The Sarcasm of Destiny: My last post and Egypt

Almost a year has passed since my last post [link]. So much of unbelievable stuff has taken place. The result of the elections I was complaining of was a big joke. The NDP won with the worst kind ever of tampering, gaining more than 95%. Just less than two months later, people finally revolted against the regime, bringing down Mubarak, dissolving the parliament, removing some of the corrupt figures. However, they are replaced by by a ruling military junta which is so far trying to spread its wings. The regime is not brought down. People are refusing the change.

My argument still holds. Change can not come from within. Given the political nature of this blog there are zillions of things to talk about now. I don't have time to talk about everything given the low activity on writing. But my passion for writing is back. I hope its for real this time.

Oct 1st
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Well not really. The upper part was written and drafted on the first of October. Now its the 2nd of December and I am still in draft. It seems I lost the passion for writing. Will not talk about the election in which I will vote after 10 days, nor that I will talk about the political scene in Egypt that has a murky outlook. There are zillions of things to reflect upon such as killings by the army in Maspiro and Tahrir, the fake million man marches, rising hypocrisy levels in Egyptians, the refusal of democracy, the manipulation of the masses through religion....etc.

Again, I am back

So it turns out I totally ignored my return. I refused the miracle of being brought back to life? My last post was more than 1 year and 8 months ago. I thought that I was alive again. I thought that changing jobs would mean a start of a new life. Yes, I started a new life with a new job. I vowed to change. I promised my self to improve. I laid out plans for the next coming couple of years of my life to progress. However, I didn't adapt to the changing circumstances. More pressure is building up. Looks like I am starting to give up. Either I implode and destroy myself or explode and wreck everybody.

I see myself as a reflection of what is going on with this country. Some people think I am in better shape, with a promising future waiting for me. Yes I am in a better position than many others. But I think I am sort of losing it. This is exactly how I see it with this country. I am giving up on change from within. All what Dr. Shabka told us 5 years ago is now bull shit. Change as usual has to come from abroad. How? No, not a military invasion or intervention of the US of A. I will leave that discussion for a later post.

The parliamentary elections is after 3 days. I don't think I will be able to make it to the polling station this time. I said that I am giving up on change from within, I know that the election results will be tampered with and this time, there is no real campaigning. I gave up after voting in the Shura council. I didn't even cared about the result. I know the MB are just the other face of the coin for the government. Afterall, they are corrupt and won't provide real change. They are god damn Egyptians after all. They always claim that they can mobilize the mass and get to overtake the country. Well, I still don't accept the presence of the bastards of the National Democratic Party. Its like all of Egypt are NDP members if they see a personal benefit of their own. Even if the give the Wafd Party some minority seats and replace the MB's 80 seats with stupid Wafd members, many of the Wafd candidates are "converts" from the NDP.

Next post I will publish one of the older draft comeback posts and I think I want to comment on the situation of the christians here. Yesterday, 2 christians were killed and like 50 or so were injured over clashes with the police forces about building a church/service hall. Last week, the police also killed one of the Muslim Brotherhood supporters in the pre elections campaigning.

Let's see how things will go. But here is how I see the results of the Parliamentary Elections of Egypt in 2010. NDP 80%, Wafd 10%, Independents(non NDP converts) 5% and others 5%. I hope they abolish this Women Quota (كوتة المرأة) thing.

Burma buddhist protests and Al Azhar!!

Burma is a former British colony that gained its independence in 1948. It is the country of the former Secretary of the United Nation who is very well known in Egypt for his compliance with Nasser in the 1967, U Thant. It has been under oppressive military rule since 1962 that is lasting till this day. It is currently ruled by a military junta similar to the one that was ruling Egypt after the 1952 coup. Right now, its brave buddhist monks are staging strong protests against the ruthless regime featuring more than 20'000 monks and nuns are leading the protests that are spanning large sections of the capital city's downtown, from the home of the in house arrested Pro Democracy Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a fine lady educated in London prestigious universities and the daughter of a general who fought for Burma Independence from the British. The military regime using its forces killed people yesterday and cut internet access and mobile phone coverage to disconnect Burma from the rest of the world and start crushing the monks movement. My prayers goes to the Burmese nation.

My commentary: I don't know why but I am inclined to compare the current stand off between the Buddhist monks and the state of Al Azhar university after the 1952 revolution. Pre 1952, Al Azhar has always been the main source if not the only one of demonstrations against foreign occupation, whether during the time of the Napoleonic French Expedition or the Frazer coquest, appointment of Mohamed Ali untill recently anti british occupation in the 1940s. Some sporadic and weak anto government protests has taken place but not like those pre 1952. I am so sad for the deteriorating conditions of that once great entity of Egypt and Islam. Now Al Azhar institutions are under occupation from the Egyptian government reducing amounts of religious programmes in that religious non secular university and voiding it of its essence. Now Al Azhar are becoming a non patriotic, non religious body indulged in ignorant wars of silly fatwas.

Comparison between the Monarch and Republic affairs.

I have been following this TV Series about King Farouq I, the overthrown monarch and the last ruling member of the royal family. Although nominaly King Ahmed Fouad II was the list king of Egypt, but he was 6 months old when he was a declared as a king and he was in Italy with his family till the declaration of the republic and abolishment of monarchy one year later. That particular part of history, the reign of king Farouq is a much contested part of our modern history. All what we learnt in school is that the monarchy was full of corruption, agency of the palace to the British, social injustice and lack of development. Unfortunately there aren't many "unbiased" sources about that period. Either the bull crap of the pro Nasserists idiots or the pro royalists who linger to their lost titles and lands. However, its possible to gather some bits pieces of information form some articles published here and there or some books (who mostly happen to be about other nations) that mentions Egypt during the 1940s. Historians are also very biased, not to mention Mohamed Hassanein Heikal. I think Dr. Younan Labib Rizk is not that biased but I haven't read much for him.

Hereby, I am writing about what I the opinion I am starting to formulate about that period. Unfortunately I have no academic or solid sources on the internet or current published books and it would take me sometime to state my references and distinguish that from my own analysis.

First of all, Egypt was governed by the 1923 constitution. This constitution gave more powers to the Prime Minister than the King and also to the parliament. I am not sure but I think the king had the right to remove or force the Prime Minister to resign which would result in new elections. I am trying to find the text of that constitution to read more about it. This constitution faced more challenges from the British occupation. At the onset of the World War II, the british Ambassador forced the palace backed prime minister who happened to the be the royal bureau chief to declare martial law. This setback to democracy was forced upon us by the brittons. Also I believe that martial law was declared once more during the 1948 war against the newly declared State of Israel. Also the constitution was replaced from 1930-1936 by the Sedqi Constitution which put more more into the hands of the King Ahmed Fuad I. So Basically, the 1923 constitution which was abolished in which lasted from 1924 till 1952 was actually in action for a maximum of 16 years. So we had a maximum of 16 years of true democracy. Now back to King Farouk's reign. He ascended to the thrown at the age of 16 and actually got power at the age of 17 in 1937. Actually his royal bureau were taking decision on his behalf most of the time and they were his advisers. He inherited them from his father, he didn't choose them. Right after he assumed powers he was faced by the British snobbishness. In 1942, a British tank brigade surrounded the Abdeen palace and confronted the king with a throne surrender or accept a ministry of Wafd. The British Ambassador was the actual ruler of the country not the prime minister who just administered the government or the king. Sir Miles Lampson is one of the people who caused setback to democracy in Egypt before Nasser.


The High Dam is one of the achievements that is attributed to the Nasser Regime which is the offspring of the military coup. According to one of the Wafd Party writers a couple of years ago, I think either Gamal Badawy, Abdel Rahman Fahmy or Abbas El Tarabily, the High Dam project was discussed by the Wafd Party before in the 1940s. Why didn't the Wafd party carry ahead with it. Just for the same reasons that faced the Military Regime of Nasser, the lack of funding. How did Nasser solve that problem? He expropriated the Suez Canal, 11 years before its official return to Egypt and engaged the country in a new war that led to the tri Anglo Franco Israeli aggression against Egypt!!! I believe if the Coup was delayed 3-4 years, we would have seen a lot of new investments in the country specially after the payments and british reimbursements to the Egyptian government after leasing and devastating the country in the World War II. All the industrial projects that took place after the revolution were inherited from pre 1952 governments such as the steel factory that was built in Helwan. The source of the next information is from a sociology book and partly supplemented by the sociology professor at university. That giant steel factory in Helwan was already planned to be at aswan near the iron mines pre 1952. But Nasser decided to ruin that ancient city that was a rehabiliatation resort more prominent during the era of the Umayyid Caliph Abdel Malek ibn Marwan, by placing the factory in it, causing the economy more costs in transportation and devastating the environment because he wanted to gather popular support for him at any time the need arises.

I will edit that post later.

I might get comments like why are you talking about a 50 years old issue and leaving the current unrest and uprising in Egypt like the recent 30'000 employee strike in Mahalla or the connection to the current sad affairs in the country. Well, I am trying to embark on showing a direct connection to the illegitimacy of the current Mubarak and his NDP gangsters rule.

PS. I have nothing against the British. I am just talking about history. I am an avid lover of the English football and of London and Oxford.

Letter to Mr. Gamal Mubarak

Dear Sir,You are a well educated person raised in an upper-middle class family which itself is a result of a marriage between the good Mubarak and the Thabet families. You went to the prestigious American University in Cairo where not only you gained your bachelor of arts in Economics but also went through the rich core curriculum with its interesting courses starting with the boring 112 and 113 English courses going through the Arab society and history courses, in addition to the electives which I don't know about. Being experienced with such liberal arts education and then spending part of your life in the west, in England, you definitely know the difference between them and us.

Pre 1952, Egyptians lived through a constrained yet important democratic experience. They were dealing with an ailing British "occupation" which I don't think was that effective back then after the end of WWII and a somehow struggling young inexperienced king. Compared to the king, the president has more constitutional and executive powers. Living under a hereditary non-democratic governance would be a big disgrace to any Egyptian. If 60 years ago, the regime was a parliamentary constitutional hereditary monarchy but with relatively limited powers to the king, then living in a hereditary one party rule regime with more powers in the hand of the head of state is a 500 years retreat back to the dark ages. This is how Europe was before the enlightenment and industrial period. Also this is how under developed poor devastated countries are right now.

Mr Mubarak, I am calling on that educated bright person who had his education in a liberal institution like the American University that teaches how one should think positive and respect other opinions. It is a shame and disgrace for a country like us that is trying to develop and be one of the progressive countries in the world to be like that. I do not only mean the violence that met the pro democracy advocates in the last demonstrations, the fraudulent elections that have been taking place for a long time nor the rampant corruption in all forms of life in Egypt. I also mean the millions of ignorants in this country who are not aware of the need of change.

Power changes people and people are affect by the spotlights of fame. You grew to find your dad a vice president then a president when you graduated. You were always among pompous surroundings, body guards, excessive protection. I am not claiming that life has always been easy to you but your accession to the throne of this country seems to be slowly going piece of cake. But I am also a resident of this country and grown in it. I had the opportunity just like you to study in that same university. I also had the opportunity to read, know and travel to other countries. I would be ashamed to be ruled by President who reached his seat to succeed his father.

I end my words with sincere prayers for this nation and its people.

I drafted that post on the 16th of May of last year, even Before the announcement of the constitutional amendments and Mr. Mubarak's next week marriage.

Another Egyptian Train Disaster

Two trains collided this morning coming from delta during the morning rush hour at 7.15am. Number of deaths so far ranges from 51 as of 11.15am - 8.15 GMT, according to the Egyptian, and as many as 80 according to Egyptian Security sources who said so to BBC. About 160 were injured. Rescue and evacuations continue at this moment including the separations of the metal bodies of the trains. Main reasons behind the accident are attributed to the overspeeding of the second train or malfunction in the semaphores. Anyways, it is because of negligence and corruption. The victims are the poor people who are not seeking their rights and seem to be appeased by all the bad things happening to them.

As usual, president Mubarak is following the incident, instead of being proactive and fighting corruption and improving the affairs of his country. Rather he is busy with some more important issues.

Damn, these images from the deadly train accident in Badrasheen, more than 4 years ago is still vivid in my memory. 360 were burnt to death, although unofficial sources say upto a 1000 were perished.

Here is a link to Reuters article.
Better coverage, more info and tragic pictures can be found at the arabist.

Update: An eyewitness living at the site on Nile News said that the fire trucks were constraining the rescue efforts and it was a chaos when people gathered around to watch what is going on. Its a habbit when an accident happens that curiousity drives people to watch and hinder rescue efforts in many accidents.

1.00PM: number of deaths reach 56 according to health minister. It seems that they will catch up with the 80+ figure previously announced by security forces.





*Both Pictures from Reuters