous officials that usually goes unnoticed... no matter the significance of the declaration or statement they made.

As about Socialism and Capitalism and all that. I am surprised at how much people do not realize the complexity of things like Socialism and Communism. Idealistic as they are, these theories came out as by-products of events like the Industrial Revolution where Capitalism reigned supreme and workers were treated like shit.

A simple response to this would be: but hold on a second, if Capitalism is simpler, then just apply its tenets and you're safe. Occam's Razor you idiot! Sadly, that isn't the case. But, what also isn't the case is that socialism failed... as a system. Look at Sweden for god's sake! That, is what I am arguing for. Russia was a perfect model of State Capitalism; the state was responsible for the distribution of resources and production. The State, and not the workers or peasants, was the owner of property.

Cuba have some of the best doctors in the world. If that's Socialism, then to hell with the Scandinavian Model and let's go Socialist!

As with Abdel Nasser... I can't even begin to talk about Abdel Nasser. You're Egyptian Sandmonkey... I don't think I have the patience nor stamina to enter into another discussion about him. Suffice to say that I agree with you whole-heartedly, it is a fact after all, about the gold, the Egyptian Pound and the state of the economy before-hand. Let me also tell you that my own mother (who hails from the landed-aristocracy - before Nasser obviously - and whose family lost a WHOLE LOTTA LAND because of his nationalization) had this to say about Abdel Nasser: Shoof ya Faisal. It's true that we didn't get to eat Apples every year. It's true that he took the land and all that. BUT, the poor people who lived miserably at the time of the king had food on their table every night.

I'm not a huge proponent of Human Rights and all that... in the sense that it isn't really something that I think about all the time or associate with athoritarian regimes and all that. I am a Political Economist, so I think Politics and Economics. I want people to have land (I want to own land myself!), I want people to invest and enjoy the returns on their investments (the more the better, I say!) But, I cannot accept that people do this while others cannot find food, or clean water, or clothes or shelter and are not given a fair chance of obtaining them. Again, if that is Socialism, then I'm all for it.

As about the approaches... well, again, I'm all for micro-financing and micro-banking. I'm all for lending money to SME's and households so that they'd start their own projects and make money off that. I'm also all for free education up and until University levels, an efficient public health-care system (in addition to private health care) and public utilities (or at least the option of some... in some way or another).

What I am not in favor of are entities like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund who send their smiling, suit-clad, theory-toting representatives/employees to my country and "forcing" the government to "Go West". That is exactly what happened. They come and they decide that Egypt, as with most other countries they've attempted to help, needs to restructure its economic system in order to 1. Repay all its international debt 2. Thrive economically.

Bullshit.

What happened is that they forced the government to spend less money by hiring less people and removing subsidies from foodstuffs and other products (most of them essential products that are used on a daily basis - salt, sugar, flour etc). You know, this would have been totally fine were it not for the fact that there was no one in the Egyptian market to replace the government as the LARGEST SINGLE employer in the economy and, of course, poor people's purchasing power does not increase because subsidies are cut. And Egypt boomed for a bit and the people suffered.

If you want to say that socialist governments have only brought misery and doom unto their people, I will generally not disagree with you. I will say thought that the whole truth goes a bit beyond that; it isn't their socialist tendencies or whatnot that doomed them, it was their (generally) authoritarian, totalitarian system of rule that stripped their citizens of all their rights, freedoms and ability to prosper and/or achieve social mobility. THAT, I am definitely against.

Let me just say this about Bolivia, I just remembered something someone had said, if foreign investors do not go to Bolivia, then Morales will learn his lesson the hard way and he'll obviously have to change the way he deals with the world. Let me just say this: I sincerely doubt that any wide-spread boycott of investment in Bolivia will occur. They might face a bit of a problem in their energy sector for a couple of years (maybe!) but no more.

As for me benefiting from capitalism, well... I never said I did not. Even if I hated capitalism, I am not in a position personally to change the International Economic Order or World System generally. Having said that, I don't think that pure capitalism works for me (in terms of what I think would be best for all or at least most of the people). And sure the Chinese benefited from Capitalism... they couldn't afford not to. They "got with the system". Notice though that the chinese only have a couple of cities that have non-socialist laws and exemptions for foreign countries.

Also note that it's free trade (another concept which scares the living hell out of me) that the Chinese utilized most intelligently to get where they are now.

TAKE NOTE: My first post was entitled: "Why I'm a SOCIAL LIBERAL" (not Socialist or Capitalist-hater)

I also believe that Socialism and its pretext of working for the public good has always been and still remains the ultimate excuse for tyrants and dictators to validate their powers and control.

Couldn't agree with you more. The fact that it can be used to sway the hearts of men (and women of course) to help the tyrant, dictator or whatnot entrench himself further is something that I cannot deny. But, I can definitely say that Socialism (as a theory and not a living entity) cannot be blamed. That's like saying it's the bread-knife's fault that it was used to kill someone.

In Short: I am NOT a socialist! Nor do I support Capitalism! People who think life is just Socialism and Capitalism really need to read-up on the way this world is run. It's much, much more complex than that. I support certain policies, most mentioned above, that I believe should be applied in any state. If you wish to call it Socio-Capitalism, Communism or friggin Geography... please do so.

And thus, I await to see what Morales will really do after all the attention that he wanted to get, and did obviously. I want to see if what he did will help his people, like he said it would and based on the fact that his people voted him into power because of these promises.

So, about the $1.6b? Well, if he covers any losses (in terms of money invested until that point) then I'm personally cool with it. If not... well, then I'd have to see how that company treated the Bolivian market and government when it comes to the contract and so on and so forth. So basically, I have no conclusive view on the matter.

That's the way I see it.

This is why I'm a Social Liberal.

2006-05-13T20:58:00.000+03:00

[This post was originally written and meant to be published on the 6th of May. Real life events forced me to save it as a draft and I was only able to continue it today.]

I have political views. A lot in fact. The way I see it has been dedicated to commenting about various socio-political and economic ideas that I've been exposed to, mainly in Egypt and the Middle East. I dabble in the occult [Read: International Affairs] when I can draw parallels with events of the Middle East.

My previous post was about President Evo Morales of Bolivia nationalizing the countries Energy sources, mostly those owned by foreign corporations. Not everyone shared my view that his actions would lead to a situation which is more socially equitable. Sorry, I still think it is. It was mentioned that there were people who invested money into these projects. Obviously, they expect (and deserve) a return on their investment. Sandmonkey, whose post I linked to in this paragraph, believes that Morales' decisions were immoral.

This is not meant as a blog-bashing post, rather, I am criticizing a mode of thinking. This same blogger, along with all those who share his views, clobbers "suicide-bombers" and all groups/individuals who carry out acts of "terrorism" because of their "murderous nature". He clearly states that he is "sick of the people dying".

So, it's not alright if people die violent death in bombings, shootings or stabbing incidents and it's completely alright if their country is sucked dry of its resources, because other people payed money to make profits from these resources, effectively killing hundreds and thousands over a longer period of time. That makes complete and utter sense; Bolivia needs the gas and petrol to sell in order to make money to fund their resource and money starved government (whichever government it is).

What happens is that these companies come from the US, or other developed countries, and then sign contracts which award the Bolivians an amount significantly lower than half of the profits or revenues generated. I can understand how someone can expect to make money by helping you do something that you wouldn't be able to do other-wise; the Bolivians wouldn't get any revenue at all if these companies weren't there... but come on! Less than HALF! Half!

For someone who's pre-occupied with human rights quite a bit, I would have expected that that single fact would have caused Sandmonkey to shout: STOP! You need to see how things are there! He also works in the field of finance, according to his bio, so he understands the numbers and the terms. But, apparently the forces of capitalism which the glorious United States has been adamant on sowing everywhere in the world either directly or through one of its proxies [Read: IBRD, IMF, IFC etc.] are much too blinding.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) [which all anti-islamists/ anti-Hamas/ anti-"suicide bombers" apparently know word for word] has a numer of articles that I think might be relevant when discussing Bolivia.

Let's take it from the top (and I'll try to take only the most relevant articles of the Declaration):

First, there is the preambulatory clauses;

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

[Note the bit with freedom of speech, belief, fear and want.]

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

So, "rule of law" is important against tyranny and oppression and also to prevent people to rebel against any possible tyranny and oppression. Keep in mind, this law has to be Just.]

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

The crowning piece really. Why do people seem to believe that the dignity and worth of the human being is violated only when they're killed? It's as if kicking them out of their homes and depriving them of equal opportunities to get a job and "allowing" their government enough resources to spend on public projects and so on is not a demeaning of these persons; that they can still maintain their dignity and feeling of self-worth when they're homeless, destitute and ravished by disease.

What about promoting Social Progress? What about those better standards of life? What is the western world going to do about this? And why should they do something about this? I'll tell you why; it is their financial and developmental organizations that help perpetuate the state of affairs in the developing world. I'm not even going to shout history. I'm not going to scream foul and say: what about all the years of servitude and highway robbery that most developing countries had to go through.

I won't do that, but not because these things are not true. They are true. It is because other developing countries proved themselves capable of improving their situation and implementing correct economic and developmental policies (sustainable ones too!) that I will not scream history.

[Continued in next Post]

I just don't get NeoCons.

2006-05-07T17:50:00.000+03:00

Which is exactly why I was surprised and delighted to find that two fellow bloggers had anti-neocon ideology posts:

Tomanbay's post. Forsoothsayer's post.

I don't always see eye-to-eye with them on everything, but this time I like what they're saying.

And that's the way I see it.

Morales... turning the tap Off?

2006-05-02T12:57:00.000+03:00

Bolivia's President-elect Evo Morales declared yesterday, on International Workers' Day, that Bolivia would nationalize Bolivia's Oil & Gas companies if foreign firms do not "agree to give Bolivia's state oil company oversight of production and a majority of their revenue generated in Bolivia". Morales gave those companies six months to make their choice.

Already soldiers of the Bolivian Army have moved in to secure the fields and gas/oil plants and refineries. The event being this fresh in the making, I have not read of any government's response to the issue. An Exxon Mobil spokesman did have a statement though. Apparently, the Corporation is "monitoring the situation". They better be! They're about to lose the second largest oil and gas reserves in South America!

Morales faces a situation not unlike that of Hamas; wanted by the people but loathed by the powers that be. In his campaign, he promised voters that he would ensure Bolivians and Bolivia got their fair share of oil and gas revenues. His announcement of possible nationalization is no surprise either; he had also mentioned, on several occasions, that nationalization is a strong option and possibility.

The United States was unhappy with his becoming President of Bolivia for another reason; in his election campaign, Morales promised Coca farmers that he would not attempt to destroy their crops. Coca farming generates a large share of farmers' income in Bolivia, and as head of the Coca Farmers' Union for a couple of years, Morales (naturally) pushed forward this item during his campaign. For those that don't know, the Coca plant is what cocaine (in addition to many, many other legal products) is manufactured from. While the idea seems ridiculous, he did vow to "crack down" on cocaine manufacturers; a promise that the US, the long-time driving force behind Coca-farm eradication, did not embrace with open arms.

I don't see what the problem is. It's Bolivian gas and oil. If the bulk of the revenues are not going to the country (and its people) that has the gas and oil, who else should it go to? It's not as if Bolivia is a rich country - it most definitely is not. Brazil, who has the largest stake in the Bolivian gas and oil industry, as well as being the largest dependant on Bolivian gas, might raise red flags, though it is doubtful that Morales would want to anger his largest market.

But Morales doesn't want to stop there.

In the same Washington Post article (linked to above), it is mentioned that Morales's Attorney General, Pedro Gareca, has already opened criminal cases (a month and a half ago) against three former Presidents and a whopping eight former Energy Ministers for (according to The Post) "Alleged wrongdoing in drawing up and signing contracts with foreign oil companies". So, Morales is out for blood. Living in a country where many former Ministers are tried after the end of their terms in office, this move seems only natural to me.

What is strange is that none of the news media appears to criticize this; Morales is obviously satisfying a latent hunger to see justice served in a country, like many of its developing brethren, where justice was merely a dream.

Maybe not all real-life dramas have Syriana-like endings when the United States is involved? Well good! Bolivians deserve a happy ending... I'm just waiting for ours.

And that's the way I see it.

We screamed Denmark. What about Saudi Arabia?

2006-04-30T15:45:00.000+03:00

The media, in all its forms, is (and has been for a long time) a very powerful force of change. It's television, newspapers, magazines and the internet that connect us to the outside world. It was because of the news media that the whole Prophet Mohammed-Denmark issue came to light (albeit 4 months late... Better late than never, eh?). It's also because of the News media that we have not been informed of other "Islamic" (As in, things that have to do with Islam) matters... and they've had their four months grace period.

So what is the issue? Take a look at these two news sources: Source One (Arabic - recent). Source Two (English - not so recent). Sadly, the recent English source was published in the Independent newspaper of Britain (this is according to the Arabic source and confirmed by myself) and one has to pay to get the article now that three days have passed since publishing. If it is what I think it is, the Arabic source has quoted heavily from the Independent and thus, I should be able to provide the recent story.

So the Saudi government is removing such archeological finds as the the Prophet's house, the houses and mosques of the Four Enlightened (translation?) Caliphs [The first four to come after the Prophet's death], graveyards in Mecca and Medina, not to mention the cave where the Prophet received The Message for the first time and Mecca's historic library.

Those ruins and relics that have been removed have been replaced with public toilets, hotels and housing for those that come to The Kingdom every year for Hajj.

Are you serious?! Does the Saudi government have one shred of decency?! They could show this decency by not being hypocritical idiots and demanding an apology from the Danish government whilst destroying some of the most cherished relics in Islamic Civilization.

The English Article brings up the biggest thorn and ugliest protrusion in this whole scharade; the Wahabi Clerics and religious institutions of Saudi Arabia.

Never having been interested much in Saudi Arabia (although I was conceived there), I had not bothered to research deep into its historical political and cultural roots. Thus, barring the occasional class or course I had to take in school or University, my knowledge of how their present religious and political system (beyond the founding of the state and its twentieth century history) was quite scant. I had heard though that the Al Saud Clan retained its political power on condition that religious decisions and affairs are handled by other Saudi Clans.

The Howden article brought this issue up again, so I suppose it must be true. Either way, this was post was meant to say one thing: Don't you dare go on about Denmark and how you were offended that some caricaturist and Editor-in-Chief decided to publish pictures of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist and then take out a sizeable chunk of Islamic History and Civilization in one go.

Just in case some of you claim that the two events are different, I will admit that they are... obviously. But, if you want to tell me that the relationship I drew does not exist, or that the Saudis are not Hypocrites... go elsewhere. I see obvious, huge, colorful, bright and shining (figurative) lines connecting both events.

And hold on a second. Where is the media in all this? Why does The Independent publish a story on this last May (Yup, that's May 2005) and not one single Arab newspaper (of decent circulation) rose to discuss the issue? Is it not news-worthy? Because, hell, if this isn't news-worthy, then the Danish cartoons sure aren't. Most people haven't even seen the cartoons. So the Media inflamed their passions, which of course local religious groups and leaders used to fuel the hatred towards the west, when it comes to pictures of the Prophet... but it's alright to bulldoze his house?

Morons!

And that's the way I see it.

Pakistan: First the bomb, now the missile.

2006-04-30T14:54:00.001+03:00

Look up a map of the world. Find Iran, it should be somewhere east of Africa (the big yellow bit in the middle). Found it? Great! Now move a bit more to the East, that's left. You should come across another yellow-ish area with the letters Pakistan written there.

Excellent!

Now, let's talk a bit about Pakistan. Apparently, they just tested a ballistic missile. For those that are unsure of what a ballistic missile is, let me explain. It's basically a big rocket, that travels long distances, which can be used to fire weapons at other places. Those ballistic missiles that exist today usually carry nuclear bombs. Pakistan's missile can do that as well.

So, not only does Pakistan have a nuclear bomb, it now has a delivary system, the ballistic missile, with which to launch it. Keep in mind that missiles are not the only possible delivery systems for nuclear weapons; there are planes, submarines, ships and even satellites that can be used to this effect.

Iran does not have a nuclear missile. Iran does not have a nuclear bomb for that matter. It just so happens though that Iran is not a good friend of the United States, unlike Pakistan, and thus they must suffer the consequences of the United States believing them capable of manufacturing weapons-grade fissile material. Basically, if the US thinks they can build a nuke, there'll be hell to pay.

I won't go through the whole issue, but suffice to say that I have the solution!

It isn't difficult or tough to implement. It requires no five-year plan. Impossible, you say? Ha Ha, I tell you. And so, without further ado, here are the steps required to solve this problem:

Iran should declare that it embraces zionism as a legitimate and rightful ideology.
They should then recognize Israel.
Having done that, they should share their petroleum, and water, with Israel (and the US).
All those who participated in the 1979 takeover of the American Embassy should be handed over to the United States. Better yet, they should be rounded up, given a one-week trial (we all know they did it. They're on tape for god's sake... and they're happy about it, all smiling and shit!) and then be executed by firing squad.
They should pay the families of all Americans killed or kidnapped compensation for at least 100 years.
The present government should step down, and the Shah's descendants brought back to reclaim their rightful throne.
They should accept that the Persian Gulf be named the Arab Gulf. After all, there are 7 times as many Arab countries as them (with shores on that body of water).
They should pay reperations to the victims of the holocaust. (You can't cover your bases enough in the real world. Five runners per base is only a beginning.)
They should stop supporting all militias that they might be supporting anywhere in the world. Except the ones that attack communist or anti-zionist targets.
They should join the War on Terror.
American companies are to be given preferential treatment in their market. Tax holidays for life? Only the beginning...

These points should set them up for a good twenty-five years. Provided they don't get pissed off again.

Who said the world can't be changed in a day?!

And that's the way I see it.

I found this funny and heart-warming

2006-04-30T06:46:00.000+03:00

What can I say? I've always told myself that I won't blog about jokes or personal things that have no effect on anyone but I. And yet, well...

And yet this post on My Lebanese Dream had me laughing, grinning and smiling for long minutes.

Yup. That's the way I see it.

Al-Jazeera's Egyptian Bureau Chief released

2006-04-29T14:57:00.000+03:00

Hussein Abdel Ghani, News Channel Al-Jazeera's Egyptian Bureau Chief, has been released by the Egyptian authorities on Thursday night with a bail of 10,000 L.E. (Read more about it.)

There are a couple of points that are ridiculous about the whole issue:

First, a 10,000 L.E bail?! If you drive your car at 200km/hr and kill five people as well as injuring twenty, you could probably leave the country and never be heard of again! Without paying any bail. [Dollar-Pound exchange rate]

Second, what on earth is with the Gestapo-like tactics of arresting this man?! Keep in mind that he was "not arrested" in the beginning. Rather, he was wanted for questioning or some other ridiculous excuse.

Third, the man did say on television (and this Blogger watched the live report on television) that they had three seperate sources that verified that fact and that the Ministry of Interior denies that the event occurred. He also said that Al-Jazeera would keep its vieweres updated on the validity of these reports as soon as they recieve any more information on the matter. He clearly stipulated that they recieved three reports on the issue. There is no possible way any Arabic-speaking individual in this country could have mis-interpreted that.

But, this is Egypt for you.

And that's the way I see it.

Egyptian government clamps down on Press. Activists Detained.

2006-04-27T15:00:00.000+02:00

NOTE: This post covers a number of issues.

Apparently, the Egyptian government needs the flimsiest of excuses to arrest members of the Press. According to BBC, Al Jazeera's Egyptian Bureau Chief (Hussein Abdel Ghany) has been arrested by Egyptian security forces.

Apparently, the man wrongfully claimed that an attack on an Egyptian police patrol had occurred in Sharkeya (an Egyptian governerate) yesterday. The thing is, I watched the man's live feed and he specifically mentioned that he had received information from three separate sources but that the Ministry of Interior is claiming that it didn't occur. Furthermore, he said that the channel will report more on the validity of the event as soon as they get more information.

Update: Apparently the government, or a representative of the National Democratic Party (NDP) ruling party, is saying that Hussein Abdel Ghany is not under arrest, and that he was merely wanted for questioning by the offices of the attorney general. Also, he says the reasons behind the "detainment" was that Al Jazeera channel displayed footage of Israeli ambulances transporting Israeli citizens, out of Taba, where bombings had occurred before, back to Israel. He also mentioned the fact that the alleged bombings in sharkeya did not occur and that Al Jazeera helped to spread panic because of these false allegations.

The funny thing is that while the NDP's man was saying that Hussein Abdel Ghany was not under arrest, merely wanted for questioning, Al Jazeera was showing footage of its Bureau Chief being transported by mini-bus to the location where he was to be questioned, surrounded by at least 5 police officers and other plain clothes security personnel. I guess this means he isn't under arrest and these officers were just helping find his way.

On another level, violence has re-ensued today in downtown Cairo near the Judge's club and Press Syndicate. This is after a series of violent confrontations that have been occurring over the past few days over an issue that has been developing for a couple of months now. Read Baheyya's posts for more information on the issue (3 separates).

There have been Egyptian citizens arrested in the early hours of Monday morning, yesterday and today during a sit-in protest at the Judge's Club. Kifaya's (arabic - English here) coverage of the matter here (arabic) and here (english) [keep in mind that the stories cover different points as they are not translations. Rather, they are written by different members/reporters].

As I write this, there are clashes between security forces and protestors in the area. For more information, visit Tomanbay's Blog [He covers news in a much more succinct and tech-wise manner].

On a more personal note, one of the protestors arrested on Monday is a personal friend of mine; Ahmed Yasser El Droubi. I can only say that the only thing that drove Ahmed to participate in the sit-in protest was his love for this country and his personal quest and contribution to the effort to bring true freedom, democracy and rule of law to this country.

Friends close to Ahmed and myself, who have kept abreast of the issue have informed me that Ahmed was transferred to Torah Prison; a place recognized by many as one where political prisoners are regularly detained and tortured. They also informed me that the security forces have renewed his detainment for a period of 15 days (one I'm told is the regular/standard detainment time in such situations).

Update(Thursday afternoon): According to another friend Ahmed is not in Torah Prison; lawyers who visited the place have not found neither him nor the other protestors detained with him. His whereabouts are, at the present time, unknown.

Update #2(Thursday Night): Apparently Ahmed and detainees of Monday night are in a station [El-Khalifa Station] (which I am not sure is a State Security one or a regular Police station) where they were first taken for interrogation and detainment.

Update #3 (Friday): In the on-going quest of finding Ahmed, the latest information is that he is being detained at Torah Prison. This is according to his mother who recieved a hand-written note, supposedly from from Ahmed. In the note he said that he is well and misses his friends and family. He also said that him and the other detainees need lawyers urgently. He also asked for a couple of cigarette cartons (kharateesh sagayer), probably for him and the other detainees.
The note recieved was written in Arabic, and in Ahmed's signature bad handwriting, which his mother recognized. Also, it seems that through contacts, a meeting with Ahmed has been arranged for saturday. This awaits to be seen.

This, of course, no way guarantees the authenticity of the note as it might have been forged. A mutual friend of Ahmed and I put to words the absurdity of the situation by saying that "what struck [him] the most is how conflicting reports are". Apparently, phone call inquiries carried out within seconds of each other would yield completely different results. This just stresses the media and information blackout that the Egyptian government has been carrying out to-date, in all its dealings with its citizens.

Ahmed's STATUS: Detained. Whereabouts Unconfirmed.

Ahmed is diabetic and thus far has not been allowed access to medical personnel, since he is not in possession of his medicines and other things that he requires because of his illness. (Video of the arrest).

Events such as these really help to spread a sense of impotence amongst people, myself included. My friend is under arrest for completely unjust and unfounded reasons and I, amongst others, find myself unable to do or say anything that would help or contribute to his release from imprisonment.

It's times like these that force one to accept even a violent solution to the problem.

And the that's the way I see it.

Dahab and Northern Sinai - News and comments.

2006-04-26T12:32:00.000+02:00

First, I am going to refer you to a fellow blogger's website, Tomanbay, for a better update of events on Wednesday the 26th in Sinai, Egypt.

Moving on, the main purpose of this post was to comment on posts made on another Blogger's Blog, namely Sandmonkey. Sandmonkey's post was a coverage of the Dahab bombings and that Blogger's opinion on different remarks made by Hamas and the the Israeli ambassador to Egypt.

After reading the article (linked to above), there were points of disagreements that I had with sandmonkey.

First, he quotes (source unknown to me) what Hamas's leadership had to say about the Dahab Bombing:

Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-run Palestinian Cabinet, called
the bombings a "criminal attack which is against all human values. We
denounce the attack, which harmed the Egyptian national security." By
contrast, Hamas had refused to condemn last week's bombing that killed
nine people in an Israeli fast-food restaurant.

Then, he comments on their comment:

Didn't they call that suicidebombing a justified act of self defense? I guess it depends who the attacks kill: Jews ok, egyptians not so much.

I think the difference in what Hamas has to say is obvious, and the reasons as well. It would make sense that Hamas would say such a thing, since the world usually holds its breath after such events; waiting to see who will claim responsibility. Hamas's response, as an entity accused of being a terrorist organization by the west, was definitely much awaited.

Furthermore, and devoid of the question of International Politics and Relations, unless the bombings in Dahab were carried out by Egyptian seperatists, or persons claiming to want independence from Egypt, the situation is quite different. Palestinians say, and I will not say are because then many will scream that I am biased, that they are fighting to liberate lands that are theirs. Lands that, according to them, are occupied.

We still do not know anything about the perpetrators of the Dahab bombings. I agree with Sandmonkey when he mentions that it depends on who the attacks kill. Of course it does! If I was at war with another country for 50+ years (not counting pre-Israeli state days) and that happened to them, I would happier than if it happened to an acquaintance, or a friend. That would be a human thing.

But even more, and I agree with this point whole-heartedly, Hamas sees that attacks (whether carried out by them or with their support and/or agreement) on Israel (whether these attacks target infrastructure, civilians or military personnel) is a natural thing in a war where thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Palestinians (civilians and otherwise) have been killed. I have not experienced what the Palestinians have been through, but I have talked to them extensively. I have also lived in Sudan.

The Southern Sudanese there expressed the same sentiment about the Northern government and people as the Palestinians.

My own view is that Hamas's use of religion as the force from which they gain their guidance, principles or whatever is the main reason why so many people stand steadfastly against them. Westerners hear the words bomb and Middle East in one sentence and Islam gets blamed. The general idea on Muslims is that they are all terrorists. On the other hand, the PLO was never attacked as much as Hamas was. They carried out operations as well and are much older than Hamas as an entity.

But, they are a secular organization, and they recognize Israel. Two ingredients that transformed the way they were treated. Let's not forget their almost instantaneous recognition by the Israeli and Western governments.

Sandmonkey then moves on to say:

You then read in Al Arabiy[a] a that the egyptian secuirty forces has shut down the border with Israel in order to prevent any "possible suspects escape", which would only mean in the eyes of the regular egyptian that the people who were behind this act were…yes…wait for it… THE JOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZ.

I disagree. It doesn't mean that "the Jews" are the ones behind this issue. What Egypt did was close a possible avenue of escape... perhaps they had information that pointed to the fact that this has been used before as an escape route, who knows? If anyone comes to the conclusion that it is the Israelis, and not "the Jews", who carried out the bombings... that's their own thing.

And then

Who else would we blame anyway?

I realize that this was a rhetorical, sarcastic question as posted by Sandmonkey but still... it seems that Sandmonkey had no compunctions about blaming "the Jihadis";

I am really mad because this brings back memories of Taba, and it shows that we haven't elarned shit from the previous attacks at all. It also shows that the security forces can not protect us at all, with or wiothout the emergency laws. And now, I found out that a friend of mine got injured in this attack, and lost an arm. He is 23 years old. and he lost his arm. And all I can think of is the blind hatred that is cursing through my body right now towards every single Jihady fuckhead in existance, and how I will not rest until every single one of them is fuckin whiped out, have their bodies doused in whiskey and pig piss and wraped in the cumsoaked sheets of a diseased jewish whore.

I HATE THEM SOOOO MUCH! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I hate all militant (and non-militant for that matter) Islamist groups or individuals as well, quite vehemently as a matter-of-fact, but the leap in logic that occurred in that large paragraph was strange. The fact that his friend lost an arm is an extremely sad and upsetting issue. I had friends in Dahab as well (Read an account), and they thankfully made it without injury, but how does this particular bombing and Sandmonkey's injured friend point to "the Jihadis"?!

It seems to me that the seem leap in logic he claimed that Egyptians would make was made by him. Technically speaking, this isn't much of a problem; as I understand it, he is Egyptian himself.

Moving on, there are certain parts of his post that I do agree with. For example,

I am so sick of this. So sick of all of this bullshit. So sick of the people dying, the jooz blaming, the ineptitude of the government who even though they have Sinai on lockdown for the past 3 years can't prevent a single attack, the inability of my people to see the nature of the ruthless enemy that is the Jihadis and how they are not our friends, and just the fuckin instability that Egypt has been in for the past 3 years.

The thing is, there are, in my opinion a plethora of factors that affect how well the security forces can do their job. I do agree with Sandmonkey that it seems that with or without the Emergency Law, Egyptian security forces are disgustingly useless at carrying out their job. Furthermore, if people who are loyal to the regime show up on television and say that these attacks and ones before them smack of foreign intervention, then, as Sandmonkey mentions, where on earth are our intelligence agencies?!

If "they" are using their agencies to do this to Egypt, it's about time that ours does something. That is, if they aren't already trying and failing... which puts us in dire straits.

Also, to be fair, Israel did in fact offer to send ambulances to Egypt. The ambulances were even filmed by the Israeli border. They also activated an IDF crisis rescue (we were not told the Unit name nor designation) unit and put them on alert. I am guessing the Egyptian government did not need, or did not want, assistance. Also, watching the live coverage that Al-Jazeera (English here) had going of the bombings, I have to say that the dead and wounded were transferred relatively quickly to hospitals in Dahab and then Sharm El Sheikh.

Finally, to summarize a relatively long post, the whole point behind this post is thus: coming to conclusions quickly is simple, everyone does it. Offering quick-cut, easy answers is also simple. I'm not saying that simple answers are always wrong, Okum would be quite upset indeed, just that reverting to them all the time just because others do isn't the best thing to do.

And that's the way I see it.

Leave Iran be. Or don't, it's your funeral.

2006-04-22T11:05:00.000+02:00

The topic of this post is: Iran.

For the past two years now it seems that the International Community, in the form of the United States, has been hounding Iran about its nuclear program. Apparently, it isn't ok for Iran to have their own nuclear reactor(s). But, many of my friends and people that I know think that I'm not looking at this from the correct angle.

So I asked them: what am I missing?

Basically, the popular thought is that Iran's government is crazy. The moment they get nuclear weapons, they will use them against Israel. Hold on a second. The Iranian government aren't what they are because they're stupid. I think that Iran has a shrewd government. Let's say they do get nuclear weapons. There is no way in hell that they will use them on Israel knowing the Death shall rain down on them from the heavens AKA Lots of Minuteman and Peacekeeper ICBMs launched from Wyoming, the Dakotas, and other bases throughout the United States, will level the country into oblivion... and beyond.

I sincerely doubt that Iranians, including members of the government and people in power, are suicidal enough to do something like that. Futhermore, Iran has a right to develop its nuclear technology peacefully. The NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), of which they - and the US but not Israel - are a signatory, assures them this right. [Extra information about NPT and the additional protocol from Wikipedia here. IAEA Board of Governers Report on Iran's Nuclear Situation in September 2005.]

Admittedly, the report mentions that Iran was late declaring certain important things. But, the report also mentions that Iran has taken steps to rectify the situation and the steps were acceptable by the IAEA.

Iran, as do other nations around the world, believe that they are being targeted for the possiblity of them developing Nuclear Weapons. Israel is already in possession of Nuclear Weapons. I don't blame them for possibly believing that this is a wee bit unfair.

The obvious issue then, is that the United States (and allies) do not want an enemy state (Iran in this case) gaining such a "card" in the international game of "power" relations. Having nuclear weapons will mean that iran will pose a threat, however miniscule (though a nuclear weapon - if only one bomb - is not a small nor trivial matter at all) some might believe it would be.

With all the links that are in this post, I won't go on any more about the issue... what I will do is give you access to even more links that I came across while researching the matter in more detail:

Another Blogger', Ramblefish, view on the matter.

Some of the IRNA's (Islamic Republic News Agency), Iran's official news agency, stories:

The IAEA has an Iran file timeline on their website which might be useful to those that which to know more details about the whole issue (since 2004).

Of interest: CNN's bumbles and blunders. Pathetic, but expected.

Finally, and because this is a blog... the following are links to Iranian Blogs which may, or may not have more information on the matter. Most interesting is the Iranian Vice-President's Blog.

An Iranian news blog.

Iranian Blog (Iran-based).

Iranian Blog (Los Angeles based).

Another Iranian Blog. All in Farsi, but check out the photos.

And that's the way I see it.

Egypt. Land of Civilization.

2006-04-19T18:46:00.000+02:00

About a month-and-a-half ago, I wrote a post about certain things in Egypt that I found amusing.

Here's the picture, or one of the two pictures, that should have come with that post; I only recently bought a digital cam. though... so it came a bit late.

You probably won't be able to see the text on the blue sign. Click and maximize or download and maximize.

Enjoy!

Egypt. Egypt. Egypt.

2006-04-19T01:24:00.000+02:00

The following are two Op-Ed articles, published in the Egyptian Daily Star, that I found interesting:

The First is about political parties in Egypt. The writer takes to the street and asks Egyptians what they think.

The Second is about the Hijab, or veil, in Egyptian Society.

If you've managed to read this far, here are my views on the Hijab:

First of all, I am strongly opposed to the view that the Islamic Hijab is a fard, or religious tenet, for Muslim women (all the time of course - they do have to wear it when praying). None of the verses put forward from the Quran conclusively support this view, in fact, many scholars say there are no verses from the Quran that supports this view at all.

That said, my general outlook on society follows the code: To each his own. You do whatever you want to do as long as you do not cause harm to someone else. When mentioning harm here, I am most certainly not referring to the psychological and mental anguish some claim to feel when confronted with a non-veiled female.

As is obvious, anyone can wear the Hijab in my book. Still, if it so happens that a girl, or guy for that matter, mentions that all girls should wear the Hijab because it is an Islamic fard, they drop down many rungs on my ladder of respect. Usually, they fall right off. Generally speaking, most of the girls that I personally have dealt with that chose to wear the Hijab have turned out to have voluntarily surrenderred the use of their brain and mental faculties for any kind of thinking.

The aforementioned category of girls have said to me:

1. Amr Khaled said we shoud wear the Hijab.
2. It is written in the Quran. (Me: Which verse exactly? What does it say?) I'm not sure, but it's written in the Quran.
3. A pure Muslim woman has to wear the Hijab.

There were, of course, many other reasons. First though, I want to comment on the three mentioned above.

So Amr Khaled said you should, huh? And if Amr Khaled told you to go jump off the top of a building, wearing your Hijab, I suppose you would? Too sarcastic? Well, what if Amr khaled mentioned that killing all non-muslims (he hasn't) was the only way to make it to heaven? Would you stop and think about what he says then? Or maybe not. I keep getting the feeling that Amr Khaled is our prophet in disguise... It's amazing how people follow him this blindly!

As for the Quran, I have yet to be told the verses. I await that patiently.

Pure women has to wear the Hijab? So... my mother and grandmother aren't pure Muslim women? They probably went out whoring in their younger days, did they? Invited all the guys over to their homes and had regular sexual orgies, eh? What kind of pathetic argument is this? Your purity is defined by what you choose to do in life! Let me just tell you that all prostitutes in Sudan were veiled (and I've lived there).

Now, I think the main reason why women and girls wear Hijab in Egypt is because of Social pressure. Wearing the Hijab in this country has become a social custom, especially amongst the poor. This helps explain a phenomenon that many men do not understand, especially those that come from the wealtheir upper class; you know all those girls and women that you see wearing the Hijab yet still wearing pants so tight that it is difficult to imagine them being able to move? Well, that's why. The Hijab has become a social necessity, but they do not necessarily represent the religious views of the woman wearing them. Most of the time, she doesn't consider if she should wear it or not... there is no question. There is no debate on the issue.

Oh, and by the way, there are many poorer mothers who still believe that dressing their daughters in tight pants will discourage any possiblity of sexually-motivated attack as it would be difficult to get inside her clothes. (I've asked about this! Many, many times!)

Finally, I feel it needs to be said that while I believe that prejudiced generalizations made about a certain group of people because of creed, ethnicity or social class is abhorrent and wrong, one has to keep in mind that sometimes priorities are different for different people.

For example, in the school where I work, I happen to be in an office with the headmistress, her secretary and the assistant headmistress. All three of them are veiled. Sometimes it gets to be a pain... for example, I have to make sure I censor myself lest I mention something that they think is wrong. It's not that that they are annoying; to date, none of them have even asked me why I don't get up to pray, it's just that I don't want to get into that kind of discussion because I don't know how to tell people that I don't want to talk about it without sounding annoyed or rude.

And hey! What if I want to exclaim: "Oh, shit!" or "God damn it!" whenever I'm annoyed or something goes wrong? I don't. I don't because I don't want them giving me "the look" and possibly a couple of words on how I shouldn't say things like that... because when I do say things like that, those couple of words are definitely the last thing I want to hear (now that I think about it, it's probably the last thing they want to hear as well... *shrug*).

i find myself wanting to talk about how most girls in Egypt shudder and shake if a guy swears next to them, but that's another story for another post.

And that's basically the way I see it.

Hamas: not completely broke.

2006-04-17T11:53:00.000+02:00

I came across this news item posted on the International Herald Tribune's website.

So, I guess this means that the Palestinian government now has a little bit of money with which to function. Though it is supposedly far less than the amount they need to pay the salaries and debts that they own. You might remember that most major donors chose to halt all aid to the Palestinian government as soon as the democratically elected Hamas came to power. This, of course, was disastrous.

This is a compilation of the Palestinian government's sources of aid by donor countries. My thanks to Sandmonkey for posting it.

I also came across this transcript of a PBS show, NewsHour, that discussed the issue of Hamas being voted in as the Palestinian government.

The whole discussion is interesting, but it is one statement in particular that I wish to comment upon (I have not heard it being said often);

ROBERT SATLOFF: No, I think this is a moment for clarity. A large plurality of the Palestinian people elected a terrorist organization as its leadership. This is a moment where the world needs to respond to that very clear statement. I respect their vote. They should respect the world's response to this vote.

Mr. Satloff is faultless when making this comment. The Palestinians should respect the world's response to this vote. If not respect, then at least accept. It is in my belief that they have actually done that. Barring any proclamations they might have made upon winning, most news items either carry opinions on the issue as a whole or interviews with members of the Hamas government.

Furthermore, I am proud that an Arab country (as ironic as it may seem, the only "un-recognized" Arab country) had a free and fair elections (to a large extent, anyways).

Now then, to get to the "respect the world's response to this vote" part. Lots of Arab media and thinkers would tell you: An Arab state finally has a democratically elected government and the West is still bitching about it. Nothing satisfies them. What do they want? To choose who comes to power personally? To put their men as Prime Ministers or Presidents if they don't like the ones there?

Of course, they were quite fiery when making these remarks.

The answer is, of course, Yes! Who wouldn't you fools? What government would not want to choose who has the power in places which might affect its people and its well-being, politically and economically, as a state. It's called realism.

Maybe Political Science, as a major, wasn't so stupid after all. You see, as my professor in POLS 320: International Relations informed us, there are two major schools of thought when it comes to international relations between states; the realists and the liberals. Of course, now we have the neo-realists and the neo-liberals. Now, to the realists, power is everything. You have the power, you use the power. You can get what you want with your power... go on ahead and do it. That's the way of life. The state is the largest entity when it comes to International Relations and one's level of analysis should not extended beyond that.

On the other hand, the liberals are believers in international institutions and organizations. They believe in collective decisions and that the state is not the largest entity when it comes to IR; the UN, WTO, WB, IMF and all those organizations are. These people do not believe in war, but they do acknowledge that it occurs. Even though I once adamantly followed this school, it reflects a highly idealistic and non-practical way of viewing things.

The U.S. (Current World Hegemon), as a government, follow the neo-realism school of thought. Meaning that everyone has to live with this. So live with it. I'm not saying don't bitch about it, O Arab countries. You should. You never know when a European (minus the UK) might be listening. For some weird reason, the Europeans are more sympathetic to this than the Americans are. It might be the two World Wars, all the deaths they suffered or that they want people to like them so that they can be the next International Hegemon, when it's time for the U.S. to step down.

It matters not. When they listen to you, they do things just to spite the U.S., just convince them that you're important to them or their people in some way (the subscribe to the neo-realist club too, you know) and then you're set... for a period of time at least.

What you should be doing, O foolish Arabs, is working like hell to gain power. I almost hope there's some Top Secret Plan for doing this and that everything that's happening now is a mere facade, until one day, 25 years from now, an Arab Leader or person will suddenly go on television and go: TA-DAAAA! We're rich!! We're Powerful!! Or some other weird thing.

Yeah, right.

And that's the way I see (or is it dream?) it.

Random News and Opinions

2006-04-17T07:32:00.000+02:00

As I have a two week break from work (working at a school helped me re-discover the joy of Spring Break as a holiday) I now randomly surf the Internet in the morning checking news or whatnot. I don't know if I'm going to do this regularly, but I will share the things I found interesting:

This twenty-year old Republican's view on Bush and the Republicans.

Russian gypsies attacked.

The FBI's tips page. (I included this because I didn't know it existed).

A simple view on who will win the next House elections in the states.

Brotherhood members captured in Egypt.

[I always find this kind of news strange. The State knows who the MB's leaders are. If you're so interested in arresting people who are members, leave the stupid students alone and go get the big fish. Work your way down the hierarchy. It's almost like they want the MB to continue but they don't want them to grow or expand.]

Free Trade is not doing well. A list of the disputes filed before the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (including the panels and Appellate body's findings and possible rejections or over-turning of decisions).

That's about it for now.

Egypt: Muslims vs. Christians. This has gone on long enough.

2006-04-15T01:34:00.000+02:00

Friday, to use the words of FDR, was a "day that shall live in infamy".

Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt were attacked during mass. There were injuries and a single death. For more prescise information on what happened, you can access Al-Jazeera's coverage of the issue in Arabic and English. You can also check out other bloggers' views on the matter. Antisocialite's post, Manal and Alaa's post (Arabic) and Sandmonkey's view on the matter. (Most of this information was collaborated by the Egyptian Arabic Daily: The Egyptian Today [El Masree El Yoam], which I believe is a credible newspaper.

You can also check out this post on a Blog subscribed to Manal and Alaa's Aggregator [Note: His opinions are his own. And, even though he mentions the reaction of the Christians at the scene and the congregation, please do not think that I chose to include this article to imply that Christians hate Muslims (as someone mentioned to me)]. Two things though, it's in Arabic and has one pretty graphic picture of the person killed during the events. The only reason I've included it is because this blog's owner was an actual eye witness to the events (or so he claims).

What do I think of the whole issue? (I'm going to swear, possibly frequently.)

I think it's fucking pathetic. Most of the other bloggers have covered what I will say, but I will say it again. And again. And again. I think it's fucking pathetic that the man was not stopped after entering the first church. I think it's fucking pathetic that the man, who apparently was screaming "There is no god but God", was allowed to enter the church in the first place. I cannot believe that the guards did not open fire and kill the stupid son of a bitch. They should have.

I think it's fucking pathetic that the government says that the man was mentally deranged. EVEN IF the stupid son of a bitch was fucking deranged, that excuse is so pathetic and offending that it should not have been used. I'm also "surprised" that they managed to find out that he's mentally deranged on such short notice, knowing that most of their "investigations" take weeks if not months if not years if ever to conclude.

You know, I'm generally one of those people who says: you shouldn't judge all Muslims by the actions of a few, but I know that I'd be one pissed off mother-fucker were I Christian. And I'd be completely in the right too.

Islamists are going to burn. Oh yeah. They need to.

7anshouf feekom yoam ya welad seteen kalb. 7anshouf feekom yoam entom we kol el kelab el zayekom.

That's the way I fucking see it.

ACHTUNG Egyptian Drivers! I value my life.

2006-04-13T08:24:00.000+02:00

I don't drive.

I should say that I don't drive because I don't own a driver's license at the moment. At the moment has been a period that has extended for almost seven years now... but who's counting. Because I don't drive my usual modes of transportation include (limited to, actually): friends' cars (friends included), cabs, the metro (not a lot nowadays) and walking.

Now, if you've read any of my previous posts, you might have noticed my tendency to quote cab drivers and talk about them. I don't know why I do this. Is it because there's the variable constant in my life? Possibly. Maybe the reason is their way of thinking (definitely different from my clique)? Possibly. Is it because I find them interesting and fascinating, driving around Cairo all day long (or however long their shift may be), meeting people on every street and corner? Oh yes.

*Looks up*

Ok. I rambled again.

On my way home last night, at the very late hour of 10:30 pm (I was dead tired, honest!) I had three automobile-related near death experiences. This is the average number of near-death experiences one can have on a single thirty minute car trip in Cairo, so I was not overly-concerned. Because I was sleepy (Im guessing) all cars were trailed by a long streak of light. Much like the delightful Red Arrows' planes look during an Airshow.

In fact, the cars did look like they were performing some sort of show, albeit a land one. Drivers were twisting and turning,speeding then braking, passing and stopping, taunting and swearing and finally... crashing (witnessed a minor car accident - didn't even look twice. Too tired.) The realization came to me then that upon entering any four-wheeled vehicle in Egypt, you are automatically placing you life in the hands of your deity (should you happen to have one. Metaphorical hands for muslims and Jews.)

Egyptian drivers (and yes, I'm generalizing) have an amazing tendency to ignore the fact that there are other drivers on the road. This was made obvious yesterday by two volunteers who willingly chose to prove my point.

First Volunteer: Un-identified Egyptian male in his mid to late fifties accompanied by his family.
Car: A Lada 2106 if memory serves me correctly.
Incident: Just before going up the two-lane Malek El Saleh bridge, my cab driver and I were introduced to our first volunteer.
What happened: The man came over all the way from the right lane (three lane road) and attempted to hijack our left lane (bypassing the middle lane in the process).
Why we think he did that: We came to the conclusion that he was either absent-minded or tired and forgot that he wanted to get on the bridge, opting for the right lane exit into Manyal. Suddenly aware of the fact that he did not, in fact, wish to do that, he swerved all the way to the left to get on the bridge.
Why it was really stupid: There was a small Toyota Mini-bus parked at the bottom of the bridge. Parked at the bottom of the bridge. In the right lane. Of course, it wasn't parked per se... the driver was letting out passengers and letting in new ones... but it was there, stopped, completely immobile for a period of at least fifteen seconds. The man in the Lada must have known this; it was right in his path. It was really stupid of him to attempt to squeeze himself between the bus and us in a two lane road. Fortunately, my cab driver's nerves of steel (which manifested themselves in the fact that he did not divert an inch from his track) forced our first volunteer to drastically slow down. Thanfully.

Second Volunteer: Unknown driver of a souped-up Honda Civic.
Car: Souped-up Honda Civic.
Incident: Man almost hit by speeding car and the chaos that ensued almost caused a four car pile-up.
What happened: On the Corniche, again, approaching the Sadat Academy entrance to Maadi. This is a usual station for mini-buses and, true to that, another mini-bus was parked at the side of the road. Apparently the dude (or dudete...?) in the Civic believed that you need a minimum speed of 280 km/hr before the Civic has enough speed to achieve un-aided lift-off. It's that, or the car was being clocked for some kind of urban land speed record, because he was 'tearing up the tarmac'. What happened was, as soon as the Civic came to the entrance, a man popped up from behind the Mini-bus... obviously to cross to the other side of the road. Screeching sounds occurred and panic ensued. The civic dude hit the brakes... though realistically, had the man decided not to stop, the civic would have hit him. Hard. He stopped though.
Thing is, when the Civic driver hit the brakes, 4 cars behind him hit the brakes. For a period of two seconds, me and the cab driver watched 4 car drivers momentarily lose control of their cars; it was magnificent (I'm allowe to say this in retrospect since no accident occurred). Four cars fish-tailing for two seconds. It looked perfectly coordinated.
Why we think he did that: Young. Into cars. Reckless. Nothing new.
Why it was really stupid: Ok. There are many good drivers out there. There are many good drivers who know they're good drivers. There are many good drivers who know they're good drivers and thus the usually tend to 'push the pedal to the metal', even during traffic jams. But basically, it's like my grand-father says "You're a good driver but can you vouch for every other driver near you?" Man in the Civic (i'm convinced it's a guy, from experience) probably forgot the whole thing 4.8031 seconds later. Im guessing that's about how long it took him to get from 0-100.

What we need to do: Two things really - hope we never cross paths with these idiots and pray like hell everytime we get into a four-wheeled vehicle. You never know... you might be lucky.

*Pause*

Speaking of road incidents, next time I write on the topic, I'll have to mention the story of the guy and girl who chose to engage in *ahem* quasi-sexual activities in the back of a two-door 4x4 with the whole of Cairo watching them. Oh yes. They were like a pace-car in a Formula One race... no one attempted to pass them.

*Nod* Yup, that's just the way I see it.

Arab music channels and... theological advertising?

2006-04-11T23:38:00.000+02:00

The strangest thing happened today.

I was browsing through various web-pages and glancing every now and then at the tv that one of my brothers had tuned to an Arab music channel, Entertainment Television (E Tv) to be exact, when the most peculiar advertisement I've seen in a long time started showing.

At first, I didn't notice it. But, the dialogue and the lines used forced my attention to the screen. Anyhow, the ad. went something like this (imagine this with me now):

[This starts from when I first saw the ad. I have no idea how many seconds, if any, I missed]

A fashionably-dressed, beautiful woman in the back seat of a luxury car with a cell-phone to her ear. She is speaking to her husband, apparently, asking him how his day was and that she'll see him soon (I think). The expression on her face was a mixture of slight melancholy and tiredness. Next scene, she's walking into her apartment/home. The place looks simple yet very expensive. Like everything in the apartment is a 10 carat diamond.

She walks across the bedroom, throws a jacket (I think) and her purse on the bed and then goes out to stand in the balcony. She then enters a short soliloquy about how there is something missing from her life. There's that one thing, without which she is incapable of being happy. She asks God why she isn't happy and asks Him to help her.

The scene then skips to her walking alongside a wall, towards the camera and a bit to the left of the frame. As she moves closer, the camera turns to the left with her until the camera has turned 90 degrees and we realize there's a mirror on the wall. When she walks past the mirror, we realize that her reflection is wearing a Hijab and a long-sleeved top (the mirror only shows her upper torso). Again, she is dressed well. The model glances towards the mirror and is obviously surprised by her reflection and audibly expresses her surprise by saying: is that me? Her reflection merely nods at her and smiles.

We then see her in the final scene walking on a sidewalk, taking large steps, smiling and looking content (wearing her Hijab and long-sleeved shirt or top). Then, in arabic font accompanied by a pleasant sounding male voice, we see/hear the phrase: Obeying god is the road to happiness. And the Ad ends.

Before I continue, I will make a few observations concerning the advertisement: The car in the beginning made it seem like the whole thing was an ad for a new BMW or Mercedes; the car was perfectly polished and reflecting what looked like tunnel lights. The interior of the car looked so new and pristine, you could smell the leathery new-car-smell. Everything looked cool, efficient and organized. When you saw the model, it seemed like the ad was a woman's fashion ad, then possibly one for skin and hair products; she looked that perfect.

The model herself looked like she was in her mid to late twenties. Her face looked young, but not naive or childishly youthful. She looked like a mature young woman.

After the model wore the Hijab there were also differences in the ad; more colors and an increased sense of cheerfulness. Before that, the ad was mostly shades of browns, greys and blacks. After the Hijab, it was all very vivid greens and blues and reds and yellows and oranges (in addition to the deep browns, blacks and whites). The change was subtle, but I noticed it.

The message of the ad was obvious: through the Hijab, you'll be a happier person. Also, as is obvious, the advertisement targeted the more financially capable segment of society; possibly to transmit the message that you do not have to be poor and conservative in order to wear the Hijab. The model could have been any of the young women that I personally meet and know everyday.

There were a couple of things that surprised me (other than the advertisement as a whole, of course). First of all, the channel is a lebanese one. Second, it's that same channel that shows the exact same music videos (along with most of the other arabic music channels) that kept the arab world in a constant state of uproar (some say "and the arab world still is", but there are other matters that have distracted the critics) because of the way female singers sing, dress, dance and behave. What an irony.

What I really want to know is this: who was behind the advertisement? Who paid for something like this? How on earth did E tv management allow such an ad to be aired on their channel?

Having written all this, I feel that this is the part where I critically analyze the whole situation and give my view on the matter. Yet, I find myself incapable of doing so. On the one hand, I am totally and fanatically against the idea that the Hijab is a Fard; i.e. a tennant of the muslim faith that needs to be upheld on par with praying, doing good and observing shariaa laws because the verses from the Quran that are used to support this argument are shady and quite open to interpretation - at best.

On the other hand, since I believe that any person is allowed to do what they wish and express themselves in whatever way they deem fit as long as they do not harm others, I see no problem with the advertisement. Either way, this ad. heralds (to me, at least) a new step taken by Islamic groups or individuals. They might be moderates, almost definitely are considering their choice of media and the way they put forward their advertisement.

Hell, it might even be Hizbullah. I don't know. But whomever they are, they've done it the right way.

And that's the way I see it.

Blogs... should they? Shouldn't they?

2006-04-11T00:17:00.000+02:00

A few minutes ago, I came across an interesting Post in Manal and Alaa's Blog. Apparently, an article written in the Egyptian Daily, The Daily Star, on the 1st of this month ,criticized Manal and Alaa's Blog as being "self-important, self-indulgent and incoherent", in addition to other points. I found the link for the article (which I included here) and promptly clicked on it and read the article in full.

Apparently, the article was an attempt, by its author, to offer an opinion on blogs in Egypt, albeit a short one. Having read the article, which was entitled "Local bloggers offer the constructive, the amusing and the pointless" and written by a Mr. Tarek Shahin, there are a few points that I would like to put forward.

First of all, it appears to me that Mr. Shahin (whom I personally know and would consider a friend) should have research the issue a tad bit more before commenting as he did. He makes it a point to mention that...

While freedom of expression is sacred, one takes exception to a few local blogs, not because they have gone too far in terms of boldness (there is no such thing), but in terms of silliness and futility. They are simply ramblings that are best kept in a notebook under a bed, not shared with the world.
I realize there are no rules to which bloggers should adhere and I make no foolish attempt to impose any, but in my humble opinion as a reader, a good blog is one which masterfully expresses a whole set of thoughts and emotions within an independently set theme.

I will not claim to know the inner thoughts and ideas of Mr. Shahin, nor will I stoop to a level of pretentiousness to strike down his ideas as being absolutely incorrect or mistaken, but through his phrasing of his opinions in such a manner as to make them appear as facts, he seemingly unilateraly decides on which blogs are deemed 'worthy' and which are not.

I think that people have to keep in mind that when the concept of "web logs" was first used, they were used as personal diaries where people's thoughts and ideas were transmitted electronically across the globe. To say that everyone's thoughts and way of thinking in general are organized and follow "an independently set theme" would be be naive. I do not mean to insinuate that Mr. Shahin is naive, merely that blogs offer a "purer" representation of people's mind processes than, let's say, BBC Online.

This takes me to my second point; that Mr. Shahin, and according to what I infered from his opinion piece, expects Blogs to be much like an academic paper, a Master's thesis, an investigative reporting article or even a published opinion piece like his own; clear, organized and coherent with a set theme and obvious points being made. I think that's being too harsh.

To me, Blogs are the best of both the worlds of personal webpages and online forums; they allow the owner/contributor to post/publish their thoughts on whichever issues they wish to put forward and, at the same time, recieve feedback which can be discussed and criticized. Even more, Blogs have come to be accepted as a means through which one can express their opinion on certain issues and not hold to accepted standards of journalism and not have to endure the cuts of the keen editing sword; they are one's personal opinion after all.

I personally found it ironic that two out of the seven blogs that Mr. Shahin mentioned are linked to from my own Blog; Manal and Alaa's Bit Bucket and Baheyya. Obviously, and if you let your eyes stray to the sidebar on the left, I enjoy the content of these blogs and believe them to be of value to me (and have faith that they could be of value to others). In all fairness, their methods of presenting information are different both content and design-wise. The irony I mentioned lies in the fact that Mr. Shahin has Baheyya's site as an example of a "beautifully written blog" while his description of Manal and Alaa's I've already mentioned before.

Now, and in all fairness, I understand that Mr. Shahin was discussing his own particular views, he doesn't need to say them word for word in order for me to understand that. It is my belief that he should have researched beyond the regular known blogs in student circles. Blogs in Egypt, as with most things internet in developing countries, are known and visited because of word-of-mouth advertising or information passed on. This is, of course, they have been mentioned in the mainstream media which automatically gets them more attention and exponential hits.

If you wish to find more Egyptian Blogs, I'll start you out with a few sites you could visit:

The Egyptian Blogger Ring

Technorati

Manal and Alaa's Aggregator

Al Bab's List of Blogs (Egyptian & Arab)

Blogflux

That was to get you started. There are definitely many more Blogs that originate from Egypt that will not be found in Blog directories simply because their owners haven't listed them.

And that's the way I see it.

Battle of the Wafd II

2006-04-07T13:57:00.000+02:00

I've been meaning to write something about this..

Basically, i just thought to point out that the stories that have emerged from the battle field have been completely contradictory. It seems, people cant even seem to agree on whether the gomaa partisans started on the inside or outside of the compound. (Some relations claim that gomaa arrived extremely early in the morning and welded the doors shut, while others say he stormed the building. Still others claim that he did both: stormed it in the wee hours of the morning and then waited in ambush). From there, narrations diverge. Was it only gomaa who hired thugs (a very NDP method)? Who started the violence? Who set fire; gomaa and crew or the "reformers" trying to get in with molotovs? Incidentally, who had the molotovs? As you can see there, are already a few dozen possible combinations.

The other aspect of this, is of course, the government's role. I'm not so sure gomaa is a government lackey, although i'm sure it;s possible. Maybe, it's just that being of that same generation who wont leave politics alone, his way of doing things is very akin to that of the npd. As for the security forces notable lack of interference, I would say that this was the result of an order and not the lack of it. I dont think they were confused or incompetent (well, maybe they're incompetent). They were either told not to interfere, or they had prior orders making it out of their jurisdiction to interfere in such (political) issues. I would not be surprised if this was the case with parties and unions in general.

Regardless of whose side the government is on, there's no doubt they're sitting buy watching gleefully as yet another party falls apart. I'm not claiming that there was much there to fall apart, it's just that what little there was, is crumbling. How dare they claim to represent an alternative liberal platform?

Battle of the Wafd

2006-04-03T15:02:00.000+02:00

Former head of the Egyptian Wafd Party (Officially the Neo-Wafd, after its reformation in the 1970s) Noman Gomaa, and 14 others) has been placed under arrest and will be imprisoned for a period of four days while the investigation into the events of Saturday the 1st of April. Gomaa, and the 14 others (including Wafd MP Ahmed Naser and his two sons), were formally charged with attempted murder, possession of firearms and munitions without license, arson, thuggery, disturbing the peace, possession of arms, disturbing the peace and the injury and wounding of 27 people.

Noman Gomaa. Former Head of the Neo-Wafd Party.

Apparently, Gomaa thought to return to his former position of party leader.

How ridiculous!

The Egyptian press had pictures of people carrying Molotov grenades, different bullet-casings of spent bullets used in the attack. There were also pictures of the party headquarters after the attack:

I'm reminded of pictures of Palestinian homes after the Israelis have been through town, or the old pictures from my history book which have french houses after the Germans have bombed them to hell.

Gomaa (71) had been removed from leadership of the Wafd party by the party's general assembly but apparently refused to accept the decision. Rumour has it that party opposition claim that Gomaa is merely a government agent and accomplice; ensuring that the semblance of Democracy is upheld while ensuring that the party is ineffectual (I think it will be ineffectual either way, but that's just me).

What's interesting about the whole thing is that its not (and I really have no problem with this) of enough importance to warrant a place on the Home Page of the news websites that I visited to get the pictures you see above.

One last thing: there were rumours that Gomaa's move was carried out with government blessings but that the carnage and destruction that resulted were just too much for the Egyptian authorities not to act. It is a fact though that there were security personnel (Central Security forces - the equivalent of riot police) present during the "attack". Im guessing because of the extreme centralization of the Egyptian bureaucracy, especially when it comes to such situations, they didn't life a finger until other police forces arrived on the scene and Gomaa was arrested and taken from the scene, under police protection, in (get this) an armoured car. Apparently Gomaa forces broke through the Wafd lines but were surrounded, and could not escape without police support.

And that's the way I see it.

Some Hepatitis C and TB, please. Thank You.

2006-04-02T01:47:00.000+02:00

While heading over to meet my extremely significant other tonight, via taxi, an interesting thought came to me; most of my blog posts seem to have been inspired, in some way or another, by conversations with cab drivers. At first, that started an alarm bell buzzing at the back of my mind. You see, there wa this university professor of mine that got all her information from taxi cabs. She said so herself. Naturally, we all thought it was ridiculous (we, as in her students).

Either way, I started a conversation with the driver. It had been raining, the streets leading out of Maadi were relatively crowded; a phenomenon that does not occur without the presence of an accident, a broken-down car or other possible major traffic obstacles. But it was merely the rain. Not the same rain of Last Tuesday, this was actually sporadic rain that never-the-less flooded Maadi more than the previous bout of water.

The conversation with the driver jumped from topic to topic and issue to issue. First was the rain, then the traffic, then the quality of driving, then the quality of the streets, then the government followed by the Prime Minister, the previous Prime Minister and finally... Corruption. Yes, indeed, corruption. The Modern Scourage of Civilizations. Corruption, the root of all evils, especially in a country like this.

The Taxi driver began recounting personal experiences to do with the bureaucracy and how it took him one months to get the new computerized birth certificate from the office of civil records. Every time he'd go to the office, he'd stand in line only to have the power go out, the computer crash or go bust in some way or the employee simply disappearing. I nodded. Such was Egypt, we all knew.

Then it was my turn, so I complained about having to go to the Main Office of Civil Records over in Abbasiyya. Since I was born outside of Egypt, and until the system was computerized (I dare not say fully, I think that is quite improbable - not to mention impossible - in this country), I needed to go there whenever I needed new papers, or official copies of old ones. This Office consisted of many, many floors in a high building. It wasn't easy, as almost anyone who had to go through the endeavour would tell you.

I would have thought that the conversation would end at this point, I would take out a cigarette, smoke it and stay quiet, waiting for the cab driver to intiate a new topic of conversation. Or he might stay quiet himself. Instead, the driver then mentioned the idea of the office boy at the telephone company. Usually an old man, he would go around to people standing in line to pay their bills, take ten pounds to all those that wish to "speed up" the paying of their bill. The money would then be shared with the clerk who would, indeed, help with the completion of the aforementioned transaction. The idea of the office boy followed my description of how smooth these matters occurred when I lived in the U.A.E. We discussed the fact that Abu Dhabi has a much smaller population, that the country as a whole was much richer. We discussed the fact that these clerks and office boys barely get enough money to sustain themselves... not to mention buy food, feed a family, pay rent, food for clothes, books for the children, school fees etc.

We understood all that, me and the cabbie, and agreed that it's a vicious cycle that is quite difficult to break out from. What irked me though were all the things that had nothing to do with the money, or the technology or the population. The things that had to do with the people. I let him know my thoughts. He summarily pointed out that everything has to do with money. To that, I immediately agreed... there was no way I could argue against that.

The man then proceeded to tell me an interesting tale:

"You know how all these Gulf Countries ask for medical tests and Blood Analysis results to grant work permits?" he asked. I didn't, but I nodded my head never-the-less. The Cabbie figured out that I didn't - there was a slight smile and a look with obvious meaning - but he continued with his story, seemingly unaware of this.

"Well, everyday, everyday! in front of the Ministry of Health and their laboratories, at six or seven in the morning, you will find lots people, young men and old, sitting all over the sidewalk."

I commented that this was not an unnatural phenomenon in Egypt. We all know about how people have to line up in front of government buildings, often with the break of light, to be able to put through an application or request or whatever. The man smiled and shook his head slightly. Unexpectedly calm, even though most other Cab drivers' voices would have been raised at this point - becoming one with their story and living the experience through their story-telling - and their arms (or at least one arm - they are driving) would have been flailing, the driver continued his story;

"No, no. You misunderstand. They are brokers." (He actually used the arabic word samasra.)

I raised an eyebrow quizzically and then quickly put to words my thoughts, lest he think the gesture was one of disbelief, rather than surprise (which was what I was feeling). He smiled.

"You see, they wait for those helpless workers who come in the morning, hoping to get their tests done. The test results come out in two months, two months. These people take a bit of money, and the results miraculously come out in two days. What a difference!" The last sentence was said with a short sardonic laugh and a cynical smile followed. He paused for a bit, shook his head, then continued;

"You know what they do? They switch the vials." My eyebrows knotted.
" You know, they take the vials that have tested negative for any disease or virus, and switch them with these vials. They switch the labels, the lab technicians. This way they cannot be blamed. Sample for sample. Vial for vial." I was surprised. Even though one learns to expect the unexpected in Egypt, I was surprised. But, I nodded my head and made the usual derogatory remarks aimed at the government and the so-called brokers. I also asked the guy if that means they speed up that person's test while other tests are left behind.

"No. They just switch them. The Lord knows who has what virus or what disease. They just switch them, ya basha. If you have Hepatitis C, or TB, or Bird Flu or anything else, and you pay those brokers, you'll get a paper saying that you're the perfect man. Someone else gets your disease."

I askecd him how much you pay for the blood analysis thing. He mentioned a number that I don't remember... but it was not some small amount. Keep in mind that the people who visit the Ministry's Labs are usually poor workers that cannot afford to private clinics or centers which would carry out the same tests.

That just about cinched it for me. Egypt. In all its glory.

The ride didnt end there, we discussed how his License-reneweal medical check-up costs 10 L.E. to perform, but 80 to get it in three days; a huge disparity if you think about how much that amount of money means to a Cab driver.

We discussed how the President cannot choose someone who understands all these below-the-table dealings and attempts to reform them without offering some sort of substitute (they'd be assassinated, was our conclusion). Finally, we discussed how the Prime Minister is always the political scape goat. Someone who greatly represents the element of magnesium (isn't this the one that ignites when it comes into contact with air? - I got a C in Chemistry; shines for a bit but burns out real quick.

I paid the man 15 pounds for a 12 pound trip (or 10 pounds if you're my brother).

He helped me with the way I see it.

Total... er, partial eclipse of the Sun.

2006-03-29T21:12:00.000+02:00

Today, Egypt was one of those countries fortunate enough to experience the Total Solar Eclipse. Sadly, this was in Salloum, way over by the western border of the country, right next to Libya. In Cairo, there was only a partial eclipse.

In the school where I work, as usual, there was a big controversy regarding the eclipse. Here's how it went:

Someone in administration heard that there is a high chance of being blinded if you were to stare at the sun during the eclipse. Now, while I do not know the scientific truth of the matter, I will assume (for the sake of argument) that this is, in fact, true. What happened was that they re-scheduled the break 45 minutes earlier than usual. (With the old timing, break-time closely co-incided with the estimated time when there would be the maximum eclipse for Cairo).

Of course, the point behind this was to make sure that non of the kids stupidly look at the sun disk while the eclipse was "in process". What happened was that during the eclipse, one of the teachers (I'm guessing) allowed his/her kids out (again Im guessing because they asked/begged and annoyed them) to check out the eclipse.

I'm not sure if the kids were meant to return to the classroom promptly, or not.

Since the Head-Mistress (Principal) was not present at that point in time (she had to go to this hospital because her son had been injured playing sports earlier in the day), non of the other administrative staff did anything about the issue. Furthermore, sixth period (eclipse-occuring time) was designated as a free period where the kids could (if they wished) join the "eclipse-prayer". I have never heard about this before, but I will suppose that it exists in Islam or something.

There was no-one assigned to supervise those kids that did not wish to pray or the classes of the teachers that did wish to pray; all occurred haphazardly. This prayer was organized quite efficiently, in record time, if I may add. Of course, no real teaching occurred during the last two periods (which were over 8 minutes longer than usual because of the shortened and re-scheduled break)

My question is this: How on earth could an administrative staff, and a Head Mistress, expect to foster a proper educational environment if the decisions they make are abrupt and carried out with barely any warning. The teachers were more confused than the students. (I actually believe that the students are used to living in this chaotic atmosphere... they seem to thrive in such a climate.)

Whenever a teacher errs, or supposedly errs (the same thing to the administration), there is usually hell to pay. I would not be surprised if public lynching of the teacher became institutionalized policy. It surprises and shocks me that simple organizational steps cannot be set, followed and maintained. The school actually claims that they educate the future leaders of this country. Woe be unto us if this is true!

If I was in charge of this country, or had any say in the matter, the school staff and all administration personnel responsible for such chaos and confusion would be tried for High Treason, found guilty and summarily shot. I'm dead serious. One did not expect that private schools would be more corrupt than public schools, but apparently this is so. One expects governments, and especially the Egyptian government, to do a bad job. Schools who charge their students exorbitant fees for mediocre services, should not.

But that's just the way I see it.

The Rain

2006-03-28T13:44:00.001+02:00

It rained yesterday. That was quite strange.

I imagine all Cairenes had already assumed the summer was upon us (yes, this early) because the temperature has been increasing steadily for the past two weeks. More and more people had already begun to shed their winter outfits and make ready for spring (that is, if one can call the period between winter and summer - generally lasting no more than a day to a week - spring).

As I took a cab back home from Downtown Cairo (from near the American University in Cairo's Greek Campus), I noticed a couple of good things about the rain; the trees seem greener and the air smelled different, somewhat purer (not pure, of course. I doubt that anything short of divine intervention or a nuclear weapon can rid Cairo of the obscene levels of pollution that it suffers from). But aah! The trees were beautiful.

And that was about it.

Being Egyptian, and living in Egypt, I did not allow any shred of happiness to overcome my sensibilities. As usual, I was proven correct in my decision. I had to wait for an empty cab for a period which exceeded thirty minutes. As a general rule, this is a bit much. This is because most Egyptians are completely unfamiliar with rain. It's also because government officials, or those in the Ministry of Transportation, clearly have no idea on how to plan and construct decent roads.

Let me explain. (Thought I warn you, this may take a bit and could be detrimental to your psychological health.. as an Egyptian. To all non-Egyptians, well... behold some of the miniscule reasons why I personally believe Egypt, as a country, should be declared one of the wonders of the modern world.)

I'll start with the roads. Most Cairenes with a decent memory span of one year (you can't expect more from Egyptians) or... more(!!!) understand perfectly well that rain is an urban disaster in Egypt; the roads flood, the metro (subway, tube, whatever) breaks down, public transportation in the form of buses and so on also break-down, walls leak, sewege and drainage pipes overflow... the whole works. In all honesty, this makes no sense at all.

You see, most Egyptian roads, in my humble opinion, should be labeled as hazardous. Apparently, in an attempt to keep Egyptians drivers and pedestrians on their toes (always on the lookout for possible hazards), no two Egyptian roads look alike, feel alike or are even designed alike. Hell, the same road in Egypt takes on forms that are so different that were you to blindfold a passenger in any four-wheeled vehicle (preferably a non-Egyptians. The Egyptians would be fooled for maybe... 3 seconds, then they'd identify the exact address - including the closest building number), they would probably believe that they are traversing urban, rocky, desert, tundra and savannah terrain all in one go.

You have streets which are V-shaped, then you have those that take on a wave form, then you have streets that go like this: / or like this \. Or a combination of both - /\/\/\/\.

You have streets with pot-holes, you have streets with ditches, you have streets with sidewalks, without sidewalks, with asphalt, without asphalt, with and without asphalt (Thirty-One flavors?! Humph! The Egyptian government has put Baskin Robbins to shame!) You have streets which wiggle you, make you slide, spin, rotate, vibrate, elevate, depress, compress and dissect you. (The combination is always a secret... and subject to change. You'll always be caught with your pants down.)

We don't have regular streets (usually consisting of a long, black smooth surface which is slightly curved upwards in the middle). WHY WOULD WE?! Why on earth would any sane, logical person want to have a road where the water automatically moves to the sides and where a gutter and efficient drainage system awaits to whisk it away through a myriad of well-designed, placed and built pipes?! I know why! Why that would be completely and utterly boring. This way, every time it rains, all car-drivers can imagine they're boat captains (Ahoy there Cab Driver!) and navigate around the city. Because of the state of some Cairo streets, the previous statement isn't really an exaggeration.

As it stands, when it rains, the normally insane Egyptian drivers split into factions;

King of the Jungle Faction: The group of people that will inform you that rain or shine, nothing stands in the way of their vehicle. They will continue driving along at speeds in excess of 100 km/h (in 60 km/h zones). As a special treat, and to illustrate their point more practically, they might even consider bumping up their normal vehicular speeds a good 20-40 km/h. To prove a point you see.

Head in the Ground Faction: My personal favourites. This group of people will slowly and surely inform you that to move beyond 1 km/h in the rain is a sure way to ultimately damage your vehicle. Thus, they plod along at 1km/h, effectively causing 5 km traffic jams. (What really bothers me is that they refuse to go home and park the car... As far as I can deduce, their dogma stipulates that they continue driving around the way they do, in order to spread awareness of their beliefs.)

Heads will Roll Faction: Most drivers fall into this category when it rains. This group of drivers will drive along at a moderate speed, slow down when it comes to newly created middle-of-the-road oceans, seas or lakes. A little faster when the road clears up. But, they are extremely pissed off because of the behaviors of the Head in the Ground Faction and the King of the Jungle Faction.

Rain in Cairo will, apparently, forever change the way you view the environment. Rain in Cairo will turn the staunchest Green Peace activist into a hardcore mother-nature vandal. Yes indeed!

Ain't I lucky that I don't have a driver's license yet?

And that's the way I see it.

My! How things can change.

2006-03-27T10:08:00.000+02:00

Sadly, this is another MUN post. Hopefully, it will be one of the last ones (at least for quite a long time to come).

I got involved in a discussion with a friend who was part of the CIMUN (Cairo International Model United Nations) before. Naturally, this was after they had read my previous post in which I was not very pleasant towards CIMUN.

Basically, after I discussed the details of the matter with them, giving them names, occurences and dates and after the whole thing went back and forth for a while, I was quite satisfied with the conclusion that we had reached (Don't expect a biblical revelation); its possible that I was a bit harsh criticizing the organization. Knowing that I only criticize because I believe in the essence of the MUN, hence the number of times that I joined the Organization either as a Delegate, Secretariat or Organizing Committee member, I should maybe direct my criticisms at the people I have a problem with and not the whole organization.

In fact, I obviously would not attack the organization unless I was criticizing the reasons for which it is created or the mission it attempts to carry out. What happened was that I (and I do this often) mis-phrased what I wanted to say. This is probably because there was a large number of people that I wanted to criticize, so I just went on and blamed the whole organization.

Also, and I forgot to mention this before, the degree of subjectivism was obviously high. I will not defend that though. They were my personal views and thus they are nothing if not subjective. Still, and I won't get into details, I know the feelings I harbored were obviously too intense.

Last of all (thank you for hanging in there!), I should mention that I still don't agree with lots of self-congratulating that occurs in MUN and the amount of needless back-scratching that occurs. I also find it strange that some people manage to judge how others perform without any possible benchmark, basis or knowledge upon which to base their judgement.

Have some shame and stop telling people that they suck or kick ass simply because they you don't/do like them. Have you learnt nothing from all those courses that you are taking/took to get your degree?!

And that's just the way I see it.

A Spin on the Strange Turn of Events

2006-03-21T18:25:00.000+02:00

In an egomaniacal attempt to hold onto my position of ‘Devil’s Advocate’ in all things posted on this blog, I will try and put a spin on Faisal’s blog on Ibrahim Nafea.

Consider this: We live in a country where the bureaucracy is the be all and end all of…well, all, people tend to forget one very simple variable that cannot be ignored: human nature. Allow me to explain.

A wise man once said: “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It is a natural progression (please permit me this generalization, and a few more to come) of events for a person who had nothing to thank his lucky stars when he/she gets a break. In most cases, he/she will take full advantage they will now find themselves in.

Now you will be thinking “That’s not an excuse!!” And you’re right, it isn’t…I’ll get back to this later on. Let’s examine another side of the equation. The system, as it exists (as it existed?!?!) does nothing to combat this kind of corruption. Worse, it does a great deal to encourage it. The ruling clique is very likely to be highly suspicious of someone who doesn’t ‘join the club’ so to speak; that might indicate that the person in question has… morals (aaaarrrrrgghhhh!!). A big no-no if you happen to hold some position in the government. See, it’s all well and good if the person just simply doesn’t want to take anything, more for me (this ‘them’ thinking); but what happens if, heaven forbid, that moral person suddenly decided that everyone else should be moral too?

And so, if you follow this line of argument, the only people who are capable to fighting the corrupt-powerful are those that are as, or more powerful, than them.

Now let’s get to the crux of the matter: For those that comment on the corrupt or lament the powerful for their moral ambiguity, would you be any better if placed in the same position, provided with the same opportunities and placed under the same pressures?

Think about it for a while; we’ll discuss this again soon.

A Strange Turn of Events

2006-03-21T10:10:00.000+02:00

I discovered yesterday that a co-worker, an Economics Teacher, is the Daughter in law of Ibrahim Nafae. This is significant because I had just published a post on my Blog, yesterday, discussing corruption and the fact that this teacher's father-in-law was being investigated for suspicion of wide-scale corruption while heading Egypt, and the Arab World's, most distributed Arabic Newspaper.

The situation becomes very strange when you are actually acquainted with someone whose family will be directly affected because of such an issue. It's not that I feel any sympathy for Nafae (or, I should say, I will not feel any sympathy for him if he is found guilty and punished), it's just somewhat awkward listening to her (she seemed to be taking it well - and this isn't an air-headed or callous woman) discussing how she explained to her children (16 and 20) what the whole thing was about and that they should come to expect that their house might be searched and their things meticulously picked through by investigators.

My father, a media man himself, explained to me his own experiences with Nafae. Apparently, Nafae's wife was a colleague of his way back when he worked with the Egyptian Radio and Television and they were not doing financially well. This was until Jihan El Sadat, Deceased President Sadat's wife, chose him to be in charge of her monetary affairs. A front man, so to speak. My father tells me that when Nafae was chosen to be Editor-in-Chief, the media world was shocked that this man (apparently an insignificant at that point in time) was brought in to head Egypt's most presitigious newspaper.

He then went on to tell me how people in Al Ahram Press, and in particular a friend of his who holds a managerial position there, informed him that Nafae and his sons (one of whom is married to my co-worker) went on to monopolize the newspaper's source of paper, ink, glue, machine spare-parts and other matters. This is, of course, independant of their use of their connections to obtain large pieces of land at cheap prices and then selling them again at outrageous prices (but I won't consider this as being of a corrupt nature since I do not have relevant Real Estate information about land prices etc).

The situation is strange because on one side, I like my co-worker. She's an interesting, fun person. It's easy to make conversation with me, and she understands what I'm talking about even though there is a large difference in age between us and she's an economist (hehe). But, realizing that the money that her husband obtained, money that she herself used to buy her clothes, cars, travel etc was money obtained through stealing and corruption is not something that I can accept easily.

I will not judge her or sever any acquaintance-ship between us at this point in time (or, I should say, I will very much attempt not to do so). I'm just confused about how I should react.

And that's the way I see it...

On a happier note?

2006-03-20T20:44:00.000+02:00

If anyone has been following, I had previously published a post on the Model United Nations at the University where I used to study. Something happened today that made me think: well hey, maybe there is a light at the end of the long, dark tunnel!

A good friend of mine was chosen to be Secretary-General of the conference; the big honcho of all honchos. Knowing that the person running against her, technically speaking, really had no chance to make it as Secretary-General (Sec Gen), I really shouldn't have been this happy. Not happy in the sense that I should have known that she was going to win, and would have been preparing my congratulations.

Not so. Usually, the person I root for ends up not getting it. I am not sure if this is because I support them (morally, since there is really nothing else I did or could have done for that matter) or because I generally choose the person who is less qualified or my understanding of the criteria upon which the choice is made is highly skewed.

Either way, Nouran became Sec Gen, and I believe a new dawn will light up the land of MUN. I percieve her as someone who might bring change in the way she deals with her secretariat and organizing committee (OC) members and heads. Postive change. Positive here meaning: no pretentiousness and sticking to the old ways just because they are the old ways. Positive also meaning that she might listen to her secretariats' needs and not feel the urge to blindly enforce her views. She, thankfully, hasn't been tainted by excessive exposure to those MUN-ers that I consider tainted.

Sadly, the battle is not over. After choosing the Sec Gen, there comes the choosing of the Graduate Advisor (affectionately called the Grad Ad) and the OC Head. As for OC head, I have no major problem with the two applicants I am sure (personally, and not officially) will apply. But there is a problem with the Grad Ad part of the matter. Another friend is applying for that position. Regretfully, the person running against her is a pretentious little fool who gets off on showing people that he knows it all and who always makes stupid stupid jokes. Worse than mine. Believe me when I tell you that if you're jokes are worse than mine, then you're in trouble.

I say sadly because my friend has fewer MUN experiences than pretentious little fool. I want her to get it, but tradtional MUN thinking would have it that experiences are strongly valued (which isn't a bad thing in and of itself). It also means that the personality aspect is not stressed as strongly. Nor is the ability to use your head instead of your ass to think (which is what I think he does).

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that Nouran makes the right choice. The situation looks grim. I was day-dreaming about actually going up to the faculty advisor (who gets a say in these matters and is the de facto last word on the issue - so it's more than a say really) and informing her that pretentious little fool shouldn't be chosen. It went along these lines:

*I Enter the Faculty Advisor's office after knocking*

Me: Good Morning Doctor.
Faculty Advisor: Good Morning.
Me: Doctor, I've been wanting to talk to you about something.
Faculty Advisor: Go on.
Me: I don't think you should choose pretentious little fool as Grad Ad. In fact, I think you should stand whole-heartedly against it. (I actually say pretentious little fool and she manages to understand who I'm talking about, since its my Day-Dream).
Faculty Advisor: And why is that?
Me: Well, I'm sure you noticed that he's a pretentious little fool.
Faculty Advisor: Yes, as a matter of fact, I did.
Me: Then you should veto him being chosen. Better yet, he should not be allowed to run for this position.
Faculty Advisor: I think I'll take your word for it. *Erases his name with a pen from a paper conveniently placed in front of her* It's done. You don't have to worry about it.
Me: Thanks Doc!
Faculty Advisor: That's alright, what you said makes complete and utter sense (Hurray for her understanding!)

Yeah, I know I have serious psychological issues but...

That's just the way I see it.

What's up?!

2006-03-20T09:24:00.000+02:00

Today, I read an article in an Egyptian Newspaper, El Masree el Yoam (literally translated to The Egyptian Today), with the following headline; 'A Prominent Official to "The Egyptian Today": High-level instructions to uncover the corruption of former Ministers and High-level Officials'.

The article discusses, in brief, the case of a particular Egyptian former Official, Ibrahim Nafea, the former Chief of the Board and Editor-in-Chief of the government-owned Al-Ahram newspaper (the most widely sold Arab newspaper in the world). The article explains that the newspaper's source claims that Nafae's diplomatic immunity will be lifted as soon as the evidence against him is completely compiled. This will occur when the Egyptian Shura Council (Egyptian Parliamentary Higher Council for Advising)** convenes a session with Nafae in the presence of the Parliamentary Committee on the Constitution and Legislation and discuss the matter with him.

The article goes on to mention that up to three former Ministers and a larger number of former officials will, or might - it doesn't make it clear, be tried for similar charges of corruption as well as waste and mismanagement of Public Funds. There are two things that irked me when I read this article.

First of all, why are there only a few officials on trial for corruption in a country which reeks of it?
Second, and more important, why do we not see Public Officials being charged before the word former is appended to their titles? This has almost always been the case in Egypt, as far back as I have been monitoring the news closely (about nine years). I will discuss in length other instances of obvious corruption and mismanagement in separate posts, but for now I will comment on the use of the word "former".

First though, I have to admit there was a tinge of happiness when I read the article. Not only because these people have been, or are being, brought to justice but also because I felt that they have been used as scapegoats or, at least, they've been abandoned by the Egyptian "Old Guard"***. The reason it makes me feel happy is because I get the feeling that the old ways, the old order of politics in Egypt so to speak, is dying out. When former partners in crime are being sacrificed, this speaks of instability. Either the Old Guard are being replaced by the new (headed by the President's Son Gamal Mubarak) or a change of methods and system has come about in such a way that some have to be sacrificed to give the illusion of change and reform.

On the issue of "former", the situation is much clearer (to me at least). As with most Authoritarian systems which encourage crony-ism, you cannot risk charging someone in office as it might come back and bite you in the ass. Ibrahim Nafae was replaced about a year ago. His replacement was expected by many, but still came as a surprise to me. The man has held that position for well over a decade, possibly surpassing two (I am not sure about the exact number). As a child, I did not think it possible for anyone else to become Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram, and I am not exaggerating.

I'm guessing that the "case" against him was being built by certain people in power before his replacement. Egypt is a state where political players, especially those directly involved in the shaping of policy, are quite shrewd. Most know how to adapt to a changing situation quite efficiently (if you think about it, most of the Old Guard were members of Former President Nasser's National Socialist Party - hardcore advocates of Socialism... or so it seemed). In fact, and this does not require any level of political maturity or knowledge, they moved from position to position and adopted ideology upon ideology as their political survival dictated. So they were first Socialist and now they are hardcore capitalists. Yeah, so? Who cares?

Only self-delusion can convince one that they are, in fact, supporters and advocates of these ideologies that they perpetuate, spread and market; these people want power and money... how they get it is a mere detail.

So yeah. Try Ibrahim Nafae, convict him (or not) of those charges of corruption, bribery and whatever else you care for. Yay to the Public Prosecutor and all those Policemen involved in the investigations! You've bagged a big fish my friends. Just know this: it's obvious that that Egypt, as a political system, is at the beginning of the end. The Decline starts here. I'm guessing that there will be more violence and dissent as time goes by. This is the only the beginning, and I'm sure they know it.

I don't want the peaceful transfer of power; this would leave too many low and mid-level bureaucrats in positions that would effectively cripple (as it does now) the Egyptian bureaucracy. I want major upheavel... possibly a revolution. It will be bloody, that cannot be denied.

But it would be worth it.

And that's the way I see it.

--------------------------------------------------------------

** Please keep in mind that this is my name for the body, as it is officially recognized and known as the Shura Council. They have no effective power in parliament and merely recommend. Most members are either long-time professionals or holders of Ph.Ds. They are members of many specialized committees in parliament. I wish the Egyptian government would give English names to all public institutions... it isn't that difficult. Thank god the Military academy isn't called: El Koleya El Harbeya.

*** The Old Guard are those people directly involved in decision-making at higher levels and have been so for uptil three decades, many since Former President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Most have been members of Nasser's National Socialist Party, Sadat's Egypt's Party and Mubarak's National Democratic Party. Many are former police, army or intelligence officers. Almost all are acknowledged as being extremely corrupt (never verified officially through a court-room ruling.. though many who have fell out of favor do get charged with committing a plethora of offences).

(No Title)

2006-03-12T17:36:00.000+02:00

Hmm. Lets see, I really think that you have made some MAJOR leaps in logic. Out of insane curiousity, I am wondering how it is you are so sure that the Israeli girl was being fake? I mean for all you know the girl was just trying to get along. And what's more she had one Egyptian girl and two Jordanians with her in the same room!! Come on, she had to, at the very least, feel extremely awkward. You can't really blame her for trying to get along. Not to mention that that was the whole idea of the project, she must have been terrified.

Now lets get to the guy who "respected" your hatred. For all you know he could have been checking out your ass, or thinking the he can score one for Israeli males.

Sorry if I am slamming your blog. It ain't personal.

The only two Israelis I know

2006-03-10T13:56:00.000+02:00

I'm writing in reference to Faisal's conclusion on Israelis.
I'm late I know…but it just reminded me of my own contact with Israelis…

My friend Heba has been active in a peace organization called CISV, which organizes camps for kids and teens from various countries. I joined for a while, although it became very clear to me that I'm not the type that will work hard for the sake of world peace. For I can find many other causes that I think are much more worthy of my efforts. That's because I don't believe that world peace is realistically achievable. By this I don't mean that one shouldn't at least try to make some change, since that would mean that we shouldn't work on the environment either. But I just don't think that some Arab and some Israeli children should meet and become friends, for the only thing that this creates is an inner conflict which can become really painful in case those two countries should get into war again. That is, if the kids really learn to become friends in the first place. My experience showed otherwise.

I was a late teen at the time when I was sent to a CISV project management workshop in Italy. It was a lot of fun and I learnt a lot. I must add that the main reason I had joined CISV was the amazing organizational skills of the junior branch of which I was part.
Due to Egypt Air, I arrived in Italy 12 hours too late. So I didn't get to choose my bed. The bed I got was in a room with 2 Jordanian girls and - in the lower bunk of my bed – an Israeli girl. The Israeli girl was being too nice for my taste and it just felt too fake. She was the first Israeli I had ever met and I hadn't thought about how to deal with such a situation before. So I just played her game: great cooperation at work, extreme kindness and friendliness, if a little cool, and expressed religious and national pride – as if there was no problem at all. But we had a secret that flowed between us: there was no peace, we hated each other. And we were secretly lobbying for our cultures. Of course the Arab side – parallel to reality – had the advantage of larger numbers. I just couldn't like her. I caught myself expressing my dislike in very secretive ways, like by jumping off of the bunk bed in the early morning, making sure she woke up from the thump. Having her around and in my own room was very uncomfortable. I had to let it out in some way.
Then there was the Israeli guy on board. With him it was different. We kept our communication to the minimum. We kept our distance, acknowledging and respecting our mutual hatred.
But in both cases, our conflict was kept very silent.
When it was time to leave, the girl hugged me "warmly" and i thought she was carrying our fake friendship too far, so I didn't hug her back. I said goodbye to everyone else and at the end, the Israeli guy, passing me by, thumped me on the back in a rather kind way and gave me a half smile. For some reason, I was really touched. I liked the way he handled the situation. That thump on the back kind of meant it was all not personal, but that this was the way it was and we didn't have to force it or to pretend it was otherwise. That thump was a "thank you" for not faking it. There was a mutual understanding. So for some reason, by the end of the camp, I liked the not-nice Israeli more than the overly friendly one.
A camp can't remove hatred towards Israel in general, it just teaches you to hide it well and play it right. And if you do get to like one of them, it is an exception; it doesn't make you reconsider your feelings towards Israelis in general. It rather makes you forgive the fact that he's an Israeli, and treat it as a flaw that you learn to tolerate.

Corruption, Organizations and People

2006-03-08T11:37:00.000+02:00

When I started this Blog in May 2004, it was a personal Blog. I discontinued the project after realizing that I did not have the time (then) to update it often as well as not being able to put my thoughts into words short of writing a 10,000 word post.

I then switched this to what I would call a Socio-Political Blog. Socio-Economic and Political or just a Blog about things in Politics and Society and all matters (that I can think of) affected or related to these things.

This post supposedly follows that trend though I fear that I might have increased the dosage of the personal (and I don't mean my personal opinion because that's what I have been sharing - rather, events of a personal nature that would not be posted on this Blog were I more stringent in my standards).

Either way, its time for the Model United Nations at the AUC (American University in Cairo) where I used to study as a student. I have been a member of the organization this year as part of MUNAP (Model United Nations Awareness Program). I've joined councils before as a delegate and as a President of one of the councils. Let's put this aside for a second.

I have grown, over the years, to absolutely positively hate what MUN stands for. You see, when a pretenious idiot decides that, along with a large group of other pretentious idiots, that they know what's best in the world... I start feeling nauseated.

It's not even that, because now most secretariat (the group of pretentious idiots) and the Secretary General (THE pretentious idiot) have become a lot more "cooler" and less "book-wormish".

But hey, this isn't even my main objection to the existence of this organization.. I have many others;

1. They choose to blacklist anyone that makes them look bad (read: corrected them on informational mistake they made).
2. They already know who they're going to choose yet still continue the farce of having interviews and so on and so forth.
3. The Sec Gen generally decides to interfere in the individual council's work.
4. The Council's Director (the Top Honcho when it comes to information and matters of substance) sometimes just writes the resolution him/her self in order to "Look Good".
5. They deify people regularly. I'm surprised some of the secretariat and former Secretary Generals have not been cannonized as Saints yet. Let me see, St. Menza of the Lamp. St. Gabr. St. Yasmine. Yes indeed, has a nice ring to it***.
6. The secretariat always maintain a facade of "We love you all and care for you". Sadly, you can only be loved in their way.

There are other reasons, but most are too minute to mention here.

(Contd. the next day)

It's amazing how MUN manages to transform people... having friends inform you that you weren't chosen as a delegate because their team mates didn't agree and how they couldn't argue with them while in fact those same "friends" didn't have the guts to tell you that they didn't think you were good enough or that you didn't have what they were looking for.

This happened to two friends of mine so many times, it was pathetic.

Thing is, this is an exact reflection (in much simpler terms of course) of one of the many traits of the Egyptian bureaucracy... two-timing and general deceit behind people's backs while continuously praising them.

This is one of those things that I just cannot stand, in a friend, an acquaintance... in anyone and least of all in organizations that claim to be doing a service to others; MUN, MAL (Model Arab League) and the Egyptian Bureaucracy.

I could write more, but... I'm just too annoyed about it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

*** Strangely enough, the names of the three people I chose to include when talking about deification were the names of three people that I actually like and respect very much. It has to be made clear the I am not talking about some Simulation Mafia here, rather, Im just talking about a lot of corruption. I would say wholesale corruption, but that would be an exaggeration.

The Blog

2006-03-08T11:33:00.000+02:00

I believe that any blogger wants to be appreciated. Whether for writing style, information, ideas or anything else... people who "own" Blogs seek some sort of web-user's acceptance or appreciation.

I am a Blogger.

Still, it sort of dampens my enthusiasm when I realize that a Blog about Blonde Jokes (which I enjoy immensely) has more comments that my own.

(You can visit the Blonde Joke Blogger at http://bestblondejokes.blogspot.com/)

It's not bad at all.

Egypt... Land of Civilisation

2006-03-05T14:30:00.000+02:00

Egypt is unique.

No seriously, Egypt is unique.

I'm not talking about the pyramids or the sphinx. It's not the Greeks or the Romans or even the pollution levels. Egypt is unique because it manages, through the strangest and most astounding of means, to astound me.

By Egypt, I mean the government.

The school I work in is located near the Pyramids. In fact, the Pyramid of Cheops dominates most window views on Campus. It towers high above us, reminding us of how great this country once was.

So anyways, let me not digress. To come to school, I take a main highway and then exit at the Mansouria Canal (One of the main Giza irrigation canals) and travel parellel to it until, after a series of turns and twists, I reach the school. On that road, the one parallel to the Canal, there exists one of the strangest signs I have ever seen. (Sadly, I do not own a camera of any sort at the moment, and thus cannot take a picture of it at this point in time.)

The sign is one of those Yellow writing on Blue background ones. Much like the ones that one finds to the sides of highways that tell you the remaining distance you have to travel to reach the next city or rest stop or whatever. This sign is different though. The text on it is reads as follows:

EGYPT
Land of Civilisation

Note that this area is one of the main tourist areas in the country. This sign is in English and half, if not most, of the region's inhabitants probably have no clue to what it means.

That is not all. On the other side of the road there is another sign which proclaims:

EGYPT
Land of Peace*

I am guessing that some extremely intelligent person (E.I.P) at the Ministry of Tourism (Read: redundant bureaucrat) arrived at his office one day and started thinking;

*The following is a written account of his thought processes*

E.I.P. : Oh shit, if I don't finish the Nation-Wide Tourism Enhancement Study and Plan, that my Boss assigned me yesterday, by four pm today, I will forever be heralded as the employee who caused our Tourism revenues to fail. Damn those Islamists.

*Boss Comes In*

Boss: Are you done with that Nation-Wide Tourism Enhancement Study and Plan that I assigned you yesterday? The Minister asked me to brief him on it by 2:30 pm today.

E.I.P.: Oh shit, now what?! I better come up with some sort of idea right now. *Pauses* Fuckin A. I'll quote Mubarak at him.

E.I.P.: I have the perfect solution Boss. As per the instructions and words of his Royal Highness, THE Man amongst all men, the Leader of all Leaders, the Warrior in a world of Rabbits, His Beautiful Faceness, our beloved Father, Leader and Shepherd Mohammed Hosni Mubarak (May the Blessings of God be bestowed upon you for merely hearing His name), why do we not put up signs all around the tourist areas telling those finnicky tourists that Egypt is the Land of Peace and Civilization? That would be the perfect solution!

Boss (Read: Another redundant Bureaucrat): That is the perfect solution, inspired by His Beautiful Faceness... (etc).

And thus, the suggestion goes up along the chain of command to reach His Excellency, our Minister of Tourism (yeah, right) who (of course) immediately adopts the idea... and a new era in Egyptian incompetence is born!

*I found out later on (basically, the next day) that the sign actually says: Egypt is the Leader of Peace. So there you go. Egypt is in fact the Leader of Peace and not merely the Land of Peace. God have mercy on us all.

------------------------------------------------

This is the first post that I do not write in one go. Also, I have noticed that I have a general trend to just keep criticizing and bashing the Egyptian government, its people sometimes etc. I'm sorry about that. There are things that happen here that make me hopeful about a better future. Still,I will be discussing all the things that I think are wrong with this country (with a possible few exceptions). I will leave it to my fellow contributors to mention the pink, rosy side (if it can be said that such a thing exists).

Finally, to all those who expect a more academic style of writing, or more grace in my phrasing or extra verve in my wit (non-existant according to many)... excuse me for boring you, if I have, with my chaotic ideas and weak style.

Addendum

2006-02-28T20:52:00.000+02:00

My friend Hussam just informed me that I need to put numbers and things of the sort when making arguments about the state of education or the economy of Egypt. That makes complete sense, and let me inform anyone who has bothered to read this far that I will not generally do that unless I feel really strongly about the topic.

Other than that, please, don't take anything I say for granted. Im sorry if Im going to force you to do a bit of research, but sometimes I just dont have the numbers at hand. I dont have access to a computer at home at the moment and techincally speaking, I shouldnt be blogging from work. It would be pretty obvious that I am not doing my work if I was to embark on a journey of statistical discovery and uncovering.

So BASICALLY... Sorry!

The Meat of the Matter and the Crux of the Issue.

2006-02-28T09:17:00.000+02:00

I recently took a cab to work (I was late for the school bus and thus was forced to dish out 20 L.E. to a cabby). I usually make conversation with Cab drivers, usually because they cannot seem to be able to drive for any distance without being involved in some kind of conversation. Im guessing this keeps the boredom at bay. So, anyways, the driver turned out to be a department head at the Ministry of Planning. I found that interesting.

You see, Department heads are like 4-5 Hierarchial levels away from Minister. They are above the middle echelons of the organization. But this guy was driving a cab! Of course, I didn't just get into the cab and have the man announce that he was a department head. We began talking about something or the other and then he informed me that one of his children was taking English courses at some center or institute. Then we began discussing the concept of private lessons in Egypt and, of course, the state of the Egyptian educational system.

Now we get to the meat of the matter. The Crux of the Issue.

Economically speaking, Egypt is considered an under-developed state. I won't get into the economic details and statistics (mainly because I dont have the numbers memorized and I'm too lazy to search for them now) but suffice to say that the country is lagging behind... and badly. This is especially obvious to all those who reside in Egypt. The number of poor people is appalling. The number of people who get poorer everyday is even more appalling. Our Economy is more and more relying on the services sector, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for the fact that Egypt almost defines the classic example of a rentier state; we get all our income from... things that are already there.

So what are Egypt's sources of income?

1. Tourism

2. Suez Canal Revenues.

3. Remittances from workers abroad.

4. Oil.

5. (RECENTLY) Selling off public institutions.

So we're basically producing nothing and getting money for things that we never did.

I could begin to list all the reasons why Egypt has no industrial capacity: the conflicts that we were involved in for years and that still ear-mark the region as risky to possible investors, the Nasserist and Sadatist legacies, the conspicuous consumption carried out by most Egyptians who can afford to invest etc etc etc.

But that's not it. Not really. Deep down, if we search and dig and uncover, I believe the root of the problem is Education.

I am one of those political economists who strongly believe that Education is a main driving factor, if not the most important factor, behind a state's ability to develop, industrialize or at least become a world economic power. China was able to prove that you do not need to produce and export high-tech products in order to succeed. Not at all. Then again, it wouldn't be rational to compare Egypt with China because of the differences in the past, now and for sometime. Korea has also been able to prove that investing in education will mean a high return in terms of (and I hate to use this expression which I consider quite derogatory) "Human Capital".

Let's look at it in a simpler fashion. Germany, the UK, the US, France along with some other industrialized nations have an economy that is heavily based on production. That is, an economy based on skilled or semi-skilled manual laborers. We don't even have that in beautiful Egypt. Our vocational schools are so out-dated and so pathetically inadequate that those graduating for them probably wouldnt qualify to be apprentices in the shabbiest family-owned factories in the poorest industrial country.

When High School teachers, administration and staff choose to give their students above average to high grades so that these same students can specialize in their field of choice, that really does not help at all. Twenty years from now, we'll read about another building falling or patient dying because some son-of-a-bitch Doctor or Engineer (inadequately trained and educated) couldn't do his job properly.

Wake up!

There is so much more I want to write about this, and I will, but for now... I'm too exhausted!

I came to this conclusion

2006-02-26T11:48:00.000+02:00

I came to the conclusion recently that I strongly abhor Israelis. I realized that, except for that small portion of Israelis who actively lobby against Israeli occupation of Palestine and others who refuse to be conscripted when the time comes after they complete High School, I will not even enter into conversation with an Israeli when I see them.

It was never like this before for me. I had always taken the stance that I would deal with them as human beings, possibly in a slightly cold manner, but I might actually engage in conversation... out of politeness if nothing else.

Then something strange happened a couple of days ago.

I was watching the news and the channel I was viewing had a short piece of footage which involved the usual scene of a Palestinian child lobbing a stone at an Israeli armored Jeep. In retaliation, an Israeli soldier comes out from behind the Jeep and fires a couple of rifle rounds in the general vicinity of the child. I don't know if the man was a bad shot, or whether he missed on purpose, but the boy was not hit. Keep in mind that this was live fire, a few seconds before this boy threw his rock, a man was shot and killed.

I had seen this exact scene hundreds of times before on many different news channels from different parts of the world. But this time, my grandmother (who was sitting next to me at the time) spoke up and said: Look at what he did! How could he do that? He [the boy] just threw a rock at him and he fires a bullet back at him! These Israelis! (This last statement was said in a very sarcastic and cynical tone of voice.)

I realized that I am disgusted, as a human being (though I cannot deny the subjectivity of my conclusions as an Muslim, Arab Egyptian), by the things those Israeli army soldiers do.

I will not accept the weird excuses they offer to explain their actions (not that they feel they have to, apparently. They seem to think that it's only natural for them to fire live rounds at people throwing rocks at their M-16 toting, steel and kevlar protected soldiers). I don't care if the United Nations divided Palestine into territories for the jewish inhabitants and others for the Arabs. I don't care if U.N. resolutions makes it alright or legal. I thus don't care that the Israelis are still in breach of these resolutions.

Although I have never advocated this before, I hope by everything holy that Hamas keeps bombing the hell out of Israeli civilians until they figure out that they are an occupying force who do not have the right to take one millimeter into land which is not their own.

You know what? I don't care about how violent people think this is as well. I hate the fact that I try to be understanding towards Americans, Israelies and all those foreigners and Westerners who think that Arabs are uncivilized and Muslims are terrorists. FINE! Let them think that. I personally don't believe in killing them for that, but I definitely believe that I will be less understanding and more critical of their culture and civilization.

Apparently the U.N. has a Dialogue of Civilizations committee or Special Body set-up. To hell with that. They won't get any dialogue from me.

Damn bigots.

Fisk on Denmark

2006-02-15T14:07:00.000+02:00

This is an article that one of my brothers forwarded to me on e-mail. As is obvious, it is by Robert Fisk and discusses the issue of the Danish newspaper and the caricatures of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed.

I generally respect what Robert Fisk has to say... and even though I do not agree with all his views in this article, I respect the fact that he went about writing it in what seemed to me to be a level-headed manner.

Here it is:

Robert Fisk: This Isn't Islam Versus Secularism

We can exercise our own hypocrisy over religious feelings. I happen
to remember, more than a decade ago, a film called The Last Temptation
of Christ.

By Robert Fisk

So now it's cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed with a bomb-shaped
turban. Ambassadors are withdrawn from Denmark , Gulf nations clear
their shelves of Danish produce, Gaza gunmen threaten the European
Union. In Denmark, Fleming Rose, the "culture" editor of the pip-squeak
newspaper which published these silly cartoons - last September, for
heaven's sake - announces that we are witnessing a "clash of
civilizations" between secular Western democracies and Islamic
societies. This does prove, I suppose, that Danish journalists follow in
the tradition of Hans Christian Anderson. Oh lordy, lordy. What we're
witnessing is the childishness of civilizations.

So let's start off with the Department of Home Truths. This is not
an issue of secularism versus Islam. For Muslims, the Prophet is the man
who received divine words directly from God. We see our prophets as
faintly historical figures, at odds with our high-tech human rights,
almost caricatures of themselves. The fact is that Muslims live their
religion. We do not. They have kept their faith through innumerable
historical vicissitudes. We have lost our faith ever since Matthew
Arnold wrote about the sea's "long, withdrawing roar". That's why we
talk about "the West versus Islam" rather than "Christians versus Islam"
- because there aren't an awful lot of Christians left in Europe. There
is no way we can get round this by setting up all the other world
religions and asking why we are not allowed to make fun of Mohamed.

Besides, we can exercise our own hypocrisy over religious feelings.
I happen to remember how, more than a decade ago, a film called The Last
Temptation of Christ showed Jesus making love to a woman. In Paris,
someone set fire to the cinema showing the movie, killing a young man. I
also happen to remember a US university which invited me to give a
lecture three years ago. I did. It was entitled " September 11, 2001 :
ask who did it but, for God's sake, don't ask why". When I arrived, I
found that the university had deleted the phrase "for God's sake"
because "we didn't want to offend certain sensibilities". Ah-ha, so we
have "sensibilities" too.

In other words, while we claim that Muslims must be good
secularists when it comes to free speech - or cheap cartoons - we can
worry about adherents to our own precious religion just as much. I also
enjoyed the pompous claims of European statesmen that they cannot
control free speech or newspapers. This is also nonsense. Had that
cartoon of the Prophet shown instead a chief rabbi with a bomb-shaped
hat, we would have had "anti-Semitism" screamed into our ears - and
rightly so - just as we often hear the Israelis complain about
anti-Semitic cartoons in Egyptian newspapers.

Furthermore, in some European nations - France is one, Germany and
Austria are among the others - it is forbidden by law to deny acts of
genocide. In France , for example, it is illegal to say that the Jewish
Holocaust or the Armenian Holocaust did not happen. So it is, in fact,
impermissable to make certain statements in European nations. I'm still
uncertain whether these laws attain their objectives; however much you
may prescribe Holocaust denial, anti-Semites will always try to find a
way round. We can hardly exercise our political restraints to prevent
Holocaust deniers and then start screaming about secularism when we find
that Muslims object to our provocative and insulting image of the Prophet.

For many Muslims, the "Islamic" reaction to this affair is an
embarrassment. There is good reason to believe that Muslims would like
to see some element of reform introduced to their religion. If this
cartoon had advanced the cause of those who want to debate this issue,
no-one would have minded. But it was clearly intended to be provocative.
It was so outrageous that it only caused reaction.

And this is not a great time to heat up the old Samuel Huntingdon
garbage about a "clash of civilizations". Iran now has a clerical
government again. So, to all intents and purposes, does Iraq (which was
not supposed to end up with a democratically elected clerical
administration, but that's what happens when you topple dictators). In
Egypt , the Muslim Brotherhood won 20 per cent of the seats in the
recent parliamentary elections. Now we have Hamas in charge of "
Palestine". There's a message here, isn't there? That America 's
policies - "regime change" in the Middle East - are not achieving their
ends. These millions of voters were preferring Islam to the corrupt
regimes which we imposed on them.

For the Danish cartoon to be dumped on top of this fire is
dangerous indeed.

In any event, it's not about whether the Prophet should be
pictured. The Koran does not forbid images of the Prophet even though
millions of Muslims do. The problem is that these cartoons portrayed
Mohamed as a bin Laden-type image of violence. They portrayed Islam as a
violent religion. It is not. Or do we want to make it so?

-The Independent

Football... or is it Soccer? WHO CARES!

2006-02-14T10:54:00.000+02:00

Egypt has recently won the African Cup of Nations! Congratulations!

In what was probably the most watched televised football tournament in this country, Egyptian fans heroically cheered their team on to an ultimate victory over the Ivory Coast's team (after 2 regular halves, 2 extra halves and ultimately 8 penalty kicks). We won, through penalty kicks, 1-0.

For the uninformed amongst you, 1-0 is the magical score that is automatically given to any two teams who slug it out in a grueling, nerve-wrenching penalty fest.

I actually went to the football stadium and watched that match. Hana and I had great seats! 2nd class tickets which placed us almost exactly in-line with the half-pitch line. We cheered and screamed and whistled along with over 75,000 other fans (more like the 30 sitting in our direct vicinity, but there were 75,000 fans in that stadium, not counting Egyptian security forces, who I estimate (very roughly and tentatively) numbered 281,938. Plus or minus 5... and the creepy looking guy two seats down from me.

Yes Egypt! Yes! Yes!

It would have been a memorable experience BUT...

But the Egyptian authorities, media, television, sport-casters, stadium administrators contributed to corrupting an event involving the most popular sport today.

1. The tickets were sold sporadically and were difficult to obtain.

2. There was supposedly food outlets at the Stadium. I haven't tried the stuff personally, but all accounts place it at a minimum of horrendous. They wouldnt allow people to bring in water or soda-cans or what not.

3. Even more, they wouldnt allow people to bring in lighters (Think: these lighters will be used to light up large amounts of TNT or dynamite and blow up the stadium)

4. The doors were closed VERY early on, and they even refused to allow people (who had tickets and my brother and friends were part of this group of people) to enter a total of three hours before the match.

5. Black Market prices were mind-boggling. That's alright though, scalping always occurs and its an almost perfect market in terms of supply and demand. What I do not appreciate is Police Officers busting the scalpers and then selling the tickets on the Black Market themselves!

6. Our football team sucked! If you're religious, then it was God's Grace that gave them that victory. Yet the Egyptian people are going on and on and on about how amazing they are!

7. Of course, the main reason they do this is because all the Sports commentators are rambling on about how amazing they were/are.

8. The reason they're doing that is because they want to suck up to the Egyptian Football Association. Favours, money, recommendations, jobs... I dont know what they want, but they want something.

9. Why is that President Mubarak grants the football team 3 Million pounds and the very next day sugar prices increase by 1 L.E. per Kilogram?

10. Why on earth is President Mubarak being hailed and thanked everytime the victory is mentioned on the radio or on television?

11. The standard authoritarian rhetoric goes heavily into effect; President Mubarak is being called the father of the Egyptian people and the sports commentator who was commenting on the Final game was talking more about how Mubarak is such a nice, giving and amazing person than on the fact that the football team won!!!

12. Why are newspapers hailing 'The Pharoahs' in their headlines, yet forgetting all about the ferry incident where over 1,000 people died? It stinks and reeks of corruption and bribery and its all but forgotten by the Media!

13. Why do the Egyptian people stay on the streets of Cairo until the early hours of the morning celebrating the victory and yet not one word is raised about all the problems that face us!

14. Why do these uncivilized bastards block whole streets in an already extremely populated and grid-locked city where vehicle traffic is slowly choking the life out of every citizen just because your football team won a tournament which really means jack shit?!?!

There's so much more to say yet it's so intertwined and I will have to digress to everything corrupt and rotten about this country that this post would never stop.

What's wrong with you Egypt?!

By all that's holy, what is wrong with the Egyptians?!

2006-02-12T13:07:00.000+02:00

Hello people

Okay, for the most part I do agree with all you have said with the regards to the "Danish Problem". In that there is little rationale behind boycotting a government that didn't insult us in the first place, and that we, as Muslims, should make serious attempts at improving our image.

But I am going to be a bit of a devil's advocate here, if only to make things interesting. Oh and I am sorry if I ramble on a bit, but I have a hard time making arguments without going into long and boring backgrounds. Oh I'll also be writing in the first person a lot but it is not necessarily how I feel (I just find it easier to write that way sometimes).

First of all, I think that getting angry and outraged is a natural reaction to seeing your religion being mocked (I do understand that this has nothing to do with your argument, but bear with me). Furthermore, Muslims (particularly Muslim Arabs) have a... unique (not the word I wanted to use) predicament in that Islam as a religion crosses over into being a culture, a way of life even, simply due to the nature and precepts of the religion. So when someone mocks me, as a Muslim, I, by instinct, will understand that my very way of life is being mocked. Being mocked by someone who, with all due respect, does not know or understand the first thing about my way of life, and why and how I live it.

In short, what I am trying to say is that anger and outrage as reactions are not out place or context in this case.

Secondly, whilst I will be the first to agree that image is very important, it is an ignorant man who builds arguments and opinions based on them. "Muslims are bloodthirsty terrorists" may be the image being projected, but I will definitely look upon the person believing it with the utmost contempt. And while I may well excuse the misconceptions of an individual, a newspaper is more than a mere individual and I will not, personally, excuse the ignorance of what is supposed to be a collection of "scholars" (i.e. the newspaper).

So that takes care of the anger-related portion. As for the fact that no Muslims see to be bothered with the fact that Shiites are killing Sunnis and Sunnies are killing Shiites, but are immediately riled up at a cartoon... well I think that is more a facet of human nature than anything else. It is all good for an African-American to call another African-American "Nigger", even though it is throwback from days of opression and slavery, but a caucasian calling a black man "nigger" and there will be hell to pay. A black man shooting another black man and it might be dismissed as "representin" but a white guy shoots a black guy and it's racsim.

Insult and pain, it would seem (as with almost everything in life), are relativistic variables that are interpreted by different people and cultures depending on the conditions and perpetrators involved, and in some cases, as and when it they are inclined to interpret them.

The one thing in Faisal's argument that I cannot fault is the futility in blaming a people and a government that are not at fault. Having said that, can you really blame the people? We are raised and live in countries where the media is an extension of the government's will and opinion on any given issue. Can people be blamed for thinking that the same applies elsewhere, albeit under the conveniently encompassing blanket of "Freedom of Expression and Speech"? (And there are people that truly believe that freedom of expression is only a blanket that does nothing more than cover the very same governmental will that they more clearly experience in their own countries.... come to think of it...I am bit of an agnostic myself).

And now that I think about it, if the media can depict the Muslim Prophet Mohammed in a negative context and get away with it by flying the "Freedom of Expression" banner, then the media sure as hell can depict Jews eating their offspring (or whatever) under the very same maxim. The point being that they cannot and will not because it will be hailed as racism, anti-semetism and bigotry by the very government that now decrees "I cannot do anything about it, we are an emancipated nation" (and I am not a conspiracy theorist, and Faisal I think will back that).

Simply put, politically we do not matter enough for the government to bother to do anything about it (but that's another story for another time).

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2006-02-09T16:59:00.000+02:00

Hey Again

As is obvious, this Blog has been completely re-vamped. Re-vamped meaning: all the old posts were removed to make room for new ones. Not that there were lots of old ones. Either way... I ramble on for too much!!!

I've had this blog for over a year now, and for the past year or two I have been wanting to post regularly. I ended up with 5 posts of my own and 2 of Hana's. Not quite the level of activity I was hoping for. And so, a couple of days ago, I decided to start once again. Thus, the blog is reborn.

If I can maintain the impetus.

So, what's cookin these days?

Apparently, the Danish Embassy.

I've read about this on more than one blog uptill now and though anything I say might be redundant, I wouldn't be true to myself if I don't share what I have to say. Here goes:

It is extremely ridiculous that four months after the caricatures were published in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, muslims decide to riot and voice their apparently very strong opinions about said caricatures which, amongst other things, depict the Muslim Prophet Mohammed wearing a black turban which is really a bomb with a lit fuse.

Outrage! Anger! Violence!

Poor Arab world.

I heard about the issue quite a bit of time before I saw the actual depictions of the prophet. I found it amusing that Egyptians (I am an Egyptian who lives in Egypt) felt strongly enough about the cartoons that they felt a boycott of Danish products was required in order to "teach those Danes a lesson".

I find myself amazed. Arabs and muslims die everyday in Palestine, yet you don't think of doing a thing. In Pakistan, a Muslim Sunni decided to kill some Muslim Shiites (2 different sects of Islam), but not a word was raised in protest. Yet the moment some independant Danish newspaper decides to publish pictures depicting the prophet wearing a bomb-turban, you go berserk.

For the sake of argument, let's just assume that what that newspaper did was wrong. (Mind you, I am an absolute believer in the sanctity of Freedom of Expression and Speech.) What on earth do you stand to gain demanding an apology from the Danish government? Even more, what does the farmer (or corporation) who owns the cows and churns the milk to give you milk, butter and cheese have to do with the independant Danish newspaper that decided to publish those drawings?!

If you attempt to rationally tackle the questions, you will notice, O Arab Brethren, that the media in Denmark (or at least that specific newspaper) is NOT owned by the government. It does not represent the views of said government. That is what the Danish Prime Minister meant when he said that he cannot apologize for the actions of that Newspaper. Am I expected to apologize for a crime committed by another Egyptian citizen? I think not. (Again, mind you, I am not saying what they did is a crime... I am merely illustrating my argument using a random example.)

What about that boycott? When I discussed this issue with colleagues at work, one of them piped up and said: This Boycott is a peaceful method of telling the Danes that we do not appreciate the depiction of our prophet in that manner. Tell me, why, oh why, do you want the factory workers in Denmark to suffer because of that?

Now that I think about it, I can come up with an answer to that question... but it sure as hell wasn't any answer that I've heard before. My answer would be: so that these factory workers would PRESSURE the Danish newspapers into not printing such heinous caricatures again. Not likely to happen, but it sure beats burning the Danish embassies in Damascus and Beirut. Mindless barbarians, that's what they're going to think.

If you want to work on the problem, if you dont want the Danes or anyone else drawing, writing or talking about you in that manner then how about you start making yourself look good. The Arab world is constantly complaining of the power the Jewish lobby has in the United States. That is the root of all evil, of course. I hardly doubt the Americans woke up one day and decide to throw their fate over with the Jews. It doesnt work that way. These people worked for it. They worked hard. They worked tirelessly. BUT, they worked. You image as muslims is much like the image of Coca-Cola or Pepsi. You have to work to push that image into people's heads. Tie it in with good thoughts and not pictures of people barbarically attacking a diplomatic mission.

That's what you need to be doing.

Still, if you feel like you must boycott Lurpak butter, be my guest. If you think that their Prime Minister should swear by all that is Holy that this wont happen again, go ahead and try. Just dont ignore the true roots of the problem; they see you as intolerant, crazy rabble.

Do something about THAT!!!

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P.S. I frequently say Arabs where I probably should have said Muslims. Please excuse that bit of cultural habit. Not all Arabs are Muslims and by no means are all Muslims Arabs.